Handcuffed, the scrawny teenager climbed the wooden staircase of the district magistrate's office. He was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for picketing the district court complex in support of the Quit India Movement. Years later, he was to climb the same staircase, this time not as an accused but to assume charge as the district collector.
“I was on cloud nine. I had tears in my eyes. Nothing more, nothing less,” recalls octogenarian K. Lakshmi Kanthan Bharathi. Hailing from a family actively involved in the Indian freedom struggle, it was difficult to keep him away from the action. “As a child my friends and I used to carry the Congress flag to our school and on the way shout, ‘Union Jack down, down! Congress flag up, up!' In those days even a commoner was ready to sacrifice his life for the cause of the nation. We were inspired and motivated by such people,” he remembers.
His father L. Krishnaswami Bharathi, an advocate by profession, joined the freedom movement and had been to jail several times. His father went on to become a member of the Constituent Assembly of India and was elected to the Legislative Assembly from Madurai and Melur. He was also a Member of Parliament. His mother Lakshmi Bharathi participated in several protests including the non-cooperation movement and went to jail. She was also a member of Legislative Assembly.
“I was barely five years old when police came to my house to detain my father. I have seen party leaders visiting our house. Once I visited my father when he was lodged in Vellore prison. I cried inconsolably as I could not bear the separation. Only on returning home we realised we were left on our own. Our landlord was magnanimous: he did not take rent from us during that period. My father was released after the Gandhi-Irwin pact was signed,” he narrates.
The period between 1932 and 37 was politically very active time when leaders including Vaidyanatha Iyer, N.M.R. Subburaman, Mattapparai Venkataraman regularly visited their house. “In those days, whole city was decked up with the Congress flag. Police patrols dismantling the flag posts and flags became a routine affair. One day a flag was hoisted over the Meenakshi Amman Temple North Tower and emotions ran high among the public. It took more than four to five hours for the police force to remove it. That incident became big news,” he says.
As a member of the All India Students' Federation he became the sympathiser of communists as he thought they were more revolutionary and supported armed struggle. In those days, communist party was not recognised. “I was not against Congress but wanted to be more aggressive. I also obtained the communist party membership card. The feel was great.”
Young Laskhmikanthan Bharathi also took part in several protests on behalf of AISF. He also had the opportunity to see Kamaraj, Kakkan and Rajaji in close proximity. When Russia aligned with England to fight against the Germans during the Second World War citing “Nazism and Fascism are much more dangerous than imperialism” and calling the “present war as people's war”, the move irked him. “We students came out and started National Students' Organisation and passed resolutions in support of national freedom. We never wanted to beg the British to release our men but wanted to rescue them,” he says.
He was the student of the American College at that time. “We boycotted the college and picketed the District Court complex. I was arrested and remanded to 15-days custody in a quarantine block. After that I was sentenced to six months imprisonment and sent to Alippuram Jail in Andhra Pradesh where I saw familiar faces from Madurai. I had a great time there.”
On return, he had a shock of his life when Madras University debarred and expelled him from the college. It was Rajaji who came to his rescue. He wrote a letter to A. Lakshmanasamy Mudaliar, the then Vice-Chancellor of the university to admit him.
“I still remember the words of the great leader in that letter,” he says. “He could have just said ‘please admit him,' but he wrote ‘I think it is most unfair on the part of university to ruin the career of a young man, who has not committed any offence involving moral turpitude.' Whatever the position I hold today, I owe it to Rajaji,” he feels overwhelmed.
He turned a Gandhian after he attended a meeting of Gandhi. “The power of that man was such that it was total surrender for me. I was so impressed by his ideals that I became his follower,” he says.
He worked hard on his studies from then on and went on to clear the civil services examinations after Independence. As the district collector, he introduced the mass contact programme in villages, which was organised on the fifth of every month. He instructed officials to take action within 30 days of submission of a petition.
He also served as secretary to government in the departments of Forests, health and family welfare, nutrition meals. He has held different positions in Government. Still he prefers to be called as the president of the Tirunelveli Freedom Fighters' Association. He is the vice-chairman of the Gandhi Memorial Museum, Madurai. Laskhmikanthan Bharathi is also the president of the Gandhi Ashram, which is 10 km from Pallipalayam in Tiruchengode.
“I feel honoured to serve the ashram founded by Rajaji in 1925,” he says. As the general secretary of Gandhi Makkal Iyakkam, his aim is to motivate people to follow the ideals of the Mahatma and have them incorporated in government policy.
“For those who ask what the country has done to them, I can proudly say that the country has given a lot to me. And it is my duty to serve the nation till my last breath,” he says.
