V. S. Srinivasa Sastri
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V.
S. Srinivasa Sastri in 1940
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India's
Agent to the Republic of South Africa
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In
office
June 1927 – January 1929 |
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Monarch
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Governor General
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Preceded by
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None
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Succeeded by
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Member
of the Council of State
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In
office
1920–1925 |
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Monarch
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George V of the United Kingdom
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Governor General
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Member
of the Imperial Legislative Council of India
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In
office
1916–1919 |
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Monarch
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George V of the United Kingdom
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Governor General
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Personal
details
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Born
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Died
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Nationality
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Political party
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Spouse(s)
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Parvathi
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Native High School, Kumbakonam
Government College, Kumbakonam |
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Occupation
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headmaster
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Profession
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educationist, orator, writer,
politician, diplomat
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Religion
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Valangaiman Sankaranarayana
Srinivasa Sastri (Tamil:
வலங்கைà®®ான் சங்கரநாà®°ாயண ஸ்à®°ீநிவாஸ சாஸ்திà®°ி) CH
PC
(22 September 1869 – 17 April 1946) was an Indian politician, administrator, educator,
orator
and Indian
independence activist. He was acclaimed for his oratory
and command over the English language. Srinivasa Sastri was born to a poor
temple priest in the village of Valangaiman near Kumbakonam, India. He completed his education at Kumbakonam and worked as a
school teacher and later, headmaster in Triplicane, Madras. He entered politics in 1905 when he joined the Servants
of India Society. Srinivasa Sastri served as a
member of the Indian
National Congress from 1908 to 1922, but later resigned
in protest against the Non-Cooperation
movement. Sastri was one of the founding
members of the Indian Liberal
Party. In his later days, Srinivasa
Sastri was strongly opposed to the partition of India.
Srinivasa Sastri served as a member
of the Madras
Legislative Council from 1913 to 1916, Imperial Legislative Council of India from 1916 to 1919 and the Council of State from 1920 to 1925. Sastri also functioned as India's
delegate to the League of Nations, as member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and agent to the Republic
of South Africa.
He gained worldwide fame for his
prowess in the English language. Sastri was a close follower of Gopal Krishna
Gokhale. He was also a close friend and
associate of Mahatma Gandhi who addressed Sastri as his "elder brother" in
writings. Sastri was made a "Companion of Honour"
in 1930. In 1921, the Freedom of the City of London was conferred on Srinivasa Sastri followed by the Freedom
of the City of Edinburgh in 1931.
Early
life and educational career
Srinivasa Sastri was born in the
town of Valangaiman, Madras Presidency, India on 22 September 1869. His father, Vaidik Sankaranarayana Sastri, was a poor Hindu
priest. Srinivasa Sastri did his schooling at the Native High
School, Kumbakonam and in 1887, graduated from Government Arts College, Kumbakonam with a first class degree in English and Sanskrit. On graduation, he found employment as a teacher at
Municipal College, Salem.
Srinivasa Sastri married Parvathi in
1885. His granddaughters are, Parvathy, married to Ramamurti
(Retd.G.M of NLC)[citation needed] and
Kausalya, married to the renowned Indian scientist and nephew of Sir C. V. Raman, S. Ramaseshan.
In 1894, Srinivasa Sastri was
appointed headmaster of Hindu High School, Triplicane and served for a period of eight years, till 1902. During this period, he achieved fame for his proficiency in
English and his good administrative skills. In his late years, he also served as Vice-Chancellor of the
Annamalai University. During his tenure as Vice-Chancellor, he demonstrated his
scholarship in Sanskrit and Oriental Literature. He persuaded Mahavidwan R.
Raghava Iyengar, then Head of the Tamil Research
Department, to translate Kalidasan's epic poem Abhignana Sakuntalam in
Tamil. The poem was translated in the Sandam Metre and published in 1938. He delivered the Kamala lectures in Calcutta University
which are widely cherished and remembered.
Politics
Srinivasa Sastri established the Madras Teachers Guild
during his term as headmaster of Triplicane High School. He was one of the pioneers of the Co-operative movement and started India's first co-operative society, the
Triplicane Urban Co-operative Society (TUCS) in 1904.
Srinivasa Sastri met Indian
independence activist Gopal Krishna
Gokhale for the first time in 1906. He was drawn towards Gokhale's Servants
of India Society and joined the organization
becoming its President in 1915. He joined the Indian
National Congress in 1908 and became the Secretary of
the Madras District Congress Committee in 1911. As a member of the Congress, he was instrumental in
bringing about a pact between the Congress and the Muslim League.
Srinivasa Sastri was nominated to
the Madras
Legislative Council in 1913 and to the Imperial Legislative Council of India in 1916. He opposed the Rowlatt Act which empowered the Government of India to imprison anyone
without trial and delivered a well-appreciated speech in the Imperial
Legislative Council denouncing the bill. In 1919, he was appointed a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom.
In 1922, Sastri resigned his
membership of the Indian National Congress after disagreeing with its
leadership on the issue of non-cooperation and established the Indian Liberal
Party along with Tej Bahadur Sapru. He consequently served as a President of the Indian Liberal
Federation. In 1924, he accompanied Annie Besant on a visit to England demanding Home Rule
for India. He also participated in the first and second round table
conferences.
International
delegations
Srinivasa Sastri was a part of the
delegation of Indian moderates who visited England in 1919. He was also a part of the Indian delegation to the Imperial
Conference (1921) and the Second session of the League of Nations in 1921. As a member of the Viceregal council, Srinivasa Sastri was
also a part of the British delegation which participated in the Washington
Council of Limitation of Disarmament. During one of his speeches on "The Political Situation
in India", he was accused of being a British agent and attacked by a mob
and had to be hastily escorted away by mounted police.
In 1922, the Government of India
sent Sastri on delegations to Australia, New Zealand and Canada in order to
investigate the conditions of Indians living in those countries. Due to his efforts, the Government of Australia passed the
Commonwealth Electoral Act enlarging the franchise to include "natives of
British India".
In 1919, Srinivasa Sastri visited
the Republic of South Africa along with Sir Benjamin Robertson
as a part of the delegation which signed the Cape Town Agreement with the
Government of South Africa. As a result of this agreement, South Africa gave up its
Class Area Bill intended to segregate Indians in South Africa. Initially, Jan Smuts,
the Prime Minister of the Republic of South Africa, refused to treat Srinivasa
Sastri on par with the European delegate. However, on Srinivasa Sastri's departure from South Africa
as India's Agent in 1928, Smuts recognized Sastri as the "most
respected man in South Africa".
Srinivasa Sastri was sent to the Federated Malay States in 1937, to report on the conditions of the Indian
labourers in the country. The delegation submitted a controversial report titled Conditions
of Indian labour in Malaya which was published in Madras and Kuala Lumpur, the very same year. Srinivasa Sastri, being the author of the report, was
criticized by Indian nationalists for "his reluctance to comment at length
on the political and social status of Indians in Malaya".
Agent
to South Africa
On 27 May 1927, at the behest of Mahatma Gandhi, Lord Irwin, the Viceroy of India, appointed Srinivasa Sastri as India's first Agent
to the Republic
of South Africa. Srinivasa Sastri arrived in South
Africa in June 1927 and served as Agent till January 1929.
Soon after taking over, Srinivasa
Sastri successfully pressurized the South African government to withdraw
Section 5 of the Immigration and Indian Relief (Further Provision) Bill which
empowered South African immigration officers and boards to cancel registration
certificates. Through his efforts, the Natal Commission for Indian
Education was appointed on 17 November 1927. With Sastri's support and encouragement, dissidents of the
Transvaal British Indian Association (TBIA) founded the Transvaal Indian
Congress (TIC) on 18 December 1927. The TBIA later merged with the South African Indian
Congress. Section 104 of the Liquor Bill prohibiting Indians from entering
licensed premises was withdrawn. The Thornton Committee was established in 1928 to
investigate the sanitary conditions of Indians in and around Durban.
During the early part of Sastri's
tenure, a number of segregationary laws were passed targeting Indians and Indian immigrants in
South Africa. The period also witnessed the establishment of a number of
trade unions. Sastri campaigned against racial segregation of Indians and
got the Class Area Bill segregating Indians withdrawn.
Later
life and death
In 1930, Sastri was appointed a
member of the Royal Commission on Labour in India. During 1930–31, he participated in the Round Table
Conferences in London to discuss India's future and was instrumental in
bringing about the Gandhi-Irwin Pact. In 1935, Sastri was appointed Vice-Chancellor of Annamalai
University, in Tamil Nadu, and served from
1935 to 1940. At the peak of the Second World War, he participated in a 15-member Indian delegation which
appealed to the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill to provide dominion
status to India. He strongly opposed Muslim League demands for the partition
of India.
In June 1940, the Government of
Madras appointed a committee headed by Srinivasa Sastri to frame a set of
general principles for coining words for scientific and technical terms in
vernacular languages. The constitution of the committee was strongly condemned by
the Madras Presidency Tamil Sangam and its Secretary E. M. Subramania Pillai
who felt that Srinivasa Sastri was biased in favour of Sanskrit and hence,
Anti-Tamil. The committee submitted its report after three months
recommending the retention of the existing Sanskrit loanwords in Tamil and
rejecting the need for them to be replaced. The deliberations of the Sastri Committee provoked
widespread agitations in Madras Presidency. The committee was eventually
reshuffled by Provincial Education Minister T.
S. Avinashilingam Chettiar soon
after the demise of Srinivasa Sastri and balanced with the introduction of more
members supporting the replacement of Sanskrit loan words.
Srinivasa Sastri's health began to
deteriorate in early 1946. In January, Srinivasa Sastri was admitted to the General
Hospital, Madras. He eventually died on 17 April 1946 at the age of 76.
Silver-Tongued
Orator of the British Empire
Srinivasa Sastri was known for his
mastery over the English language and his oratory. As a student, he once corrected a few passages in J. C. Nesfield's
"English Grammar". Whenever he was on visit to the United Kingdom, Sastri was
often consulted over spellings and pronunciations. His mastery over the English language was recognized by King George V,
Winston Churchill, Lady Lytton and Lord Balfour who rated him amongst the five best English-language
orators of the century. The Master of Balliol, Arthur Lionel Smith swore that he
had never realized the beauty of the English language until he heard Sastri. while Lord Balfour remarked that listening to Srinivasa
Sastri made him realize the heights to which the English language could rise. Thomas Smart conferred upon Sastri the appellation
"Silver Tongued Orator of the British Empire" and he was so called all over the United Kingdom. Srinivasa Sastri's inspirations were William Shakespeare, Sir Walter Scott, George Eliot, John Stuart Mill, Thomas Harvey, Victor Hugo and Valmiki - Indian sage and the author of the Hindu
epic Ramayana.
Relation
with Mahatma Gandhi
"Your
criticism soothes me. Your silence makes me feel nervous."
During his tenure in the Servants of
India Society, Sastri developed a close attachment with Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi often addressed Srinivasa Sastri as his "elder
brother" in all their correspondences. However, despite their friendship, during his tenure as
President, Srinivasa Sastri opposed Gandhi's presence in the Servants of India
Society. When Gandhi sought Sastri's advice before launching his
non-cooperation movement, he counselled him against it. In his later years, Sastri sternly advised Mahatma Gandhi
against accepting the Muslim League demand for partition.
Srinivasa Sastri corrected mistakes
in the manuscript of The Story of My Experiments with Truth, the English translation of Gandhi's autobiography and also
successive issues of the magazine Harijan that was edited by Mahatma Gandhi.
On Sastri's death, Gandhi paid a
tribute to Sastri in a condolence message in the Harijan.
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