My Friend, Sampathgiri

[This ‘tribute of affection’ was paid while unveiling a portrait of Sri K. Sampathgiri Rao on 12th January 1958 at the National College, Bangalore. Sri Sampathgiri Rao was leaving for Ranchi in Bihar to take up the Principalship of a Public School, the ‘Vikas Vidyalaya.’
-Editor, Triveni.]

In the case of a personality like Sri Sampathgiri Rao I need feel no embarrassment to say a few words about him, since intimate association could only give one a more detailed picture of the man and in no manner alter one’s idea of his essential characteristics which are now really in the nature of public property.

You know that he has been associated with this institution’ I mean the National Education Society, for almost four decades. Soon after he qualified himself as a Literature Honours Graduate of the Madras University from the Christian College, he joined the National High School in its previous incarnation. When, owing to certain unhappy circumstances it ceased to function, be joined the staff of the London Mission High School for a brief period and then became a member of the English Department of the Central College here. Then it was that I had the good fortune to be a student of his. He used to wear a suit and a turban, looking very much like a sanitary inspector of the old days. That was the heyday of the non-co-operation movement and as you all know, one of the constructive items of activity propounded by Gandhiji was ‘national education.’ Even during this brief period of his career as a teacher in the Central College, Sri Sampathgiri Rao must have been feeling restless under the urge to find his place in the National Movement, a place suitable to his equipment, aptitude and temperament.

The college closed for the summer vacation. But before it reopened I found him one day merrily riding on a bicycle apparelled in the manner that has become familiar to all of us¹ and with a look on his face which betokened that the long-awaited dawn had broken. He had joined the re-constituted National High School as its Headmaster. That was a lucky day for the institution. It was then housed in a building in New Tharagupet. A few years later I joined the staff of the school and even today I remember with a feeling of exhilaration and nostalgia the life we led with him as our captain. This decision by Sri Sampathgiri Rao to change-over meant a great deal more than a sartorial metamorphosis. It made a great change in prospects and security of tenure, the consequences of which would last through his life.  But obviously it was done after full deliberation and ever since then his mind has not turned on the decision. Not only did he fit himself into the new environment of work but whole-heartedly reconciled himself to the economic consequences of the change. The latter means much more than appears on the surface and requires much greater strength of mind and firmness of will than he allows people to discern in his mien.

It is a matter of the greatest pride for this institution that all along it has been broad-based upon the generosity of the many and does not owe its existence or functioning to the munificence of a few. Sri Sampathgiri Rao became such a natural and indeed an inevitable part of the school that he was identified with the institution and the institution with him. That is indeed, what one of his old pupils and colleagues, who is now in America, says in a letter written after he learnt of Sri Sampathgiri Rao’s impending retirement. Numberless batches of students have studied under him, and there is hardly any place in this State or even in the far corners of this vast country where be does not find his old pupils to greet him, with eager affection.

You know that even the teaching personnel of the school had a democratic basis and that one or the other of the teachers would become the Headmaster by the consent of his Colleagues. Though Sri Sampathgiri Rao was the Headmaster of the school for the larger part of his tenure, there were substantial periods when he was only a teacher. But every Position he has held, he has held as by natural right. You know that from being the ‘Prince of Headmasters’, to use Sri V. S. Srinivasa Sastri’s apposite phrase, he became the first Principal of the Second Grade College when the Society started one. It looked to everyone as if that was his appointed place. So did it appear when be ultimately evolved into Principal of a First Grade College. Now, that a man should be the teacher of a High School, the Headmaster of a High School, the Principal of a Second Grade College and the Principal of a First Grade College, and that it should be taken for granted that he discharges each one of these duties with more than the requisite competence, is in itself a testimony to the stuff of which he is made.

His work in the institution, however, hardly exhausted his energies or resources. He was associated with many other activities and amongst them I may mention the work he did for the Amateur Dramatic Association and in helping his friend Sri T. T. Sharman to run his weeklies, particularly the ‘Mysore Chronicle’. This has not been his sole essay into journalism. He finds himself equally at home in the humdrum business of writing for a daily or a weekly, in the more staid avocation of editing a School magazine, and in the exacting task of steering a patrician periodical like the Triveni. Nor can one forget that, in collaboration with a life-long friend of his ² he edited, under the auspices of the Amateur Dramatic Association, the journal ‘The Theatre’ during its brief but colourful career. Talking of Triveni, I may mention incidentally that when its distinguished Editor, who had made the cause of culture through the medium of that magazine his life mission, was kept under preventive detention, Sri Sampathgiri Rao took it upon himself to run the magazine from Bangalore, secured the co-operation of friends and did the job so well, that even after the Editor’s release, Bangalore continued to be the home of Triveni until other exigencies dictated its transfer to another venue.

Sri Sampathgiri Rao was in the thick of the movement for the renaissance of Kannada. He has been intimately associated with the Kannada Sahitya Parishat and he has wandered all over the land on its mission and similar missions. You all know that he has translated into Kannada most of Rajaji’s writings. This incidentally brings to my mind that he is a great linguist. His so-called second language in his early educational career was Telugu. He lived in the Tamil land and became proficient in Tamil. He specialised in English. He was one of the earliest workers in the Hindi field and has picked up more than a working knowledge of that language. It is refreshing to remember in today’s context, when there has been an unfortunate recrudescence of linguistic controversy, that Sri Sampathgiri Rao stands as the personification of linguistic harmony and establishes the futility of such controversy.

Though the purely political aspect of our National Movement did not leave him totally untouched and many of those who actually participated in the movement claimed his tutelage, his work has mostly been in the constructive field. He has been associated with the Khadi movement right from the start and is himself an excellent spinner. It is his pride that a good part of his clothing is made of yarn spun by himself. He has been a living exponent of all that Gandhiji stood for and it is but fitting that he should be the President of the Gandhi Study Circle (Gandhi Vichara Parishat).

We have all learnt with pleasure, though mixed with regret, that he is parting from us, that he has accepted the Principalship of an educational institution in Bihar. His contacts will thus be further extended and he will be our ambassador there. And if we had the choice in our hands, we could not make a happier choice. May I, on behalf of you all, extend our best wishes to him for the success of his mission?

His long and deep educational experience has naturally been availed of by our University and educational authorities and it is but natural that for long he was associated with the management of the Gurukula at Kengeri. He represented the Teachers’ Constituency in the Legislative Council and was its temporary Chairman. I do not, however, want to make this a catalogue of all his activities. But I cannot fail to refer to his association with the Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs as a member of its Governing Body right from the start. I am too close to that institution to say more about it. I shall content myself with saying that it looked as if he built his abode at the threshold of the site given to the Institute so as to be its guardian angel. We shall, indeed, sadly miss him there.

I shall now turn to what I may call his human or non-institutional side. He is richly endowed by nature with the gift of an alert mind, a warm heart and deep interest in all matters of culture. He has read widely and deeply and he is one of our most accomplished speakers. He is a great connoisseur of music, art (not excluding the culinary art) and the drama and I know that he has himself appeared on the stage. I particularly remember how at a Conference of the Pandits Parishat at Srinivasapur it was decided to get up an impromptu drama under the leadership of Sri Kasturi and they not only improvised the drama itself but Sri Sampathgiri Rao played one of its leading parts.

Now, a personality like this has necessarily to pay the penalty by giving the impression that he has the defects of these very qualities. Many think that his general attitude is one of undiscriminating benevolence, that he is soft, that he is not sufficiently assertive, that he yields far too much when he ought not to yield at all, and that he allows himself to be dragged hither and thither, while his stature is such that he can stand up to any one that he has to deal with. But that would be a very superficial assessment. Obviously he makes a distinction between what is fundamental and vital on the one hand and what constitutes the subsidiary things in Life in which it is wise and proper to accommodate other points of view and others’ desires. He does not needlessly enter into controversy. But in regard to any matter which represents the core of his beliefs and values you will find that he will deal with it firmly and effectively. His mind is a rich store-house of knowledge and experience. The demands made on him by educational and students’ organisations, by cultural organisations like All India Radio and sundry other organisations, are endless. His generous heart does not permit him easily to refuse and you find him scheduled to talk not only in Bangalore, but in a hundred places all over this part of the country. Could you find a better companion? Association with him is a continuous process of education and joy, enlivened as it is by a keen sense of humour, which, normally gentle in its manifestation, can occasionally be devastating; but it is never tinged with malice or bitterness. This flows essentially from his outlook which is based on equipoise of mind. He has had his quota of trials and misfortunes in life. But he has not allowed them to sour his heart or daunt his spirit. On the positive side, he exemplifies the principle that the most effective way of enriching one’s life is to enrich the lives of those around oneself. He gives of his very best to the community and he draws the utmost flavour that life offers him. Never seeking to reach beyond the severe limitations that he has imposed upon himself by the choice of his career, he husbands his resources with great judiciousness. This enables him to be always in good cheer and to radiate cheer to those around him. I shall only say that a man who has attained such a scheme of values and lives by them can with justice be described as a practising philosopher.

Let me say, this institution is much more than the brick and mortar in which it is housed. It represents an approach, a spirit and a tradition which Sri Sampathgiri Rao’s own career has gone to build up. His personality is a permanent part of its very constitution. It is therefore most appropriate that his portrait should adorn this hall. I consider it a great privilege that I should be asked to unveil his portrait and I do so with the utmost pleasure. And may I express my gratitude to the management for affording me this opportunity of paying this tribute of affection and regard, not only on my own behalf but on behalf of you all?

¹ Dhoti, long Kurta, vest and Gandhi Cap.
² Sri V. Bhaskaran