Kongu Natpani Manram

Even a thousand miles journey starts with a single step. It is said that Kongus migrated to Kongunadu and established settlements in the erstwhile sparsely populated forests and wooded Kongunadu. With hard work and firm determination, Kongus cleared the forests and wooded areas into lands for cultivation and became a dominant community. In course of time they became inveterate and habitual farmers. Hard work, fierce defense to hold to the land, ready to fight to defend the lands became their hallmarks in addition to Kongu hospitality and Kongus fellowship in the fight against intruders. The livelihood of Kongus was very much intertwined with land and land became their life.

Being agriculturists, the British introduced educational system hardly affected gounders. Their livelihood continued in the practice of farming. It was not easy to break out of the logjam and blaze a new trail for the Kongus. Some gounders unwittingly took some extra ordinary steps that paved the path for a new generation of Kongus. I consider these individuals as pioneers of the Kongu community and sowed the seeds for the migration of gounders all over the world for educational and professional opportunities. We are all in fact Kongus who are transforming the rustic Kongu community into highly educated modern community. Let us recall some of the pioneers of the older generation

Mr. Sengodan from Karur area can be considered to be a pioneer among gounders for his quest for educational opportunities. In the early thirties, he went to England for getting an ICS. It is a wonder that an ordinary kid from a village could even dream of such a monumental achievement. It is said that he completed his ICS studies in a record time of about one and half years. He returned back to India and served as a collector in Tamilnadu. Unfortunately, he died at a young age due to infection and could not derive the full benefit of his educational achievements. In 1999, Hindu published an article about him without revealing his Kongu origin. That article was a glowing tribute to one of our own.

E. C. Chandrasekr of Erode is another pioneer who came to United States in late 1940s for higher studies. He got admission in the prestigious Princeton University and completed his masters in Civil Engineering. After completing his studies he returned back to India and served his motherland well. He contributed an article narrating his experiences for the Chicago Kongu Meeting held in 2001. Although Chandrasekar went back to India, his daughter Rani Kulaniswamy lives in Houston area and his son Devaraju who is a medical doctor lives in Connecticut. Mr. Chandrasekaran passed away in July 2004 just few months after completing his eightieth birthday.

Although Sengodan and Chandrasekar ventured out of Kongunadu for educational opportunities, both of them went back to the land of our origin. The credit goes to Thirumalaiswamy, currently living in Los Angeles, for establishing Kongu roots in North America and for being the forerunner for all of us. He came to United States in late 1950s as a young adult after completing his studies in Aeronautical Engineering in prestigious Madras Institute of Technology which also happens to be the alma mater of the incumbent President of India, Dr. Abdul Kalam. After completing his studies, he settled in Newton, Massachusetts and worked for a single company for about 30 years. He took retirement in 2000 and moved to Los Angeles with his wife Manimekali to be near his only son. He also shared his life experiences with all of us in email article some years back.

Another gounder who migrated to this country on an entirely different mission - mission of spreading spirituality and a new religion of his own was Swamy Sachithananda. He came to this country in early 60s and established an Ashram in Connecticut initially and eventually moved to a sprawling Lotus Temple located in Virginia. He attracted the attention of a number of westerners. He lived a long life preaching his religious principles and yoga techniques to cope up with the modern life. He passed away a couple years back while visiting India. Almost all newspapers including Time magazine published his obituary.

Another gounder who was close second to Thirumaliswamy in coming to this county was Dr. Kumaresan. Dr. Kumaresan is an exemplary individual whose Kongu hospitality was well known all over the NJ and New York area. He was well known for inviting a large number of Tamil families for annual thanksgiving get-together in his house. He had a veterinary practice in the NJ area. Unfortunately, he succumbed to cancer in 1998.

It is also time to record the perseverance and persistence of one Kongu doctor who brought the gounders together under the organization of Kongu Natpani Manram. Dr. Kannapiran played a seminal role in organizing the earlier meetings and breathed life into the organization. The credit goes to Columbus for being the venue of the first, third and tenth meeting of the gounders. Kudos to the organizers of the Columbus Meeting.


I am sure that Gounders are blazing new trails in many areas. I hope that there will be occasions to catalog those stories and share it among all of us. I think that should be spirit of Kongu Get-Together.