Subramania Bharati Follow

Subramania Bharati (1882-1921) was a Tamil journalist, translator, writer, poet, visionary social reformer and passionate independence activist. Popularly known as Mahakavi Bharati (great poet Bharati), he was a pioneer of modern Tamil poetry and is considered one of Tamil's greatest literary figures. His prolific output covered a wide range of topics, including nationalism, democracy, religion, the emancipation of women, child marriage, the caste system, nature and the environment, love and romance, philosophy and spiritualism and the Tamil language. During the colonial period, his pro-independence journalistic writings and patriotic songs led to him being marked by the authorities. In 1908, he moved to Puducherry, where he lived in exile until 1918. On his return to India, he was arrested and imprisoned. Bharati died in poverty in 1921 from injuries sustained from a temple elephant in Chennai. In recognition of his exceptional contribution to Indian culture, the Government of India conferred him the title of Indian 'National Poet', and Bharathiar University, a state university established in Coimbatore in 1982, was named after him.

Gregory James is a graduate of the Universities of Edinburgh, Reading, and Exeter. He followed a career in language education in England, Germany, India, Iran, and China (Hong Kong), where he now lives in retirement. His publications include Colporul?: A History of Tamil Dictionaries (Chennai, 2000), and translations into English of works by Erode Tamilanban: Poems of Questions (Chennai, 2018), and Glow-worm Woods (Chennai, 2019), the former with Loraine Bock, also into Spanish, Poemas de Preguntas (Chennai, 2019). In 2020, Professor James was presented with the Veeramamunivar Award of the Government of Tamil Nadu.