Nationalism: Principles and Practice
Poor Mr.Nehru! (By Politicus)
A leader who does not know his followers must necessarily come a cropper. And that is what has evidently happened in the case of Pandit Motilal Nehru. Not only has the Pandit’s authority and popularity vanished all of a sudden, he is fast becoming the most hated person in the very camp of which he was the accredited leader till but a few weeks ago. To the thoughtful mind and the discerning eye, there is perhaps, nothing much to be surprised at in this unexpected turn of the wheel. In the very nature of things, there could be no permanency about the idols of the market place, for the people who crowd round and offer incense are invariably of the order who readily lend themselves to the easy sway of impulsive emotions and are subject to no influences of a sober and steadying character. In the case of the Allahabad Pandit, other factors have also been at work to oust him from the throne of grace. His Madras adherents, for instance, have for long been chafing under his yoke, not because the yoke was heavy in itself, but almost entirely because one among them was so blinded by his irrepressible self-love and conceit that he could see no reason why he should be pulling the car instead of sitting inside it. Thanks, however to the shrewdness of the other followers of the Pandit, who knew what the Iyers and Iyengars were out for and who consequently refused to play into their hands, the Pandit was able to hold his own hitherto.
But now, by a perverse irony of fate – aided in its operation, it is said, by some very clever pulling of wires from behind by Mr. Gandhi – the Pandit has rubbed almost all the sections of his followers the wrong way. He has decreed that all the members of the legislatures belonging to his school of thought should immediately tender their resignations in protest against the action of the Viceroy in extending the life of the Councils, and not only that he has also thrown out a broad hint that the wisest and the most patriotic among the Congressmen could do no better than confine themselves hereafter to constructive work from outside the Councils. Certainly people whose one ambition in life has been to hobnob with the high and mighty in the seats of authority and whose one nightmare has been to face the country, cannot be expected to have a good word for a ‘leader’ who, unmindful of their feelings and susceptibilities, their hopes and fears, would throw them to the wolves – possibly to be devoured and to be heard of no morel! Of course, theoretically, every one is agreed that logic and commonsense are on the side of the Pandit’s view, but what is the use of either when the one leads to self-annihilation and the other to dreadful oblivion! However, we shall wait and see how things will shape themselves in the end.
– Revolt, 14 July 1929
Jawaharlal a fool?
At a meeting of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee held on Saturday the 10th August, the president Mr. S. Srinivasa Iyengar, has indulged himself in indecent language quite unworthy of the South Indian patriot of the Sriman type. We are giving below some of the Sriman’s words, which the Brahmin journalism of our province has purposely omitted to publish.
He observed:
“. . . I am not a communist, though I took part in the committee appointed for the Defence of the Meerut Conspiracy case. But I declared that the ‘impertinent’ Jawaharlal Nehru should have no connection with it. He wrote to me impertinently without having any regard for me. He is a fool. I never take any notice of such fools . . .”
The Sriman has poured similar vituperations on many an occasion like this. His favourite ‘fool’ was once applied to Mr. Gandhi. And now it is a pity that r. Jawaharlal has fallen a prey to the terrible curse uttered from the holy mouth of the divine Sriman. The monopolist newspapers have surely thought it wise to shield the Sriman’s haughtiness by observing a serene silence over the matter. We know, Mr. Jawaharlal, whatever his political ideas may be, is not one of those orthodox elements of the monopolist clan who parade the land in the name of the Congress. We pity the Sriman’s mind which loses its equilibrium on moments of rough weather in the political horizon. Poor Sriman !
– Revolt,18 August 1929
Mr. Gandhi’s Vain Hope
Writing on the position of the depressed classes under Swaraj, Gandhiji remarks: “It is not the quantity that will count when freedom is gained. It is the determination of the few that is going to be the deciding factor”. We very much doubt if Mr. Gandhi has forgotten the status of the depressed classes – why even the Non-Brahmins – under such Swaraj Governments as Nepal and Travancore. “The determination of the few” of whom Mr. Gandhi is one, was not able to gain access to the temple at Cape Comerin. Temples in Non-Swaraj (Pararaj) Governments do not refuse admission at any rate, to those who have undertaken sea voyage. He further assures that “When Swaraj is attained it will be the reformers who must have the reins of Government in their hands”. Dear Gandhiji, would you kindly tell us which of the reformers would rein? Is it those of the type of Pandit Malaviya who talks of reform and yet wants to retain caste? Is it the type of the Congress reformers who proclaim reform and say they would starve for a week if they see a Brahmin and a Non-Brahmin dining together? Is it the type of the “Swarajist reformers” who roar at the Legislatures that the gods require Devadasis and that is a sin to contract post puberty marriages? Or is the type of your own good self who wants reform and yet advocates Varnashram? It is a surprise that Mr. Gandhi pretends to be unaware of the position of the depressed classes ever since the recorded history of India to the time of the Western interference. The work of the Congress in these forty years and more has not given the depressed classes anything to be sanguine about their condition under Swaraj.
– Revolt, 11 August 1929
The Chota Gandhi
Mr. C. Rajagopalachari in his address at the Srivilliputur Taluk Conference, has unfolded some strange and shrewd things. Speaking on the Self-respect movement, he says, “For years I have wanted to see all artificial and imaginary differences between man and man abolished and a homogeneous nation established in our land…There is no one who more earnestly wishes people to be free from superstitions than myself ”. Weighty words indeed! What a radical reformer Mr. C. R. has turned into! Can we imagine a greater freethinker than our Chota Gandhi? Let us see what he says further “We must bring about reform of customs”, says the ideal reformer, “as rapidly as we can, but let us not imagine that our forefathers were one set all fools and another set all rogues. Their children could not be very wise or good if such were the case”. This logic of Mr. C.R. plainly shows that he is a believer in the law of varnashram. He is of the opinion that fools and rogues cannot beget wise and good people. Apart from the loss to know why the descendants of the Rishis are reduced to the necessity of keeping coffee hotels and laundries without indulging in divine communication with the omnipotent God, as their forefathers are said to have done.
Mr. C.R. is more funny when he suggests the remedy for ‘establishing a homogenous nation’. “I want every one of you who believe in God” says he, “to resolve that from this day forward, every morning, the first thing to do on waking up is to pray that hatred between caste and caste, may disappear and that in beautiful South India the atmosphere of love and patriotism may again nourish us to life. I believe in silent, fervent daily prayer. Our evils are of our own making and prayer purifies us and reaches God”.
We strongly advise him to adopt the same step in his Khadi and Temperance propaganda. Let him not waste his slender frame by straining himself in composing his two lined mottos and undertaking long tours. We ‘pray’, meanwhile for the long life of the most radical reformer. Om! Santhi! Santhi!
– Revolt, 3 November 1929
Boycot the Boycotter (By P. C. P)
Let us not Self-Respecters, fall foul of Mahatma Gandhi, when he insists that only persons having Congress mentality should have predominant representation in the forthcoming Round Table Conference. It reveals a very interesting development of his mentality and his motives.
For one thing this dramatic gesture of the Viceroy has taken the wind out of the political sails of Mahatmaji. Even though he has been protesting all along that he has become a back member in politics and must make room for younger men, as when he espoused the name of Jawaharlal Nehru to the Presidentship of the Indian National Congress, still, in his creeping old age and in enfeebled health, and after his numerous Himalayan blunders in the past when young, still, one cannot but regret, that he has not outgrown his passion for the limelight and the mentality of the naughty child which characterizes the average Congressman of today.
Again, there is the observation of an Ex-president of the Indian National Congress, a very shrewd lawyer, and perhaps a very much disappointed man at the present moment: “To those who got into the Simon Boycott Omnibus, it is a relief to find some talk of a Round Table Conference which offers some salvage of personal self-respect.” He is the only man who had the courage to proclaim it that in the Self-respect Movement the Madras Congresswallah was meeting his Fate.
The question is why should we Self-Respectors stand in the way of the Congressman, who with all his naughtiness, and silliness and impossible conditions is now merely attempting to save his face; why should we, Non-Brahmins, who welcomed the Simon Commission at considerable discount to our political dignity and self-respect and who have had our innings before the Statutory Commission, why should we foil the attempt of the Congressman to have the greatest possible representation at that Conference? Why not allow him the longest possible rope for committing political suicide?
If I had my way I would permit the Congressman to stew in his own juice. It would be the height of political folly in those who participated in welcoming the Simon Commission to put any spoke into the wheel of the Congressman. For one thing, the Non-Brahmins must look back. They were dubbed traitors and arch-fiends, sneered at, laughed it and wept over, by these same virtuous people, when the Non-Brahmins barely did the courteous thing in welcoming the Simon Commission.
We shall take a leaf out of the Congressman’s political gospel and just turn up our nose at the Round Table Conference, if the Congressman is going to have predominant representation. We shall not, of course, be childish enough to run to black flags, caste excommunications and so forth.
What have we Self-Respectors to do with any Table in which the Congressman predominates? If the Congressman thinks that he is the only pebble on the beach or that he is some sort of Special Providence for the political future on India, let us leave him severely alone.
“And do unto others as you would be done by”.
Boycott is a game at which two can play. Let not the Congressman forget that. If he gets predominance as he claims it, let us boycott that predominance. It is due to our self-respect to do it. We stood by the Statutory Commission right through and we are not going to leave it alone at this moment. We should not adopt the policy of hunting with the hounds and running with the hare. Let us leave it to the intelligentsia, our masters.
– Revolt, 24 November 1929
The Viceregal Announcement
His Excellency the Viceroy’s announcement on the future of Indian Constitutional Reform has produced greater smoke than fire, from the various political leaders and constitutional brains in India. With very rare exceptions, almost all the leaders who will have “nothing short of complete independence” for India have said “amen” to the Viceroy’s statement. Both the so called extremists and moderates of the political stage have unreservedly praised the dawn of the new millennium a flicker of which they seem to perceive in the Viceregal statement. As expected and foreseen by Lord Irwin, that under the present situation of the “forget-me-not” policy of the Indian National Congress, any statement of his will fetch the full support of the Indian politicians, the “leaders” and the ring-leaders of the Congress have rushed with their encomiums of the tremendous pronouncement of the Viceroy. They have dotted the ‘I’s and dashed the ‘T’s of the Viceroy’s statement, with the full hope of shielding their violent and fire-eating promises that they have hitherto indulged in. The Congress at Lahore, in spite of its young, energetic president, who once would have “nothing short of Full Independence,” but who has himself given his assent to the statement will have naturally to lose as much attraction as it originally intended to show.
But this much is assured, that the midnight of 31st December will not be as much ferocious as it ought to have been. Indeed, India owes a great deal to the politicians who honoured and accepted the Viceroy’s statement, agreed for a Round Table Conference, and thus saved a good amount of arms and ammunition which would have been otherwise lavishly spent on the morning of 1st January 1930.
We are naturally led in this connection to say a word about the Round Table Conference for which a predominant representation is claimed for the Congress, as being “numerically representative of the largest political group in the country.” If this claim is granted for the mere choice of possessing a high-sounding name, which is most likely under the existing circumstances, we are sure, that will ring the death knell of the representation of the minority communities in our country. As it is, the Congress is made up of a network of leaders and semi-leaders who are either Varnashramites whose eyes have never seen downtrodden millions in India, or aristocrats and landlords whose heads have never known a nod towards the working classes in our country. Worst of all, there is the predominance of leaders in the Congress who coolly say that the “Sarda Bill” is not a party question. There is the Tamil Nadu Congress, which very often exerts its filthy influence over the general body, which has recently “pledged to religious neutrality” at Cuddalore. That is the “recognition of women’s rights” found today in the ”numerically largest representative body in India”. Its attitude to problems of “untouchablity” and “Hindu-Muslim Unity” is more evident in their practical achievement than in their traditional resolutions.
Whether the Round Table Conference is going to be of any material benefit to the nation itself is a question which we leave it to the future. But we fear “the loaves and fishes of office,” the nauseating smell of which very often provokes the wrath of the “patriots” and “nationalists,” will soon become rich dishes to the battling boycotters of the Simon Commission.
– Revolt, 24 November 1929
