Prof. VENKATARANGAIYA–A PROFILE

Prof. V. VENKATA RAO

Professor Emeritus, Gauhati University

On a midsummer day in July 1928 at 10 a. m., a tribune, tall, slim, fair-complexioned, clad in spotless white long coat and dhoti, with a turban on his head, and Angavastram round his neck, entered, for the first time, the first year Intermediate Arts class. He was Professor M. Venkatarangaiya who succeeded Rayasam Venkatasividu. After making a few introductory remarks, he delivered his first lecture on Indian history. The delivery was like the flow of mother Ganges, rapid, steady and even. There was pin drop silence in the class consisting of one hundred boys and girls. After the class was over, all the students were happy that they got a good teacher. I was his student for five years, two years in the Intermediate and three years in Honours. All these five years myself and my friends continued to have the same opinion that Venkatarangaiya was a good teacher.

As Principal of the V. R. College, Nellore, Venkatarangaiya maintained strict discipline and approached all problems of the students and teachers with sympathy and understanding. In order to render financial assistance to the poor and needy he started a Poor Boys’ Fund to which donations from charitable persons and fines collected from defaulters were credited, and distributed to those whose poverty was genuine. I was one of those who was benefitted by this fund. My examination fee was paid from out of this fund.

As Principal, Venkatarangaiya commanded respect and veneration from one and all. He would not tolerate indiscipline. He went round to see whether all the teachers were taking classes and students attending them. Once we went on strike for no valid reason but just for the fun of it. He levied a fine of eight annas on those who abstained from the class. Everyone paid, but I could not. I went to the Principal and informed him that I would not be able to pay and that I should be exempted from it. I was depending on weekly system for food. I resided in a Dharmasala. My college fee was paid by generous persons a legion. Venkatarangaiya understood my position. How to get over the situation? Should he exempt me from the payment of fine he would be accused of favouritism by my class-fellows. So he picked up eight annas from his pocket and asked me to pay the fine.

Venkatarangaiya was very much concerned with the results of the university examinations. To produce better results, he held selection examinations. Unless a student obtained the required number of marks, he was not sent up for the university examination. Very often he detained several. There were protests. But Venkatarangaiya insisted that the students must obtain the required number of marks in the selection examination, 30 per cent in the aggregate.

Venkatarangaiya was a nationalist. He was not a loyalist. In March 1930, I completed my intermediate examination. I was nineteen. The Mahatma started the Civil Disobedience movement and Salt Satyagraha. I and some of my friends joined the movement as volunteers. I was assigned the role of a messenger boy. I had to carry secret messages during nights by bicycle to long distances. Venkatarangaiya did not object to my participation in the movement. On the other hand he financed the movement. Every month he paid me certain amount to be credited to the Congress fund. Vennelaganti Raghavaiah was in charge of the fund and I paid the amount to him. Further, he demonstrated his nationalism by putting on Khaddar. Mrs. Venkatarangaiya purchased a Charka. One day I was arrested for distributing contraband salt and sent to lock up pending trial. My father did not like my participation in the movement. When I was in the lock up for trial, my parents visited me and demanded that I should render an unconditional apology to the Government and get out of the lock up. I did not accede to their demand. My father said that he would submit an apology on my behalf and thereby secure my release. I threatened to commit suicide should he submit an apology on my behalf. My mother wept and told me, “Do not commit suicide. Go to jail.” My father did not like my mother’s attitude towards me. He angrily retorted, “I have nothing to do with both of you” and left. Husband and wife, father and son separated never to meet again. My father was a member of the Justice Party. He was a great admirer of the Raja of Panagal, the first Chief Minister of Madras Presidency.

After my release from the Alipore Camp Jail, Bellary, I found myself in the gutter. There was no home, no food, no shelter. My studies were interrupted for one year because of my participation in the movement. Just at this time, I found a God-father-Venkatarangaiya. He was appointed Reader in Political Science, Andhra University. One day I met him on the road when he was going out for evening walk. He asked me about my studies and then said that since I got good marks in the University Examination I should seek admission in the Honours Class, Andhra University, Waltair. He offered to take me to Waltair at his expense. I accompanied the Venkatarangaiyas’ and stayed with them for three years. Venkatarangaiya was a Brahmin. I am a non-Brahmin. Both the communities were at loggerheads and yet he kept me in his house, fed me, clothed me and gave me instruction in political science. This shows his generosity and catholicity of outlook. It may be remembered that he had already ten children by that time. Eight of them were going to school. His monthly salary was Rs. 400. Once I remarked rather seriously to Mrs. Venkatarangaiya that I was an unnecessary burden to them. She remarked that “In a house where fourteen mouths had to be fed every day, one more was no problem. The amount of rice that my children throwaway is more than what I give you.” During my stay with the Venkatarangaiyas’, I enjoyed complete freedom. They never interfered with my idiosyncrasies.

Venkatarangaiya was a man of courage. He knew my political activities. He also knew that I was continuously shadowed by the police after my release from prison. The C.I.D visited him frequently and asked him about my whereabouts. Once the police inspector, Munilal, suspected Venkatarangaiya and went to the extent of saying that he was harbouring a criminal (myself). Yet he was not perturbed.

The Venkatarangaiyas’ was a happy family. As a husband he was devoted to his wife. The relations between the two were extremely cordial throughout their seventy-five years of married life. They observed the Pythagorean Mean. There was no domination of one over the other. During my four years stay I did not witness a civil war in the house; thereby they set an example to their children how they should behave after their marriage. In some families, husband and wife fight with one another like the porcupines in a barn on a bitter winter midnight. In the last years of his earthly existence, he was very much worried about his wife. He wrote to me on several occasions. “My health is not good. I am bedridden. I have no desire to live. But my wife will be lonely. She is younger to me by five years.” The mental condition of Mrs. Venkatarangaiya must be miserable after his demise.

As a father, Venkatarangaiya was deeply attached to his children. He took immense care to bring them up. He gave them rich education. He looked after them from dawn to dusk. He was the first person to get up from bed. He prepared coffee for all of us. Many a parent does not do this. The result of his affectionate care of all his children is that all of them are in affluent positions, making their contribution for the promotion of the prosperity of the country. A nation’s greatness depends on the quality of the children that it has. A small country like Britain with forty millions was able to acquire the biggest and the most prosperous empire of 600 million. My country will be much more beautiful to live if most of the parents take care of their children. Alas, several do not realise their responsibilities.

Venkatarangaiya believed in the maxim Yadha raja thadha praja – as the king so the people. So he did not set a bad example to his children. He did not cultivate bad habits, such as drinking, smoking, chewing and snuffing. As a consequence none of his children acquired any bad habit. At present several professors in the universities consider it a sign of progress to drink.

As a teacher, Venkatarangaiya was a remarkable success. He always went to the class with adequate preparation. He taught several subjects. He had a wonderful brain which like a drilling machine pierced through the mass of material and touched the under-currents. His lectures were always characterised by penetrating analysis, logical arrangement and lucidity of expression. No man I have known was more dedicated in enthusiastic commitment to the vocation of teaching than Venkatarangaiya. I came across many a brilliant scholar who made monumental contribution to the advancement of learning, but as teachers they were not as successful as Venkatarangaiya was.

As a research worker, however, his contribution was not considerable. His first- publication was Kautilya’s Arthasastra in Telugu which was revised and published after his retirement. His next publication was “The Beginnings of Local Taxation in the Madras Presidency.” It was a small publication with an introduction by Dr. Cattamanchi Ramalinga Reddi. It was a pioneer work and motivated several of us to interest ourselves in research on local government. But it itself is not a significant contribution. His next work was “Federalism in Government.” It contains an interesting account of the federal constitutions. Circumstances were not favourable for him to become an explorer in the intellectual hinterland. The business of money-making to maintain a big family, with no patrimony to fall back upon in winters, lack of library facilities and heavy teaching and administrative work were, I think, some of the factors that hampered his research work. Further, during the British period emphasis was on sound teaching and not on sound research. Further, there was no U.G.C. to finance research programmes. Yet he involved himself in research work and after he settled down in Secunderabad he did significant work on our freedom movement.

Another significant feature of Venkatarangaiya’s life was that he did not identify himself with any particular group. He abhorred groupism among teachers. He did not set up students against teachers. Today we find a different situation. The academic community is split into several groups, based on communalism, casteism, and regionalism.

Venkatarangaiya observed traditional proprieties towards the fair sex which is absent today in several places. Several teachers are accused of indecent behaviour towards girl students.

Though a traditionalist and venerated the trunk of tradition, he adjusted himself to the changing circumstances. He believed in social change but he was a gradualist. He was a devout Hindu but not a bigot. He practised tolerance. This is in accordance with the Indian tradition. The Buddha, looking eternally young, clad in yellow robes, seated on a lotus of purity, raised his two forefingers and chastised humanity for not developing prema and karuna. His great disciple, Asoka, when he found his empire inhabited by people professing different religions, speaking different languages, belonging to different races said that concord is necessary. Venkatarangaiya remembered this. He believed in the equality of man. There is no high and low, no Greek and babarian. Therefore, when his own grand-daughter fell in love with a boy who was not a Brahmin, left the house to marry him against the wishes of her parents, Venkatarangaiya did not take exception to this. On the other hand he wrote to her asking her to come back home with her husband and received them with open arms.

Thus Venkatarangaiya was a man of thorough scholarship and highest ideals; a citizen, loyal to his God and loving to his fellowmen; a great teacher, and most sympathetic towards his students; a friend, loved and esteemed in every walk of life.

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