Amsi Narayana Pillai (1896 1981) was a well-known poet, journalist and freedom fighter in Kerala. Amsi Narayana Pillai's ''"varika varika sahajare"'' (Come on, come on time for hard times), captured the heart of the people of Kerala, during the Indian freedom struggle. He wrote this song for the salt satyagraha from Kozhikode

Vadakara Vatakara, also spelled Vadakara (formerly Badagara), , french: Bargaret, is a Municipality in the state of Kerala, India. Vatakara is located between Kannur and Kozhikode. The municipality of Vatakara covers an area of and is bordered by Ma ...

Payyanur Payyanur, , is a municipal town and a taluk, a sub-district administrative unit, in the Kannur district of Kerala, India. On 10 March 2018, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated Payyanur as the fifth taluk in the district. Payyan ...

Biography

Early life and background

Narayana Pillai was born in 1896 in the small village of Amsi,

Thengapattanam Thengapattanam (also referred to as "Thengapattinam", thennaipattinam" and "thenpattinam" ), named after dense coconut grooves, is a major trade and tourism centre in the painkulam panchayath along the coastal plains of Kanyakumari district. T ...

Kanyakumari District Kanniyakumari district is one of the 38 districts in Tamil Nadu state and the southernmost district in mainland India. It stands second in terms of population density among the districts of Tamil Nadu. It is also the richest district in Tamil Nad ...

to Thanu Pillai and Lakshmi Pillai. Amsi Narayana Pillai grew up hearing the tales of freedom fighters like Veluthampi Dalava, Ayyappan Marthandan Pillai which influenced on him and inspired him in later years to renounce a Government job and dedicate his life towards the cause of Indian Independence . Narayana Pillai left the clerk in the Travancore Police Department and joined the

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...

Journalism

He worked as sub-editor of Swaraj, a weekly published by A.K Pillai for some time. In 1924, he launched the ''Mahatma'' weekly at Trivandrum, with the blessings of

Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

. The Mahatma aimed at spreading Gandhian values among the general public. His early poems were published in Mahatma. The early Socialist Organization, ''Youth League'' under the leadership of Kelappan, started with the song written by the Amsi. Amsi participated in Vaikom Sathyagraha, Guruvayoor Sathyagraha and actively encouraged the people to join via his weekly .

Salt March

In 1930, a group of 25 people under leadership of ''Ponnara Sridhar'', N.C Shekhar and Amsi Narayana Pillai stated a march from Trivandrum to join the

Salt Satyagraha The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, Dandi March and the Dandi Satyagraha, was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India led by Mahatma Gandhi. The twenty-four day march lasted from 12 March to 6 April 1930 as a di ...

in Kozhikode. The group sang the ''"varika varika sahajare"'' song along the way. All three governments (

Travancore The Kingdom of Travancore ( /ˈtrævənkɔːr/), also known as the Kingdom of Thiruvithamkoor, was an Indian kingdom from c. 1729 until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvananthapuram. A ...

Cochin Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Kerala, the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part ...

and

Malabar Malabar may refer to the following: People * Malabars, people originating from the Malabar region of India * Malbars or Malabars, people of Tamil origin in Réunion Places * Malabar Coast, or Malabar, a region of the southwestern shoreline o ...

) banned the song. On the basis of a ban, Amshi was sentenced to six months in prison in

Viyyur Viyyoor is a residential area situated in the city of Thrissur in Kerala state of India. Viyyur is Ward 4 of Thrissur Municipal Corporation. It is dotted by a number of temples, churches, Mosques and is surrounded by lush greenery. It is abo ...

. The Thrissur Magistrate Court has summoned Amshi for participation in the Salt Satyagraha and the writing of the revolutionary song. The song was also published in his Padayalikalude pattukal (Songs of Soldiers) book. In 1941 Amsi started a high school ''Amsi High School'' in his native village to enable education to hundreds of illiterates in that area at that time.

Literary works

Amsi was a prolific writer/poet who wrote books on various subjects (songs of the soldiers, Gandhi Ramayana, poems from the prison etc.) novel, Dramas, Sanskrit plays and essays on Gandhism among others. He composed the "''Gandhi Ramayana''" a modern version of the great Indian epic depicting Gandhiji as

Rama Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular ''avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Being ...

, the nation as

Sita Sita (; ) also called as Janaki and Vaidehi is a Hindu goddess and the female protagonist of the Hindu epic, '' Ramayana''. She is the consort of Rama, the avatar of the god Vishnu, and is regarded as a form of Vishnu's consort, Lakshmi ...

and the

British Government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_est ...

Ravana Ravana (; , , ) is a rakshasa king of the island of Lanka, and the chief antagonist of the Hindu epic ''Ramayana'' and its adaptations. In the ''Ramayana'', Ravana is described to be the eldest son of sage Vishrava and rakshasi Kaikesi. ...

. The poem that became highly popular among the Nationalists at that time. During

, the Government of

Madras State Madras State was a state of India during the mid-20th century. At the time of its formation in 1950, it included the whole of present-day Tamil Nadu (except Kanyakumari district), Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, the Malabar region of North and ...

has banned many of his works. His patriotic song "Varika varika sahajare" used in 2019

Prithviraj Prithviraj or Pruthviraj may refer to: Art and entertainment * ''Samrat Prithviraj'', a 2022 Indian Hindi film Mononym * Prithviraja I (r. c. 1090-1110), Indian king from the Shakambhari Chahamana dynasty * Prithviraja II (r. c. 1165-1169), Indi ...

directed

Mohanlal Mohanlal Viswanathan (born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor, film producer, playback singer, film distributor, and director who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically appe ...

film

Lucifer Lucifer is one of various figures in folklore associated with the planet Venus. The entity's name was subsequently absorbed into Christianity as a name for the devil. Modern scholarship generally translates the term in the relevant Bible passage ...

, writer

Murali Gopy Gopynathan Velayudhan Nair Muralikrishnan (born 4 March 1972), professionally credited as Murali Gopy, is an Indian actor-screenwriter, producer, author, singer, lyricist, music composer and journalist. He has written critically acclaimed films ...

sung the song.

References

External links

Varika varika sahajare Song

Documentary about Amsi Narayana Pillai
{{authority control 1896 births 1981 deaths Indian poets People from Kanyakumari district