Bengaluru: K N Guruswamy remembered for many roles, varied impact

Slices of personal history brought alive collective pasts and added context to the present on Monday at the Bangalore International Centre where people gathered to celebrate the life and times of K N Guruswamy, the founder of Deccan Herald and Prajavani.

Held around the launch of the book Grandfather and Grandmother: A Memoir by K N Harikumar, the event saw the varied facets of Guruswamy (1901-1990) unfold in the words of speakers who knew him as family, friend, employer, and an ingenious entrepreneur who steered a successful liquor business before he emerged as the unlikely founder of newspapers.

The author remembered his grandfather as a traditionalist – a man of the old world with a liking for the maharajahs and the aristocracy – who could fit into the modern times, leading a newspaper in a new democracy, in 1948. He was a man identified for his joie de vivre while being an astute, clear-headed businessman who knew his priorities, Hari Kumar said.

In his book which also chronicles the life of his grandmother Kadiramma, Hari Kumar remembers his grandfather as someone who understood the significance of the press as a powerful instrument of change.

In a video message, former Chief Justice of India Justice M N Venkatachaliah said Guruswamy’s story was also the story of a community’s rise against odds. The significance of the contribution of a toddy-tapping community in the 1940s is the story of social transformation of a group, towards being recognised as important components of a modern society, he said.

G N Ranganatha Rao, author and former Prajavani journalist, remembered Guruswamy as a strong advocate of the newspapers’ significance as shapers of public opinion. P G Belliappa, journalist, lawyer, and horse racing enthusiast, narrated stories on Guruswamy’s enthusiasm for horse racing that changed the way racing was conducted in Bengaluru.

The book which features an extensive collection of photographs also captures Guruswamy through his intensely social life, the horses and the shikars.

Janaki Nair, writer and historian, drew on the personal narratives to trace a time – from the difficulties of raising capital in the early decades of the 20th century to the inheritance of caste and how critical it was to capital accumulation and investment in modern India.