TRIBUTE PAID TO SAROJINI VARADAPPAN, SOCIAL ACTIVIST
Varadappan, veteran social activist and daughter of
Tamil Nadu’s last Congress Chief Minister M. Bakthavatsalam, passed away at a
private hospital on Thursday,17th October,2013, after a brief
illness. She was 92.Jayanthi Natarajan, Union Minister of State for Environment
and Forests, is her niece. As Ms. Varadappan had no children, her nephew
Sridhar performed the last rites.Associated with a number of organisations,
especially those working in the areas of women’s welfare and empowerment, Ms.
Varadappan belonged to those genre of activists who would prefer silent and
undaunted work.Born in September 1921, she was initiated into public life early
in her life. She joined the Women’s India Association (WIA) in 1941.When
Mahatma Gandhi came to Chennai in 1946 to participate in the silver jubilee
celebrations of the Hindi Prachar Sabha, she was one of the volunteers posted
on duty. In her interview to this paper several years later, Ms. Varadappan
recalled how Gandhiji, after the prayer meeting, sat along with the volunteers,
who would have to count meticulously the day’s collections of money from the
public. “I learnt that social service was not easy, and that accountability was
important right down to the last paisa,” she had said.
As she went on to associate herself closely with the WIA,
eminent women public figures including Muthulakshmi Reddy, Durgabai Deshmukh,
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and Lakshmi Menon inspired and guided her. Later, she
became the president of the WIA, All India Women’s Conference, All India
Women’s Central Food Council, Indian Red Cross Society (Tamil Nadu branch) and
many other bodies. In the early 1950s, her role in the establishment of
Annapoorna Cafeterias (no-profit cafeterias) in many parts of the city is still
remembered by many old residents of Chennai.When Lal Bahadur Shastri visited
Chennai in 1963 to collect gold for the defence fund, she, as the chairperson
of the State Social Welfare Board, collected 2,000 sovereigns. She set an example
by gifting her 22 sovereign waist-band (‘oddiyanam’). Ten years later, she
headed the Central Social Welfare Board and held the post for four years.For a
person who had to discontinue SSLC because elders in the family would not like
a girl to go to school on attaining puberty, Ms. Varadappan went on to pursue
her studies as a private student. At the age of 60, she got a postgraduate
degree in political science and another PG degree in Vaishnavism. When she got
Ph.D. in Vaishnavism, she was 80.
A recipient of several honours and awards, she was conferred
Padma Shri in 1973 and Padma Bhushan in 2009. In 1983, she became Sheriff of
Madras, the post which no longer exists.Tamil Nadu Governor K. Rosaiah, Chief
Minister Jayalalithaa, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M. Karunanidhi,
Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president B.S. Gnanadesikan and Indian Union
Muslim League State unit chief K.M. Khader Mohideen condoled her death.
Prof. John Kurakar
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