The violent anti-Hindi agitations that rocked Tamil Nadu during the mid 1960s’ produced exactly the opposite of what they intended in R Muthuswamy— a love for Hindi and a desire to excel in it.

 “People say most Tamilians can’t learn Hindi and are not interested in the language; So, I decided to write in Hindi,” says this 59-year-old poet, who was born and brought up in Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu. He resides in Bangalore now after spending nearly 30 years in Chhattisgarh.

Muthuswamy blossomed as a poet during his stint in Chhattisgarh where he moved over from Tamil Nadu after his education. He was declared ‘the best poet in Chhattisgarh’ by the Dr Ambedkar Smarak Samiti.

An idealist at heart, Muthuswamy is fired by a reformatory zeal. “My poems are dedicated to society and they reflect the good and bad in society so that man can improve.” This talented poet writes poems not only in Hindi, but also in Tamil, Malayalam, Sindhi, Chhattisgarhi, Marathi and Telugu.

He has penned nearly 300 poems in all languages of which 150 are in Hindi. His poems have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Sinhalese and Thai and have been published in books abroad. He has also written six short stories in Hindi and four stories in Tamil.

He has paid tribute to the late Dr Rajkumar in his poems. “He was the superstar of Karnataka and served this State,” Muthuswamy said. His poem on late Rajiv Gandhi ‘Ek Phool’ was carried by a newspaper.

This poet is filled with gratitude towards Shivnath Shukla, a famous Hindi writer (as well as editor of newspaper `Tarun Chhattisgarh’) and his teachers in Tamil Nadu.

Muthuswamy regularly attends All India Kavi Sammelans. It is not possible to enumerate the awards he has received due to the numbers involved.  He has also been honoured by many prominent people. “What can the government do to help poets?” He replies, “If poets are not encouraged, we cannot do anything.

Awards from the government will encourage us.” He is all set to learn Kannada now. “Because I am in Bangalore, I will learn the language and write poems in Kannada. This is my promise.”   We are sure that Kannada literature will gain when he keeps up this promise.