Thank you for the memories of Sastry. I was a regular as a student visiting
srinivasa sastri hall lib opposite Kamadhenu theater Mylapore; and in one
of the oratorical competitions in English won the first prize. Later
whenever I had the opportunity to go that side I used to see the building
from outside. I dont know what is there today
K Rajaram IRS 12524
On Sat, 11 May 2024 at 20:32, 'venkat giri' via KeralaIyers <
[email protected]> wrote:
> Thank you.
>
>
> On Friday, 22 March, 2024 at 09:34:50 am IST, 'gopala krishnan' via
> iyer123 <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> Excellent forward sir . I keep it in "sreedharan" folder
> Gopalakrishnan
>
> On Friday, 22 March, 2024 at 09:19:00 am IST, 'venkat giri' via
> KeralaIyers <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> *Respected Sir/s,*
>
> *My **Memories on Facebook **22nd March **2015*
>
> *SUBJECT: SRINIVASA SASTRY*
>
> *Valangaiman Sankaranarayana Srinivasa Sastri** (**22/09/1869—17/04/1946)
> ; born to a poor temple priest Vaidik Sankaranarayana Sastri in the village
> of Valangaiman near Kumbakonam,was an Indian politician, administrator,
> educator, orator and Indian independence activist. He was acclaimed for his
> oratory and command over the English language. *
>
> *AN INTERSTING ARTICLE* *on Silver Tongued Srinivasa Sastry:*
>
> *The telephone rang in the hotel room of the
> Rt.Hon. V.S.Srinivasa Sastry in 1921. The voice at the other end was that
> of Mr.Bilderbeck – the British principal of the Government Training
> College, Kumbakonam, when as a young man Sastry was his student. It was a
> pleasant surprise for Mr. Sastry to meet his former Principal, while it was
> no less a pleasant affair for Mr. Bilderbeck that his erstwhile student had
> been honoured with the Freedom of the City of London.*
>
> * Mr. Bilderbeck got up a little function in
> honour of Mr. Sastry. On that occasion Mr. Bilderbeck recalled a very
> touching incident when Mr. Sastry was his student. The only dress he could
> afford was a towel with which he attended the class. On a rainy day
> Sastry’s towel got wet. The strict disciplinarian in Mr. Bilderbeck
> imposed on Sastry a fine of **Eight Annas**. Where upon Sastry with
> tears in his eyes begged the Principal **to say how he was to pay the
> fine of **Eight Annas* *when he could not buy a new shirt which would
> cost him only **six** Annas.*
>
> * A few hours later Mrs. Bilderbeck found her husband in his study
> praying to God to forgive him for the imposition of fine on poor Sastry.
> Mrs. Bilderbeck advised the disciplinarian to remit the fine himself which
> he did, and as the story goes, gave Sastry a new shirt, too.*
>
> *After relating this incident the Mr. Bilderbeck expressed
> their profound joy that this shirt-less “SRINIVASAN” blossomed into the Rt.
> Hon. V. S. Srinivasan Sastry, a member of the British Privy Council and a
> free man of the City of London.*
>
> *Such was the grinding poverty and chill penury Sastry
> suffered as student. On one occasion Sastry said his mother had to decline
> a gift of Mangoes as she had no money enough to purchase salt and pickle
> it. How unbelievable it is to a modern student well placed in cosy comfort
> and sheltering ease; what it was to suffer poverty.*
>
> *Great rivers have humble origins**, but majesty and
> selfless service flow from them. **Despite the fact that Sastry was not
> born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he was endowed with a silver tongue
> and a sterling character.** His father had an explosive temper, but
> young Sastry’s constant observation of his father’s frequent and violent
> outbursts made him realise the evil consequences of anger and so he
> endeavoured and succeeded in keeping his emotions in check. His mother had
> a vast picture gallery of mythological lore, which satisfied the eager
> listener in Mr. Sastry, which might have led to his mastering scriptures
> and Indian Mythology. Thus, he became a keen student of the great epic
> RAMAYANA and delivered 30 scholarly Lectures on RAMAYANA.*
>
> * He had a very brilliant scholastic career. He
> graduated with a **high first class in Sanskrit and English.* *He stood
> first in the entire Presidency in English.** He mastered the English
> tongue so well that he could correct some of the passages in English
> grammar by J. C. Nesfield even at the age of **fourteen.* *This created
> a sensation even among the Englishmen. *
>
> * Teaching was his first and only love. Sastry
> joined as a teacher in the Municipal High School at Mayavaram. Later he
> taught English in Salem College with great distinction. Before he became
> the Head Master of Hindu High School, Triplicane, Madras, in 1899, he
> worked for some time in Pachiyappa’s and **distinguished himself as an
> eminent educationist. ** However, the genius of Mr. Sastry could not
> remain confined to teaching boys. He sought wider contacts, followed
> public affairs and made his presence felt in various spheres of social
> service.*
>
> * In 1906 he
> took a momentous decision, left teaching and joined the Servants of India
> Society founded by Mr. Gopalakrishna Gokhale, as his intellectual and
> patriotic urges sought a wider field of activity. Gokhale was his master.
> After Gokhale died, the disciple wore the master’s mantle and became the
> President of Servants of India Society.*
>
> * In 1913 he was nominated to the Legislative Council and won the
> admiration of one and all. He eloquently pleaded for the expansion of
> elementary education to cover wider areas. In 1916 he was returned to the
> Imperial Legislative Council by the Madras Legislative Council. When the
> government of India decided to implement the repressive recommendations of
> the **Rowlatt report,* *Sastry made one of his most powerful and eloquent
> speeches against the proposed Bill. His eloquences shone in that august
> body where eloquence was not uncommon.*
>
> *Even as early as 1918, he opposed the reorganisation of provinces
> on the basis of language. He feared that this would lead to parochial
> patriotism and fissiparous tendencies. **Prophetic indeed!*
>
> * Sastry was elected to the Council of State formed under
> Montangue-Chelmsford Reforms. Even on the very first day of its sitting he
> moved a resolution urging the appointment of a committee for the repeal of
> certain repressive laws. He called the deportation regulations a relic of
> somewhat barbarous time. He hoped that India would be enabled to attain
> full constitutional liberty within the British Empire by entirely peaceful
> and constitutional methods.*
>
> *He was appointed as the first
> Agent-General of India in South Africa in 1927. He succeeded in
> establishing cordial relations between the Indians and the Whites. In the
> words of Hofmeyr, a great orator of South Africa and a great statesman Mr.
> Sastry interpreted India to the South Africans and revealed to them the
> glories of ancient Indian Civilisation.*
>
> * Just at a time when he was completing the first year of
> his stay the Indian community sent urgent telegrams to Mahatma Gandhi
> praying him to implore Sastry to stay on. On February 26, 1928 Gandhiji
> wrote to Mr. Sastri to stay on.*
>
> * Gandhiji’s word prevailed. Sastry stayed for six
> more months.Mr. Sastry’s services at Imperial conferences won him great
> laurels. He later became the member of Privy Council and was also honoured
> with the freedom of the City of London. The Government of India chose
> Sastry as its delegate to the second assembly of the League of Nations in
> Geneva in 1921. He toured New Zealand, Australia and Canada as the
> representative of the Government of India to plead with those Governments
> and peoples for equality of citizenship for domiciled Indians in their
> regions. Everywhere a warm welcome awaited him and his eloquence was
> remembered.*
>
> *He attended the first Round Table Conference in London in 1930 and second
> in 1931.*
>
> * In 1935 he was appointed as the Vice
> Chancellor of the **Annamalai University.* *All through his life Sastry
> was a learner as well as a teacher, for he believed in the ancient adage
> “learn in order to teach and teach in order to learn”.*
>
> *In so highlighting the achievements of Mr. Sastry in his public life we
> should not forget his enthralling oratory that made a lasting impression in
> India and abroad. Mr. Sastry did not speak English as an Englishman would
> do. But he spoke it as it ought to be spoken. He had acquired an
> extraordinary measure of phonetic skill and many English speaking people
> the world over were carried off their feet in admiration for the superb
> grace and polish of his periods, the sweep and resonance of his style.
> Every one of his speeches, marked by the classic purity of the language,
> and stately diction was an oratorical triumph of unmatched brilliance, a
> grand symphony of word and voice and of thought and gesture. Some of the
> greatest men of his day paid the highest tribute to Sastry’s oratory. Lord
> Balfour placed him as one of the five greatest orators of his time. The
> master of Balliol Mr. Smith declared that he had never before realised the
> beauty of English language till he heard Mr. Sastry, Lady Lytton called him
> an artist in words. Sir Thomas Smart dubbed him for ever as “the Empire’s
> silver tongued orator”.*
>
> *Rt. HAL Fisher who was at the League of Nations said in 1923 that it was
> “no flattery or exaggeration to say that the greatest sensation of that
> meeting was furnished by the eloquence of Mr. Sastry”. **The literary
> supplement of the London Times said that “Mr. Sastri was one of the
> Greatest Masters of the written and spoken English of his day.”*
>
> *The Pretoria News of South Africa said
> “it is a curious thing that the two best English speakers in South Africa
> are not Englishmen. One is a Dutch man Mr. Hofmaeyr and the other is an
> Indian, Mr. Sastry. Mr. Sastry has the **Asquithaian gift* *of
> compression which goes along with the choice of inevitable word.”
> The Washington Evening News
> observed *
>
> * “Mr. Sastry spoke the purest English”.** He was like a blood-brother
> Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhiji once wrote to Mr. Sastry “your criticism soothes,
> your silence makes me nervous”. Sastry agreed to correct the English
> translation of Mahatma Gandhi’s Autobiography and insisted that he should
> be allowed to remain anonymous. Yet Mr. Sastry could not see eye to eye, on
> the political plane, with Gandhiji. Mr. Sastry could not agree with
> Gandhiji on the issue of non-co-operation. His constant opposition to
> Gandhi’s political policies was the result of his political philosophy.
> Like Burke, he loved order and dreaded anarchy. He preferred reform to
> revolution. He had an abiding faith in the efficacy of the constitutional
> methods. He believed in steady progress rather than a tumultuous change.*
>
> * Towards the very end of his life Mr.
> Sastry who was ill had the supreme blessing of being visited by the
> Mahatma, in Madras in January-February 1946.*
>
> *He was always modest and never aspired for the glamour of position. He
> declined twice the Knighthood conferred on him, as also the Chairmanship of
> the Council of the State. He was born humble, remained humble, leaving a
> rich heritage. He died a true and devoted servant of India leaving a
> shining example for others on 17th April 1946.Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of
> the Nation paid this glowing tribute “Death has removed not only from us,
> but from the world, one of India’s best sons. I am sure he had no thought
> of himself even on his death-bed. His Sanskrit learning was as great as, if
> not greater than, his English. I must not permit myself to say more save
> this that though we differed in politics, our hearts were one, and I
> could never think that his patriotism was less than that of the tallest
> patriot……”*
>
> * Rt. Hon’ble Srinivas Sastry’s speeches took the English men by storm:
> They listened to his speeches in rapt attention. Under his portrait in
> Guild Hall of London, the following lines were written:*
>
> *‘Here is an Indian who taught English to English men! *
>
> *__._,_.___*
>
> *Courtesy: **"G.Balasubramanian" [email protected] <[email protected]>*
>
> *Regards*
>
> *V.Sridharan*
>
> *Trichy*
>
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