22 The Dreams Unfulfilled
Jigar na chira
So many beautiful
dreams of Bapu remained unrealized
Tighten your belt and
complete the unfinished, you cursed one!
22 The Dreams
Unfulfilled
Rowing his lifeboat with trust in Ram, Gandhi kept on taking
one careful step after another but as he did so his eyes were also set on the
distant future. The dream he envisaged in the first decade of the 20th
Century (1909) remained his to the middle of the Century (1948) – although his
political “heir” Jawaharlal ignored that dream (as impractical or regressive) ,
Gandhiji kept that dream before him all throughout. That was his distant dream.
That is why he wished for a healthy and active life of 125 years. But he also
had more than one dream of the morning tomorrow while feet firmly on today’s
land. If destiny had not ruined those dreams by a sudden strike, those dreams
could have been brought closer progressing one step after another.
The Partition that he strove so hard to stop became known to
him only two and a half months before Independence. He came to formally know of
the decision only after his loyal associates had signed off on the Partition
documents. The practical idealist that he was, Gandhi had accepted the new
circumstances and instead adopted a new dream. He expressed the hope in the
prayer meeting the day after the Partition was publicly announced, that let the
lands be divided, not the hearts, only which could someday produce the
conditions of reunion. In those days, that was the only instrument before him
to unload his heart. He also warned that if we don’t pursue the road to mending
hearts, there will be more of the poisonous rancor, more military expenditure
on both sides of the border, which could lead to a war and result in the
possible loss of the independence just obtained. But that dream of Gandhi to
keep the hearts close together remained only a dream.
But Gandhi wasn’t the kind to dream but sit quiet
obediently. He had already shifted his attention to Hindu-Muslim unity in the
lands and if possible, establish friendly relations between India and Pakistan.
Both nation states were bound to protect the respective minorities in their
lands. Jinnah Saheb had made it clear in his speech on the eve of Independence
that to the Government of Pakistan, all its citizens had equal rights, no
matter how they lived their private lives according to their religions.
Gandhi had inquired via his close associates to investigate,
find out how the Government of Pakistan would respond to him if he went to
Pakistan to initiate some work on spreading mutual goodwill. Gandhiji had
tasked two Parsee friends - Mr. Jahangirji Patel and Dr. Dinshaw Mehta to find
out. Could it be merely accidental that he chose representatives of a community
that was a tiny minority in both the countries? The two friends accomplished
the task given to them very well. They even had to make a trip to Delhi in
between. But the whole program was organized quite well. In Pakistan, Qaid-e-Azam
Jinnah was prepared to collaborate. Dates for a trip to Karachi were also set,
8-9 February 1948. Gandhi could have started his effort to rejoin the hearts
had not three fatal bullets had not got in the way mere ten days before then.
In later days of February immediately afterwards, another
dream could have begun to be realized. Seeing the way the horrendous violence
had spread all over most of northern India, Gandhi had called for a meeting of
select constructive workers[1]
among his associates in Sewagram in February. As it was, back in 1913 he had
described the rally in Natal as “Army of Peace” in his article in The Indian
Opinion. Upon return to Hind, he had organized troupes of Shanti Sena
[Army of Peace. Nikhil] during the violence that occurred in Mumbai and
Ahmedabad but only for the temporary purposes. During the Ahmedabad communal
riots of 1941 Gandhi had called upon Mahadev Desai for peacekeeping work and
names his volunteer troupe as Shanti Sena. For many years he had nurtured
the imagination of creating a disciplined and courageous force ready to lay
their lives to peacefully confront the recurrent explosive societal
conflicts. His experiences in Noakhali,
Bihar, and Delhi had given a firm shape to this imagination. He dreamt of
meeting and conferring with select followers from all over the country to
develop such an army. This was the second half-finished dream[2].
Via an assistant, he had delivered to a Congress committee a
draft proposal for consideration at the Working Committee the day before his
death, i.e. on the 29th of January 1948 an idea of a new
constitution for Congress to be deliberated. This proposal contained radical
thinking inspired particularly by the experiences over the previous few months.
Its main idea was that the Congress’ objective of winning independence for the
nation had been achieved; it should now dissolve itself as a political
institution and, recognizing that the ultimate power to govern belonged to the
hundreds of millions of citizens, to prepare a constitution [for itself.
Nikhil] to serve the public, make them aware of their force and empower them to
govern themselves. In other words, Congress should transform itself into a
“Society for the Servants of the People.” The Congress Working Committee had
not given any thought to this proposal. Gandhi’s vision for the future
direction of the Congress was that the Great Force [Mahashakti as
applied to Congress as a movement. Nikhil] that had given up so many things, sacrificed
so much, taking the nation to the doors of independence ought to now be devoted
to making the people’s power effective instead of ruling the nation or avoiding
others from taking over the rule. In
Gandhi’s imagination, the nation after Swaraj[3]
was one where people were empowered enough to support as needed those who
governed but also to dissent as needed to keep them in check. Congress could
not take this revolutionary step, and chose the routine politics of service via
power. Gandhi’s dream of an independent Bharat stayed as it was.
We can count among his dreams two things that Gandhi brought before the
constructive cadre after his last release from imprisonment. In a meeting
before the Khadi workers, he had spoken of a khadi rejuvenation, and before
those worked for Naee Taleem [the new education], explaining it as
training for the entire village life not just a new method of teaching. That
is, he imagined a rejuvenation of Naee Taleem. Self-reflection during
that last imprisonment had raised a question to him about the entire constructive
program, if the aim of constructive work was to awaken the people’s force of
non-violence, then why didn’t such force arise after 1942 from the hundreds of
thousands of villages where khadi, village manufacturing, and various service
and educational activities had been taken up? From that he had started thinking
about a new phase of the constructive program. But that dream also remained
incomplete.
Gandhi did not maintain a wish for an individual moksha
[spiritual deliverance. When some people in Delhi – tired of or anguished by or
angry with him – advised him to retreat into the Himalayas, Gandhi found the
Himalaya in the people around him. There was a couplet sung at every morning
prayers in his ashrams –
|
नत्वहम् कामये
राज्यं न स्वर्गं न पुनर्भवम् कामये दुःखतप्तानां प्राणिनामार्तिनाशनम् |
Natvaham kaamaye raajyam na svargam na punarbhavam Kaamaye duhkhataptanaam praaninaamaartinaashanam. |
[Neither kingdom nor heaven nor (deliverance
from) rebirth; I desire only the strength to destroy the pain and anguish of
all living things.]
Reminding the listeners of this prayer of Rantideva from the
Bhagawat [Srimadbhagawata. Nikhil], he spoke of his desire not of individual
deliverance of his spirit but forever alleviate the pains of all creatures. His path was only the one of popular
awareness, popular engagement, struggle against injustice, and liberation of
the peoples. Which is why he left us with this consolation – “I will not lie
quiet in the grave. I will shake off lethargy and rise from the grave. I will
not sit relaxed and will wake you up.”
The ephemeral body of Gandhi was shot by the murderer’s
bullets, set afire by his children, and his ashes were scattered in hundreds of
rivers of Bharat by the hands of millions of children of Bharat. But his soul
is permanent. The everlasting Gandhi will keep shaking us from our slumber. He
did this for the generation in whose minds echoed the living Gandhi’s
message. He is also doing this for the
generation born after him, that has mildly heard Gandhi’s name, and will keep
on doing this to the coming generations in whose hearts will echo Gandhi’s
Truth-Non-violence-Purity of the Means, Satyagraha [insistence upon truth],
constructive work, taking the vows of self-control, self-reliance,
fearlessness, and equality. There will be countless other darlings who will
jump in the battle to put in practice the messages of freedom, equality,
brotherhood, and justice. Gandhi’s eternal message will not stop waking us up
from slumber.
···
[1] [The
term “constructive work” needs to be validated in other English material for
the developmental work Gandhiji had begun and assigned to selected associates
to carry forward. Nikhil]
[2] [I
wonder if Narayan Desai refers to this as half-finished by then because he
himself carried it forward, though only in a limited manner and for temporary
effects. Nikhil]
[3] [I have
kept the word because Swaraj means self-rule, Gandhi’s original concept that
was not limited to political independence from the British Empire. Nikhil]
Comments
Post a Comment