EAST AND WEST – SUBRAMANYA BHARATHIThe westerners (occidental) pride themselves of their democratic traditions, women’s rights
and criticize the rigidity of tradition bound oriental east. We shall see how the great Tamil thinker Subramanya Bharathi makes the arrogant ‘civilised’ West an object of ridicule. This is the story.Once a Chinese
prince visited England. There he was questioned about the customs and backwardness of the Chinese society. The Britishers asked the prince whether it was true that in China the bride never saw the bridegroom before
marriage. To this the Chinese prince replied by asking a very intelligent question. He asked whether it was true that in England the wife never saw the face of her husband after marriage. Bharathi said that of all the languages he knew, Tamil is the sweetest of all. Incidentally Bharati studied in Benaras (U.P) University and he had excellent command over English, Hindusthani and Sanskrit besides his mother tongue, Tamil. Though Bharathi was an uncompromising fighter against western domination, he never missed to notice the great political upheavals in Europe and other parts of the world. Bharathi had great admiration for Shelley, the romantic English poet, and he named himself as ‘Shelley Dasan’ (Servant of Shelley). He was not like the proverbial frog inside the well which thought that the well had the largest quantity of water on the earth. He gave his whole hearted support to the struggles for democracy, wherever it was going on. He spoke about the fall of Czar Nicholas II. Figures like Garibaldi, Mazzini and others were very much known to himIn those days, when it was unaffordable even to posses a radio, such keen interest and deep knowledge of world politics was something to be marveled.SATHYA