Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Saturday, March 15, 2014


MY  personal  view   about  Gandhi:
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When  a  student   during   late  1940-s , I  wrote   a  poem   on Gandhi's  death  in ' Basumati'(Weekly )  which  was  accepted  for  publication  but  as  they  delayed  (and  I   was  an impatient   poet  at  that  young  age ) , I  went  to  Basumati  office  ( Baw Bazar , Calcutta  and  demanded  my    my  poem   Back  . The  Editor  asked --' if  you  are  so  ompatient,   how    can   I    get  any   poem   published  ' . and  I  replied    -' I don't  want  to  be  a  poet   by  practicing  Patience '.

Well  that  was  then    my  teen -  age  life   and  even  now  I have  no regret ,
No !  I  am    not  a  follower    of  Gandhi  nor  was a  great  admirer  of  him  in my later  life .
Even  today  I  think ,    the  title   of  '  Mahatma ' &  'Guridev'  was  a   resultant  bartering    between  between    Rabi Thakur  and    Ghandhi
 ( My   own    quote   in    one   of   my   BLOG-s  once  was  :
'You  call  me  Gurudev   and  I  will  call  you  Mahatma  !'. ----- Or  it  may  be  the  reverse  way !  I am  not     sure  which way  it was ! .  Or  maybe, I  am  wrong  in  my  analysis    )

But  I  must   admit  that   Gandhi     was  one  of  the   great    politicians  but  not  greater  than  M.A   Jinnah .
And  to  me  the  other   great     politicians  of  India  was  Shibaji  and    Indira  Gandhi .
The   events  that  turned   me   away  from   Gandhi   can  be  put  up  as  follows :

I .    It  is  said  in VEDANTA ( Brihadaranyaka ; [ Jagyavalka - section ])  that  greatest  quality   of
       godly- man  is  Self  - control .  In  that  resaect   I  do  not   think  Gandhi's  record   ( even   after   his
      confession  afterwards  was  anything   much   admirable ,  to  me )
      On   the   Death-bed  or    on  the  same   night  of  his  father's  death , not  being   able  to   show
      expected  Self - control    in   sexual  passion ,   even  if  it  was   with  his   wife   is  nothing   great  and      to  make   it  like  'CONFESSION '     afterwards in  Autobiography  to grow  in  Stature   on  future
     Political   voyage  !
    Any  way ,   without  dilating   or  diluting  it , I  only  submit    to  say  that   not  being  able  to  have
     self -  control  on  hormonal  -hype  or  on  sexual  passion  on the   very  night  of  the  DEATH   of
    Father   is  neither  any  thing   godly  nor  any great  act   to  declare   about  in  any type  of   confession
   unless   for a  long term  gain .
   .
              Recently   while  I was  in  USA , I  saw  the  interview  of   Lance  Armstrong   with  Oprah  .
   Lance  Armstrong  was  7 -times  World   number-  ONE -  Cyclist   who  first   became  world -
   Champion   by  lying   about    Drug - Abuse    for  long  -  long  years  and  then   made   a  'Double-
    benefit - Commercial - gain'  ( after  being  exposed)  ,  making   ' CONFESSION - Sport '  in
 ' OPRAH  WINFREY  --SHOW '  with   enormous  profit    in   money    and   earning  even  admiration
   world -  wide  by  his  ' Confession-Trick '  I  think
 Of  course  in occidental  World  'Confession'  is  a    way   for   Divine's  blessing   through
  'Redemption '  rituals  .
 [  Even  a  small  'fly ' like  me   came  across  and  faced  passions      in  my  own  life  and   did
    prove  my   self - control ,   more  than  once .]

II. In   1930 -s   during   the  very  '  Democratic    Election ' of  Indian  National  Congress
 .  Subhashchandra  Bose   defeated  Sitaramaiya , who  was  the  candidate  selected  by  Gandhi  and
   Gandhi   could  not  I  think,   keep  his ' Mahatma - stature'  and    accept as  the  verdict  of  people  and    and  even    declared  publicly  : ' his  defeat   is  my  own  defeat'.
   That  was  no  proof  of  great  democratic - soul  or  great  leadership  in  Politics  either !
III.  When  Gandhi   came  to  in India ( 1920 -? )   he   came  to  Calcutta   and  there  he   read  about
      Swami  Vivekananda  and his  master  Sree  Ramakrishna .  In his  Autobiography  ( perhaps )  he
     admitted    that.
    He  also  learnt    :  Vivekananda   asserted  that    ' any one   to  take  up  the   Leadership
      of  India   and  lead  the  Nation  to   EMANCIPATION  must  take   up   the  attire  of    down -
      trodden  grass-root  Indian '   for  his  success The  exact  quote  is  not with  me ( and  I  am
     searching).
  .  I  think   that  was  the  lesson  he     took  up  practiced  in  his  next  political  battle    though  never   (
     perhaps )  admitted  or  recorded  it   in  later  life (well, -I  may be wrong , - as I am
     writing  it  from  my  memory ) .
 IV .   Finally  I  think , Gandhiji    is   not  the  one   to  claim   all  or  even  the  larger  share  of  the
         POLITICAL -  Freedom of  India  in  1947 ;  ignoring  the  contributions from  Khsudiram ,-Benoy  -
         Badal-Dinesh  to  Mangal Pandey - Bhagat Singh , Lajpat rai  unto  Tilak, Subhash,, Aurobindo  and
        so  many  not  mentioned   here .

The  1947   the  happening   of  Free- India  is  , I  think ,  a   sequence  and  AFTERMATH  effect  of WORLD - WAR  II  , when (after 1945 ) riding on a  crashing  horse   or   Ruling  over  the   ' COLONIAL - OCCUPATIONS '   by    FEUDAL   and  COLONIAL  RULERS  was   a  HUGE  BURDEN     and   even  France  was     QUICK  to    give  up  ALGERIA   and  feel   lighter .  Thus   Freedom  of   India  would   have  been  an  inevitable   effect   in  normal  POST - WORLD  WAR - II  sequence .
 Only  difference  was  that   in   India, -  the     Political  leaders   helped the  BREEDING  of  COMMUNAL  - POLITICS  in  INDIA,  planned  by  BRITISH ,  and   I  think ,that   as  the   final  OUT - COME   !!
 Thus    and  finally,   I  stick  to  my  earlier comment  : 'YOU  call  me  GURUDEV  and  I  shall call  you  Mahatma ' or  the  other way  round . I  admit  I  can  not  prove it   in   any  way  either !

Without  feeling  shy    I  admit  that  I  am  just  a  bottom -line -  commoner      and  Gandhi   is  one  of  the greatest    and  immortal   personality  in  World  history . But  that  does not    take  away  or  cancel   my  own  right  to   express  my  own  opinion   even  if  any  one  declares  me   disqualified  or  incapable  .
My  whole  opinion   and    expressions  may  be   taken  or  treated  as   'Right to  free opinion  '  of  a  common   man  with  limited intelligence .
That is  just  how  I  end    this  prints  .

I have    put  down  this    'personal  view '  with  another  feeling  (  also put  in   before  in  my  Blog (Poetry.com  too )  that  Both  Gandhi &  Nehru , I  think ,  were  responsible  for    dividing   my  mother  land  (  Bengal ) in  19 47  and   the  TRAGEDY  of  which  I  have    ever since  suffered  and  stored    in  my  Soul    and  shall  carry  it  with  even  beyond  my  Death   .
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