As a freedom-fighter and journalist, he assiduously fought and wrote for the rights of women, widows and Dalits and his efforts earned him the title “an unusual agraharam man” (Agraharathu Athisaya Manithar) from the former Chief Minister, C.N. Annadurai.
Va. Ramasamy, known as Va. Ra, had spent his days in Alipore prison, edited Manikodi , a trendsetter in the modern Tamil literature and even ushered in a prose that made a tremendous influence on modern writers.
Va. Ra’s vision for women could be explained by his novel Kothaitheevu , a utopian world ruled by women themselves. He was close particularly to Thiru-Vi-Ka and freedom fighter V.O. Chidambaram Pillai.
“My objective is to present his personality through the letters of his contemporaries, including V.O. Chidambaram Pillai, Rajaji, Kalki, Bharathidasan, Pudumaipithan, Sakunthala Bharathi, daughter of Bharthiyar,” said V. Arasu, former head of the department of Tamil, Madras University.
While the usual practice is to compile letters written by great men, in this case 300 letters received by him between 1930 and 1951 are being compiled now.
Mr. Arasu found these letters by chance when he visited Va. Ra’s residence after his wife’s death. Va. Ra. had married outside his community.
“I could see some old papers piled up in a corner of the house in Nungambakkam, waiting for disposal. A close observation revealed that one of them was a letter from Bharathidasan. I collected all the papers and was pleased to discover many such letters,” said Mr. Arasu.
Actually a letter from Bharathidasan had accused Va. Ra. of not making proper arrangements when he was in Chennai to write lyrics for “Ramanujan,” a film on the Vaishnavite reformer and saint.
Mr. Arasu made it clear that he was not interested in bringing out yet another book. “I want to make it a reference book as I am writing a detailed note on all the 300 letters,” he said.
In fact, after Na. Pitchamurthy, pioneer of modern free verse in Tamil, it was Bharathidasan, who wrote more poems for Manikodi . Many of Pudhumaipithan’s short stories also appeared at that time. When many people, including Kalki, questioned the greatness of Bharathiyar’s poems, Va. Ra. wrote profusely to establish that he was indeed a great poet.
At one point, Va.Ra. left Chennai for his native village Thirupazhanam near Thiruvaiyaru. VOC shot off an angry letter, wondering how he could afford to live a peaceful life when the country was waging a war against the British.
“In this letter he had asked Va. Ra. to take up the editorship of Sri Lankan Tamil paper Veerakesari. Va.Ra. came out of his hibernation and accepted the proposal,” Mr Arasu said.
