Notes
1. Paṉmoḻippulavar Kā. Appātturaiyār Maṇiviḻā Malar (Polyglot scholar Appadurai’s sixtieth birthday commemorative souvenir), 1967: n.p. [BACK]
2. MLCD 17 (1956): 406. [BACK]
3. See also Kuyil, 16 August 1960, 5. [BACK]
4. See also Tēca Cēvakaṉ, 26 June 1923, 2. [BACK]
5. For some critical and favorable contemporary responses to Nilambikai’s efforts, see Āṉantapōtiṉi 9 (1924): 372-75, 423-25; Kuṭi Aracu, 31 January 1926, 5-9. [BACK]
6. Viṭutalai, 15 November 1938, 1-4. [BACK]
7. Viṭutalai, 22 November 1938, 3; 29 November 1938, 3. [BACK]
8. Intippōr Muracu 1985: 75. [BACK]
9. See also NNR 13 (1913): 506-7. [BACK]
10. The Light of Truth or Siddhanta Deepika 6 (1906-07): 193. [BACK]
11. Ironically, in the 1870s, Pope was one of the few European philologists who insisted that “the differences between the Dravidian tongues and the Aryan are not so great” and argued that “the place of the Dravidian dialects is…with the Aryan than with the Turanian family of languages” (Pope 1876: 158). His essay showed the various deep seated affinities between Tamil and Sanskrit. [BACK]
12. English transcription of Tamil speech. Government of Madras Order No. 4818-4819, (Home Confidential), 5 October 1938. [BACK]
13. English transcription of Tamil speech. Government of Madras Order No. 4818-4819, (Home Confidential), 5 October 1938. [BACK]
14. Reprinted in Kumari Malar 29, no. 12 (1973): 24-27; quotation on 25. [BACK]
15. See also his 1924 essay, “tamiḻil vaṭamoḻi patanḳaḷ” (Sanskrit words in Tamil), reprinted in Maņcari 24, no. 4 (1971): 6-9. [BACK]
16. For contemporary discussions, see also Āṉantapōtiṉi 19 (1933): 94-96, 163-66, 403-7; 19 (1934): 483-87, 563-66; 20 (1934): 60-63; Centamiḻc Celvi 12 (1934-35): 337-39, 531-37, 563-80. [BACK]
17. He was also described as a “pimp” who married his daughter off to the North Indian, Gandhi’s son: “This ungrateful Rajagopalachari who is baser than a dog, who was born in the coterie which came to beg, who is wearing dark spectacles and who has become a minister by playing the pimp of his daughter, is trying to play the pimp for his [Brahman] community” (English transcription of Tamil speech; Government of Madras Order No. 549 [Public], 1 April 1939). [BACK]
18. Kuṭi Aracu, 26 June 1938, 1. [BACK]
19. Kuyil, 28 October 1958, 11-12. [BACK]
20. See also Kuyil, 21 April 1959, 10-12. [BACK]
21. Tīcuṭar, 10 May 1956, 4-5. [BACK]
22. In his reminiscences on Bharati, however, Bharatidasan refers to an encounter that his mentor poet had with a North Indian named Ishwarlal in Benaras who apparently asked, “Is there a language called Tamil? Is not Tamil the child of Sanskrit?…Are there even books in Tamil?…In pure Tamil?” Furious with the North Indian’s arrogance, Bharati instantaneously composed a poem—his first and only in a Tamil free of Sanskrit (Ilango 1992: 55-59). The overt antagonism towards Sanskrit expressed here is rather rare in Bharati, the one other striking exception being his short story called “Ciṉṉa Canḳaraṉ Katai” (The story of Chinna Shankaran; c. 1913). [BACK]
23. “Tamiḻp pāṣaikku ōr putiya nikaṇṭu vēṇṭum” (Need for a new thesaurus for Tamil), reprinted in Kumari Malar 15, no. 9 (1968): 36-39. [BACK]
24. Kuyil, 9 September 1960, 13-14. [BACK]
25. See also Government of Madras Order No. 3141 (Education), 9 December 1948. [BACK]
26. Tamiḻiyakkam 1 (1980): 9-12. [BACK]
27. His son also notes that Maraimalai resigned from his job in protest over Madras University’s language policies, which treated Tamil as an optional rather than a compulsory subject of study beginning in 1906 (M. Tirunavukarasu 1959: 124-26). [BACK]
28. For a contrary sentiment expressed in his private diaries, see M. Tirunavukarasu and Venkatachalapathy 1988: 76-77. [BACK]
29. Cutēcamittiraṉ, 27 June 1901, 3. [BACK]
30. Dalmiapuram was renamed Kallakudi only after Karunanidhi became chief minister of the state in 1969. [BACK]
31. Kaḻakakkural, 25 January 1976, 12. [BACK]
32. MLAD 11 (1939): 512-17; MLCD 6-8 (1939): 250; Government of Madras Order No. 334 (Public General), 21 February 1939. [BACK]
33. Government of Madras Order No. 334 (Public General), 21 February 1939. [BACK]
34. MLAD 11 (1939): 512-17; Government of Madras Order No. 2070 (Public Confidential), 27 November 1939. [BACK]
35. Government of Madras Order No. 334 (Public General), 21 February 1939. [BACK]
36. Viṭutalai, 31 May 1938, editorial; Government of Madras Order No. 2070 (Public Confidential), 27 November 1939. [BACK]
37. English transcription of Tamil speech. Government of Madras Order No. 4068 (Home), 23 August 1938. Maraimalai Adigal, who went to see both men while they were fasting, noted in his diary that their sacrifice stoked the sleeping consciousness of Tamilians (M. Tirunavukarasu and Venkatachalapathy 1988: 82). [BACK]
38. Government of Madras Order No. 4861 (Home), 7 October 1938. [BACK]
39. Kuyil, 3 February 1959, 1; 10 February, 16. See also Kuyil, 6 January 1959, 3; 24 February, 5; 26 May, 5; 30 June, 4-5; Government of Madras Order No. 938 (Public), 9 June 1960. In response to these protests, the Congress government in Madras did petition the central government in 1958 to adopt the Tamil term; the latter demurred. The state government however instructed that both terms were to be used in broadcasts in Madras. Not till the DMK came to power in 1967 was the term vāṉoli officially adopted (MLAD 19 [1959]: 212-13). [BACK]
40. Tīyil Venta Tamiḻp Pulikaḷ n.d: 11. The same source notes that on the recent marriage of his daughter Dravidacelvi, Karunanidhi gave her a sizeable gift. [BACK]
41. Sivalingam immolated himself on the morning of 26 January, exactly a year after Chinnasami. A native of Kodambakkam, Madras, he was twenty-two. It is reported that he frequently told his family and friends that unless at least ten Tamilians gave up their lives, there was no hope for Tamil. Telling his sister that she and the rest of the family should stay indoors, as he anticipated trouble, Sivalingam apparently set out for the railway station to join in an anti-Hindi demonstration, saying he would be back later. He left at dawn but did not return (Tīyil Venta Tamiḻp Pulikaḷ n.d: 12). A report in another newsmagazine notes that Sivalingam was born in 1939 into a large indigent family in a small village called Devanur in South Arcot district. He studied up to the fifth grade in Devanur, then walked two miles every day to attend middle school in the neighboring village of Chattanpatti. His Tamil teacher, a Dravidianist poet named Ponni Valavan, nurtured his love for Tamil. Unable to continue with his education, Sivalingam followed his father and elder brother to Madras, where he worked as a laborer on construction sites. He also got involved with the DMK in the city (Ilaṭciyappātai, 28 March 1993, 20-21). The DMK newspaper, Muracoli, carried a front-page photograph of Sivalingam and reported on his funeral procession (28 January 1965, 1). [BACK]
A native of Chingelput district, Aranganathan set himself on fire, we are told, at 2:00 A.M. on 27 January in front of the local theater in Virugambakkam. Born in 1931, he was one of three sons. According to one version of his story, although he was employed in the central government’s telephone company, he was interested in various martial arts which he taught to local youngsters. He also took upon himself the task of educating the youth of Virugambakkam in the literature of the Dravidian movement. At the time of his death, he was married, with three children, the youngest six months old (Tīyil Venta Tamiḻp Pulikaḷ n.d: 13). The Muracoli reported that prior to his death, he wrote letters to Chief Minister Bhaktavatsalam and others informing them of his intention. The paper also carried a photo of his mother, wife, and three children grieving over the charred remains of his body (Muracoli, 28 January 1965, 1; 29 January, 1; see also Ilaṭciyappātai, 28 March 1993, 21-22). Today, a road in Madras city is named after him.
A native of the village of Udaiyampatti in Tiruchi district, Veerappan immolated himself on 11 February in neighboring Ayyampalaiyam. He was twenty-seven and not married. A teacher who taught at several schools before moving to Ayyampalaiyam, he spent most of his spare time absorbed in Tamil scholarship. He was also an ardent DMK follower and attended many of its events in his area. He organized a number of youth gatherings where he would read aloud from DMK newspapers, and he taught his students about the wonders of Tamil. He even led his students in anti-Hindi protests prior to his death and also wrote letters of protest to the government. In 1980, a memorial was set up for him (Tīyil Venta Tamiḻp Pulikaḷ n.d: 13; Deccan Herald, 13 February 1965, 1).
Mutthu burned himself alive on 11 February. A native of Satyamangalam in Coimbatore district, he was, according to the Deccan Herald, a forty-year-old farmer who was disgusted with the police firing on anti-Hindi protesters (13 February 1965, 1). Another version, however, notes that he was born in 1943, had studied up to the fifth grade, and worked in a truck shop. He was reportedly inspired to burn himself on reading stories of other immolations in the newspapers. He had great love for Tamil, we are told, and was an avid follower of the DMK. The DMK, in turn, commemorated his memory by naming the hall in which they held their annual meeting in Madurai in 1966 after him (Tīyil Venta Tamiḻp Pulikaḷ n.d: 18-19).
A native of Marutavamcheri in Tanjavur district, Sarangapani set himself on fire on the grounds of his college campus in Mayiladuthurai on 15 March. He was a student studying for his bachelor’s degree in commerce. He was twenty (Tīyil Venta Tamiḻp Pulikaḷ n.d: 25).
42. Dandapani was a student of the Coimbatore Institute of Technology who died on 28 February in Peelamedu. Born in 1944 in Kulathupalaiyam in Coimbatore district, he was the first in his indigent family to go to college. Though he realized that his family depended on him to finish his education and secure a job, Dandapani, we are told, was more inspired by the stories of other students who participated in anti-Hindi protests and by the immolations of Chinnasami and others. So he gave up his own dreams for the sake of Tamil (Tīyil Venta Tamiḻp Pulikaḷ n.d: 15-16). [BACK]
Mutthu died in February in Keeranur near Pudukottai where he was working at a local restaurant. Born in 1943, his friends remember that even as a teenager in the 1950s in the small village of Cinnasanayakadu in Pudukottai district, he was fired with the zeal of Tamil devotion and plastered the walls of local buildings and temples with slogans such as “Down with Hindi!” “Long live Tamil!” Reading the stories of fellow Tamilians who had suffered in the anti-Hindi protests, he was filled with anger. Before he died, he wrote letters to Bhaktavatsalam, Annadurai, and others, expressing his anger. These letters were found on his body (Tīyil Venta Tamiḻp Pulikaḷ n.d: 21).
A native of Nartamalai in Pudukottai, Shanmugam died in a Tiruchirapalli hospital on 25 February, two days after consuming poison. Born in 1943, he worked for a local grocery store in Viralimalai to support his poor family. Prior to his death, he was filled with Tamil consciousness, gave public lectures against Hindi in DMK meetings, set fire to Hindi books, burned an effigy of Hindi, and wrote letters to his relatives urging them to join the Tamil cause. His elder brother founded the still-existing Society for the Language Martyrs of 1965 (Tīyil Venta Tamiḻp Pulikaḷ n.d: 22-25; Deccan Herald, 1 March 1965, 5).
43. Muttāram, 15 March 1966, 11. [BACK]
44. MLCD 26 (1965): 169-71. [BACK]
45. Kuṭi Aracu, 6 August 1939, 1-2. [BACK]