Southern States
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Karnataka-Bangalore
Former corporator Masay felicitated
By K.Satyamurty
BANGALORE, DEC. 20. The former corporator, Mr. J.Masay, was felicitated here on Wednesday on his 80th birthday.
Though he stopped contesting the BMP elections after 1996, Mr. Masay is still identified as their most active well-wisher by the residents of Bharathinagar which he represented as an independent for three terms from 1964. He was among the few independents who actively participated in all BMP meetings and voiced the needs of his constituents and displayed a thorough knowledge of the KMC Act and other urban development legislations.
Though an independent, Mr. Masay exhibited his sympathies for the rationalist Dravidian movement by always a wearing a badge with the portrait of ``Periyar EVR'' to the BMP meetings. The otherwise dull meetings used to become more interesting when he rose with a stentorian ``Honourable Mayor '' and started firing a volley of questions.
Mr. Masay was born in 1922 in the then Bangalore Cantonment area directly administered by the British and his family had a tradition of serving in the armed forces. His grandfather, V.Narayanaswamy, was a soldier serving the British Indian Army during the Burmese war of 1884-85 and died in action. His father, V.N.Manickam, served in the Army during the First World War (1914-18).
Mr. Masay began his education in the then Weslian Mission School (now Methodist School) in the Cantonment area in Dharmaraja Koil Street and became keenly interested in the nationalist movement as a young student. As a 5th class student he joined protests against the hanging of Bhagat Singh and Rajguru and along with other boys made the school close down for a day. As a 10th class student in the RBANMS High School he led a procession of youths supporting Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose who called for boycott of schools. It resulted in his termination from the school. He was readmitted after a legal battle but the school authorities retaliated by delaying his promotion to a higher class. He had to complete his matriculation by shifting to the United Mission High School in the City area, then under the Maharaja's administration.
An ardent Congress supporter till 1947, Mr. Masay took part in the Quit India movement of 1942 and had to go underground to continue his political activities, according to his old associates. Later, he joined Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan's Socialist Party faction and in 1948 participated in the agitation for more democratic rights in Mysore State and again went underground. When the Socialist Party and Praja Party merged to form the Praja Socialist Party in 1952, he left to join the Dravidian movement but eventually quit the Dravidar Kazhagar and never joined any political party afterwards.
A less known side of Mr. Masay is his active involvement in sports till today. The most notable was his coming third in the 1941 Olympics running race, gaining fame for Mysore State.
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