This blog is about my maternal grand father Shri Subramaniam
Acharya Akkivalli – better known as
Subbannacharya. Yesterday his cremation was held in Hangal, Haveri District in
Karnataka, his hometown. He was aged 99 years and 8 months. The number 99 years
gives a sense of being so near yet so far, a tinge of sadness and empathy for
not making some admirable milestone. While that damnation in the face of achievement
has been a shadow in his life, but it would be a pity if that defines him,
rather than triumph over insurmountable circumstances, through sheer will power
and righteousness, of not succumbing to adverse situations.
He died on 31st October 2015, as a
Freedom Fighter for India India
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| Articles about his death in Vijaya Karnataka, Vijayavani and Prajavaani newspapers |
A childhood marred by penury had taught him a lot about will
power. He was drawn to the independence movement and at the age of 12, when
there was a call by Mahatma Gandhi to boycott British administration &
education systems for one day as a protest against the British Raj, he answered
it and skipped school to attend a public function denouncing the British. When
the school master of the village, rounded up all the students next day, he was
reprimanded and suspended from school. This was a blow to his bright career, as
in those times education upto the Std 7th was a benchmark of Mulkhi
exams and considered enough to become a schoolmaster which he had dreamt of.
Left out of school, he continued his contribution to the
freedom movement in his own way creating awareness by singing paeans on roads, about
the golden age that would come once we are independent and supported the
activities of the Congress party by even defying curfews. He was a staunch
Gandhian and truth was uncompromising for him. He told about an incident during
a game of Pagade(Chaupar) when one of his elders asked him to lie- and he stopped playing the
game for life, his understanding, anything that made someone as respected as
that person to lie, is not good enough to pursue.
He was jailed during the Quit India Movement and booked for
sedition. That period was painful for the family, of his three
sons and wife he left behind. Abject poverty was the norm, but he being jailed only made
matters worse. The family suffered when his eldest son was left without
treatment for encephalitis as nobody would have any association with them
because of his participation in the freedom movement. The boy suffered a
permanent lower cognitive adaptive functioning which remained until his death.
My grand-dad said the happiest moment in his life was
when India
gained its independence. Indulgence in the freedom
movement had taken its toll on him, yet when Acharya Vinoba Bhave asked for
people to donate their lands to the cause of nation building in the Bhoodaan Movement, he responded by donating his piece of uncultivated land. He and his family worked hard and gathered some money. When the government announced
a subsidy for Freedom Fighters while purchasing land to build houses in his
village, he gathered Rs. 500/- and booked a plot. He had found a
job in a nearby village so left for it. Meanwhile, in independent India ,
nepotism had made its mark. A member of the local panchayat, in grandfathers absence
allotted his rightful land to one of their own relatives.
After this, began his second fight against the Brown
British Raj. In late 1950’s he filed a civil suit, to gain right over his allotted
plot. After innumerable counter suits, claims and counter claims in what was
just a clear, open and shut case of unlawful allotment and nepotism, the land
still isn’t yet declared as clear of dispute. Yes, after almost 60 years,
the suit is still undecided, of a Freedom Fighter, for his allotted piece
of land in the nation for which he sang paeans of ushering a golden era full of
truthfulness and justice.
He witnessed the smothering corruption first hand in courts
in all these years. More painful was that when he used to go to collect his
pension as a Freedom fighter, the corrupt officials at the local
administrations office wouldn’t give him his pension easily without a bribe and
his Gandhian principles wouldn’t allow him to give in to bribing of any sort.
He would sit since morning for hours together, at ripe old age of 80, for his
pension and they would budge only by late evening. Later in the last decade,
the medium for pensions became electronic and his harassment at the hands of
those officials stopped. But respect for him to not give in the face of
adversity only increased in the younger generations eyes.
Never to miss the national festivals of Republic Day and
Independence Day, he would go around looking for some schools to attend flag
hoisting even when visiting us, defying his age at 90 years, much to the admiration of the school staff and
children.
He was extremely religious, an avid reader - who didn’t use
specs even at age of 98 - and also has written several religious books on Shri
Raghavendra Swamy and Shri Yadnyavalka Rishi. A compulsive learner, he would
get his ‘doubts cleared’ from someone more knowledgeable, over a new book he
had read, even when he was a nonagenarian.
On his death bed, at 99 years, he might have had thoughts of not
getting the land he fought for all his life, he might be disgusted for not
getting the ‘Golden Bharat’ that he had dreamt of, he might not have had made
it to the magical figure of 100 years. Yet that can’t define his life, because
he has achieved more than many could think is imaginable in one lifespan.
He had earned respect in all spheres of activities he had
indulged in, with age taking a toll on his body, ushering the problems
associated with age on the mind, but it still could not affect his indomitable
spirit as a few days before his death, he announced, 'I'm destined to live 10 more years'.
One can only feel bad for the unnecessary suffering he and his family had to go through and such people around the country are going through daily. Lets be clear, the criminal delinquency on the part of the system that can't decide conclusively on a matter in 60 years, is unforgivable and the 60 years of litigation, doesn't define him, it defines us. May his soul attain peace.
One can only feel bad for the unnecessary suffering he and his family had to go through and such people around the country are going through daily. Lets be clear, the criminal delinquency on the part of the system that can't decide conclusively on a matter in 60 years, is unforgivable and the 60 years of litigation, doesn't define him, it defines us. May his soul attain peace.
