Vol.78 No 8
NOVEMBER 2014
(Since April 1949) Formerly : Independent India (April 1937- March 1949)
Founder Editor: M.N. Roy
Rs. 20 / Month
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Manoj Dutta was born on 12 February 1942 in a village in Barisal, now in Bangladesh. His family moved to India after partition and settled in a refugee colony in the outskirts of Kolkata after a brief stay in the district of Burdwan (West Bengal). His early education was in a school in the locality. He was admitted to Dinabandhu Andrews College in Garia in the outskirts of Kolkata but shifted to Darjeeling College with his elder brother and passed B.Sc. from there. He took part in social activities in and around Kolkata. He joined Jadavpur University in the Chemistry Department as a senior technical assistant and retired from there as a superintendant. He passed M.A. in Political Science as a private student from Calcutta University. He became associated with Humanist activities from late 1960s and published the magazine Purogami, which is still being published. He wrote many editorials of Purogami. He took active part in JP Movement and became the convener of Chhatra Juba Sangharsha Bahini, WB, and a member of the Central Committee of Citizens for Democracy. During Emergency he had to remain underground for quite sometime. After lifting of Emergency he was engaged full time in publishing Purogami and in other humanist activities. Sri Dutta was a well read person, a good speaker and a keen observer of socio-political issues. He was also engaged in an organization named Suraha Sampritee dedicated to the cause of communal harmony. He was a bachelor and died unattended on 13 September 2014. A tremendous loss to the Radical Humanist cause!! —Prof. Subhankar Ray, Officiating President, IRI
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The Radical Humanist
www.theradicalhumanist.com
Vol. 78 Number 8 November 2014
Contents 1. From the Editor’s Desk:
Monthly journal of the
Indian Renaissance Institute
Why most Philosophies tend to fail in practice!
Devoted to the development of the Renaissance Movement; and for promotion of human rights, scientific-temper, rational thinking and a humanist view of life. Founder Editor: M.N. Roy Editor: Dr. Rekha Saraswat Contributory Editors: Prof. A.F. Salahuddin Ahmed, Dr. R.M. Pal, Professor Rama Kundu Publisher and Printer: Mr. N.D. Pancholi Send articles to: Dr. Rekha Saraswat, C-8, Defence Colony, Meerut, 250001, U.P., India, Ph. 91-121-2620690, 09719333011 E-mail articles at: rheditor@gmail.com Send Subscription / Donation Cheques in favour of The Radical Humanist to: Mr. Narottam Vyas (Advocate), Chamber Number 111 (Near Post Office), Supreme Court of India, New Delhi, 110001, India n.vyas@snr.net.in Ph. 91-11-22712434, 91-11-23782836, 09811944600 Please Note: Authors will bear sole accountability for corroborating the facts that they give in their write-ups. Neither IRI / the Publisher nor the Editor of this journal will be responsible for testing the validity and authenticity of statements & information cited by the authors. Also, sometimes some articles published in this journal may carry opinions not similar to the Radical Humanist philosophy; but they would be entertained here if the need is felt to debate and discuss upon them. —Rekha Saraswat
—Rekha Saraswat 4 2. From the Writings of M.N. Roy: Historical Role of Islam: The cause of Triumph 5 3. Guests’ Section: Remember, it’s a pro-Hong Kong Movement —Tony Henderson 7 An Ideological Churn in India —Uday Dandavate 10 What Ails Left movement in India?
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—K.S. Chalam 11 4. Current Affairs’ Section: a) Action More Important Than Disclosure of Names —Kuldip Nayar 15 Stephen Hawking makes it clear: There is no God —Chris Matyszczyk 16 Modi Government Deliberately Underplayed Gandhiji’s Birthday —Rajindar Sachar 17 5. IRI / IRHA Members’ Section: Approaches to Poverty —Dipavali Sen Mrs. Ellen Roy —Jawaharlal Jasthi Love Jihad or Khap Yuddh: Return of Barbarianism —Vidya Bhushan Rawat 6. Academicians' Section: Debate On Dharma —Chandrahas
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NOVEMBER 2014 better in their contemporary circumstances. They borrow these principles from pre-established theories and try to apply them in solving their present predicaments. On the other hand, ‘theorists’ build hypotheses on the basis of observation, analysis and evaluation of the present events and past occurrences to be propagated in simple terms by religious reformers, social workers and political scientists to be followed by the society and state. To sum up, it is possible to implement a philosophy in practice and behavior only after it is transformed into a socio-political theory. Before that it remains a utopia to be admired, aspired, cherished and idealized. Hegelianism can serve as the best example here. It was followed as much by the right wingers like Michelet, Rosenkranz, Göschel, and Gabler etc. in their exposition of the principles of Logic, Metaphysics and Religion as it was by the Left wingers Bruno Bauer, Ciszkowski, Feuerbach, Edgar and others in the development of anarchism on the one hand and socialism on the other. But only when Karl Marx put Hegel’s philosophy to an inverse historical interpretation could it transform into a social theory. The rest is history. Now, coming back to the focal point of discussion in this editorial that why most philosophies tend to fail in practice where do we place Radical Humanism? Do we wait for another Marx to formulate a social theory out of the 22 theses, its basic premises on which this philosophy is based and later for another Lenin to put the theory to practice? This doesn’t seem to happen in our life-time! So, do we lose hope, give up, renounce the identity of this philosophy and begin searching for its remnants in other current social theories and in contemporary political movements? Or maintain its sanctity and indulge in its dialectics? I would prefer the latter! But to each his own!!
From The Editor's Desk:
Why most Philosophies tend to fail in practice! —Rekha Saraswat philosophy may be defined as the ultimate manifestation of ideal social expectations and fair political requirements in a particular era. It conjures optimistic utopian ethics for the future usually based upon the pessimistic historical remnants of the past. It also means that a philosophy serves its purpose in a society only when it is connected with the people living in it in solving the routine problems of their lives and in giving them an impetus to go on. Thus we may categorize it into two parts: a ‘philosophy of prevention’ and a ‘philosophy of cure’. When principles of life are formed to attain a better living on Earth and thereafter they form ‘philosophies of prevention’. And when codes of behavior are set on the immediate needs of solving issues related to people’s problems they create ‘philosophies of cure’. Theories which arise as reactions to social problems call for time-bound (usually short-term) mass upheavals and revolutions (immediate or in near future) to subside when the crises are over while theories which propagate ethical beliefs and values propose them for long-term for perpetual usage to continue a good life and prevent future mayhem. Every philosophy is formed of certain basic principles which serve as the premises of thought and reflection for the intellectuals. We may call them its footholds. When the philosophy is tried to be implemented these become the slogans of social and political activists. Usually, the reactionary path is taken by ‘activists’ who want things to change for the
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From the Writings of M.N. Roy:
Historical Role of Islam Chapter IV
The Causes of Triumph Continued from the previous issue..... he proud possession of the spiritual heritage of earlier civilizations having accrued to the Arabs, it became their mission to share it with the unfortunate multitudes groaning under the hideous ruins of those civilizations. The circumstances of the age were favourable to the dramatic expansion of Islam. It rose in the period of intellectual and spiritual decline of the ruling classes throughout the world of ancient civilizations. The dissatisfaction with the social conditions of decay, decomposition, and despotism had created in the masses of people the aspiration and striving for a better world. Christianity had been the first child born of that revolutionary spirit. The unfortunate triumph of having enlisted the corrupting patronage of the old ruling class had transformed Christianity into an apologist of the established order of society. The Church Fathers had conveniently forgotten that their Prophet preached revolt against the Roman yoke, and had painted him as the meek sheep bleating the shameful injunction: “Pay the Caesar his due” –an injunction which violated the whole tradition of Jewish history constituting the background of Christianity. Having compromised with the ruling class, Christianity could not but betray the mission of laying the foundation of a new social order commensurate with the objective striving of the age. It had refused to lead the destitute to the conquest of this world and had deceived them with the delusion of a world to come, flowing with milk and honey. The entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven was to be allowed only to the meek, that is, to those who would submit to the tyranny of the rulers of this world.
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The debacle of Christianity made the appearance of a more vigorous religion a historical necessity. Islam not only promised its votaries the blessings of a brilliant paradise it also inspired them to the conquest of this world. Indeed, the Paradise of the Arabian Prophet was nothing but an ideal of the life of happiness and enjoyment to be attained in this world. Mohammad not only provided his own people with a platform of national unity, but armed the united Arabian nation with a cry of revolt which found ready response from the oppressed and destitute masses in all the adjacent countries. The cause of the dramatic success of Islam was spiritual as well as social and political. On this important point, Gibbon testifies: “More pure than the system of Zoroaster, more liberal than the laws of Moses, the religion of Mohammad might seem less inconsistent with reason than the creed of mystery and superstition which, in the seventh century, disgraced the simplicity of the Gospel.” (From Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire) Another historian bears testimony to the fact that the spectacular triumph of Islam was rather due to its liberating and equalitarian principles than to the military valour of its early adherents. “In almost every case in which the Saracens conquered a Christian nation, history unfortunately reveals that they owed their success chiefly to the favour with which this progress was regarded by the masses of the conquered people. To the disgrace of most Christian governments, it will be found that their administration was more oppressive than that of the Arab conquerors….The inhabitants of Syria welcomed the followers of Mahomet; the Copts of Egypt contributed to place their country under the domination of the Arabs; and the Christian Berbers aided the conquest of Africa. All these nations were induced, by the hatred for the government of Constantinople, to place themselves under the sway of the Mohammedans. The treachery of the nobles and the indifference of the people made Spain and
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the South of France an easy prey to the Saracens.” (From Finlay’s History of the Byzantine Empire) Chapter concluded...... [Publisher’s Note: This book, first published in 1939, was written when Roy was in jail in the early thirties under a sentence of twelve years rigorous imprisonment, later reduced to six, for ‘conspiring to deprive’ the king-Emperor of his sovereignty in India. Looking back at events in the intervening period, one might wish that this book had been read more widely in the decade before the Indian sub-continent became
independent and at the same time partitioned into two States. A better knowledge and more objective understanding of the history of Islam on the part of Muslim as well as non-Muslim India might have prevented much of the later tragic developments and human suffering. But it is never too late for knowledge and understanding to undo the harm that the lack of them has done. Hence, this small book on the historical role of Islam, in East and West, may itself have a historical role to play, apart from its intrinsic value as a scholarly treatise, beautifully written, on a fascinating chapter of human history]
An Appeal to the Readers Indian Renaissance Institute has been receiving regular requests from readers, research scholars, Rationalists and Radical Humanists for complete sets of books written by M.N. Roy. It was not possible to fulfil their demands as most of Roy's writings are out of print. IRI has now decided to publish them but will need financial assistance from friends and well-wishers as the expenses will be enormous running into lakhs. IRI being a non-profit organization will not be able to meet the entire expenses on its own. Initially, following 15 books have been ordered for print: New Humanism; Beyond Communism; Politics, Power and Parties; Historical Role of Islam; India’s Message; Men I Met; New Orientation; Materialism; Science & Philosophy; Revolution and Counter-revolution in China; India in Transition; Reason, Romanticism and Revolution; Russian Revolution; Selected Works-Four Volumes; Memoirs (Covers period1915-1923). Cheques /bank drafts may be sent in the name of ‘Indian Renaissance Institute’ at (address): Shri Narottam Vyas, Advocate, Chamber No.111 (Old), Supreme Court, New Delhi-110001 Online donations may be sent to: ‘Indian Renaissance Institute’ Account No: 02070100005296; FISC Code: UCBA0000207 UCO Bank, Supreme Court Branch, New Delhi (India) We make an earnest appeal to you to please donate liberally for the cause of the spirit of renaissance and scientific thinking being promoted in the writings of M.N. Roy. Thanking you.
IRI Executive Body Subhankar Ray,
N.D. Pancholi,
Officiating President
Secretary
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Narottam Vyas, Treasurer
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Remember, it’s a pro-Hong Kong Movement —Tony Henderson staunch supporter of western Ademocracy, Apple Daily, today, 28 October, 2014, heralded the disturbing news that, according to its way of seeing China affairs, the future of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect scheme is ‘in peril’, not looking promising, as Beijing has considered the Occupy movement as “a contradiction between ourselves and the enemy” and would be reviewing all economic policies involving Hong Kong, according to some a mainland scholar and expert on economic policies. The scheme is seen as most important for Hong Kong’s continuing economic success. “The enemy’ spoken of is, or are: ‘the social forces and groups which resist the socialist revolution and are hostile to or sabotage socialist construction – are all enemies of the people. Given that China is following an unchartered path as laid down by the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping who put forward the concept of building socialism with Chinese characteristics 31 years ago; and also given that Xi Jinping, the present leader of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), who, a year ago urged efforts to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics – while alerting Party members of potential dangers and risks* – there can be no reason to think that the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect scheme is ‘in peril’. Is the media acting as an ‘enemy’ then? The Beijing government is not going to lay the groundwork for such a welcome-by-all-scheme then sulkily reverse that decision because a small sector on Hong Kong are being naughty. Even the relatively conservative Hong Kong Economic Journal same day had a piece titled: ‘Funds flee trading link scheme-linked stocks’, 7
telling that HK$15 billion has flown out of concept stocks related to the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect scheme on news that the scheme would be delayed indefinitely.’ Hong Kong’s financial secretary John Tsang Chun-wah said the night before that he did not think the delay of the cross-link programme was related to the Occupy protests and indeed it has been widely reported that the delay is due to lack of clarity in the tax status of capital gains resulting from the scheme over on the mainland side. The plucky students and youth of Hong Kong with all their good intentions are slap-bang in the middle of all this and while, at the beginning, their motives and actions were clear, since then the waters have gotten muddy indeed. It has to be recalled that Occupy Central was not a student initiative. It was an endeavour arising from the ranks of academia and business and democrats. However, with surging enthusiasm the youth rushed to the front and amazed themselves and everyone else by taking over the entirety of the movement against the backward steps of Beijing’s revamped election procedures for Hong Kong. It became the Umbrella Movement – watered down from an Umbrella Revolution when the engaged populace noted that there was no revolution as such… A brief timeline runs: August 31 – Beijing issued its decision on constitutional reform – not good news for local western-style democracy demands – students started boycotting classes. September 28 – Benny Tai & Co. declared the start of ‘Occupy Central with love and peace movement’; first use of pepper sprays against peaceful protesters; riot gear clad police shot 87 tear gas canisters into the crowds around 6pm same day and by 9.20pm unarmed citizens were taking shelter in Wan Chai, Causeway Bay and Mong Kok.
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September 29 – Occupation of Admiralty (Queensway), Wan Chai, Causeway Bay and Mong Kok. October 1 – Tens of thousands join the protest on this public holiday that is Communist China’s National Day. October 2 – CY Leung, Chief Executive of Hong Kong, offers talks with the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS) et al. October 3 – Violent clashes as anti-Occupy groups raid the occupation site in Mong Kok. HKFS postpone the government’s talk offer as they accuse the police of allowing the attacks on protesters. October 15 – protests against police assault of Civic Party member Ken Tsang Kin-chiu video taped by media. October 26 – a planned referendum cancelled and core activists bow to their public – lack of clarity quoted and hurried organisation blamed. October 28 – first rumours of economic penalties against Hong Kong, from Beijing – true or untrue… Though time will tell, no way is China going to punch itself in the eye by damaging Hong Kong’s economic prospects. Civil disobedience Many well wishing friends want the young people of Hong Kong to plan their civil disobedience actions in a way that is in line with non-violence, to themselves as well as others. It’s not a case on relying on one group or another, but engaging the majority, really, the people of Hong Kong. What factors are weighing most heavily on that majority? They are: high rents, an ever increasing cost of living and lagging wages for the lower ranks; incessant building of huge infrastructure projects that constantly impinge on the quality of daily life; air pollution; political infighting; designer shops ousting neighbourhood stores and Chinese tourists thronging public services and out-buying locals in items like milk powder. For many people the election of the next chief
executive is a minor matter, or was, until the issue was brought to fever pitch in some strange compensatory manner and became a target for discontent – instead of those issues mentioned before. How can the election of a person who is not even a member of a political party, thus has no legacy of a manifesto, nor the means to have that manifesto realised after he or she has left the scene, how can such person be important? So long as big business and high-family elites rule the roost and decisions are made that only keep the locals enchained to a half-life, not only devoid of quality, but where quality human life is not even a request or demand, just so long will nothing substantially change. Hong Kong is fortunate that it can hang on the coat-tails of a buoyant mainland economy and have the relatively low unemployment rate it has managed. Unlike Europe, to give an example from an economically developed region – and not even approaching the undeveloped countries as examples – the people in Hong Kong do not have the devastating economic downturn so evident there. Spain, hard hit indeed for years now and not so easy to pin-point why, has been the country where real revolutionary activity has been generated as in Madrid, with its 15-M Movement, Indignants Movement, and Take the Square; Real Democracy NOW (Spanish: Democracia Real YA) or Youth Without a Future (Spanish: Juventud Sin Futuro), among others. The common element as promulgated in Madrid and by the youth of Hong Kong holds great promise and that is the non-violent methodology of action. This is what is making the difference. If rebel rousers are allowed to call the shots everything dissolves into chaos and then there will be trouble and a clamp down and the reactionaries will have won the day and it will be business as usual. At this very moment there is a great opportunity for real change and to grasp that the students under the HKFS need to maintain independence
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and achieve consensus and not be afraid to believe in the people. The students and the police (despite a few incidents) have shown how to behave in a restrained manner; the people will take that reference to heart and the entirety of the campaign for a better human life can move forward. It’s not an anti-Beijing or anti-Communist Party movement, it’s a pro-Hong Kong movement, that’s all. All sides need to bear this in mind. Article Source URL: http://www.pressenza.com/2014/10/remem ber-pro-hong-kong-movement/
Posted by: Tony Henderson in PRESSENZA an international press agency on 28th October 2014 in: Asia, Nonviolence, Opinions, Original Content, Politics. [Tony Henderson is a freelance writer working in Hong Kong, since 1980, and previously Japan, for seven years following two years in Mauritius after a year in Libya. Long time participant in the Humanist Movement and spokesman for Universal Humanism in Hong Kong. Also, Pressenza Hong Kong Bureau Chief. tonyhen@humanist.org.hk; tonyhen1@gmail.com]
"The challenge to Materialism as a cosmology is over half a century old. It was delivered by the physicists who at the turn of the century discovered that the atom was not the ultimate unit of matter, and on that evidence, hastily proclaimed the “dematerialization” of matter. Some began to doubt the relevancy or correctness of nineteenth century natural philosophy. Physics having revealed that the substratum of the world was not composed of “hard lumps of reality”, philosophers imagined that the imposing structure of Materialism was crumbling. That was the beginning of the crisis of our time. It was a new flare-up in the age-long struggle between religion and science, between the religious mode of thought and the scientific mode of thought, between faith and reason, between mystic agnosticism and the empirically established belief in man’s capacity to know. Being most probably the last lap of the life-and-death struggle, it has lasted long and has placed civilized humanity in a dilemma. We are experiencing on a world-wide scale what happened two thousand years ago in India. Buddhism was the scientific thought of its time. It flourished for a period of nearly thousand years, and pushed Vedic Hinduism from pillar to post. But finally orthodox tradition triumphed, thanks to the absence of positive knowledge, and general intellectual backwardness. The defeat of Buddhism was the greatest single misfortune experienced by India. She never recovered from the setback suffered in that remote period of history. The contemporary world is threatened with a similar danger. The scientific mode of thought, having driven religion from pillar to post, is meeting the final assault of the vanquished adversary. The sophisticated philosophies waging war against Materialism with "scientific" weapons, are all in the last analysis rationalised religon. Denying the possibility of man ever knowing anything, they preach a neo-mysticism and revive a teleological view of life, which is the expression of Man's loss of faith in himself. That is the central feature of of the crisis of our time. To come out of it, mankind must therefore have a philosophy which places man in the centre of the Universe, as the maker of his destiny, and celebrate the final triumph of science over religion. Some speak of a cultural crisis; if there is such a crisis; it is experienced only by sophisticated intellectuals; in reality it is a crisis of their own intelligence. Otherwise, how can we explain the strange phenomemon of modern men, endowed with scientific knowledge, godless men in search of soul, eager to enthrone a mathematical God in the place vacated by the old-fashioned God? —M.N. Roy, The Failure of Philosophy, Politics, Power and Parties, pp. 3 & 4
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An Ideological Churn in India —Uday Dandavate events leading up to the last Lok TheSabha election were marked for a significant churn of national imagination along two distinct and opposite ideological positions embraced by contending parties-the BJP galvanized people’s enthusiasm with a radical authoritarian nationalistic campaign, whereas the Aam Aadmi Party was seeking to translate public anger against a corrupt and discredited congress government into a utopian concept of participatory democracy (Swaraj) where the basis of a new model of citizen’s participation is driven by the assumption that the state is essentially an immoral force and that citizens must be given tools for direct participation in governance. It is important to consider implications of the two ideological frameworks, since there is a craving in India for a fundamental shift from the past socialist versus capitalist ideological polarization to a fresh perspective that can liberate India from the stagnation it feels at the mercy of corrupt politicians and hypocritical ideological positions. I would start with the concept of Swaraj championed by the AAP. The concept was introduced and popularized by Mahatma Gandhi. The idea is grounded in his impulse for rebellion against the oppression of the state and growing immorality in personal as well as public life. His idea of Swaraj was motivated by a desire to inspire common citizens with a dream and empower them with tools that allow harnessing of individual imagination, creativity and entrepreneurship through systemic participatory innovations. Gandhi possibly had the vision of seeing the advent of open source development that is fast becoming a model of contemporary technological revolution. Gandhi believed that open source tools would check the immoral and
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exploitative functioning of monolithic government and private enterprises. He called this liberation from the tyranny of the state Swaraj and called himself an anarchist. It must be understood that several philosophers and modern day innovators in the digital enterprises worldwide have pursued anarchic state as a goal for open source innovation. Such systems have indeed given people the opportunity for participatory experiences. The ideology propagated by the BJP is marked by a frenzied nationalistic hysteria that promotes cultural revivalism and top down governance to achieve a fast track and ruthless pursuit of development under the watch of a strong leader. The new Chief Minister of Maharashtra took pride in calling himself “Ruthless” in his first interview with the media. This system promises progress by by-passing procedures, it promises greater security by suppressing civil liberties, it promises nationalistic pride by fomenting chauvinistic prejudices. It promises super power status through increased participation in global trade as a primary purpose of political leadership. Such a framework has indeed produced fast economic results and at the same time compromised social justice. Of course with this mindset people don’t care- when consumerism becomes the preoccupation of citizenry, social justice is delegated to the background. Moving forward, India will need to reflect over the two paths before us- a participatory democracy (Swaraj) often dismissed as a misunderstood interpretation of Anarchy and radical authoritarian nationalistic governance that inevitably leads to a pied piper downing his followers in the ocean of Fascism. [Uday Dandavate heads a design research consulting firm, SonicRim in U.S.A. He writes and speaks on topics related to people centered design and innovation in international journals and conferences. uday@sonicrim.com]
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What Ails Left Movement in India? —K.S. Chalam are series of meetings of the so There called left in different parts of the country reported to have met and introspected for their present irrelevance at the hustings. It would be a very interesting topic for academic study by scholars to pursue without anticipating any funding or sponsorship. The left parties that agree with Parliamentary form of democracy as in India seem to be in a dilemma now. This has been hanging for quite some time after 1990 Soviet dismantle, and the Chinese shift to market socialism along with several communist countries like Yugoslavia declaring their faith in market. The Indian communists appear to have introspected and have come to grips with reality and continued their business as usual with reduced significance in the Indian political arena. The situation in India after the defeat in West Bengal and 2014 elections is similar to that of the 1990 World situation but with Indian characteristics. The umpteen numbers of political parties with communist tag however could not get a new lease of life or found to have given any promise or understanding that they are different and will be able to deliver the promised moon to the poor and downtrodden. They appear to be as depraved or vulnerable as before and in some cases openly fought in the street on petty matters. It is alleged that even the Pope and the church are changing their outlook by accepting openly evolution rather than creation, but not the devout Marxist? These trivial incidents have been magnified by the adversary to make the whole ideology of communism impractical, theoretical and outdated. In this context we may look at the following issues for an understanding of the situation.
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1. Indian communists like many others have adopted the ideology of class-war and the significance of working class as the vanguard of people’s struggles for liberation from exploitation. Have they really examined the classes in India and the transformation of capitalism along with the new classes that it generated? The role of technology in reducing muscle power or hard labour and the emergence of a middle class based on technology and improved productivity that facilitated the living standards of the people and their outlook towards life and leisure. What is the situation in India? It is mockery to say that there is no change in India after 1991. 2. Class in Europe is different from the Indian caste, based on graded inequality supported by rituals. It is not the British who invented the caste through the Census, it was there from time immemorial as depicted in shudrakamalakaram and in other puranas. It has also affected the belief systems like Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Sikh etc. Indian Marxist understanding of equating class with caste and allowing higher castes to occupy positions of power including the party posts citing declassification on ideological grounds seem to have not convinced the real voters who come from the socially deprived. Caste analysis by Marxist scholars is allegedly seen to gain lip sympathy from ex-untouchables, very limited understanding of OBCs, and little empathy for artisans, castes among Muslims and other sects with no deep practical knowledge of their lived experience. Naturally it has impacted the thinking and working of the cadres. It seems that these groups have considered the left parties as front organisations to get their economic demands met and go to other parties where they can find their caste people as leaders at the time of elections. This has happened over a period of time and has severely dented the support base of the left once the caste-based parties have emerged to rule in states. Each state has become a borough of a particular
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caste-conglomerate and what Prof K S Chalam calls ‘the Oligarchy of castes’. The non-left parties have used the situation in such a way that they manipulated the parties and people with false promises and subsidies, schemes to co-opt groups for electoral gains. The left were made to support such short term programmes and the whole time was spent on that while the ruling classes used the time and space to privatise and loot the economy. It seems that the left lost the cadre as in Bengal to those who could also do the same kind of politics with glamour and little sacrifices. What is it that the left has learnt from their so called arrogance of power in two states and intellectual dishonesty of some who never presaged the imminent? 3. The Congress-UPA and BJP-NDA with the support of the MNCs and Indian caste corporations of few families have introduced economic reforms to help dismantle the so-called Nehruvian socialism and introduced doles to gain political power. Doles are temporary and do not need an ideology or policy. It has worked well starting with Narasimha Rao and continuing with Modi. It is tactical and perhaps tutored by the World Bank, MNC experts and some of their colleagues in Civil Society to get some relief in the name of human face of reforms, to minimise and eliminate militancy among the disadvantaged groups. Left is not seen in this game plan and is thrown on the periphery to work for the doles with no substantial support from the working and disadvantaged groups to wage a protracted war against the class enemies except to gain temporary breathing space. This has totally changed the morale of the working class and the disadvantaged and marginalised groups who became what Lenin called the social chauvinists. Some of the so-called comrades who are in the left parties without ideological conviction but due to chance factors do carry the spirit of chauvinism and bring disrepute. 4. It is reported that the entry of new cadre in to the left parties has declined or dried up due to
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the perception of some that there is no career in left parties or there are very few opportunities here while in the bourgeois parties there are plenty of opportunities and chances of becoming rich. This is how the younger generation reasons out devoid of any ideology. In fact, ideological debates of the left and democratic forces were completely blacked out during the last two decades. Along with this, the recruitment in to the left is a lack-lustre affair as the student and youth wings are defunct without any serious activity on the campuses and no elections to the student bodies. It is found that except the children or friends of the comrades, who are in the left parties, fresh candidates with conviction in the ideology of left stopped entering parties. The lure of the electronic media, mobile phones particularly the temporary help like NAREGA made the youth to work and earn in the rural areas and migrate to urban zones where casual jobs are available due to expansion of private sector, ICT etc. Once they are in the urban areas and under the influence of the glamour of MNC commodification together with the continuous annexation of religious traps of Hindu, Muslim, Christian fundamentalist forces with around RS 20,000 crores foreign mostly MNCs aid or (official data) indirect aid annually, the youth is not within the ambit of any left parties. The advent of BJP as a single largest party at the centre and slowly in states is not a sudden outcome. It seems that there is a scheme of tacit agreement of peaceful transition of BJP as that of UPA III in terms of economic policies and hidden agenda of soft Hindutva of Congress with little space for secular groups. It is noted that some commentators have remarked that both the parties are (even alleged of some left) managed by the same social groups with implicit arrangements. It is with the support of UPA schemes like Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, NGOs aid of thousands of crores of rupees, the Hindu front organisations have been working fulltime not only in the rural areas but in remote Adivasi
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regions. One may look at the modus operandi of the fundamentalist to compare the working and living conditions of cadres in the left. The fundamentalist uses the temple /church /mosque, the devotee and the faith of the gullible to feed on in any location, while the cadres of the left need to work in hostile conditions without support. 5. The ideological commitment that working in the Left for the amelioration of the conditions of the poor and weaker sections based on emotional passion to serve is totally absent now in India particularly after the fall of Soviet Union. The left seem to have also failed to show that there are others in Latin America, Europe and in some small countries that are persisting with left ideology. Some in the left do not recognise the achievements of the social democrats and consider them as bogus. The undemocratic attitude of critiquing anyone who is not in agreement with one version of the left and targeting them as people’s enemies seem to have created more splinters than expected bringing a situation where all are going to be drowned. One may also scrutinize and trace out such critiques that once enjoyed the patronage of the left, but ultimately not found nearer to any organisations of the left and jump out. There seem to be now little scope for discussion or ideological debates and critical analysis of issues of main stream media that supports the MNCS and market values. No serious discussions as to how the everyday issues of the poor and marginalised are side lined with petty matters and cheap temptations are taking place either in the party forums or otherwise at the lower level habitations. There is no creative attempts to reach out the people with innovative cultural forms without tactfully criticising religious beliefs, but at the same time bringing out our ancient past and people’s culture as described by D.P Chattopadhyay ‘What is Living and What is dead in Indian Philosophy’. There are several issues that are bothering the common man like Rape, Discrimination, lack of
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public space, play grounds, privatisation of Education and Health care, onslaught of Western culture etc. The fundamentalist is giving one point solution to the disillusioned by saying that go to the temple or to a Guru/Baba or use that philosophy in creating new forms of worship with the support of media and attract them and are in touch with them continuously. The hegemony of the media is total and is under the control of few reactionary and fundamentalist forces who have been systematically working under camouflage to help survive the orthodox. The social media is used by the same forces to hoodwink the half-hearted semi-literate and the motivated communal forces and mobilise them under the pretext of saving the sanatana-dharma. In fact the content and drama of the fundamentalists are so vague and would collapse once the basics are questioned and by telling people the linking of these forces with the MNCS and their capitalist agents that are really ruining our composite culture. It is time to review the opinion that open opposition to fundamentalists and co-opting them in political manipulations do not help secure votes? Did this really helped or marginalised the left who compromised on certain issues but ultimately lost the numbers when fundamentalism is victorious? Some Suggestions: a. Initiate mass contact programmes with innovative ideas of pointing out the myth of NDA government as agents of Capital and MNCs where Modi is a stooge with data and information b. Systematically develop cadres among the BC, SC and Muslim poor and give them leadership roles with seniors continuing as advisers to train and mould them on ideological grounds. c. Create opportunities to the young and committed with in the small assets created by the party like Press, buildings, media and create hope for everyone and not necessarily those privileged few.
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c. It is possible to draw from the government subsidy schemes meant for NGOs (like the RSS) to maintain cadre and to reach out the people? d. Organising regular training classes for the cadre with demonstration of strength with processions wherever possible to give confidence to people and the cadre e. It is necessary to work with other democratic and socialist progressive forces to break the hegemony of the fundamentalists branding them as lackeys of MNCs and suppressers of freedom exposing their fabricated falsehood in the media with scientific spirit and open enquiry. Cultural troupes are to be strengthened. f. Expose pseudo secularism and create alternative media by creating new structures that challenge the mainstream business
corporate media that support capitalist values with our low cost methods. It is necessary to develop small debate groups that question the mainstream media values and content to hoodwink the legitimacy of rogue-media. Repeating what others are telling or echoing the rhetoric of the past in the left media may not help to attract cadres of marginalised artisans, dalits, adivasis, women, people displaced by projects, etc. Innovative ideas and methods are to be encouraged and deliberately promoted to project that the left is distinct and different highlighting the supreme sacrifices of comrades for the common good of the poor and exploited. [K.S. Chalam is Former Vice-Chancellor and Ex-Member, UPSC. He may be contacted at: chalamks@hotmail.com]
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Current Affairs:
Action More Important Than Disclosure of Names — Kuldip Nayar the midst of debate on the illegal Inforeign account holders, the names of those, who were given amnesty a few days before the debate, have been forgotten. Apparently, they are from the both main political parties, the Congress and the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). Otherwise, the shouting would not have stopped in such a short time. One other noticeable point is that there has not been even a cursory mention of how the account holders came to accumulate so much money and what steps have been taken to stop the practice. Stacking money abroad is a crime. Therefore, all those who have hidden money in foreign countries are guilty. The government’s hesitation in making their names public is not understandable. Obviously, both the Congress and the BJP are guilty and they do not want their image to be damaged if and when the names are out. Both parties have a lot to hide. The fact remains that the political parties, which spend crores of rupees during elections, have foreign countries as a safe haven for accumulating the illicit money. In this way, they not only escape public attention but also the amount of large sums which they would have otherwise paid in the shape of taxes. The people in India should however thank Germany which put the names in the public domain. One German bank got hold of the list of names unwittingly and handed it over to the Government of India. No intelligence agency in the country can take credit for the list. Why Germany gave the names is not understandable. If it was a pressure of sorts on New Delhi it has worked. The public was understandably up in arms when it came to know that 800 odd people have money abroad. There must be many other names which have not come out. The amount of
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money stacked abroad is said to be six lakh crore of rupees. I recall that when I was India’s High Commissioner at London, the stringency of money had made New Delhi to write to its envoys to raise money from the Indians settled abroad. I also made a fervent appeal to the people of Indian origin. But I was surprised when the German ambassador told me that the Indians had so much money deposited in the Swiss banks that they could easily finance many five-year plans. In any case, the government has now names of foreign account holders. They were reportedly received many months ago when the Congress government headed by Dr. Manmohan Singh was at the helm of affairs. Because of political considerations, it took no action against anyone. Even Prime Minister Narender Modi, who promised to book the guilty in one hundred days of his regime, has begun action only after seven months of coming to power. The Manmohan Singh government sat over the names which were received during its regime. Why no action was taken has not been explained by the Congress spokes-persons. The uncomfortable questions are never answered. The disclosure of names is in the same category. The Modi government too has sacred cows. It has preferred to name some companies in the corporate sector to others. The three names announced from the corporate sector are probably of those companies which the Modi government has not been able to mulct. Also, the concentration on the corporate sector is meant to divert the people’s attention from the political world. The effort is to convince the society that the illicit money is the doing of the corporate sector. This may be true because the money spent on elections, running into thousands of crore comes from the corporate sector. But this is the black money, earned through the illicit means. The politicians, whether in or out of power, have to bear the guilt. They look to the other side when corrupt means are used to accumulate money.
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That Modi would fight against the vested interests who have polluted the politics, was expected, particularly when he talked about cleanliness from every public platform. But unfortunately he has not kept his promise He has made businessmen and bureaucrats careful in going about their corrupt practices. But the corruption has in no way lessened. Even now it is not too late to retrieve his reputation if Modi puts all the names on the net. Who among them can be prosecuted depends on the evidence gathered. The disclosure of names will at least absolve him from the responsibility of hiding corruption from the people. This may not be an instance of corruption but it is quiet appalling. Some 3,000
crore rupees are estimated to have been spent on fire crackers during the Diwali. The money, again in crores, during the Dussehra, is separate from this amount. A country where one third of the population goes to bed without food is a sad spectacle of insensitivity to the conditions the common man faces. I have not found the activists coming once the streets protesting. The society is indifferent because those who lead the voice and mould the public opinion are part of the problem. They can hardly offer a solution. [Kuldip Nayar is a veteran syndicated columnist catering to around 80 newspapers and journals in 14 languages in India & abroad. kuldipnayar09@gmail.com]
Stephen Hawking makes it clear: There is no God —Chris Matyszczyk (Source URL:http://www.cnet.com/news/stephen-hawking-makes-it-clear-there-is-no-god/) explains that science now offers more convincing explanations for existence. TheHe physicist is therefore an atheist. If I were a scientist, I’d stick to the Goldman Sachs principle: bet on both sides. “Believe in science, believe in God” seems to cover all the possibilities and gives you the best chance for a cheery afterlife. For a time, it was thought that astrophysicist Stephen Hawking had also left a tiny gap in his credo window for a magical deity. However, he has now come out and declared that there is no God. He gave an interview to Spain's El Mundo in which he expressed his firm belief that el mundo was the work of scientifically explainable phenomena, not of a supreme being. Hawking said: “Before we understand science, it is natural to believe that God created the universe. But now science offers a more convincing explanation.” I’m not sure whether there was a specific moment in which science overtook the deistic explanation of existence. However, El Mundo pressed him on the suggestion in “A Brief History of Time” that a unifying theory of science would help mankind “know the mind of God.” Hawking now explained: “What I meant by ‘we would know the mind of God’ is, we would know everything that God would know, if there were a God. Which there isn’t. I’m an atheist.” He added: “Religion believes in miracles, but these aren’t compatible with science.” Perhaps. But some look at, for example, the human eye and wonder how that exciting ball of jelly could have come about scientifically. Hawking’s been tending toward such an absolute pronouncement for a while. In a speech last year, he offered an explanation of how the world came to being without God. He mused: “What was God doing before the divine creation? Was he preparing hell for people who asked such questions?” I do worry, though, about Hawking’s sweetly divine faith in humanity. He told El Mundo: “In my opinion, there is no aspect of reality beyond the reach of the human mind.” If that’s true, the human mind still has to develop exponentially to explain everyday phenomena, such as social networking. And then there’s Hawking’s insistence that his speech synthesizer, which gives him a curiously American accent, has had this consequence: “With the American accent, I’ve had far more success with women.” We definitely need some serious research to explain that.
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Modi Government Deliberately Underplayed Gandhiji’s Birthday —Rajindar Sachar government has by not so a Modi clever sleight of hand converted the most important day in India, October 2, 2014 Gandhiji’s Birthday, into a cleanliness day. Of course this is buttressed by repeating Gandhiji’s exhortation of “cleanliness is next to Godliness” No one can be against spreading awareness about cleanliness. But when attempt, and not so subtle is made by RSS dominated Modi Government to side track the real message of Gandhiji, one cannot ignore this calculated move. Days before Modi was to do the cleaning act at Valmiki quarters New Delhi area, the whole area was security checked (rightly no objection to the security angle). But what was hypocritical was the fact that the whole area was cleaned by regular Sanitation staff regularly for days earlier. Have we not seen in the newspapers how ministers in order to show their extra loyalty took photographers along with them, and had empty bottles thrown by the sanitary staff without any embarrassment and then making a mockery of cleaning them while especially getting themselves photographed. My objection is not against observing Cleanliness Day – by all means – provided it is on another appointed day. But I do have serious objection to converting Gandhiji’s birthday as Cleanliness Day, as if that is the most important message of Gandhiji. If one watched TV, it was Modi and his cohorts waving the broom. Gandhiji’s real message of communal harmony was totally missing. Gandhi’s stature of being the tallest Indian was reduced to a small mention and overwhelmed by Modi holding a broom. If Modi government denies this, will it explain why it never mentioned the real message of Gandhiji which he consistently
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emphasized. Let me reproduce the pledge which Gandhiji wanted Indians to take in 1919: “With God as a witness we Hindus and Mohamedans declare that we shall behave towards one another as children of the same parents, that we shall have no differences, that the sorrows of each will be the sorrows of the other and that each shall help the other in removing them. We shall respect each other’s religion and religious feelings, and shall not stand in the way of our respective religious practices. We shall always refrain from violence to each other in the name of religion.” That communal harmony was his foremost concern was emphasized again in 1921 and repeated on 24th march 1947 at a prayer meeting in Rajghat thus: “I would say that Hindus and Muslims are the two eyes of mother India – just as the trouble in one eye affects the other too, similarly the whole of India suffer when either Hindu or Muslim suffer.” Gandhiji’s emphasis against communalism was again shown in the letter he wrote in Harijan in January 1948 in Gujarati (emphasis mine) and specially said “I think it is proper to address a few words to the people of Gujarat”. Modi as a Gujarati should have in all propriety and claiming to be spreading the message of Gandhiji reminded the nation of what Gandhiji wrote in 1948, thus: “Delhi has always been the Capital. It would be the limit of foolishness to regard it as belonging only to the Hindus or the Sikhs. All Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians and Jews who people this country from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and from Karachi to Dibrugarh in Assam and who have lovingly and in a spirit of service adopted it as their dear motherland, have an equal right to it. No one can say that it has place only for the majority and the minority should be dishonoured.” (Emphasis mine) Modi went to pay homage at Rajghat on 2nd October, 2014 morning. Surprising no one told him about this solemn pledge taken by Gandhiji. But then Modi could not have taken this pledge in all conscience considering B.J.P.
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is busy in congratulating BJP workers accused of violent crime against the Muslims in Muzaffarnagar (U.P.) even, when they are being prosecuted in a court of law. Such open demonstration in favour of the accused is a clear case of contempt of the court. I am surprised that U.P. Government is a silent spectator to this gross violation of rule of law. Has communal poison even affected U.P. Government which claims to be secular and pretends to give security to the Muslims? Also equally how can Modi spread the message of Hindu Muslim harmony when his mentor RSS Chief Bhagwat was provided the services of Door Darshan to spread communal poison against the Muslims by falsely bringing up the question of Bangladeshi immigrants in Assam and West Bengal, Bihar and creating a panic by a canard that it had the potential to endanger the life of Hindu society there – very mischievously ignoring the fact that hundreds of Muslims were killed in recent flare ups in Assam, Bodoland. Modi’s claim to be secular is unacceptable in the context of his silence at the crude thinking of some of the BJP die-hards who are planning to celebrate the birthday of Hemu, employed as an army General in the army of Afghan ruler Sher Shah – he vainly chose to describe himself as King Vikramaditya and challenged King Akbar’s army but was defeated. The die-hard in RSS are so perverse that they are claiming it as a very big battle of Hindu King against the great Akbar who has been praised in the U.N. Human Development Report 2004 for his pronouncements on religious tolerance such as
“no one should be interfered with on account of religion, and any one is allowed to go over to a religion that pleases him.” Modi in his radio Speech has rightly referred reverentially to Swami Vivekananda one of the greatest Indians. But would Modi tell his RSS followers to remember and follow Swami Vivekananda, who believed in total Hindu Muslim unity and profusely praised Islam and in a letter to his friend Mohammed Sarfraz Hussain (10th June 1898) without any hesitation wrote, “therefore I am firmly persuaded that without the help of practical Islam, theories of Vedantism, however fine and wonderful they may be are entirely valueless to the vast mass of mankind. For our own motherland a junction of the two great systems Hinduism and Islam – Vedanta brain and Islam body - is the only hope……. the future perfect India.” There thus can be no real progress in India which does not include minorities, Muslims, Christians as equal stakeholders. This is the real message which Modi should have spoken of on Gandhiji’s Birthday if he meant to pay a genuine respectful tribute to Gandhiji. [Justice Rajindar Sachar was Chief Justice, High Court of Delhi; Chairperson Prime Minister’s High Level Committee On Status of Muslims; UN Special Rapporteur on Housing; Member, U.N. Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities and President, PUCL, India. rsachar1@vsnl.net;sachar23@bol.net.in]
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IRI / IRHA Members' Section:
Approaches to Poverty —Dipavali Sen etting out of poverty is much more difficult than falling into it, especially for a country as old and vast as India. Is economic growth the way out of poverty? What sort of growth? What is India’s approach to the problem of poverty with which it has been beset for centuries? The questions raise endless debates and discussions. The first Indian treatise on Economics, published in 1901, was Poverty and Un-British Rule in India by Dadabhai Naoroji. It was colonial rule, specifically, the Economic Drain, which Naoroji identified as the cause of poverty then prevalent in India. The way out was, better governance by the British (No, Naoroji did not call for freedom from them!). The subsequent Nationalist movement in India had a strong economic pivot. Foreign rule was made responsible for most of the economic ills, from the deprivation of the agricultural sector, to the so-called de-industrialization, from the lack of industrial growth to the discrimination in respect of protection in foreign trade. From Ranade to Gandhi, this was the thinking, reinforced by economic historians like Daniel Thorner, Amiya Bagchi and Rajat Ray. They generally agreed that exploitative colonial domination, rather than any dearth of natural resources or human responses, was the factor behind India’s backwardness at the time of India’s Independence. After Independence, the Planning Commission, established in 1950 with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru as its first Chairman, identified the lack of industrialization as the root cause of poverty in India. The model of the Second Five Year Plan (1956-61), built by the great statistician PC Mahalonobis, was admittedly based on the Feldman model of the Soviet Union. It was truly Stalinist in character,
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emphasizing the secondary or industrial sector, especially ‘heavy industries’ such as iron and steel (from which, incidentally, the word Stalin or ‘man of steel’ derives). Its central idea was that the more the allocation of the country’s investible resources, to the Industrial sector generally and to the Capital-goods sector specifically, the higher the growth rate for the country. This model de-emphasized the Agricultural sector which was (and remains) the most crucial sector for the population, a rapidly growing population at that. The Soviet Union was a Socialist state and whatever the loss of degrees of freedom on account of the Feldman model by the GOSPLAN, the strictly enforced central planning process saw to it that all sections of society got a certain comparable share of consumption goods. But Indian Planning being ‘indicative’, and the commitment to ‘a socialistic pattern of society’ being vague, the Mahalanobis version of the Feldman model began to exclude various sections of the Indian population from the growth experience. But it was thought that growth itself, if achieved in the Capital-goods sector, would ‘trickle down’ to the other sectors. There was no need to include them specifically and specially. Growth itself was an inclusive concept, meant for all. But by the time of the Fourth Plan (1969-74), emphasis on self-reliance was necessitated by India’s ‘food problem’ and the PL 480 imports. By the Fifth Plan (1974-79), it was the equity objective which came into focus. The very slogan ‘Garibi Hatao’, associated with Prime Minister (and Chairperson of the Planning Commission) Indira Gandhi, testified to the fact that growth was not ensuring equity. Re-distribution was needed to rectify the poverty that had been generated along with growth. In other words, growth was not being inclusive. Nevertheless there were no basic changes in the plan strategies or objectives. The Indian economy travelled along the ‘planned’ growth path, picking up poverty and inequality on the
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way. Radical reforms took place in the economy in 1991, opening it up to other countries as never before. The restrictive regime initiated in 1956 crumbled down. From 2004 ‘Inclusive Growth’ began to be brandished by UPA government at the centre, led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, with P. Chidambaram as his Finance Minister. Chidambaram wrote, “Growth, though crucial for reducing the level of poverty and improving living standards of our people, is not enough by itself. It needs to be more inclusive, more widespread and accompanied by moderate inflation.”1 He felt that the first need of India was to make the growth more inclusive, which, he felt, would require increasing the growth rates of the agriculture and allied sectors. The Eleventh Plan (2007-08 to 2011-12) titled “Towards Faster and More Inclusive Growth” and subsequently also the Twelfth Plan (2012-13 to 2016-17) titled “Faster, More Inclusive and Sustainable Growth”, were formed under Singh Ahluwalia as the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission. Both urged the mix of equity with growth The UPA suffered a debacle in the General Elections of 2014 and the BJP government assumed power. But the orientation towards ‘inclusive growth’ has not been discontinued. In the budget presentation, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley reiterated it and, in fact, Prime Minister Modi has been reiterating “fast and inclusive development” even before he came to power. Modi has further enhanced the idea saying that Indian traditions have always emphasized the characteristic of inclusiveness. The ancient rishis or sages have always advised: “loka samathsa sukhino bhavanthu” (Let everybody be happy) 2. On 15th August 2014, the 68th Independence Day, Modi directly took a “pledge to defeat poverty”. His Independence Day Speech stressed the need to pull the Indian economy out of its present situation and place it on a position of prominence on the global stage3. He 20
emphasized the growth of the manufacturing sector as well as export promotion, development of information technology, financial inclusion of the poor as well as improvement hygiene4. Taking a “pledge to defeat poverty”, he initiated a policy enabling the poorest of the poor to have a bank balance What is more, he has announced the replacement of the Planning Commission with a new body of experts with new thoughts and ideas. Stalin’s shadow too has faded away. While we wait and watch for future changes, let us note that there are alternative approaches to the problem of poverty. The Classical Approach of the 18th and 19th centuries was that growth was a long-run phenomenon accomplished with little or no governmental intervention, and culminating in the so-called “stationary state” of zero growth. Adam Smith had thought that ‘Wealth’ accrues to ‘Nations’ if the government plays a minimal role and individual entities simply seek respective self-interests. The Invisible Hand ensures welfare as well as growth. As is known (but perhaps forgotten?), Adam Smith had defined a ‘progressive state’ to be interpreted as an economy experiencing growth, i.e., one in which “the society is still advancing to the further acquisition of riches”, a regressive or “declining” state to be one where society was losing whatever it had acquired, and a stationary one to be one where society” has acquired its full complement” of riches4. Smith believed that the progressive state would bring an outcome favourable to all classes of society. The progressive state is in reality the cheerful and hearty state to all the different orders of society, he said. The stationary is dull, the declining melancholy. A growing economy brings welfare to its working class. “It is not the actual greatness of national wealth, but its continual increase, which occasions a rise in the wages of labour. It is not, accordingly, in the richest countries, but in the most thriving or in those which are growing rich the fastest, that the
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wages of labour are highest”5. The stationary state, however, would require redistributive methods, conscious promotion of education and the population control. According to J.S. Mill, these are issues a stationary state would be in a position to attend to, because production would no longer be an issue for its government6. A stationary state would, in fact, be better at bringing about what we now term Human Development. “…a stationary condition of capital and population implies no stationary state of human improvement. There would be as much scope as ever for all kinds of mental culture, and moral and social progress, as much room for improving the Art of Living, and much more likelihood of its being improved, when minds ceased to be engrossed by the art of getting on.”7. Thus, according to Mill, the kind of growth that matters is growth culminating in a stationary state with governmental role played in respect of Human Development. The Recent Japanese Approach seems to be veering towards a similar state. The GDP growth rate of Japan in the first quarter of 2014 was only 2.6 %. As French philosopher-economist Guy Sormann has pointed out, there is one set of opinion in Japan that welcomes this slowing down. Articulated by Inose- writer, historian, public intellectual and vice-governor of Tokyo, it “idealizes zero growth and calls it harmonious… For Inose, the period of growth, 1868 to 1990, is a thing of the past: in order to resist Western imperialism, Japan had to open up in 1868, adopt Western techniques and embrace a comfortable modernity. But enough is enough. Now begins a new age: that of Harmony, where there is no longer any need to imitate the West. The model for this new age is to be found in Japan’s own past. From about 1602 to 1868, Japan enjoyed social harmony, relative prosperity and cultural excellence. This is called the age of Edo (the old name for Tokyo), before the westernizing and progressive revolution of the Meiji emperor. A new Edo is beginning, where the Japanese (fewer of them, but that’s
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fine) will live in social harmony and cultivate the arts”8. Is it this indeed the sort of growth that matters? Is it this that India should regard as the eventual objective? Perhaps it is quite in tune with the objective of santosha or contentment that India has traditionally been associated with. In Japan or in India, the idea of being content with a certain level or standard of living may culturally seem quite acceptable. But this kind of a stationary state comes as the culmination of a long process of growth, in the course of which poverty is removed. As long as poverty remains, no country can pretend to be contented. There is no harmony than can come from a compromise with poverty. Therefore what matters is a growth that will remove poverty, which need not be maximum or eve high as per the Mahalanobis (Feldman) paradigm. Time will tell if Modi’s “achhey din” or Jaitley’s 7-8 % growth rate will materialise, or we will be content, like Japan, with a declining growth rate asymptotically approaching zero, but never touching the depths of discontent. Meghnad Desai had pronounced eleven years ago: “My own view is that India will remain a soft state, a consensual polity, and it will not be capable of sustained growth at the sort of rates which China has attained. …India and China will both remove poverty in their midst and cease to be bywords for misery that they became for a hundred and fifty years after 1820. China will again become a viable Great Power; India may become just a Great Democracy.”9 But perhaps that is what matters the most. If India can achieve and sustain a low rate of growth that brings the Indian masses contentment (santosha), if not happiness (sukha), perhaps that is the way (Japanese way or Asian way?) India should try out. Serious research (perhaps through government committees) into the economic ideas embedded in ancient Indian texts and traditions may prove fruitful in this context10. The Prime Minister has often pointed them out to the nation.
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NOVEMBER 2014 Causes of the Wealth of Nations, ed. Cannan, 5th edn, p 3 (5) Dipavali Debroy, `Classical Concept of Stationary State’, Indian Journal of Economics, Vol. LXVI, Part II, No.261, Oct. 1985, p 213) (6) Dipavali Debroy, op.cit, p 214 (7) J.S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Vol II, p 751 (8) An Optimist’s Diary: A Philosophical Economist Observes Our World, Hind Pocket Books, p 344-6. (9) http://goo.mx/y6bQVbm Meghnad Desai (2003), http://www.imf.org/external/np/apd/seminars/20 03/newdelhi/desai.pdf. IMF.pdf (10) Dipavali Sen, ‘Modi-fying Inclusive Growth’, World Focus Special Issue India: Economic Trends, No.416, August 2014
Incorporating them after systematically studying them may just reveal what kind of growth really matters. Raj Krishna had invented the term “the Hindu rate of growth” to describe the 3.5 % rate of growth that persisted in India throughout 1950-90, till the Liberalization of the 1990s11.Perhaps there will emerge in future an “Indian rate of growth” at a heightened level and with greater spread. Perhaps India will not be preoccupied with getting out of poverty but relax and be content? Marx himself had admitted that there is an Asiatic Mode of Production that defied his categorization of European modes. The Indian approach to poverty too may, similarly, be her own! References: (1)https://in.news.yahoo.com/chidambaram-pro mises-more-economic-reforms-094139256—fi nance.html. http://www.outlookbusiness.com/article_v3.asp x?artid=99858 (2)http://www.rediff.com/money/report/modis-m antra-for-inclusive-growth/20140214 (3)http://zeenews.india.com/news/nation/pm-na rendra-modi-s-extempore-independence-day-s peech-impresses-political-leaders_954723.htm l (4) A. Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and
(11)en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_rate_of_gr
owth [Dipavali Sen, from DSE & Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (Pune), Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan teaches at Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce, Delhi University. She is a prolific writer and has written creative pieces and articles both in English and Bengali. dipavali@gmail.com
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Mrs. Ellen Roy —Jawaharlal Jasthi Foreword: by Rekha Saraswat [Ellen Roy was born on 15th August 1904 and she died at the age of 56 on 13th December 1960. She came to India at a young age of 33. A woman whose canvas of existence was larger than the sailcloth of this universe wrapped it entirely around a person called M.N. Roy for more than half of the living years of her life. Even after his death she continued to remain in his surroundings till she met with such a gruesome end which of all people she did not deserve. A lover of humanity was killed by a person whose education and future career she was so keenly taking care of. Yes Ralph Waldo Emerson was so right when he wrote that the years teach much the days never know! What was in Roy that attracted Ellen to wait for him for a good six years of her youth till she left Europe to join him in India in 1936 even though she had a wide range of intellectuals, activists and artists around her to choose from as her life partner in Europe itself? They all say it was Roy’s charisma that pulled her to him but I argue it was her own reflection in him that drew her towards him. She saw in him the echoes of her own dreams, her own vision and purpose of life as well as her own shattering of hopes and disillusionment with the communist endeavor of delivering relief to the pains and injuries of the poor, the weak and the downtrodden all around the world. He belonged to a country that suffered and she belonged to a continent that gave the pain. They together saw in communism the hope to remove the distress; both worked in it and with it but both realized that the methods as well as the resources were actually
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counter-productive to the cause, giving greater sorrow to the suffering humanity! They both wanted to find a new solution to the problem. He came back to India with lots of hope and positivity to put his view points to practice in a new way. She followed him here to see their joint vision taking shape. He spoke well she wrote well! He had been a part of making the communist history of the world. She was a part of it too in her own way simultaneously working as its biographer as well. He was in his land more at home with the things around. She was in his land more dependent upon his insights and perceptions. He gave logical conclusions to his beliefs to the people who came to listen to his views. She became the catalyst to collect and grow this list of individuals to whom this analysis mattered. Those who went to meet him and be with him came back with an impression that he was too towering to be approached. Had Ellen not been there with him to make his efforts more earthy and benevolent a lot many would have been forced to alienate themselves from his mission. She brought his sublime persona within reach to all his admirers and enquirers. He elucidated his philosophy in words she illuminated it in practice. He spoke for them; she wrote for them. She jotted down even his mumblings and mutterings and articulated them into comprehensible readings. She could do so because of her voracious reading background her large multilingual vocabulary and her grip over the philosophical developments around the world. He envisaged a gurukul of learning around him, she gave her all to make and evolving of this gurukul named Indian Renaissance Institute and kept working for its progress till she lived even after he had left this world. She could give her best and make all this possible only because she herself was burning with the zeal and passion of making this world a beautiful, humane community of
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spiritually free men and women endowed with a scientific spirit and rational culture; beyond the barriers of caste, class, creed and sex and national geographical distinctions with equality in opportunities of defining and designing their lives. She came to India with a confirmed confidence that M.N. Roy would help her make this effort to realize her dream as he too had the same obsession and ardour right from his childhood which made him travel around the world in search of means and resources to fulfill it. How much they together could or could not succeed is a matter of introspection and analysis for the followers who, I think, should be made responsible for the consequences and for not taking the banner forward to the extent it was expected. They both did their utmost. We lagged behind. I congratulate Sri Jawaharlal Jasthi for finding it necessary to reminisce on Ellen Roy’s significance today, by bringing out her biography when the Indian Renaissance institute is remembering M.N. Roy during his 125th birth anniversary year. It is very necessary and important lest we overlook the fact that she was equally indispensable for the building up of the Indian Radical Humanist Movement.]
My Submission: —Jawaharlal Jasthi (17 September, 2014) and New Humanism are Rationalism just movements and not political parties. Whatever be the reason, movements lack the attraction that the parties have. The literature about any movement grows around the philosophy of the movement and around the life of the person who happened to propound the philosophy. The followers of the movement necessarily depend on the life of the person to propagate the ideology. There is the danger of it developing into hero worship. There are very few 24
of the pioneers who discouraged such exaltation. In the movement of New Humanism we have plenty of literature in all Indian languages. Particularly the fecundity of Roy’s mind was unparalleled and he produced a vast literature that helped to understand him and his philosophy. His writings earned great respect in philosophical circles. There have been books on the life of Roy in almost all the Indian languages. Out of them, the one M.N. Roy: His Life and Philosophy written by late Koganti Radhakrishna Murty in Telugu is claimed as an outstanding work for the detailed treatment referring to the vast experiences of Roy in various stages and the development of his philosophy. It was actually written in 1983 and it is reprinted by his family members recently. It is a matter of great regret that even that book does not refer to his wife Ellen. It is the same even with English literature. Except for the souvenir published after her death The World Her Village there is no other work about her life or personality. Many of the close followers of the movement admitted they have not much knowledge of her. The level of ignorance about her is pathetic, to say the least. One cannot claim to have known Roy without knowing about her. It is not merely because she happened to be his wife. It is because she was more than a wife to him and to the movement of New Humanism. In India it is usually considered incivility to talk of the wife of a famous man. Perhaps that is why she was left alone. But she was not a woman of the Indian tradition. She had an identity and individuality of her own. Her ideals coincided with those of Roy. That was why she became his wife. As Mrs. Rekha Saraswat has stated, because she found her own reflection in him, she got her own life merged with his. The traditional wives in India do not have any ideology of their own except in very few cases. While serving her husband in the traditional Indian capacity, Ellen served him in many other ways too. She was the reason for all of us to come to know of Roy and his philosophy. She
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made him stand before us as an ideal philosopher. There are many foreigners who happened to come and settle in India either because they were attracted by the philosophy of an individual or because of their appreciation of Indian culture; J.B.S. Haldane, Anne Besant to name a few. Sister Nivedita came to India under the influence of Vivekananda, Mirra Richard came to the Aurobindo Ashram and settled as The Mother and Meera Ben who came here under the influence of Gandhi, are examples of this category. The way they lived their lives after coming to India are worth emulating because they lived true to their beliefs and convictions. They were true to themselves showing a high level of intellectual integrity. Ellen too belonged to that genus in respect of integrity in spite of her philosophy being completely different from theirs. If we consider Indian tradition more important, she complied with it far better than most of the Indian wives themselves. Even after the death of her husband she carried the torch lighted by him as it was the leitmotif of her life as well. She was not willing to forget him. She got a memorial built for him with remnants of his bones hidden inside. She expressed her desire that even after her death, her remnants also shall be laid along with his bones and the memorial rebuilt on them. She grew so sentimental in spite of being a confirmed materialist. Her identity with him was complete both physical and intellectual. Don’t we find a place for such sentiment in the life of pure materialists? Is it not by declaring that ideas have their own momentum that New Humanism differed from Marxism? While serving her husband in any capacity, she was conscious that she was serving the movement also simultaneously. For the followers of the movement, it would be an inexcusable failure if they don’t acknowledge her services. If she were just a traditional wife without any concern for his philosophy and values, it would have been different. But she
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became his wife because of her commitment to the same values and philosophy as he had. Her services in defining the philosophy of Roy and building the movement of New Humanism are unparalleled. When we look at the life of Roy we do not fail to see that his life was completely dominated and filled by his philosophy. There was no place for anything else. But Ellen was not like that. She had a full life. She had varied interests like nature, music, art, culture, handicrafts, languages and women’s movements. She lived a life of high ideals. But economically, she was not self-dependent after coming to India. Living on bare minimums became her habit and she never could live a comfortable or luxurious life. Although she was never dissatisfied because of it, yet it was always a drag on her spirits and a limitation on her activities. After the death of Roy she rededicated herself to the service of his ideals by encouraging the movement and bringing out his works. To pay homage to such a person indicates our culture and values. That is the main purpose of this brief compilation. It is more painful that such a noble life had to meet with such a meaningless and gruesome death in the hands of aimless urchins in this country. This was originally written in Telugu with encouragement from friends like Somayya, Venkatadri and Veeranna. Finding the lack of any publication on her specially, I felt it better to bring it in English as well. The foreword from Smt. Rekha Saraswat, editor of Radical Humanist, is adding value to the compilation. I hope it will be appreciated by all.
Her Background: Oscar Gottschalk, the father of Ellen, was born in 1863 in the German city of Essex. That is, by birth, he was a German. He was the tenth of eleven children. It was a middle class family. In search of a living he arrived in America in 1881 at the age of 18. How he spent his days there is not clear. But he got his American citizenship
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according to U.S. law in 1886 five years after his arrival. It made all his progeny also Americans. Along with English, he also learnt German and French languages. German was his language for eighteen years after his birth. He was naturally well versed in it. Because of his knowledge of different languages, he got a job in the consulate branch of the Foreign Affairs Department of America. He was sent to Paris in 1890 as a representative of the country in the Consulate. His ambition to learn languages was such that he tried to learn Greek and Latin even after he retired. He married Edele Frizler in 1903, in his 40th year. She was born in Germany in 1877. She too came from a middle class family, third of four daughters. She was tall and beautiful. But her health was always delicate because of which she looked weak. She was an expert in playing piano and also used to sing well. Ellen was their first child, born in Paris on 15th August 1904. She inherited her taste for music from her mother along with the taste for languages from her father. Oscar was transferred to Cologne in Germany in 1906 and the family shifter there with him. After Ellen they had a son Robert born on 26th April 1906 and a daughter Louise on 29th June, 1910. The family took time to acquire a house of their own. It was located near the Rhine River, in a middle class neighborhood. There was an elevation on his job and a consequent improvement in his social status. They could engage servants for domestic work. The house was always busy with friends and relatives visiting them. Oscar was officious in his dealings with others. His wife Edel was younger to him by 14 years. She was sensitive and vulnerable because of her poor health and her husband, instead of being sympathetic used to be harsh dictating her in the name of discipline and orderliness. He used to dominate over all the others in the family. His presence itself was having a domineering effect in the house. It had gone to such an extent that the children used to believe that his behavior was
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responsible to some extent for the poor health of their mother. It was an unhappy family. Naturally, the depressive and unhealthy mood had its effect on the children inevitably. When the First World War started in 1914 Ellen was aged ten. Oscar was not happy with the attitude of Germans in the war. He did not like the Kaiser and it made Ellen happy for that. But they were living in Germany among Germans. Naturally any criticism of Germans was not appreciated by the local people. The fact that Ellen was an American was obvious in her class by virtue of her fluency in English and French. In 1917 America entered the war against Germany. All the Americans in Germany were arrested and herded together to Switzerland. They were loaded in trucks and drove away in closed containers ‘like animals’, Ellen felt. It included all the non-German employees including Oscar too. But his family was allowed to stay in Germany with one condition – that his wife should report every day to the local police station. It had a deep impression on Ellen. It made her bitterer that her mother in poor health had to visit the police station every day in addition to her family responsibilities. Away from the city of Cologne there was a big ordnance factory wherein thousands of people used to work. Many of them passed their house daily watched by Ellen both morning and evening. She noticed a peculiar anomaly in their appearance. All of them looked green, top to bottom, including their hair. They looked the same while going to work and also while returning from work. It meant it was not a colour that could be washed off. They lost their natural appearance. What they would be doing in the factory was beyond her comprehension. But it shocked her. How could they look after their children in the house? How would the children feel? One morning there was a bright flash immediately followed by a deafening sound. The ordnance factory exploded. Thousands of men and women working there were burnt alive. It
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made Ellen hate the Germans who were held responsible for the war. She was witness of many more atrocities that were committed in the name of war. Her sympathy for the victims took roots and provoked her to seek freedom and justice for them. It drove her into the lap of communism. Even while the war was going on there was no hindrance for the education in the school. Ellen could play the piano well and also add her sweet tone with songs to the tunes. She used to give concerts in the school which her mother brother and sister also attended. They were proud of her achievements. Along with her studies in the school, Ellen was fond of reading. She was a voracious reader and her two eyes were not able to meet her demand. She had to get two more eyes added to her natural eyes and the spectacles became an addition to her beautiful face since then. She had particular interest in geology and collected many fossils out of curiosity. She was appreciative of the intelligence and active nature of German students. But she was sorry when she came to know that most of them were assisting in war efforts. When the war came to an end Oscar was allowed to come back and join his family. But his presence brought more of agony than ecstasy. There was no letup in his officious attitude. His wife Edel died in 1920 at her age of 43. Oscar was aged 57 at that time. It was a testing time for Ellen as she was sensitive to the atmosphere prevailing in the house. Her sister was still a child and her brother was a soft person and could not be expected to withstand the onslaught of their father. The gap between the father and the children was widening day-by-day. In 1921 Oscar married again. But the second wife could not stand his behavior and divorced him. Ellen took upon herself the responsibility of protecting her siblings from their father. Very often it led to sharp arguments with her father and at times he used to slap her in anger. Even Louise in spite of being so young
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used to try to intervene to protect her sister. It forced Ellen to contemplate. How long could it be tolerated? Where is the end for all this? She could not run away alone leaving her siblings behind. But her presence also was not helping to improve the situation and she was not able to protect them. She felt it would be better if she saved to come to the rescue of the siblings later. Finally, she took courage to leave the house in 1923 at the age of 19. From that day onwards she learnt to live on her own. She was keeping contact with her brother and sister but never stepped into her father’s house. She had to face many bitter experiences and she knew nobody was responsible for it. She invited it all by herself and never tried to put the blame on anybody else, not even on her father. She won over her bitterness logically and kept her humane attitude. She was always willing to help others to the extent she could even when she herself was in need of help. She kept aside all her interests in music and studies and tried to get a living. She did any work that came her way – as a secretary, typist or translator and side by side as a writer in her own right. She identified the need to learn stenography as it had more opportunities for work and learnt it completely by herself in her own way. While doing so she devised some notations which were not in the original shorthand script and so could not be easily translated by others. But it improved her job opportunities. She reached Berlin and was attracted to leftist circles. But she had to get her permit to stay in Germany. Even if her father was born in Germany he held the American passport as an American citizen. She too was considered an American. A permit was necessary to stay in Germany. It could be obtained only by producing a passport. The American passport had to be renewed and kept alive. She had to go to the American Consulate for the purpose. She continued with her association with leftist circles and was actively involved in their activities. She was closely associated with the International
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League against Compulsory Motherhood, Theatre of the Masses and Peasant International. In the year 1926 M.N. Roy inaugurated the Agricultural Research Institute in Moscow. Ellen attended the function in her capacity as European Secretary for the Institute. She was also running the Journal of the Institute from Berlin for some time. She used to call it “The Green International with a Red Tinge�. She was no doubt a convinced radical leftist and wanted to be more actively involved in their movements. She became more relevant to the leftist movements. But what she was doing did not satisfy her zeal. She was doing it as there was nothing better to do at that time. The international outlook and sympathy for the downtrodden were rooted deep in her. She was anxious to do something more constructive and more directly beneficial in that direction. She was anxious to get recognized as a member of the communist party then. With her broader outlook, friendly manners and knowledge of different languages she was able to serve the party in different ways. But she did not extend her membership in the party after the Commintern meeting in 1928. Whether it was inadvertent or deliberate was not clear. But there was no indication that she broke away from the party. She was perhaps concentrating more on practical work rather than on formalities of membership. The atmosphere in the party at that time was riddled by groups. Consequently, some of the members started alleging that she affiliated herself with Trotsky group, which was detested by the official group. There were no indications to that effect. But there were indications that she was deeply involved in party work in spite of not renewing her membership. Even the Soviet officials opined that she helped a lot in maintaining cordial relations between France and Russia. Ellen was hearing the name of M.N. Roy in the leftist circles since 1926. But she could meet him personally only in 1928. Before coming in contact with Ellen Roy was
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married to Evelyn Trent. She was his first wife. She used to write under the pseudonym Santi Devi and also made some publications in association with Roy. She was also running the Vanguard journal for some time. She was with him from 1917 to 1926. Then she left him and settled in America. After that Louise Geisler, who was working with Commintern was a close associate of Roy. There were differences between Roy and Stalin and efforts were being made to make Roy responsible for the failure of the fifth Commintern. Precisely at that time the health of Roy was so bad that he was almost bedridden. At that juncture, Louise took the initiative and succeeded in moving Roy away from Russia with the help of Borodin and Bukharin. She took him to Berlin and got him admitted in a hospital and served him all the time he was in the hospital. It was no doubt a critical stage in the life of Roy. But for her help Roy might not have been saved from the ravages of the party groups as prevailing at that time. Geisler stayed with Roy in an apartment after coming out of the hospital in 1929. Her sister Ewa was a close friend of A.C.N. Nambiar who was acquainted with Roy. Geisler left Roy only after his health was stabilized. It was at that time, while Roy was under the care of Louise Geisler, that Ellen met Roy personally for the first time. The English version of his book Revolution and Counter Revolution in China was smuggled out of Berlin by Ellen. Since then Ellen was staying close to Roy. But Roy was able to express his love for her only in 1930 and the two started living together since then. The idea of marriage was there. But at the same time Roy was entertaining the idea of moving to India. The idea of marriage was pushed to the background. Roy was adamant on returning to India in spite of advice from all his friends and well-wishers that it would be dangerous for him to go to the place ruled by the British. There were many allegations against him there waiting for him. When Roy started his fateful journey to India on 24 November 1930 Ellen stayed back in
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Berlin looking forward for the day to join him again. She was keeping a watch on the developments in India. Roy was arrested in India on 21 July 1931 and after a mock trial he was sentenced for twelve years in jail. It was heart-rending news. But Ellen did not lose courage. She moved heaven and earth to get him released early from prison. Finally, his punishment was reduced to six years. Roy and Ellen were in regular contact through letters. The letters written by Roy are available. But those written by Ellen are not available. He used to advise her not to wait for him all the years and get settled and enjoy life. But she was not thinking on those lines. She was keeping Roy informed of the developments in Europe and sending him the papers and journals to keep him in good mood. She had to meet many people, whoever was known to her, to get him released early. She had to earn her living also simultaneously. What she could earn was not adequate for her own minimum requirements. She did odd jobs. Studied psychological treatises of Freud and Jung and translated them into English. She attempted reconciliation between Marxian and Freudian groups. She earned the confidence and friendship of many of the activists and artists and writers. Germany was in a chaotic state in 1932. Socialists and communists had become enemies of the public. At that time Ellen received a message from her estranged father after a long time. He knew that his daughter had leftist ideas and was afraid that she might fall into some trouble in view of the inimical public opinion prevailing. He earnestly advised her to keep away from trouble and keep herself safe, if necessary by going to any other safe place. The adverse image of her father that she kept hidden all these days within herself was melted under the warmth of his paternal feelings for her. The two were reunited happily. In the elections held in March, 1933 Nazis won and Hitler came to power. Communist party was banned and the properties of communists were
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being confiscated. When Ellen tried to reach her home one day she saw from far that her house was surrounded by Nazis. She went to friends and stayed with them for some time. When one of her friends tried to enter the house to retrieve her belongings he was arrested. She realized that she could no longer stay in Germany. All those years she was not living with her family living in Germany but was in touch with her sister and brother. If she left Germany it would be difficult to maintain the contact. But it was becoming difficult to get visa to stay there any longer. After the First World War the conditions in Germany deteriorated fast. Many movements and institutions came up to serve the country. The youth were at a loss to decide which way to go. It was at this juncture that Hitler won the election. Those who were communists and leftists till then began to welcome his coming to power. She decided to leave Germany and go to Paris. The only property that she had with her at that time was her American passport, French visa that had to be extended every month and the smuggled copy of the Revolution and Counter Revolution in China by Roy. By the time she reached Paris the city was full of refugees from Germany. Ellen had no money to survive. One of her brother’s friends was studying in Paris. She spent some time with her. It also served as an address to receive correspondence from Roy in India. But her stay was obviously illegal. Even in such adverse conditions she did not lose heart and her confidence. After all, that was her only property – her confidence. Wherever she went she could meet friends and acquaintances who were willing to help her. With the help of one of them she met Prof. Rudolf Older who took her as his research assistant. While helping him in his research, she also helped him in writing his books on the Nazi atrocities. Having come to know of reduction of punishment of Roy to six years she was more optimistic and renewed her efforts to get him out early. She wrote to everybody who knew Roy
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for help to get his punishment cancelled – Einstein, Roma Rolla Cripps, Malraux and others. She wrote to all her acquaintances in America, Britain and Holland. She sent messages through mediators. While doing all this and earning her living she was also involved in bringing reconciliation between various groups in the party to strengthen the party. Jaquez Eduroith was a prominent figure in the French communist party. He was banned from the party. His crime was that he advised comrades to join hands with socialists to advance the movement. It was not to the liking of the other group that was controlling the party. He was branded a Trotskyist and was banned from the party. Roy felt it was unjust and also detrimental to party interests. He advised Ellen to meet him personally and reconcile the differences. She met him but it was too late as both moved far away from each other. Roy was sorry that the party was losing its honest and dedicated activists. One advantage of Paris was that the social life there was not affected by its politics. That was its culture. Among the friends of Ellen there were writers like Malraux and Koestler, artists like Paul Robson. Their political affiliations might have been different, but it would not affect their friendship. Ellen established contact with Royists in Bombay in 1934. Even when Roy was abroad for a long time after he left India, there were people who were watching his movements and hailed him as a revolutionary leader of leftist forces. They did not hesitate to call themselves Royists. When Roy returned to Bombay, they helped him settle in secret places away from the prying eyes of the colonial government. But he was betrayed within one year and he was arrested and tried. While he was in jail they gave him moral support just as Ellen was giving from Paris. She visited England, met with Cripps and McMillan and demanded for release of Roy immediately. They did not refuse, but did not act also. She returned to France. One of the close friends of Roy among the top leaders of the party
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Ville Munsterberg offered her an opportunity to work as a journalist that became a regular source for her income. He too used to express his disappointment with the party leadership. He had differed from the party leadership on some occasions earlier too. In 1940 he died in suspicious circumstances. Some blamed the Russian agents for it. Some attributed it to suicide. Nothing was clear. That was the difficulty with communist dictatorship. In 1936 Ellen established an organization in Berlin to help the writers who came from Germany. She got full cooperation from Ville for the effort. There was no official objection for the stay of Ellen in Paris because of her role in maintaining friendly relations between Russia and France. When Nehru visited Europe, he met Ellen and also carried a message from her to Roy. Nehru was also a member of the committee formed to defend Roy. Whenever Roy felt depressed in the jail Ellen used to encourage him saying that they would establish a research and publishing organization in India after he comes out. True to what she said she did it after she came to India. The day that Ellen was waiting for had arrived. On 20th November 1936 Roy came out of prison in India. She was impatient to come to India to meet him. But things did not move as fast as she wished them to. Her passport had to be extended. When she approached the American Consulate, they offered a free advice (instructions in disguise) to go to America. She agreed to go to America but only after seeing the Eastern countries once before settling there in America. Somehow the authorities were convinced of her sincerity and extended her passport for one year. She needed the permission from British authorities as India was under their rule. She did not find much resistance there and finally stepped on the Indian soil on 4th March, 1937. Roy and his friends received her at the harbor. On 10 March, 1937 they were married under the Special Marriages Act in the office of the Registrar of
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Marriages in Bombay. Ms. Ellen Gottschalk became Mrs. Ellen Roy. The Mayor of Bombay Jamnadas Mehta, Bombay Congress President K.F. Nariman and Abdul Rahim Mitta were witnesses to the marriage. She did not lose time to start her work in India. The weekly Independent India was started from 4 April, 1937 itself. Ellen put into it all that she brought with her while coming to India. She was not having any other thoughts for her future. “This is our child” she declared with full satisfaction. The same child is now running under a different name as Radical Humanist with effect from March 1949. The monthly
journal Marxian Way was the other child of the new couple. The property that constitutes 13 Mohini Road in Dehradun was acquired by friends and followers and was registered as Indian Renaissance Institute. That became the center for the renaissance movement in India and also the residence for the new couple. It was also called the Roshan Bagh by the local people. ............to be continued [J.L. Jawahar is a veteran Radical Humanist and Rationalist, writer and author from Hyderabad, A.P. He may be contacted at: jjasthi@yahoo.com]
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Love Jihad or Khap Yuddh: Return of Barbarianism —Vidya Bhushan Rawat killing of three person of a TheDalitbrutal family in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra is a reminder of the power of people who want to govern us through domination. In democracy they say, it is the choice of the people but in India democracy is conveniently being used as a tool to reinforce the primitive barbaric values on people. As the reports are coming in from Maharashtra that the Dalit family of three butchered to death in the village might be a case of honour killing as it is being alleged the young son of the Dalit family who was a student in Mumbai had an affair with a married Maratha woman. According to reports published in DNA, Mumbai, “the incident took place in Javkhade Khalsa village of Pathardi town. The bodies of the couple - Jayashree and Sanjay Jadhav and their son Sunil were found with body parts chopped to pieces in the nearby well. Sanjay Jadhav, a farmer by profession owned an acre of land. His son Sunil, who worked in a milk dairy in Mumbai, had come to his village a week ago.” The incident and the brutality with which it has been conducted would definitely disturb and outrage any sensitive person as why such things are happening at regular intervals in India. Is India love starved and living in sexual frustration or there is plainly a caste angle behind these things since the boy was allegedly having a secret relations with a Maratha woman whose 16 years son came to know about it and planned it with his maternal uncle. Well, how can a Dalit boy have an affair with a Maratha woman is the core issue in caste ridden India where caste means everything including your right to have relationship and sex too. There may be another side of this story, which is natural that sex has become so sacrosanct for us
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that once we come to know about any affair in our families or friendship our opinion about the person changes. ‘Oh! You too’ kind of attitude. In the cases of women belonging to high caste Hindus having an affair with either Dalit or Muslim community youths, the reprisal is much bigger. Our children are filled with hatred once they come to know that their parents had sex or if they had seen them having sex. Such is the filth in the minds that any affair outside the traditional framework will find a violent retaliation. Frankly none is happy with their woman to be in relationship with anyone else outside their defined frame. A Maratha man with big landholding would enjoy any extra-marital relationship and would find encouragement for his ‘brave’ ‘manly’ act but a woman engaged in a relationship would be met with brutality unparalleled. A few weeks back, we faced a similar situation and this time the girl was a Muslim who used to come to learn computer education at our Centre opened for girls in a place in Uttar Pradesh. Many days she was not turning up at our centre and one fine morning her brother came to office threatening the colleagues working there that they had ‘abducted’ his sister. He spoke to me and I guided him to file an FIR in the police but his family was not interested in doing so. He put lots of external pressure through police but nothing materialized. After many days, the girl returned home. It was said that she was found in a religious town in a red light area. Now, the girl’s brother again came back and this time he did not go to the police but to the local politician and complained about our centre. We got a call from the politician asking us to immediately close our office and leave the place. It was shocking for us. My colleagues tried to reason with the leader but he was not willing to listen. I asked them to keep their patience and try to meet this person in the evening. Finally, in the evening when they went to meet this man whose family is an authority since generations in that area and have been leaders there with many
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members of Parliament and legislative assemblies. They informed my colleagues that girls at our centre needed to be ‘disciplined’ as many of them were too ‘bold’. What was his problem? He said some of them didn’t wear dupattas and many came in Jeans and Tops without any dupattas covering their head. I knew this was a sensitive issue there. The problem of this man was that he was the leader of a Muslim community and the girl who disappeared was a Muslim and hence he wanted to send a signal to all others to fall in line and behave ‘appropriately’. The fear of boys and girl meeting and in love has never threatened our societies like today. Parents have become victims of the continuous propaganda of ‘love Jihad’ as if somebody is planning his marriage according to members of their religion. It is disturbing to see continuous violence and communalization of the process after incidents of love marriages, which are either inter-caste or inter-religious. Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar and many other revolutionaries had felt that for India’s unity and integrity, the concept of inter-caste and inter-religious marriages must be encouraged and those who are into it must be provided complete protection. Unfortunately in the last few years love has become symbol of our male superiority where women’s sexuality is controlled and confined through arranged marriages. With rapid urbanization close interaction between boys and girls has also increased day-by-day resulting in widening the individual’s choices. Therefore, the numbers of court-marriages have grown and girls too are ready to take risks on their own threatening the very edifice of this structure, so laboriously protected by religious mights as their fiefdom. One has to understand who are the forces opposing and politicizing a very personal issue of choices between the two individuals. Why has the term Love-Jihad emerged and politicized so powerfully to be used as a weapon of communalization process, 33
creating chaos and anarchy in many of the Indian cities just because the state of India has failed to protect its citizen from thugs pretending to be the moral guardians of our society. Several years ago an acquaintance of mine informed her parents that she was in love with a boy and wanted to marry him. Her parents after much persuasion agreed but when they came to know that the boy was a Muslim they tried everything to stop that marriage but both of them were determined and had their way. Neither the boy nor the girl changed their religion or identities and are happily living together. The family of the girl who were determined and had hardcore allegiance with and orientation towards the Sangh today feels that their son in law is the best. The institution of marriage is under pressure and more so because the age-old caste hierarchies are crumbling under the power of love but then the forces of status-quo will never allow such things to happen. We must not underestimate the point as where is the Love-Jihad term used at the moment? And the answer is simple. It is used in the areas where young couples have been lynched to death. Western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana have seen maximum violence against inter-caste marriages and now to evade the issue of Khap Panchayat they have created the term Love-Jihad. We all know that Sangh-Parivar has never raised any movement for inter-caste marriages. There is no history of any Hindutva organization working against caste-system, elimination of untouchability or for inter-caste marriages. They got exposed in Haryana when the Khap were threatening people with dire consequences and BJP kept silent. In fact the current incumbent to the chief minister’s position in Haryana is an open supporter of Khap Panchayats as he feels they work according to the social laws. Yes, girls should ‘dress’ appropriately and not get assaulted by the boys he said. So, when the
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Khap issues exposed you, suddenly the new enemy in the form of Love-Jihad was created. In the early 1990s during the Ayodhya movement the RSS and its hate-propagandists actually raised loads of slogans of hatred against their political opponents. And the third grade slogans rented in the air. “Tel lagado dabar ka, naam mita do Babar ka” (massage yourself with Dabar oil, eliminate the name of Babar). That time every Muslim was termed as ‘Babar Ki Aulad’, (son of Babar) and such slogans were deliberately created to provoke them to react. It is disturbing to see many of the so-called secularists in India still feel that Muslims are responsible for the violence as they ‘initiate’ it. Many of the leaders having allegiance to Sangh Parivar have their children, their relatives and near dear ones married in Muslim families. These include the most pious of our today’s leader Subrahmanyam Swamy, Lal Krishna Advani and even relatives of Bal Thackrey. I am sure none of them would have ever liked to call their ‘grand children’ as Babar Ki aulad if he or she were born to Muslim fathers. Love, sex, marriages have been converted into not just political but thoroughly communal ideology by the religious mights. A matter of choice or what we call as right to choice has become public propaganda material for the Sangh’s hate brigade which in fact help the fanatics among the Muslims who have the ‘similar’ perception of ‘sanctity’ of their ‘religious’ ‘values’. A Muslim girl marrying a Hindu boy is a ‘loss’ and ‘shame’ for the Islamic fanatics in the very similar fashion as the Hindu zealots these days are feeling when a Hindu girl is falling in love with a Muslim boy. The fanatics want a perpetual war so that we do not have time to question them and their status-quo which they wish to maintain with growing assertion on part of the Dalits and other marginalized communities. Hence the whole Love Jihad campaign may look against Islam and Muslims but the fact it has an unambiguous hidden agenda and that is to maintain the Hindu caste
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order to confine their children to their own castes. The growth and glitter that post-1990s economic reforms brought in Western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana is now fizzling out. Lands made them ‘industrialists’ with children enjoying ‘night life’ in Delhi, it became clear that caste citadels were crumbling in sex and marriage. Once there are more self-arranged marriages the shops of the moral guardians will be closed and all the political issues related to Hindus, Muslims will also get affected. You cannot emotionally blackmail people then. It is therefore important to understand that those campaigning hatred in the name of Love-Jihad are the same who justified violence and extra-constitutional authority of the Khap Panchayats. And it is not just the problem related to north or Haryana as ugly face of caste exists everywhere in the country. Muslims will be the face of this campaign but the real aim is to stop inter-caste marriages as purity of the castes has to be maintained. Have we not seen the brutality of the Vanniar community in Dharmapuri in Tamilnadu on Dalits? It is not for unknown reasons that the leaders of PMK in that state called for abrogation of SC-ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. The Vanniyar leadership is irked like the Sangh Parivar hate campaigners that the girls from their community are being ‘lured’ by the Dalit boys. Mujaffarnagar’s riots started from such filthy campaign and they provided great political dividend even when the cost was very high. The whole western Uttar Pradesh was the epicenter of this hate campaign and we were just reduced to responding to it. When the state fails and becomes one of the party in all this the enormity of the situation has to be understood. Now with a government in power that came on these dividends, the agenda is getting wider and wider day by day and states are unable to fix them as most of our secular leaders too can’t go beyond their castes to respect their individual choices. Organizations like Ram Sena are on rampage finding out how many new couples came for registration for
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marriage. They have enough money and time to arrange people to find out through RTI applications and states like Maharashtra have provided them this information. It reflects that how dangerous things have turned. How can we provide information about two individuals who are under the threat by these goons? Those who are impressed with Hitler and his Nazism know it well how to keep people on toes all the time. It gives good time to business too. Hitler was afraid of Jew businessmen and here in India such mobilisation also isolates Muslim businessmen and puts them to danger. The theory is “never let there be peace as it will bring people together and motivate them to come nearer. Once that is done, all the propaganda would fail. It is, therefore, essential for the hate propagandists to keep spreading lies and deceits so that all that they say appears original. If there is no enemy then please construct it. If there is no news please create it. If there are no rumors please spread them more and more. Bring up the issues that touch people’s hearts. Corruption may not touch us that strongly as marriage of our women-folk with men from the other community. Filing of false cases and intimidating couples are direct threat tactics now, which can simply turn an individual affair into a monstrous war between the communities. If the matter is investigated properly such cases get exposed as happened to a Meerut girl who was allegedly paid Rs twenty five thousands to accuse a Muslim man of rape with whom she was working in the Madarasa, by a local Hindutva leader. Entire Meerut was tense for many days with newspapers coming out with different stories. Soon after we heard a story from Jharkhand even when the woman clearly informed that all the charges alleged by her were false. There was a time when people used to have high opinion of those who wore religious apparel but today they are proving to be more treacherous and dangerous. The shocking tale of a woman from Mangalore reflects this who accused how a 35
VHP man kidnapped her and forced her into marrying him. It is not for unknown reason that Shiv Sena declared that it would give Rs 21,000 to those Hindus who will produce 10 or more children. Can we have more frightening and maddening ideas such as this, which violate the fundamental rights of individuals to have families of their choice and children accordingly? Shiv Sena has run out of ideas. It shows how disconnected they are from the real issues of livelihood and survival of the people. Now, we have come to such a situation when we can accuse someone falsely as that will kill the person with more TV studios peeping into our personal lives, there is no space for a person to survive and even prove him or her as innocent unless state fails to bring proof of our being criminals. Today, we are surviving on state’s failure otherwise it won’t allow us to even raise our heads and prove our innocence. No mechanism is in place to challenge media or punish it or the state apparatus if the stories turn out to be false after several days. A person is guilty much before the court verdict is declared and their individual choices becoming ‘threat’ to the nation and its ‘social fabric’. This is the state of affair here, which will strengthen the hate-mongers. They are not involved directly as most of them had actually relations among Muslims too but they want to use our marriages, our love-affairs, our private lives for their political survival. An India in such an environment will never be safe and secure for all. It will never move ahead. It will be disastrous for all. The killings of the Dalit family in Ahmadnagar did not become a national issue because it did not have a ‘love-jihad’ angle. For media to become a main story for many days you need a Muslim character in it so that our ‘experts’ can discuss it endlessly for hours and hours. How many times media discussed the carnage committed by upper-castes against Dalits and Aadivasis? How many times did we hear discussions on such barbaric incidents? This
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reflects how ‘tolerant’ we are towards caste-based barbarism! The show will go on. We will continue to fight Love-Jihad but the implications are already there. Love threatens status-quo maintained by upper-caste forces and it is bound to weaken their foundation. It is a war by the caste forces on the citizens of this country who want to define their own choices. They have been granted this right under the constitution of India and all the international covenants and conventions. Why should only Dalits speak on the issue? Where the Hindu leaders who feel Dalits are also Hindus and have been working on their ‘social engineering’ for years? Does our prime minister know how brutal Hindus can be when their caste sanctity is challenged? The religious leaders and their organizations are happy. It suits well to all that people remain confined to their caste and religious identities so that they could be used for political purposes and sanctity of the caste remains intact. If the threat of Love Jihad can
save our caste system very well and further perpetuate it then what is wrong. It is needed to protect the caste minds who are posing the biggest threat to social change so we will hear more cries of Love Jihad and less of Khap Panchayats and their misdeeds on the warring zones of our TV studios. Meanwhile, life for individuals, who our constitutional forefathers imagined would build a stronger idea beyond the narrow confines of caste, region and religion, would be more threatening, painful and isolated. A secular constitution would not be able to save them from being lynched in the streets, at home or elsewhere as Barbarians rule our streets, our life and media. As a citizen of India, this helplessness is a painful and worrying trend. Such acts are only going to strengthen religious rights and extremists in each society who do not want intermingling of people and are afraid of crumbling of caste and religious barriers. State must act and perform its duty. Will it?
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Research Scholars' & Academicians' Uncle said, “O, pundit. There’s no relative to a wretched one. Discard this lowness. ‘…’ Say ‘let’s Section:
Debate On Dharma —Chandrahas [Following is the English version of Prof J. L Reddy's Purana Pralapam. Mr. Chandrahas, Retd. Commissioner of Income Tax has translated a major portion of Purana Pralapam in to English. The original book by the name of Khattar Kaka was written by late Hari Mohan Jha of Patna University and it was received well in Hindi world. It was also translated in Telugu by Prof Lakshmi Reddi. Sent by N. Innaiah] in the river, the Pundit was Bathing reciting the sloka- ‘…’ ‘I’m the sin; I’m the result of karma; I’m a sinner; I’m born of sin. O, Pundarikaksha, destroyer of all sins, please save me.’ Just then our vikatakavi Uncle went there for bathing. He heard what the Pundit recited and said to him, “O, Pundit, what are you saying? It’s this inferiority feeling which has stood in the way of our progress. Why don’t you say this instead, ‘…’ ‘I’m the merit, I’m the result of merit; I’m meritorious; I’m born of merit. O Pundarikaaksha, source of all kinds of merit, be merciful.’ “You declare yourself before god that you are a sinner and seek his protection, don’t you? Whom would god protect - a sinner or a person of merit? One more thing. Do you really consider that you are a sinner? Would you approve if others also address you like that? If not, why did you lie to god?” The pundit was fairly embarrassed. He said, “It’s difficult to read any sloka in your presence. Before the protector of the meek and the merciful, we have to lay bare our wretchedness, shouldn’t we?”
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be without humility’ instead.” I said, “Uncle, surrender is the highest form of dharma, isn’t it?” Uncle said, “What’s it that you call dharma?” I said, “I don’t have the ability to talk to you on dharma, do I? What all I know is this ‘…’ ‘The path traversed by the majority is the path of dharma’.” “You assume that what you have just now stated is an easy thing. It is not, my child. Jaina Mahavira’s path was ‘ahimsa paramodharmah’. The valiant Hanuman’s path was ‘sathe satyam samacharet’ (demonstrate evil before an evil person). Both were great and worthy of worship. Which one of these two paths do we follow and which one do we forsake?” I said, '…' To show kindness to all living creatures is dharma, isn’t it?” Uncle said, “Make it intelligible to me, would you? My cot is full of bed bugs. Do you mean to say that I must allow then to suck my blood all night? There are worms in my stomach. Do you mean to say that I should not take medicine to kill them? Do you mean to say that we shouldn’t use flit on the mosquitoes? If there is a snake at home, should it be allowed to roam free? If we show mercy to all living creatures, can we survive?” I said, “Can’t we survive without resorting to violence?” Uncle said, “That’s the rule of nature. ‘…’ ‘One creature is food of another.’ The big fish eat the small fish. The big fish in turn is devoured by a bigger fish. It’s this fish justice which governs the entire world. If the horse befriends grass, what will it eat? There can’t be any friendship between the food and its consumer.” When I stared at Uncle silently, he resumed, “The fittest survive. If non violence means living the life of being food to others, then the earthworm, which doesn’t harm anyone, should be the biggest non violent creature. Whoever wants to
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trample on it can do so. I have no faith in such non violence.” “Uncle, if it’s not possible to show kindness to all creatures, shouldn’t we show mercy at least on some?” Uncle said, “Do you mean to say all men are worthy of kindness? Assume the enemies have come to occupy our country. Do we have to show mercy on them? Do we have to generously welcome them? Honour them with sharbath, juice, and betel leaves and areca nut? Embrace those who have come to slit our throats?” I said, “We have to win them over with our love.” Uncle said, “I don’t understand this. Assume a rascal burgled a house and is molesting a woman. Do we take a hand fan and wave it for him? Sprinkle rose water on him? Place scent bottle before him? Give harati of lighted camphor? And bid him good bye garlanding him?” I said, “We must reform the enemy.” Uncle said, “Before we do it, he would have done all the transformation himself. He would hurl such a bomb which would make smithereens of the heart. Chop off like carrot and radish. He would crush women like maida flour. Do we have to allow lion-tailed monkeys to have a free run of the grape garden? Or should the non violent priests sit and do puja like this- ‘…’ ‘Salutation to the revered enemy. These flowers, incense, lighted lamp, betel leaves and areca nut and offering of food are only for you.’ “Should songs of love be sung like this-? ‘…’ ‘The victorious, wearing the arms and arrows and slaughtering the humans, grant us shelter. Don’t wage war with us. O, valorous, don’t kill us.’ The pundit said, “Manu has prescribed ten attributes of dharma- ‘…’ ‘Courage, forgiveness, patience, abstinence from theft, cleanliness, control over the senses, intelligence, education, truth, and absence of anger are the ten attributes of dharma.’ Uncle smiled and said, “All these are effeminate
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qualities. They are meant for the weaklings. A weak woman will tolerate everything and remain quiet. A weak person will swallow all grief. These dharmas don’t apply to the powerful. If Pandavas sat with patience, why would the War of Mahabharat have been waged? If Rama had forgiven, why would Lanka have been burnt down?” “If that is so, why were these dharmas established?” “My child, why are the devotees counselled to be patient? Be content with a dry roti. When scolded, shut your mouth. Don’t allow your mind to be corrupted. Don’t steal anything. Work honestly. Have control over your tongue and other senses. Be alert when working. Don’t get angry when hit. That’s why. The meaning of ‘…’ is only this. This dharma is meant for the students, women and Sudras. The dharma of the competent is different. In Mahabharatha also it is said like this – ‘…’ ‘Dharma for the competent is different from dharma of the incompetent.’ “Uncle, what’s dharma of the competent?” “It’s the way his desire can be fulfilled. It could be with the bullet of a rifle or the strength of a bomb. ‘…’ ‘Blame shall not attach a competent person in the same way as the Sun, Fire and the Ganges are blemishless.’ “If a commoner commits murder, he is sentenced. If a soldier dies in war after killing a hundred persons he gets ‘Vir Chakra’. That’s why it is said, ‘there’s no sin in a group activity.’ If a crow dips its beak in water in a cruse, water is defiled. But Ganga is not defiled when hundreds of crows bathe in the Ganges.” The pundit interjected and said, “This is what Vyasa preached – ‘…’ “‘Vyasa summarised the essence of Astadasa Puranas in two sentences – doing good earns merit and sin by torturing others.’” I said, “Uncle, we too have believed from the ancient time that doing good to others is meritorious and causing pain is sin, don’t we?”
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Uncle said, “This too is like adultery. If removing pain of others is dharma, then satisfying the desire of a lustful woman also is dharma.” Pundit glowered, “Your argument is fallacious.” Uncle said, “It’s not mine. Kumarila Bhattu said this – ‘…’ “You are blaming the disciple, who had intercourse with the guru’s wife, don’t you? But he did a great service and so he will earn the merit of a good deed.’ “If helping others is dharma then it may be necessary to reckon that a fellow who has intercourse with Guru’s wife also as help. Instead of thinking about such questions and answers, you are finding fault with me.” “Uncle, what is your personal view in the matter?” Uncle smiled and said, “Hey, my opinion on anything has never been constant, has it? Yet, I’ll recite a sloka from ‘Vikatakavi Purana’- ‘…’ “‘Vikatakavi gave the essence of Astadasa Puranas in two sentences: Whatever enures benefit to him is punya and whatever enures difficulty for him is sin.’” I was nonplussed. Uncle said, “The wheel of otherworldliness also runs on the hinge of selfishness. Will anyone give away anything or do a good deed for nothing? It’s done for fame and heaven. Everywhere there’s some selfishness. When the oil of selfishness is exhausted, then the lamp of otherworldliness will be put out.” “But tapasvis endured lot of difficulties for the sake of dharma, didn’t they?” I asked. Uncle said, “There are some whose mind is strange. They think the more the body is punished, greater the merit. That’s why if one does ‘Chandrayana Vrata’ another performs ‘Panchagni Sadhana’. If one stands on one leg, another perches on a platform. If one sleeps on thorns, another falls silent. Yet another only drinks juice of greens and herbs.” “This is all part of sadhana,” said pundit. “Not sadhana, say, saadh (desire),” said Uncle. “It has something to do with fame, wealth or lust. 39
‘…’ ‘Man must become somehow become famous, whether by breaking the pot, or by tearing cloths, or by riding a donkey.’ Pandit said, “Abstention is the best of all paths.” Uncle said, “Abstention is for the guileless. Those who are inactive take shelter under passivity. Those who are without hope only act as though they are disinterested. Sacrifice and renunciation are the words uttered by the clueless.” Pandit said, “’…’ ‘There’s no greater solace than contentment’.” “Sir, this is meaningless. Ayachi Mishra of Mithila spent his life with a bag and a quarter of grains eating greens and herbs. There are plenty who praise him. But none of them will refrain from asking for dowry of thousands of rupees for the marriage of his sons.” I asked, “Uncle, what’s your opinion on celibacy?” Uncle smiled and said, “Brahmacharya means an act which is equal to Brahma. Brahma is a neuter gender. That means, brahmacharya means living like an impotent person.” Pundit said, “Don’t heckle. Brahmacharya means preservation of the drop. ‘…’ ‘Ejaculation will cause death while retention of semen will mean life.’” “But in my view,” Uncle said, ‘…’ “Ejaculation will mean life and retention will mean death.’ “If all the drops of semen stay in the treasury of man, how will creation happen? It’s due to the discharge of semen only that creation occurs, isn’t it?” Pundit said, “Then, do you mean to say that it’s foolish to remain a bachelor?” Uncle smiled and said, “Those who have the capacity can grow as ‘brahmachari’ taking another meaning for the word. ‘Brahma’ means independent. That’s why ‘brahmachari’ means the one who roams about freely, in the same way as sanyasi means ‘samyak’ (in an appropriate manner) ‘nyas’ renounces. That’s why sanyasis renounce all relationships with the society.
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Some of course abandon relationship with the cloth and turn ‘digambara’ or ‘nagababa’. Householders labour hard like the oxen whereas viragis become ‘Goswamis’ and roam about freely like the bulls.” “They practice yoga in a big way, don’t they? Do you mean to say all that is a waste?” Uncle was now in his elements and said, “Then hear this. The goal of all yoga is intercourse. Some believe that by pressing ‘nak’ (nose) here the door of that ‘nak’ (heaven) will open; if ‘kundalini’ (yoga) is aroused here, ‘kundalini’ (a beauty wearing earlobes) will be available there; and if here ‘khechari’ (a yoga posture) is practised, a ‘khechari’ (an angel roaming in the sky) will be available there. Even those who consider woman is the veritable hell also will want to reach the heaven for getting women. With the object of getting Rambha, ‘rambha fal’ (banana) is offered to god. Wishing to get ‘Tilottama’ they sprinkle ‘tila’ (gingili seeds). If it is revealed to everyone that the door of heaven is a fraud, it will be curtains for the drama of worship of all kinds and rituals. If Chandramukhi is not reachable why should hands be washed in Gomukhi and do penance? If Mriganayani is mrigya (not available) why wear ‘mrigcharma’ (animal hide)? If there is no desire of ‘Shodasi’ why observe Ekadasi? I said, “Aha ha! It’s raining figures of speech.” Uncle said, “Not just figures of speech but truth too. I only ask one question – If a (vaarangana) prostitute is not likened as a woman prostitute of virtue (varangana) how does she get respect in heaven as ‘devangana’ (a woman of gods)? Even great sages return to the earth when their merit is over. ‘…’ But angels like Rambha, Urvasi, Menaka and Tilottama remain young forever, stay in heaven and enjoy everyday. Did any respectable woman have such luck?” I said, “Uncle where’s the comparison?” Uncle said, “There is a difference between the two, like water in cupped hands and water in a great perennial river. If one is embodiment of
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wretchedness the other is embodiment of generosity. Is a body which serves just one person is a body at all? Blessed is the body which serves many- ‘…’ ‘The wealth of good people is there for the benefit of others.’ Pundit said, “Prostitute is a prostitute. She satisfies the bodily needs and takes money for that.” Uncle said, “A prostitute takes money only now and then; a wife throughout. That’s why she is called ‘bharya’ (whom has she to bear?). The difference is that the wife gives pleasure to just one while the prostitute to many. In Devi Bhagavatam, it is said like this – ‘…’ ‘If the contact is with one person, she is a woman of virtue; adulterer if the contact is with two; ‘gharshini’ if it is with three; ‘puschali if it with four; prostitute if it is with five to six; ‘pungi’ if it is with seven to eight and ‘maha vesya’ if the contact is with more than eight! ‘…’ ‘The generous view the entire world as one family.’ Pundit said, “Prostitute goes to the hell.” Uncle said, “Please read ‘Dharma Sastra’ again. A married woman goes to the heaven when she serves her husband all her life. A slight mistake in serving the husband, or a harsh word uttered would mean that the servants of Yama stuff her mouth with fire- ‘…’ ‘A prostitute reaches the heaven straightaway if she offers herself completely to a Brahmin talking to him sweetly.’ ‘…’ ‘The prostitute has to do whatever is desired by the virtuous Brahmin. She must smilingly offer herself by all means to him.’ ‘Lord Vishnu also is kind to the prostitutes. That’s why the path of moksha, liberation, has been made so easy. That’s the reason for the heaven being filled with prostitutes. But there is a big nuisance in this. Dharma will be ruined by going to the heaven!” The pundit could not control himself. He asked, “Please tell me how dharma will be ruined by going to the heaven?” Uncle replied, “Look, pundit. Assume that all your ancestors went to the heaven. But the
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angels they sleep with are the same. Rambha, Urvasi, Menaka and Tilottama who have been for ages giving pleasure to the inmates. That being so, the heaven has to be treated as ‘Bhairavi Kshetra’. That’s why I say dharma will be ruined by going to the heaven.” “You say this for fun, I know,” the pundit said. “There’s no dharma which is holier than the dharma of being a wife.” Uncle said smilingly, “The dharma of Nature is stronger than the dharma of a wife. That’s there since the beginning of creation. Marriage is an artificial relationship organised by you and me. Rishis like Uddalaka, son of Swetaketu, have been creating these relationships. Young women like Jabaala have been transgressing them. Dirghatama says that the custom of one husband for a woman did not exist before his time. ‘…’ ‘From today I am establishing a rule that a woman will have only one man as her husband throughout her life.’ Pundit said, “You mean being virtuous is not an injunction of god?” “If that was his order, why did he defile Brinda?” Pundit said, “That’s Puranic god. I’m talking about Brahma who is nirguna and nirakaaraa.” Uncle smiled and said, “Sir, why do you drag nirakara Brahma into this? Does he seek pleasure in getting between men and women?” The pundit was angry. “You are insulting Brahma. Tell me how did the matter of chastity come into being without the command of Brahma?” Uncle smiled and said, “Look at what Lokayata Darsana says – ‘…’ ‘The weak and clever men have established this chastity rule out of jealousy with the object of keeping their wives away from the handsome and valorous men.’ “Another said it more clearly- ‘…’ ‘This rule was established to ensure that the weak neck and healthy breast of the woman is beyond the fist of others.’ Pundit said, “You always are out to make fun.”
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“That’s true,” Uncle said. “But forgive me Pundit, what you call chastity is actually adultery.” Pundit was furious. He said, “What you say is gibberish.” “Sir, ponder over this. What’s adultery? It’s opposed to the norm. What do we call as the norm? It’s a rule which is extremely common. What’s the prevailing norm in the creation? Pregnancy naturally results when man and woman unite. There is no need to blow the conch or blow trumpets for that. To place kumkum where the hair is parted, to tie the thread thrice, et cetera are a part of the same embellishments meant to catch woman as though she is buffalo and rein her in. That’s why the words such as ‘mahishi’ (she buffalo) have come into vogue.” Pundit remained quiet. Uncle began again. “Look at this. Every creature has sexual freedom. Only man has transgressed this natural law and has held woman within certain bounds in captivity. That’s why I call this chastity rule unnatural or adultery.” Pundit finished his bath. He could not argue with Uncle and left reciting ‘agharshaka sukta’ (a mantra which destroys sins). I said, “Uncle you are indeed blessed. There’s nothing that you can’t prove by an argument. But what you say can mean a heavy blow to the chastity rule.” Uncle laughed loudly and said, “Arey, the prattle of a drunken man will land a blow on the chastity rule and nothing happens when the Smrithkaras openly encourage adultery. Is this what you want to say?” “Uncle, what do you mean? Is there mention of adultery in ‘smritis’?” Uncle said, “Hear this to understand what all is said in the smritis- ‘…’ ‘A woman shall not be blamed for adultery.’ ‘…’ ‘A woman is cleansed when she menstruates.’ “Hear this too- ‘…’ ‘A woman who is pregnant of union with a man of unequal varna should not be forsaken. At menstruation after delivery, she will
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be cleansed and will become like pure gold.’ ‘…’ ‘Women and gold will be cleansed with the rays of the sun, the moon and the air.’ ‘…’ ‘No blame shall attach women, the old and children like there can be no blemish in the running water and dust particles which fly in the air.’ “My son, the smritikaras changed their prescriptions in tune with the changing social circumstances. That’s why they said – ‘…’ ‘There are many srutis and many smritis. The prescription no sage can be taken as valid for all times.’ I said, “Uncle, don’t you believe in the heaven? Uncle replied, “How do I believe until at least one has returned from the heaven and told me? Nobody has come back until now. Those who speak of it have not gone and therefore how to believe their words?” I said, “If there is no truth in it, how has the belief survived for so long?” Uncle said, “Son, man is not content with the pleasures enjoyed on the earth. There is no limit to desire. But life-span is limited. Physical ability has limits. Very soon old age is reached. The game is over. But carnal desire remains intact. That’s why men create the flower in the sky and mentally devour delicious sweetmeats. They daydream that ‘The place of abode after death has food which is equal to ambrosia and celestial damsels for intercourse.’ Heaven has become not the abode of gods but of the in-laws. In the in-laws’ place, there’s authority only on one shodasi, girl of sixteen years, but in heaven there are sixteen thousand shodasis. And all of them are young and ageless. Besides, there’s no brother-in-law or father-in-law to hover around there. Where can one find a more convenient place for romance?” “Uncle, you can trifle everything. But tell me what is dharma?” Uncle said, “Arey, ‘…’ ‘Each unto himself.’ If one says ‘…’ ‘Dharma is to protect oneself’, another says ‘…’ ‘Creation depends on dharma’. According to Kanada ‘…’ ‘The thing which yields
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progress and fame is dharma’. Jaimini defines ‘…’ ‘Thing that promotes good deeds is dharma’.” “Uncle, which definition do you agree with?” “I accept all the definitions. But my interpretation is different. Dharma to me is that which gives protection to oneself, that which leads to assume bodily form, that which leads to extreme joy and that which allows the creation to continue.’ “But our preachers of dharma have said ‘…’ ‘There’s no greater dharma than the truth’, didn’t they?” Uncle said, “That’s untrue. Assume someone has come with sword to kill you and you are hiding behind a bush. At that time do I state the truth? What’s dharma there? Is it protection of truth or dharma?” I said, “Then what is permanent dharma? I’m at a loss to know.” Uncle said, “This has not become intelligible to the stalwarts too. That’s why it is said – ‘…’ ‘The essence of dharma is hidden in the cave’. But it is not possible to lay bare the secret of that dharma without entering in the cave.” When I was looking at him nonplussed, Uncle resumed and said, “Arey, my son! Why do you get entangled in this? There is nothing like dharma which is applicable to everyone in every way for all times. All dharmas are dependent on others. They are dependent on the circumstances. There are no dharmas which are not dependent on anything and which remain in the same way always. In Mahabharatha, it has been said clearly – ‘…’ ‘Dharma varies depending on the place and the time. There’s no dharma which is useful to everybody at all times.’ I said, “If that is so, why were so many dharma sastras made?” Uncle smiled and said, “My son, ‘…’ ‘Dharma sastras were made for the dimwits. Those who have intelligence will find out their path of well being themselves.’ *********
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NOVEMBER 2014
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