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My America Tour
In this book
Avula Gopalakrishna Murthy (AGK) a Humanist, an
orator, a famous lawyer and a writer gives us a critical
appreciation of America and its people.
AGK`s tour is significantly different and praiseworthy
when compared to other people was visited that
country and returned home.
AGK saw America from various angles. He tells us the
similarities and differences between us and the
Americans in various fields of life.
Each chapter in itself is the highlight of his
observations, each one an essay in content with his
erudite comments about what he saw and felt.
Hence this book is content oriented where from the
poets find inspiration, the socialists get social matters
and the democrats derive thoughtful incentives.
This book is a source of knowledge to the scholars,
local administrators as well as the farmers. READ
AND ENJOY.
-
Publisher
Foreword of N. Innaiah
Avula Gopalakrishnamurthy known as AGK
(1917-1967) was advocate in Tenali town of
Andhra Pradesh, India. He was outstanding
Radical Humanist who practiced M.N.Roy`s
philosophy. He edited couple of Telugu journals
like Sameeksha, Radical, Radical Humanist.
Eminent speaker in English and Telugu and writer.
He translated couple of M N Roy`s books into
Telugu. Associated with Indian Rationalist and
Humanist associations. He was invited as state
guest to USA in 1963. After return he wrote his
experiences in Telugu.
Contents
Foreword
Journey through nature
On the way
People, Attitudes, Lifestyle
Government and People
Within two months
Education system
Children are Children Anywhere
Local administrative bodies
Newspapers and Journalism
Law Courts
Social welfare
Their claims
The Problem of Blacks
Agriculture in America
International Peasants` world
Humanism in America
Fresno incident
Places of Scenic beauty
Grand Canyon
Few more salient features
CONCLUSION
4
Foreword
The first of June 1963 happened to be very
significant in my life . Our daughter Jayasree was
getting married that day. It was our (Hemalatha and
myself) 25th wedding anniversary. A third surprising
and happy event, took place the same day. I got a
letter through B.S.R. Krishna from the American
government inviting me to tour their country for two
months.
I set out on my tour on 13th August and left India on
15th .I came back on 3rd Nov winding up my
American tour. Many friends were apprehensive
about 13th date, 8th month and 3rd, for them they
were not auspicious dates. But they were sure that I
did not share their fears. But they were all happy and
relieved when I returned home safely.
I spent sixty days in America, eleven in England and
four each in Holland, Germany and France.In each of
the countries I met people of varied culture while
observing the differences, feeling the new experience.
Knowing about my trip several friends and various
organizations invited me to their places and felicitated
me. They came out with some suggestions, advice and
aspirations. They asked me to take full advantage of
my trip. I realized their expectations.
Gopalakrishna Murthy
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On the way
After
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Education system
We have to observe and study deeply the education
system of a country to see whether it has a better
future and can create the opportunities to prove
themselves the best citizens.
Americans are of the opinion that their education
system at all levels is devised for strengthening their
democracy. They say that it is framed in terms of
democratic ideology.
So we can observe and measure their education
system according to their standards.
Their education system is centered around the
importance they give to the individual. Elementary
and secondary education are devised to make a person
a complete being. Education helps the individual to
play his role efficiently in the democratic set up. He
should be able to think and come to proper decision
on his own. He must be able to respect other person`s
individuality and must be able to deal with different
opinions of others keeping the development of the
individual in view. American system of education has
been framed from that view. They claim that their
education helps people to be responsible citizens.
Their aim is to give good education to all its children .
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I know that our language is sweet as sugar blocksthat was the remark of Sri Krishnadevaraya about
Telugu. But my voice might not bring out all that
sweetness -I thought.
I first recited one verse of Vemana slowly, softly
and sweetly. I recited Kaviraju`s (Tripuraneni
Ramaswamy) verse -GUDIKI TARACHU BOYI
GUNUGUCHUNDEDI VAADU (GO TO TEMPLE
OFTEN AND GRUMBLE), and B.V.Narasimharao`s
poem `Gudilo bommalu palakavu, kadalavu; Badilo
bommalu palukunu, kadulunu` (The statues in temple
donot talk nor move but dolls in the class room can
talk and move.)
I told them that I can tell them such verses at length
for days together. They chirped, giggled and laughed.
That is their style.
The children in the front row were observing my
dress. I wore `dhoti and shirt` as per the advise of
Kaufman couple. Dhoti has a border. I told them that
our Telugu men dress like me showing my dhoti.
They looked wide eyed in amazement and remained
motionless like painted children, their faces beaming
with multiple expressions. Anybody will be enamored
looking at them.
Yes, children are children . They have hearts like soft
flowers, limitless innocence, clear minds and
wonderful expressions on their beautiful faces.
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Law Courts
Education, local bodies, Newspapers and the law
courts keep democracy thriving. If any one of them
faulter it will be a blow to democracy.
All these four areas are equally important and play
their roles well to strengthen the nation.
Law courts safeguard the interests and the rights of
the people. In ancient India this law was called
`Smriti`. It means the law known to everybody.
The work of the law courts is always to protect the
rights of people-individually and collectively- as per
the principles laid out in their constitution.
In the eyes of law all are equal, no difference between
the government and the people, no difference between
the rulers and ruled.
Once we had that kind of difference of inequality in
our country .Of late the scene is changing moving
slowly towards equality.
In this country there were inequalities in certain fields.
But here the law courts started cutting those
differences off. According to law there is no inequality
in this country. Even we are trying to achieve equality
in the eyes of law. In our country laws based on
different religions should be wiped out giving way to
one uniform `Civil Law` throughout the country. Then
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That
is
the
base
for
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gave
statement
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But New York court justice gets more salary than the
justices in the Supreme court get.
In 1963 there were 28000 cases in the Supreme court
out of which 16000 have been cleared. In the other
courts too the cases are cleared in the same ratio.
Though they have different laws in different states
they have certain central organizations in Chicago to
look into common needs of all the states and bring out
uniform decisions regarding them.
They have Inner state department. If the laws in some
states give good results other states study them and
adopt them to their needs. This kind of effort is
always done. In this department there are
representatives of all states and prominent justices. If
there is friction among the states it is resolved by the
inner state arbitration. In case it could not be resolved
there the case goes to Supreme court.
There is an association of national attorney generals.
The Attorney Generals of different states are members
in it. It is their work to advice on the laws of their
states. Hence they all meet, exchange their experiences
comparing them with the experiences of other state
Attorney Generals and if necessary adopt their laws to
their particular state.
They gather lots of literature arising on their
experiences and bring uniformity among laws. It
shows the strength of their laws.
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Social welfare
In America people only do and achieve
many things
in the private sector more than their government does.
In such a set up we don`t really need to talk about
their social sector. In each village, town and city they
have a number of organizations who work together or
separately doing research in social welfare sector and
take up the issues for solution.
These organizations are locally established, they do
not have any constitutional binding. They have
nothing to do with municipal and village charters. But
there is no place where they don`t have these welfare
organizations to work in various areas.
As part of these organizations there are `Guest
service organizations` in major cities. These
organizations help the foreigners and Americans who
come to those cities in finding accommodations and
take them round whichever place or institutional
centers they choose to visit. They help the new comers
to have travel facilities. They do a lot of such service
still they apologize that they could not do much more
for them. There are many ladies who are famous for
their hospitality - they are `ANNAPURNALU` as
mentioned in Peddana`s description of Pravara`s
wives. their willingness to host the guests is adorable.
The guest service center sent Ms Janet Griz Bank to
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Their claims
We often hear Americans claiming that their education
system , news papers, local bodies, law courts and
social welfare organizations are the essential strong
holds of their democracy. People have indomitable
faith in them.
Some even say that no where else one finds such
foundations for democracy. They often repeat what
once Abraham Lincoln said- Democracy is of the
people, by the people and for the people.
They desire that people should lead their government
with responsibility and they strongly believe that
their government is running according to people`s
will.
America is not one particular race. It is a combination
of many minority races. All the races of Europe are
there. We find there races from Asia, and Africa too.
But all of them consider themselves Americans. They
all speak the American language. Their kind of unity
in diversity is to be found in very few countries.
In some cities half of the people are Germans and half
Italians. But all behave like Americans.
In New York, in certain areas, people only from
Holland live, in some only the Italians, and in other
areas only the Germans. All speak English and live
like Americans only. If you ask a cab driver to take
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Agriculture in America
America grows 10% of the total food produced in the
world. It is possible for them to produce it because of
their best seeds, good fertilizers and the use of
machine tools.
They follow meticulously the results of research in the
Botanical field and grow food crops in abundance.
Their drainage system, change of crops and their
interest in their lands made it possible.
They maintain all accounts assiduously in the field of
agriculture . They preserve the family pedigree of their
cattle and have a record of their feed. They note
down how much milk they get every day. They
stopped using cattle in cultivation and they
introduced all machine tools instead. We see horses
being used for that purpose in rare places-that is
because of some keeping old traditions . By 1962 there
are 39 lakh families involved in agriculture out of 75%
of their cultivation is managed by the owners.
There are 250 or 300 acres under each farmers unit.
Like in India farming used to be the occupation of the
family. But once the country developed industrially,
trade and business progressed, with the rise of cities,
many people started switching to different
occupations from agriculture. It sounded a blow to the
agriculture sector. Slowly the limit of farming unit
seems to grow to bigger sixes, machine tools replaced
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Humanism in America
Humanist movements are progressing internationally.
Let us observe how the Humanists function in
America.
In India Humanist movement started in 1946. M .N
.Roy and some others felt the need of Renaissance in
people`s ideas and led the Humanist movement in
that direction. Both these views progressed together as
the humanist movement in India.
The Humanist movement does not accept nationalism,
sectarian movements or any other collective
interpretation of work. Its philosophy is to accept man
as an individual and take him to be the base for
society. Man as the individual should work for his
development and his future is dependent on his
efforts, and not on any outside powers believed to be
there.
He is the primary and foremost being in the society.
Individual progress is more important than the
collective progress. He should give up power politics
and get into social political set up. Production should
be made for usefulness not for profit. He should curb
exploitation and work for cooperative relationship
among people. That is what the Indian Humanists
are aiming at and working for it.
Let us see the American Humanist movement.
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Fresno incident
Fresno in California is a small but beautiful city. It is
the home of many food crops. It stands first in
growing paddy. Agriculture is converted into a huge
industry here as Andhra is famous in India for
growing paddy just so is California State in America like Tenali town in Andhra, Fresno is prominent in
California.
Here the climate is suitable to various food crops. 213
varieties of crops are grown here. Paddy, cotton and
grapes are major produce among them. They grow 2
lakh more tons of grapes of the total grape growth of
the world. Their crops are valued at Rs 200 crores a
year. They have resources enabling each person get
Rs 20 thousand annual income. There are 57 races of
people. One out of seven is a foreigner. Fresno is a
cosmopolitan city. There are many farmers from
Punjab here.
It is a clean city with wide roads and office buildings
like in Washington DC. They have trees on either side
of the road.
I went to meet the city mayor G.L. Sellard. Having
come to know that I was once municipal chairman of
Tenali, the mayor arranged to felicitate me that day.
Though it was an honor done to me I felt that Fresno
people honored our municipal administration, which
they have great respect for.
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Disney land
In our Puranas the sage Viswamitra got credit or
discredit for his power of creation. Hence
Viswamitra`s counter creation got established as a
saying. Nobody knows whether that creation is of
heaven or hell or space in between. If Viswamitra
really existed he must be powerful, be must be
related somehow to our Vemana and Tripuraneni
Ramaswami Kaviraju.
Disney is a visible story. It is all created by humans.
There is a little counter creation too.
Disney land creator may not be related to Viswamitra.
He is Walt Disney. He has creative brain, he is rich. He
imagined Disney land as a world by itself and his
wealth created it.
Disney land reflects mans` capacity. It is the yardstick
for human talent.
Disney land is the reflection of human ability in the
past and the present time. We have many historical
and religious buildings in India. In the Disney land the
constructions of buildings took place with scientific
knowledge. This is a center of scientific innovation.
For children Disney is a center for education,
entertainment. It is a tourist place and resting place for
them, For grown ups it is a land worth visiting. Those
who visit America will not leave the country without
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Grand Canyon
Grand
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CONCLUSION
I am able to put down here some of my experiences in
America during my sixty days tour. It is not possible
to expound everything. Every good thing should
finally come to an end. Hence I stop here.
We cannot see everything in such a big country in
such a short time. I cannot pretend that I have seen
everything and I know every thing about this country.
A close observation of every thing is not possible in
such a hurried trip.
My main purpose is to put down the things true to my
observation and understanding. I looked at things
keeping democratic values as basis for my opinions.
If the readers understand that I have not seen much of
America they will not expect more details from me.
I cannot say that everything in America is good.
Every country has its shortcomings. But I wanted to
present the good side of America that I have seen.
That may be some help to us. It is not my aim either
to criticize America or praise it. I don`t get into such
politics or controversies.
I wanted to tell my people about the good side I have
seen there.
I have seen their democratic way of functioning .
They are my social attitudes too.
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