It's raining again today since daybreak: the second time in January. Outside it is cold and grey and foggy and drizzly at 11 a.m., more like Kurseong during the monsoons. For the record, this is now the longest stretch of continuous rainfall in Durgapur in my living memory - it has rained every month from March to January - but before anyone starts muttering about 'climate change', let me remind you that this is not unheard of. It rained every month from February to November some year during the early 1990s, though I forget which one exactly.
Subhas Bose would have been 125 today. Here is what Gandhiji's grandson has written for the occasion (click and read before they remove the link!) I am glad and proud that they are putting up his statue under the cupola before India Gate in New Delhi where the statue of George V once stood: His Majesty's Opponent has had the last laugh! Just as I am proud that in one of the most sacred Hindu spaces in India, namely the ghats of Hardwar, there are statues of two modern Bengalis, Subhas and Swami Vivekananda.
Which brings me to a travesty I witnessed, or rather heard this morning - a mini van stuffed with offkey zealots passing by, loudspeakers blaring, screaming Ram Narayana Ram, sounding like stuck pigs. On this day of all days, the birthday of the man who with his Azad Hind Fauz most vividly displayed what a secular India under his guidance might have been... and I hear that the current government has decided to remove Abide with me, one of Gandhi's favourite hymns, from the Republic Day ceremony this year, probably because it is 'Christian' in origin: though devout Hindus have always chanted the same idea to their conception of the Supreme Being... Madhav, hum parinam nirasha, tuhu jagataran, deen dayamay, ataye tohare bishowasa (My Lord, I have no hope of redemption, but you are kind to the poor and hapless, so I finally place my trust in you.)
And talking of travesties, my newspaper (no wonder some people refer to them as rags!) carried an obituary of some American, long time director of Vogue magazine, supposedly a famous fashion designer - though I have never heard of him, and I believe I have heard of many more significant people than the average person - and referred to him as 'the great man'. Well, you know why I feel like throwing up (you are welcome to look up the chapter titled On great and base men in To My Daughter). That is exactly the problem with democracy.
4 comments:
Dear Sir,
The article by Gopalkrishna Gandhi is very well- written, and is crucial at this point in Indian history. On such days as today, Republic day etc. I often think of how little we understand of patriotism, and how some words/slogans/songs seem to be uttered with hollow and very aggressive forms of nationalism. It is good to be reminded what the leaders of independence actually envisioned, before history is rewritten for propaganda.
Dear Suvroda
Thank you for writing this piece and sharing Shri Gopal Gandhi's article. Given the over-enthusiastic misrepresentation of Indian history on the internet, at times I feel we should just allow the greats to rest in peace. The knowledgeable like yourselves will always find a way to remember them and share their work in the right manner.
I was reciting Tagore's "Ora Kaaj kore" the other day - coincidentally the same day when a PHD History student, journalist was writing on the internet that "Gurudeb cannot be called a freedom fighter". When he was challenged by other netizens, he said he was not being disrespectful but he was trying to justify that Raja Rammohan Roy and Tagore were reformists not freedom fighters. I did not read a lot into his article as I did not find any logical sense in what he was trying to convey. Sadly, I do not even venture into judging the likes of Tagore. :)
Regards
Tanmoy
Reagarding that 'orbachin' journalist, I can bet a thousand rupees to one that if I sat him down before me with an educated audience quietly watching and quizzed him on ten very important essays of Tagore on the subject of the fight for freedom and nationalism more broadly speaking, it would become apparent that he hasn't read, or doesn't remember the details of, a single one of them. Olpo bidya bhoyonkori, and our response should be silently ignoring the entire tribe - alas, too numerous these days - with a smirk or a grimace. Mercifully, the utterances of such idiots are forgotten usually within seven days, often even by themselves. This I assert from much personal experience.
Candles, criticising the sun. Their only real complaint is that the sun dazzles them blind.
...oops. Terribly sorry about the typo in my last comment. Should get my eyes checked.
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