BIRTH CENTENARY CELEBRATION OF THIRU. KI. VA. JAGANNATHAN

In a khadi dhoti and jubha, with a yellow shawl draping his shoulders, he seemed curiously out of place among the suited and booted men on the dais. But, as usual, he stood out in his humble way. That has always distinguished Dr N Mahalingam from the galaxy of achievers in any forum.

‘Developers India', an organisation for India's development, progress and amity, honoured him on November 18 with the ‘Vibrant Indian' award in Chennai. The invitation said the award was for his corporate accomplishments, humanitarian initiatives, spiritual activism and contribution to Indian thought and culture.

The citation elaborated on this. Calling him a living legend, it touched upon his entrepreneurship, political life as Congress MLA, his deep attachment to the teachings of Ramalinga Adigalar (Vallalar), his interest in research work on Indian history and culture and the great uplift he gave to the game of chess.

Mahalingam was born in 1923 into an agricultural family at Pollachi. After finishing schooling at the Pollachi High School, he joined the Loyola College in Madras and then secured a mechanical engineering degree.

Pollachi Mahalingam, as he is known to the common man, counts himself lucky to have started business during the ‘Planning Era' in post-Independence India. After the banks were nationalised by then prime minister Indira Gandhi, this entrepreneur found it a big boon to start businesses and expand as more and more banks were ready to lend money easily.

Today, the Sakthi Group of Companies is a name to reckon with as it has forayed into sugar, distilling, automobiles, finance, etc.

Since his father Nachimuthu Gounder was a municipal chairman, Mahalingam got initiated into politics very early in life.

He vividly remembers going with his grandfather to witness foreign clothes being burnt during the independence movement in his native place. Fired by what he saw, he took off his foreign-made shirt and threw it into the fire. He has been wearing khadi ever since and that was in 1932!

He got elected from Pollachi and was MLA for 15 years before he got disenchanted with Congress politics and took sanyas from the field.

He began to channelise his energies in other walks of life. His father had been a great devotee of Vallalar and the worship of light (jothi) as advocated by that saint. As his father got older, Mahalingam assumed his mantle and has been a one-man propagation army for the philosophies of Ramalinga Adigalar.

At the awards function in Chennai, he spoke movingly about the verses of Vallalar and how he got drawn into the jothi movement. He also mentioned the residential school in Vadalur, where Vallalar established his Sanmarga Sangam, that has grown in leaps and bounds.

Mahalingam has been associated with historical research and he has written several books and presented papers on various aspects of Indian history. He has sponsored the publication of such research and books. As a member of the Tamizh Varalatru Kazhagam, he has been instrumental in shedding new light on many subjects. He said with sadness that most Tamils these days preferred to study through the medium of English than their mother tongue. As someone who runs several educational institutions, his words carry weight.

While most people are aware of all the work he has been doing in these fields, not many give him credit for what he has done to the game of chess when he was president of the All India Chess Federation and the Tamil Nadu Chess Academy. N Ravi, the editor of 'The Hindu', while felicitating him, praised his contribution in making Tamil Nadu a world leader in chess.

Mahalingam added some details to this facet. He said once he entered the field, he pushed ceaselessly to promote chess as a sport.

First was to get state funding for the players to participate in chess games in other parts of the world (earlier, they were required to spend for themselves). Then he got chess included as a sport in competitions and insisted that banks and other establishments recognise the game and provide jobs for the players. Chess players owe a lot to Mahalingam for the solid backing that he has given them.

Considering the contribution of this multi-talented personality, Ravi called him a “Renaissance man in the classical sense”, who “practised the noblest type of entrepreneurship”.

With all this praise came a citation, memento, ‘saropa' and sword that were presented by Harbhajan Singh, founder-secretary and convenor of ‘Developers India', to this truly ‘Vibrant Indian'.