Perceptions by Gokul Rajagopal

Bonjour In 1870s, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay had written a poem for his novel Anandamath . The Novel was published during 1882. It was one of the leading selling Novel during that period in Bengal state. The poem was completely a religious based song that was penned to praise Mother Durga and it had more than 10 verses (stanza). " Vande Mataram " means " I Bow to Thee Mother " In 1896, Rabindra Nath Tagore used the first two verses of that poem in the Bengal Independent movement rally. He was treating the Mother Nation as equal to a Goddess. Thus the meaning of " Vande Mataram " was understood as "I Bow to Thee Motherland" instead of "I Bow to Thee Mother". " Vande Mataram " soon gained an identity among all freedom movements that was taking place in India during that time. It became an important lynchpin in the history of Indian freedom struggle. Most regional language poet's started to translate Vande Mat...

Sila Manidargal - A blog to recognize, identify some of the great legends who remarkably changed the society. "Agriculture and Industry should be complemented to each other and it should be aligned to unrivaled Indian culture" Today in Sila Manidargal, we will see about Dr.Tiruppur Subrahmanya Avinashilingam Chettiar. He was a Lawyer by Profession and later, he joined the Independence Movement. He was a strong follower of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He served as the Education Minister of TamilNadu during 1946 - 1949. During his reign, he brought in many reforms and responsible for the below notable achievements: • He was the reformer who introduced Tamil as the medium of instruction in schools • He was the legend who created encyclopedia for kids in Tamil • He was the one who nationalized Bharathiyar Poems • He was the person who mandatorily included the Thirukkural in Primary and Secondary school syllabus Avinashilingam also established few institutions to serve th...

Sila Manidargal - A blog to recognize, identify some of the great legends who remarkably changed the society. Today in Sila Manidargal, we will see about Mr. Khan Sahib who was a brave and a ferocious warrior . He was born in Panaiyur in a Hindu family. He married a Christian girl and followed Islam. Due to caste based murders in his local area, he escaped to Pondicherry. Later he moved to Tanjore and joined British forces as " Sepoy " (In earlier days, Sepoy was considered as least military force) He swiftly learnt different languages, and military defense. Due to his ability and military intelligence, he was promoted as Commandant of East India Company's Sepoys. He was asked to move to Nellore and work under Mohammed Kamal. A few days later he was asked to work for Chanda Sahib as TAX Collector. In 1750s, Chanda Sahib was the ruler of Madurai and Khan Sahib was appointed as one of the TAX collector of Madurai and Tirunelveli. Khan Sahib and Chanda Sahib both t...

Hello Readers! Vanakkam. Nice to meet you all again, through my blog Perceptions . Through this blog, I share some insights and experiences about Travel, venues and Reviews about services. Today I am planning to share yet another Travel Diary. I hope you will enjoy it. To quickly see my other articles, click here . I'm delighted to share this article regarding my visit to Dzogchen Monastery (One of the active Tibetian settlements in India). I was fortunate enough to visit this place on the birthday of Siddhartha Gautama Buddha (8th April). Buddhist Monastery Dzochen Monastery One day, when I was hunting for a new place to visit, I came across the Dzogchen Monastery. The location seemed to be perfect for a one-day trip. I started to surf and gather more information regarding the venue. All these days, I had a thinking that only Northern part of the Nation had Buddhist Monastery. But, I was surprised to find one next to my place. Some of the famous Monasteries in Southern part: Namd...

Sila Manidargal - A blog to recognize, identify some of the great legends who remarkably changed the society. Today in Sila Manidargal, we will see about the person who coined the word "Jai Hind". This South Indian commanded Hitler to ask apology. Who is he? Yes, your guessing is right. It's Mr. Chempakaraman Pillai . His family was of Tamil origin and moved and settled in Thiruvananthapuram. A Botanist from Europe visited India and he got impressed by Chempakaraman's intelligence. He took Chempakaraman along with him to Europe. Later Chempakaraman started the International Pro-India Committee later merged with the Indian Independence Committee in Berlin. His intelligence, brilliant organizational abilities, and courage helped him get appreciation from the German Kaiser. He became the operations head of the German Navy in Indian Ocean. During this period, he destroyed the English war-vessels. For 20 years, he worked for Nazi against British as part of Indian Independ...

Sila Manidargal - A blog to recognize, identify some of the great legends who remarkably changed the society. Today in Sila Manidargal, we will see about Dr. Lakshmi Swaminathan (Capt. Lakshmi Sahgal) who was a doctor by profession. She completed her MBBS degree and MD in Gynaecology and obstetrics. She started her career in Chennai Kasturba Hospital. In 1940, she left Singapore and started to help for Tamil people in Singapore. In 1942, Subash Chandra Bose started Indian National Army in Singapore and his plan was to March India from Singapore via Burma. As per Subash Chandra Bose request, Lakshmi joined and formed INA Women wing (Rani of Jhansi regiment). Women responded enthusiastically to join the all-women brigade and Dr. Lakshmi Swaminathan became Captain Lakshmi. At Burma border, British arrested Captain Lakshmi and she was in jail for a year. In 1946, she was released and she reached Delhi. That was the period where British decided to end Colonial rule in India. ...

Sila Manidargal - A blog to recognize, identify some of the great legends who remarkably changed the society. Today in Sila Manidargal, we will see about " Mr. V. Thirunyanasambanthan" who is a Malaysian Tamil Politician and one of the Founding Fathers of Malaysia along with Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tan Cheng Lock. In 1957, Malaysia attained its Independence from British Empire. Like Mr.Gandhi in India, Sambanthan was a signatory of the Agreement for Malaysia.  Before Malaysian Independence, he fought for the workers' rights which made him more popular among Malaysian Estates. After Independence, he was elected as a Labour and Health Minister. After crowing, Sambanthan started more recruitment campaigns among plantation workers. He promoted Education, Health Plans and Social Security to all Malaysian resident Indian origin people.  British people started to sell the Estates they had after Independence and he made all Plantation working people as partners to buy th...