Kalki’ R Krishnamurthi (1899-1954) is known to many thousands of admirers as the greatest 20th century writer in Tamil, revelling in a variety of genres ranging from historical fiction to music criticism and political propaganda for the Independence movement.He packed his brief life of 55 summers with prolific writing activity despite the late flowering of his journalistic and creative writing abilities, thanks in large measure to the freedom movement, which claimed him as it did many youngsters on the threshold of their professional careers. Kalki was a man of enormous social conscience and did not stop with writing for entertainment. In fact, he almost never did write without social, moral, political or intellectual purpose.
He used a rare felicity with the Tamil language, razor-sharp wit, a keen eye for the absurd, highly developed sense of moral outrage against the evils and hypocrisies of the time, and fierce patriotism to propagate his ideals with passion and conviction. His support for Gandhiji’s movement for Indian independence, his antipathy to foreign goods, liquor and the caste system, his propagation of Tamil isai or compositions in Tamil on the classical concert stage in preference to the prevalent Telugu and Sanskrit, were all reflected in his fiery and often hilarious writings.
Though he began his writing career with such journals as Navasakti and Vimochanam, his fame really spread far and wide during his stints as editor of SS Vasan’s Ananda Vikatan and later of Kalki the weekly he launched with friend and partner T Sadasivam. The duo made history by employing the genius of Sadasivam’s wife MS Subbulakshmi—the great classical vocalist who eventually received the honour of India’s highest civilian award, Bharat Ratna—to produce films starring her to raise funds for Kalki the magazine.
Kalki was the best known of the many nom-de-plumes Krishnamurthi assumed in a 25-year span in which he wrote 120 short stories, 10 novellas, 5 novels, three historical novels, political columns and leaders, hundreds of film, music and dance reviews and travelogues, besides being involved in many initiatives for the public good.
One of his major literary accomplishments was his translation into Tamil of Mahatma Gandhi’s Experiments with Truth. He also distinguished himself by writing Mandarul Manickam, a biography of Gandhi in Tamil. He was a devout follower of Gandhi’s ideology and a trusted lieutenant of C Rajagopalachari, widely known as Rajaji, both when he was a Congress leader and when after independence he became an opponent of the Congress party and its policies. Born in the hamlet of Puttamangalam near Mayiladuthurai in Tanjavur district in an orthodox middle class Brahmin family, Krishnamurthi showed an early inclination towards literary and musical appreciation through the intelligent questions he asked of his father Ramaswami Iyer, a harikatha exponent.
(Harikatha is an ancient art of telling great epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata, illustrating the many episodes with songs largely based on classical music). After his primary education in the village tinnai school (a school run on the front porch of the humble home of one of its residents), Krishnamurthi joined the National High School at Tiruchi, about 100 kilometres away. Krishnamurthi was among the thousands of students who gave up their studies to participate in Mahatma Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement in 1921. Inspired by Gandhi’s speech at a public meeting in Tiruchi, he left school and joined the Indian National Congress with the Secondary School Leaving Certificate examination just three months away. Within a year, the lad was undergoing a one-year prison sentence for his role in the movement.
During this period Krishnamurthi came into contact with two people who were to play a major role in his life: veteran Congress leader C Rajagopalachari, and ardent freedom fighter T Sadasivam, who was to become a life-long friend and partner in his journalistic ventures. In fact, Krishnamurthi and Sadasivam became Rajaji’s trusted lieutenants whom he used to carry his message to thousands of readers of Tamil magazines.
Writing career Krishnamurthi’s first attempt at writing fiction came during that period. In 1923 he became a sub-editor in Navasakti, a Tamil periodical edited by Tamil scholar and freedom fighter V Kalyanasundaram, known as “Thiru Vi Ka”. Krishnamurthi’s first book was published in 1927.
Leaving Navasakti in 1928, Krishnamurthi stayed with C Rajagopalachari at the Gandhi Ashram in Tiruchengode in Salem district and helped him edit Vimochanam, a Tamil journal devoted to propagating prohibition. In 1931, he was again imprisoned for six months.
Next year Krishnamurthi joined Ananda Vikatan, a weekly edited and published by SS Vasan, as its de facto editor. The magazine soon became a household name in middle class families. Krishnamurthi’s witty, incisive comments on politics, literature, music and other were enthusiastically received by readers. Vikatan published many of his short stories and novels as serials.
Kalki left Ananda Vikatan in 1941 and rejoined the freedom struggle, courting arrest. On his release after three months, he and Sadasivam started the weekly, Kalki. He was its editor until his death on 5 December 1954. In 1956, he was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award posthumously for his novel Alai Osai. Krishnamurthi achieved huge success as an author of historical fiction. When most Tamil writers wrote in an archaic, unreadable style, Kalki introduced a fluent, readable style to the Tamil literature of his time, widely enhancing the readership of magazine journalism.
Select bibliography
Historical novelsPonniyin Selvan (1950-1955)
Sivakamiyin Sabatham (1944)
Parthiban Kanavu (1941)
Solaimalai Ilavarasi (1947)
Other novels
Kalvanin Kadali (1937)
Tyaga Bhoomi (1938 - 1939)
Makutapati (1942)
Abhalaiyin Kanneer (1947)
Alai Osai (1948)
Devakiyin Kanavan (1950)
Mohini Theevu (1950)
Poiman Karadu (1951)
Punnaivanattu Puli (1952)
Amaratara (1954)
Kalki established his reputation as a novelist with Parthiban Kanavu, a historical romance with the Pallava dynasty as its background. Sivakamiyin Sabatham, which followed, was a brilliant work, stylistically a landmark in Tamil fiction.
Kalki’s historical romances captured the hearts of thousands of readers, recreating for them the grandeur of the Pallavas and Cholas, but some contemporary criticism dismisses their literary merits as glorifying royalty and ignoring the aspirations of the common man. Today’s Marxist writers and experts in post colonial literature however place Kalki’s novels on a much higher pedestal, identifying in them resonances of freedom movements everywhere, but with particular reference to India.
Kalki played a major role in raising funds for two important projects which he spearheaded, as well-raising memorials for the poet Subramania Bharati in Ettayapuram, Tirunelveli district, and Mahatma Gandhi in Guindy, Madras.
Few writers in the third world have had such a profound impact on whole generations of readers as Kalki Krishnamurthi. In Tamil literature, there is little doubt that he will occupy a permanent place in the hearts and minds of readers and critics.