A NATIONALIST AND AN IDEALIST

B. RAJABHUSHANA RAO

Former Associate Editor, ‘Triveni’

It is not my usual habit or practice to project myself in the first person into what I write about any friend however intimate. I always try to take a detached and dispassionate view and to give to the best of my ability an impartial appraisal. If I have now made a departure, the reason is simple. I cannot make a distinction between the objective and the subjective approaches when I write of Sri Ramakotiswara Rau.

I came into contact with him in or about 1927 at Madras through our common friend Sri K. Iswara Dutt, who, like most of his illustrious colleagues in journalism, weathered at the outset of his career many storms as a member of the editorial staff of the ‘Swarajya’. At that time I was still a student and in every respect a junior to Sri Ramakotiswara Rau to claim him as my friend in the normal sense of the term. By the time we came into each other’s life, he had started the Triveni and cast in his lot with it. Though I could not be regarded as anybody in any field at that time, very soon, something, probably his affection for me, prompted him to feel that I deserved to be made an Associate Editor of the great journal. I was not however in a position to relieve him in any degree of the heavy strain under which he was publishing and determined to publish the magazine. He showered all his love and resources on it like a tender parent on his only child. The mere thought that it might ever cease, disturbed his equanimity. There was nothing that he would not cheerfully sacrifice for the upkeep of the Triveni. It became his alter ego. Nevertheless, to be true to himself, he must maintain it at the highest level, without ever stooping even to conquer. Anything that offended his conception of a perfect artistic model was wholly unwelcome to him. Knowing that he was very much in of finances to support his journal, he never allowed any degrading advertisements to be featured in it.

Sri Ramakotiswara Rau was a nationalist and an idealist in every fibre of his being and was not prepared for any deviation from the straight path. When he resigned his position as Principal of Andhra Jateeya Kalasala, presumably by way of disapproval of what he thought was a compromise on a point of principle made by the college, I heard several friends characterising him as a visionary and finding fault with him for his so-called indiscretion. I never had any doubts about the propriety of his action, though I never wanted to discuss it with him. If it becomes impossible to run an institution without swerving from its original course, why run it at all at the sacrifice of the very object for which it was founded? I never had any illusions about the fact that no institution is greater than its ideal. To my mind this is simple logic and clear thinking. To me this perspective always appeared to be one not shaped by love of mere theory but based on sound common sense and practical politics, if we do not import into that expression the modern connotation of Whether I had the stamina to live up to my Ideals or not, I never failed to recognize and respect them in another.

Sri Ramakotiswara Rau’s patriotism built from the very early years of his life on the love of the culture and the high traditions of the mother country burnt like a steady flame till the end of his life. All the same, it was free even from a remote trace of aggressiveness, and it never found an outlet in impassioned expression, of which I was somewhat guilty on occasions. One characteristic common to both of us was that neither my intense hatred of the foreign rule nor his ardent zeal for Indian freedom impaired our appreciation of the English literature. Sri Ramakotiswara Rau believed in writing English of the purest vintage, but was averse to an affected style.

In the midst of his difficulties, which, being the result of his lofty ideals, were entirely of his own making, he preserved his genial temper and his usual hospitality and warmth for friends. I never found him speaking ill of another, not because of his inability to size up the variety of character that he came across but, as I believe, because of his innate goodness. To say anything against anybody behind him or, in other words, to back-bite him was cowardice or hypocricy, while to speak anything unpleasant to the face of any person would be bad manners. It was impossible for him to do either of the wrongs.

Having stood up for noble causes, thirsted for Indian freedom and always hitched his Waggon to a star, in spite of his undoubted abilities, he had naturally no thought of worldly advancement under a foreign Government. His only pleasure was, like that of many other genuine patriots, to live to see India free. But he was too proud and honourable to crave to become an object of sympathy of any of the innumerable parvenus of the post-independence era. In the death of Sri Ramakotiswara Rau, the country lost a dear son, a great savant and above all a man of a truly human heart.

RT. HON. V. S. SRINIV ASA SASTRI

“The Triveni is a high-class production–bright and elegant. Its appeal is to a highly cultivated, select few. To make it succeed is a difficult task. The men and women among us, who combine taste, judgment, leisure and means are not many. I am inclined to congratulate you on the success you have attained. I wish somehow the writers and subscribers would try to make it possible for you to keep up the beautiful Triveni.”

–The Rt. Hon. V. S. Srinivasa Sastri in a letter to

Sri. Ramakotiswara Rau.

Back