Ramji verma

                                                  
Mera Bharat Mahan
                                        

To me it is indeed a privilege to have the opportunity to deliver JP Memorial Lecture   on “Gandhi’s Human Touch;, a subject which is very close to my heart. I think, in the present world, full of hatred, bitterness, cruelty, racial discrimination, communal tensions, inequities, human degradation and erosion of values, Gandhi is more relevant today than at any other time. In the context of the present situation, I strongly feel that there is an imperative need to recapture the spirit and human touch of Gandhi. While I speak on the subject, I am reminded of my recent address at the Institute of Applied Manpower Research, in which I spoke on planning in India. I said that in our country, if we have any respect for Gandhi, we must have planning, whose base is social and human and the apex is economic. I deliberately avoided the term ‘human face’, because in these days of modern cosmetics, face can be human, and yet the soul and heart can be cruel.

I just ask a question to myself: From where should I begin the subject of my speech? I have made up my mind. I will begin from the end.
Gandhi died on 30th January 1948. When I take cognizance of the great contribution that he has made to human history for the establishment of peace, for which he had to pay the price of his life, I am reminded of a speech delivered by Simon Peres, the Israeli Labour Leader, who addressed the Socialist International’s 20th Congress at which I was present. While charting out his path for peace and freedom, he gave a very interesting analogy. He said that ensuring peace is not like securing a commodity in a market. And in his characteristic style, he said at the Congress that when you go to the market with a credit card to purchase a commodity, you secure the commodity first, and then you pay the price afterwards. But as far as struggle for peace and freedom is concerned, you pay the price first, and then you get peace afterwards. And revealing his own history, he said: “I have paid a very heavy price for my struggle for peace. I lost the elections, I lost my power.” And he emotionally said: “I may lose my life as well.” He concluded his speech by saying: “Even if I have to lose my life, I will not be worried. My march towards peace will be from life to death, and it may end at my graveyard.” And when he said this, sitting in the audience at the Socialist International Congress, in these words of the Israeli leader, I really felt the warmth of Gandhi’s human touch.

Many of you must have seen the famous Attenborough’s film Gandhi. When I saw the film my immediate reaction was that if I were to produce that film, I would have begun it in a different way. Those of you who have seen the film must have noted that it began with the scene of assassination of Gandhi. I am sure, from the point of historicity as well as excellence and aesthetics of art, there could have been a better beginning. I would have projected a flash back of two extreme events of 1947. One scene would have been the darkness of Calcutta, where Gandhi was giving the healing touch to the society that was torn by Hindu-Muslim riots. And the second flash back would have been the glittering lights of Delhi on the midnight of 14th August 1947, awaiting the dawn of freedom on 15th August 1947. Glittering lights, loud slogans and a poetic assertion of Late Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who said: “At the stroke of the midnight hour when the world sleeps India will awake to life and freedom and a soul of a nation long suppressed will find utterance.” I remember the darkness of Calcutta. I remember the agony of Gandhi. A few weeks prior to Independence Day of 1947, an emissary of Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patel was sent to Gandhi at Calcutta, who was working for peace and harmony among the Hindus and Muslims. The emissary reached at midnight. He said: “I have brought an important letter for you from Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patel.” “Have you taken your food?”, asked Gandhi. When the emissary said ” No”, Gandhi served him food. And after food, Gandhi opened the letter from Nehru and Patel. They had written: “Bapu you are the father of the nation. 15th August 1947, will be the first Independence Day and we want you to come to Delhi to give us the blessings.” Gandhi said: ” How stupid!. When Bengal is burning, Hindus and Muslims are killing each other and I hear the cries of their agony in the darkness of Calcutta, how can I go to Delhi with the glittering lights?” These were the heart-rending words of Gandhi. He said “I have to live here for the establishment of peace in Bengal and if need be, I have to give up my life for ensuring that there is harmony and peace.” The emissary started for his return journey in the morning. It was a moving sight, full of human touch. Gandhi gave the emissary a sendoff. He was standing below a tree. A dry leaf fell from the tree. Gandhi picked it up and put it on his palm and said: ” My friend, you are going back to Delhi. What gift can Gandhi give to Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patel? I am a man without power and wealth. Give this dry leaf to Nehru and Patel, as my first Independence day gift.” And when he was saying this, tears came from the eyes of the emissary. And with a sense of humour Gandhi said: ” How great is God? He did not want Gandhi to send that dry leaf. He made it wet. It is glistening with laughter. Carry this leaf as a gift full of your tears.” That was Gandhi’s human touch.

People have no idea about the literary talent of Gandhi and his love for poetry. In the context of this agonizing situation, Pyarelal quotes Gandhi:

                                               His place in the circumstances, was not in

                                           the capital but with the men of the tattered

                                           battalion which fights till it dies.

Theirs be the music, the colour, the glory,

                                           the gold; Mine be a handful of ashes, a

                                           mouthful of mauled-the maimed-the

                                           halt and the blind in the rain and the cold…”

I said I will begin from the end and move backwards. I will, therefore, take you now to Noakhali. There were ‘brave men’ in India who from house tops were saying: “Hindus are being butchered, they are subjected to atrocities in Noakhali and we must save them.” But, there was only one Gandhi and his peace mission went to Noakhali. The Noakhali episode and Gandhi’s peace March brings out his courage as well as compassion. I will give some of the instances which I gathered from no less a person than Sucheta Kripalani, who had accompanied Gandhi on his peace mission to Noakhali. Gandhi went from village to village. He carried holy books with him. He went to every village. He appealed to all the men and women, Hindus as well as Muslims, to ensure peace. They offered prayers and Gandhi made them take a pledge that they will not kill each other. But he waited for a few days in every village to see that whatever pledges that were given were implemented. There was a moving incident at one village. Gandhi visited that village. He asked the Hindus and Muslims to come out of their hutments for a common prayer and a common pledge for peace. No elderly person turned up. He waited for half an hour, not even one Hindu or Muslim turned up. Gandhi was very ingenious. He had carried a ball with him and then addressing children from the village he said: “Small kids from this village, your parents are frightened of each other but what fright you can have? Elderly Hindus and Muslims might be frightened of one another. But children are innocent. You are children of God. I am inviting you to play the game of ball.” The Hindu and Muslim children started moving towards the dais where Gandhi was sitting. Gandhi threw the ball at them. Boys and girls threw it back. He played for half an hour and then he told the villagers: “You have no courage but if you want that courage, induct it from your children. A child belonging to the Muslim community is not afraid of the child belonging to the Hindu community and so also, a Hindu child is not frightened of a Muslim child. They have come together, they were playing with me for half an hour. Please learn something from them. If you have no inner courage, try to emulate it from your children.” And one after another elders - both Hindus and Muslims - started coming. A big gathering assembled. He made them take a pledge that they will not kill each other. He stayed there for sometime. Then he went from village to village and brought peace to Noakhali. What type of human experience he had? Horace Alexander, an eminent journalist of those days, gave a story to one of the leaders. He said that when Gandhi’s prayer was going on in one village, all of a sudden a Muslim person pounced on him. He caught his throat. Gandhi almost collapsed. While falling down Gandhi recited a beautiful quotation from the Quran. Hearing the words of Quran, the Muslim, instead of throttling Gandhi, touched his feet and with a feeling of guilt he said: “I am sorry. I was committing a sin. I am prepared to remain with you to protect you. Give me any work, entrust to me any task, tell me what work I should do?” Gandhi had a sense of humour and compassion. He said: “Do only one thing. When you go back home, do not tell anyone what you tried to do with me. Otherwise there will be Hindu-Muslim riots. Forget me and forget yourself.” That man went away with a feeling of repentance.

Compassion & Cruelty

There is another agonizing incident. In case, your tears are not yet frozen, be prepared to shed them. This is the story told to me by Acharya Kriplani’s wife, Sucheta Kripalani who was a member of Gandhi’s peace brigade in Noakhali. She said, one night at 12 o’clock they got the news that some Muslims were going to kidnap three young girls who were a part of the Peace Mission. Sucheta Kripalani went to the next door neighbour, an old Muslim landlord. Sucheta went to him and said: “Please protect these three young girls as your daughters.” He put his hand on the Quran and said: “Didiji, I give you a solemn pledge that as long as you want, these three girls will stay in my house as my daughters and I will protect them.” They stayed there for three months. By that time peace returned to Noakhali. They celebrated the victory of peace. Army men celebrate the victory of war with Bugles, but Gandhi celebrated the victory of peace with solemn silence. When members of Gandhi’s peace troupe dispersed, the three girls who stayed with the Muslim family, returned home. What was in store for them at the hands of their parents? Their parents told them: “You have no place in our house.” They asked: “Why?” “You are Hindus and you stayed in a Muslim family for three months. You have no place in our house”, was the reply. Girls asked: “What should we do?” Parents said: “Go to the streets.” They said: “If need be, become prostitutes, but you have no place in our house.” The only shelter for these uprooted girls was Gandhi’s Ashram, which was a refuge for all those who were disowned and disinherited. These girls never got married because orthodox families could not tolerate girls who stayed with Muslim family. Some of them died unmarried, unsung and unwept. That was Gandhi’s agonizing experience.

When peace returned to Noakhali and later on India became free, Gandhi received an acknowledgement of his mission for peace through a letter from Lord Mountbatten on 26 August 1947. In his letter Mountbatten wrote:

“My dear Gandhiji,

In the Punjab we have 55

thousand soldiers and large scale rioting

on our hands. In Bengal

our forces consist of one man, and

there is no rioting.

As a serving officer, as

well as an administrator, may

I be allowed to pay my tribute to

the One Boundary Force,

not forgetting his Second in

Command, Mr. Suhrawardy?

You should have heard

the enthusiastic applause which

greeted the mention of your name

in the Constituent Assembly on

15th of August when all

of us were thinking so much of you….