G. Subramania Iyer

Infobox Person
name = G. Subramania Iyer
birth_date = 1855


birth_place =
spouse =
dead=dead
death_date = 1916
death_place =
occupation = lecturer,journalist, entrepreneur

G.Subramania Iyer (1855-1916) was a leading Indian journalist, social reformer and freedom fighter who founded 'The Hindu' newspaper on September 20 1878. He was proprietor, editor and Managing Director of 'The Hindu' from September 20, 1878 to October 1898.

Founding of 'The Hindu'

The Hindu was founded on September 20, 1878, by six young men irate at the campaign waged by the Anglo-Indian Press against the appointment of the first Indian, T. Muthuswamy Iyer to the bench of the Madras High Court. So the 'Triplicane Six' as they were called (G. Subramania Aiyer of Tiruvaiyyar, M. Veeraraghavachariar of Chingleput,both tutors at Pachaiyappa's College and four law students, T.T. Rangachariar, P.V. Rangachariar, D. Kesava Rao Pant and N. Subba Rao Pantulu) borrowed a rupee and twelve annas and founded The Hindu, printing 80 copies at the Srinidhi Press in Mint Street, Black Town, and promising every Wednesday evening an eight-page paper, each a quarter of today's page size, for four annas.

In that first issue of September 20, 1878, `The Triplicane Six' justified their venture thus: Quotation|The Press does not only give expression to public opinion, but also modifies and moulds it according to circumstances. It is this want that we have made bold to attempt to supply... The principles that we propose to be guided by are simply those of fairness and justice. It will always be our aim to promote harmony and union among our fellow countrymen and to interpret correctly the feelings of the natives and to create mutual confidence between the governed and the governors...

As Editor of 'The Hindu' 1878-1898

Soon, 'The Triplicane Six' broke up when the other students were called to the Bar and editor G. Subramania Iyer and Veeraraghavachariar were the only ones who remained with the newspaper.

The Hindu made its presence felt for the first time since its inception, during the Chingleput Ryots case in 1881 when it launched a vehement attack on the Governor of Madras Mountstuart Grant-Duff. Three years later, lashing out at the Governor and the judiciary, following the Salem Riots of 1884, The Hindu thundered: Quote|... the prosecution of the so called Salem Rioters and their convictions were the result of a premeditated design, hastily formed and executed in a vindictive spirit, not very honourable and utterly unworthy of a civilised Government... ." The paper said about its béte noire on another occasion: "Oh! Lucifer! How art thou fallen? Oh! Mr Grant-Duff, how you stand like an extinct volcano in the midst of the ruins of your abortive reputation as an administrator! Erudite you may be, but a statesman you are not.

The paper moved to Mylapore in the 1880s and `The Hindu Press', established by the Ragoonada Row. From October 1, 1883 onwards, it became a tri-weekly. G.Subramania Iyer actively supported the cause of India's freedom and used his newspaper to protest British Imperialism. In 1897, when Tilak was arrested by British authorities, The Hindu vehementy condemned the arrest. On December 3, 1883, the paper moved to 100 Mount Road and established its own press called 'The National Press'.

Subramania Aiyer was willing to take on anyone and any institution if convinced he was right. He accused Reuters of "tendentious reports" on India and was "thunderstruck" by the The Times' hands-on "mendacity" and willingness to publish "trash from... India."

On December 12, 1885, The Hindu announced the birth of The Indian National Congress thus: Quote|The objective of the Congress... is to bring to a focus to our scattered political energy and to give solidity and organisation to native opinion... [on such] topics in which... all parts of the country are interested.... The status of The Hindu was made even more secure when its Editor moved the first-ever resolution of the Congress at the inaugural session in Bombay on December 28, 1885.

With the passage of time, the volume of news to be pinted became so great that the paper became a daily from April 1, 1889. Within a month, Subramania Aiyer launched the paper's first columnist, `Sentinel', whose `Olla Podrida' took sly digs at the foibles of the upper class, Britons as well as Indians. 'Sentinel' was none other than the eminent Madras criminal lawyer, Eardley Norton. When Norton stood for election to the Madras Legislative Council, The Hindu came out strongly in his support. Subramania Iyer had a strange sort of partiality towards Norton which found expression in the columns in 'The Hindu'.

However, Subramania Iyer's thoughts and ideas on sensitive issues were rejected by the conservative Indian public who regarded such reforms as taboo and a series of defamation cases were filed on the newspaper. Within a short time, the paper began to decline. The severe strain on the finances forced Subramania Iyer to quit as Managing Director in October 1898.

The Social Reformer

Subramania Iyer campaigned vehemently for reforms in Hindu society. He sought to raise the age of marriage; advocated widow remarriage; wished for a better place in society for Dalits; and demanded the abolition of caste, child marriages and nautch parties.

He arranged for the remarriage of his eldest daughter, Sivapriyammal, who had been widowed at the age of 13, to a boy in Bombay during the 1889 Congress session. When a child died in a Triplicane home where there had been a widow remarriage and the community would not help at the funeral, Subramania Aiyer sent his own purohit to officiate. One day in 1893, The Hindu carried a display advertisement with the heading: "Wanted Virgin Widows to Marry."

Subramania Aiyer wrote that Quote|the degraded condition" of Dalits was "notorious and the peculiarities of The Hindu social system are such that from this system no hope whatever of their amelioration can be entertained." It seemed hopeless, he commented, for Dalits "to expect redemption from anything that The Hindu might do" and "no amount of admiration for our religion will bring social salvation to these poor people.

As late as 1903, at the Silver Jubilee celebrations of The Hindu, he was speaking out in favour of "change, reforms and progress" and warning that "blind and thoughtless conservatism lead to stagnation and eventual ruin." Long before the women's liberation movement, he felt that what was offensive in Hindu society was its treatment of women.

Later Life and Death

In 1898, Subramania Iyer relinquished his claims over 'The Hindu' and concentrated his energies on Swadesamitran, the Tamil language newspaper which he had started in 1882. When he left The Hindu in 1898,he made the Swadesamitran a tri-weekly and, in 1899, a daily, the first in Tamil. Subramania Aiyar's pen "dipped in a paste of the extra-pungent thin green chillies" - as Subramania Bharati described his Editor's writing style - got him in trouble with the British in 1908. He suffered jail terms and persecutions which gradually broke his health resulting in his death in 1916. However, in 1915, just before his death, he handed over the newspaper to A. Rangaswami Iyengar, Kasturi Ranga Iyengar's nephew and right hand man at The Hindu. G.Subramaniya Iyer passed away in 1916 at the age of 61 at Madras.

References

* [http://www.thehindu.com/th125/stories/2003091300770200.htm The Hindu:WILLING TO STRIKE AND NOT RELUCTANT TO WOUND, Special 125th anniversary supplement]
* [http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=61&page=29 Article on freedom fighters in 'The Organiser']
* [http://www.hindu.com/mp/2004/05/03/stories/2004050300290300.htm The Hindu: Birth of Two Newspapers]