And of course the fearless doyen of Journalism - S Sadanand
Recently I came across an address which mentioned an A B
Nair Road in Juhu, and I was a bit mystified. I did know about the Nair
hospital in Bombay, but that was related to one A L Nair. Then I discovered
that there was a place in the same Juhu area called Nairwadi. I was even more intrigued by then and set
about finding the story of the person behind the name. The road from that discovery took me through
so many stops, and connected me to the Free Press Journal, a pioneering
newspaper, the legendary Sadanand, journalists like TJS George and HV Kamath,
MKB Nair and even more well-known people like the cartoonists Bal Thackeray and
RK Laxman. I read articles purportedly detailing the causes of Bal Thackeray’s
hatred of Madrasis and in between all these famous characters I found A B Nair
too, to conclude that he was certainly a person of interest. Let me try and
take you through that journey in words.
The story actually starts way back, well before the first
word war. Nair I understand was born in 1906
AB Nair |
This was the time when a bright young man named S Sadanand with
his ideas of a Free press journal arrived in Bombay. Most who lived through
those days will remember Bombay only in black and white, it was the time when the 7 o'clock double
edged blades cost 12 annas for a packet of 10, when a rain coat cost Rs 4 and when
a paperback was priced at Rs2.
A keen student of public affairs, habitually clad in
spotless Khadi, Sadanand was in the thick of politics right from the start of
his career, was a signatory to the pledge against the Rowlett Act, and joined
the Civil Disobedience Movement. Leaving Swarajya he worked initially as a
journalist for government supported API, some years at the Rangoon times and later
became Assistant Editor of The Independent, Allahabad. The nationalist movement
had sowed the seeds of freedom in the minds of Indians and Gandhiji was in the
lead. As Publicity Officer for the Indian National Congress for a while, he
looked after Khadi and Village Industries. The prejudiced API associated press
would not cover such nationalist events and it was this which prompted the
young Sadanand in starting the Free press of India news agency between 1924-1927,
providing news coverage of the Indian struggle. But then, he managed to get a
good infusion of funds from the Bombay businessmen, got Birla and Thakurdas to
join his board, and started the agency, though not fully focused owing to fervent
INC party support and work. The board of directors were very unhappy with the
management of the operations and issued an ultimatum for a changed modus.
Sadanand resisted and with that the entire board walked
away, leaving the company with Sadanand who had by this time taken to radical
editorializing which upset many of his patrons. Newspapers could not carry
factual reports of what Shrivastava calls "official excesses" even
though FPI supplied them. By 1926 he was facing certain ruin but managed some
infusions from industrialists such as GD Birla to continue on a shoe string
budget and by 1929, the situation was so dire that he could not even pay a Rs50
bill. To confound matters, the government was in full support of API Reuters
and denied British wireless access to FPI.
The problem with Sadanad was a lack of professionalism,
though he was always known never to deviate from his motto ‘free and
fearless’.Sahni describes the man aptly – dark, robust and dynamic, he had the
patience of a beggar, the persuasiveness of a woman and the abandon of a
gambler. He persuaded businessmen, did not squeeze them, and was often in
prison. I hope you can now see an image of Sadanand.
Prompt retaliation by the British with the 1930 press
ordinance act resulted in all newspapers shunning the output of the FPI and this
was what forced Sadanad to start an English newspaper, The Free press journal
and the companion evening paper The Free press bulletin. The FPJ only reported
FP dispatches and was considered untarnished reporting. All in all, this
herculean effort caught the minds of many a young journalist and made them join
his team. Sahni details a day at the FPJ at 21 Dalal St– Clad in a khadi lungi (let’s forgive the Northie for this error and
read as dhoti) and a khadi shirt, feet and legs swollen with elephantiasis,
living on a simple fare of rice and rasam, unmindful of heat and cold, Sadanand
slogged day and night, editing, copying, managing the press, writing
editorials, searching for scoops, chasing patrons for money or escaping
pressing creditors, moving between cash and crisis, and yet keeping the flag
flying!!! That was the legendary ‘Free press Sadanand’.
It was by no means the
only nationalist newspaper of the day, but Sadanand was one of a kind and he
gave it a stamp no other paper had. It aimed at the common man as its pricing
policy and writing style proclaimed in every issue. It spoke from the heart and
did not hesitate to chastise the nation’s idolized leaders if the occasion so
demanded. The paper supported the practice of Jewish doctors who had taken
refuge in Mumbai fleeing persecution in Germany in the 1930s. Among the paper’s
founders was Stalin Srinivsan who founded Manikaddi in 1932. Well known
politician, the late Bal Thackeray worked as a cartoonist for the newspaper.
Notable cartoonist R.K.Laxman too worked with The Free Press Journal. T.J.S.
George, the founder-editor of Asiaweek magazine worked under the legendary S.
Sadanand. The veritable who’s who of
Indian journalism have worked with the paper. They include M.V.Kamath, Rajat
Sharma, M.J.Akbar, S.A.Sabavala, Shankar, Dom Moraes, Edathatta Narayanan, EP
Menon, M.V.Mathew (mccullough). The list is indeed very long.
Sometimes he splurged, only to pledge or hawk everything
soon after to buy newsprint or to pay rent.
The restless young man aged quickly in his pursuit for an increased
scale, the purchase of the Indian express, the starting of Tamil and Marathi
newspapers and what not. As another writer Kamath wrote in the mainstream
weekly about the journalists working there - They had, for example, tables and chairs that had a habit of vanishing
overnight, for nonpayment of instalments, as they would learn in due course.
They had salaries embarrassingly lower than those in other newspapers and these
salaries arrived once in two months or so. But Sadanand was famous as a trainer of journalists, though his methods
were somewhat unorthodox.
Bombay 1930's |
During many of these crises, Sadanand turned to one person
for emergency support, and that was AB Nair. A keen businessman, Nair was
certainly tough and practical in his pursuit for a profit. Sadanand as I
understand, did get both business advice and monetary support from Nair during these
tough times.
I will not get into the great details of the travails of
Sadanand and his efforts in the interest of brevity, but in 1933, the FPI and
FPJ faced its severest test and his patron Vissanji Khimji finally launched a
series of suits against the paper for return of their loans. The paper faced
imminent closure by 1935. Sadanand barely managed to get out of this and
continued on for close to two more decades.
During WW II or somewhat before, it seems, Thorleif retired to Olso leaving the reins of his company in Nair’s hands, by which time, much of the equation changed with the invasion of Norway in April 1940, and the closing of the Skagerrack to shipping. Newsprint supplies now came from Canada and the United States and it was time for Nair to move on, even though he had the Norwegian consul general’s position.
This was around the time that the by now invalid Sadanand decided
to throw in the towel and sell out according to journalist MV Kamath. And he
wanted someone whom he could trust on the company's Board of Directors. He was
in deep debt and owed money, among others, to Jaikumar Karnani from Calcutta, the
famous leftist surgeon Dr A. V. Baliga (interestingly the personal doctor of
Nehru, V K Krishna Menon and Sadanand), and the aforementioned AB Nair. Karnani
bought a major share while Nair and Baliga were left with 7% each. AB Nair assumed
the chairmanship of the various newspapers and the role of managing editor and from
this point worked directly within the newspaper industry for the next decade.
NK Murthy mentions otherwise – he narrates that Sadanand
remained editor till he died. After his death, former news editor Hariharan was
editor for some years. And only later did AB Nair take over the
responsibilities. Anyway, Nair then became a member of the executive committee
of the All India newspaper editors conference and by 1961 was the President of
the Indian and eastern newspaper society. According to Murthy, Nair restored
the FPJ to proper shape after its decline, in short time.
But his peers do not agree and state that Nair was too money
minded and very particular about newspaper revenues, advertising, its patrons, the
profits and less so for content, infuriating the committed journalists of the
paper. Baliga’s role was also not appreciated due to his leftist leaning and Moscow
connections. Nevertheless the paper was by now on even keel though some of its
brilliant journalists and cartoonists were getting disillusioned. But then
again, it was a new scene, now that India had become independent and the
original aims of the newspaper had changed direction and nationalism had taken
a back seat. His subordinates mention that like Sadanand, he too was an
autocrat but that Nair lacked Sadanand's qualities of the head and the heart
and remained a pure businessman.
It is time to meet another strong willed person, who worked
in those offices and who tells us how the paper functioned and how Nair and he
crossed swords. The person is none other than Bal Keshav Thackeray. Regrettably
a lot of misinformation circulates about their relationship and there are loose
mentions of Balasaheb not being paid regularly, of Nair’s actions being the
reasons for Thackeray’s hatred for Madrasis and all that. Let’s set that right.
Bal Thackeray began his career as a cartoonist in the Free Press Journal, as
early as 1928. At the Free Press, Thackeray wielded the caricature as a
political weapon fearlessly but was forced to temper his biting commentary. And
Thackarey found himself in an office full of South Indians, headed by the
fearless Sadanand.
The first time Thackaray resigned in 1952 was entirely due
to his ego. He himself narrated so in an interview -There was this unpleasant person Mitra. You find such people
everywhere. He made me sit next to the telephone operator. The phones would
ring and there used be constant noise… ‘hold on, yes please, arrey’. How was I
supposed to finish my work in that ruckus? I need silence even while reading a
newspaper. How could I work in such an environment? That why I resigned.
Anyway Sadanand himself went to Thackeray's house and requested him to rejoin
and Thackeray acquiesced in the name of affection for Sadanand. Alo interesting
is the fact that he and RK Laxman worked together in FPJ for two years, RKL
left in 1949 to join Times of India. RK Laxman mentions in passing – He was a competent and efficient cartoonist,
but was preoccupied with the idea of saving Maharashtra, its pristine glory ,
people, language and culture. Gradually he relegated the business of cartooning
to the background and became an active politician heading a party of his own as
its supremo.
Thackeray’s tiff with Nair came later in 1952. While many
attribute Thackeray’s ire to the Churchill
Bal Thackrey at FPJ |
According to Thackeray, Nair did not like his depicting
certain politicians in a bad light (perhaps they were patrons of the paper?)
Two names mentioned were MR Masani and SK Patil whose caricatures and cartoons
Nair specifically objected to. Anyway Thackeray was incensed about being asked
to stay away from these holy cows and submitted his resignation after telling
Hariharan, his editor that AB Nair did not know the A & B of journalism.
He lays the blame of the cartoon submission on Hariharan
stating that Hariharan had refused permission for his submission of cartoons on
Churchill when Cassel and Co requested it. It was later submitted through
Thackeray’s friend Nadkarni and the whole story in reality had no connection to
Nair. Thackeray also mentions that the paper was more interested in printing
about the causes of diabetes and the ill effects of polio (interestingly MV
Kamath brings out his involvement in that heart wrenching polio story as a
highlight of his career in FPJ!)etc., as well as launching a washing powder
such as Surf and that he was not happy about it. Anyway he left and went on to
start the Marmik and lampoon and list the foreigners to Bombay such as the
various Nair’s, Menon’s, Shah’s, Patels and so on, in sheer spite.
There is also another story related to AB Nair going back to
the time when he started to accept advertisements in the paper, for example
when Surf was launched. This was when a number of journalists resigned from FPJ
to start the newsman’s newspaper, protesting against the blatant
commercialization of the paper by its Managing Editor, A B Nair.
Quoting PK Revindranath writing in keralainmumbai - One morning in August 1959, the Free Press
Journal came out with a screaming eight –column banner headline: WONDER WASHING
PRODUCT COMES TO TOWN, heralding the advent of Surf in the Indian Market. The
entire page was about Surf. The Editor, A Hariharan was surprised when he got
his copy early in the morning. He called up the Chief Sub-Editor on duty the
previous night. He did not know anything about it. Hari then called up A B
Nair, who told him it was a management decision implemented with his knowledge
and approval. “Then I am not coming to your office from today,” Hari told him.
A number of other journalists resigned within the week. They included K Shivram,
M K B Nair, M P Iyer, A K B Menon, Bal Thackeray and P Revindran. They set up a
new company, Readers Publication Ltd to bring out a new daily. Shares of Rs. 10
were sold to raise the capital. The promoters said they planned to bring about
“healthy cooperation between intelligent newspaper readers and conscientious
working journalists.” “The Press today has passed into the hands of vested
interests. It is controlled by men who have big stakes in business profits and
in politicking, by small men who will trade for a license or some preference,
by those who have no stakes in the profession and no conscience worth the
mention,” their statement read….
But people may ask what really riled up Thackeray against
the South Indians. Was it due to the majority of South Indians in places of
literary interest such as the FPJ? Was it due to the issues he had with
Hariharan and/or Nair or some assumed south Indian conspiracy in the FPJ (D
Gupta attributes the conspiracy quote to Thackeray) against him? Anyway he took
issue to various things after that such as non-release of Hindi movies in
Madras, the Udupi hotels of Matunga and so on,
and derisively termed the people of the South as the dark skinned (rhinoceros
skinned) oily people, yandugundu’s, lungiwalas or chataiwalas. His tirades went
thus - ldli Samber Band Kara (Stop Idli Samber), "Madrashana Haklum
Lava" (Drive out the Madrasis).
One clue on Thackeray's fury against South Indians comes
again from the ascent of Nair. Nair according to Thackeray had no clue of the newspaper
business but had brought the paper back to stability and was appointed chairman
of the PTI, the head of the merchant’s chamber and a municipal commissioner. By
1963, AB Nair became the Sherriff of Bombay, a UN delegate and to top it all, an
area in Juhu housing fisher folk was even known as Nairwadi (btw it is still
there PIN 600049). Around that time, the pope visited India for the first time and
Nair was one to welcome and garland this dignitary and hobnob with him.
Some words on the popes historic visit- Pope Paul XVI was the
first pope to have left Europe in 200 years, and around 30,000 delegates from
world over and some 3 lakh people had gathered in Bombay in Dec 1964 to welcome
him. He said - “If it pleases the Lord, I come to India...and I come.” Both
Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Vice President Zakir Hussain were on the
tarmac at Santa Cruz airport as the Pope stepped out of the plane, joining his
hands to say “Namaste”. As his open Ford
convertible made its way south, passing through streets decorated with archways
and bunting, more than a million people of lined his route. After three happy
days, he said this on his departure - “We return to Rome bearing with us an
unforgettable memory of our pilgrimage…here we leave our heart. It was an
achievement as far as AB Nair was concerned, the culmination of two years of
preparation.
Perhaps events like this would have irritated Thackeray no
end for he wrote in marmik about outsider Madrasis being appointed as people in
power such as governors and sheriffs. Probably he picked on them because they
as he experienced himself, were docile, were not the type to strike back (though
the Udupi hotel staff did try to resist a bit). He also mentioned they were
according to him, conspirational and nepotistic. He then exhorted Maharashtrians
to avoid Udupi hotels, Tamilnadu lottery tickets and South Indian grocery shops.
But soon (by 1967) he changed his mercurial mind and redirected his attack to
Bombay’s Muslims and communist outfits while supporting Cariappa, a South
Indian in the elections!
Anyway as Thackeray veered towards politics, Nair and his
wife Chandrika (aka Chandra bai) ventured into spiritualism. He would be seen
associated will all kinds of Swamis such as Nityananda, Muktananda Paramahamsa and
it can be seen that even the Prof AT Kovoor took objection to some of his
activities and writings. It would be of interest to note that Nair was the person
behind bringing the Hare Krishna ISKCON movement to Juhu’s Nairwadi, but that
is a long and convoluted story in itself, for his association with the movement
ended in a lot of controversy over contracts, payments, various legal issues
and so on. It all started with Nair gifting land (180,000 sqft) for the ISKCON
temple in Nairwadi in the early 70’s. Nair also became a member of the temple committee,
but by 1972 August the relationship between Prabhupada and Nair had soured and
a capital gains tax case of 5 lakhs had to be argued at length to be settled
off. Unfortunately in the middle of all this, Nair passed away in 1973 and the
matter was eventually settled with Mrs Nair.
But it ballooned to become a bigger issue after ISKCON’s
Prabhpada passed away and some issues rose up about eviction of settlers on that land. Complaints of harassment were lodged and
a film dancer Dilip Malhotra ended up murdered. Some even suspected CIA
involvement in all this! After long, to cut the story short, the ISKCON temple
was completed.
Nair’s Bhavans journal obituary states – Nair was a great social worker and
associated himself with Sri Chatrapati Sivaji Maharaj Samathi of which he was
the vice president (Wonder what Thackeray had to say about that!).
That was the end of one of the players in our story, a
person who played a titular role in the development of Indian press. The
Bhavans Journal mention continues - A
moving sight on the day of Nair’s death was the tearful tribute from the scores
of fisher-folk and the common people of Juhu - Santa Cruz area whose cause he
has always championed with zeal. As Sheriff of Bombay, he insisted on not
being a mere figurehead, but paid regular visits to prisons and took active
interest in civic affairs and urban development.
Sadanand as we saw previously, had passed away in Madras in
1953, and the full story of his short and eventful life is quite interesting,
but has never been written. Thackeray reigned supreme in Bombay, had it renamed
Mumbai and eventually passed away in 2012.
Each left behind his own legacy. Mumbai the teeming city has
taken a back seat as the IT wave took over India and people perhaps care less
about petty matters like regionalism, these days. But Bombay will always be a
city with character and I will always remember my own years there.
I am told that Nair’s progeny continue in the field of
Journalism….
References
Behind the By-Line – M V Kamath
A reporter at Large – M V Kamath
Communications and power – Milton Israel
Bal Thackeray and the rise of the Shiv Sena – Vaibhav
Purandare
Truth about the Indian press – J N Sahni
Indian Journalism – N K Murthy
Religion, Violence and Political Mobilisation in South Asia
Ed Ravinder Kaur
Romance of Indian Journalism – J N Basu
The unknown Nair – MKB Nair (autobiography)
Pics - Pope visit, Thackeray, Bombay from Google images, up-loaders acknowledged with thanks