In Mylapore, Madras, on July 19th, 1944, Rt. Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastri delivered the fifteenth in his series of thirty sterling “Lectures on the Ramayana” Profoundly insightful observations were made in the course of the passionate speech upon a very wide range of matters, political and philosophical viz.: Patriotism, Treason, Nationalist pride, Democracy, Political Dissent, PoliticalContinue reading “The Rt.Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastri’s memory and legacy… (Part-13): …Lecture#15 of “Lectures on the Ramayana” – 2025 Independence Day special…”
Tag Archives: Rt. Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastry
The Rt.Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastri’s memory and legacy… (Part-12): …Lecture #15 of the “Lectures on the Ramayana”…
Sastri felt politically marginalized by the rise of Gandhi and Nehru’s mass movements. He expressed melancholy and resignation about the eclipse of moderate liberalism. ‘I am a clod of miserable earth, which nothing can galvanise. Let me be’”, he had written to a friend. His personal relation with Gandhi was respectful and affectionate despite politicalContinue reading “The Rt.Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastri’s memory and legacy… (Part-12): …Lecture #15 of the “Lectures on the Ramayana”…”
The Rt.Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastri’s memory and legacy… (Part-11): …Living for the love of Valmiki and Shakespeare…
In the sunset years of his life — i.e. the early and mid-1940s — Srinivasa Sastri’s physical and mental health remained beleagured. His angina attacks came upon him suddenly and not infrequently. They caused him excruciating chest-pain and breathlessness. In those days in contrast to the present day, medical research had not yet discovered miracleContinue reading “The Rt.Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastri’s memory and legacy… (Part-11): …Living for the love of Valmiki and Shakespeare…”
The Rt.Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastri’s memory and legacy… (Part-10): ….An “Ahimsa” purer than Gandhi’s….
Srinivasa Sastri’s melancholia that clearly arose from a general sense of being cutoff from mainstream political life in India during the years leading up to the Indian National Congress’s QUIT INDIA Movement — and thereafter too until his death in 1946 — was perhaps worsened by declining health. It is documented that Sastri suffered fromContinue reading “The Rt.Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastri’s memory and legacy… (Part-10): ….An “Ahimsa” purer than Gandhi’s….”
The Rt.Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastri’s memory and legacy… (Part-9): ….The years in political wilderness ….
It would not be inaccurate to say that between roughly 1933 and his death in 1946, Rt. Hon’ble V. S. Srinivasa Sastri was in relative political wilderness compared to his earlier prominence. By the mid-1930s, Sastri had distanced himself from the more militant and mass-based nationalist politics led by the Indian National Congress under GandhiContinue reading “The Rt.Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastri’s memory and legacy… (Part-9): ….The years in political wilderness ….”
The Rt.Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastri’s memory and legacy… (Part-8): When Srinivasa Sastri urged Mahatma Gandhi to cease being a dictator and step away from the Congress Party
Srinivasa Sastry greatly respected Mahatma Gandhi for his deeply spiritual aspirations. But Gandhi’s spiritual militancy, such as his agitational methods of Sathyagraha employed against the British, received only his grudging admiration. And even such admiration was often conveyed to the Mahatma only with a large dose of brotherly admonition. Sastri as a friend advised GandhiContinue reading “The Rt.Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastri’s memory and legacy… (Part-8): When Srinivasa Sastri urged Mahatma Gandhi to cease being a dictator and step away from the Congress Party”
The Rt.Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastri’s memory and legacy… (Part-7): When Srinivasa Sastri delivered a brave but accurate character-profiling of Mahatma Gandhi
In their philophical approach regarding how the struggle for India’s Freedom from British Colonial Rule must be conducted, Srinivasa Sastri and Mahatma Gandhi were indeed poles apart. Gandhi looked upon himself as a saint-politician. Sastri looked upon himself as scholar-statesman. The contrast between the two men stood out starkly at times whenever Gandhi chose toContinue reading “The Rt.Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastri’s memory and legacy… (Part-7): When Srinivasa Sastri delivered a brave but accurate character-profiling of Mahatma Gandhi”
The Rt.Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastri’s memory and legacy… (Part-6): When Sastri corrected Gandhi’s English sentence-syntax and advised him to give up his dicatorial ways!
Many of the scores of letters to Mahatma Gandhi that Srinivasa Sastri wrote were from his home in Mylapore, Madras (now Chennai). The house was named “Swaagatham” (“welcome“!). I have visited that house several times in the 1980s when Karthik (Sastri’s great grandson), my friend, used to invite me there late afternoons for an hourContinue reading “The Rt.Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastri’s memory and legacy… (Part-6): When Sastri corrected Gandhi’s English sentence-syntax and advised him to give up his dicatorial ways!”
The Rt.Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastri’s memory and legacy… (Part-5): When Sastri corrected Gandhi’s English sentence-syntax and advised him to give up his dicatorial ways!
Between his return to India from South Africa in 1939 until his death in 1946, how did Sastri occupy himself ? What were his major political accomplishments and contributions to the Freedom movement? And what were his other pursuits, literary and academic? Between 1939 and 1946, Sastri’s life was devoted to literary scholarship, educational leadership,Continue reading “The Rt.Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastri’s memory and legacy… (Part-5): When Sastri corrected Gandhi’s English sentence-syntax and advised him to give up his dicatorial ways!”
The Rt.Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastri’s memory and legacy lives more in Durban than in Delhi? (Part-4)
By the time Srinivasa Sastri returned in 1929 to India after successfully completing the diplomatic task in South Africa that had been assigned to him by the British Government of India and by Mahatma Gandhi as well, his intellectual and political stature had grown and he became renowned amongst both the Colonial Administrations of GreatContinue reading “The Rt.Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastri’s memory and legacy lives more in Durban than in Delhi? (Part-4)”