99-Year-Old Freedom Fighter Laxmikanthan Bharathi Recalls India's Independence Movement

At 99, Laxmikanthan Bharathi is probably the oldest freedom fighter and Gandhian in the state. In an interview with Asha Prakash, the former IAS officer, who was honoured in his centenary year by The American College, Madurai, speaks about the freedom movement in the 1940s. Excerpts:You come from a family of freedom fighters.My father Krishnaswami Bharathi was an advocate in Madurai. He was imprisoned during the freedom struggle in 1930, 1932 and 1941. He spent nearly five years in jail. He was an MP and a member of the Constituent Assembly of India, which drafted the Constitution. My mother, Lakshmi Bharati, was jailed twice in the freedom struggle and was an MLA for two terms. My sister and I were arrested in the Quit India Movement of 1942 and imprisoned. The entire family was detained at various times in the freedom struggle.Can you tell us about the years before Independence?When my mother and I visited my father in Vellore jail, I would try to touch him through the bars. He would shed tears because I was just a child then. But eventually the jailer would take me inside.Congress volunteers would come home — Rajaji and Kamaraj among them — and my father had lengthy discussions with them.Though I did not understand the concept of freedom, the whole atmosphere was charged with nationalism. I wore khadi at the age of four. As a child, I would help volunteers make small Congress flags at our house. At night, they would plant them at street corners in Madurai. In the morning, police would remove the flags, and people in the street would shout, ‘Gandhiji ki jai’. That kind of emotion will never be seen in India again.You had an eventful college life …I was the secretary of the students’ federation of American College, Madurai, and we used to take out lots of processions. We would shout slogans such as ‘We demand freedom first’, Lathicharge, brutal, brutal’, ‘Imperialism, down, down’. Criminal courts used to be in the collector’s office, which was about 8km away from Madurai jail in Avaniapala. Once, I was arrested, and the police chained my hands and paraded me through the streets from the jail right up to the collector’s office to terrorise people. My mother cried when she saw me in chains. I was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment.After Independence, I joined the IAS, and in a few years, went up those very steps to assume office as the collector of Madurai. That was an emotional moment for me.Do you feel Independence paved the way for a Gandhian ideal of India?When you fight for freedom, you want a different type of govt, not just a transfer of power. Gandhiji wanted participatory, not representative, democracy. He wanted every village to be an independent republic. He wanted to abolish liquor shops. He wanted the economy to be based on handmade goods. He wanted the mother tongue to be the medium of instruction and the abolition of caste. None of the Gandhian ideas are found in India now.What do you think of the current political parties in TN?I was a member of the Communist Party before the freedom movement. Because at that time, the communists were more forward than those in the Congress. Now, there is no ideology behind any party. What is the ideological difference between DMK and AIADMK? There is no united opposition. Only if you have ideological differences will you fight.