Dr. PATTABHI SITARAMAYYA

KHASA SUBBA RAU

Born in any other province, Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya would long ago have become President of the Congress, but he has paid the penalty for being an Andhra by just missing the front rank of leadership, though it is years since he has outgrown that stature of a merely provincial leader. Environment plays in India a large part in deciding the fortunes of public men. A little greatness will go a long way in some places where public opinion acts as a wind from behind to push deserving aspirants along the path to fame and influence, while in others every inch of progress has to be fought through against the adverse forces set in motion by unsympathetic, coldly critical, and hence deprecatory neighbourhoods. Mediocrities hailing from some parts of the country have, in the politics of our time, a pull over even men of real genius belonging to some other parts, because of the difference in propelling impetus between their respective environments. In Bengal, internal strife has become almost chronic, but all criticism of local leaders is dissolved in a powerful sentiment of provincialised patriotism when it is a question of a reckoning with outside rivals, Subhas Bose may have his detractors, but he has almost a whole province behind him in tackling any enemy emanating from beyond its sacred precincts. The Maharashtrians possess the same racial pride as Bengalis, but they are blessed in addition with a capacity for sustained team work, and the disfigurations of internal dissension are happily absent in them. But the Andhras are a curious people. They choose their idols from a distance. At home an excess of hyper-critical faculty levels down all distinction, and hero-worship is at a discount. One has often to flee the place of one’s own birth and win laurels abroad to obtain recognition from one’s fellow-townsmen, and the principle finds extended applications over larger areas than towns till the entire province is covered. An essential ingredient in the touching affection which Andhras are wont to display to their renowned great like Sri C. Y. Chintamani and Sri S. Radhakrishnan is

Provided by the fact that early in their lives they exiled themselves to a distant territory.

Dr. Pattabhi has stuck to his native town of Masulipatam which he has never left career-hunting, yet he has compelled the Andhra temperament, contrary to tradition, to achieve a marvel by bestowing appreciation on, comparatively speaking, a stay-at-home politician. This, in itself, is a feat and it has been rendered possible to Dr. Pattabhi only through the carrying power of his extraordinary versatility. But unlike most versatile geniuses his life has been a planned one. A successful doctor who might have risen to any height of affluence, he renounced medical practice after the rapid acquisition of an adequate competence to maintain him in comfort for the rest of life. Since then he has made occasional excursions into lucrative business of all kinds, but money-making has been to him, not the main pre-occupation, but a side-activity to be indulged in, lightly and with nonchalance, for the absorption of a small fraction of surplus energy. These excursions have enabled him to acquire a high reputation for business talent, and had he utilised it to the full, he might have easily revolutionised the commerce and industry of Andhra Desa and ended his days as one of the country’s foremost financial magnates. But he was content to give the best years of his life to honorary service in public causes, and the impress of his ability is stamped on whatever he took a hand in, notably co-operation. The just reputation for superfine quality that Andhra Khadi now enjoys is largely due to consummate resuscitations of decadent and decaying craftsmanship effected under his direction. Capacity for organisation seems to have come intuitively to him without having to draw any lessons from acquired training or technique and not one of any of the undertakings sponsored or guided by him has so far failed.

Dr. Pattabhi possesses a perfect equipment for shining in public life. He is an indefatigable and voluminous writer and his ruminations on contemporary themes are rarely compressed within the dimensions of a single article. They run into series with astonishing celerity. His eloquence in speech is torrential. In conversation he has a rapier-like wit. In committees, he is alert, vigilant, keenly critical and never at a loss for the telling retort. These are the external graces of a mind functioning with perfect skill in the exploitation of all latent means for the offensive and defensive transactions of the work-a-day world. Some persons have unfathomable profundities of learning which they are unable to bring up to the surface in any communicable form capable of impressing others. Some others make a resounding progress through life carrying a vast emptiness within. The economy of Dr. Pattabhi’s personality is run on the principle of cent per cent utilisation for every available asset, and no wastage. There are no frozen credits in the man, and he maintains his account with one and all in a state of ideal liquidity with no unused reserve. Like Germany under Hitler, all his resources–mental, moral and of every other variety – are kept in a state of mobilized readiness for action, and armed cap-a-pie, he confronts all comers with the glint of battle in the eye and a true warrior’s love of tournamental display. He may have but a few acquired words of Hindi or Urdu in his repertory; undaunted, he will make up for lack of weightage by dexterity in permutations and combinations, and what is more, blithely cross swords with professors and pandits of acknowledged renown.

Dr. Pattabhi loves debate and argument, and controversy is as the breath of the nostrils to him. He has a controversialist’s biting tongue, but he has, too, what few suspect, a gentle heart at bottom. Few that appeal to him for any kind of help are ever turned away, after steam is initially let off in an outburst of patronising chiding, and much of his time is taken up with plans and ministrations for extricating improvident people out of tight corners. The external facade of his nature is critical, but it is warmed inside by true kindliness and helpfulness, and he is a restless schemer of schemes for conferring economic benefit of one kind or other on indigent political workers ruined by high mettle and love of country. A capacity for easy fraternization with all and sundry rarely goes with deep affection, but this rarity has been achieved by Dr. Pattabhi. He is at home in all companies, yet he is capable of canalised intensity of selectively bestowed affection. His well-known friendship for the gifted editor of the Krishna Patrika is one of the pleasing classics of our time. Two more dissimilar natures can hardly be thought of for fulfilling the conditions of a life-long companionship. Sri Krishna Rao is a Yogi in bearing and shrewd in the practical transactions of life. Nectar flows from his tongue, and with morsels of honeyed words expounding the finest art and culture and the highest truths of philosophy, he can keep those with whom he deigns to cast off reserve, enthralled for hours at a time. Dr. Pattabhi too can hold and sustain the interest of listeners with fascinating talk, but there are more pinpricks in it than sweetness. He is less punctilious in the choice of company; less reserved socially and the impression he makes is one of quite unphilosophical acquisitiveness. But a certain measure of unavowed philosophy lived in practice is revealed in his dealings with others, and latterly there is evidence of considerable mellowing, dissolving initial roughnesses of his once rather arrogant disposition. The two friends complement each other and make a perfect and delightful combination.

Dr. Pattabhi has in him the makings of an excellent administrator, but for political leadership in times of stress and trouble his fitness seems to be subject to limitations of temperament hard to throw away. What is hard is not however impossible and the extent of his success in the effort will mark Dr. Pattabhi’s progress in the top rank of national leadership. In times like the present, a certain quality of dare-devilry, such as might strike prudent as outrageous, is needed to force the pace of forward effort in the midst of all the reaction encompassing it, but Dr. Pattabhi seems to be a little nervous of himself when it comes to revolutionary departures from the inherited traditions of national effort. If he succeeds in rising above this disability, he can soar very high, for he is brilliant all round with a combination of aptitudes rare among public men.

–From Men in the Limelight, published in 1941

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