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A peek at the past

P. Padmanabhan talks about the election process in Pondicherry during the French rule

PHOTO: T. SINGARAVELOU

HISTORY, HIS CALLING P. Padmanabhan

With the election round the corner, it is the hottest topic of discussion wherever you go. With all the attention now focussed on the electoral process, Metroplus decided to find out how elections were conducted during the French regime in Pondicherry.

"Elections in French India were not free and fair. The French did not implement the ideals of `Equality, Liberty and Fraternity' here. There was no freedom of speech or expression," says P. Padmanabhan, who has done extensive research on the French rule in India. His doctoral thesis titled "The role of Tamil Journals in French Indian Freedom Movement", now brought out as a book, discusses the French rule and records the history of Pondicherry.

"Savarirayalu Naickar, the vice-chairman of the Bahour Municipality in 1910, wrote a poem describing the election process during the French rule. He says that during the elections, the French police beat up people who favoured freedom from the French. They would seek refuge in British India. Communist leader V. Subbiah in an article written in 1934 in the Suthanthiram magazine, criticised the two electoral list policy of the French government," says Padmanabhan, a double MA in Tamil and Journalism. He's been working on this topic for seven years.

"The French curbed the freedom of many journals including Sukabiviruthini, Suthanthiram, Desasevagan and Kudiarasu. These magazines that were brought out from French India opposed the French rule. The editor of `Sukabiviruthini', Venkatasamy Naicker, underwent a lot of problems because he opposed them. His newspaper was banned in 1939," says Padmanabhan.

In his book, the author discusses the role of newspapers and magazines from British India including "The Hindu", "Swadesamithran", "Dinamani", "Kalki", "Ananda Vikatan" and "Kumudham".

DEEPA H RAMAKRISHNAN

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