We read many women leaders of Tamilnadu from the newspapers
, magazines, books and from the a vast collections in search engine’s archive.
But there are invisible women leaders, who took a lead among successful men in their times, for social
reformations and strengthening an oldest community people, descendants of Pallava kings.
I wish to share about
one such great young woman of 27 years ,
of Tamilnadu, who lead The Vanniyakula Kshatriya First Women’s Conference ,
held at Ammur in North Arcot Jilla, 70
years before, on 4th March 1945, prior to independence in the world
war time. She addressed the gathering on the communities ups and downs,
Education, Women’s Duties and Village Development. As the speech was in Tamil, I am not a
competent enough to do an exact translation and so given here the brief content
in my way, not contradicting the original speech.
( My sincere request to all the readers is, please go
through the complete text of the speech as I believe all of us could read Tamil
well, so that the minute detail of Smt.Dhayanidhi Devi’s speech can be enjoyed
and proudly shared to our next
generation).
A brief biography
about the noble woman :
Name : Smt.
Dhayanidhi Devi
Daughter of :
Sri.Raju Nayagar & Smt.Kanakambujam
Spouse: Sri.N.R.Muniswamy Nayagar ,B.A.,B.L.,(
Advocate )
Born on : 8th
August 1918
Married : 1st
July 1942 ( @Arakonam )
Died on : 14th
May 1962
Children : Four sons
( Sr.M.Chandarashekaran, Sri.M.Mohan, Sri.M.Devendiran and Sri.M.Sampathkumar)
The speech goes on like this. She addressed the women as
‘Sisters and Mothers’ and thanked all
for honoring her to be the Felicitation Committee Head of the First Women’s Conference of Vanniyakula Kshatriya
Community and expressed her profound thanks to all for getting together from all places in and around the state.
She talked about the tough time of war, faced by all Indians
and the economic constraint in all the states and gave hope to all that the war
will end soon and victory and peace will surely come for us. She also pointed out that wartime
emergency support had been extended to the extent possible and may pardon if
there is any shortfall. The ext topic she took was about Vanniyakual Kshatriya
Community’s ancient graceful days and
present lowness. We are the descendents
of Chera , Chola, Pandiya Kings and Pallava kings, who ruled Kancheepuram and
Mahapalipuram as capitals.
Though the population was about 40 lakhs, the community
people holds a backward position in government positions and social orders
because of spending money lavishly for mundane functions. But population keeps
increasing.
Her exemplary talk on
‘Education’ speaks on the importance
of at least secondary education for our community people who cannot afford
the expenses of higher education and try to use the P.T.Chengalvaraya Naicker’s
free education schemes for higher education. Unless we are educated, we cannot
achieve our goal of uplifting our people in the society. In our villages still
people are illiterate and blindly put their thumb impression wherever a
signature is required. Work oriented education will be helpful if anyone who
could not pursue higher education.Now only few of our community people are in city as doctors, advocates , teachers and in
government jobs. We should be given an important place in the society and our
propaganda only can make our effort to attain the equal status among all.
She gave a wonderful
talk on the duties of women folk of our community. How to bring up our
child for the better future of them in the society was stressed by her. Hygiene
, education, good habits, character development, duty, dignity and divine are the qualities to be inculcated among our
children. Women are called as “Graha Lakshmi” and they have to live up to that.
She explains how to receive the husband who comes from work and how a wife can
support to the best possible way to add the house income by doing small craft
works etc.
On the topic of Village Development , she insisted “ no to
drinks “ and how to have a clean and healthy environment for self and the
community. We have to build reading room, night school, co-operative bank and
frequent meetings to socialize our community people.
Social Development depends on all the above reforms and men and women should work selfless. Unity,
self defense, patience, continuous
effort, belief in God, cooperation, peace, good thought and sacrifice will
definitely bring us success to our community people in all walks of life.
Respecting one’s God and having a
brotherhood relation among all community people is important.
She thanked the gathering for their patience hearing at the
end.
To conclude this write up, I wish to share that
Smt.Dhayanidhi Devi was my sister
Vasanthamala’s husband and my brother-in-law,Sri.M.Chandarashekaran’s mother .
Let us be proud of the great soul and there are many take
away from her speech, which is applicable to all of us even today for a better
living, family relationship and social responsibility.
