Towards the
Rebirth of India
by Aju
Mukhopadhyay
‘India must be
Reborn, because her Rebirth is demanded by the future of the
world. . . .It is she who must send forth from herself the
future religion of the entire world, the Eternal Religion which
is to harmonise all religions, science and philosophies and make
mankind one soul.’- Wrote Sri Aurobindo in Bhawani Mandir, a
revolutionary pamphlet.
More than 60 years have passed from the beginning of our journey
as a free nation. We have achieved much; economically,
scientifically and technically. We could do much more but for
the inherent weaknesses in the leadership of those who took the
reign of the country at the beginning of its freedom which still
plagues the country, besieged as we are with dangers unforeseen.
To overcome such dangers we have to analyse the weaknesses and
surge out of it, not only to be the leader of Asia but also of
the whole world with the help of our age old spiritual
resources, that being our inherent strength.
Jawaharlal Nehru, a
fine orator, scholar and gifted writer, was fond of dabbling
seriously with words and dreaming the fine things. But in spite
of all fine speculations he failed in taking right actions at
the right times. It was unfortunate that the charge of free
India was entrusted on his shoulders by the one who was a
kingpin of his time in Indian polity. The choice of Nehru was
one of the series of blunders committed by M. K. Gandhi which
resulted in the failure of almost all his political actions,
leading to his becoming almost a persona non grata at the
beginning of India’s political freedom.
With Western
education and rational mind Nehru journeyed through India in the
company of the mighty travellers from China and Western and
Central Asia who came here in the remote past. With others he
too observed, ‘Surely India could not have been what she
undoubtedly was, and could not have continued a cultural
existence for thousands of years, if she had not possessed
something very vital and enduring, something that was
worthwhile. What was this something?’
1
A Brahmin pundit
from Kashmir, Nehru denied his heritage, he was not spiritual in
any sense so it seems that he never realized that something.
It is to his credit that he created the voluminous The Discovery
of India, a history and culture of Indian past and present
within a period of some five months in Ahmednagar Fort Prison in
1944. In view of the fact that there are large number of
quotations and references, it seems that either the writer had
access to all such books quoted in the prison itself or he might
have quoted from other books as secondary sources or the book
was later edited though he mentioned that no additions or
changes were made later.
However, we know him
through this book- ‘I do not usually burden my mind with such
philosophical or metaphysical problems. . . . But usually it is
action and the thought of action that fill me . . . ‘2
Without denying the
fact that there were great people who professed divinity,
without denying the existence of the beyond, the invisible
world, he did not bother to go into them for ‘Religion, as I saw
practiced, and accepted even by thinking minds . . . did not
attract me . . . . superstitious practices and dogmatic beliefs
. . . . certainly not that of science.’ 3
Mysticism irritated
him. He thought that they were intellectual speculations which
did not affect his life. Though the logic of karma and soul had
some appeal to him, any idea of personal god seemed very odd to
him. ‘While I accepted the fundamentals of the socialist theory,
I did not trouble myself about its numerous inner controversies.
I had little patience with leftist groups in India.’ 4
He was, in short,
interested in this world, in this life, not in the other world
or the future life. Not a Marxist, he understood the Vedas and
the Upanishads through the spectacles of the Western scholars.
He did not have an iota of spiritual sense though on it was
built the edifice of Indian culture.
To come back to
Nehru’s spiritualism; once on 13 June 1963, he with his
entourage visited the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram in
Pondicherry. Two days later while talking to her disciple she
said, ‘I saw Nehru – it’s awful! Understands nothing, nothing,
nothing, absolutely obtuse . . . . you see, he takes Gandhi’s
asceticism for spiritual life- always the same mistake! There’s
no way to pull them out of it, unfortunately the whole world has
caught the same idea. . . .
‘I had asked S.M. (Surendra
Mohan Ghose, the Congress leader) to come while Nehru was here
(he is a friend of Nehru. . . .) and S.M. did all the talking.
But I saw that if he had been silent, if Nehru had been sitting
in his armchair with me, saying nothing and no one to listen to,
he couldn’t have stayed! He would have left. It would have been
too strong, he coulnd’t have stayed.’ 5
Let us see how he
acted in the country’s affairs before and after he became the
first Prime Minister of India for 17 years.
With the fall of
Penang and Singapur, as the Japanese advanced in Malay, England
faced a dangerous situation in April 1942 against the Nazis and
Japan who threatened to invade Burma and India. The British War
Cabinet sent a mission under Sir Stafford Cripps, expecting
Indian cooperation, offering Dominion Status to India. This was
a dangerous as well as special situation. Sri Aurobindo the yogi
had foreseen the boon of the offer. He welcomed Cripps and his
offer and the later responded positively. He sent a telegram to
the Congress- ‘Accept, whatever the conditions, otherwise it
will be worse later on.’ 6
He sent his
messenger, Barristar Duraiswami Iyer, who met Gandhi and the
Working Committee separately. Among other things, Sri
Aurobindo’s view was that British imperialism was an old
decaying one but Japanese imperialism was a greater menace. He
advised cooperation with the British in collaboration with the
Muslim strength. While Duraiswami met with stony silence from
the Working Committee members, Gandhi advised Sri Aurobindo
through him to come out and lead the country, saying that Bengal
needed him most. Sri Aurobindo was away from direct politics
from 1910 but he had interest for the country’s welfare, worked
to the extent possible in yogic way for the whole humanity.
Gandhi further said, ‘Why is that man meddling? He should be
concerned only with spiritual life.’ 7
There is a feeling
of grudge in Gandhi’s question and kind advice. The Mother had
given the reason for it too during her talks. Many others later
realised and K. M. Munshi, a prominent minister, said publicly
in 1951 that had they accepted Sri Aurobindo’s advice, there
would not have been any partition later. Partition brought in
its trail blood-bath, human loss, refugees, hatred, war with
Pakistan and terrorism. What perpetual holocaust! Could they not
be avoided?
On 8 August 1942 the
Quit India resolution was passed. The next morning most of the
leaders were arrested and put behind the bars. They were brought
out for discussions when the British could no more continue to
keep the Indian empire safely. The Quit India movement took its
expected shape, mostly non-violent. So it is not that Gandhi,
Nehru and their group led the non-violent movement towards
Indian freedom.
Before the
resolution, though Nehru felt depressed with the report of the
Mission, he tried with C. Rajagopalachary, it is said, to accept
the proposal. So with a demurral, with a prick of conscience for
having lost the chance, Nehru later observed- ‘A revolutionary
change, both political and economic, is not only needed in India
but would appear to be inevitable. At the end of 1939, soon
after the war started, and again, in April, 1942, there seemed
to be a faint possibility of such a change taking place by
consent between India and England. But those possibilities and
opportunities passed because every basic change was feared.
8
That Subhas Chandra
Bose escaped from the country on the night of January 16-17,
1941 was a great relief to many, who were seeking the throne and
their supporters. But Subhas Chandra and Vallabhbhai Patel were
many times more efficient than Nehru to be the Prime Minister of
India. Gandhi knew that Patel was a real Hindu but not
anti-Muslim. ‘It would be a travesty of truth to describe Sardar
as anti-Muslim’, Gandhi assured the Muslim leaders. Patel would
have broken ties with Nehru more than once but Gandhi made him
promise to support Nehru as the Prime Minister and to cooperate
with him- an example of personal favouritism at the cost of the
country. That is why Nehru became the Congress President in
1946, after a long spell of Presidentship by Maulana Azad, to be
the Prime Minister next. He disregarded later the naming of
Jinnah as the Prime Minister by Gandhi.
Gandhi
non-cooperated with Subhas when he became Congress President for
the second term in 1939 against his own man, Pattabhi Sitaramaya.
Here we may say that non-violence does not mean non-killing
only. Non-violence is in action and thought also.
Non-cooperation by Gandhi and his clique with Subhas brought a
series of massacres later. Subhas’s going out was disastrous for
him and many others though it helped to gain the Indian freedom
beyond the conception of most of the leaders. Let us remember
him, the Chief Commander of the Indian National Army Subhas
Chandra Bose, with a Jai Hind
After his total disappearance, called death by them, Gandhi
observed, ‘The whole country has been roused and even the
regular forces have been stirred into a new political
consciousness and have begun to think in terms of Independence.’
9
Gandhiji did not
dream of what Subhas did. And let us see what Jawaharlal felt
about it. ‘The story of Indian National Army, formed in Burma
and Malaya during war years, spread suddenly throughout the
country and evoked an astonishing enthusiasm. The trial by court
martial of some of its officers aroused the country as nothing
else had done, and they became the symbol of India fighting for
freedom. . . Hindu and Muslim and Sikh and Christian were all
represented in that army. They had solved the communal problem
amongst themselves, and so why should we not do so?’ 10
We know how
miserably they failed; Gandhi, Nehru and other leaders of both
Hindus and Muslims, during the independence time.
The march of time
and events were not lagging behind. Those who really acted did
not fear. Congress leaders with Muslim League were summoned to
the negotiation table.
On 8 May 1946 the
Cabinet Mission offered two schemes of independence- Scheme A
for united India with options for provinces and princely states
to decide their fate later with a lose federation, with more
powers for the provinces than the Centre. Scheme B proposed a
divided India. Though Muslim League gave their consent to accept
Scheme A with certain conditions, Nehru did not agree to go with
a weak Central Government. So a divided India with its
inevitable choice of Nehru as the Prime Minister was the only
path left. Many have observed that this was the last opportunity
of remaining united while gaining freedom. It would be immensely
beneficial for India and Asia, for the World, they have argued.
However much
depressed Nehru had become, the two communities, provinces and
princely states were accorded choice to decide their future in
the Cripps proposal. The British Government always made it a
point to include such clauses in their agreement with Indian
parties while proposing to give freedom.
In June 1947 VJ
Patel was given charge of 565 princely rulers with options to
merge their territories with India in two months before 15
August 1947. With apt negotiations he brought all princely
states within the fold of Indian Union except three- Kashmir,
Junagadh and Hyderabad which too agreed to become parts of India
by September 1948. In Hyderabad he used force quite efficiently.
But he was the Deputy Prime Minister under Nehru, a man more
international than national with a mind concentrated not on
India alone. He lacked the courage and determination too. He
referred the intrusion of tribesmen in Kashmir in October 1947
to the UNO on January 1948. P.O.K. was created and the
internecine problems with Pakistan and terrorists continue till
date. If the Iron-Man was in the Prime Minister’s chair, this
would never have happened, opined many.
After the partition
and transfer of power, ‘Gandhi, sidelined by his erstwhile
lieutenants, wandered about the country . . . . like some later
day Lear . . . to quell the communal furies. . . ‘, commented
Anil Seal, a modern historian. 11
He further wrote,
that Gandhi’s own brand of social conservatism through personal
reformation, his project to uplift Harijans, desire to take
India back to its traditional, non-industrial rural roots,
keeping communal harmony through Satyagraha and the desire of
curbing violence just remained as fragile crust of order in
Indian society. His civil disobedience movements scratched the
surface of Indian society. They had not shaken the British Raj.
‘Gandhi’s love affair with the India of his dreams had left him
jilted.’- Wrote Seal. 12
Acharya Kripalani
said in 1954 that, ‘Nehru became a prominent leader of the
freedom struggle basically because of the colonial mindset of
the Indians. He is an Englishman in Indian clothing. So the
respect for him.’
So we found him friendlier with Lord Mountbatten and his wife.
So a book, Freedom at Midnight, describing such
things vividly, received the grace of the press and his
followers in the Government.
Nehru praised China often and on in his Discovery of India-
‘India and China look towards each other and past memories crowd
in their minds; again pilgrims of a new kind cross or fly over
the mountains that separate them, bringing their messages of
cheer and goodwill and creating fresh bonds of a friendship that
will endure.’ 13
So he tried to
befriend them with bond of Pachasheel, with a loud slogan- Hindi
Chini Bhai Bhai.
The friends,
crossing the mountains, suddenly attacked us on 20 October 1962
and rapidly pushed inside on 26 October. A mini war. Many braced
death heroically. India declared a state of emergency.
Unprepared, Indian troops were utterly defeated by the then
militarily weak China, who a month later unilaterally declared a
ceasefire and withdrew troops.
The Mother of Sri
Aurobindo Ashram knew the Chinese people through her occult
sense and eyes, acted on them spiritually and caused their
withdrawal. She said that they wanted domination. They claimed
huge land in India as theirs. They have recently claimed an area
of 90000 sq km of Indian territory, including Tawang in
Arunachal Pradesh, as theirs.
Speaking about Nehru, Mother said on 15 June 1963, ‘It seems
that when the Chinese attacked it was a violent blow to his
conviction; he thought it impossible that the Chinese would do
such a thing (!) He was very deeply shattered.
‘Naturally, they see
no further than the tips of their noses, and then they are
surprised when circumstances (laughs) don’t agree!’ 14
Rajeev Srinivasan,
in the Special Independence Day Issue, 2004 of Outlook,
made a strong case against India’s undesirable defeat in the
hands of the Chinese. Nehru personally helped China to get a
seat in the UN Security Council. India is still hankering after
it. Nehru could neither imbibe the heritage of India nor could
he be a true socialist. He dreamt of a socialistic type of
society. For his weakness India lost the war to the communist
imperialist aggressors, who have annexed Free Tibet for their
own benefit. Indian Government is still as weak as it was
before, not able to speak the truth.
Sri Aurobindo, the
yogi, warned from his secluded room in 1950 about the
possibility of Chinese aggression on India and of occupying
Tibet.
Tibet is the source of rivers that give water to the
subcontiment and to some other South Asian countries.
Brahmaputra, Mekong, Irrawaddy originate there. It has controls
over Ganga-Brahmaputra-Doab valley. In Tibets high plains China
stock nuclear missiles, dump nuclear wastes. In open day light
China has colonized Tibet, destroyed its religion and culture.
It poses a great danger to India.
Mother never
considered Nehru as a worthy Prime Minister though she, on his
death said in a message, ‘Nehru leaves his body but his soul is
one with the Soul of India that lives for Eternity.’ 15
But it is a matter of soul, beyond Nehru’s ken and concern.
Indira Gandhi became
the General Secretary of the Congress during Nehru’s time. It
was the platform for her to become the Prime Minister of India
from 1966-77 and 1980-84. She proved to be a very strong woman
of India but she had to adopt several harmful methods and
actions mainly to secure her political position. She had greater
understanding than her father, the Mother said and helped her.
But the declaration of ememgency in 1975 resulted in horribly
upsetting the progress of the country. Her sons got the
opportunity of pushing their ways unofficially. Her time has
been marked as dark economic age in which 50 Acts, many
draconian, were passed.
Indira made her son
Rajiv the G.S. of the Congress resulting in his becoming the
Prime Minister of India. After him, his wife has become the
party president and she has made her son the same General
Secretary of the party. The move may be guessed.
Our Hope
Sri Aurobindo, the
prophet of Indian nationalism and the poet of patriotism, as
said C. R. Das in the Alipore court, was the founder of
Spiritual Nationalism. He with B. G. Tilak, Bepin Chandra Pal
and Lala Lajpat Rai lead the Indian freedom movement at the
beginning of the twentieth century. Referring to that Karan
Singh wrote, ‘The nationalist movement moved out of the
conference halls of the elite and entered the streets and
villages.’16
In his message to
the nation through Tiruchirappally Radio on the occasion of
Indian independence falling on his 75th birthday on 15 August
1947, Sri Aurobindo spoke of his five dreams, the third being,
‘Another dream, spiritual gift of India to the world has already
begun. India’s spirituality is entering Europe and America in an
ever increasing measure. That movement will grow; amid the
disasters of the time more and more eyes are turning towards her
with hope and there is even an increasing resort not only to her
teachings but to her psychic and spiritual practice.’
In spite of
disasters, we know how his hope is being fulfilled. In spite of
the nuclear bomb dangling over our heads, with all reverence to
techno-India’s grand target by 2020 as set by A. P. J. Abdul
Kalam, with all reverence to the spree of software growth and
industrialization, we may say that India’s spiritual teachings
and yoga have been working. Orient and the occident, in the
opposite spheres of the globe, are meeting through the teachings
and establishments of moderns like Sri Ramakrishna, Swami
Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Yogananda Paramahansa,
Mahesh Yogi and the latest, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar,
Amritanandamayee Mata, Satya Sai Baba and the latest activist,
Swamy Ramdev, who has been demonstrating physical asanas and
pranayamas to help mankind keep sound health and mind. More
these age old Indian culture spread more the mankind will be
benefited against all negative forces like war and terrorism,
pernicious drugs and experimental medical treatment. These are
the positive sides of spiritualism against the exclusive
materialism.
Suggestions for
the Rebirth
India, almost a
continent, containing almost all the physical, mineral and
environmental varieties of the world, is the cradle of one of
the oldest civilizations on earth. I wish to share Rabindranath
Tagore’s sentiment that my birth here is significant. Many
things come to the mind as to how we can build a New India.
While there are innumerable opinions and beliefs, we may put
forward our ideas in the background of what has already been
discussed in brief outlines, for each becomes a subject when we
come to realize it through discussions and actions.
Sorry, we could not
accept Nehru as the Gentle Colossus, as wrote Hiren Mukherjee,
the CPI leader. The result of his presence as Prime Minister has
been observed. What has happened in the vast modern India with
such intelligent man power towards development is less than
expected. None of the Nehru family contributed exceptionally
towards building of the nation except creating slogans. Two
stalwarts among them were, very unfortunately, brutally killed.
We do not understand how after all monarchies gone, hierarchy
continues in a modern democratic republic like India or how does
a democratic party put forward such a scheme of placement
superseding all superiors and seniors. India stands for
thousands of years. Let each discover it according to his
consciousness, taste and capacity but can others be compelled by
such discoveries? It is for the good of the family and the
country that such a thing is discontinued forthwith.
We want a united
India, it is quite possible at least on the basis of federation
of countries. All the communities living in this subcontinent
will be benefited by it.
The history and
heritage of all ages, as far as possible, must be preserved
without being tainted by different ideas. Students must be given
differing views about the past written by eminent writers to
come to their own conclusions.
If cast is an old issue we wish to annul, how could we play with
it for our political mileage? Free India is more than 60 years
old- most of all who were deprived for the prevalence of cast
system have passed their life time. Reservations or suppression
of merits cannot continue forever. Let the opportunities for
education and training be opened to all with special care for
the deprived and less developed ones but merit must be given due
honour for the country’s well being.
Trafficking is a heinous crime. Victims are terrorized by
various means. In a civilized society it must be stopped. Why on
earth some women should live separately, why their main activity
shall be to sell their bodies? Are there not many other
functions of human beings and do such persons not have many such
qualities to work on besides selling their bodies? Why should
they be called sex workers? Large numbers of people have vested
interests in them but it must be noted that no such person is
noble or great in any sense, none of them is really a friend of
the victims. Sweden has passed a unique law: They treat buying
sex and broking for it as criminal activities whereas all the
prostitutes are treated as victims. If a civilized society
aspires to progress it should give up the system of harlotry,
abolish the brothels. Similarly all transsexuals should be
honourably rehabilitated in the society as they too can do
everything except sexually in the normal way which is in no
sense a real bar in life. We should sympathize with them for the
nature’s onslaught on them.
Nature and Wildlife must not be allowed to be further dwindled
if we have to continue to live like human beings. Proper
environment must be maintained. Villages must not be made hybrid
products while facilities of the modern world should reach
there. Agriculture and agriculturists in a country like India
must be given their proper share in life and society.
Industrialization and proliferation of software should be done
in harmony with other sectors of economy.
While it is individual right to belong to any religious group or
not, to accept God or not, no one should play with religions for
political or such gains through the net of secularism.
Proselytizing should be prohibited. Spiritualism is above
ritualistic ordinary religions. Once mankind embraces it there
would not remain petty quarrels over religions. Sri Aurobindo
brought down the highest spiritual consciousness, light and
force for the upliftment of mankind, supported and helped by the
Mother. It is open to man to aspire for it towards higher life
leading to Life Divine. Sri Aurobindo wrote on 14.1.1931 ‘The
Supramental is not inconsistent with a full vital and physical
manifestation: on the contrary, it carries in it the only
possibility of the full fullness of the vital force and the
physical life on earth. . . . All other yogas regard this life
as an illusion or a passing phase; the supramental yoga alone
regards it as a thing created by the Divine for a progressive
manifestation and takes the fulfillment of the life and the body
for its object.’ 17
References
1
Jawaharlal Nehru. The Discovery of India. New Delhi; Penguin
edition-2004. p.41
2 ibid. p.8
3 ibid. p.12
4 ibid. p.19
5 Satprem. Mother’s Agenda. New York; Institute of
Evolutionary Research. Vol.4 pp. 173-175
6 ibid. Vol.3. p.420
7 ibid. p.420
8 Nehru. op.cit. p.585
9 India Today. op.cit. p.31
10 Nehru. Op.cit. p.634
11 India Today. Op.cit. p.13
12 ibid.
13 Nehru. Op.cit. p.211
14 Satprem. Op.cit. p.175
15 Satprem. Op.cit. Vol.3 p.421
16 India Today. Millenium Series. 2000. p.117
17 Sri Aurobindo to Dilip. Pune; Hari Krishna Mandir
Trust. Vol-1
© Aju Mukhopadhyay, 2008
20, Padmini Thottam, Kurichikuppam,
Pondicherry-605012
ajum24@yahoo.co.in
