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Dandi march reduced to a
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Profile Reflections Kashmir Diary Diversities — Delhi Letter
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Dandi march reduced to a photo opportunity FOR persons of my generation, Gandhiji's Dandi march, or Salt Satyagraha as it was also called, was a landmark in the nation’s march to freedom. It was as much for its principle of opposition to salt tax as the way Gandhiji conducted it touching the hearts and minds of millions of our people. It began with a remarkable letter, which Gandhiji wrote to the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, on March 2, 1930. He said therein: “Whilst I hold the British rule to be a curse, I do not intend to do harm to a single Englishman or to any legitimate interest he may have in India.” Highlighting the huge disparity in the living standards of Indians, especially peasants, and the British rulers, he pointed out “where the average Indian earned less than two annas (about 16 paise) per day, the British Prime Minister earned Rs 180 per day and the Viceroy received Rs 700 per day. More tellingly, the Prime Minister of Britain received 90 times more than the average Britisher, but the Viceroy received “much over five thousand times India’s average income.” ‘Apologising’ for taking a “personal illustration to drive home a painful truth”, Gandhiji asked Lord Irwin “on bended knee” to “ponder over this phenomenon.” The system of administration carried out in India was “demonstrably the most expensive in the world and it had only further impoverished the nation.” Then followed the operative portion or punch line that if the British were not prepared to combat the various “evils” afflicting India under colonial rule, Gandhiji would commence a fresh campaign of “civil disobedience” as a means to end the system altogether. In the words of Louis Fischer in his “The Life of Mahatma Gandhi”, Ganhiji was a congenital mender than an ender but the options in this case were few. Conveying his intention to break the salt laws, Gandhiji pointed out that the British (or the British Indian Government) exercised a monopoly on the production and sale of salt “which was an essential ingredient required by the poor as much as by the rich.” The letter stressed, “I regard this tax (on salt) to be the most iniquitous of all from the poor man’s standpoint. As the independence movement is essentially for the poorest in the land a beginning will be made with this evil.” (Interestingly, two decades later, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia raised a similar issue in the Lok Sabha saying that as against the average monthly expenditure of Rs 2 of the bulk of our people the daily expenditure on Nehru’s pet dogs was many times more!)
The Viceroy, not unexpectedly, wrote back promptly to express his regret that Gandhiji was again “contemplating a course of action, which is clearly bound to involve violation of the law and danger to the public peace.” Gandhiji’s reaction to the Viceroy’s reply was “on bended knees I asked for bread and I have received stone instead”. Meanwhile, Gandhiji set out on the announced Dandi March on March 12. With 78 of his followers and associates from Sabarmati Ashram, he began the 241-mile trek to Dandi. All along the way, he addressed large crowds, and with each passing day an increasing number of people joined the march. It is said that the roads were watered, and fresh flowers and green leaves strewn on the path; and as the Satyagrahis walked, they did so to the tune of one of Gandhiji’s favourite bhajans, Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram, sung by D.V. Paluskar. Gandhiji and his fellow marchers arrived at Dandi on April 5. After short prayers were offered, Gandhiji addressed the gathering, and at 8.30 a.m. he picked up a small lump of natural salt. Gandhiji had now broken the law. Sarojini Naidu shouted: “Hail, Deliverer!” No sooner had Gandhiji violated the law than others followed suit everywhere. Within one week the jails were full. In the coastal areas of the south Indian peninsula, tens of thousands marched to the nearest seashore to break the salt laws. The ‘law-breakers’ were often sent to jail. I was too young, less than five years’ old, to have experienced the thrill of the event, narrated repeatedly to us later. Dr Pattabhi Sitaramayya recorded it in his History of the Congress and so did Nehru in his book “Towards Freedom”. D.G. Tendulkar also described it in his many-volumed “The Life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi”. Interestingly, Gandhiji and his ashram associates were arrested at dead of night when they were sleeping in the open at Karadi, a village near Dandi. In the words of Louis Fischer, “a British District Magistrate of Surat, accompanied by thirty Indian policemen invaded the leafy compound at 12.15 a.m.” When Gandhiji asked the District Magistrate under what law and for what offence he was being arrested, the District Magistrate mentioned Regulation XXXV of 1827, an archaic law of the East India Company! As one read the different accounts of the historic event and heard it being recounted by participants one was filled with national pride; we felt as if freedom was already in sight. That pride nursed over the years, I am afraid, has turned into a sense of national shame when it was recently reduced to a “photo opportunity” for a person without awareness of our national ethos and exposure to the sentiments of millions of our people. Her only qualification for the honour was dynastic “presidentship” of the Congress party. There was apprehension of some such aberration when the Government had announced a few days earlier its intention to “celebrate” the Platinum Jubilee of the Dandi march but no one expected that the Manmohan Singh Government would go to the extent of heaping shame on the nation. Don’t forget, some of Gandhiji’s famous observations in his characteristic Biblical language viz, “on bended knees I asked for bread and have received stone instead” are associated with the Dandi march. Nandlal Bose immortalised it with his drawing of Gandhiji on the march with his staff in hand. It was a household picture in several Indian homes. Incidentally, during the infamous 1975 Emergency, the censor asked Nikhil Chakravartty not to publish the picture in the “Mainstream” because it had been interpreted as Gandhiji walking away from the beleaguered country! Many Indians began to understand that the nation had unshackled itself and achieved a symbolic emancipation. Nehru had written, “staff in hand he goes along the dusty roads of Gujarat, clear-eyed and firm of step, with his faithful band trudging along behind him. Many a journey he has undertaken in the past, many a weary road traversed. But longer than any that...” it touched every fibre in the nation’s body politic. Subsequently, when Gandhiji negotiated a truce with Irwin and signed the Gandhi-Irwin pact, the British Government convened the second round-table conference in London “to negotiate” India’s demands for Independence. The Congress named Gandhiji its sole representative, but the negotiations proved “inconclusive”, particularly since various other Indian communities had been encouraged by the British to send representatives and claim that they were not prepared to live in an India under the domination of the Congress. Yet, never before had the British consented to negotiate directly with the Congress, and Gandhiji met Irwin as his equal. In this respect, the man who most loathed Gandhiji, Winston Churchill, understood the extent of Gandhiji’s achievement when he declared it “alarming and also nauseating to see Mr Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well known in the East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Viceregal Palace, while he is still organising and conducting a defiant campaign of civil disobedience, to parley on equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperor.” The Churchillian outburst also is part of our political lore. Possibly, Dr Manmohan Singh was unable to say ‘no’ to the photo opportunists seeking to cash in on a hallowed event in our nations’ life but there are others in the echelons of the Congress party, notably Pranab Mukerjee, who could have put their foot down. Some time ago, the same Congress party president had read a public apology to the Punjabis for the 1984 massacre of Sikhs in Delhi and elsewhere. She can similarly be persuaded to offer a public apology to our bruised national psyche. That will be doing right by the nation, especially since a large number of overseas admirers of Gandhiji are taking part in the extended Dandi marches. n The writer is a senior journalist |
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On Record
THE magnitude of tsunami in Andaman and Nicobar Islands could have been mitigated if the ecosystem had not been tampered with, feels Dr J.S. Samra, Deputy Director-General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi. In an interview to The Sunday Tribune, he makes a forceful plea for including agriculture and water in the Concurrent List so that the Centre could step in if the states falter in rescue, relief and rehabilitation or in implementing the recommendations of scientific and research institutions. Excerpts: Q: Why do we lag behind in disaster management and mitigation? A: The ICAR can only advise, but the states must implement it. If agriculture were on the Concurrent List, things might have been different. That’s why, water is a contentious issue between states. If water were also brought on the Concurrent List, water disputes could be resolved amicably and expeditiously. Q: How do the institutions like yours help mitigate disasters? A: The weather watch group in the Union Ministry of Agriculture meets every Monday to review the status of crops, rainfall, drought, water reservoirs, flood, seeds, cold wave, etc. The ICAR is represented in the weather watch group. We are also active participants in the deliberations of the International Panel on Climate Change. The US heads the list of those producing the maximum amount of gases followed by Russia and Germany. In India, 65 per cent of the greenhouse gases is produced by industry and 35 per cent by agriculture. The US is not ratifying the Kyoto Protocol. India signed it. If 55 countries ratify it, things could change. Q: How serious is the issue of climate change for India? A: Glaciers melt faster because of climate change as in Antarctica. Sea level will rise by one meter in a hundred years, islands will get submerged, floods will damage entire coastlines and coastal settlements will have to be relocated. Water flow in rivers will change. Water balance and the rainfall pattern will also change. Frequency of extreme weather events will increase. Look at the past few years — super cyclone in 1999, drought in 2002, cold wave in 2003, heat wave and tsunami in 2004. Q: How vulnerable is India to natural disasters? A: We have had 21 droughts in 30 years. The 2002 drought was the severest, affecting 18 states. About 300 million people and 150 million animals were affected. The Centre released Rs 20,000 crore as relief. The drought has reduced the water table by two to three meters. This is an irreversible loss. Q: How can science and technology and natural resource management mitigate disasters like tsunami? A:
Just look at the nature. A mangrove is an ideal natural speed-breaker that can dissipate the energy of the waves. Waves get killed gradually in a mangrove. Mangrove forests reduced the impact of the super cyclone that struck Orissa in October 1999. It has a typical root system. The intricate network of its roots can be visible at low tide. It can grow in saline conditions without oxygen. The seeds of a mangrove germinate on the tree and then fall on the ground. They are better than a concrete sea wall that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa proposed. Q: What about the sea wall? A: The cost is prohibitive. Ordinary cement cannot be used for a sea wall as it will crumble in saline conditions. The maintenance cost too is high because the wall needs painting at regular intervals for minimising the damage to the cement structure. A mangrove is a better choice. It has many uses. It is fodder for aquatic life like prawn. It is good as fuelwood and timber. It is porous and can act as a natural speed-breaker unlike cement that gets weakened by a quake and eroded by waves. Moreover, a mangrove is the first line of defence. In Andaman and Nicobar Islands, mangroves are not continuous. They are found in a 1,152-sq km area. This is negligible vis-a-vis the coastline. However, a mangrove in conjunction with a coastal shelter belt, where casuarina trees of lower height can be planted in four of five rows sloping towards the shore, can break the winds and also reduce the ferocity of the tidal waves. Like a mangrove, the casuarina trees have multiple uses like fuelwood, charcoal and timber. Q: How effective are mangroves? A:
The oldest coastal shelter belt was built in 1964 along the Orissa coastline and near the Chandipur-on-Sea missile testing range. This and the mangrove cover which had been developed, saved many lives during the super cyclone. There were 13-14 mangrove systems along the Orissa coastline but more are being developed. Q: What is the impact of tsunami on the soil, crop and aquatic life in the Andamans? A: The soil has turned saline, causing extensive damage to the crops and plantations. There are only carnivorous fish now, that too, of poor quality. The good quality fish are gone because of the tidal waves. However, prawns are ideally suited to saline water and can therefore compensate to some extent the loss of fish. The ecosystem is fragile. The rising population has also contributed to the degradation of the environment. The coastal zone regulation guidelines that prohibit buildings within a certain distance from the coastline and regulate tree felling have been violated. The little mangrove cover was cut for fuelwood, the demand for which shot up. We have tampered with our ecosystem. Q: How long before the Andamans recover from the tsunami disaster? A: Salinity in the soil will go in one or two years. It will take three odd years for crops to regain a semblance of normalcy. Nothing less than 10 to 12 years for the mangrove to grow back. Several decades for the coral reef to regain their
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Profile by Harihar Swarup Time and tide do no wait for anyone. This truly applies to Surjeet now. His frame has bent with age and voice become feeble. It was pathetic to see his address to the 18th Congress of the party being read by Karat, tipped as his successor. An era has come to an end with Surjeet passing on the baton to young generation. But he is not retiring from politics and is certain to remain a dominant figure in the party’s powerful politburo. For almost two decades this white turbaned “Sardarji’ from Jallandar has filled the power vaccum and known for his eel like smoothness in filling the void. Some call him power broker. His critics say he is a leader with fingers in many pies and legs in many camps. His manipulative skill ideally suited the Marxists in the fast changing political scenario in which new alignments have been forged and new equations hammered out. The octogenarian leader was, after all, a kingmaker in 1996. The militancy in Punjab brought him close to Indira Gandhi and later, Rajiv Gandhi. Both the Prime Ministers gave ear to him. He kept his liaison with the Congress leaders throughout the regime of P.V. Narasimha Rao and later played an important role in bringing I.K. Gujral as the Prime Minister. He was known to be in touch with Sitaram Kesri when the Congress leader pulled the rug from under the feet of H.D. Deve Gowda and toppled his Government. One wonders if Surjeet had a role when Marxists committed “the historic blunder” by blocking Jyoti Basu as a compromise candidate to head a coalition of smaller parties at the Centre. He held the view that the largest opposition party (the Congress) should take part in a coalition as there was no other way to establish a stable government. It must be said to his credit that he brought about the change in Marxists’ stance — “if the BJP is cholera, the Congress is plague” — and enabled the CPI (M) to win allies and getting Lok Sabha seats in the states where the party had little roots and following. Though the octogenarian Marxist may have been a kingmaker and playing important role in the present power structure, he has himself kept away from power. Surjeet and the BJP leaders despise each other. Both consider each other as enemy number one. Soon after taking over as the CPI (M) General Secretary for the fourth term, he asserted that his first task would be to counter and prevent the BJP from gaining strength. He may now claim that he succeeded in keeping the BJP away from power. The BJP leaders, on their part, call him “ a passionate protagonist of destructive politics”. Few outside Punjab may be knowing that in one phase of his long life, he wanted to become a poet and took to writing under the pen name “Surjeet”. His pen name remained but he could not become a poet and, instead of writing poetry, took to full-time politicking. Born in sleepy, little town of Bandala in Jallandar district, he could not continue his education beyond matriculation. He was still in school when he began association with the national movement. In 1930, he joined the “Naujawan Bharat Sabha” which was founded by young revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh and Bhagwati Charan. After the execution of Bhagat Singh and his friends Rajguru and Sukhdev, young Harkishan participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement. Even though he was a minor at that time, he was imprisoned for four years for sedition. A new chapter began in Surjeet’s life after release from the jail. He joined the Communist Party of India. In 1936, he became a co-founder of the Kisan Sabha in Punjab. He not only fought for India’s independence but also carried on with equal zeal the social and economic reform programmes, starting a journal –“ Dukhi Duniya”—from Jallundar. The British regime had kept a close eye on his activities and, in order to escape the oppression, he shifted to Saharanpur where he brought out the paper, “
Chingari”. |
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What I missed most when I was abroad by Kiran Bedi
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am home, was my instinctive outburst as I boarded the Air-India plane to return home after my two years with the United Nations in New York. My jubilation pleasantly surprised many around me. But the joy in me was so enormous that it just poured out. I had suddenly felt the rush of re-empowerment in many different ways, of being on my ‘own’ soil and amongst my ‘own’ people. The aircraft is my country’s own land and I was home! I slept through the flight. My request for a delayed meal was respected and I could eat by my body clock. First, I would have never placed such a request on another airline even if it was business class! Secondly, I doubt if it would have been accommodated. For by now with all my travel experience it’s not a bias but almost a fact. I had kept all at home guessing of my arrival day. I just quietly took a prepaid taxi and slipped in. But as I was driving closer home I realised how instinctively, in the mirror of my mind everything was being compared or assessed. There was an element of judgement! I loved to see my countrymen and women. It did not matter to me how crowded it was. There was the air of warmth and friendship. The unwashed or crumpled clothes of a three-wheeler driver driving past were mine own! I liked them for his Indian face. It was similar to mine! The taxi I was in was not in very good condition but it did not seem to bother me. The roads were unsmooth due to huge amout of digging going on but the bumps too were acceptable! The huge traffic jam from the airport to almost five kilometers towards the city, holding up the airport passenger traffic all mixed up with a huge volume of truck traffic. We certainly can have a strategy to address this difficult situation. Then the road pavements were dark and dingy with the central verges protruding without any warning lights. All serious traffic hazards! This too was avoidable and we need not accept this. Perhaps heavy tort may be the possible answer! I went for my morning walk and loved it. For in severe cold in New York it was punishing to do! But I found myself stumbling repeatedly on the walkway which had come up only last year. The red pavement stone placed just about two years only had at places worn out and become uneven. This too was not acceptable! For someone did not do an honest job and is getting away with it. Further, as I reached the corner of the garden it was littered with piles of rotting food left over of a wedding the night before. Why must we tolerate this? Especially when we do charge the community for cleaning it up? But why wait? Unless we want the eagles and other animals to do the scavenging! Then the same evening I went for a wedding! For I seem to have landed in the thick of wedding season! I met the bride and the groom. I found they were less important than the VIPs who came to mark their attendance. And the weight of the function is based on who all come? I too was used as a weight! I went, greeted and slipped out so that the sunshine or the focus lights refocus on those for whom a new life was beginning. But for me a new phase has begun! One of perpetual gratitude and sharing of joy for all that life has given me. I began with taking my housekeeper’s old mother to an optician for a pair of spectacles which she needed but did not have! I missed this in New York! Empowering my own, and will continue to be. Jai
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Bus service a big boost to India-Pakistan relations by David Devadas Exactly 15 years ago, in April 1990, buses used to leave Srinagar everyday towards the Line of Control, their conductors bellowing, “Pindi, Pindi, Pindi” — referring of course to Rawalpindi. Those mini-buses used to leave from the Idgah terminus beyond the inner city, over which in those heady days the Indian state had no control. Of course, those buses did not actually go to Rawalpindi but to towns near the Line of Control, from where their young passengers would trek to Muzaffarabad in search of arms and training. At that stage, the authorities used to be horrified at what was termed “exfiltration” and the Indian Army was mobilised to try and stop it. The boys kept going, with all assistance from the Pakistan Army — although the volume of the trickle reduced drastically from the thousands that sometimes crossed on a single day in April 1990. Last week, by contrast, Indian authorities, from the Prime Minister down, made every effort to ensure that a bus carrying Kashmiris could cross that same Line of Control. And militants that had surely been armed if not specifically instructed by elements in the Pakistan Army died trying to prevent the journey.
The irony is that the effect, both in 1990 and now, of trying to prevent Kashmiris from going has been negative for those trying to stop them. Then, India was the target of their anger. Now, it is the militants and their backers. This was explicit in the reactions of common people not only in Srinagar but also in small towns and villages. It most certainly was clear to the entire gamut of Kashmir’s political leaders. Not only did Mehbooba Mufti, the president of the ruling party here, clamber onto the bus as far as she could go and hug the women passengers in front of television cameras, her chief political opponent, Omar Abdullah, was willing to play second fiddle as long as he could be seen where the bus was flagged off. On the other hand, Hurriyat Conference Chairman Umar Farooq too has constantly backed the bus and, last week, even the initiative’s staunchest opponent Ali Shah Geelani said nothing to defend the suicide attack at Srinagar’s Road Transport Corporation headquarters. Those who planned that attack must surely have been desperate to prevent the bus service, for they too must have known how popular it is. Having failed in their objective, they have only ended up showing India in a good light. For it is transparently clear to the world that India has nothing to hide and that Pakistan is cagey. It did not even allow Indian journalists to cover the Kashmiri passengers’ experiences in Muzaffarabad, although 10 Pakistani journalists were here to cover events in the valley. The fact is that, in the manner of children, Kashmiris have only reacted with resentment when they have been prohibited anything. They have shown through history that they are a resilient people who, although they avoid battle, manage to find opportunities to undermine oppression — and that they will not be held back. Faced with Kashmiris’ frequently obsequious manner and the subtlety of their barbs, it is easy to miss the proud determination that will not be stopped. Those in the ISI who planned Kashmir’s militancy were sorely mistaken if they thought they could replicate in Kashmir the sort of battle hardiness that Afghans displayed during the 1980s. On the other hand, the strategic thinkers around South Block who came up with the idea — by the mid-1990s incidentally — of pressing Pakistan to open the road had understood the Kashmiri psyche much better. The economic opportunities this holds out as much as the pivotal position in linking India and Pakistan that this will surely give Kashmir are strong
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When mainstream politics fails to face reality by Humra Quraishi ON April 8 afternoon at the India International Centre auditorium, focus on Punjab and on those painful events not too long ago, as New Delhi-based writer and filmmaker Reema Anand screened her documentary on the rehabilitation process in Punjab — ‘Lest It Be Repeated’, followed by a panel discussion. Three panelists, journalist Kanwar Sandhu, human rights activist Balraj Puri and a young man Ranjit Singh Gill who is actually still caught in the situation. He is the son of Padma Bhushan awardee Khem Singh Gill, former Vice-Chancellor of Punjab Agricultural University and one of the architects of the green revolution in Punjab. Yet, Ranjit has been a victim. He spoke rather emotionally from the dais, detailing the events and turns in his life. Convicted in the Lalit Maken murder case, he has spent most of his adult years in the jail, first 13 years in the New York jail where, he said, the conditions are so bad that even sunlight wasn’t allowed to creep in and then lodged in one of our jails. He is on bail and had travelled down from Ludhiana to speak of his years of trauma. “They convicted me for a murder which I have not committed, even Maken’s family knows that I’m innocent. Yet, I’m made to be a criminal. I don’t believe in violence though I am against the way the whole state machinery works.” He spoke about the system where charges can be stamped on an innocent and then you either fight out and go proving your innocence or spend years in one hell hole. Other speakers focused on the failure of mainstream politics to face reality and reach out. “Together with that the methodology used by security forces is full of excesses of all kinds. They indulged in those excesses and killings in Punjab and now they are doing so in other states like Jammu and Kashmir. Then the state has also been inadequate in the rehabilitation process.”
The German Ambassador to India hosted the launch of Ilija Trojanow’s book, ‘Along the Ganga — To the Inner Shores of India’ (Penguin) in the embassy premises. The launch had readings from the book together with a buffet dinner. One of the best of German, Austrian and Italian cuisine were laid out that evening. The photographs of the Ganga in all its might and flow, captured by Ilija’s companion Katrin Simon, were displayed well. They do capture the mood of the river and the people who live close to it. As I kept staring at the photographs, I was taken aback by the richness of our mighty Ganga. To quote from the book, “Ganga bursts out of the glacier and, with a long drawn shout, falls to earth, and then off she goes, impetuous, head over heels…” This week, Penguin Books India is launching Indian language publishing programme with the release of first four books in Hindi. They are, “Hamara Hissa”, an anthology of contemporary Hindi stories, edited by Arun Prakash, Namita Gokhale’s “Shakuntala: Smriti Jaal”, Anita Nair’s “Ladies Coupe”, and Khushwant Singh’s “Jannat Aur Anya Kahaniyan”.
Focus on the North-East The Sangeet Natak Akademi is hosting a two-day festival of choral music from the North-East (April 12 and 13) at the Kamani Auditorium. At the launch of the “Along the Ganga”, Sangeet Natak Akademi Chairperson Sonal Mansingh was talking excitedly about this festival. She told us that there’d be participation from Meghalaya, Assam, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram. At the national conference held here last fortnight at the Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia University, on the theme ‘Media perspectives on human rights” in the troubled states /sectors of the country, speakers from the North-East did dwell on the fact that besides other issues there’s a people-to-people divide and vacuum. As Sanat K. Chakraborty, who is editing ‘Grassroots Options’, says, the rest of the country doesn’t even know what’s been happening in that region, for we sit cut off. Yes, there ought to be an outreach programme. A series of
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You are the light of the world. A city that is set on the hill cannot be hid. — Jesus Christ Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven. — Jesus Christ Every religion has a distinctive virtue, and the distinctive virtue of Islam is modesty. — Prophet Muhammad Without the name of God, there is no salvation; and the redeeming name is obtained through the Guru. — Guru Nanak  |
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THREE years back when Harkishan Singh Surjeet was re-elected General Secretary of the CPI (M) for the fourth consecutive term, he had left behind in the race for the party’s top slot young and upcoming leaders like Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yachuri. It took 36 months for Karat to catch up with this octogenarian leader who has become a “legend” in his lifetime. Cutting across party lines, he is seen as a phenomenon in the perfidious world of politics.