Tryst with Destiny

“Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.” 

The above words from the rhetorical but very meaningful speech of Jawaharlal Nehru at the stroke of independence on August 15, 1947 were not heard by us, yet ring in our ears and stir our hearts as if we were present at the historic moment in time and space. I was not even born and Goa was not a part of independent India, but the words have touched us and survived from the corridors of school and college as few other words have. And every year, as the Independence Day approaches, Nehru’s words take precedence over every other speech and message given on that day. 

The words were not mere rhetoric but based on reality and measured by pragmatism. It was not going to be Rabindranath Tagore’s “heaven of freedom”, at least not immediately and perhaps for a long time, but a slow realization, “not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially”. What would be immediate was the fact of independence from the British Empire, and the rule over India by Indians. Democracy would have to flower in the face of tremendous difficulties that the transfer of power and the division of the country would entail. Riots would follow, killings would continue, trains to Pakistan from India and vice versa would be the last resort for many as described by Kushwant Singh in his novel, Train to Pakistan. The turmoil of Europe in the early nineteen-forties would in some way be ours in the mid nineteen-forties. The Indian apostle of peace, Mahatma Gandhi, would soon be the victim of assassination at the hands of the forces of darkness. Nehru would then once again capture the sentiment of the young nation with his immortal words in less than six months of independence: “the light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere”. Today, it is sad to hear people, with hardly any knowledge of history but full of misinformation from the pages of propaganda, talk about Gandhi and Nehru in unutterable language. Unutterable, therefore unquotable.

The tryst, Nehru spoke of, evokes not just a sense of duty but has an element of love and dedicated pursuit of an ideal, the ideal of “life and freedom” to which “India will awake”. Someday. Until then we have to keep aspiring, struggling, defeating the forces of darkness whose narrow philosophy can only destroy the India that we love. The darkness of Gandhi’s assassination brought despair and doom, but the leaders of young India did not succumb to pessimism, and gallantly moved on with the torch of life and freedom. Else we would not be the India we are today. It is our sacred duty to pass on the torch of liberty to generations to come. The struggle may take its toll but the ideal must and will prevail. It has prevailed in the past in India and over the world, and will do so in the future. The ideology of fascism was defeated in the world once; and a great and free nation, that India is, will defeat it in the future. The Indian freedom struggle and Gandhi’s philosophy have inspired the world and its leaders in the past and present. Our determining action for democracy, freedom and life will inspire the world once again. Not the monotonous uniformity and narrow outlook which is mistaken for unity and strength, but the vibrant diversity of all forms of life, languages, regional peculiarities, cuisines, forms of art, cultures and religions, castes, classes and even races. It is the diversity that is our strength, and we will have to shape our future respecting the same.

The tryst with destiny is an ongoing process which requires continual engagement. It requires vision. It is a mission. It is not just about the present, but should include corrective action while avoiding future dangers. Let us not throw out the baby with the bath water. The act of cleaning the political system is a must. But the preservation of a democratic way of life in all its diversity, in liberty, with dignity, and with inclusive economic growth is a mission.

Published in The Navhind Times, Panorama 11.08.2013    

Nationalism, Culture and English

There are many factors that are causing great loss to our country. The English language is not even the least of them. On the contrary, the widespread knowledge of English places us at an advantage. The ever increasing number of people, who wish to learn the language or teach it to their children, do so by opting for it with their hard earned money. So when Rajnath Singh, the national president of the BJP, opines that English is bad for India, the immediate reaction is laughter if not derision. 

Singh is reported to have said: “The English language has caused a great loss to the country. We are losing our language, our culture as there are hardly any people who read Sanskrit now….We have started forgetting our religion and culture these days.”(Times of India)

Languages run through their course in history. They evolve. They move from relevant to obsolete and vice versa. Some languages like Latin and Sanskrit are to be preserved for their classics, for study and research, but not to be imposed for modern communications as spoken languages. English is not considered only as the language of Britain but has become the international lingua franca. It has not only lived beyond colonialism but grown to embrace the terminology of modern science, jurisprudence, business and technology. It has a rich and varied vocabulary, and has borrowed liberally from other languages including those from India. In fact we can even claim that we have our own Indian English. Our modern Indian English writers have won world-wide acclaim, international recognition, and awards including the Man Booker Prize for fiction several times. Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Amitav Ghosh, Vikram Seth, Anita Desai and Kiran Desai are just a few names that dot the shelves of English literature. Moreover, the better our knowledge of English, the better will be our opportunities in the globalized education, business and industry.

And why do we blame any language for our national ills and loss? It is the politicians, the bigots, the fundamentalists and fanatics who are to be blamed first and foremost. It is they who incite and excite the people for their own narrow ends, to divide and rule. If our country is not prospering as much as it should have been, it is because of several factors which we gloss over while bringing religion and language to the fore. Why are we swimming, or rather drowning, in a sea of corruption? Why are there so many scandals in almost every field, not just politics but sports, industry, hospitals, schools, colleges, universities, media and even the defense establishment? Even our religious institutions are not always above board. Why are the crimes increasing by the day? Why have rapes become so frequent? Who is responsible for the communal riots and the caste wars that take place every now and then? What ails our systems? Any particular language? English?

The questions asked above require answers and solutions. Our politicians evade these by raising emotional issues based on religion, caste, culture and language. The British ruled over India but could not conquer our culture. It is not so weak that the English language can destroy it. Let us preserve the good values deeply ingrained in our culture but let oppressive customs and divisive traditions be discarded. Let the English language open us to the world, and let a gentle breeze from across our national borders blow away the cobwebs that restrict us in many ways. 

The English language, the postal system and the railways were in fact some of the factors responsible for building up the Indian freedom struggle. Leaders from the north and south, east and west of India could meet and exchange views. They were as much inspired by the political philosophies and revolutions of the western world as they were by the profound values of our own civilization and culture. It is offensive to our national ethos for anyone to state that we can so easily be swept off our feet. Obviously such individuals and leaders do not understand the India which they want to rule.

I would like to conclude on a positive, personal note. I like to speak Konkani, my mother tongue, but love to read and speak English. It is through English that I have learnt so much about my country India. The Discovery of India, by Jawaharlal Nehru, taught me the idea of a great India with a breathtaking variety of cultures and languages, each unique and yet linked to the other. An Idealist view of Life, by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, gave me an understanding of Hinduism as a way of life. Talks on the Gita, by Vinobha Bhave, deepened my understanding further. The English translation of Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali made me more interested in the great Bengali doyen of literature. And Prakash Thali’s English translation of Pundalik Naik’s Konkani short story, entitled The Electric Dawn in the November 1985 issue of Goa Today magazine, made me want to read the author more. These were some of the books that made me understand and appreciate the Indian culture better. And all of them were in English.

Published in The Navhind Times, Panorama 28.07.2013