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Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
Venugopal Master: 60th Birthday
Tribute
Sachi Sri Kantha, 29 March 2004
Courtesy Sangam
Words most often mutate when they get borrowed by
another language and one among the many meanings which
they imply gain precedence over other meanings. A good
example is the English word 'master' [whose root was
from Latin, magnus, = great.] Whatever its deflated
status in American English now -mainly due to the past
practice of slavery - 'master' retains the positive,
endearing connotation in Eelam Tamil language, as a
borrowed English word for teacher or mentor. There is
an equivalent word sensei in Japanese language, which
carries the same endearing connotation carried by the
word 'master' in Tamil. It should also be noted that
the perfectly equivalent word guru in Oriental Indian
languages, referring to teacher, has gained a
pejorative meaning in English, partly due to the antics
of some Indian holy men since the 1960s following the
emergence of Hippie values in America.
How many can claim the status of being a mentor to the
LTTE leader V.Pirabhakaran? According to my count, five
deserve notice; in chronological order, they are namely
P.Venugopal, P.Nedumaran, Anton Balasingham, Adele
Wilby Balasingham and M.G.Ramachandran (MGR). Among
these five, all except MGR are still living. Also
worthy of attention are that, (1) all except Venugopal
Master are household names to Eelam Tamils, and (2) all
except Venugopal Master are photo-familiar to Tamils.
Thus, with a fervent belief that his importance
deserves wider recognition, I pen this tribute to
Pirabhakaran's first mentor, Venugopal Master from
Valvettithurai, whose 60th birthday falls on April 6.
He was the prime influence on the young, teenage
Pirabhakaran from 1967 to 1972. To his young
protégé, he instilled the pride in being a
Tamil, and espoused Tamil nationalism. He also opened
the windows of the world to his protégé -
especially the depleting fortunes of many heroic tribes
in America and Indian subcontinent, who succumbed at
the hands of colonisers to their lands, for want of new
armaments and strong leadership.
M.R.Narayan Swamy's flaunted 'first print biography' of
Pirabhakaran [titled, Inside An Elusive Mind, 2003;
reviewed by me in a previous sangam website posting]
does not even name Mr.Venugopal. He makes a cameo
appearance as an unnamed tutor in a couple of
sentences. So much for the quality, or the lack of, of
this Indian journalist's hatchet job.
During my recent visit to Kilinochchi, I was offered a
rare privilege of meeting with Venugopal Master for two
days [on March 3rd and 4th], for a total of nearly five
hours. Until I met him in person, I had erroneously
believed that Venugopal Master was not among the
living. When we faced each other, he apologized for
being a little 'under the weather.' In return, I also
apologized to him for my erroneous belief. He smiled
and without taking any offence quipped that 'Don't mind
it. I'm being written about by quite a few, without
they even hearing my voice or looking at my face.' The
Master is of medium stature by Eelam Tamil reference,
and had unusually sparkling, rolling eyes - especially
in illustrating or emphasizing a point to his
listener.
Venugopal then settled down to reminisce on his
relationship with his famous protégé. He also
leveled my position with an encouraging comment: 'I'm
glad that you came and I have heard about you. Only
those with sincere interest in Eelam affairs and an
impeccable track record as a chronicler are shown the
path to my current residence.' Following my response
that I'm a Point Pedro native and that my grand uncle
[my father's eldest brother] was S.Pathmanathan Master
in Puloly East - a locally recognized school teacher
from 1940s to early 1970s -, Venugopal Master warmed up
to me.
I asked the Master, what specific aspects of his daily
discussions seemed to have lit the flame in
Pirabhakaran's heart? He identified three. First, is
that historically Tamils in the island had their own
flag, had territory and had conducted their own
political affairs before the advent of Western
colonialists. The terminology of Sinhala majority and
Tamil minority was a recent introduction following the
Lord Donoughmore Commission of late 1920s. Second, is
that the parliamentary road of Tamil salvation
(preached by the political leadership of
advocates/proctors) since 1948 had led to disaster for
the Tamil ethnics, within one generation. Third, is
that the only available path to regain the Tamil
initiative is to work on establishing a true military
unit for Tamils.
Then, as an aside, Venugopal Master chuckled and
reminisced an anecdote. One day, young Pirabha came to
him and asked, "Master, Thuvakai Thaango" [translation:
Master, give us the gun]. For this demand, the mentor
responded meekly, "Muthal, kambadi payilungo."
[translation: You all should develop your physique
first, and start practicing kambadi; literally,
stick-fight - but in Tamil figuratively, referring to
skill in traditional martial arts]. This tangential
answer by the mentor temporarily floored Pirabha, the
serious protégé, and he went sulking, "When
we ask for a gun, our Master was preaching us to learn
kambadi." Having lived to see how Pirabhakaran had
taken his mentor's words seriously and established a
full-fledged Tamil army, now Venugopal Master's eyes
glisten with admiration on the mental toughness of his
protégé. Master also mentions about the
inevitable loss of lives; his guestimate of a serious,
violent campaign by Eelam Tamils to regain their lost
political rights; i.e., 'nearly 100,000 deaths' and
told it straight to the LTTE leader, for which
Pirabhakaran listened aptly - but with hardly any
visible emotion in his face. Also, Mr.Venugopal
informed me that in his discussion on strategy, he
reinforced the themes that 'What were politically
correct thoughts of the 19th century [such as racial
dominance, servility and colonialism] are unacceptable
to 20th century living.'
I also asked the Master, whether historical or social
presentations of cinema, particularly Madras Tamil
cinema of 1950s and 1960s, had any influence in their
mentor-protégé interactions. Mr.Venugopal
answered in the negative and merely stated that he
considered the presentations of Tamil cinema as
'nothing more than entertainment and stretching the
historical facts, whenever they were presented.' Thus,
I indirectly deduced that the celebrated 'Clint
Eastwood influence' of Pirabhakaran should have entered
into LTTE leader's psyche in his post-Vengugopal Master
phase.
Taken as a whole, the distinguishing characteristics of
the eclectic group of Pirabhakaran's five mentors also
deserve some attention. Two (Venugopal and Balasingham)
were from the Vadamarachchi region, two (Nedumaran and
MGR) were from Tamil Nadu and one (Adele Balasingham)
was from Australia. Also, this group consisted of four
Tamil men and one 'nominally non-Tamil' woman;
alternatingly, three nominal Hindus and two nominal
Christians. None of the five held a snobbish Harvard or
Oxford pedigree, but each of the five were distinct in
their upbringing and intellectual make up. Even in
their primary professions, each of Pirabhakaran's five
mentors differed like five fingers of a palm; a
secondary school-grade teacher, a politician turned
social activist, a journalist-translator, a nurse and a
successful stage-movie actor turned politician; in
short, these were not eggheads floating in the illusory
world of academia. Due to this distinct intellectual
tapestry of his five mentors - rooted in native region,
neighboring Tamil Nadu and Adele's Australia-British
upbringing - Pirabhakaran was a beneficiary of multiple
and complimentary influences.
For the record, I inquired about Mr.Venugopal's family
background. He said, he was the middle-born [born in
1944, as fourth among seven siblings] of
Ponnuswamy-Sothimuthu couple of Valvettithurai. His
father was known as Ponnuswamy Sastri (1909-1969) in
the locale. Financially, their family was not well
endowed. At Valvettithurai, he studied at Sivaguru
Vidyasalai [known then as Aaladi Pallikoodam] from 1949
to 1952. Then, he was at Chidambara College from 1953
to 1963. He studied natural sciences in high school,
with chemistry, physics, botany and zoology as
subjects. Due to his family's limited means, he could
not enter the university then, and thus settled for a
life as a tutor for school students in English and
science subjects, in the locality. The then prinicipal
of Chidambara College of 1950s, S.Vanamamalai Aiyangar,
and another teacher called Subramaniam Master were the
two who had strong influence on him.
Mr.Venugopal's political thought process were kindled
in 1958-59 by the influential short tracts of
C.N.Annadurai, the founder of the DMK, which he read
avidly from the local library. Then, in the early
1960s, he interacted with the Tamil political leaders
of the North Eelam such as C.Suntheralingam,
G.G.Ponnambalam, K.Thurairatnam and V.Navaratnam - all
representing a Tamil constituency in Ceylon's
parliament in 1950s and/or 1960s. Two character-traits
he found on these Tamil legislators of that past era
was that though they were personally affable,
uncorrupt, civic-minded leaders, their chief concern
was nothing but a 'parliamentary chair' and their
thoughts were concentrated on 'inheriting these
parliamentary chairs' as 'their own dowry property';
and the plight of Tamils was subsidiary to their chief
concern. I sensed that Venugopal Master had a soft spot
for Chellapah Suntheralingam, the only elected
scientist (mathematician)-politician Eelam Tamils have
ever had. It goes without saying that
Prof.Suntheralingam was also the father of the Eelam
concept in the second half of 1950s. Venugopal Master
told me, 'Suntheralingam's brain was on a different
plane from others. Regrettably, he was an eccentric
individualist - as typical of mathematicians - and he
couldn't nurture a team of followers. Thus Eelam
nationalism didn't catch fire then.'
From 1983, for the next 18 years, Mr.Venugopal lived
beyond the borders of Sri Lanka; which partly explains
why he remains a less-known figure in published
Pirabhakaran stories. He returned to Eelam, on the
special invitation from his famous protégé
and is now engaged in teaching the younger generation
of students. His family remains dispersed now. His wife
is currently in India, undergoing medical treatment.
His children are settled in other lands.
It is said of Socrates that, though he didn't write
anything, he was an exemplary teacher who was listened
to seriously by a young fellow named Plato, who turned
out to be a super scribe cum philosopher. This link
alone covered up Socrates's deficit in penmanship.
Similarly, Venugopal was listened to seriously by his
then young protégé Pirabhakaran, whose script
on Tamil nationalism now echoes highly on the tutorial
caliber of a town Master. I didn't take any audio or
video recording devices with me during my two-day
interaction with the Master. Thus, when I took leave
from him, I requested that for posterity, he on his
own, should write - without further delay - about his
salad days of late 1960s when he tutored Pirabhakaran
regularly, in the evenings from 6:15 pm for nearly
three hours. The Master quipped, that the same
suggestion has been made to him by quite a few other
well wishers; and if God and health were willing, he
would endure to comply to our requests. Before parting,
the self-effacing teacher strained to make a point in
an easily understood metaphor of devout Hindus; that it
was his good fortune to have lit the camphor
(karpooram) in the temple of Tamil political revival,
and he wouldn't claim any more credit than this.
'Thamby's brain was the karpooram.' Thamby, of course,
was his pet diminutive for Pirabhakaran.
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