Kalki Sadasivam

Thiagaraja Sadasivam (4 September 1902 – 21 November 1997), better known as Kalki Sadasivam, was an Indian freedom fighter, singer, journalist and film producer who was one of the founders, along with Kalki Krishnamurthy of the Tamil magazine Kalki. He is well known as the husband of famous classical carnatic singer M.S. Subbulakshmi. Kalki Sadasivam was born in a Brahmin family on 4 September 1902 at Aangarai in Tiruchirapalli District, the third of 16 children of Tyagarajan and Mangalam Iyer. 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 ardent involving himself in the Swadeshi Movement. On listening to speeches by Rajagopalachari and Mahatma Gandhi he later adopted non-violence. Sadasivam had two daughters named Radha and Vijaya from his first wife, Smt. Apithakuchambal, who died in 1938. In July 1936, Sadasivam met M.S. Subbulakshmi, who subscribed to his ideological and political views. The two eventually married on 10 July 1940 after his first wife died. Radha later became a popular musician in her own right.