ILLUSIONS AND REALITY

On one occasion when Mahatma Gandhi visited Tagores school at Shantiniketan, a young woman got him to sign her autograph book. Gandhi wrote: Never make a promise in haste. Having once made it, fulfill it at the cost of your life. When he saw the entry, Tagore became agitated. He wrote in the same book a short poem in Bengali to the effect that none can be made a prisoner forever with a chain of clay. He went on to conclude in English, possibly so that Gandhi could read it too, Fling away your promise if it is found to be wrong.
[1 Argumentative Indian p by Amartya Sen.] 1

What we read in our text book and national history is that the personalities of two great nation-builders were in the same bracket of lovely, friendly and smiling profiles. But the contrast of outlooks of the two famous men toward the same issue invokes interest on their respect of relationship: one called the other Mahatma (the Great Soul) and the other reciprocated as Gurudev( the Holy Teacher). A long standing philosophy perpetuated both in Indian nation despite the contradictions of their outlooks. The gentile nature of Indian origin to respect the contrary ideas placed them on the same status. Irrespective of the relevance of recent banking on Gandhian Doctrine of Ahimsa (non violence) and Satyagraha (inclination to truth) by the major capitalist forces, it can be said that poor people of India trusted on Gandhism even after their pauperism was not redressed through the ideas of Gandhi implemented by his party; Indian National Congress continued to rule the country, Union and Provincial governments, for over three decades. India still belongs to the developing third world. It is the essence of religion based idealism. The religions may have human touch and human face but not the humanism.Considering the basic ingredients of individuality, the composition of personality differs on the basis of the mode of upbringing, practical learning and a cultural background. Mohandas K Gandhi was brought up in a rich feudal family. My father was a Dewan (of a Thakur)...he had no education, save that of experience. At best he might be said to have read up to the fifth Gujrati standard.
[2 Auto biography -My experience with the Truth p-4 by M K Gandhi]. 2

Gandhi wrote, he was outcast for intending to sailing for England by his Modha Bania caste. In England he met many Gujratis who already settled there and some of them later came back to India as Gandhi did.In south Africa he worked for the Gujrati business community. In fact the residents of Brighton are called Gujratti and their colloquial language is Konkni. The naturally a question comes in mind, were all of them made out-caste in Gujrat, was not answered by him. However, he went to England, passed Law in June 1891, apprenticed in London and practiced in South Africa. He promised his mother of not to touch non- vegetarian food and kept his promise and propagated the cult of vegetarianism. He admitted in his

autography that he had little habits of reading books; in fact he read Bhagbat Gitas English translation and learnt of Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 in England at the request of a European gentleman. Though he was born in October 1859 and stayed in port-cities of Rajkot and Porbandar. He read Ramayana in his childhood days and got inclined to the religiosity of the character Rama, a dedicated man to his words and committed to the truth of his perception. His religious inclination was so that he advised- You Christians, especially missionaries, should begin to live more like Christ. You should spread more of the gospel of love and you should study non-Christian faiths to have more sympathetic understanding of their faiths.(quoted by S K George in Gandhiji his life and work 1944).He had not conceived any ideals prevailed in the eighteenth centurys renaissance; he picked up so many teachings of the pioneers of Bengal renaissance and followed many a doctrine and ideals of western philosophers of left orientation, but conspicuously did not utter this. In greenroom he supported the rise of national capitalism and in stage he showed the compassion to the poor backward class.This sort of dichotomy is still now followed by the imperialist forces, in one hand they wage war and killed so many poor backward class of people and dole out to them rations and reliefs in other hand. Rabindranath Tagore( in Bengali Thakur) was born in undivided Bengal in May 1861.His second elder brother was outcaste for going to England. His father was Devendranath Thakur, a zamindar and a religious reformist, a Himalayan traveler. His grandfather was Prince Dwarkanath Tagore , the pioneer industrialist of India and a friend of Queen Victoria. He was co founder of Brahmo Dharmo and Brahmo Samaj with the torch bearer of modern India, Raja Ram Mohan Roy. The children of Tagore family were brought up under their servants control. It left our minds free, untampered and unburdened by all the usual bother over food and dress. Tagore learnt Sanskrit, Pali, Arabic, Farsi, Bangla verses and had training in Hindustani Classical Music in his boyhood days. He read Bhagabat Gitas Bengali version translated by his father while copying the same at the direction of his father. He travelled Himalayas with his father. His eldest brother Jyotirindranath and sister-in-law and sisters took great care to foster with rich cultural upbringing for child Robi. In fact the cultural modernity of Bengal was the handicraft of Jorasanko Thakur Bari( Jorasankos Tagore House). He read Ramayana in his childhood days and got inclined to the valour of the characters. By this time he read Meghnad Badh Kabya( the unusual interpretation of Ramayana whetre Ravana and his son Meghnad aka Indrajit were the role model of heroes) written by Michael Madhusudan Dutt . He was inclined to the chalkcircle drawn by Laxman around Sita which was a pertinent factor of war between Ram and Ravan. In etiquettes one should maintain the rule of not crossing the laxman rekha, the ultimate limit or boundary line. Tagore was sent to England in 1878 to study in London University where he studied for three months only.

Landed at Southampton one European, might be a British, a porter saluted him in exchange he gave him a penny. In his own word a sahib (white superior man) must be rewarded for his humble submission to a native Indian which is an impossible to think in India. On arriving at Southampton Gandhi took first effort to find a vegetarian eating house. Gandhi was a boarder in a hotel and then was a lodger in a British family. Tagore resided in Devon and Brighton at the residence of his elder brother, Satyendranath who was previously a Judge in Ahmadabad, then a lodger in a British family. From the boyhood times Tagore did not like to be caged in getting diplomas and degrees confined in a given syllabi. In his own words, some others get hammered into shape in the book learning factories, and these are considered in the market to be goods of a superior stamp. It was my fortune to escape almost entirely the impress of these mills of learning. He obtained the knowledge of English culture from personal contacts. Mrs. Scot, his landlady in London, helped him a lot in this respect. I went to England but I did not become a barrister: I received no shock calculated to shatter the original framework of my life- rather East and West met in friendship in my own person. RabindraNath in his piece of writing Cult Of Charkha commented The difference in our standpoints and temperaments has made The Mahatma look upon Rammohun Roy as a pygmy- while I revere him as a giant. The same differences make the Mahatmas field of work one which my conscience cannot accept as its own. That is a regret which will abide with me always. It is, however, Gods will that mans paths of endeavour shall be various, else why these differences of mentality. A persons vision comes true when his knowledge meets his experience, and a persons view become realistic when his experience meets learning. The vision of one and the views of other some times end to congruency and many times kept both apart although both were trained in England. May be a small circle of contacts and a big circle of mixing create different concepts, different perception of life. Truth thus appeared in different dimensions before them. Both were believers in God but to one a real God existed in heaven to the come to the service of human being are to come to the service of God (the idea was also propagated by contemporary reformist Swami Vivekananda) and to another God is an illusion without the knowledge of nature and human being. In one, Hinduism predominated and to other, Universalism ruled. Both were preachers of humanity to the extent of poorest of the poor, one to rule out the differential lines of cast and creed, another to wipe out the borders of geography and history of the nation. Swami Vivekananda and Gandhiji was echoed the same philosophy and works once propagated by Sri Chaitanya Dev in Seventeenth century.The latter was a reformer of prevalent religious prejudices and champion of Vaishnav cult and broke the dogmas and superstitions of so called Hinduism. There lies the difference. Gandhi explored colossuses of the structure of the churches, its outer tranquility and awesomeness of interior decoration and pious Christianity either in Paris or in London. He was

committed to the words given to his mother to maintain to the non-vegetarianism all along, he was skeptic about the free mixing society of England, and he was dedicated student of Law only. He imbibed no new ideas from his stay in London. He did not pursue the upcoming Indian culture. He met one of his Gujrati fellowmen whom he described as erratic English knowing unsmart person, Narayan Hemchandra, who informed him, Well do you know Bengali? I know it. I travelled in Bengal. It is I who have given Maharshi Devendra Nath Tagores works to the Gujrati speaking world. It means Gujrati world was well aware of the up coming culture of India which Gandhi did not follow. But he read Shakespeare. Tagore explored the natural beauty of the places he visited, found the ingredients of quality in European cultural progress, Scottish Enlightenment, studied a lot out of syllabus, and even translated many verses in Bengali specifically of Robert Burns. Ironically both were known as Rabi only different in Scottish and Bengali accent. The mixing with the large numbers of British people helped him much in later days. The process of learning the culture of ancient India, modern Europe and shaping of colonial India imbibed a scientific insight in Tagore which bestowed a rational outlook on every aspect of life. His writings introduced him as an ever unquenched astonished learner to his readers who also start find the mystery of the universe as well as reality of life like a novice scientist. His way of discovering truth is something unbiased of religion and God. For that reason he can easily certify Gandhi-He stopped at the thresholds of the huts of the thousands of dispossessed, dressed like one of their own. He spoke to them in their own language. Here was living truth at last, and not only quotations from books.
Man by R N Tagore 1938]. 3[3Gandhi the

In the post Scottish Enlightenment and at the advent of industrial revolution, sociopolitical scenario of Britain as well as other European countries , faced socialism as a threat, the orthodox minded church and monarchy were accepting democracy as a short-cut route to survive. Those believed in democracy or those under mutation to democracy were in the same line to attack socialism and in particular Marxian principle of socialism. There was disenchantment of Church Supremacy. House of Commons were represented by the democrats and socialists, exploitation of Indian economy and political leverage to Indians were roared there. Side by side fascism brewed all over Europe under the guise of democracy or socialism to banish the demand for secularism, economic upliftment of the downtrodden. In India some thinkers and activists were active in capturing political power which can enforce reforms in Indian society. Some were busy to oust the religious barriers of inhibitions and prejudices from the Hinduism and some were engaged in science and literature to enlighten the people to a minimum stature of conscious liberal attitude towards the poor Indians whom they always addressed under the identity of caste creed and religion. Eighteenth century Europe saw an upheaval of ideas on science politics and economics and philosophy which addressed the outcome of nineteenth centurys evolutions and twentieth centurys revolutions.

It was the British intruder who broke up the Indian hand-loom and destroyed the spinning-wheel. England began with driving the Indian cottons from the European market; it then introduced twist into Hindostan, and in the end inundated the very mother country of cotton with cottons. From 1818 to 1836 the export of twist from Great Britain to India rose in the proportion of 1 to 5,200. In 1824 the export of British muslins to India hardly amounted to 1,000,000 yards, while in 1837 it surpassed 64,000,000 of yards. But at the same time the population of Dacca decreased from 150,000 inhabitants to 20,000. This decline of Indian towns celebrated for their fabrics was by no means the worst consequence. British steam and science uprooted, over the whole surface of Hindostan, the union between agriculture and manufacturing industry. These two circumstances the Hindoo, on the one hand, leaving, like all Oriental peoples, to the Central Government the care of the great public works, the prime condition of his agriculture and commerce, dispersed, on the other hand, over the surface of the country, and agglomerated in small centers by the domestic union of agricultural and manufacturing pursuits these two circumstances had brought about, since the remotest times, a social system of particular features the so-called village system, which gave to each of these small unions their independent organization and distinct life.
[Source: MECW Volume 12, p. 125; Written: June 10, 1853; By Karl Marx First published: in the New-York Daily Tribune, June 25, 1853;]

Did any of the two great men of India address their country men in this manner? The movement for Swaraj was passed in the Congress under the leadership of Dadabhai Naoroji (It was Dadabhai who used the term Swaraj for the first time (1906).), Bipin Chandra Pal wanted more modification(In fact the three of them(La-Bal-Pal) were responsible for
initiating the first popular upsurge against British colonial policy in the 1905 partition of Bengal, before the advent of Gandhi into Indian politics. They advocated extremist means like boycotting British manufactured goods, burning Western clothes made in the mills of Manchester and strikes and lockouts of British owned businesses and industrial concerns to get their message across to the BritishHe (Pal)was among the first to criticize Gandhi or the 'Gandhi cult' since it `sought to replace the present government by no government or by the priestly autocracy of the Mahatma. Pal opposed Gandhiji's non-cooperation Movement of 1920. His criticism of Gandhi was persistent beginning with Gandhi's arrival in India and open in 1921 session of the Indian National Congress where he delivered in his presidential speech a severe criticism of Gandhi's ideas as based on magic rather than logic. ), and Karamchand Gandhi went on spinning Charkha and deserting mill made

textiles, stressing on wearing handloom fabrics irrespective the cost of the material burdening the proletariat society economically. Mr. GD Birla, a national industrialist was

the fund raiser for Gandhiji. East India company was in their time was non entity ad under the British governance. M K Gandhi spoke of village economy through charkha (spinning wheel) and Khadi( handlooms). Were the ventures a mere simplified effect of Marxian analysis of nineteenth century, dating back to old glory to combat twentieth centurys Modern Milling? In fact Karl Marx analyzed the millocracy , The ruling classes of Great Britain have had, till now, but an accidental, transitory and exceptional interest in the progress of India. The aristocracy wanted to conquer it, the moneyocracy to plunder it, and the millocracy to undersell it. But now the tables are turned. The millocracy have discovered that the transformation of India into a reproductive country has become of vital importance to them, and that, to that end, it is necessary, above all, to gift her with means of irrigation and of internal communication. They intend now drawing a net of railroads over India. And they will do it. The results must be inappreciable.
[Karl Marx on July 22, 1853 Source: MECW Volume 12, p. 217]

Gandhiji mixed directly to the mass, as it was recorded in history, and set an example of non cooperation and protest through non violence. Some quarters raised doubt openly that Congress high command and the Indian Capitalists like GD Birla and Jamunalal Bajaj knew the actual expenses made to keep ponds water clean for supplying drinking water to Gandhi, the cost of Congress Sevadal volunteers under guise of peasants accompanying Gandhiji in thethird class compartment of train journey, the transport system Gandhi disliked because he believed that would spread epidemic of plague throughout India. The main benefactor and the most benefited industrialist was Mr. G D Birla, from a Jute broker in Calcutta he lifted to a political industrialist, a crony of Gandhi and a mediator of British industrialists during the Gandhi led patriotic movements of Congress. Was Gandhi a world pioneer in the non violence route of protest? We knew that many of modern Indian aristocracy used to think British rule is a blessing in guise of a curse to prevent other foreign invasions. So from the very beginning of Bengal renaissance, the newly grown elites of Bengal and the kings and nawabs of other provinces were not so violent against British Government .except some involved in 1857 Sepoy Mutiny. British government took it as resurgence for getting back the Moghul regime. What was the history of United States, the democracy of by the people , for the people, of the people, Revolt or Redress for whites freedom? Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must,

therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. (Declaration of Independence adopted on 4
July1776, The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united states of America)

The preacher of so many things mastered the text of the foreign masterpieces and styled the teachings of his own from his knowledge. Rabindra Nath Tagore established Sri Niketan a model of modernized agro economic base. He established cottage industry and stressed on the development of international commerce in post industrial revolution era. He raised fund from donations by many of his friends and not from any national industrialist. Rabindra Nath Tagore could indentify the dichotomy of Gandhis life
and ideology properly and so he remarked -

We, who often glorify our tendency to ignore reason, installing in its place blind faith, valuing it as spiritual, are ever paying for its cost with the obscuration of our mind and destiny. I blamed Mahatmaji for exploiting this irrational force of credulity in our people, which might have had a quick result [in creating] a super structure, while sapping the foundation. Thus began my estimate of Mahatmaji, as the guide of our nation and it is fortunate for me that it did not end there.
3 [Gandhi the Man by R N Tagore 1938]