Jayalalitha – the one and only Ammasses.

                                          Jayalalitha – the one and only Ammasses.

I have been away from my home state Tamilnadu for more than five decades. I have had no opportunity to meet Jayalalitha nor had I been a beneficiary of her welfare schemes even by a fraction. Yet I felt hugely sad and distressed as though a close family member had departed.  I had tears in my eyes as I heard the last post feebly rising out of the din of non-stop commentary the TV channels were giving and saw the lowering of the sandal casket bearing her mortal remains that shall henceforth be her resting place.

I came back to my desk and away from the TV channels which went on and on with comments by the anchors and experts who did not have the minimal propriety to observe a second’s silence when the bugles sounded the last post. So carried away by their eloquence about pre- and post- Jayalalitha that they forgot the solemn present when the gun salute tributes were paid to a truly worthy soul. I could not stop the tears in my eyes even though I was in no way even acquainted with her. She was not “Amma” to me in the sense she was to millions of people in her state.  She has been deified by them as “Parashakti”, the Supreme Goddess, the divine feminine energy often referred to as Adi Shakti, the creator, observer and destroyer of the whole universe. Yet her death struck a tragic chord with me and I know that I am in the league of similar people-though a minority- who would have experienced a deep sense of loss though far removed from Jayalalitha. What is about Jayalaitha- whom Amul fondly refers to as “Ammasses”- that has made many of us tearful?

Jayalalitha’s death signals the end of an era- an era known for its punctiliousness in speech, action, conduct and observance of social conventions. It is an era far removed from the present selfie era characterized by brashness, vanity, self praise, narcissism and bragging. This is the era of social media. Facebook and Twitter are the technological means to keep up the pretence of connection while they serve to distance us from reaching out to others. Jayalalitha, not the reel-life but the real life person belonged to the era that valued well groomed looks, was always perfectly attired with not a strand of hair out of place. She was elegant without being flashy and a picture of dignity.  She spoke when she had to and spoke softly and used words with clarity and precision. She was economical with words but remarkably facile in her expressiveness and articulation. She was a woman of action and her actions spoke for her. Unlike the present generation, she had no use for the social media and she could easily connect with people through her actions. The “I, me, myself” tenor of the new brand of politicians was altogether missing as she did not have to boast about what she had done. It was manifest in all the welfare schemes she piloted that reached the public without the need for an interface through social media between her and the public. She was publicity shy and she remained aloof because of this psychological inhibition to be in the limelight. What should have been hailed as a self effacing quality was misconstrued as haughtiness and arrogance. That era of Jayalalitha was laid to rest last evening. In many ways, she had a striking similarity with Indira Gandhi, who was an extraordinary woman of few words and of dynamic action. Indira Gandhi was also a private person who kept a clear distinction between her official status and her personal life. Jayalalitha never allowed any kind of media snoop into her private life and she faced the backlash for her privacy when she was vilified with equanimity, silence  and a determination to get her back on the vilifiers.

Amma to her masses, a Durga to her vilifiers. Jayalalitha was the despair of her adversaries because of her razor sharp intellect and her remarkable ability to feel the pulse of the poor and the needy. Like Indira Gandhi, she was also called the only man in the cabinet. But Jayalalitha was not a feminist despite her schemes for women’s development. Her exclusive focus on women was due to her perception that the key to the welfare of society and the well-being of man lies in the welfare of women. Amma food, Amma water, Amma pharmacy, Amma health projects, Amma seed for the farmers, Amma scholarship were not for women alone, but for both men and women. More importantly , she  recognized that society, still patriarchal in the modern world, accepts women only as mothers, wives and daughters. Having personally suffered slander and abuse as a single woman, she took on the role of Amma, the Mother of all by providing food at subsidized rates, by caring for the sick and suffering, by taking special interest in the education and development of young women. She also understood her people’s religious faith irrespective of whether they were temple visitors or church goers or worshippers in the mosque. She renovated places of worship and provided the priests regular salary. For the first time a state dogged by the professed  atheism of Dravidian politics, Jayalalitha introduced the study of Vedas and temple rituals to pujaris and temple priests and upgraded the quality of Sanskrit scholarship. All this she did without proclaiming any Hindutva ideology. She in many ways represented the earlier era where great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Pt. Nehru, Sardar Patel, Rajaji  combined the pride of an openness for the Hindu civilization with the openness of a catholic, liberal and tradition- unbound modern civilization. She succeeded because she had supreme self confidence in her ability to carry out what she felt was right and doable. Despite being born in a Brahmin family she was accepted by all classes notably the large majority of non Brahmins because she proved her to be beyond caste, class and creed. There have been many charges against her of corruption, but they have to be proved. She showed no trace of anxiety, embarrassment and fear when she was sent to prison twice. But she came out and bounced back to be the Chief Minister on both occasions. 

No one is a wingless angel in this world. Jayalalitha is also one of us. But when in the final analysis, we look at her life, her struggles, her forced entry first into the film world and later into politics and her determination to succeed despite her initial reluctance and her gradual evolvement into an ace administrator, a leader of the masses, a dear and revered  “Amma” to millions of Tamils who came to pay their tributes on her final journey, they  stand as a testimony to her efforts to realize her true human potential.

As I wrote these words, I gradually understood why I and many others so distantly removed from her were moved by her death. This is not just a tear for the dear departed nor for the end of an era, but for the tragic fact that the evolution of a progressive human life had to be cut short before it could realize its full potential.   But as we know that life has to move on and there will be someone to step in and carry out the unfinished work of Amma on a more magnified scale.  I looked at the sky and found the stars shining.