KALKI: AN ESTIMATE
By
The
last two months have witnessed the genuine grief of the entire Tamil people at
the passing away of Kalki (Sri R. Krishnamurti who
had endeared himself to them in many ways and was pre-eminent in the fields of
journalism and literature. Though too near to him in point of time, I feel I
was sufficiently remote from him in other respects to enable me to attempt an
estimate of his position in the world of Tamil Letters.
Kalki’s
literary career may be roughly divided into three periods. From the point of
time and association, these maybe called the ‘pre-Anand a Vikatan’,
the ‘Ananda Vikatan’ and
the ‘Kalki’ days. From the literary angle, these periods might again be termed
the period of preparation and apprenticeship, the period of great achievements,
and the period of greater achievements and consolidation. Of these, the first
was mainly taken up by his efforts towards popularising
the constructive programme of Mahatma Gandhi in the South, though his literary
output was not negligible.
Kalki’s
activities with the pen covered a very wide range touching almost every known
literary form, from a mere humorous sally to a novel of immense dimensions.
These included, among others, essays in light and serious veins, art and
literary criticism, biography, the short story, the lyric and the novel, and in
each one of these he excelled.
But
Kalki’s contribution to the cause of Tamil journalism and literature can be
best understood only in the context of the circumstances that prevailed during
his early days. When he entered the field, the periodical, as it is understood
today, virtually had no existence. Towards the removal of each one of the
factors that contributed to such a state–linguistic, psychological, political
and social, he individually laboured more than any
other. As this is untimely related to the bigger question of his contribution
to Tamil literature, it will be dealt with at length.
When
Kalki took up the pen, literature in Tamilnad was
groping its way. The language, as the result of a neglect
and a conservatism bordering on orthodoxy, was in a state of languor. The
English educated section of the people looked upon every new venture with an
air of contemptuous scepticism, which was equalled only by the ‘jealousy’ of the pandits.
The early pioneers, of whom Kalki was the most notable, had to demonstrate to
one section the great though latent potentialities of the language as an
efficient medium of thought and communion in the modern world, and at the same
time convince the other section that the language, though possessing an ancient
literature, great and considerable must, to be alive, continually breathe the
fresh air of constant association with the life of the people and be nourished
by the live language and thoughts of the masses.
The
output in Tamil prose upto the end of the last
century could ill compare with that in other languages, or its own poetical
one. Of course, as everywhere else, the reason was that prose suffered badly in
comparison with poetry in respect of brevity and the possibility of easy
committal to memory. But the predominant reason seems to have been a notion
that the writing of prose called for no great gifts, or, if at all, only
an inferior kind of gift. To get over this psychological ‘pull’, the few who
tried their hands at prose made the style as strange and remote from life as
poetry was in form. That is, what the piece lost in form, they hoped to make up
in style. The result was a language stiff and formal; studied and artificial;
hard upon the tongue and harsh upon the ear. By bringing the language of
literature nearer the live language of the people and by giving it flexibility
and strength, and simplicity and spontaneity, Kalki completed the task earlier
begun by Bharati. Between them, these two great
masters of prose and poetry, respectively, proved that there was almost nothing
in the world of human thought and knowledge that could not be well and
thoroughly expressed in Tamil, and what is more, in a manner understandable,
and acceptable to all.
The
Tamil Journal owes its present stature to a great extent to the efforts of
Kalki. Kalki did not write, but spoke through the printed page to the
people. His easy way of presenting the most difficult problems of the day gave
the people of Tamilnad a grounding
in the fundamentals of politics and economics, which enabled them to take their
proper place in the national movement. Kalki realised
to the full the potentialities of the serial story in enlisting and maintaining
a flow of regular subscribers; and exploiting this to the full, he played the
Pied Piper with his pen, turning the thousands of his readers into
children at his heels. Following his example, many young and efficient writers
have come up with the result that the periodical has become part of the
scheme of things in every Tamil home, and the two journals in the shaping of
which Kalki had no mean share, namely, the ‘Ananda Vikatan’ and the ‘Kalki’, together with the ‘Kalai Magal’ remain today the
supreme expression of everyday life.
Inseparable
from Kalki’s work as a journalist is his career as a pamphleteer. Mention has
already been made about Kalki’s prose style. Under the magic of his hold, his
pen became a camera, a brush, a lute, a trumpet and a sword. The colours of the rainbow, the stillness of the southern
breeze, the majesty of the mountain, the speed of the storm and the roar of the
surf, all unfolded themselves as Kalki veiled his pen. With this in hand and
backed by a prodigious creative vigour, he adventured
into many lands and explored new regions, finding new delights and unearthing
fresh ones. Vigorous in their inspiration and uncompromising in their
directness, his editorials, when they concerned the world and the nation at
large, were analytic and instructive and always actuated by a patriotic fervour. To undo many an injustice, to redress a grievance,
to focus public attention upon a point, to raise memorials to the great dead
and a score of other good causes, he acted as ‘the bell-ringer who was up
first” and called others. During the three general elections, he woke up the
people to a sense of duty and virtually led the voters to the Congress box.
But
with problems ‘domestic’ and nearer home, it was not rarely
that he lost the objective outlook upon things, and allowed his fancy to become
a law unto itself. With him every difference became a ground for controversy
and every controversy tended to grow into a quarrel. The Kalki of the
controversies is a controversial figure indeed. Whether it was the ‘Rajaji’
question or the Tamil Isai (music) movement, the
question of the film footage or the problem of the Travancore
Tamils, the Prakasam Ministry (of
From
his pamphlets to his short stories and novels is a happy change. Here Kalki
stands on ground which is his, for he was a supreme master of that craft by any
standard. Whatever be his subject his brush moves with ease and sureness over
the canvas. His short stories, a good number of which is of world class, abound
in fine specimens of character study and are purposeful without being tediously
moralising.
Of
his novels, ‘Kalvanin Kathali’
and ‘Parthipan Kanavu’ are
perfect specimens of harmony and symmetry from the artistic point of view. The
former is a tragedy drawing its material from modern
middle-class life. It tells the story of an innocent and noble
youth whom circumstances turn into a thief and his love for a village girl
which does not culminate in marriage. Convincingly told, this
story brings to our mind at his best, both in point of style and
technique. This Hardy element can be traced in some of his later novels
also, as a subtle undercurrent. But with Kalki there is a greater balance
between the individual and the circumstances, and the unseen cruel hand of Fate
does not play so crushing a role. The result is that they are far less
pessimistic in their tone. This is only in keeping with Kalki’s
own philosophy of life, that man can and must raise himself by his own
efforts–a philosophy which he amply proved in his own life.
In ‘Parthipan Kanavu’
Kalki makes his first entry into the field of historical romance.
Having for its background the
‘Alai
Osai’ is a social of big proportions. Gripping though
in its interest and abounding in dramatic situations, this story, in common
with ‘Ponnivin Selvan’, its
successor, a historical, has distinctly the ‘periodical’ label stamped upon it.
An abundance of intricacies in the plot and a tendency on the part of the
author to be carried away by the ease and swiftness of his invention, are the
other drawbacks of these two great novels.
‘Ponniyin Selvan’, the last of his
novels, would suggest that, due to considerations other than literary, the
author has to abandon part of the original structure of his plot. The
characters at first seem to be heading for a particular kind of climax, but in
unwilling obedience to the dictates of their creator, appear to have built up
another. An Occasionally long description that slightly overburdens the
narrative at places, and some artificiality in the dialogues, especially of
those of high rank, are other snags which this novel shares with ‘Sivakamiyin Sabatham’, the
author’s greatest and most mighty creation. These minor faults pale into
nothing before the majesty of these two works in which the author scales lofty
heights of imagination.
‘Sivakamiyin Sabatham’ besides, is
a novel without an end; it slowly fades off to the Horizon and eternity. Sivakami’s last dance at the
One
feels that no study or estimate of Kalki would be complete witbout
a reference to Scott, who first broke the ground for the historical novel. Both
had absolute possession of the materials they were using–a complete knowledge
of the history of the place and time. Both had admittedly a genius for vitalising the past. Both the authors mainly concentrated
upon the picturesque externals, though the inner life of those periods did not
altogether escape Kalki.
When
the history of the Tamil literature of the first part of the twentieth century
comes to be written, three names will be found towering over the rest. They are
those of Dr. Swaminatha Iyer,
Bharati, and Kalki.