A Matter of Faith

The curious thing about history is, it just occurs.

Indian history particularly, appears to be one long occurrence in the course of humanity with as many probabilities and improbabilities; ponderable and imponderable; myths and realities, generously concocted so as to defy an ordinary mind. This is also one such story that may belie belief but for the fact that it is a fact of history.

Yesterday, we happened to drive down to Bhavani, a town that sits on the confluence of two major rivers of South India, the Cauvery and Bhavani. Right at the confluence of both the rivers is the Sangameswara Temple, literally meaning “Lord of the Confluence”. My mother was born in this town, at a mere walking distance from the temple and my father joined school here. The story of their union in marriage is 60 years old, but as full of life as these two mighty rivers to the Tamil region!

So, we were in the temple. As is customary, we prayed to the Lord first and then proceeded to the mother’s sanctum. She is called Vedanayaki, meaning ‘the one who is the soul of Vedas or the one who presides over the Vedas’. After our prayers at her sanctum, as we completed the circumambulation of the inner sanctum, we saw a stone inscription. Frankly, there are so many inscriptions in every temple that one merely passes by them generally. We were about to do the same when a name and date in the inscription caught our attention – William Garrow, 11-01-1804. Now, here is the story:

William Garrow (1776-1815) was the Collector of Coimbatore District. Once he arrived at Bhavani and was resting in the travelers’ bungalow (incidentally adjoining the temple and even today looks every bit colonial!!). Sometime in the night, he felt as though a young girl was in front of him, beckoning him to come out of his room. Being curious and unable to think anything more, William came out of his room. As he tried to follow the young girl, she disappeared into the temple that adjoins the bungalow.

Even as he tried to follow her, William Garrow was startled to find the whole roof of the room which he just left came crashing down. A shocked and frozen William Garrow could not even hazard to think of his fate had he stayed indoors. In the course of the excitement that followed the collapse of the roof, the reminder of the night passed and the priests of the temple arrived for “ushat Kala pooja” (ritualistic pooja of the early morning). Finding the Collector at a loss, the priests made three holes in the outer wall of the temple facing the deity and asked him to see whether the girl who saved his life was inside [The present wall was constructed much later. At the time of the incident, the wall was very close to the ‘dwaja sthamba’ (flag post) from where one could see the sanctum.

Even as William Garrow looked inside, he realized that the girl who appeared before him in the night was Vedanayaki Thayar (mother), who was present in all her glory inside the sanctum.

Not just grateful, but William Garrow thereon became an ardent devotee of the Mother. He presented an ivory palanquin for the mother on 11 January 1804 and continued to visit the temple for seeking Her blessings.

This story inscribed in the stone plaque took me to check on William Garrow. What I found makes me say what I said in the beginning: The curious thing about history is, it just occurs.

William Garrow was born to Edward Garrow (1751-1820), who joined the East India Company as a junior writer in 1769 at the age of 18. He later served as Mayor of Madras in 1782. Edward Garrow, apart from marrying Sophia Dawson of England in Fort St George, had many Indian women as his begums [Please read William Dalrymple’s White Mughals[1]. It was common among white men to keep many begums, in the style of the Mughals in India]. William Garrow was born to the native women and Edward Garrow. William also had a sister, Myra. Edward and Sophia also had a son, George. Sophia and George spent their life only in England whereas William followed his father and served East India Company with distinction.

William Garrow rose to be the Collector of Coimbatore and is distinguished as an able administrator. His name figures as the first Collector to have sent English shikaris to Nilgiris in 1812, paving way for the English to habitat Ootacamund[2].

It is also interesting to note that while William’s father made his fortunes in India, his uncle, Sir William Garrow (1760-1840), is credited to be one of the most brilliant barristers in English history. In fact, it was Sir William Garrow (the uncle) is credited with the Adversarial System of jurisprudence that many countries follow today[3]. With the BBC TV series Garrow’s Law and this book Sir William Garrow is about to enter the nation’s consciousness for his ‘gifts to the world’ - as the originator of the modern-day presumption of innocence, the right to universal legal representation and access to justice in a criminal court, expert crossexamination and early traces of human rights[4].

The Sangameswara temple is also a treat to art/culture lovers with some extraordinary and exquisite sculptures that reflect the architectural traditions of Tamil Nadu.

Bhakthi as India teaches us, is not just about rituals and practices. It is about faith that transcends cultures.

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[1] Dalrymple, William. (2003). White Mughals: love and betrayal in eighteenth-century India. New York: Viking.

[2] Vijaya Ramadas Mandala (Ed) (2019). Shooting a Tiger: Big-Game Hunting and Conservation in Colonial India, New Delhi: OUP.

[3] John Hostettler and Richard Braby (2009), Sir William Garrow: His Life, Times and Fight for Justice, London: Waterside Press Ltd.

[4] https://www.wildy.com/isbn/9781904380559/sir-william-garrow-his-life-times-and-fight-for-justice-hardback-waterside-press

Imaging Our Gods

One of my friends recently sent me a message asking whether I knew that the Shiv Ling is made as per scientific principles. I asked him to explain the scientific principles. He replied saying he was told emphatically by his guru that it is written in the shastras that Ling is the ultimate expression of divinity and therefore it is the most scientific physical representation. I asked him to find out which ‘shastras’ and ‘what is scientific’. He replied that he felt offended by such agnostic questions coming from me.

I was taken back though it was nice to see someone so devoted to his guru. While I expressed my sincere apologies to him for offending his sensibilities, I thought I must also share what little bit that I do know.

There are two periods of Indian history when India can be said to have reached the pinnacles of intellectual acumen. First was from 2500 to 500 AD and the next is from 400 to 1500 BC. In the first period came the Vedas and Upanishads as the result of a peaceful pastoral Indian community searching for the purpose of life. The second period saw the birth of Vedanga (the six sciences), mathematics, astronomy, astrology and a host of other sciences. One of the Vedangas is the science of constructing divine images called SHILPA SHASTRA. In fact experts believe though Panini and Patanjali of 500 BC were familiar with images of gods, no evidence exists of constructing ‘pratima’ for worship. The art and science of constructing images for worship grew thereafter and in 1500 AD, the SHILPA SHASTRA was written.

There are very few experts who can be said to know the Shilpa Sashtra now. In the early 1930s, Dr AN Tagore, Dr A Coomaraswami, Mr OC Ganguly, etc were considered to be expert art-critics with deep insights into Shilpa Shastra.

It is Shilpa Shastra that defines what measurements are to be taken in constructing images of gods. Measurements in Shilpa Shastra are in ‘angula’. An ‘angula’ is 1/4th of a ‘musti’, meaning closed fist. Sukra Niti, Maya Sastra and Matsya Puran further give various measurements and criteria for constructing the images of gods with stone, metal or even painting them. Together with these measurement standards and the rites to be performed to install the stone/metal image of a god for worship is known as the AGAMA Shastra. 

The measurements are for three purposes – to give aesthetic beauty, to mark the purpose of that particular image and to physically symbolize the god as described in Purans. For example, gods with the thumb of the open palm of either hand touching the chest symbolize ‘protection’. That means the bhakt will seek to be protected by the deity. The image with the palm touching the abdomen symbolizes ‘vardhan’, that means the bhakt will seek boons. There may be deities with one palm near the chest and another near the abdomen. This deity is worshipped for both protection and boons.

Now let us see the construction of Shiv Ling. In the Shiv and other Purans, Shiv is the only god described as TRIMURTHI. Brahma, as we know is just Brahma. In so far as Visnu is concerned, we say ‘Sivaya Visnu rupaya, Siva Rupaya Visnave’ – meaning both are same. So, TRIMURTI is a god who has to be represented as the one carrying out all three functions in equal measure. Also, he cannot be represented in human form as the description of Brahma, Visnu and Siva is quite distinct from each other. Therefore, Trimurti is represented as an oval (all encompassing, the whole), mounted on a circular platform with a base. Each of these segments is to be of equal height to symbolize that He carries on the three acts of creation, protection and destruction equally.

This is the science behind Shiv Ling. Have a great day.

Tamil Architectural Traditions

A mention of Tamil Nadu automatically invokes a culture that, as one school of historians say, predates the Indus Valley Vedic culture. Whether that claim is supported by archaeological evidence is a question that we must consider separately. But, Tamil culture bequeathed to the world some of the finest achievements in the field of architecture, irrigation, sculpture, dance, drama and literary renderings that remain unparalleled.

One unique expression of the finesse of Tamil culture is the Brihadeeswara Temple at Tanjore. However, during a recent visit to that area, we came across two more temples which are mirror images of Brihadeeswara, Tanjore, that was built by Rajaraja Chola I in 1010 AD.

The first is another Brihadeeswara temple built by Rajaraja's son Rajendra, after his conquest of the regions of the Ganges up North at Gangaikonda Cholapuram. This was built in 1035 AD.

Rajendra's son, Rajaraja II also built a mirror image, the Airawatheswara temple at Dhravaram near Kumbakonam some time in 1155 AD or a little later. We were amazed at the similarity and realized that the son and grandson of Rajaraja I, in deference to their elder, made only the linga and the nandi (sacred bull of Shiva) smaller. In another post, a bit more of their history will be shared. For now, here are pics of Airawatheswara temple. 

History Shapes Society The Way We Say It

Yesterday, the proverbial curiosity caught the cat of my imagination. We were actually watching the Navrathri program on TV. Srimad Shankaracharya Swami (the young pontiff) of Sharada Peetam of Sringeri was holding darbar at the completion of days' pooja. As the events happened, my mind wandered off. The history of Sri Sharada Peetam commences in 8th century. It was established by Adi Shankara himself. The twelve hundred years of its existence saw tumultuous events unfolding in the subcontinent. 

To start with, between the 7th and 12th centuries, Chalukyas, Pallavas, Pandavas, Badami and Rashtrakutas dominated the southern peninsula, not to mention Kakatiyas, Kalachuris and Kadambas. Their empires rose and shrank with time till about the advent of Moghuls in India. Then came the Bhamani Sultans (Birar, Bidar, Golconda and Gulbarga) and the Vijaynagar empire. These were followed by Maratha, Nizam of Hyderabad, Nawab of Arcot, Tipu Sultan and the East India Company.

The question that rankled my mind was "Is it possible that Sri Mutt of Sringeri remained unaffected by these ebbs and flows that rocked the country?" It is then, I started looking first into the history of the Mutt as published in its own website  https://www.sringeri.net/jagadgurus

I can only invite with all humility any and all lovers of history to visit the website for it contains, though not in the strict historical pedagogy, the events of this country played at different times in curious and interesting narratives. We find equally compelling stories of great kings and sultans paying homage to the Sri Mutt as well as reprehensible acts of Pindaris of Maharashtra pillaging the sanctity of it. These instances give us the political-social-economic perspectives necessary to understand the parts of subcontinental history that remain hidden from academic texts.

As I read through this website, another thought preys at my mind. We appear to be content with knowing as little (if at all) of the history of our own race (if we consider Indians as one race?) and happily accept correct or controversial versions that mostly western scholars have constructed for us. When the rising tenor Right Wing historians' narratives (like for example the Aryan Invasion Theory) strikes at us, we take refuge in consolatory gestures. History has neither Right or Left Wing narratives. It is a narrative that is by itself. I do hope that readers of this blog will help me access sources that would shed "as it were" perspectives on the history of this subcontinent.      

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Vanchi

On 17 June 1911, Robert William Escourt Ashe boarded the Maniyachi Mail at Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu. Ashe and his wife Mary Lillian Patterson, were on the way to Kodaikanal (a hill station near Madurai) to visit their four children. Ashe was the Collector of Tirunelveli and was instrumental in sending VO Chidambaram Pillai to life imprisonment on charges of sedition. The story of VOC, popularly known as Kappalottiya Thamizan, is by itself a legend in Tamil Nadu.

While Ashe and his wife waited for their train to move, two young men boarded their first class compartment. One of them, a well dressed youth of about 25, came abreast of Ashe and pulling out a pistol shot Ashe in the chest. Ashe collapsed dead on his seat. Before Mary Patterson could react, the two men exited the coach and went separately their way. The young man with the pistol ran to the toilet in the end of the platform. A short while later, his body was recovered from the toilet, pistol in hand. He had shot himself through the mouth. In his pocket was a note that claimed his intention to shoot Ashe as a protest against the coronation of King George the Vth, King and Emperor of India. Ashe was the only Englishman to be shot dead in South India during the Indian Independence struggle.

The young man was VANCHI aka Vanchinathan aka Shankaran.

Born into a brahmin family, Vanchi's generation of young men in Madras Province (as Tamil Nadu was known at that time) were deeply moved by VOC when he launched the Swadeshi Steamship Navigation Company in 1906. Challenging the greatest naval power on its own singular prowess on the seas was like a spark that kindled the fires of freedom struggle in their hearts. In the two years that VOC's ships broke British monopoly on the seas, a swell of pride stoked the patriotic fervor in thousands of hearts. That Ashe as collector of Tirunelveli did everything in his might to ensure disbanding the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company, eventually succeeding in framing VOC on charges of sedition sending him to jail for 80 years, was not something that the young generation was willing to take submissively. At least, Vanchi did not think so.

Vanchi had carried only two bullets in his pistol. He was clear, after killing Ashe, that he will end his life than face a trial for murder. He left behind a wife who was apparently pregnant at the time of his death. However, no direct descendant of Vanchi is alive.

One hundred years after Vanchi's death, on 18 June 2011, the son of Vanchi's younger brother, Hariharan, received an email from Robert Ashe, grandson of Robert William Escourt Ashe. The email said:

 "On this day of sad but proud remembrance, we, the grandchildren and great grandchildren of Robert William Ashe would like to extend to the family of Vanchi Iyer, a message of reconciliation and friendship. Vanchi was an idealist political campaigner whose zeal for the freedom of his beloved India sent Robert to his early grave. Moments later, he took his own young life.  All who act fervently in the political arena, both ruler and oppressed, risk making mortal mistakes, and we who are fortunate enough to live on, must forgive and live in peace together[i]."

The email, sent by the family of the late British Collector of Tirunelveli, conveys the philosophically broadminded disposition of Ashe family to the act of Vanchi.  Hariharan on his part acknowledged the email and went further to note that both Vanchi and Ashe merely did what they perceived as their duty at that time. No ill will prevailed on personal front, then or now. 

We must bow to the Ashe family for their honorable acknowledgement of Vanchi’s sacrifice. But, in celebrating Vanchi we would truly celebrate India.

Jai Hind.      

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[i] http://www.thesundayindian.com/en/story/late-british-officer's-kin-sent-letter-to-killer's-kin/5/16690/

  

Bajrang Bali Ki Jai

On the 10th of October 1962, the Chinese crept up the hills around Thagla in the Namka Chu valley. Facing them were three Indian Companies: 4 Grenadiers, 9 Punjab, 1/9 Gorkha, 2 Rajputana Rifles and 01 Platoon of Assam Rifles. 

The Chinese had arrived with their 11th Div with 3 regiments, equaling a brigade. They had lined the hills with over 150 guns of 82 mm and 120 mm. The numerical superiority was around 20:1.

Lt Col Rikh of 2n Rajput had taken stock. He had 150 bullets per rifleman, 17 magazines (28 rounds each) per LMG and 2 grenades per soldier. The battalion's 3" (2 & 3 inch) mortars had 60 rounds of ammo, equal to five minutes firing time. But then, he also knew what the Chinese did not know: his men were Rajputs.

At 05:14 hrs on 20 Oct 1962, the Chinese opened up their 150 guns. 82 and 120 mm shells were raining over every square inch of the Rajput position. After 15 to 20 minutes of heavy shelling, Chinese infantry moved from top and bottom of the hills. The battle was joined soon.

Chinese came in wave after wave and by the third wave, Rajputs had nearly run out of ammunition. Though they had taken heavy casualties, they were determined to repulse the Chinese onslaught. They did not wait much. The fourth wave of Chinese descended on them in quick succession.

Major BK Pant of the Rajputs saw that his men were hopelessly outnumbered and severely wounded. Though he himself was wounded in the leg and shoulder in earlier fighting, he virtually dragged himself from trench after trench, rallying his men to fix bayonets and hurl the Chinese wave down in the smog over the slopes of the hill that reeked of blood and gore. Picking himself painfully up a small overhang, he let out a blood curdling war cry that sent his men charging down the slopes. The Chinese took heavy casualties and withdrew the attack.

They realized that tough as they are, the Rajputs, it was BK Pant who was the pivot of their fierce motivation. When their next wave came, they sited the ridge on which Major BK Pant was propped up, gun in hand, rallying his men. A burst of Chinese machine gun fire was directed at him, ripping him through his chest and shoulder.

Though mortally wounded, Major BK Pant, raised himself up and let out a roar. He held his head high in the Rajput tradition and told his men: Men of the Rajput Regiment, you were born to die for your country. God has selected this small river for which you must die. Stand up and fight like true Rajputs.

As he collapsed, he let out the war cry of the Rajputana Rifles - BAJRANG BALI KI JAI.

Out of the 112 Rajuts under his command, 82 died in the battle. The Rajputs lived up to their motto : 

   Veer Bhogya Vasundhara (वीर भोग्य वसुंधरा ) "The Brave Shall Inherit the Earth" 

  The 7th Infantry Brigade under which the 2nd Rajput  had faught was commanded by Brigadier JP Dalvi. Brig Dalvi wrote an authentic but moving account of the 1962 war in his 'Himalayan Blunder'.

Foot in Mouth

United States government designated Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in 2001, listing it along with its ilk like Al Quaeda, Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami (HUJI), Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami/Bangladesh (HUJI-B), Harakat ul-Mujahideen (HUM), Indian Mujahedeen (IM) and Lashkar e-Tayyiba (LeT).

Active since 2000,  JeM is headed by former senior Harakat ul-Mujahideen leader Masood Azhar upon his release from prison in India in exchange for 155 hijacked Indian Airlines hostages. The group’s aim is to annex the state of Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan and expel international forces from Afghanistan. JeM has openly declared war against the United States.
JeM was implicated in the beheading of US journalist Daniel Pearl and assassination attempts on Pervez Musharraf. In 2016, JeM was involved in the attack on an Air Force base at Pathankot that shook India. It has claimed responsibility for multiple attacks on security forces in the valley of Kashmir. On 14 February 2019, A Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist named Adil Ahmad Dar, a Kashmiri local, was identified as the attacker of the CRPF convoy that claimed the life of 40 jawans.

The incident sent shock waves across India and around the world. There has been a public outpouring of grief and anger that threatens to wash over the normally tolerant Indian society. The PM of India of course responded with an assurance that the culprits of Pulwama and their masters will not go unpunished.

Terrorism across the world has been condemned as the most reprehensible act that a state can connive with. It is against international behavior that responsible states are expected to abide by. In a globalized world, such behavior is fraught with the dangers of isolation and sanctions that could sting. Yet, the PM of Pakistan today states brazenly that India would face the consequences if it acts against Pakistan. Pakistan has been sheltering JeM and liberally supporting its activities in India and Afghanistan.

The Pakistani PM’s statement exposes the shallow lip service the country has been paying to counter threat of terrorism. The brazen threat that he meets out to India does not seem to come from a country that is conscious of its duties to the international community at large, both on moral and legal grounds. The fact that he chose to convey veiled threats to India reflects the shallow hold that he has on the affairs of his state, reflecting rather the stranglehold that terror groups have on the government of Pakistan.

Pakistan, with the world’s 5th largest population (over 207 million), a nominal GDP per capita of $1,641 in 2018 ranking 147th in the world. It ranks 150th in Human Development Index as assessed by UNDP. Pakistan ranks 117/180 in international corruption perception index (Transparency International), 139/180 in Worldwide Press freedom index (Reporters without borders), 110/167 in Democracy Index (Economist Intelligence Unit) and the top 20th in the Failed States Index.

Pakistan is also home to five terror organizations (Al Quaeda, Jaih-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Omar, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Sipah-e-Sahiba. Pakistan’s connections with Haqqani Network are public knowledge.
In an atmosphere where international condemnation on JeM attack in Pulwama is flooding the world media, the democratically elected PM of Pakistan, Imran Khan, chooses instead to say that Pakistan will retaliate if India attacks. He expects that the Indian government to bend its knees in front of the terror tycoons who control Pakistan lest the wrath of the sovereign might of Pakistan fall on India. It is not clear as to where Pakistan and its PM rank in humour index. Instead of grabbing the opportunity to wipe the venomous blood in the veins of his country, he chooses to threaten spilling of Indian blood.

Great leaders do not wait for opportunities to knock on their doors and then go consulting their appointment books to see if the door can be open. They grab fleeting opportunities to open doors that bring in amity, cooperation and prosperity in their wake. An opportunity such as this where Pakistan can choose to behave like a responsible state can be missed only to its own peril. The vortex of violence that Pakistan has fostered in India and Afghanistan is already consuming the flower of its youth. In a country where poverty poses the most serious challenge to its governance, the door of opportunity to cooperate on terrorism thereby stepping into the bandwagon of collective prosperity can be sacrificed for protecting terrorist havens only by leaders who are consumed by their desire for self-preservation.    

The Prince

On 13 March 1910, the police arrested a 26 old man in Paris and deported him to Britain. In Britain, he was to be kept under maximum security. The British government had ensured that the arrest was kept under wraps and that neither general public nor the Indian community in London got any winds of it. He was to be sent to Bombay to face charges that were as yet not even known to the British parliament. It would suffice to surmise that the young man was a special prisoner. Why else British authorities prepare a full ship to transport a single prisoner to India?

The ship SS Morea had special guards and a carefully designed cage in which the young man was to be kept chained. British instructions to the special guards were curiously akin to forest guards tasked to transport dangerous carnivores. The ship left the shores of England and in due course called its port on 08 July 1910 at Marseilles in France for replenishment. Sensing that the ship was in port, the young man made a daring escape. He swam ashore in his shackles and ran into a couple of French policemen on patrol. Unfortunately, he did not speak French and the policemen wouldn’t understand English. As he tried to mime his way through, the British guards from the ship arrived and it did not take much of explaining by them to get him back into custody.

Deciding that he was too dangerous to be conveyed by just one ship and his guards, British government dispatched a naval frigate to escort SS Morea to Bombay. Of course, the British authorities took care to stow the young man into a 4’X4’ cage for the reminder of the journey under heavy chains. The ship reached Bombay on 22 July 1910. In the dock, as the ship berthed, soldiers with their rifles and bayonets lined up every feet of the gangway. When the entire dock had been so secured the young man was taken under escort to a police van that carried him on to Yeravada, Pune. Thus the young man arrived to a reception befitting a prince, even though he was in chains.

He was indeed the prince among Indian freedom fighters. A prince whose mere writings sent shudders down the spine of an Empire that had hundred thousand men in arms in India; a prince who invoked a passion among his countrymen for freedom like how the wind stokes a forest fire. Unlike Machiavelli who wrote of how a prince should be, this prince had written how the British had ravaged the country through and after the mutiny of 1857. Of course, he was the first person ever who called 1857 the first war of independence. His book The History of the War of Independence was to become the inspiration for Sardar Bhagat Singh and later to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. This prince spoke of war in open terms and he was no advocate of conciliation in the manner that many others thought of their relations with the Empire.

The prince then, was to be meted with the princeliest among the punishments that British Empire had devised for those who thirsted for freedom with their souls – banishment to Kaalapani, the infamous Circular Jail in Port Blair. The trail against him proceeded in the most expected manner of a farce on legal systems in the world and ended in June 1911. On 04 July 1911, he was transported to Port Blair.

The prince was assigned to the hardest of labors in the jail like chopping wood, manually pulling the oil mill and a score of other menial and physically straining tasks. After ten years of condemnation in Port Blair, he was finally moved back to mainland and lodged in Ratnagiri jail. It took another three years for the prince to be set free in 1924, although on restrictive conditions. The prince, in the new found freedom from chains, actively taught and wrote against the colonial masters advocating resistance. In fact his words on the proposal of partition of India reverberate with solemn truth even today:

“MY PERSONAL VIEW IS THAT WE MUST VIGOROUSLY PROTEST AGAINST THE CREATION OF A MOSLEM STATE INDEPENDENT OF THE CENTRAL INDIAN STATE. WE WILL NOT SIGN WILLINGLY THE DEATH WARRANT OF THE INTEGRITY OF HINDUSTHAN”.

The prince is the only Indian for whom the Empire enacted a separate law that could be used to arrest him in London; he is the only Indian again over whom a case was laid at the Office of International Arbitration in the Hague contesting his arrest and deportation on French soil in Marseilles; a prince for whom two empires, France and Briton, had to stand in the court to justify his arrest and custody; a prince who thereby made his own history – just like a prince.

The name of the prince is Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, more popularly Veer Savarkar.

                                                          

The Four Seasons of Patriotism

Barack Obama, unarguably one of the greatest contemporary American Presidents, is quoted to have said: 

"We, the People, recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights; that our destinies are bound together; that a freedom which only asks what's in it for me, a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism, is unworthy of our founding ideals, and those who died in their defense".

One of the most important aspects that his statement highlights is that there can be no freedom without commitment; that there can be no freedom without patriotism.

It is perhaps interesting to sit back and look at ourselves on occasions when we feel patriotic. We will be amused to find that our patriotism is of four seasons.

The first season starts with the arrival of national days like our independence day, constitution day, etc. With the advent of social media, we get a flood of messages, often repetitive and from people of whom you are convinced that they are incapable thinking beyond the shadow of their shoes. But then what the heck? You get reeducated on the significance of such occasions; the people who penned your national anthems; what the founders of your constitution said or unsaid; the great bind (I still am on the look out for it for the past half a century) that connects us one people; etc, etc. Of course for the majority of kids (I am not sure if kids could be 16 and below. After all every one is a kid to their parents), such days are usually granted holidays to spend time with family and friends.

The second season arrives with the disembarkation of a coffin that is wrapped in the colors of the country. The media makes a beeline to the funerals in which smartly dressed soldiers (police, etc) lift their guns on to their shoulders and fire empty shells into the air. The whole community gathers around the glare of cameras to tell the world how proud they are that the man in the casket died. What they do not say of course is how happier they are that their own youngster finished his engineering or MBA from MITs, Harvards, UCLAs and the like, and is entrenched in a war with corporate honchos that is much more grueling. They regret that the sacrifices that their wards have made (think of those board meetings lasting into mid nights, those un-celebrated birthdays and anniversaries, those missed holidays or time with family) simply go unsung.

The third season arrives with dazzling insights. Standing in front of the jury and judges for having committed such innocuous acts like cheating millions out of unsuspecting investors, declaring solvency  after building empires out of the sweat of millions, and such like. One does wonder why freedom doesn't include the freedom to loot? Is anybody holding the early Americans, Australians, Britons, French, Dutch, Spaniards and Portuguese (did I leave out any one...) for what they did to the natives just to get hold of the wealth of the land. Why then are they making such a fuss now? After all, I am no Columbus or Captain Cook. It's my own country and these others seem to have what I desire of them...

The fourth is a season of opportunities. It usually belongs to the political class and sometimes to the wealthy and influential movers and makers of the nations. They, of course, have the privilege of invoking it in times when they find that the going is not exactly not in the directions that are to the liking of their ilk.

The four seasons of patriotism apply to every sovereign territory that we may belong. They are universal. And, these are the seasons that apply to every region irrespective of the terrain that any nation can claim of. They do not belong to a terrain or climate. They are universal. That is the beauty of patriotism.

The Trial of 1922

Justice Broomfield knew that the law under which the man on the dock was being tried was cruel and favored the masters over slaves. He also knew that as a judge it was his duty to uphold the law for it was enacted by a competent Crown. The only thing that he could do was to make the proceedings absolutely impersonal and let the laws prevail over personal feelings. All that he did to show his personal admiration for the accused was to bow to him, as judge, before taking his judicial seat.

And, the man on the dock bowed back, smiling as he ever was, that disarming smiles that had endeared him to millions. His name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

Gandhi was accused of inciting the populace of India by his writings in Young India, a paper that he published from 1919 to 1931. He wrote from his heart and was never in doubt over what he asked the millions who read or heard his writings to demand. He asked them to demand what was their right, a right that Bal Gangadhar Tilak had so eloquently put as जन्म सिद्ध अधिकार (Right by birth), and the right to be masters of their own destinies. Freedom from colonial rule that he so out earnestly asked his countrymen to ask for through his writings was seen as sedition by the Colonial Masters who had levied the charge against him for “bringing or attempting to excite disaffection towards the British Government established by law in British India”.

The trial court was packed to the brim. Thousands of followers stood outside the court premises, silently but defiantly in the eyes of the amassed police forces. They did not sing or chant or indulge in activities that would belie the great faith that Gandhi had on them. Satya or truth, he had often said, will prevail. Violence, he believed with all his heart and soul, would beget nothing but more violence and in the melee truth will be lost. So the swollen crowds stood patiently without a murmur.

Inside the court room, on the 18^th March 1922, Justice Broomsfield proceeded to conduct the trial as per law. He was not surpriced when Gandhi eagerly pleaded guilty. However, the Advocate General (Sir JT Strangman along with Rao Bahadur Girdharlal Uttamram, Public Prosecutor of District Ahmedabad) representing the Crown insisted on reading out the full extent of incitements that Gandhi had caused in the eyes of the Crown, by his writings in Young India. Gandhi gave forth his bewitching smiles for each of the accusations and again in the end, pleaded guilty to all the charges. Justice Broomfield then proceeded to ask Gandhi whether hhe would like to say anything before the judgment was announced. Gandhi said yes. He had come prepared with a statement which, with the permission of the judge, he proceeded to read. As the courtroom in which Kasturba Gandhi, Sarojini Naidu, Pandit MM Malaviya, N C Kelkar, Smt JB Petit, and Smt Anasuyaben Sarabhai were also present among the public, he concluded his statement by saying:

“If one has no affection for a person or system, one should be free to give the fullest expression to his disaffection, so long as he does not contemplate, promote, or incite to violence…. I have no personal ill-will against any single administrator, much less can I have any disaffection towards the King’s person. But I hold it to be a virtue to be disaffected towards a Government which in its totality has done more harm to India than any previous system. India is less manly under the British rule than she ever was before. Holding such a belief, I consider it to be a sin to have affection for the system. And it has been a precious privilege for me to be able to write what I have in the various articles tendered in evidence against me.

In fact, I believe that I have rendered a service to India and England by showing in non-co-operation the way out of the unnatural state in which both are living. In my opinion, non-co-operation with evil is as much a duty as is co-operation with good. But in the past, non-co-operation has been deliberately expressed in violence to the evil-doer. I am endeavoring to show to my countrymen that violent non-co-operation only multiples evil, and that as evil can only be sustained by violence, withdrawal of support of evil requires complete abstention from violence. Non-violence implies voluntary submission to the penalty for non-co-operation with evil.

I am here, therefore, to invite and submit cheerfully to the highest penalty that can be inflicted upon me for what in law is deliberate crime, and what appears to me to be the highest duty of a citizen. The only course open to you, the Judge and the assessors, is either to resign your posts and thus dissociate yourselves from evil, if you feel that the law you are called upon to administer is an evil, and that in reality I am innocent, or to inflict on me the severest penalty, if you believe that the system and the law you are assisting to administer are good for the people of this country, and that my activity is, therefore, injurious to the common weal”.

Pin drop silence prevailed in the court when Gandhi finished. He proceeded to fold the paper in which he had penned his statement, tuck it in his famous ‘loin cloth’, and turning to the judge, bowed. Justice Broomfield contemplated for some time and then proceeded to announce the gravest punishment that law could impose on a charge of sedition – six years of imprisonment. A smiling Gandhi cheerfully nodded when the judge completed his pronouncement. After having completed his judicial duty, Justice Broomfield added to the judicial verdict by saying:

   “I should like to say …. if the course of events in India should make it possible for the Government to reduce the period and release you, no one will be better pleased than I."

And then the honorable Mr Broomfield rose, and bowed to Gandhi. In Gandhi’s own words:

“So far as the sentence itself is concerned, I certainly consider it is as light as any judge would inflict on me, and so far as the whole proceedings are concerned, I must say that I could not have expected greater courtesy”.

Gandhi’s trial of 1922 bears eloquent testimony to a process of law and courage of conviction that are beyond physical description. There is a spiritual quality that can be felt both in the accused and judge that marked the world of those years in a different class.

Such is the story of courage and conviction.