Dr.Chettiar's Correspondence

letter to K.M. Panikar

        25th October 55

Dear Sardar K.M. Panikkar,

25th October, 55. Before I proceed to acknowledge your kind letter of the 7th October you must give me the privilege of tendering my thanks and congratulations, if I may be permitted to use the words, to you on your 'performance' in the matter of submission of the S.R.C. Report. The country is grateful to you and your colleagues, and incidentally South India is proud of you, and friends like me feel delighted even to be able to think that one whom we know in flesh and blood is the author of such an epoch- making Report. As I write the Chief Ministers would have discussed this Report at Delhi. Whatever decisions the Government of India may take on this Report, the greatest credit will be owed to the noble band of three great personalities including your goodself.

I have no competence to go into an assessment of that historical document - S.R.C. Report - but ne thing in which I am immediately interested is the beautiful paragraph which you have added in the body of your Report regarding the need for the constitu- tion of a Central University in the farther South of India. Read along with your talks and your encou- ragement given to me on many an occasion, I was able t6flnd the value of X in that algebralcal equation which many others, however eminent might not have been able to solve. I said to myself "X is equal to Karaikudi". I do hope and trust that you will kindly pursue your line of thinking, keep the target in view, work for it and create the necessary • climate for the formulation of the proper decision, in a not very distant future. I am indeed most grateful to you for your very kind and most generous treatment of your young friend.

Regarding Poet Vallathol, as you have indicated, Mr. Rampi my Principal has already spoken to me, and you may take it I will certainly do my little bit towards that mighty object of Kerala Kala Mandalam. I was looking forward to the visit of Poet Vallathol but I understand he did not stay in Madras until I returned. In any event I shall do the needful by talking the matter over again with Mr. Tampi. With kind regards,

With kind regards,

Sd.. Dr.RM.Alagappa Chettiar

letter to K.M. Panikar

          3rd January 56

Dear Sardar K.M. Panikkar, I have very great pleasure in wishing you a most Happy New Year and I am confident that the incidence of Your happiness will be greatly reflected in the happiness of our great Continent which you have been & are serving with so much devotion, feel & ability. I am confined to bed since the 6th of December. Doctors say that the diagnosis shows it to be a case of T.B. in the bone. I have been ordered to lie in bed and undergo treatment which may continue upto February. God is great, and I am bearing it meekly. I was anxiously looking forward to come over to Delhi, meet you, take your guidance and go about 'pursuing' the progress of the Central University at Karaikudi. But that was not to be, and I am in bed and have to be in bed for another two months. I was even looking forward to come over to Cheruthuruthi for Poet Vallathol's function when our Prime Minister participated and presided over the Silver Jubilee celebrations and about which you might remember you spoke to me at the airport the other day when I met you. But all plans have now to be shelved for a period of two to three months. However, I want to pursue the plan in a different way by writing to good friends, and particularly to the friend on whom I am relying so much - Sardar Panikkar. You told me last time that it would be better if I also spoke to the President and requested him to speak to Maulana Saheb regarding the Central University. I am enclosing a copy of the President's speech (which, I believe, I have already sent to you along with other materials) and you will kindly note in the space marked against that the President himself speaks of a full-fledged separate University as the consummation of my efforts at Karaikudi. I wish you kindly take particular notice of this very important and kind pronouncement of the President and do whatever you feel and proper. Lying in my bed, you can understand my inability to approach either Shri Humayun Kabir or Dr. Radhakrishnan except by correspondence. I do not think it quite proper to go on in that direction beyond a certain extent. Hence, I shall be most grateful if you could kindly inform me what I should do and keep me informed of what you are doing for the idea of the Central University to which you yourself had given your blessings, from the earliest instance. I have been reading from my bed your magnificent speeches in varied fields at Calcutta. I was very much struck and impressed by your reference to the string of pearls which our ancient Rishis were wear- ing as part of their austere attire. With kind regards, Yours sincerely, Sd.. RM. Alagappa Chettiar Sardar K.M. Panikkar 14, Akbar Road, New Delhi.

Sd.. Dr.RM.Alagappa Chettiar