Viswanatha Das: rousing the masses through songs

Amid strict restrictions imposed by the British, performing arts played a key role in spreading patriotism among the people

On December 31, 1940, the now defunct Royal Theatre near Salt Cotaurs in Chennai, had a huge gathering to witness the Valli Thirumanam drama. The audience, however, did not expect the drama to end as quickly as it did and in a tragic manner.

The lead actor playing the role of Lord Murugan collapsed soon after he began singing the first song of the play and died. He was 54-year-old S.S. Viswanatha Das, freedom fighter and popular theatre artist, who instilled patriotism among the masses through his stage performances over the previous two decades.

Modern Tamil theatre, which took shape in the late 19 th century, played an important role in the Independence Movement. Though popular theatre remained apolitical in its early phase with itinerant drama companies largely content with staging mythological stories, the wave of nationalism that spread through the country in 1919-1920 against the backdrop of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, the Rowlatt Act and the Non-Cooperation Movement changed that.

Theatre became an important vehicle to awaken the masses despite the stringent restrictions imposed by the British against performing content which was nationalistic in nature. It was done mainly through songs, the most important element of dramas then.

Almost all the popular artists of that era sang such songs, which were either composed by them or others, with veiled and at times explicit criticism of the British rule. S. Theodore Baskaran, in his book The Message Bearers - The Nationalistic Politics and the Entertainment Media in South India 1880-1945 says the most active among those artists was Das.

Born in Sivakasi on July 16, 1886, Das developed a keen interest in the performing arts from a young age, says N. Kadikachalam, in his essay on Das for the book Tamil Medai Nadaga Varalaru, brought out by the International Institute of Tamil Studies. The author says Das took an active involvement in the Freedom Movement after he was made to sing during one of Mahatma Gandhi’s visits to the Madurai region.

Mr. Baskaran points out how sly references to contemporary politics would be made even in mythological dramas. “For instance, Valli (in Valli Thirumanam) would drive away the flocks of birds that came to feed off the corn, singing: ‘From somewhere, you have come here to exploit India’,” he notes.