Indian History of martyrs ! Dr Kitchlew to tinseldom !!

How well do we know our History ! – how much we know Cinema ! – would request your feedback on this post !!!

 

Not many would have heard this Malayalam song nor remember MB Srinivasan, a famous music Director : 

"ജാതി ഭേദം മതദ്വേഷം ഏതുമില്ലാതെ സർവ്വരും സോദരത്വേന വാഴുന്ന മാതൃകാ സ്ഥാനമാണിത്"

(Jaathi Bhedam Matha Dvesham Ethumillaathe Sarvvrum Sodharathwena Vaazhunna Maathruka SthaanamaNithu)

 : "Without any caste difference or religious hatred, all live like brothers in this ideal place."

Kalpadukal (English: Footprints)   Malayalam-language film, directed by K. S. Antony, starring Prem Nazir in the lead role hit the screens in 1962. The film received a certificate of merit at the National Film Awards. Renowned playback singer K. J. Yesudas sang this and was his  first song.  In Tamil, his first recorded song was in the film Bommai (1964) 

In the French countryside near the Pyrenees, a baby donkey is adopted by young children—Jacques and his sisters—who live on a farm. They baptize the donkey, christening him Balthazar, along with Marie, Jacques's childhood sweetheart, whose father is the teacher at the small school next door.  

Paadhai Theriyudhu Paar (transl. Look, the path is visible) is a 1960 Indian Tamil-language drama film directed by Nemai Ghosh. The film stars K. Vijayan and S. V. Subbaiah. It won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil along with Kalathur Kannamma. Its music director was :  Manamadurai Balakrishnan Sreenivasan (1925 – 1988)    

MBS produced many hits in Malayalam films. His style of music involved only minimal orchestration and were noted for their simple lucidity. He is the one who introduced the legendary singer K. J. Yesudas to film industry. He was born to an orthodox Tamil Brahmin family   in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh. He had his schooling at P.S. High School, Chennai. During his college days at Madras Presidency College, he was attracted to communist ideals and joined the Madras Students Organisation. His acquaintance with Nemai Ghosh, a Bengali director, paved his entry into films. His first film song was written to the words of noted Tamil lyricist, Jayakanthan, for the Tamil film Paadhai Theriyudhu Paar. He played a major part in the formation of Indian Peoples Theatre Association (IPTA).

 

Moving away from Cinema to HISTORY -  Sadly, Amritsar is   the place when on 13^th  April 1919 hundreds of innocents were massacred by the British – the  Jallianwala Bagh massacre,  on the orders of Reginald Edward Harry Dyer.  No event within living memory, can ever make so deep and painful an impression on the Indian subjects than the history or the very thought of massacre of innocents at Amritsar.  The ruthless execution has no parallels and this Nation suffered economically more severely from the World war despite no direct participation.   It was the cruel General Dyer who had earlier written  a spirited account of his campaign against some nomad tribes on the frontier of South- East Persia and Baluchistan in 1916. 

The gory massacre was to occur and make Baisakhi day April 13, 1919, a tragic day on that day, local residents in Amritsar decided to hold a meeting  to discuss and protest against the confinement of Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew, (did we ever read anything about them in our history books which preached Gandhi got freedom without bloodshed and Nehru was a tall leader) two leaders fighting for Independence. People were also protesting implementation of the Rowlatt Act, which armed the British government with powers to detain any person without trial. It was no violent crowd – it had a mix of men, women and children,  gathered in a park called the JallianwalaBagh, walled on all sides having  a few small gates.  It was to be a peaceful meeting of peasants and people and included pilgrims visiting the famous Golden temple. 

The  Jallianwala Bagh in Punjab on Baisakhi day,    gathering was to protest against the arrest of two tall political leaders of Punjab - Saifuddin Kitchlew and Satyapal.  They had   shaken the foundation of the British colonial rule in India. It was in 1919 that India had emerged strongly in response to repeated attempts by the Britishers to divide and rule the country particularly on the basis of religion.

As we read about Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, the latter writing letter to his daughter from prison and more – more freedom fighters were obliterated by the tricky historians who painted the version of their choice. 

Satyapal    was a physician and political leader in Punjab, British India, who was arrested along with Saifuddin Kitchlew in Apr 1919 few days before the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.  Satyapal was educated at Cambridge when he was known to Nehru.  In 1915, during First WW he received a temporary King's Commission as a lieutenant in the Indian Medical Service, serving with distinction.  Sooner he was to exit in 1916 and spearheaded the  movement of non-cooperation against the British rule.  He was married and was having a successful practice in the old part of the city of Amritsar. 

On the orders of  Governor of Punjab, Michael O’Dwyer the CID had kept close surveillance on Kitchlew and Satypal from mid-March 1919. Again, following the orders of O'Dwyer, they were summoned to Miles Irving, the Deputy Commissioner's house in the Civil Lines  and were ordered to leave Amritsar and were taken away under military escort.  As the news of the arrest spread, supporters began to gather near Irving's home and what initially appeared a peaceful attempt to make enquiries ended up in a violent clash.  On 13 April 1919, protesting over the arrest, a meeting was called to take place at Jallianwala Bagh. 

Thus both of them were not at the scene of Jallianwala Bagh at the time of massacre of innocents – months later in June 1919, at the trial of the 'Amritsar conspiracy case at Lahore', Satyapal was convicted with 14 others and sentenced to two years imprisonment.

 

Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew (15 January 1888 – 9 October 1963) was an Indian independence activist, barrister, politician and later a leader of the peace movement.  He is most remembered for the protests in Punjab after the implementation of Rowlatt Act in March 1919, after which on 10 April, he and another leader Satyapal, were secretly sent to Dharamsala. A public protest rally against their arrest and that of Gandhi, on 13 April 1919 at Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, led to the infamous Jallianwala Bagh massacre. He was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize (now known as Lenin Peace Prize) in 1952.  

Saifuddin Kitchlew was born on January 15, 1888 in Amritsar, in the Punjab Province of British India of the Kitchlew clan, to parents Azizuddin Kitchlew and Dan Bibi. His father owned a pashmina and saffron trading business and originally belonged to a Brahmin family of Baramulla, who had converted to Islam from Hinduism. His ancestor, Prakash Ram Kitchlew, had converted to Islam and his grandfather, Ahmed Jo migrated from Kashmir to Punjab in the mid-19th century after the Kashmir famine of 1871. Kitchlew obtained  B.A. from Cambridge University, and a Ph.D. from a German university, before practising law in India.  

Kitchlew was opposed to the Muslim League's demand for Pakistan and later in the 1940s became President of the Punjab Congress Committee. In 1947 he strongly opposed the acceptance of the Partition of India. He spoke out against it at public meetings across the country, and at the All India Congress Committee session that ultimately voted for the resolution. He called it a blatant "surrender of nationalism for communalism". Some years after partition and Independence, he left the Congress. He moved closer to the Communist Party of India. He was the founder president of the All-India Peace Council and remained President of 4th Congress of All-India Peace Council, held at Madras in 1954, besides remaining Vice President of the World Peace Council.  

Kitchlew moved to Delhi after his house burnt down during the partition of India riots of 1947, spending the rest of his life working for closer political and diplomatic relations with the USSR. He received the Stalin Peace Prize in 1952. In 1951, a Government Act made him, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, life trustees of the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Trust.  

He died on 9 October 1963, survived by a son, Toufique Kitchlew, who lives in a Lampur village on the outskirts of Delhi, and five daughters. While four of his daughters married men from Pakistan, one daughter, Zahida Kitchlew, was married to the South Indian music director M. B. Sreenivasan who worked mainly in Malayalam and Tamil film industries. 

National integration and patriotism were themes that always drove MBS and he believed in using music to instill these into children. He founded the Madras Youth Choir in 1970 and registered it in 1973. He composed songs of Tagore, Subramanya Bharathi, Iqbal, Vallathol etc. that spoke of patriotism, national integration, environment, social values etc. He explored, through choral music, ways to bring a positive change in society.  With just a simple harmonium and table as instruments, he used the human voice to create the effect of an orchestra. He, with the members of his Choir, went to the rural districts of Tamilnadu and Kerala and sang to the people, trained children and youth groups thus spreading mass singing movement in a big way. He was responsible for the AIR choral group at Madras as well.   MBS also acted in a Tamil movie, Agraharathil Kazhutai.

 

The link of Cinema to History is MBS was married to Zahida Kitchlew, a Kashmiri Muslim, who was the daughter of the freedom fighter Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew. They had a son named Kabir. None of them are still alive. 

He was the architect of the Cine Musicians' Union in Madras and various Cine Technicians Unions in South India. He ensured timely payment of wages (spot-payment) for musicians and their wages were decided based on the person's skill and experience. He also helped in regularising their working hours. While he strove for the security and status of workers, he also reminded them of their responsibility in delivering the work. He believed in responsible union activity. 

MBS who played the lead role of eccentric professor in John Abraham's "Agraharathil kazhuthai". According to some, some parts of this film was shot in Komutti bungalow in Triplicane.  

M. B. Sreenivasan died suddenly of a heart attack while conducting a choir in the Lakshadweep islands on 9 March 1988. His body was later taken to his homeland, and was cremated there. Zahida, his wife, outlived him for 14 years, dying in 2002. Kabir, who suffered from advanced schizophrenia, died in 2009.

 

Renowned KJ Yesudas sang his first song –‘ Jaathi Bhedam Matha Dwesham’ in the movie Kalpadukal based on the life of Sree Narayana Guru, to the music of MB Sreenivasan. Au hasard Balthazar, a   tragedy film directed by Robert Bresson was released in 1966. Believed to be inspired by a passage from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 1868–69 novel The Idiot, the film follows a donkey as he is given to various owners, most of whom treat him callously. Agraharathil Kazhutai (transl. Donkey in the Brahmin village)  was based on this movie.   

Forget Cinema, forget everything else … .. .. remember Indian freedom struggle was gory – thousands were massacred in Amritsar and thousands of youth fought and gave their lives for the freedom of this Country.  British were not merciful nor was freedom gotten without fight or bloodshed.

Jai Hind. 

Regards – S Sampathkumar

25.4.2026