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Dr. PATTABHI SITARAMAYYA

Sometime in the early stages of his leadership of the Congress, at a meeting of the A.I.C.C., having with generous indulgence allowed a few sour critics to attack his policy and programme, the Mahatma was reported to have gently turned to 鈥淎ndhra鈥檚 learned doctor鈥� and said: 鈥淣ow Pattabhi, open fire.鈥� Up sprang to his feet the man from Masulipatam, and with characteristic agility and verve, poured forth the lava of his burning eloquence on the scoffers and the sceptics.

Opening fire has been Dr. Pattabhi鈥檚 pastime for over thirty years, irrespective of consequences, for, if sometimes he flayed their opponents alive and left them with the wounds rankling in their bosoms, on at least a few occasions he scorched his own wings in the process. He has no regrets on either score. He is not the man to shed a tear over sundered ties or lost opportunities. He suffers from no excessive regard for others鈥� susceptibilities, if only he is convinced of any deviations from the code on their part. And herein lies his strength or weakness, just as one likes to call it, but it is the key to his character.

Worshipping at no shrine, playing to no gallery, and hitching his wagon to no one鈥檚 star, Dr. Pattabhi walks his way, not too warily but certainly with his head erect, and takes things as they happen. At no time in his long career has he stretched his hand for a favour or compromised his position for preference. He is extremely self-willed, and least inclined to make things easier for himself by exercising the gift of adaptability. What counts with him is conviction, not convenience. He relies on himself and on no adventitious aids. Neither does success elate him, nor does defeat depress him.

If ever there is a self-willed man in our public life, it is indubitably Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya. Here is a man who was partially, orphaned at the age of two or three, who belonged to a family of five survivors that had to subsist on less than ten rupees a month for a period of 13 years, who had no means to buy his text-books, who had to get on for seven years with a single shirt, and who had, in order to be able to finish his education, wrung a scholarship out of every competitive examination and even got round the Christian missionaries, in charge of schools, by mastering the Bible and 聽the Scriptures. As if this early and prolonged battle against poverty was not enough of an endurance test, Destiny drew him to a place which offered no scope for salvation in life. Three feet below the sea-level and full of barren wastes, even escape from it to the next important town at a distance of but 50 miles, meant about a three-hour journey, suggestive of eternity! But it immensely suited the man whose ambition was not to be too ambitious.

It was not Dr. Pattabhi鈥檚 fault if for long he could not hide his light under a bushel on the south-east coast. Having, as a young man, come under the ennobling influence of the Brahmo reformers and the Cbristian fathers, he responded quickly to the call of the new prophets in India. Inspired by the message of Swaraj and the cult of Swadeshi as early as in 1906, he entered public life and gave it a new orientation in Andhra. A practical idealist in whom missionary fervour is allied to business acumen, be sowed the seeds of a larger growth. His activities and achievements are a legion. In 1910, he pioneered the cause of National Education and promoted the advent of the Andhra Jateeya Kalasala鈥揻or long a model of its kind; in 1911 he wrote his book Indian Nationalism, which was an excellent exposition of the new faith; in 1913 he singled himself out as the ablest exponent of redistribution of provinces on linguistic basis; in 1917 he carved out for Andhra a distinct place in the Congress; and in between, in 1916, he renounced his lucrative medical practice and became a whole-time public worker. In 1919 he launched his English weekly, Janmabhumi(which he ran single-handed till, the middle of 1930 when the jail claimed him as its own) and enlivened Indian journalism with his lively pen and brilliant comment. In 1922 and 1923, he gave Andhra its first bank and its first insurance company respectively. It is a tribute to his political foresight that, before the advent of Gandhiji, he anticipated and carried out, except for the Charkha, every item of the elaborate constructive programme of the Congress.

By temperament, Dr. Pattabhi is an iconoclast. He is fond of breaking the idols of the market place and picking holes in others鈥� armoury. Between the Amritsar Congress in 1919 and the Calcutta Special Congress in 1920, he was rather critical of the Mahatma, but three months later at the annual session in Nagpur, he became a whole-hogger. Since then he had been, so to say, the last ditcher under the Mahatma鈥檚 flag. Even when the Congress in 1936 blessed council-entry and in 1937, plumped for office, he had not ceased to be a no-changer, much to the annoyance of some of his senior colleagues. He was unrepentant. He declined Sri Rajagopalachari鈥檚 pressing invitation to join the Treasury Benches in Madras. Neither the attainment of complete independence nor the formation of the National Government has made any difference to him. He is not only a non-official but one too, with something of the opposition mentality, in the sense that he is more keen on holding the mirror to the Government than handing to it a series of bouquets, out of a mistaken sense of loyalty.

His critical acumen has its constructive side. Of his intellectual animation and powerful memory there is abundant evidence in the councils of the Congress. Fluent in speech, adroit in debate and ready in repartee, it is as a committee man that he excels. He is a moving secretariat鈥揳nd can do everything from keeping minutes to checking accounts, or from drafting memoranda to handling men. He is interested in ever so many subjects and knows so much about everything that he can hold your interest for hours. From the mechanism of a motor-car to the organism of the human body, or from the intricacies of currency to the clauses in the Constitution, his mind can easily turn and discerningly dwell on. Whether it is on the philosophy of spinning or on the poetry of Swadeshi, he can speak or write with equal facility and vigour. His most distinguishing quality, in the physical sense or intellectual, isfastness. From walking totalking, or from plying the charkha to writing a book, he is exasperatingly fast鈥揳nd whatever be does is suggestive of volume and momentum.

In the inner circles of the Congress he has been for over a quarter of a century a force to reckon with, though not always a persona grato. Tilak and Mrs. Besant were among the earliest to recognise his mettle and debating prowess: veteran Vijiaraghavachariar hailed him as a dominating personality in the Subjects鈥� Committee; Lajpat Rai described him as one of the ablest no-changers in the Congress; Rajaji acknowledged his astuteness; and Gandhiji claimed him as his commentator.

Two recent achievements of his have Won for him especial recognition鈥揾is magnum opus, the History of the Congress (two volumes) and his untiring work in the cause of the States鈥� people. And when to these is added his unswerving allegiance to one institution, one creed, one sutrakaraand one philosophy, we find Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya holding his own among the leaders of the Congress.

Speaking of an earlier stalwart of the Congress and the President of the Nagpur session in 1891, Dr. Rash Behari Ghose (Madras, 1908) said:

Behind his playful humour there was in him a singleness of purpose, a devotion to duty and an independence of character which made him a most prominent figure, not only of Madras but of the whole country.

Word for word, this glowing tribute may also be paid to Anandacharlu鈥檚 only successor in Andhra to the Congress 鈥榗rown.鈥� It is a far cry from 1891 to 1948, but the tradition persists.

鈥揅辞耻谤迟别蝉测 Hindustan Times (Dec. 18, 1948)