That was the period when the Task Force was formed to hunt down Veerappan. At that time, unspeakable horrors such as tribal killings, gross violations by officers and soldiers of the Task Force, violence against villagers, and sexual rape of tribal women took place in the hilly villages of Sathyamangalam forest. Children born to sexually assaulted tribal women are still growing up there. A people’s struggle took place in Sathyamangalam to bring together the hill dwellers who were subjected to numerous ethical violations that went unaddressed by justice, and to obtain proper legal justice for the mothers and compensation for the victims.
A large crowd of hill dwellers, one from each affected house in Sathyamangalam and various hill villages around it, gathered in one place. Surrounded by the crowd of hill dwellers, a man dressed in Khadi was holding a microphone and talking. Bursting with anger, his eyes streaming with tears of indignation and sorrow, his heart pounding with righteous fury, he was talking in a high voice as though pronouncing words of justice. After he finished speaking, all the people decided to walk towards the Chief Secretariat at Fort, Chennai, as their immediate action of protest. The walk was carried out with the aim of making the whole of Tamil Nadu aware of the injustice meted out to them. It was a pilgrimage on foot, from Sathyamangalam to Chennai.
After the rally started and proceeded for some distance, the police came unexpectedly and arrested the people. They forced the people into separate groups and confined them in separate halls. After that, a police vehicle came and picked up all the people and dropped them at their respective hill hamlets and returned. That arrangement was because if people were released all at once, they would come back and start protesting in groups. Before dark, the police had taken all the adivasis back to their respective villages.
Nammalvar and I were staying at Marutham Kumar’s house on the day of this incident. Then, around eleven o’clock at night, the information about the Sathyamangalam protest reached us. We all left and went to that place. That was when I saw that momentous scene of my life… The people who were forcibly taken away by the police and left in their hill villages, all those hill dwellers, returned spontaneously and gathered again as a mass on one side of the hill. After eleven o’clock at night, four or five men with torches held high in their hands led the way, and all the people began their march of struggle into the darkness of the hill. I was so moved by that scene.
They are simple hill dwellers who have not been trained in any philosophies. Yet somehow, all the people spontaneously reunited. What brought them all together, even though no one sends information to anyone? Then I realised something. A zeal that started from the faith and conviction of a single man has taken deep roots in the minds of all men like a toad inside a rock. VP Gunasekaran, a man in Khadi, was the one who united and led the entire struggle. It was from that moment that I began to imbibe the incomparable stalwart named VPG.
A few months later, I went with VPG to the hilltop villages in Sathyamangalam. A district secretary of the Communist Party also came with us. A tribe brought their box full of clothes and other things for a three-day stay in the mountains. We had been asking for VPG’s bag so that we could carry it, but he never gave us his bag. The trek started. We walked and continued walking, over ridges, single tracks, vertical slopes and through dense forest trees. We climbed and crossed two full hills and reached a hill village. It is too far even to remember the distance.
We stayed in a school in the middle of that mountain village. Then, at night, VPG was sitting with ten villagers in the lantern light and explaining the contemporary conditions to them. He shared with them information about the progress of the protests and further course of action.
After talking to them, he came to us and said, “All this trouble here is due to sandalwood. No one here uses sandalwood…”. When Nandhu asked, “Why, Comrade?”, he replied, “Yes… they cut sandalwood trees for its use. That’s why none of our people use sandalwood.” This is their belief. They have it as part of their worship of God.
VPG is almost a family member in every hill village house. He knows the names of all the small children there. He calls everyone by name from his memory. Once, sitting near a mountain house while we were talking, he pointed out to us a scene. A dog quickly climbed up a papaya tree, ate a ripe papaya at the top and came down again. As he was showing it to us, a sudden noise was heard. A pregnant woman was in labour pains. Comrade VPG immediately told us, “There is no modern medical facility here. No matter what the problem is, we have to go to the lower foothills only.”
Some of the people quickly joined together to make a big cradle by combining two bamboo poles and a piece of cloth. By that time, the pregnant woman was lifted and laid down in the cradle, and some of the men held the poles on their shoulders and started to climb down the mountain quickly. The area was such a steep vertical land. The idea of cradling a pregnant woman on such a track and climbing down at top speed without missing a step gave me a shudder. I did not even dare to think about the state of mind of the pregnant woman who was throbbing in pain with every step until she reached the foothills.
Then VPG said, “This happens only when there is a very difficult situation. According to the belief, they have a traditional tribal medicine. That is, when elephants give birth in the wild, they take the placenta of that elephant and process it for a certain days and preserve it. They will take that processed medicine and place it on the back of the pregnant woman’s knee, and then press the knee. After some time, the woman will have a normal delivery.” It remains with me as an unforgettable tribal memory. Thus, VPG knew about that hill and the life of its tribes thoroughly.
We also met another tribe on that hill. I could not picture that man. He was a man whose face was disfigured by a bear. Comrade V.P.G. worked hard to get medical aid and financial support for his survival. V.P.G. tried everywhere and exhorted many for the sake of the welfare of a simple old man living in the mountains. It was after that trip with Comrade V.P.G. that we started the Cuckoo Children Movement.
Under a large banyan tree at Kiranur Sanmarka Gurukul, there is a school for the children of the surrounding villages. A 98-year-old man who is a follower of Vallalar runs the school. By the old and wizened hands of that venerable old man, Comrade V.P.G. received the first ‘Mugam’ award of Cuckoo.
Immediately after receiving the award, VPG called the children there and said, “These are the ones who should keep this” and handed it to them, but the Old Man of the Gurukul said, “No… you only should keep this” and made the award to be handed over to him by the children.
After a few days, one day, when I randomly visited the Communist Party office in Bhavani, the ‘Mugam’ award with a printed and framed picture of Buddha was hanging on the walls of the office. When asked, “Comrade… why is this here?”, he said, “Yes, this is given in recognition of my social work. So it should be here. How can this be kept in my house?”. After talking to him, when I came out of the office, I saw the words ‘Action is the greatest word in the world’ written in big and bold letters.
The camaraderie between Dr. Jeeva and VPG is so soulful, so transparent. Together with the doctor, VPG tried to build a hospital in a hill village. That place later became a school. Eventually, that place became a hall where regular workshops were held. These two were behind every initiative possibility.
Once, the Communist Party office in Chennai planned to build a commercial complex in their own party premises. However, Dr. Jeeva and VPG together made a request to build a society hospital there. They envisioned it as not just a hospital, but an overall integrated complex with a nearby library and a retail complex with small shops. Everyone in the Communist Party is from poor backgrounds, and cannot afford medical facilities or an environment. They desired to have a structure in the city that would provide them with a medical service at a low cost. Dr. Jeeva and VPG initiated the action plan discussions for the same. But later, only a commercial complex was built at that place.
Writer Jeyamohan’s book of short stories, “Aram”, was released by VP Gunasekaran. One of the Marxists most respected by Jeyamohan was ‘Katharadai (Khadi-clad)’ VPG. Jeyamohan wanted to record the life of VPG as one of his heroes in his book Aram. VPG studied engineering forty years ago. After renouncing all the high-paying jobs that came with it, he started working for the tribal people. There are only four people that I have come to know in my life as communists who do not violate the virtue of the accepted philosophy without any difference between their life and words. One is Shankar, who considered everyone’s misery as his own and simplified himself; Next, the painter Kathiravan, who created numerous libraries without any compromise while living in a cottage. After that, Thangaraj, who has been the district secretary of the Communist Party and is still living and working from a small room given by a school, above all these, that fourth man is ‘VPG’.
When Nammalwar’s book ‘Thai Manne Vanakkam’ (Salute to Motherland) was reprinted, he dedicated the work to VPG. During the work on the book, Alwar said, “Sir, this book should be dedicated to Gunasekaran and that girl in Sirumalai… only to these two…”
Above all, even in this period of illness (the coronavirus pandemic), he stayed with the people in the mountain village and worked hard to get basic help for them. He will somehow approach someone and make available the necessary help and justice to the tribal people. He is also in touch with the youth (up to Pradeep) who are working in the field today. He joins hands with everyone who is at work. He dedicated his life to fulfilling the needs of every tribe.
I met him in my early twenties. During these twenty years, whenever I think of him, his image arises in me in this way. “A man walking with a bag in some mountain village… or someone talking to the tribal people in some hut by the light of a lantern… seeking help for children’s education… or a man carrying four or five blankets to the elderly hill people…” these are the scenes that appear in my memory, whenever I think of VPG.
VP Gunasekaran, a master with excellent qualities and the Protector of Tribal people, joined the Cuckoo Conversations on 01.05.2020. Combining Marxism and Gandhian Thought as his basic philosophies, working with undiminished intensity and great compassion, VPG is the man of action. We are sanguine that the Light for our Life will emerge from his words and actions.