Remembering K. Santanam
A slice of history
By Madhuri Santanam Sondhi

PANDIT K. Santanam (1885-1949) was a product of that great social and political awakening which goes by the name of the Indian Renaissance of the 19th century. Although strictly speaking, the world ‘renaissance’ is generally used for the cultural and intellectual ferment in Bengal, it had echoes and parallelisms all over India. Swami Vivekananda, one of the architects of the Indian nation, had a devoted group of followers in the South who organised his visit to America for the historic Parliament of Religions, and he returned home via Ceylon and Madras. Kumbakonam was one of the places he visited in the course of his wanderings in the Deccan. And Kumbakonam, famous for a temple-cum-educational centre, was the birthplace of Pt. K. Santanam. Although he would have been a young adolescent at the time, the visit of the ‘cyclonic monk’ would have created ripples in that quiet town, evoking images of resurgence in Hinduism and a dream of a united nation.

This Tamilian with an inclusive vision of Indian society and culture came to the North in 1911 to make Lahore his home.

Dynamism

Movement, it has been said, is a precondition for freedom. Santanam was orphaned in early childhood, and brought up by his elder brother. He was a bright and naughty child whose over-large ears provided his class teacher with handles to lift him onto the punishment bench when school discipline was crossed beyond the bounds of patience. After the first phase of schooling and college at Kumbakonam, Santanam made his first move to Madras in the beginning of the 20th century, where he joined at Presidency College. There, apart from becoming the college gold medalist in economics, he participated enthusiastically in sports.

In 1906, Santanam went to England, where he took admission in King’s College, Cambridge. His elder brother continued to sponsor his studies. Santanam used his time to prepare for the ICS exam, but he did not succeed. Turning down the colonial post offered in the Audit Department, he turned to law, and in 1910 was called to the Bar from the Inner Temple. It was during his stay in London that he came in touch with Lala Lajpat Rai — a meeting that was to prove momentous in years to come.

Social imagination

On his return to Madras, Santanam was no longer a conventional (obedient he had never been) Iyengar youth. He had been perhaps the first of the Iyengars to cross the kala pani and the community demanded shuddhi as expiation. He refused, defying community censure. Not only could no respectable Iyengar girl marry him, but his caste brothers also sabotaged his efforts at finding work in the courts. Unfazed, Santanam lent his sympathies to the fledgling non-Brahmin movement fighting for ‘self-respect’ and incurred further ire of the conservatives. They never forgave him during his lifetime, and after he died his brother’s family priest refused to perform the last pujas!

Although Santanam withstood the barrage of social disapproval, it became difficult for him to function in Madras, and it was at this juncture that Lala Lajpat Rai suggested he come and work in Punjab. Ever ready to sample fresh pastures, Santanam and a friend, with not much in their pockets, set out on the long rail journey to Lahore. It was a turning point in his career and he never looked back. Having abandoned all caste-taboos, Santanam was able to mix freely with members of all communities in Punjab which were emancipating themselves from the caste-system. They were Arya Samajists, Sikhs, Muslims and Christians. In such an open atmosphere, Santanam made himself at home, and was able to give full expression to his ideals and personality. He started his practice at the Lahore Bar in 1911 and found a bride, Krishna, daughter of an Arya Samaj leader, Pt. Atmaram Vedi of Delhi, in 1916. His mother-in-law ran a school for girls, imparting Sanskrit education.

Nationalism

Alongside his flourishing legal practice, Santanam’s avocations became more and more demanding. These came to a head with the traumatic events of Jallianwala Bagh and martial law in Punjab. As defence counsel in the case of Lala Harkishen Lal and others, he decided to break the police cordon which had been thrown around Punjab, and visit Simla to try and get a more impartial Bench. He smuggled himself out under the berth of a railway compartment occupied by an Englishman, and made his way to the summer capital of the Raj where his request was predictably refused. However, he utilised the opportunity to inform Sir Sankaran Nair, member of the Viceroy’s Council, of the atrocities being committed under guise of martial law, and thus news of the black happenings in Punjab leaked out to the nation. For his pains, Santanam came under strict police surveillance on his return to Lahore.

Later when the Congress appointed a commission of inquiry into the Punjab atrocities consisting of Moti Lal Nehru, Fazlul Haq, C.R. Das, Abbas Tyabji, M.R. Jayakar and M.K. Gandhi, Santanam was designated its secretary, and charged with the responsibility of preparing and publishing their findings. He managed it in under a year. The report is a model of meticulous documentation (1700 witnesses were examined from different affected areas and their evidence recorded), and its historic publication chronicled what was later termed by Gandhi to be the "last nail in the coffin of the British Empire."

In 1920, Santanam resigned his legal practice during Mahatma Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation Movement, and lectured at the college set up by Lajpat Rai. The next 10 years of his life were politically the most active. He was general secretary of the Punjab Provincial Congress Committee (1921-22) and president of the Batala, PCC, in April 1922. At this time he was but 37 years of age. He also served as Municipal Commissioner for Lahore from 1921 to 23, and thus his identification with Punjab became complete. Rajaji (himself an Iyengar) recalled with amusement in later years that whenever Santanam rose to make a point in Congress meetings, they would all wait with baited breath for his signature preface to any comment — ‘In Punjab....’ In 1926 he was appointed one of the general secretaries of the AICC along with Dr Ansari and A. Ramaswami Iyengar.

Santanam was jailed three times for offences which included participation in the Non-Cooperation Movement and satyagrahas.

Communal harmony

Given his temperament it was only natural that Santanam would be an advocate of communal amity, and the Congress was able to make use of his services when negotiating with the Muslim and the Sikhs. For the latter, he had even suggested to Gandhi that a coloured stripe be kept for them in the National Flag — a suggestion which Jawaharlal turned down.

Santanam spread the message of Hindu-Muslim cooperation and harmony and protested against the British policies of communal representation as in 1923. After the outbreak of communal riots in Multan, he along with Gandhi, Moti Lal Nehru, Maulana Azad, Dr Satyapal Sarojini Naidu and Saiffudin Kitchlew strove tirelessly to restore communal peace. And again in 1927, after the murder of some Muslims in Lahore, he and Sardul Singh Caveeshar personally met Muslim leaders to cool passions and avoid further violence. Great was his disappointment when the Muslim League gained popularity, leading to the terrible Partition riots and division of the country in 1947.

Business integrity

After resigning his legal practice, and the cooling off the Non-Cooperation Movement, Santanam was faced with the personal dilemma of what to do with himself. Lalaji, the champion of Indian commerce, suggested business, and thus was born the Lakshmi Insurance Company in 1924, with an illustrious Board of Directors that included Lalaji, Moti Lal Nehru, Raizada Bhagat Ram Sondhi and others. K. Santanam was its Managing Director. Santanam was 39 when he embarked on his third major vocation, law and politics being the first two. He remained in charge of the company’s affairs till shortly before his death, and under his direction it developed into a highly successful commercial enterprise, with branches all over India and even in East Africa. Within a short span of time it had climbed into being one of the most important life insurance enterprises in the land. Santanam himself was asked to serve on the Insurance Advisory Committee of the Central Government from 1944 to 1948.

Humanism

Santanam was a highly popular figure in Punjab, thanks to his personal compassion, magnanimity and his irrepressible sense of humour. The uncertainties of his own childhood and youth made strugglers and the downtrodden empathise with him. He equally divided his salary between domestic needs and public work and people knew they could approach him and get a sympathetic hearing. Gandhi himself would refer to him persons in need of money for political activities.

Santanam had ingested the norms of British justice and turned the searchlight on his mentors in India, never failing to point out their injustices and the inhuman conditions that prevailed in their prisons. The two years that he lived after Independence, surrounded by displaced and grieving Punjabi families, drove him to refugee rehabilitation work, and he became member of the Advisory Committee to the Ministry of Relief and Rehabilitation in 1948.