I have a doubt about the freedom fighters of tamil nadu. The most prominent names of that era that comes to the mind are of 1. Subraminya Bharathi 2. V.O.C 3. Subramaniya Siva.
Why there has not been done any anything to glorify these heroes of those era? These valiant men, who suffered at the hands of the British and they died a very lonely and sad death.The text books of the schools talk about their sufferings at the hands ofthe British, but I think they suffered equally after their imprisonment out of lonelyness and the sense of betrayal they felt.
Out of all the functions we celebrate throught the year, I feel, none of it were in the rememberance of the these fighters. I feel that atleast this part of the history of Tamil Nadu stands neglected. The sad part is that these days only film stars seems to derserve the statues and functions(not intended to start any flame).
But unfortunately, we neglect the freedom fighters who have later form part of the government (like Congress ministers, legislative members etc.,) Freedom fighters who have fought for the freedom and later became part of the system of government also to be considered.
In Tamilnadu, we have peculiar case of Justice Party also gaining some sort of prominence from 1920s. Erstwhile Congress party leaders/freedom fighters (like Periyar) have joined Justice party and this forum had slowly started propagating for continuance of British rule itself. This can be traced down to formation of Dravidar Kazhagam, DMK etc.,
I dont know why people consider cinema antaganostic to freedom fighting. cinema is the freest for m of impression
how many movies were banned/ censored by the british
how would we have all learnt of the pain and sufferings of freedom fighters but for movies on maruthu pandyar, kattabomman, voc. definitely our books dont talk of these in detail
also there were freedm fighters much ahead of bharathiyar or voc.
kattabomman was hanged in 1802. maruthu pandyar a few years later. on the contrary 1857 was the sepoy mutiny.
It is not against Cinema or so-called cinestars. We should really blame "us" (we, the people) for giving undue importance to cinema/cine-stars. We are not treating cinema as an art or an entertaining medium. We have gone into treating cinema as religion. (Similarly, we can classify cricket in this category).
My personal opinion is, if we ban cinema/cricket in India, we can do much more. Obviously there would be lot of harsh criticism on this; but in reality I feel this is need of an hour.
Muruganantham
ps: appaadi, oru vazhiyaa thiriya koluthi pottaachu.
yes it is true tamil nadu has been involved in the freedom struggle from the early days they came to india. What i wanted to point out is the pain, suffering and neglect they had during the end of their days.
bharathi had a handful of persons for his funeral, and i could not find anywhere how Subramaniya Siva died. only a brief note that he had died of leprosy. i felt these persons, who had no other inner motives (unlike the current politicians) other than the freedom are neglected is unfair from our part.
Dear Mr Muruganantham; I dont want to deviate from the topic but i felt it was high time somebody stopped people criticising cricket for everything that happens in the country. Every country has its own passions, likes and dislikes. Cricket is much more than a sport, do u know why? It is the only way in which a commoner can become a national hero within a space of a year. I know there are politics involved in there (i played for Tamilnadu, so been there done that) but there are enough rags to riches stories in cricket. Sehwag,Dhoni were all commoners much like us before they played for the country. Name one sport/field where a lower-middle class boy can dream of becoming the best in the world without emptying his family fortune. Cricket is the only sport in India where a lower-middle class boy knows he can earn a living even if he doesn't make it to the top. Do you know what one has to spend in motorsports (car racing) to even know whether we are any good in that? There are enough real-life events in cricket to rival the commoner-to-king scripts of Dumas and Kalki. "Cricket is a religion"--A religion where the rich,poor,Hindu,Muslim,Maharaja(Raja of Vizianagaram),commoner,high caste.low caste play together as a team with the sole aim of helping India win. This is probably the only religion which could be benficial to India.
So lets stop criticising cricket for the evils of our country. That sport does not deserve this. Whats life without passion and if that passion is cricket then so be it.
If you see my mail, I am not blaming cricket or cinema for all the evils. I am blaming only "us" that we treat this as religion beyond the actual levels of sports or entertainment. Yes, every country and people have their own passions. I believe you would appreciate the fact of differentiation between "being passionate" and "being fanatic"; "Being fanatic" in our country leads to heights of negligence of various prime duties.
Do you know how many commoners spend their daily wages for these so-called cinema / cricket ? On top of it, betting scandals, mudslinging politics to capture huge revenue-earning body (ie., BCCI) are going on in this country.
Is it really justified for the salary being drawn by superstars in cinema and superheroes of cricket ? Let us ponder over this and analyze in a more constructive way.
I remember in one of the TV interviews, Director Cheran mentioned that he was ready to work like a normal employee (for a monthly salary of say Rs.15k) if all the other actors/technicians could settle in for similar salaries pertain to their potential only. Under those circumstances, cost of production of cinema would come down.
It is really mind boggling to the amounts of money involved in cinema industry and profits (!!!) involved...
Do you think that by banning cricket/cinema that people would start sudying about VOC,Bharathiar,etc? Infact a whole generation of Indians, Tamilians especially got to know about these incredible people through cinema only. If during a discussion the name "Kattabomman" crops up we imgaine Sivaji Ganesan mouthin dialogues. Cinema has done a quite a lot for keeping alive the names of such great people.
Why is the salary of cricketers always an issue of debate? Do we debate on how much a fresher from an engineering college is paid for joinging a software company? Regarding scandals of the BCCI name one body in the world which does not have its own share of scandals. Did you hear about the match fixing scandals which rocked football last month? Cricket is no way related to the evils of our country. FYI for every commoner spending his daily wages on cricket and cinema there are atleast 2 families which are making money from both in one way or the other. Cricket and cinema are multi-million dollar industries which are sources of living for thousands.
every person has his own share of problems and cinema and cricket are 2 mediums where he can forget them for sometime. Banning cricket/cinema would not turn thier attention to VOC,Bharathiar.
Infact to turn thier to attention to such heroes we have use cinema as a medium. A good movie on these heroes by a director who knows how to attract the masses, having a lot of drama would turn the attention of the people to the struggles of these heroes. Cinema reaches the lowest and the highest segments of the society.
"The pen maybe mightier than the sword but a camera is mightier than the pen"
Coming back to our topic, I do not mean by simply banning Cinema/cricket, that we should be studying more about VOC/Bharathiar. If we are going to treat these as only entertaining mediums, then there is no need for ban.
You had indicated "Cricket and cinema are multi-million dollar industries which are sources of living for thousands". My humble query is HUGE (very huge amount) portion of PROFIT is going to creamy rich. Poor is becoming poorer. (Kodambakkam, Saligramam, Valasaravakkam areas-la paatheenganna nijam puriyum).
hi to all for a detailed list of freedom fighters from tamil nadu please read "Sudhanthira poratathil tamilar pangu" a three volume book and i forget the authors name.
also read "Sudhanthira tagam" by si.su.chellappa a two volume book which has a lot of real characters who participated in the freedom fighting like " Va.Ra" Dinamani Sivaraman, Sangu Subramaniam etc.,
also read "B.S. Ramiah" manikodi kalam which also describes a lot of freedom fighters and lit legends.
i am fortunate in way that i was able to meet one of the living freedom fighter I.Mayandi Bharathi in madurai who we can see him regularly in west masi street madurai.