In Memoriam: T. K. Govind Vidyarthi (1912– 2006)

The name Govind Vidyarthi is familiar to many scholars of South Asian music only as the author of two translated chapters of the Urdu manuscript Ma'dan ul-Musiqi published in the Sangeet Natak Akademi Bulletin in the late 1950s (Vidyarthi 1959a, 1959b). His identity and background, not to mention how he came to publish these translations, is a mystery to most, and I have even heard some scholars suggest that an unnamed Muslim must have done the translations credited to Vidyarthi. Yet, Govind Vidyarthi did indeed do his own translating, and his life journey, as a linguist, Communist Party member, freedom fighter, archivist, and scholar, is worth remembering.

The man who eventually took the name Govind Vidyarthi was born on May 17, 1912, in the village of Palayad in the Cannanore District of Kerala. His family was probably lower-middle class; his first job as a teenager was as a clerk and he faced a struggle in his desire for an education. He became involved with the anti-Brahman and pro-Untouchable movements in Kerala as a young man, which infuriated his father. Following this first involvement in activism, he left home to pursue an education and, in particular, to learn Hindi, and he attended educational institutions in Varanasi and Allahabad. He mastered Hindi, Urdu, and Persian, and it was during these years that he adopted the surname Vidyarthi. Already interested in social justice, he met and worked with other students involved with Communist ideologies and organizations. In 1936, he joined the Communist Party of India.

Between 1936 and 1947, Vidyarthi served as a grass-roots member of the Party. He was particularly active as a member of the editorial staff of a number of publications, including the National Front, hiding the printing equipment in his rooms in Kolkata and regularly dodging the British authorities (the Communist Party of India had been banned in 1934). Between 1940 and 1942, he worked as an underground member, carrying information between Kolkata and the Party headquarters in Mumbai and hiding fugitives from the British. He was the perfect agent at that time, as he was never known to the police. After 1942, he settled in Mumbai for two years to work as librarian at the party headquarters.

The Party Secretary, during the decades before Indian Independence, was Puran Chand (PC) Joshi. Among his many other activities, Joshi was a key organizer of publications, and Vidyarthi found himself closely associated with him. Therefore, although never a major player in the inner workings of the Party, Vidyarthi was among those thrown out in a purge following the "replacement" of Joshi as Secretary in 1947– 48. Alone and blacklisted in Delhi with no place to stay, he was offered shelter by a cousin of PC Joshi, Miss Nirmula Joshi. The daughter of a wealthy doctor, Nirmula Joshi had combined musical study with management skills learned at her father's hospital. By 1947, she was at the heart of the cultural revival that took form in the years leading up to Indian Independence. As early as 1937, she had founded The School of Hindustani Music and Dance in Delhi, and after Independence, she became the first Secretary of the Bharatiya Kala Kendra and subsequently the first Secretary of the Sangit Natak Akademi (SNA). It was her wish that the former agent remains in Delhi and turn his talents as a publicist and librarian to the cause of cultural revival. Vidyarthi, de pen dent on her hospitality, agreed (for further information see the Oral History Transcript and articles from New Age Weekly).

The Bharatiya Kala Kendra and Sangit Natak Akademi were, by all accounts, exciting and productive institutions during the heady first years of Independence. Nirmula Joshi used her contacts in the world of hereditary musicians to bring many of the top Ustads and Gurus of the time to Delhi to teach in her schools and used her influence with the new Government of India to found scholarships to lure young non-hereditary students to study with them. Govind Vidyarthi was a one-man-show during these years, working as librarian, video...