THE EDITOR

K. CHANDRASEKHARAN

Not often we come across an editor who not merely accepts a contribution to his journal on its merits but takes a genuine interest in the contributor. If his interest gets deepened by an active sympathy and understanding of the other, then a real bond of comradeship begins to grow between the two, not easily liable to break under any strain.

The late Sri Ramakotiswara Rau was of the stuff of journalists, whose devotion to the chosen profession did not stop with achievement of distinction alone for the journal of which he happened to be founder-editor, but engaged itself in furthering the human bonds of fellowship among those whom opportunity brought together in serving the cause of higher journalism.

If some of us became his close associates from the early days of the Triveni publication, it was not due to any seeking of our own but to Ramakotiswara Rau’s infectious absorption in the child of his creation, drawing us beyond even our own inclinations.

The December of the year 1927, witnessed the birth of Triveni and the scene of activity shifted for Ramakotiswara Rau from Machilipatnam to Madras. For, he was formerly a professor in the Andhra Jateeya Kalasala founded and organised by the patriot-savant, Kopalle Hanumantha Rao. The only dream of his life then was to bring out an English monthly or quarterly journal, which would reflect the ideals of renascent India in the throes of its rebirth as an independent nation. Every aspect of our national life, according to him, should be permeated by pure idealism, and his concept of an artistic production gave no room for cheap imitation or immature reconstruction of any of our heritages in art and literature.

So, when with ardent hope and genuine passion for writing, he set foot on the none-too-smooth path of English journalism, he was confronted by insurmountable difficulties of both ready finance and steady circulation. He could not find his way to realise his expectations of a journal which should mark the level of an enriched Indian culture by the fusion of modern thought with the inheritance from our imperishable literatures.

No sooner had he brought out two or three issues with an exclusively high-class finish in its printing and binding, than there was a stir in intellectual circles to look eagerly for the succeeding numbers. It was with such an expectation that I also joined the group of prospective writers to the journal. Before long, the editor gave me a fillip by accepting an article of mine with the words, on a post card, on January 29, 1929, “I received your excellent article on F. W. Bain” and ending the little note with the sincere wish: “I shall be meeting you one of these days at your place.” My acquaintanceship with Ramakotiswara Rau thus began with his sympathy in my writing which was strengthened in no time by his quicker perception to find in me a sharer of his woes of running a journal.

The taking up a room for his office in the Y. M. I. A. building in Armenian Street of George Town, was the commencement of a closer bond with him not only for myself but a number of other prominent writers such as Manjeri S. Isvaran, K. S. Venkataramani, Dr. K. R. Srinivasa Aiyengar and his brother Bangaruswami, A. D. Mani, M. Chalapathi Rau, Iswara Dutt and other friends who were only too earnest to help the editor in the magnificent task of keeping up a high-class magazine, solely mirroring the aspirations of a generation which was adhering to traditional values combining them with the awakening consciousness of a fresh dawn of purposeful activity in our cultural horizon.

The editor made the friends, who gathered during luncheon hour at the Y. M. I. A. in his place, to feel at home. If occasions arose for small clashes of opinion or argument among the spirited group, he was too willing to restore peace and amity through his timely ministrations. As an editor he was never known to perform his work of editing and proof-reading in any shoddy manner. Every little detail requiring his attention was attended to with prompt concern to keep up the reputation of the journal. If by oversight an error crept in, either in the printing or in the explanatory note appended to art-plates, he was too ready to rectify it or apologise for any unavoidable occurrence.

It was an enviable array of statesmen and scholars who were enlisted by him in the panel of his contributors. Publicists such as the Rt. Hon. V. S. Srinivasa Sastri, Rajaji, Sir P. S. Sivaswami Aiyer, Mocherla Ramachandra Rao, T. A. Ramalingam Chettiar, C. R. Reddy, D. V. Gundappa, men of letters like T. P. Kailasam, Masti Venkatesa Iyengar, Dr. Pattabhisitaramayya, and connoisseurs of art such as Jinaraja Dasa, O. C. Ganguli, S. V. Ramamurti, K. V. Ramachandran, not to speak of a host of younger spirits, found a welcome place in the pages of the Triveni which was issued every two months, thereby assuring subscribers of six numbers for a year. The editor’s ambition was never to show off merely his capacity to muster strong the beaming intellectuals of the times in the service of his journal, but to discover younger talents also and make them the standard writers of the morrow in their own respective lines. If he was much inclined to encourage younger writers like Manjeri S. Isvaran and M. Chalapathi Rau, there was the recompensing satisfaction to the public that they were not spoilt by indulgence but only inspired to blossom out with enduring substance and creative output of a high order in the literary field.

A characteristic of Ramakotiswara Rau, which may not be found in many others’ of his tribe, was his intuition in selecting both the subject for an article and the writer for it. Nothing but pertinacity in this trait could have withstood all the attempts at evasion to write an article of substantial value on the Simon Report by Sir P. S. Sivaswami Aiyer, in the year 1930, before the meeting of first Round Table Conference at London. Sivaswami Aiyer was first unyielding to the importunities of the editor, but would only accede later, on condition that a thousand reprints, neatly bound, should be given to him free of cost, for distribution among both members of the British Parliament and the front-rank politicians in India. Ramakoti, without a second thought, agreed to the condition to foot the extra bill for the paper. Not only was the journal delayed in its appearance in schedule time but the printer’s bill rose beyond the capacity of the editor to pay. It was only Ramakotiswara Rau who could show that rare dedication to his task, irrespective of the strain caused on his resources and the time involved in waiting for such a valuable article.

Again, as an editor, he was independent to the extent of holding to his own decision in matters pertaining to the language used or the taste involved. People today would be astonished to know that he deleted a word “witty” introduced by no less a person than the Rt. Hon. Sastri in a note referring to Triveni and its useful services to journalism. Ramakotiswara Rau felt that it sounded somewhat cheap to a journal so serious in its outlook and steadfast in its role as a purveyor of substantial food for intellectuals to be termed “witty”. No amount of argument to the contrary could make him change his decision and so, to the lasting chagrin of Sastriar, the note found a place with the deletion in the pages of the journal. May be it was obstinacy of a kind not associated generally with liberal spirits or may be it was an inexplicable sense of his own responsibility in the publication that made him hard to be persuaded to change his opinion even when the person to be reckoned with was a man of outstanding mastery of the English language.

Childlike he was, but also proud, very proud sometimes, which could not reconcile him and his sensitive soul to effrontery or insults from people high-placed. A well-known public worker in Madras was complimented by the Rt. Hon. Sastriar in a foreword to a volume of articles on libraries compiled by him. A particular sentiment of Sastriar couched in adequate language described well that worker. Ramakotiswara Rau, while eulogising another public-spirited individual in his “Triple Stream” quoted that sentence of Sastriar, of course within inverted commas, but not disclosing the source. The recipient of the compliment from Sastriar objected to such quoting of the sentence without also disclosing the occasion and source of it. Rather he was furious and demanded an explanation from the editor for the breach of etiquette involved in such writing. Not only Ramakotiswara Rau was unshaken in his view of the propriety of his own action, but afterwards would not even show the normal recognition due to the publicist, however highly spoken of by others he was.

Rajaji has aptly described him as “a pure and simple soul”. True, he was childlike but also childlike sometimes in his gullibility to outside influences. Among friends he was a rare combination of warmth and restraint, unusual in persons of such preoccupations as editor of a journal. He knew no reserve; he required no persuasion to befriend the depressed and the lowly; he could be emotional and comforting to lacerated hearts in singularly unfortunate straits.

Ever fond of artistic productions, he could be impulsive and even prodigal in his tastes. Seeing once a beautiful line-drawing of Nandalal Bose done on China silk, of a Veena player with the instrument lying on her lap, he deemed the price, which was beyond his means, as nothing in consideration of its value as a piece of art, and purchased it. He again, with equal celerity, parted with it to a dear friend whose appreciation of the picture easily induced him to make a present of it.

He was not showy at all in his tastes, though never lacking in distinction. If Khaddar shawls and silks appeared attractive to his eye, no matter whether he had spare money left in his purse to purchase things for domestic needs for the morrow, he would go in for them. His apartment in his home as well as in his office always bespoke of his tasteful ideas in furnishing them.

He was attached deeply to his aged mother who lived to see him launch his Triveni and he deemed her last wish to be cremated in the Mylapore crematorium as a sacred duty of his to perform. Despite the distance from his residence, then in Royapettah, he made it a pilgrimage to Mylapore in order to give his mother her last funeral rites. Though not very orthodox in spirit, he was punctilious in the observance of religious rites, especially to be performed annually for the dead members of his family.

Tender sentiments ever weighed with him and nothing could move him so much as classical pieces from Sanskrit and Telugu. He was ever enthused when incidents connected with great lives were told or read out. He had a passion for the high and the noble in the lives of men and women, whether of our own country’s origin or outside. Hence his deep interest in biographical studies.

Left to himself in his waning years, with practical inability to read or write anything, it must have been a hell to him to prolong his existence. But bravely he fought the overcoming depression, even as he fought the enemy in the freedom struggle of his country when he courted imprisonment and privations. Friends too remained uncontacted by him with a resignation unimaginable in a spirit which was once so very communicative and social among kindred souls. Perhaps he became too prematurely alive to the oblivion that everyone of us has to face with the passage of time.

To sum up dear Ramakoti, to him journalism, which has become a trade, was a sacred profession. To him it was a moral function; in his hands it bore greater significance than an occupation or vocation. The usual type of periodicals stimulate interest by the variety of its fare: he would provide to his readers only matter for serious study; Other journals filled their pages with miscellaneous writings starting with political articles and ending with bits of humour. He would only supply substance for sustained thinking and deep cogitation on purposeful objectives. All these he was able to maintain to the last. But fortunately he himself did not last long to see a changing world of readers who care little for real literary study but ever long for sensationalism in writing.

DR. L. S. R. KRISHNA SASTRY

Andhra University, Waltair

It is not for me to say that he was the ‘journalist of journalists’. He was an editor who gave the spirit of nationalism a literary shape. His Triple Stream was always eagerly looked forward to. He truly strove for national integration by creating a forum for all the different cultures and literatures of the country.

It is a pity that such a great man is removed from us. I can only repeat what he said once: “Life seems to be a banquet from which the guests are rapidly departing.” May his soul rest in peace!

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