Sir Mocherla Ramachandra Rao

 

I OFTEN think of him these days! I don’t know why! I often thought of him in the past. He had made himself an immortal in my mind; and, I believe, he is so even to hundreds who had known him in the correct light. He was a great Andhra, a greater gentleman, and perhaps one of the greatest matter-of-fact patriots we had in South India.

Sir Mocherla Ramachandra Rao died in his sixty-eighth year, and that was just twelve years ago. Many of his contemporaries who shared his political ideologies and philosophies of public life are also now dead, with the exception of perhaps Sri T. R. Venkatrama Sastri. But we ought to remember Sir Mocherla for his varied public services. His life ought to inspire the youth of this country, who are at present somewhat groping in the dark to find the correct principles of public life.

“Sir Mocherla devoted himself to public service for a period of over thirty years. A great and sobre patriot with a due sense of responsibility, he set an example to the younger generation. Men of his stamp are an invaluable asset to public life….A man of high character and sterling worth,” said Sir P. S. Sivaswami Aiyer on hearing the death of Sir Mocherla in May 1936.

“He was the Gokhale of South India,” said the Rt. Hon’ble V. S. Srinivasa Sastri, in the course of a moving speech he delivered in the Ranade Hall, Mylapore. These were but two opinions about this great public servant who hailed from Andhra Desh and who belonged to a period different from ours today.

Sixteen years ago I first met him one day at the Rt. Hon’ble Sastri’s residence, Swagatam, and from that day onwards a sort of acquaintance developed between us. I often met him at his residence in Elliot Road and at the Cosmopolitan Club. We talked of men and matters and we devoted considerable time in those days to discuss the politics of the day. He made a great impression on me, which urged me to develop the highest esteem for a political Acharya of his type. He talked quietly, logically, sweetly, and without bitterness against any. The fine aroma of dignity around him and his way of impressing a point on you, not through the force of words or violent gestures but by his calm, sweet reasonableness, was something characteristic of Sir Mocherla, and, once he told you something, you found no room to refute him.

Then I take a look into my album wherein I have treasured the pictures of the great I have met, I take a deep glance at the photograph of Sir Mocherla, and my right hand almost automatically rises to salute it, with a depth of feeling. I don’t know why! Though my acquaintance with him was very short, I was so very fond of him, and cherish his memory today. He did not play to the gallery nor did he seek the rewards of political life by sacrificing his long-cherished political faiths and principles, so dear to his heart. Referring to this point, the Rt. Hon’ble Sastri in a speech cited Sir Mocherla’s example, as worthy of following. Said he:

“Both he (Sir Mocherla) and I are of the belief that public life should be so constituted in country, that there is room in it for good men, for true and proved men, no matter of what party, to find a suitable sphere for their own labours.”

Sir Mocherla had a crowded public life. He was connected with scores of activities befitting his sphere, but he never rose to a position where he had chances to reap any rewards for his public services and undoubted merit. Indeed, at the close of the first World War, he was nearest to becoming an Executive Councillor of the Government of Madras. But the rise of the Justice Party knocked off his chances to enjoy the plum of public office. Again, with the growth of the Indian National Congress, the right place in public life for a man of Sir Mocherla’s calibre was denied, but he did not mind these new developments in the country. He quietly went about doing what he thought was his duty and what he considered was real service of a kind that he believed in. But when you sit to assess the worth of his work, you cannot deny him his greatness as a true public servant, and, indeed, a word of gratitude for his selfless services in the interests of the people and the country is always due to him.

Sir Mocherla was born in Badampudi village in the West Godavari district. The year was 1868. He came down to Madras when he was a lad of twelve, because a brother-in-law of his happened to be then in the City. He joined the Hindu High School in Triplicane and matriculated in his seventeenth year. When he was twenty-one, he graduated, and two years later he was out of the Law College as a fully qualified lawyer.

When he was about to set up practice in the City of Madras itself, Sir Mocherla’s father died in the village in West Godavari. So he had to go to his own district. Then he went about practising in Rajamundry from 1894 to 1905, just eleven years! Before he began to frequent courtrooms, he had also apprenticed himself under Andrew Laing, a famous British lawyer in Madras at that time.

In Rajamundry he built up a very lucrative practice handling a great volume of Zamindari litigation. He throve well and made money, but when the Godavari district was bifurcated, he went over to Ellore where he was leader of the Bar for over fifteen years, and the first elected Chairman of the Municipality for ten years. Even today, we find a town-area in Ellore named after him as ‘Ramachandraraopet’, as an affectionate tribute to his services, from the citizens of the place. Ramachandra Rao was responsible for having Ellore as the Head-quarters of the District instead of Nidadavol. He also served as the President of the combined District Boards of Kistna and West Godavari for a time.

In 1910 Sir Mocherla was elected to the Madras Legislative Council from the Godavari, Kistna and Guntur combined constituency. With him sat in the Council stalwarts like the Rt. Hon. Sastri, the late Sir B. N. Sarma, also Sir M. Krishnan Nair, all of them now no more. Sir P. S. Sivaswamy Aiyer and Mr. V. Krishnaswamy Aiyer were then Members of the Executive Council. Sir Mocherla’s career as a legislator in Madras continued even during the Montford Reform days, and, in 1924, he was elected to the Central Assembly in Delhi. In the Assembly he made his mark as a well-informed and impressive speaker. He championed peasants’ problems and he had also specialised in subjects such as land revenue, local self-government and agriculture.

“In 1919 Sir Mocherla went to England to give evidence before the Joint Parliamentary Committee, but he had met Samuel Montagu earlier in Government House, Madras, and had talks with him. When he went to England he went round Gibraltar, since cross-country travel through France was forbidden in those days. Arriving in London, he stayed in the National Liberal Club and picked up the acquaintance of every great English statesman of those days. In particular, he came very close to Mr. Winston Churchill and Mr. George Lansbury. He continued to stay in England for several months, until the time the India Bill was finally passed through the House of Commons.

Once he returned to India, he was again sought after with a fresh assignment, this time to go on a mission to England, to be a Member of the Lytton Commission on Indian Students in British Universities. It was said that in those days our students had particular difficulties in getting admission in London’s schools and colleges. It was also stated that they did not have the proper type of life during their scholastic career. An inquiry was therefore ordered by Government and Sir Mocherla was chosen a member of the Inquiry Commission, of which Lord Lytton, the then Under-Secretary of State for India, was the Chairman. Sir Mocherla’s colleagues on the Commission then were Aftab Ahmed, Sir Devaprasad Sarvadhikari, Mr. Hemmitt and the great Christian patriot Dr. Datta of Lahore. The House of Commons carefully considered their report at a later stage.

Then, on return to India, Sir Mocherla was busy in the Central Legislature. He sat on the Skeen Committee along with Mr. Jinnah, Pandit Motilal Nehru and Sir Phiroze Sethna. The Committee was considering how best the Indianisation of the Army could be speedily effected. The conclusions then arrived at showed that it would take at least twenty-six years for half the Indian army personnel to be Indianised! But, what is it today!

In 1927, the Butler Committee on Indian States was functioning. It did not however pay much attention to the representations of the States’ peoples. So the people organised a conference of their own at Bombay in September of that year, and had Sir Mocherla to preside over it. The Conference decided to send a deputation to England to represent its views and it was led by Sir Mocherla himself. He presented a memorandum to the Butler Committee. As a result of that, several modifications were effected in the Butler Report.

A year earlier, Sir Mocherla had a very peculiar situation to face in his own place. In the 1926 general elections to the Central Legislature, the question was whether he should face his electorates or not! The important people of his locality first approached him with the Congress pledge for his signature, but Sir Mocherla refused. In consequence, the other candidate, Sri Tangaturi Prakasam, was proposed and elected, instead. Sir Mocherla was an enthusiast in the cause of Prohibition, and, in 1927, he started what was known as the Prohibition League of India, which functioned on the lines of the American Anti-Saloon League. The Prohibition enthusiasts had a congress organised to hold a session in Delhi and, if I remember aright, a magazine of their League was also started for propagating the ideals of a Dry India. Besides all these, the greatest monument to crown Sir Mocherla’s public services, was his work in connection with the creation of the Land Mortgage Bank in Madras and for furthering the cause of cooperation in South India.

Sir Mocherla had always the courage of his convictions. He would not sign the Congress pledge because he did not believe in the Congress programme of work. A seat in the legislature was not more attractive in his eyes than a principle that he held sacred at heart. Even so, during his early political career as Chairman of the Rajamundry and Ellore municipalities, he found a new menace sweeping Andhra Desh and he had to fight it all alone with rare courage and tenacity of purpose. In those days, a number of Death Fund associations had cropped up to dupe the poor and unsuspecting people, under the promise of extraordinarily impossible later-benefits! Sir Mocherla, coming to know of such schemes, discovered the mathematical impossibility of their soundness and thereafter declared that these associations were fraudulent in nature and were clearly bent upon defrauding poor widows and other peoples of their money. Of course, there was a small group of people who went on fighting these associations, supporting Sir Mocherla, and the existence of these organisations was questioned even before the Court, where a declaration was finally obtained that they were improper. But the first steps to save the public from this fraudulent menace was taken by none else than Sir Mocherla.

Twelve years have passed by since this great Andhra departed from our midst. To the best of his ability, and true to his conscience he strove hard in his own way in the field of public service. He served the ideals he considered proper, just and fitting in the interests of the people. He is not much remembered these days, because he did not belong to any or the popular political groups or parties, but, for that reason alone, we could hardly fail to revere the memory of this great man. A dispassionate student of history could always find that the quiet, solid and selfless work Sir Mocherla rendered to Andhra Desh, South India, and India, is something very valuable and his conduct as a public servant altogether above reproach. Here is a man for our younger generation to draw inspiration from, because he had correct ideals of public service with the loftiest of motives always pulsating in him.