Bharathiyar was well-known as a revolutionary freedom fighter and a great poet, but his contribution as a journalist is no less significant. As his life history tells us, he worked in various magazines in multiple roles and excelled in each of them.
His first job as a journalist was in ‘Sudesamithiran’, a magazine founded by G Subramanya Iyer. Though he had no prior experience, he quickly learnt the ‘tricks of the trade’. He was given the job of translating the news published in English newspapers. Bharathiyar used to concisely translate the news items into simple Tamil, which made readers understand the contents easily. This caught the attention of G Subramanya Iyer (GS), who appreciated the good work done by Bharathi. However, this also meant more work as GS gave him more items to translate and asked him even to do that at home. Bharathi didn’t mind extra work, but he struggled to make ends meet with the salary in Sudesamithirian. GS used to say, ‘”Bharathi, you are a Kalidasa. But I am not Bhoja to give you ‘Akshara Laksham'”
In one year, Bharathi’s Tamil went through a significant change with a simplified style. In 1905, within a year, he was promoted to the post of deputy editor in Sudesamithiran. He was also allowed to edit another magazine, Chakravarthini, run by B Vaithyanatha Iyer. This magazine was modelled like the English women’s journal ‘Queen’. Bharathi got the opportunity to write about women’s liberation in Chakravarthini. He wrote articles about the status of women in society, women in Buddhist religion, etc. He asked, ‘How can men be free if women are enslaved?’ in one of the articles. His thoughts on women’s liberation underwent a sea change during his tenure in Chakravarthini. He lamented that his style was not suited for women to read him easily. So he changed his writing style so that womenfolk could also read his articles easily.
With the freedom struggle getting steam and Bharathi starting to participate in the freedom movement in a big way, he wanted to write editorials covering the key issues facing the nation, like the partition of Bengal and the Swarajya movement. However, he couldn’t do that in Sudesamithiran as he was only a deputy editor. Hence, Bharathi was looking for an opportunity to unleash his thoughts on the Indian freedom movement. Luckily, he met S N Thirumalacharyar who was searching for an editor for his newly started magazine ‘India’. Bharathi readily agreed to join India and quit his post from Sudesamithiran.
India started as an eight-pager, a weekly magazine. Bharathi started writing political articles, songs, and stories for the magazine. India flourished under his editorship, quickly reaching 4000 copies per week in circulation. During this time, he was also asked to edit another magazine named’ Bala Bharatha or Young India’. This was run by a famous doctor in Chennai named M.C. Nanjunda Rao. Bharathi wrote in the magazine as a pseudonym. Apart from politics, he covered philosophy, Vedanta, and nationalism in the articles he wrote for Bala Bharatha.
In 1908, the British started arresting freedom fighters indiscriminately. Tilak was sent for six years imprisonment. V.O. Chidambaram Pillai and Subramanya Siva were arrested in Tamil Nadu. A warrant was issued to arrest Bharathi too. However, the information reached Bharathi through some of his friends before the police reached his place. His friends told him to go to Puducherry, which was a French colony, and continue the work of ‘India’ from there. Bharathi initially hesitated but agreed as he could continue his nationalist work from there.
After reaching Puducherry, he immediately started the work to publish India from there. The printing press was secretly brought from Chennai to Puducherry. After a gap of one month, India started again. Bharathi personally drew cartoons for the magazine and wrote a number of articles. He even covered international news items through Reuter news feeds. Bharathi’s editorials during this time were absolute gems, bringing several key issues before the public.
Interestingly, he could get a number of advertisers, and about four pages were filled with advertisements. This helped him to continue to publish the magazine. Bharathi also introduced the concept of local reporting and gave remuneration to those who wrote local news from various places in Tamil Nadu in ‘India’.
There was another magazine named Vijaya, which started in Chennai after India moved to Puducherry. Vijaya was founded by S Thirumalacharya, the brother of Bharathiyar’s friend Mandayam Srinivasa Iyangar. However, as there were troubles running Vijaya, it was also moved to Puducherry. It started coming as a newspaper in 1909 from Puducherry, and Bharathi was the editor of the paper, too.
In addition to these two, Bharathi and his friends brought a monthly magazine, Karmayogi.
It was advertised that only a thousand copies of the magazine would be printed well in advance. Such was the confidence of Bharathiyar. Karmayogi was a cultural magazine, and the very first issue had Krishna’s Geetopadesam picture on the cover. Bharathi wrote articles on the Hindu religion and Cultural aspects of Karmayogi.
With the circulation increasing, many readers demanded that India be changed to a twice-weekly magazine. Agreeing to the demand, Bharathi started publishing in India two times a week. This irked the British, and they banned India from entering the areas they administered. Similarly, Vijaya was also banned by the British administration. As most of the readers of these magazines are based out of Tamil Nadu, there was no other option but to stop both magazines. By 1910, Bharathiyar’s journalist life came to a standstill as he moved from Puducherry to Kadayam.
Bharathi started his career as a teacher. However, he quickly learnt the power of journalism and used it as a tool to ignite the freedom struggle among the masses. His editorials, articles, poems, and cartoons—not to mention the cartoons—are a benchmark even today for any journalist. Despite continuous struggle against a hostile government, he continued to publish magazines and write articles which are relevant even in the current context. He not only wrote on politics but covered a number of subjects including Hindu culturalism. His innovations, like local reporting, go a long way in the history of Indian journalism.
TS Krishnan is a Tamil scholar and author.
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