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Birth centenary of M. Ilanchezhiyan, social activist, writer and an excellent academic!

Some time ago, one of my colleague informed me of a space-time graph in which one can place individuals depending on the influence they had. All humans have the common origin and each one is represented by a point depending on how far their name and fame extended in space and time. Most human beings lie very close to the origin with their influence only extending to their family in their lifetime. Leaders who transformed societies for the better or worse would appear diagonally far away from the origin, as their influence goes beyond their birth place and date. This graph has only positive axes. The distance between the person and those who learn about the person is given in x axis and the time difference between the two is given in y axis. As one can see, no one who lived before the person’s time could know about the person. Some names that come to my mind are Thiruvalluvar, Auvayyar, Buddha, Asoka, Jesus, Raja Raja Chola, Cleopatra, Da Vinci, Napolean, Lincoln, Marx, Hitler and Gandhi. These people are known to many living all over the world for centuries after their birth. It is likely that there are several others in the human history who made contributions which influenced beyond their time and space but remain anonymous. During the time of Goutam Buddha and Mahavir, Makkhali Gosala founded Ajivika (aseevakam in Tamil) and he remains unknown to most now (1). From what I read, Makhali Gosala had thoughts that resonate with me today. Both he and his religion have disappeared now and maybe humanity had been influenced by his thought without knowing. Considering my experience over the last 60 years, I can think of a few whose contributions last but their names fade away. Several of the very influential people that I had known when I was young, are virtually unknown to the youth of today. A. R. Venkatachalapathy, Sahitya Academy winner for Tamil books in 2024, wrote the biography of V. O. Chidambaram Pillai (2), who is popularly called as ‘Kappalottiya Thamizhan’ (Tamil who owned a ship). To my surprise, I found out that most of the youth of today have not heard of him.

Today, 21 October 2025 happens to be the birth centenary of Prof. M. Ilanchezhian who lived in Chennai and Kanchipuram and contributed a lot in his lifetime. I suspect, very few living today know of him. I must reveal that I got to know him as he happens to be my wife’s uncle (elder brother of her father).

There is a Wikipedia page on Prof. M. Ilanchezhian now (3). He was born as the first child of Manikkavasagam and Abirami Ammal in Perunagar near Kanchipuram on 21 October 1925. Father Manikkavasgam was very concerned about the disparity in society we had during his time. Besides, the status of Tamil language in the then Madras state was rather poor. India has a group of people who managed to remain powerful and Tamil was mentioned as ‘narabasha’ (language for the people) and Sanskrit was mentioned as Devabasha. Besides, all classical music festivals would have songs in Telugu and Tamil was forbidden. Tamil is among the oldest language that is still widely spoken and has a rich literature starting from more than two millennia ago. In the middle of last century, Dhandapani Desikar sang in Tamil in Madras (Chennai now) and this upset the organizers. They decided to wash the stage with cow urine claiming the stage has been polluted (4). The popular magazine Kalki wrote an editorial justifying the action. This was strongly condemned by many in the state. After sensing the mood in the state, editor and popular novelist Kalki changed his stand. He had himself written beautiful songs in Tamil (kaatrinilae varum geetham comes to mind). This was sung by M. S. Subbulakshmi and the song was very popular (5). His novel Ponniyin Selvan was very popular as well and made into to a successful movie recently by Maniratnam. Nadars were not allowed to enter the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai and Mookka Nadar was lynched for defying the ban. I have written another blog on this (6). Times have indeed changed now. Recently, I visited Thiruchendur and found out that Shiv Nadar had donated for renovation of the Temple. I understand he donated funds for building the Kalaingar Karunanidhi Library in my hometome Madurai as well. However, during the first half of 20th century, the situation demanded a social reform movement. For most of the people birth determined what one could hope to do in life. Justice party was founded with the main objective of social justice. This led to the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) and Periyar was invited to lead the organization. Manikka Vasagam was very active in Justice Party and then DK. He had changed his name to Manimozhiyar and was popularly known as Kanchi Manimozhiyar (7). He pushed Annadurai to start a political party and DMK was born. He was an MLA from Saidapet and stepped down to make Karunanidhi an MLA from Saidapet. Though he did not contest, he actively campaigned in the consituency. His son Kumarasamy was with him through all these and changed his name to Ilanchezhian.

Ilanchezhian attended Muthaialupettai High School and completed his SSLC (Secondary School Leaving Certificate), which was after completing 11 years of School. Tamil Nadu had 11+1 school and pre-university before starting college those days. This became 10+2 just after I completed my SSLC. He got BA(Hons) in Economics from Pachaiappa’s College, Madras. He joined Pachaiappa’s College in 1952 as a faculty in Economics. He became a Professor and Head of the Department and moved as Principal at Pachaiappa’s College in Kanchipuram. He also served as Principal at Kandasamy Naidu college before retiring in 1984. However, before he started his academic career, he was actively involved in Justice Party, DK and DMK. He worked as co-editor for the newspaper titled ‘Porwaal’ (War sword) with Manimozhiyar as the Editor. He wrote Editorials which were powerful. His Editorials were published as a book in 2009 (8). He authored a book titled ‘Thamizhan thodutha por’ (War waged by Tamils) telling the story of the anti-Hindi protest that controlled the state politics (9). The cover of the book is shown in the image below. The father-son duo were very active in the social reform movement of the Madras state. It is thanks to the work of many like them that all around development is seen today in Tamil Nadu.

I read a news recently about the Madhya Pradesh Government telling the Supreme Court in India that Caste was founded on Social Harmony (10). When I read a statement like this proposed by a Government or those holding power, I cannot but think how hollow they sound. Ambedkar did not believe Hinduism will solve the problems originating from the caste hierarchy and converted to Buddhism before he passed away. He wrote a book titled ‘Annihilation of Caste’ (11). I would be happy to read from the sections that were at the lower end of caste hierarchy declaring that ‘caste is a western conspiracy and we enjoyed the social harmony’. If these statements come from those who are on top, I see only a conflict of interest. They are justifying a system that allowed them to rule and prosper.

One of the decisions Justice party made was to introduce reservations. Today, it is difficult to miss memes that claim reserved category students got admission after securing zero marks in some parts of India. In 2012, I found out that the minimum marks required form admission to MBBS in Tamil Nadu was very similar across all categories. This was possible as the reservation helped all sections to grow. I wrote an Editorial in Current Science giving the data (12). I had written a blog on reservation in India and affirmative action in the USA earlier (13). I was just reading the autobiography of Katalin Kariko (14), winner of Nobel prize in physiology in 2023. Her father was a butcher and she grew up in postwar Hungary, a communist nation under the umbrelage of USSR. She mentions about school students names ending with F, indicating that their parents are physical labourers. Hungary thought children of labourarers should be educated and created opportunities to do it. Birth should not decide the future f any kid. Most everyone who has completed high school would have learned about the van der Waals equation (15). van der Waals was from a carpenter’s family and Netherlands decided to give education to all when he was young. He started school late and got his Ph. D. when he was 36. It had the equation named after him. Curt Witting was born in a place that was captured by different countries of Europe in his earlier years. His mother took him in a boat to Chicago where he grew up in a bad neighbourhood. Illinois decided to educate all children irrespective of their background. He became a successful experimental physical chemist having a great career at the University of Southern California (16).

Our caste and patriarchy all over the world may have given social harmony, when no one questions hierarchy. As they say, if you love someone, set them free. If they come back they are yours. If not, they were never yours. Using societal controls and planting a narrative of social harmony may bring stability. Not growth. To me this could certainly be one of the reasons for India not growing in the last millennia after having a great past. People like Ilanchezhiyan and Manimozhiyar fought for social justice and to a large extent they achieved it. It is a pity that many who benefitted from their thoughts and actions do not know them. Much worse, some of them are led to believe that they have been cheated by this movement and we should return to the glorious past. I do not know where Prof. Ilanchezhian would appear in the graph, near the origin or away in the diagonal. I am certain that his contributions have helped humanity. On his birth centenary, I remember him with gratitude.

References:

  1. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ajivika I found this to be a good cite to learn some history. Accessed on 21 October 2025.
  2. A. R. Venkatachalapathy, Swadeshi Steam, Penguin Books (2023)
  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._Ilanchezhian Accessed on 21 October 2025.
  4. I found a historical article on this by a Japanese author and will add this here. Most today are not aware of this and they do not understand the reasons for the protest. This incident was also discussed in ‘Aettikku potti’ a feature in Kalki magazine.
  5. I love this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikqFFjO_2cg
  6. https://earunan.org/2015/02/01/rosa-parks-and-mooka-nadar-recent-tales-from-the-worlds-oldest-and-largest-democracies/
  7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanchi_Manimozhiar accessed on 22 October 2025
  8. Thalayanga Ilakkiyam (Literary Editorials) Vasantha Publications, 2009 (Contains 30 of the impactful editorials published in Porwaal).
  9. Archive can be found here: https://archive.org/details/230225-193143/page/n25/mode/2up The book is still available.
  10. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/madhya-pradesh-govt-caste-system-founded-on-principles-of-social-harmony-10309526/ accessed on 21 October 2025.
  11. https://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/mmt/ambedkar/web/readings/aoc_print_2004.pdf accessed on 21 October 2025.
  12. Editorial available online 0555.pdf accessed on 21 October 2025.
  13. https://earunan.org/2015/05/27/reservation-vs-merit-in-india-or-affirmative-action-vs-equal-opportunity-in-the-usa/
  14. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/462526/breaking-through-by-kariko-katalin/9781529936391 accessed on 21 October 2025.
  15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_der_Waals_equation accessed on 22 October 2025
  16. https://curtwittig.com/ accessed on 21 October 2025.

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Gandhi, King and Mandela

On this 2nd October 2025, Gandhi Jayanti (birth anniversary), I am trying to remember these three men who had enormous influence in the World. Not just in world politics but also in influencing the masses. I had written a blog earlier about Gandhi’s visit to IISc on 12 July 1927 (1).

I am very active in Facebook and have posted my views on everything that interests me now and then. I watched the movie “American Sniper” directed by Clint Eastwood and released in 2014, recently during a long flight. The sniper (Chris Kyle, performed by Bradley Cooper) says once: An eye for an eye! I was reminded of one of the famous quote by Gandhi: Eye for an eye will make the whole world blind. I posted about this after returning from the trip. Apparently, it is an age-old concept and appears in the book of Exodus in Bible, Old Testament (Exodus 21:24) according to a Google search enabled by AI today. Humanity has been discussing about crime and punishment since we started living as a society. One of the successful movies of Director Shankar, Anniyan, lists out punishments for some crimes from Garudapuranam and it was horrifying. Nassim Nicholas Taleb discusses evolution of moral symmetry in his popular book “Skin in the Game” (2). He talks about silver rule (Do not treat others the way you would not like them to treat you) and golden rule (Treat others the way you would like them to treat you) and says silver rule is better. He points out that the silver rule tells you to mind your own business and not decide what is good for others. I see this in the life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who became known as Mahatma Gandhi (Mahatma meaning a great soul).

Mohandas was born in a well-to-do family in Porbandar, Gujarat. As a child, he had read the story of Harishchnadra, who would always speak the truth without worrying about the consequences. He trained as a Lawyer at the Inner Temple in London and started practicing law when he was 22. Clearly, he was not an activist yet. After 2 years of not so successful practice in India, he went to South Africa to represent an Indian merchant in a lawsuit. He lived in South Africa for 21 years. His life in South Africa transformed him completely and he became a civil-rights activist. While traveling in First Class in a train, he was thrown out of the train as First Class was only for the Whites. Most humans, irrespective of their space and time, may have felt discriminated at some point in time in their life. Rarely, any of them recognize that they may have discriminated others in other circumstances. Gandhi was different. He immediately realized that people were discriminated in India based on caste and we had untouchability practiced at that time. He followed the silver rule quoted above. He chose non-violent means to fight for the rights of every human being. His autorbiography was titled ‘Experiments with Truth’ and he embodied truth and non-violence. He returned to India in 1915 and led the freedom movement and is widely considered the Father of Nation in India. Even today, I see a lot of people who are convinced that they should be treated well even while treating fellow citizens with contempt. Ironically, some of them now call Gandhi a hypocrite.

While on a visit to the Indian Institute of Science, he pointed out that the 30 Lakhs donated by Tata and also the generous contributions from the Mysore King, both originated from the same labour of the poor millions! He accused the elites of taking the poor for granted and acting as if ‘they knew what is good for everyone’. One can see why Taleb preferred silver rule to the golden rule. Gandhi wanted all the research efforts to have the welfare of the poor as the main objective. As I mentioned in my blog, I do not really agree with this as a true scientist has to pursue research in search of truth, which Gandhi wanted to represent. The outcome may or maynot benefit the poor immediately or eventually. He said ‘No taxation without representation’ and that is the Skin in the Game given as title by Taleb. I read about the shut down of the US Government which would affect every Government employee, except the ones in Congress and Senate and all those directly involved in the Government. All these law makers have exempted themselves from any such shutdown that would affect salary disbursement to the employees. Clearly, they have no skin in their game. Gandhi did. He influenced the world population significantly. Einstein once remarked: “Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth”.

Among the leaders who were significantly influenced by Gandhi are Martin Luther King, the civil rights activist from USA and Nelson Mandela from South Africa. Decades after Gandhi left South Africa, the native africans were exploited by the White settlers. Eventually, the whole world boycotted South Africa and apertheid was lifted and democracy born. Nelson Mandela was in prison for three decades. He was released and won the election to become the President of South Africa. He once remarked: If you want to make peace with your enemy, he becomes your friend. It would have been easier for him to arrest everyone who was responsible for prisoning him and put them in prision. Eye for an eye. Real leaders want everyone to grow together. Clint Eastwood made another great film on Mandela titled ‘Invictus’ with Morgan Freeman portraying Mandela. Despite the uneasy relationship with the White settlers and the native Africans based on mutual lack of trust and respect, Mandela realized the importance of building trust and respect. He also realized the importance of sport and discussed with the White captain of Rugby team Francois Pienaar, played by Matt Daemon and supported them to win the World cup. Mandela’s objective is peaceful coexistence and progress and was never divisive.

Martin Luther King was influenced by Gandhi and led a non-violent movement to end civil discrimination in the US. Though slavery was abolished by Lincoln in the 19th century, discrimination of the native americans and african americans continued until the 1960s. I had written a blog about Rosa Parks, who was asked to vacate a seat in the bus for a white man earlier (3). When a White law maker reminded King that no law will make a white man love a black man, King responded: I want a law that will forbid the White man from beating up a black man. He was particular about the well-being of all his followers. During a march for voting rights from Selma to Montgomery, with a brutal police force awaiting them, King called off the march and returned. His followers were upset, angry and confused. He abandoned the march as he feared for violence and loss of lives. He eventually succeeded in his attempts to get voting rights for every citizen through legal and non-violent means.

The photos taken from https://www.thehansindia.com/hans/opinion/news-analysis/relevancy-of-gandhi-king-mandela-ideals-802437

Prior to Gandhi, we had Buddha and Jesus. One of the popular songs of the cine-actor turned politician, MGR, film starts with the question ‘Why were Buddha, Jesus and Gandhi born? They were born to uplift the humans’ (4). This was written by Vaali, who had penned many songs for MGR. MGR in another film song, also written by Vaali, characterized Annadurai, the first CM of Tamil Nadu from the Dravidian movement as Gandhi of South (5). Annadurai was always against his party workers losing their life and career and he advised them to be mindful of their responsibilities. He brought in changes to the society through convincing people, winning elections and bringing in laws. One such law sanctifies marriages conducted without any rituals and not sanctifed by a religious head. Somewhat coincidentally, my marriage was conducted in this way and it is legal thanks to the law he brought in. Taleb in his book classifies people in to three different kinds: People with no skin in the game, skin in the game and skin in the game of others or soul in the game. His example for the three kinds are politicians, activists and revolutionaries (dissidents). Those with no skin in the game seek awards, prizes, honors, ceremonies and medals. Those who have soul in their game get the highest (even only) award which is death for one’s ideas and positions. He lists Socrates, Jesus, Saint Catherine, Hypatia and Joan of Arc. We have added Gandhi and King to the list. Thankfully, Mandela had a full life. Buddha managed it too. However, the powers that be who were affected by Buddha’s rebel could ensure that his fight against rituals was annuled eventually. Will the humanity ever learn and progress together?

References:

  1. https://earunan.org/2017/07/11/indian-institute-of-science-on-12th-of-july-mahatma-gandhi-and-morris-travers/
  2. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, “Skin in the game: Hidden asymmetries in daily life”, Penguin Books, printed in India by Thomson Press India Limited, New Delhi. Page 19.
  3. https://earunan.org/2015/02/01/rosa-parks-and-mooka-nadar-recent-tales-from-the-worlds-oldest-and-largest-democracies/
  4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TsCVgK5umM
  5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY3Q-PDv9qg

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Science and politics

The organizers of the Astronomy Olympiad this year decided to suspend Israel from participation over its military actions in Gaza (1). I learnt from someone that a similar decision suspending Russia was taken in the previous edition following Russia’s war against Ukraine. A group of scientists have complained to the Prime Minister of India (2). They urged the PMO to take swift action urging the government to step in and create clear guidelines to prevent future events from being politicised. My personal view on this topic is that Scientists should raise above the differences that erupt between nations from time to time and continue people to people interactions. Not only science, sports, arts and all other activities that involve participation from the public should continue as much as possible. Banning cricket with Pakistan is invariably done all the time by BCCI and Indian Government. I was lucky to have had a chance to visit Karachi to attend a scientific conference in 2014. I enjoyed my visit and found that people there are very much like us.

I have been an Editor for the Journal of Molecular Structure. After the Ukraine war, the group of Editors of this Journal decided to ban articles from authors with Russian affiliation. I strongly objected to this and asked them if they considered any such action when the US started an unprovoked war against Iraq. There was no response to this pointed question. Significant majority of the Editors were from Europe and with a majority decision, the Journal stopped accepting articles from Russia. The publisher Elsevier did not follow this policy. They permitted the Editors to reject papers from Russia, as Editors make the final decision about accepting a manuscript. None of the other Journals published by Elsevier did this. Though, I objected, I let the majority decide and did not handle manuscripts from Russia. After sometime, Editors decided to stop this ban. Both announcements were made in public in the Journal website and I am not disclosing any private information (3).

Despite my personal views on this, I find the letter written by 300+ scientists as the real, narrow political activism and not the decision by Olympiad. As mentioned above, the same organization has suspended Russian participation after the Ukraine war. Firstly, the letter misleads the Government by claiming some Indian scientists hijacked the forum and took this action to embarrass the Government. This is a very difficult conclusion to reach given the history of the organization. The event this year happened in TIFR. However, the Olympiad organization has representatives from many countries. They have released a statement clearing the air (4), which reads as follows : “The resolution to suspend Israel from future International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) editions over its military actions in Gaza was taken by an overwhelming majority of the international board consisting of over 120 individuals from 63 different countries”. They were worried about the starvation and genocide in Gaza and decided that they should take some action. On 10th August 2025, an emergency security council meeting of the UN has warned Israel from taking over Gaza (5). Clearly, the Astronomy Olympiad was not acting in isolation driven by any ideology. Perhaps, acting on humanitarian considerations and worrying about mass murder are some condemnable ‘ideology’ for the group of scientists who have condemned the faculty members from India and complained to the PMO. None of them had any clue that within a short period, Indian PM will attend the SCO meet in China and join the condemnation of US and Israel for their unprovoked attack on Iran (6).

The action by the Indian scientists is rather unfortunate. Should scientists have any consideration beyond their work? There is no right answer to this question. Saha felt Scientists should be active in nation building and join the freedom fight. He wanted to write a science policy for India before independence. Raman felt it was not for scientists to do this and was focusing on his work. The book by Abha Sur titled Dispersed Radiance discusses this in detail (7). Einstein wrote to the US president persuading US to work on nuclear bomb to stop Germany. He would not have imagined that Germany would stop before the nuclear bomb and use of nuclear bomb on Japan may not have been necessary to stop Japan which was already down. It is very difficult to justify the second bomb on Nagasaki. I did visit Hiroshima and one becomes numb looking at the museum there. Nuclear bombs are the result of chain reactions but the chain reaction this created in pushing more and more nations to go nuclear is extremely dangerous. Though Einstein wrote to the US President to go nuclear, I am not sure if he wrote to any Government urging them to take action on any other scientist. The American Chemical Society had concerns about the role played by Peter Debye in Germany and contemplated withdrawing his name from the award given for contributions to physical chemistry. The award continues in Debye’s name. I had written an article on Debye in Resonance which gives some references to this (8).

I read the letter and none of the accusations would stand any scrutiny. The Olympiad released the statement taking responsibility for the action. South Africa was practicing apartheid and international boycatt did help in bringing an end to the apertheid. India played the first cricket match with South Africa when the apartheid and boycatt ended.

I joined the International Advisory Board of the Horizons in Hydrogen Bond Research Conference in 2011, just after successfully completing an IUPAC project to redefine hydrogen bond. When I joined the board, most of the members were from Europe with few from the USA and one from Japan and none from India. I have been attending this biannual conference without fail ever since. The series of conferences goes back to 1977 and was started by Prof. Lucjan Sobczyk in Poland. This year it will be in Germany (9). In 2015, the conference was held in Poland and there was a felicitation of Prof. Sobczyk. I was moved by his talk after the felicitation. He mentioned that scientists used this conference to meet continuously during the cold war. The conference alternated between East and West Europe and was never held anywhere else in the globe. In 2011, I volunteered to organize this in India and the committee turned it down. I realized the reason when I was listening to Prof. Sobczyk. Everything changes with time and in particular politics. India will host this conference in 2027 with Prof. Aloke Das of IISER, Pune as the convener. I only wish the Scientists from India did not write any such letter to PMO accusing the fellow scientists and showed some maturity.

References:

  1. https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/astronomy-olympiad-held-in-mumbai-this-year-suspends-israel-from-future-editions/article69954499.ece (accessed on 2 September 2025)
  2. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/israels-ouster-from-mumbai-event-splits-indian-scientists/articleshow/123574227.cms (accessed on 2 September 2025)
  3. https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-molecular-structure/about/announcements (Accessed on 2 September 2025).
  4. ‘https://sciencechronicle.in/2025/08/31/ioaa-statement-clears-the-air-on-israels-suspension-from-future-astronomy-olympiad-events/ (Accessed on 2 September 2025).
  5. https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/04/1161816 (accessed on2 September 2025)
  6. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/international/india-joins-sco-nations-in-condemning-israel-u-s-pahalgam-finds-mention-in-tianjin-declaration/videoshow/123632965.cms (Accessed on 2 September 2025).
  7. https://navayana.org/books/2012/10/10/dispersed-radiance-caste-gender-and-modern-science-in-india/?v=13b5bfe96f3e
  8. E. Arunan, “Peter Debye” Resonance, Journal of Education December 2010 http://www.ias.ac.in/article/fulltext/reso/015/12/1056-1059
  9. https://hbond2025.desy.de/ (Accessed on 2 September 2025)
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