T.Jeyakantan -
ஜெயகாந்தன்
Life and Works
Jayakanthan chosen for
Jnanpith award for 2002 - 19 March 2005
Jeyakantan on Tamil &
Sanskrit, 6 June 2005 �எனக்கு தமிழ் தான்
தெரியும் வேறு மொழி தெரியாது. தொட்டிலில் குழந்தையாக
தவழ்ந்தபோதே எனக்குத் தமிழ் தெரிந்தது. எனது தாய் தமிழில்
தாலாட்டியதால் தமிழ் அறிந்தேன். இந்தியாவைச் சேர்ந்த தமிழன்
என்று கூறிக் கொள்ளவே ஆசைப்படுகிறேன் நான்."
Life of Jeyakanthan, -
Swaminathan Sankaran, 25 November 1995 "..JK is probably
one of the greatest post-independence Indian intellectuals
and creative writers in any Indian language, and, in my
opinion, ranks among the best in the world. He has affirmed
through his life and writings a broad and noble humanism,
deep spirituality, nobility and courage, true patriotism and
a fearless pursuit of intellectual values and truth wherever
these may lead him..."
From
Life of Jeyakanthan, - Swaminathan Sankaran, 25 November 1995
"jeyakAn^than was born in 1934 in a well-to-do family of
agriculturalists, or vELALars, in Cuddalore, in the North Arcot
district of thamizh n^Adu. His father mu. dhaNdapANip piLLAi
(1908-1954) had no formal education. He was too unrestrained in his
habits and was a spendthrift who lost all his wealth early in life.
Around 1935 he abandoned his wife and children and went away and
joined the Government of Madras Fire(fighting) Department. He
married another woman and lived with her and had two other children
by her.
JK reports that he knew astrology and had an excellent aesthetic
sense and sound knowledge of the arts. Thus JK grew up in a
one-parent family but as in most Indian/thamizh families had other
adult males who filled in; in his case it was his maternal
grandfather and two uncles. The garndfather was first a nationalist
but later became a su(ya) ma(riyAdhaik) ka(zhakam) and later still
d(hirAvidak) k(azhakam) supporter and follower of I. vE. rA.
The two uncles were Communist) Party of India (CPI) members.
Their party connections shaped JK to a much larger extent than his
grandfather's DK leanings. The example of a third, probably older,
uncle (pa. maNGgaLam piLLai) is understated, but might have been a
much longer-lasting influence. This uncle was a Gandhian through and
through, offered individual satyAgraha and was a bhArathi bhakthA.
JK first became familiar with
bhArathi's
works when, even as a child, he heard this uncle recite and sing
bharathi's poems and songs. He married a harijan/dalit woman and
went to live with her in her chEri. He might have served as the
prototype for the character "Adhi" in the \bt "jaya jaya SaNGkara
..." muzhu nAval. \et
JK spent his first 12 years in Cuddalore. His family lived in the
aggirahAram. The present day DK leader(!) ki, vIramaNI (whose given
name was sAraNGgapANi) also lived in the same town and was JK's
classmate in school. Formal schooling does not seem to have agreed
well with JK, nor he with it. He quit school after completing Grade
5 education and was considerea a"problem" child. Unable to bear the
harsh treatment routinely meted out to such children, he ran away
from home at 12. But he seems to have played it safe by "running"
away by train to vizzzzhuppuram where his maternal uncle
purushOththaman happened to be at that time. This gentleman, once a
Gandhia, then a Congress socialist, had become a communist and was
in 1946 a full time CPI member and labour organizer at the
vizhuppuram railway colony. It is there that JK first imbibed his
communist teachings. However as a child he would start asking for
his "home: and crying. Finally he went back to his mother in
Cuddalore.
But after six months he was again bundled out and sent to Madras
with a letter to another uncle rAdhAkrishNan. (purushOththaman was
probably in jail by this time as a participant in the Quit India
movement.) Previously in his periodic "running away from home
exploits" JK had been to Madras a couple of times. Thus he was
familiar with the location of CPI's "janaSakthi" office where this
uncle could be found. ( I am mntioning this because it gives us a
clue to the importance of the train \bt rayil \et in his writings.)
rAdha krishNan was away on some party work. But comrade san^thAnam
who read his mother's message out loud which said " You (meaning
rAdhaK) went away to reform and improve the world. Now please take
the responsibility to reform and improve thsis useless son of mine
also." The child JK started crying on hearing these words.
Immediately the CPI comrades quietened himdown and asked him not to
worry. From then on he stayed in the janaSakthi office building and
became part of the commune. He lived there eating and sleeping just
like other commune members. he made many lasting friendships and
acquaintances.
JK was treated very well and with much kindness. He noticed that
many of the comrades in th cell spoke in English which he didn't
understand very well. He worked in the janaaKthi press (child
labour!) and it was decided that he would be trained to become a
letter press compositor. But since he was the youngest of the lot he
was often the butt of jokes and friendly kidding. As a hot-blooded
young kid he couldn't take it and often got into fights. In one of
those fights he broke another boy's nose and it was decided that he
should be taken off the press room and used for other chores in th
office. Here, he came into contact with some of the best leaders
that the TN CPI had to offer - jIvA, Mohan kumAramaNggalam, pi.
rAmamUrthy, A.S.K. iyeNGgAr, M.R. veNgkatarAman, ismath pAshA, and
above all bAlAn - the famous and charismatic bAladhaNdAyutham. In
the evenings he was selling janasakthi in street corners . It was
the glory days of the TN CPI. But he was not admitted as a full time
member since he was not yet 18.
In 1949 the CPI condemned P.C. Joshi as a reformist and B.T Ranadive
replaced him. Soon Patel decided to try to wipe out the CPI. CPI
leaders went underground. JK went back to his uncle's house in
perambUr. He was somewhat involved in acting secretly for the CPI
members who were in hiding and had some interesting experiences. In
1950 Patel died and the restrictions on the CPI were removed. The
leaders came out of prison or came out of hiding. At that time JK
was working in a shoe shop in thaNYchavUr. At S. Ramakrishnan's
behest he came back to the party office in Madras.
During this period two things happened. JK had plenty of time to
reflect and to think and to read. His ideas matured and he with
them. Secondly, the DMK using the temporary eclipse of the CPI
showed the first signs of coming up. From close observations of this
phenomenon and from discussions in the party JK's views on the
kazhakams - DK and DMK, were formed. He concluded then that these
were nascent fascists, irresponsible and maybe even, uncivilized.
And he hasn't changed those views much since then.
The CPI-sponsored United Front won half the seats in the Nadras
Legislative Assembly. RajAji became the Congress Chief Minister. He
injected into Indian politics for the first time the party hopping
which later became quite a popular sport in Indian politics. He
enticed mANikkalvEl nAyakkar and rAmaswAmy padayAchchi ( yes the
same of PMK, but at that time vanniyar kula ksaththiriyar saNGgam)
to switch and support his government. He openly announced that the
"communists were enemy number 1," and went on to arrest leading
party members and bring legal cases against them and to break the
party. (rAjAji was a pretty viscious fellow, maybe something his
admirers gloss over, but should not.) bAlan bore the brunt of the
government's venom. With the leaders in hiding or in prison much
inner party squabbles and recrimination set in. rAjAji succeeded in
breaking the CPI and the kazhakams did the rest in burying the only
decent political party which may ever have had any chance of
educating and uplifting TN's toiling masses, as happened in kEraLA
and to a lesser extent in benGgAl and maharAshtrA. Soon with the
help of I. vE. rA. and a sycophantic D.M.K, rAjAji or "AchchAriyAr"
as he was derisively addressed by I. vE. rA and the kazhakamites,
was ousted and kAmarAj nAdAr took over. He was addressed as "maNALA
guNALA" etc by karuNAnidhi!
Inner party squabbles and the failure to evaluate the evils of the
kazhakams and confront them brought about additional rifts in the
CPI. JK slowly found himself in the periphery. He went away to
Madhurai, and later kumbakONam, there to work with ismath pAshA the
founder-editor of samaran. pAsha who showed gumption and
intelligence in exposing the kazhakams however fell foul of the
party hierarchy and was denounced as a deviant. By sabotaging his
distribution network for samaran the CPI broke him. JK returned to
Madras. He was still affiliated with the CPI. But he had learnt a
valuable lesson - that the CPI did not value individual opinion and
independent thinking and would crush anyone who disagreed with the
party line. Pretty astute for someone not yet 20 and who had no more
than grade 5 formal education. But the party had educated him far
better than a Ph. D. program could and he developed his personality
and opinions and philosophy as an independent Marxist thinker.
And then jeyakAn^than started writing. From around 1953 he began
writing in saraswathi and then thAmarai and girAma Uzhiyan and later
still Anan^dha vikatan. He has said somewhere that he was probably
the first thamizh writer to make a living from his writings. His
wants were few. He retained his independence. He never lost his zest
for life, nor his critical, but sympathetic, views of the
downtrodden and the powerless, nor his contempt for the phonies in
any and all walks of life, nor his dislike for the fascist
kazhakams. For a while he tried to strengthen the hands of kAmarAj
and kakkan against their enemies within and without the TN Congress.
But he remined an independent, outside parties.
He also married his uncle's daughter while he was still young. Had
his run-ins with the movie moguls of kOdambAkkam. I have earlier
recounted his encounters with the hypocritical Venus Pictures
Krishnamurthy and his making of "unnaippOl oruvan" and a few other
choice movies with bImsiNG. He also got to know ms. jeyajjanani a
stage actress and now she lives with him, his first wife and the
latter's kids by JK.
This chapter in his life, or at least the early part of it, is
fictionalised in JK's novel "oru nadikai nAdakam pArkkiRAL" (and the
movie of the same title.) His views on celibacy, marital fidelity,
man-woman relationships etcetera are drawn from life. As he grew
older, JK has had time to reflect inwards and indulge in
philosophical inquiries and to give expression to them in his novels
and short stories. He has not written much since he turned 50.
JK is probably one of the greatest post-independence Indian
intellectuals and creative writers in ANY Indian language, and, in
my opinion, ranks among the best in the world. He has affirmed
through his life and writings a broad and noble humanism, deep
spirituality, nobility and courage, true patriotism and a fearless
pursuit of intellectual values and truth wherever these may lead
him."
Jayakanthan chosen
for Jnanpith award for 2002 -
19 March 2005
Noted Tamil writer with leftist leanings D Jayakanthan was
today chosen for the prestigious Jnanpith award for 2002.
71 year old Jayakanthan, who has to his credit about 40 novels,
two hundred short stories and fifteen collection of essays
besides some translations including that of Romain Rollan's
biography of Mahatma Gandhi, is the second Tamil author after P
V Akhilondam to get this award, said a press release issued by
Bharatiya Jnanpith.
The award carries a citation plaque,
a bronze statue of Vagdevi, Rs 500,000 in cash.
Announcing the award, L M Singhvi, Chairman of the Jnanpith
Selection Board, said Jayakanthan had not not only enriched the
high literary tradition of the Tamil language, but has also made
an outstanding contribution towards the shaping up of the Indian
literature.
The works of Jayakanthan delicately unveils
every depths of human emotions and equations, he said adding it
was a moment of great pride for the Bharatiya Jnanpith to choose
him for the award.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Board in which
eminent writers, Ms Mahashweta Devi, Vishnukant Shastri, C T
Indira, Sitangshu Yashaschandra, U R Ananthamurthy, Ramakanta
Rath, Gopichand Narang, Ashok Vajpai and Prabhakar Shrotriya
were present.
Born in a middle class family in Cuddalore in 1934,
Jayakanthan had narrated his experience in the area of politics
and arts in two autobiographical volumes and stormed Popular
magazines with his unconventional short stories and novels. PTI
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