Unsung Heroes Detail

Kalki Sadasivam was born on 4 September 1902 to Tyagarajan and Mangalam Iyer in Aangarai. Impressed by the fiery speeches and writings of Lala Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lokamanya Tilak, and Aurobindo Ghosh, Kalki Sadasivam joined the freedom movement at an early age and being a disciple of Subramaniya Siva desired to kill an Englishman and court imprisonment for the sake of it. As a result, he quit school and enlisted in the Bharata Samaj, serving Subramaniya Siva who was afflicted with leprosy and ardently involved himself in the Swadeshi Movement. On listening to speeches by Rajagopalachari and Mahatma Gandhi, he later adopted non-violence. Sadasivam and his friend "Kalki" R. Krishnamurti left Ananda Vikatan to launch Kalki in 1941, as a nationalist weekly. Krishnamurti, who was its editor, died in 1954. Sadasivam continued to maintain the ideals and standards of the magazine. He passed away on 21 November 1997.