Mira Sundara Rajan

In a world seemingly beset by violence, hatred, bigotry,  it is easy to lose hope and forget about the beautiful souls that exist, who refuse to be silenced and who still bring beauty into the world. There are such people: I have my amazing twins, but we all have people who have devoted their lives to bringing joy and learning. One such person is Mira Sundara Rajan. Her website, with the URL, professormira.com, has as its landing page the title “Author, Musician, Professor.” The musician part comes from her being a classical pianist. She is presently a visiting professor at the UC Davis Law School. 

I first met her when she published her 2011 book, “Moral Rights: Principles, Practices and New Technology.” (Oxford University Press). That book is now in a second, updated and greatly revised edition, entitled “The Moral Rights of Authors and Artists: From the Birth of Copyright to the Age of Artificial Intelligence.” (Oxford University Press) This is a very important, timely book that should be on everyone’s bookshelves (or computer).  Please buy it today.

Mira received a D.Phil.in Intellectual Property Law from Oxford University, an L.L.M. in Intellectual Property Law and International Trade Law from Glasgow Law School, a JD from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, and got her B.A. with honors from McGill University in Montréal. She was born in Vancouver.  These are, naturally, very impressive academic credentials, but they only tell a small picture (in addition to her being a classical pianist). Here are a few descriptions from her of what she calls her career narrative (available on her website):

Like many people, my earliest memory of music is of hearing my mother sing. What I did not realize until years later was that the songs she was singing were very special. My parents were born in India and grew up in the Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. They were both native speakers of the ancient South Indian language of Tamil. According to British popular historian Michael Wood, the Tamils represent the last surviving classical civilization. In Tamil culture, music and poetry are traditionally considered a single, indivisible art form. 

The songs that my mother was singing were Tamil poems. They had been composed by her grandfather, and, in keeping with Tamil tradition, he had set them to music himself. As a child, I was attracted to the beauty of the songs, but I didn’t know much about my mother’s grandfather. In the meantime, I had become involved in both poetry and music myself. When I was 11 years old, I won a prize in a young people’s poetry competition for a sonnet that I had written, on the subject of environmental degradation. The competition judges wrote to my teachers to verify that the poem I submitted had really been written by a child. I won a short story competition open to the general public at the public library in our small Prairie city, and a number of prizes for music. As I grew older, my mother shared more stories about her family and her past in India. I learned that her grandfather, C. Subramania Bharati, had been an important Indian freedom fighter, one of the first generation of freedom fighters from the southern part of the country. He was also a pioneer of women’s rights, and a passionate advocate of women’s education. 

His contributions to literature were spectacular. Bharati was considered the most important writer in the Tamil language of the 20th century, and his writing had essentially shaped the modern Tamil language as it is spoken today. He was multi-talented and gifted in languages beyond Tamil, speaking and writing several Indian and European languages fluently, and working as a journalist, commenting on Indian and world affairs while helping to publicize the cause of Indian independence. Today, Bharati is an iconic figure in India. He has come to be known as an Indian National Poet.

Mira’s mother got her PhD on his poetry.  Mira’s first law school paper was on Bharati and copyright issues. In 2011, she published a collection of Bharati’s English writings, entitled “The Coming Age.” She explained the purpose of this work:

In Indian culture, there is a belief that a poet’s words must come true. As one of poet Bharati’s descendants, I am deeply gratified to see his vision for women reflected in my career progress so far. However, the ideas that he wrote about are meant for more than his family’s guidance; they are intended for the world. As my career continues to grow, I have a unique opportunity to share his legacy through my work. I hope to carry it forward in ways that touch a broader public than ever before, and to continue the poet’s mission to effect positive change, a century after his death. 

She has a great podcast series, called Women and Culture that explores these and many more themes.

Mira and others like her are why we shouldn’t give up hope.