Pattabhi: The daring professor who fought the establishment

Pattabhirama Somayaji, the English professor who died in Mangaluru recently, was one of most daring public intellectuals Karnataka has produced in recent times. He ranks among such thinkers as K Ramadas, G K Govinda Rao and Chandrashekar Patil (Champa), who passed away in recent years.

Fondly called Pattabhi, he continued the best traditions of English teachers in Karnataka---U R Ananthamurthy, P Lankesh, Rajiv Taranath, Shankar Mokashi-Punekar, and Damodar Rao, combining their reading of Kannada and English literature for the benefit of young minds. Like them, he was loved, adored, revered.

Pattabhi fought many public and private battles without cringing. He appeared brooding, but those close to him knew he was never a boring pedantic—he loved to pun in English and Kannada. His battles against divisive forces were at the same time courageous and foolhardy. He did not spare anyone.

Early in his career, in the 1980s, he was forced to resign from his teaching position at a college in T Narasipura after he refused to sing shlokas along with the national anthem. He also refused to award pass marks to his students. Instead, he said, he would take extra classes till they were able to get pass marks. The small town was full of graffiti supporting him and bidding him a tearful farewell. Later, in his career, he faced action for his ideological interventions on the campus, and was demoted from a university to a constituent college. He never begged for his reinstatement.

Pattabhi was a Gandhian who dressed mostly in khadi, and enjoyed kuchalakki ganji (porridge of parboiled rice). At the same time, he sipped fine whiskey and puffed on his cigarettes. His PhD thesis was on Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj. He remained a lifelong student of Gandhi though he never earned a doctoral degree for it. He wouldn’t use Gandhi to advance his career. Instead, he invoked him time and again to fight against what he described as the ‘twin evils’ of modernity and communalism. Pattabhi made impassioned speeches against SEZ projects in Dakshina Kannada. He sincerely believed that Gandhi’s vision could heal the wounds inflicted on India. But like many of us who admire Gandhi but can’t follow all his principles, he lived an imperfect life.

(The author is professor of English at the Department of Post-Graduate Studies, Sahyadri Arts College, Shivamogga)