When the first Prime
Minister hoisted the Tricolour in the Red Fort and celebrated India’s “tryst
with destiny”, Mahatma Gandhi was in Calcutta trying to bring peace between the
two warring religious communities. The
Mahatma did not celebrate the Independence.
He was sad. India had not become
independent, according to him, because real independence is liberation not only
from colonial powers but also from the evils within the human heart. Until every Indian is free from ignorance and
superstition, from hatred and violence, India is not free, argued Gandhi.
India is not free even
today, seven decades after Independence.
India is still haunted by the spectres of communalism. The Mahatma must still be weeping.
But the Mahatma has been
driven out from the country. He can weep
elsewhere. The history textbooks in the
BJP-governed states are being rewritten without any mention of Gandhi and
Nehru. Rajasthan has already replaced
these visionary leaders with Savarkar, Hedgewar, Deen Dayal Upadhyay and
religious leaders like Vivekananda and Aurobindo.
 | |
| Amit Shah releasing a publication at the inauguration of 29th Savarkar Sahitya Sammelan, dedicated to Savarkar's life and works, in Mumbai in April. [Frontline] |
As an article
in the latest Frontline says,
Savarkar deserves to be introduced to school students because he is ‘said to
have led a march of his classmates to stone a mosque after rumours of cow
slaughter gained currency. This was his “revenge” against the “atrocities”
committed against Hindus during Hindu-Muslim riots.’ The writer goes on to say that ‘If Savarkar
stoned a mosque as a boy, it is almost in the fitness of things that today he
is being resurrected in school textbooks by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),
which has in its ranks men and women who watched or abetted the demolition of
the Babri Masjid in 1992.’
None of these ‘heroes’
projected by BJP in the new textbooks made any significant contribution to the
freedom movement. But they contributed
much, very much indeed, to the communal hatred which was what Gandhi and Nehru,
along with many others, tried to combat.
Bringing such people as role models for young students may yield some
temporary political dividends but will be disastrous in the long run.
The present leadership in
the country is playing with volatile religious sentiments with nefarious motives. I know there will be powerful rhetoric
delivered from Red Fort’s ramparts tomorrow. I also know that the rhetoric will be deadlier
than atom bombs. Insidious power of
hatred concealed in patriotic coating.
No, it’s not Independence
that will be celebrated. I stand with
the Mahatma wherever he is. I wish I
could redress his grief.
People are very clever and they understand everybody's agenda.Both parties have their own flaws.
ReplyDeletePeople are clever enough to understand agenda but not intelligent to understand life. Hence so many flaws.
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