The National Poet Garrimela

THE NATIONAL POET, GARRIMELLA

Pretti Kumar

In Literature, as in life, there has always been an inevitable element of revolt. In fact one may feel from the testimony of history that all change and dynamism in literature is in a very large measure due to this essential component. Revolt, in this sense, seems to be a perennial strand in the history of Telugu literature. “How can a man be said to have a country when he has no right to a square inch of it?” (Henry George Social Problems)

This article is a tribute to the banned and forfeited, selfless and heroic son of India who dedicated his life to see Free India and in his free India, died as an alien.

The whole nation, charged with effervescent patriotism and nationalist sentiment, provided a congenial atmosphere for Garimella. His songs created history. His poetry has a form, a harvest of imagery, a choice of diction usually envenomed and pointed. He surfaced to voice the defiance of his people against the mighty British Government.

            “Let me recoup my oozing blood
            Of which you will have your hearty food.
            I belong to the race of the Sibis good
            And shall not grudge my blood to shed”
                                                            (The Heart)

            “You Collector, come and take my stall,
            You kill me, soldier tall!
            I stoop not now to be a thrall,
            I stand a free-man or shall fall.”
                                                            (Andhra’s Contribution)

Garimella was a committed nationalist to the core, an epitome of selfless sacrifice with no pretensions of power or pelf.

            “Nor pelf nor life shall tempt me now
            Under a foreign yoke to bow,
            I subscribe not on my accord
            To make a stranger over me lord”
                                                            (Andhra’s Contribution)

Garimella whose poems assumed the form of popular songs ploughed alone furrow. His songs became a weapon for him and, a dynamite against the government. His rise into prominence as a popular poet in Andhra coincided with the non-cooperation movement of 1921-22 with the composition of the song, “We do not want the white man’s rule” (Makoddee Tella Doratanamu). This historic song of 162 lines perhaps was the longest song sung in thy days of our freedom struggle. In the early days it was cyclostyled and thousands of the copies were sold at 12 paise each.

It was not an isolated incident of poetic ­response to the great popular political struggle going on in India at that time. Under the influence of post-world war democratic movements in Europe and the great October ­Socialist Revolution in Russia and the rise of internal contradictions within the Indian national movement, such literary resurgence did occur.

This is amplified by the emergence of writers like Unnava Laxminarayana with his magnum opus novel “Malapalli”, and Gurram Joshua, the first Dalit poet in Telugu. Garimella too appeared on the firmament of nationalist literature in Telugu during the twenties.

“The Heart of India”, is his first work in English, a rare find and the only one of such long poetic composition on nationalist politics. It is a profound political commentary comprising popular reaction on the events during the post non-cooperation period and in the context of Simon Commission’s visit as perceived through the eyes of Garimella. It will be useful to understand the course of national movement at a critical juncture with the interplay of several cross currents of the time.

His address to Simon Commission is sublime and poised but his differences with the British continue to be serious:

“Such souls now cry from beach to boat
let the country in complete boycott float!
For Patriotism and Honour stand!
Drive the foreign rule from your land”
(Our Sanction is the British Wisdom)

“Nor are we prepared any longer to wag
Our tails behind your feet, though forever ye gag
Our minds and our persons, to wear no rag
To drink with no water, that in death we may lag”
                                                (Our Constructive Work)

His anger has not only been salutary in a climate of political expediency and literary compromise, but has also kept his voice truly unique and dangerously distinct to be banned. His profound sorrow and indignation is expressed in the following lines:

“To love her is a serious crime,
Self honor is a fruit forbidden;
For valor don’t ye stretch your rhyme
Where freedom is by law overridden”
(The Aftermath)

“And thus if ye wish to fulfill the mission,
God given to ye according your admission
And we too but deserve such fatal homicide
It is better even earlier for us to suicide”.
                                                (Paramount Question)

Garimella was born a Telugu, his inspiration was Indian and his appeal was universal.

My native land is all my theme,
To sing her sorrows is my scheme;
Though once in a world of a well-known fame,
Alas! She lost her vigor and name”.
                                                (The Muse)

“Imperial pride did never care
To guard the subjects for their sake;
As per their vintage tame or tear
Terror strike and servile make”.
                                                (Welcome)

He was a non-organizational man and a just commentator who fundamentally did not differ from any existing political party then. Nevertheless he responded to the constructive programme launched by Gandhiji by writing profusely on the issues of Ahimsa. According to Garimella non-violence and spread of knowledge were our only tools. Violence to Garimella was an unheroic method. He wrote:

“A sleeping nation rose to light
Astonished saw the world that sight
An iron law has lost its might
And thus began our weaponless fight”.
(India s Recent Fight)

“We come with an olive branch in hand
Betwixt the fighting foreman stand
To bind their minds with a fragrant wreath,
and hope that no one opens his sheathe”.
                                                (The India)

He was fully conscious of the socio-­cultural problems of his age like ignorance, superstition, caste tyranny, orthodoxy and a number of similar evils which came in the way of social growth. He extolled their great and glorious past and exhorted the people to live up to it through social solidarity, intelligence, hard work and lofty ideals. He chose themes of patriotism, martyrdom and heroic deeds.

Some of his poems like “Anayayakalambu” (the coming of unjust times) even reflected ideas of socialism and the poet’s anger against the exploitation of the poor. The heart of India several times expressed these sentiments. He wrote:

“The great should learn how to humble,
The small should have a dignified demeanour,
Else, from the greatness the great shall tumble
And the small the slavery savour”.
                                                (The Mission of India)

“Who have not all these things, we decry as rude,
With our exploiting means we make them still nude;
We treat them as chattels and beasts queer and crude
And thank-God, he granted us this intelligence so shrewd”!
                                                (Paramount Question)

His poetry is permeated with a spirit of boldness, and courage of conviction. He raises his voice like a crusader and attacks the false values, hypocrisy, sectarianism in public and private life. The fact that some Indian leaders were slavishly aping the western ways of living and thinking was repugnant to his soul. Several of his verses express this feeling.

“You partake in official dinners sweet,
The governors ten times per day meet
For shameless benefits touch their feet,
Yet, pretend to have an enemy’s heat”
……Worse than a moderate he will cooperate
With the rulers in his wisdom considerate,
Yet loudly cries that he is a separate
From those that sell the country at a cheap rate”.
(Tall Talk)

He wrote against Anti-Liquor and about village reconstruction and development, about the presentation of environment etc.

His spirit revolted against the total subservience of his countrymen. If the British desired to retain India in their empire, they should accede to the conditions imposed by the Indians.

“How can a merchant prince a nation’s fortune guide
With peace and prosperity and honor ocean wide?
Judas and Jesus to different species belong
Without the one losing the other cannot be strong”.
                                                (India s Recent Fight)

Foreign cloth, foreign education, slavish employment and mean profession were some of the termites eating into the spine of the country. It was an activity to enslave others.

“Spin thy wheel and spend thy purse
The court besieging clients disperse
Fight every inch of foreign yarn
This is how for honour to yearn”
(The India)

He was born at a time when India was eclipsed by the clouds of foreign tradition and philosophy. The soul of India was lost since the time of Sri Harsha and it was not found until the time of Tagore. During the time of British rule in India, the Western city wall civilization made its encroachment on Indian soil and cast a deep spell on the minds of Macaulay-made gentlemen of India.

“The fate of my young men, clustering round
Your college walls for a living sound,
Is filling my eyes with tears and throbs;
For the college is the source that robs”.

Garimella is all concerned for women, he praises the women for their active role in the freedom struggle, especially the freedom fighters. The first woman prisoner in the freedom struggle was an Andhra woman. The first woman who responded to Gandhiji’s call and gave away her ornaments for the cause of freedom struggle was also an Andhra woman. He says once upon a time her daughter rarely saw the streets but....now the scenario has tremendously changed and he is proud of it.

Garimella, like Rabindranath Tagore, had two lines of great significance. Emancipation from the bondage to the soil does not give freedom to the tree. If you are emancipated from your bondage to the roots, you cannot expect to do any kind of real effective work. You must be rooted firmly and the branches should spread out over the whole sky. He therefore maintained that we should not be uprooted from our soil, from the traditions of our culture.

Garimella expresses the patriotic sentiments thus:

“Why did you strip the dress of our ladies
Unable to move with their pregnant bodies
What pleasures you found in their naked sorrow?
Where did you this devil-hood borrow?”
                                                (India s Despair)

The bold and objective attitude of the poet gives his work a universal appeal and timeless relevance.

“Of freedom brotherhood and equality
Without a trace of loss or frailty,
May the stronger help the weak to strength!
And the richer folk the poor to wealth”!
                                                (Closure)

“When shall this Universe learn this lesson
The miseries of the dumb-folk lessen,
It is then that the human ear will listen
The Music of a New Era risen”
(Slave Races)

He is less an artist than a human being, with the same sorrows that we have, with the same instinct to cry as we do. Indeed, he has come very close to writing the poetry of concrete universals.