A GREAT HUMANIST

PROF. M. VENKATARANGAIYA

In the death of Sri Ramakotiswara Rau not only Andhra but also India lost one of her eminent sons. His was a noble life dedicated to the cause of the country’s freedom and progress in all its multifarious aspects.

Like all the youth of his generation, he became an ardent nationalist even as a student. He was inspired by the ideal of Swaraj as it was taught in the days of the Bandemataram movement which followed the partition of Bengal by Tilak, Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal and Aurobindo. He later became an ardent disciple of Mahatma Gandhi who brought to his countrymen the message of non-violent non-co-operation. He took an active part in the freedom struggle, served as Public Relations Officer of the Congress and suffered imprisonment like almost all the freedom fighters of his time.

Mere jail going was not to his taste. He was more interested in constructive work and in the work of national reconstruction. Being a man of literary and artistic interests he chose journalism as the instrument for the purpose. He served his apprenticeship in this field in Swarajya, started by the well-known Andhra leader, Tanguturu Prakasam, in the company of the late Khasa Subba Rau and G. V. Krupanidhi. He however felt that Swarajya did not give full scope for the expression of his ideals and this led to his starting the Triveni, the quarterly which made him known to thousands of people throughout the country.

Triveni was his pet child. He nourished it with literary food brought from scholars in every part of India. The best contributions in Indian languages–Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, Bengali, etc.,–were translated into English and found a prominent place in the pages of the magazine. He knew that there was a renaissance in India, a rebirth of what was best in the nation in the field of literature, art, religion, philosophy and politics, and that every linguistic group in the country made a contribution to it. He was impressed by this composite culture and he felt that it was his mission in life to bring the intelligentsia who were obsessed by their narrow attachment to English language and literature into intimate contact with the new culture of their own country. Scholars were naturally attracted to him and gladly and willingly sent their articles for publication in Triveni. His hopes of making it the organ of Indian renaissance were more than fulfilled.

There were however many difficulties which he had to overcome before the task which he undertook was successfully accomplished. Finance was the most acute of them. There were occasions when he had to go about seeking help from his friends for funds so that he might bring out the issues of the journal regularly. But he was undaunted by such difficulties. He had implicit faith in human nature, in the kindliness and generosity of men and women and his appeals did not fall on deaf years, though it all meant a great deal of physical trouble and caused him much mental strain. It was in these moments of ‘crisis’ that the heroic spirit in him was revealed and it was this spirit that sustained him throughout his life.

Ramakotiswara Rau had a large circle of friends and admirers in very many parts of the country. In days when he was Editor of Krishna Patrika, the foremost nationalist Telugu weekly, men of letters and artists gathered around him and spent hours in cultural discussions of all sorts. In their company he showed himself to be a good conversationalist and immensely contributed to the liveliness of those discussions. Masulipatam from which the weekly was then published had a special attraction for him. It was the place where the Andhra Jateeya Kalasala, the one great symbol of Andhra’s role in the history of freedom struggle, was located, the Kalasala of which he was the Principal for some time. In the circle of his friends here there were several leading Telugu poets and artists.

Ramakotiswara Rau was a great humanist. He believed in the dignity of man and he had capacity to rise to the greatest heights of excellence. His vision was not limited by the narrow ideas of linguism, regionalism and even nationalism. He was a cosmopolitan at heart and admired goodness and beauty wherever they were found. He had a sort of childlike innocence and he could never think that there was evil in man. He was always cheerful and smiling and his smile was contagious. He and I have been friends for nearly half a century and what impressed me most was not his work as a journalist, great as it is, but his human qualities.

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