C. Subramania Bharati

C. SUBRAMANIA BHARATI (1882-1921) is considered the leading writer of the twentieth century in the Tamil language and is known to Tamils as the ‘Mahakavi’ (‘Supreme Poet’). He was a nationalist who fought against British rule in India and a social reformer who advocated passionately for women’s equality and the eradication of caste. His writings were proscribed by the British government and he lived in exile in the French Indian territory of Pondicherry for more than a decade. Bharati’s innovative contributions to Tamil poetry and prose are considered to have sparked a Renaissance in twentieth-century Tamil literature.