D. VISVESWARA RAO

A Profile in Patriotism–But With a Difference

Dr. D. ANJANEYULU

Three decades and more age, a middle-aged gentleman, in homespun jibba and dhoti and a Jawahar jacket, with a khadi bag hung on his shoulders, could be seen busily moving about in literary gatherings, cultural conferences and social get-togethers of the intellectuals. His range included the whole of Andhra, from Madras to Hyderabad and Vijayawada to Visakhapatnam. Not everyone would know who he was or what he was doing. Not many are sure even now; but that is not his fault.

The unbleached khadi that he wore, the earnest manner of his talk and general air of his personality could make the onlookers take him for a jail-going patriot. They would soon come to know that he was a patriot all right, but not of the jail-going variety. He has been a patriot all his life, but with a difference. Patriotism is not necessarily political for him, not entirely at any rate.

If he is not so much in public view nowadays, it is; because he is no longer young and travel is becoming more and more costly for private individuals with a lot of public spirit but not enough of personal resources.

His name is Devaguptapu Visveswara Rao, now past the biblical span of three score and ten. During the last nearly half a century he has been engrossed in a number of literary-cultural, socio-political activities, which only a major institution or several institutions together maybe, could hope to implement and bring to their fruition. He is always full of ideas, worthy of being taken up by others with better resources in money, manpower and capacity for organisation. His life is a profile in patriotism, a continuous struggle to stimulate the mind of the Andhras and sharpen their awareness to realise their cultural identity, of course, within the nation’s larger destiny. The struggle continues; but the goal still eludes. He remains an inexhaustible repository of miscellaneous information on the Freedom movement in India. This writer has always found conversation with him educative and rewarding.

An idealist, who never cared to count the cost, Visveswara Rao did not do anything so commonplace or stereo-typed as to seek a Government job, as most qualified young men of his time tried to do, after taking his B.A. degree from the Maharajah’s College, Vizianagaram, in 1939. He was among the first Indian young men, who celebrated wholeheartedly in the scheme of a National Academy of Arts and Letters for India, taken up by Dr. James H. Cousins, the Irish poet and critic, patriot and educationist, who had come to help Dr. Annie Besant in her task of National Renaissance. Visveswara Rao was closely associated with the Academy under the leadership of Dr. Cousins, from its inception in 1939 till 1956. There was a countrywide response to it, with support from a couple of governments in the form of G.Os., apart from seven radio talks and hundreds of articles in different languages.

This was followed up by a few other things. In 1952, Visveswara Rao sponsored a South Indian Academy from Madras, with the support of eminent scholars and educationists, like Sardar K.M. Panikkar, Prof. T.P. Meenakshisundaram Pillai, Dr. G.V. Sitapati and Dr. V. Raghavan. He also played a vital role in paving the way for the formation of the Andhra Sahitya Parishad, from Eluru, after the convention at Amalapuram in March 1953. After a brief gap, it was revived in Hyderabad in 1957, when it was under the Secretaryship of Mr. P.V. Narasimha Rao, for three years (1957-60).

A good student of history and literature, Visveswara Rao lays store by the lives of great men, –poets, scholars and literary critics. He would, perhaps, approve of the saying that a nation unaware of its past might be indifferent to its future, as well. He did more than any other single individual in bringing to light the contribution of quite a few forgotten men of letters and in persuading the Government to do their duty in the context. He still does.

It was he who was mainly responsible for reviving the memory of Achanta Venkata Sankhyayana Sarma, scholar, critic and prolific writer, by organising his birth centenary celebrations in 1964-65, all over Andhra, from Hyderabad to Parvatipuram. Likewise, the birth centenary of Panuganti Lakshminarasimha Rao, poet, Playwright and essayist (famous for his ‘Saakshi’ series of lectures) in the classical manner of Addison and Steele, the next year. This was done in February 1965, all over the State, with particular reference to Sitanagaram near Rajahmundry. Andhra is proud of many poets, but there was one known as “Kavigaru” and that was Marepalli Ramachandra Kavi of Visakhapatnam, whose birth centenary was celebrated in 1974-75.

The list includes not only poets and scholars, but of patrons of learning and public benefactors as well. Dr. Vikrama Deo Varma, Maharaja of Jeypore, is better known as the Pro-Chancellor for life of Andhra University, who had helped to found the Science College, named after him. But he is also a man of letters in his own right – a poet and playwright in Telugu and Oriya. Both the Andhra Pradesh and Orissa Governments extended their cooperation in his birth centenary celebrations by the Andhra University in 1969.

The cultural interests of Visveswara Rao were not confined to Andhra. He had a filial attachment to the noble couple, Dr. James H. Cousins, educationist and connoisseur of art among other things, and Mrs. Margaret E. Cousins, suffragette and social worker, whose birth centenary celebrations were organised in 1977-78 in Visakhapatnam, besides, Adyar and Madanapalle, thanks to his untiring efforts.

To cap it all, Visveswara Rao started early (soon after the world Tamil Conference in Madras), to prepare the minds of the Government and the people of Andhra, for a World Telugu Conference in Hyderabad. The preparatory Committee for the World Telugu Conference was formed by him in Hyderabad in 1968, for which the State Government sanctioned a grant of Rs. 10,000. The Conference was organised on a grand scale by the Government in Hyderabad in April 1975. Though Visveswara Rao was duly honoured, along with so many others, on the occasion, he otherwise chose to keep himself in the background. That was typical of him.

An ardent believer in the principle of unity in diversity, that characterizes Indian culture through the ages, Visveswara Rao has been striving hard, for at least four decades now, for the Renaissance of Andhra and the National Renaissance of India, on the pattern of concentric circles. It should be of interest to note that a new Institute of Indian Renaissance has recently been set up in Hyderabad, with the accent on arts and letters, as also cultural progress and social advancement. He is also trying hard to start an Akhilandhra Parishad to raise the standard of Telugu and honour the memory of great scholars who served the cause of the language.

A man of “plain living and high thinking”, Visveswara, Rao looks back with pride on his association with great institutions like G.K. Gokhale’s Servants of India Society, Lajpat Rai’s Servants of the People Society. His ideas may be rather vague, his talk jerky, but his enthusiasm is boundless. Thinking all the time of literature and society, he might well have neglected his own personal interests. But then, he may have no regrets on that score. He would rather be a man of vision than a man of wealth. For such are the men and women, whose life and work shine like a good deed in a naughty world.

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