LIBERATING INDIAN MIND -16

FIGHTING COMMUNALISM

There is an element of legendary Vaital in my friend: even when he goes satisfied he comes the next day waving a new straw as a new-found weapon. “You charge, they wrote a history not suited to your taste with ulterior motives, while the fact is, they wrote it to fight input of communal-ism increasing in our textbooks of literature and history. They did it as an urgent move to save national integration.’

“And they as per their claim fought the nationalist historians, as if nationalists aimed at disintegration?”

“They could be inaccurate in presentation of facts with a tilt towards communal-ism.”

“What in your assessment is communal-ism, you explain first. do you mean nihilism Is another name of secularism?”

He did not answer. I added further, “do you want me know what National Integration is ? how all of a sudden it got relevance? Not that I know anything which you do not know, I only do not allow you to ignore the fact that it was a weapon of emergency to suppress those who rose to oppose it. It is an old song sung at different turns of our history from the last quarter of 19th century till imposition of emergency by the power that had no legitimacy to remain in power; from the slogan of Hindus and Muslims are two beautiful eyes of mother India but only so long as the Hindus although in dominant majority, do not forget that Muslims have been ruling them for thousand years, that they have ability and experience to handle state affairs; that the British replaced Muslim rulers and after they depart, the power should go to those from whom it was snatched; and that Muslim culture and Urdu language, Arabic script in which it is written is refined, civilized and has to be accepted for maintaining the beauty of the two eyes, solidarity of Indian society and unity of the country.

“This was the first ever proposal of integration of India as put forward by Syed Ahmad Khan and resented among others by Bharatendu and Madan Mohan Malaviya. Our own authors have discussed through hundreds of pages of their book to prove that the conditions laid down by Syed Ahmad were secular and those who wanted Hindi written in Nagari script as well to be accepted as medium of instruction were communal, and have duly been awarded for their service.

“A scenario in which even Hindu leaders like Advani could find Jinnah to be secular, and held back the other half that Gandhi and Congress were communal which the League headed by Jinnah chanted throughout I have no courage challenge anyone of them. But the dictionary meaning of the word integration is.’The intermixing of people who were previously segregated.’

“While the textbook writers undertook to vitiate the entire social fabric by pumping down the heads of their readers that Hindu is bad, its history is devoid of any positive achievement on its own and all it owes has come from the west, naturally from its western neighbor Iran. The accumulating fume against this intellectual barbarity fed and irrigated the ground in which the forces which symbolized Hinduism benefited the most in a Hindu society which was secular enough to make adjustments through this insult.”

As I turned round to see how he had received what I said, I found him gazing at the mating birds at a distance with rapt attention. I nudged him reprimanding, “you idiot. I have been explaining you the meaning of…”

“Despite my attempt I went listless because you were tellibg nothing new. I have heard this bhajan hundreds of time.”

“And you have acclimatized yourself to it? Is it? People living close to sewage drains lose the sense of smell, in fact they feel uncomfortable in healthy surroundings. That is what secularist acclimatization to cultural degradation means.”

He laughed to make it light. It enraged me all the more. “And know you why they feel uncomfortable? The nitrogen has toxic effect and that they miss in changed atmosphere.” I rose in displeasure to leave.

LIBERATING INDIAN MIND -15

THREAT OF REVISIONISM

“You are so obsessed with the rigorous study and frank admission of the shortcomings of the past that you fail on three counts: firstly you become intemperate in your choice of words and prefer strong words for miner failings; secondly, you fail to see the threat posed by the crude versions of history in their waiting; and thirdly, you level all the blame on the Marxist historian while they only followed consensus. Their fault lies in the fact that they are a bit more rigorous than others, but that is what a historian is required to be.”

“I was confused, not able to decide as to which of the charges be neutralized first. I shared my predicament with him and added, the words that you find strong are equal in measure to the default. That is what intellectual honesty demands. Being soft or stern amounts to digression.”

“Then there must be something wrong with your perception of reality. You call us culturally castrated at a time when the world is emulating yoga. How funny!”

“You see it as a recognition of our past achievements but fail to see that while appropriating it, these clever guys are denying the credit due to India. They dilute it to show that it was borrowed by Indians from the Chinese and to deprive the Chinese in turn, they try to prove that it was practiced by many of the primitive societies including the Negroes. While they are doing so, your red-hot historians shall either sit silent or, if someone tells them that it spread to China and Japan through the spread of Buddhism and to Africans through the Ethiopians who were in direct touch with India, some five thousand years back, when we imported some aridity friendly seeds such as ragi, millet from them, and it formed Indian outpost to trade with Egypt, they will cry in chorus that it is revision of history, because it restores the shine rubbed off by them in the name of austerity. In a word, they shall rise to support western denial. I am not unjust to them when I weigh them and show their real worth and recount the damage done by them. I am not well versed in English, you may suggest more apt a term than cultural castration used by me.”

“I am not a man of history, you know. But the little that I know about Egyptian history gives me courage to say that Indians or say Harappans did not have direct contact with Egypt. Only recently, your rightist friends have started making ridiculous claim that even the pyramids were built on the principles of shulbsutra.”

“I myself do not know much about the pyramids or the shulbsutras to settle the issue. But I definitely know that Indian goods were supplied to Egypt from Punt, the Ethiopian port; that Ethiopia got civilized through this intercourse; that Indian artisans like Indian goods and curiosities – monkey, sugarcane, peacock, sandalwood – were in hottest demand in Egypt; that the Egyptians were autocratic and so rough in their behavior that Indian traders did not send their ships direct to Egypt, and remained stationed at a safe distance where they could avail the opportunity to bargain and exchange at their advantage; that the Egyptians paid the workers and artisans employed to built palaces and pyramids in cowries and these cowries were of Maldivian origin, understandably exchanged by the Indian counterparts stationed at Punt ; that cowriy happened to be the first international currency, accepted from Egypt to China; that circumstantially there is nothing to reject the suggestion that these artisans could have applied the principles of shulbsutras in erecting and building whatever they built.”

He appeared disheartened. I knew it in advances . After a brief moment of dismay he came out with a query, “It means you stand with those who call for revision of history.”

“I am in support of those who are opposed to revised history by the professionals, as they called them, and demand that history must be written on scientific basis, supplying concrete evidence in support of anything you claimed. I gave my version, each bit of which is evident, that is supported by facts and evidence. But I doubt that those who wrote our history to force it down three generations, themselves knew it or not. One thing is certain. Such accounts could not find place in their books, nor could be tolerated by them.”

LIBERATING INDIAN MIND- 14

LIBERATING INDIAN MIND-13

अन्तिम दिनों तक सक्रिय

LIBERATING INDIAN MIND-12

LIBERATING INDIAN MIND 11
BEING PATRIOTIC

It is possible to be patriotic without being vulgar in its demonstration. It is both a challenge and a fulfillment to be truly patriotic . It is so simple that most of the people fail to understand it, as they fail to understand that water is the most precious of all liquids and oxygen is as important as hydrogen for our life.” I started as if continuing the debate from the previous day.

“No, no, please do not slip into your habitual preaching mode. Yesterday you told me that I didn’t know the meaning of my country and without that I couldn’t understand the meaning of patriotism. First of all, you please explain what you meant by that.”

“We shall have to go at least 12000 to 15000 years back to understand the primeval state of the geographic delimitation of gathering areas allotted to each band of people to avoid recurrent clashed among them who earlier roamed unchecked through any terrain where food was easily available. During the season of abundance they enjoyed being together. They had fixed days and fixed locations where they met for social gaiety every year. Only during the days of scarcity they grew insensitive to the needs of others and occasionally engaged into bloody clashes. They appear to have somehow agreed mutually to divide the land.. Understandably, those areas were demarcated by natural boundaries. It was a taboo after that to overstep the boundaries. This error could cost the life of the errant. This area under control of one family or kula wherein the chief was called the kulapati.

In the course of social formations, economic progress, cultural interaction, bigger and yet bigger units emerged ultimately toaccommodate diverse groups with antagonistic interest-groups, and a bigger land mass incorporating the erstwhile deshas or countries with a ruler not ethnically or linguistically belonging to anyone of them in particular, but claiming superiority over all his peers in terms of might, wisdom, judiciousness, and/or concern for common weal. Initially such leader was elected by the assembly of the people or the eminent persons assumed to represent them, later on it became hereditary or sheer might decided who was the king. In monarchy loyalty to the king amounted to patriotism as all the other boundaries of language, ethnicity, belief and social segments were overridden by the state, whose geographical boundaries could slide back or forward according to the strength and ability of the king. The king, of course fighting to protect his throne appeared to be fighting a patriotic war specially in cases he fought to protect his territory and the people against unknown invader. In democracy the country belongs to the people, they rule themselves through their representatives and as such the concept of patriotism or loyalty to the soil changes accordingly. This, in a very crude and rude language, is the concept of the country and loyalty to it, in my limited understanding.”

He appeared silent, attentively listening to me. Once I paused for respite, he came out, “You mean the noble sentiments attached to patriotism are a mirage?”

“If I appeared to have denied that sentiment, their is some flaw either in my statement or your comprehension. But I must reiterate that the oldest idea of motherland, desha, and an
unfailing loyalty to the country has survived millennia, and the strong sentiment one has for his place of birth excels all other notions of the country or matribhumi. When a laborer having worked for the year takes leave to visit his desha we laugh as idiots without comprehending the essence of it running undisturbed thought millennia. I was amused to find Sarat Chandra calling Kolkata as a nice desha, I do not exactly remember where, but perhaps in a letter written from Myanmar (Barma). Against all odds and risks he chose finally to settle close to his village where he was treated as an outcast and a man of blemished character, with a gun and a dog to protect him. We all feel that enviable bond with our birthplace howsoever distant we are for much longer period than we spent in our village. Our social behavior vis-a-vis people of different geographical, linguistic or ethnic identities is not free from slur in a large number of cases. Only when it comes to another state or country, specially with conflicting interests, the entire state or nation rises in unison.

The second thing, that this process of formation of broader sets from unitary organisations is not limited to India. It is universal, irrespective of the limitations of their collective memories. Even in English countryside means the vulgar side.

Third, people after they settled did not remain home-bound . It was considered an act of bravery to go abroad (videsha) and earn riches there like a trader who ventures out and comes back with bounty to his own country (the village) and add to its prosperity. It was sort of victory and the earning was a booty. The term dhanajit or winner of wealth was laudable but settling abroad was sort of betrayal. Remaining home-bound was a proof of lack of competence. This is reflected in typical behavior pattern of laborers from Eastern UP and Bihar. We recall an adage condemning the home-bound ones तातस्य कूपं अयमिति ब्रुवाणा क्षारा जलाः कापुरुषाः पिबन्ति (only the week-kneed persons drank saccharine water (remain home-bound despite inconvenience) on the plea that it is our parental source of water ).

Now he showed his colors, “you keep descaling the problem so patiently that ultimately there is no problem but scales all around.”

“I know you wanted a capsulized solution which you could gulp and be satisfied that you have it all inside. I have delineated the broader outlines. But the indifference you show is a sign of fatigue and boredom. We may defer the real issue for tomorrow.”

जब थक जाएंगे हम
कहेंगे
थक गये!
रास्ते को छोटा करो।

LIBERATING INDIAN MIND (10)
NO ONE IS PATRIOTIC

“The other day you alleged that a section of our own people are working against our national interest. Call them by whatever name, but in a nutshell they are not patriotic.”

“You are misrepresenting me. I said people have different notions of good and bad on all the issues, including patriotism. Add to it that people do not have a correct idea of everything, do not want to understand anything. The little that they know superficially is the ultimate truth for them. They, right or wrong, fight to prove it the ultimate truth, but do not want to enlarge their knowledge from the interlocutor, who although well-versed, just wants to allay their misgivings with no intention to impose his views. This tentativeness is salutary in the sense that we cannot even walk if we keep measuring each of our step or the distance covered at each furlong. But yet there must be a measure of distance and a measure of everything for the things to remain streamlined.”

“Deep and correct knowledge of patriotism also? Don’t we know that devotion to the country is patriotism?” He retorted as if he was mocking.

“‘Perfect knowledge of even a single word is almost impossible,’ said our grammarian. In its depth, everything becomes as mysterious and as inexplicable as GOD,” I said emphatically. “Patriotism is no exception. You shall shudder to know that you know neither the meaning of country nor loyalty to the country; nor are you loyal to your country, nor is it appropriate to demand your loyalty towards the country.”

He was really aghast. He looked at me with disbelief to assure him that I was joking.

I continued as if I was delivering a class lecture, “It is not an empty word, not a momentary sentiment. It is something that flows through you so silently that you are not even aware of it unless there is a crisis. Demand of patriotism from others is made by sick minds; they create crises by many such unwarranted demands.”

“What harm is there in making such a demand yaar?”

“I don’t know it as clearly as I know that it is an unjust demand and counterproductive in addition. I think that no individual has the authority to make any demand from anyone else. It is a covert assault on one’s personal dignity, disapproved by law and civic ethos. You are not civilized in your behavior while making such a demand but are behaving as a bully. You are forcibly alienating the other even if he felt as much attached to
the country as you or more than you, because in truth you do do not count as measure. Look at the irony. The man demanding proof of patriotism from the other is himself not patriotic in the last analysis, and creates an enemy of the country where there may or may not have been one. ‘

“This is really something new to me, but it appears you are at the other extreme.”

“You mean I am also unpatriotic and doing the same from the other end? Is it?”

“No, I didn’t mean that, but it appears, extended to its logical conclusion, your definition erodes the very foundation of patriotism.”

“Patriotism is the exclusive virtue of the poor and incompetent.” I really wanted to shock him.

“What?” he cried in alarm.

“Have you ever heard the couplet of Rahim? One of the most perceptive poets India ever produced.”

He knew it was not a question addressed to him so looked expectantly at me.

“He defined patriotism as neatly and objectively as it can be.” I recited it verbatim, “सर सूखे पंछी उड़ें औरै सरहिं समाहिं। मीन दीन बिनु पंख के, कहु रहीम कत जांहि. After the lake gets dry, the birds fly to other lakes, but where can the poor fish go? They have to live and die with the lake itself. Only they are really and mortally attached to their habitat. Can you deny?”

“I really appreciate you. How beautifully you have summed it up.”

“I have not summed it up. This is just the introduction. Of course, your metabolism may be upset with a full dose served at a time.”

RESONANCE Of WHISPER

“Can you prove you are right ?”

I could not grasp the context but replied as bluntly, “No one has proved me wrong so far.”

“Except me.” he added.

I looked at him a bit bemused, still not grasping what he meant.

He waited for the quip to hit home and ultimately added with a laughter, “to day I tricked to seat you on my left and I am right.”

“hattere kii, this is the substance out of which you made such a big bubble as to crush me alive.”

“It was just the fuel, the fire is yet to be added.”

I waited for the fire.

“I wanted to ask you an unpleasant question. don’t you think you wasted your life toiling in a field not your own, whereas you could have written a dozen or more novels, that could loft you to the skies.

“I love my earth yaar! It is solid, florid, fruitful, fragrant, and more rewarding than any destination in the skies. There is nothing except illusion there. I am glad that I worked in a field that would have remained beggarly as it was before I entered it.”

“And I feel sad that all your work is likely to be rubbished. Those who will to suppress it have both the power of press and purse.”

“Even alive, I stand nowhere in comparison. Why should you wait for my death to obliterate me from the public memory. I am too small and too humble to challenge them all singularly, and yet something has happened that they have themselves gone in their hidings, the din of the press and power of purse still on their side. And know you, the internet,Cyclopedia all the media under western control also beat their drum but the one becoming a beating retreat.”

He said nothing but remained unmoved.

“They all share one thing in common.” I added after a pause.

He fixed his eyes on me expectantly.

“They have all over-lived and even in their life time they had been continuously incurring new illnesses till they went in coma. If you have resources, those in coma may be allowed to breath for years.”

“No bad consolation for a man known to none that himself.” He taunted and then after a brief pause made amends, “I agree the clamor has mellowed, say died. But do you think you count so much as to mute them all who enjoyed unchallenged sway.”

“The whisper of truth is louder than all the din created by drums and loud-speakers” I repeated without bringing me at the centre. “it is like the first bubble visible in the gruel to be followed slowly by more bubbles all and ultimately the entire cauldron bubbling and frothing ready to overflow. You may gag one voice in one corner but irrepressible voices in unseen corners coming with stronger and stronger notes converging to form a chorus can not be muted with power of chair, press and purse together. That has been my abiding faith and the source of my confidence.”

He said nothing. Kept looking at me with a suspicion. “I know you are the first to have said most of the things. But you know, you are not going to get the credit for that. Others will grab you as if you didn’t exist. As if it is their discovery. As if you followed their footprints.” He added conclusively.

“Dedication to cause is measured by your indifference to credit. Your only concern is the victory of the cause. That is immanent.” I replied with resignation and prepared to leave.