DR V HARIHARAN- A FREEDOM FIGHTER, SOCIAL REFORMER AND PIONEER OF THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT

Dr V Hariharan, 1941

Our grandfather, Dr V Hariharan a true Gandhian, freedom fighter, social reformer and a pioneer of the cooperative movement in India, was born at the turn of the 19th Century in a small town in South India. From there on his journey as a young man smitten by Mahatma Gandhi's call for freedom, incarceration as a political prisoner, being the only modern medical practitioner in a small town, foray into politics in a newly independent India, eventual disillusionment and finally putting his heart and soul into the cooperative movement is a story as monumental as that of India itself in the first half of the last century. Only it has so far never really been told. An educated and modern professional of his times, he himself never believed in either showcasing his work and contributions and gaining mileage out of it. It is probably because of this he found himself a misfit in the dirty grind of politics in Independent India and quit politics after dabbling in it for some time.

Birth and Early Days

Childhood Photo c.1905

He was the eldest of the eight children born to S Venkatarama Iyer (1872-1932) and Meenakshi. He was born at Bellary in the erstwhile Mysore State on 23rd March, 1899. His father , who started his career as clerk at the Tehsildar office at a salary of Rs. 12/- per month, had by this time become a Tehsildar himself. Hariharan was so named after the family deity, Ayyanar of Perungaloor (a village located between Thanjavur and Pudukkottai). He had his schooling at Bellary, Harpanahalli and Madras.


Medical Practice and Move to Arni

Wedding to Janaki, 1928

After completing SSLC in 1915, he enrolled in Royapuram Medical School, Madras (precursor of the present Stanley Medical College) in 1916 and became a Licensed Medical Practitioner (LMP) in 1921. While at Madras, he became very close to the family of his cousins (his mother's sisters' seven children, who later settled at Kanchipuram), whose eldest son was P S Srinivasan, also an LMP became his role model (Dr Hariharan later named his eldest son after him). He spent about an year, with him to gain work experience, and then set up practice at Tiruvannamalai. In 1928, he was married to Janaki (second daughter of K Krishna Iyer, Shorthand Reporter of Sub-Inspector rank and attached to the Shorthand Bureau, Police Department and located at Vellore).

He wound up his practice at Tiruvannamalai within an year as he developed severe gastro-enteritis. He went back to Kanchipuram to convalescence. While debating as to where to re-start medical practice, some prominent persons from Arni (near Vellore) approached Mr Krishna Iyer, and suggested that his son-in-law may settle down at Arni, a small town of silk weavers, as there was no modern medical practitioner there. That led to his coming to Arni in 1928 where he stayed on till 1969.

Mahatma Gandhi and the Freedom Movement

Jail Badge 1932-33

How he got involved with the freedom struggle and politics is not clear. Probably it was the influence of his hostel room mate during Medical School days, S Venkataraman ( law student and youngest brother of S. Satyamurti, a well-known Congress leader of Tamil Nadu and Leader of Congress Legislators in the Central Legislative Assembly, famous for his acerbic oratory and ready wit, and one of the founders of Suguna Vilasa Sabha of Madras) and his cousin and role model, Dr PS Srinivasan, at Kanchipuram, that around 1929 he became an active worker of Indian National Congress, besides building up a fairly flourishing medical practice. At that time there were no modern medical practitioners in and around Arni, for at least 100 sq. miles. By 1931 he had become such an enthusiastic Congressman that, despite pleadings by his father against it, he joined the Non-cooperation movement (Satyagraha) launched by Mahatma Gandhi and was imprisoned for one year from February 1932 to February 1933, first at Vellore Central Jail and then at Madurai Central Jail.

Office bearers of Arni Town Club with S.A.Venkatraman,
Collector, North Arcot District 

While in Jail, sometime in 1932, he lost his father. His father was a diabetic and had an injury in his foot due to a nail pierce, which became septic and gangrenous and he succumbed of a consequent massive infection. Dr Hariharan was refused permission by the prison authorities to visit his father on his death bed or to do the funeral rites (as the eldest son) after his death. This hurt him very badly leaving  a lasting sense of regret and anguish that resulted from that refusal. During his sojourn in the jail, Janaki shifted to Anantapur to her Father-in-law's house along with the eldest child Srinivasan (later Dr H Srinivasan) who was about 2 to 2 1/2 years old at that time. After his release from jail he returned to Arni and found another modern medical practitioner, that too an MBBS degree holder (not a Licentiate-a  qualification considered  inferior to the medical degree) had moved in and set up his dispensary next to his own old one and many of his old customers had been taken over by this rival which meant that he had to start from scratch once more and spend a lot of effort to build up his practice anew. This experience led to his not taking a holiday for many many years for fear of losing his patients to his rivals in the profession. Further, he continued to be politically quite active and became President of the Town Congress Committee, then of the Taluka Congress Committee and a member of the District Congress Committee. Mahatma Gandhi visited Arni twice, once in 1932 and the second time in 1934. During his second visit in which he was accompanied by Dr Rajendra Prasad. Gandhiji's visits aimed at boosting Harijan upliftment and the movement for the boycott of Simon Commission, Gandhiji visited Dr Hariharan's residence and held extensive consultations with him, as the latter was already actively involved in the upliftment of the impoverished weaver community of Arni. He thereafter did not extensively  participate in the Quit India movement launched by Gandhiji against the British Raj and opposing India's participation in World War II in 1942. However, he developed Socialist leanings through his friend V C Natesa Chettiar, and came in contact with  V. Subbiah (the Secretary of the Communist Party of French India, Pondicherry) whom he helped when the party was banned during the early part of World War II and he had gone underground.

Role in Post Independence Politics

With K Kamaraj & Kothandarama Chettiar 1949

After the dawn of Independence, he continued working for the Congress Party and was actively involved during the First General Election of India (though he was not given the Party ticket). He also came in close contact with K Kamaraj when the latter became the second Chief Minister of the Madras State in 1954.

However, subsequently he found it difficult to continue in Congress politics as by his own admission he felt that one had to be a sycophant to 'big' leaders like K Kamaraj to advance in the Party. His being a Brahmin, further did not help his cause as anti-Brahminism was fast emerging as the new slogan in politics in Madras State.  Therefore, during  the second  General Election of 1957 he quit the Indian National Congress and set up S A Meenakshisundara Mudaliar as an independent candidate against the Congress candidate W S Srinivasa Rao. The former however lost the election. It was then that Dr V Hariharan decided to quit active Politics and his energies in the Co-operative Movement.

The Cooperative Movement

His post political life was devoted to Co-operative Movement for the uplift of poor weavers. He had started his work among the silk weavers of Arni, organized them into a Silk weavers co-operative which would help them secure silk yarn and jari (mainly from Surat). His socialist leanings might have prompted him to do this work, and possibly his interest in the plight of Silk Weavers might have commenced from his earlier days at Kanchipuram, a well-known centre for weaving  Silk sarees.

Staff of District Co-operative Marketing/Ware Housing Corporation

In addition to being the head of the Cooperative Silk Weaver Society, he was also the President of Cooperative Building Society. He personally ensured that the plans for the Weaver Colony were successfully implemented during 1960-65. He was actively involved in setting up the Arni Consumer's Co-operative Society and the Arni Co-operative Store which is still very successfully running at Thatchur Road,Arni and also was actively involved in setting up and running the Arni Town Co-operative Bank, the North Arcot District Co-operative Bank as well as the District Co-operative Central Store.

Death and Legacy

Tamarapatra Awarded in 1972

As he developed health problems, he left his beloved Arni, his home for over 40 years and shifted to Madras in 1969. He was awarded the awarded Tamarapatra (copper inscribed memento), the highest recognition given to the leaders of India's freedom struggle, for his invaluable and significant contributions to the Freedom Struggle of India in 1972 (on the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of Independence) by the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi. The weaver colony in Arni, founded and personally supervised by him until completion  has been re-named as Hariharan Nagar in his honour.

He passed away on 6th August 1977 at Madras due to Kidney related ailments.

He had six sons and two daughters. His eldest two sons H Srinivasan and Rajan Hariharan followed his footsteps into the medical profession. The former is an internationally reputed Leprologist and a Padma Shri awardee and the latter a gastro-entrologist. The third son Ramani Hariharan joined the Indian Army and actively participated in the 1965, 1971 and IPKF operations, finally retiring as a Colonel in the Intelligence Corps of the Indian Army. The others too excelled in various fields of profession.