ON COMRADE SARASWATHY SUBBIAH IN NEW INDIAN EXPRESS 19.2.2005

A LIFE ALMOST FORGOTTEN

By N. Nandhivarman

The Unique role by V. Subbiah in the freedom struggle to liberate French India is fresh in the mind of people. His home, where all learning nationalist and communist leaders had set their foot as per his will, belongs to people. His wife, octogenarian Saraswathi, lives there alone braves the onslaughts of time. Varadarajaulu Subbiah’s centenary falls on February 7, 2011. There are very few couples in the Indian political history who were in the same party fighting for common cause and Subbiah and Saraswathi have a unique place among them.

Saraswathi, born on 22, 1924, has crossed 80. She started the women’s Association in 1946 drafting and training women for political and social struggles. Her path was full of thorns. She braved French imperialism and asked them to quit French India. The Women’s Conference she organized in April 1946 gave the clarion call towards that goal. In post – Independent Pondicherry the Women’s Association became a branch of National Federation of Indian Women. This Association took special interest in anti – dowry campaigns and against social oppression of women.

During the late Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s visit in 1963 to Pondicherry women’s Association donated for the war against Chinese aggression. During the Pakistan war in 1965, as chairperson of Women’s Defense Committee Saraswathi collected donations in cash and kind and once again donated for the national cause. In the Directory of Indian Women Today, sponsored by the Ministry of Education and social Welfare, in 1975, her Name figures in the Who’s who of prominent women social activists of our Country.

Saraswathi was elected to Pondicherry Municipality, as its first lady member in 1956. She became the deputy Mayor in the 1968. Elections, the last civic elections held in this Territory. Saraswathi had attended the World Women’s Conference held IN Moscow in 1963 as a delegate from Pondicherry NFIW.

Saraswathi participated in the struggles for 33% reservations for women and till date we can see her in the streets leading women struggles. The demise of her husband Subbiah did not diminish her determination. With added vigour she continues to champion the cause of women. It is befitting that the Government of India during the Golden Jubilee Cerebrations held in New Delhi honoured her in 1997.

She served as the Chairperson of State Social Welfare Advisory Board from April 1999 to June 2002. Her life was a turbulent one. Husband faced the wrath of French imperialists and underwent untold sufferings. It is needless to state that Saraswathi faced these ordeals with extraordinary courage.

The Gazetteer of the Union Territory of Pondicherry state that labour leader Subbiah was arrested by the British Government and interned in Vellore jail in 1939. Communist organizations I the French settlements were banned on September 28, 1939 and the press brought under censorship. Then in 1940 the ban was lifted and Subbiah returned to Pondicherry. In April 1944 again Subbiah was charged as undesirable element and expelled from Pondicherry. In a sudden turn of events triggered by a decree of October 25, the 30 – member Counsel General was replaced with 44member Assemble Representative.  This assembly chosen by adult suffrages met on January 6, 1947 and in this session Subbiah and Pakirsamy Pillai were chosen as Senators to represent the French Establishments in the Conseil de la Republique. Then many a crises including going underground encircled Subbiah and those years of turbulence saw Saraswathi undergoing baptism with fire.

In all these eventful years, Saraswathi has to face all hardships, which were to Increase manifold as the last scenes for downing the curtains of French imperialism gathered momentum with British quitting India.

Now with memories of those days, she lives alone in the house her husband had gifted to the people of Pondicherry, where a day will come when a museum will come up illustrating the struggles of Subbiah who was one among the greatest nationalists of India.