S.
NARAYANASWAMY
Rajaji
had many queer images of him produced in his lifetime even as countless
cartoonists produced a wide range of hilarious cartoons, some over-romanising
his already Roman nose, some painstakingly sketching him like a sphinx to
emphasize his inscrutability and some highlighting his tinted spectacles to
envelop him in mystery–all investing him with an aura of mystery which in fact, never belonged to him. One of the many unfounded
reputations he suffered from was that he was a conservative, that he was
none-too-zealous a crusader for social reform, that he held many unpublished
views on women’s education and on working women. Indeed many
whose attitude towards him was ambivalent, called him an obscurantist in
private conversation. Most of these prejudices stemmed from one fact namely,
that Rajaji could not be approached for personal favours and those who made the
mistake of asking for such, were softly turned away. Rajaji never took special
pains to contradict erroneous views about him–because of his pre-occupation
with matters that did matter.
Among
the things Rajaji never troubled to do, was to keep pressmen in good humour.
For a person who walked in and out of the chessboard of public life without
rejoicing or remorse–but always with stunning abruptness, which one would think
needed explaining, he was remarkably reticent. Before freedom was won he was
involved in vital negotiations on behalf of the Mahatma or the Congress Working
Committee–whether it was a meeting with M. A. Jinnah as to a joint front or the
Cripps Mission on a compromise formula. He thus became inevitably a keeper of
top secrets. The press at all times, athirst for news, found it could get
nothing out of him prematurely and Rajaji’s habit of anticipating the
pressmen’s questions irritated them mildly–and the outcome of it was a
portfolio of mildly spiteful cartoons and conjectural reporting by those who
felt deprived of news. Hence their reference to Rajaji as a
cunning political mediator. With all this, he came out scintillatingly
in press conferences.
It
must be within the recollection of many that when partition of
Rajaji
was far from being obscurantist in his views of women’s education or careers or
such like. Those who knew him from his
He
was responsible for appointing one of the first women ministers, Mrs. Rukmini
Lakshmipathy, in the Madras Cabinet. In a later phase of his Chief
Ministership, he appointed Mrs. Jothi Venkatachalam as Health and Prohibition
Minister. He believed in inter-caste marriages and his second daughter
Lakshmi’s marriage to Devadas Gandhi cut across state barriers, apart from
caste barriers. Many lesser known women who participated in freedom’s struggle
got special encouragement from him.
There were those among our intellectuals who pointed out that he had changed his 1947/48 views later in life on subjects like Hindi and that he was inconsistent. Indeed this accusation intrigued him more than others … because he said that the liveableness of life stemmed from the experiences people garnered and the changes in one’s viewpoint that experiences bring along. Man’s continued longevity ceased to have weaning, if he failed to respond to changing environment and the mind merely stagnated and stuck on to views held forty years previously. He often indicated that growing old gracefully involved man’s continuing capacity to profit by experience and the courage he musters to acknowledge a shift in viewpoint. Nobody could have put it more lucidly than Rajaji.
Rajaji
has often been hailed as a political prophet, who had unerring hunch for things
that might happen a year or two later. It is true that an astonishing number of
his political forecasts proved correct–though the very last thing Rajaji ever wanted, was to be branded Cassandra–a prophet of Woe. The
writer is aware how distasteful his estimates of long-term consequences of
assorted political or economic policy decisions often were in exalted quarters;
but these did not deter Rajaji from writing or speaking about them with
customary candour. In this context, the advice he gave to some of us is
pregnant with the wisdom of Socrates: do not hesitate to formulate your
assessments of long-term repercussions of legislative enactments, tax imposts
or policy decisions as may be announced, merely because they look adverse or
alarmist; but (he took care to add) if and when such forecasts come true, do
not rejoice when your fellow-citizens are obliged to bear the Cross: and do not
engage in boastful drum-beating that Your gloomy prophecy has been fulfilled.
Such advice made us all wonder which was to be appreciated most; his 22-carat
patriotism, his sublime disbelief in ego-centric exercises, or his thoughtful
consideration for his fellowmen.
Over
the sixty years of his public life, Rajaji tried to reach the young through
short stories, unpretentiously but lucidly narrated. He was anxious to instil
in them love of Indian classics and respect for the right conduct that earned
victory for the heroes and heroines of such classics. His preceptivity as to
what the adolescent can be expected to take in, made him avoid lofty preaching
of moral abstractions, as constituting the wrong wavelength to reach the young.
Many unimaginative critics twitted Rajaji on his parables and illustrations;
which enabled him speedily to reach both the untutored millions of
Those
who praise his intellectual eminence tend to overlook the deep springs of
emotion that, early in life, made him throw away a flourishing practice at the
When
this preceptor-cum-prophet felt an ethical compulsion to undertake in rather
advanced years, a sojourn to distant Washington to appeal to President Kennedy
to desist from nuclear test explosions as being harmful to the human race; and
with no less fervour and nearer home he called on the then Chief Minister
Karunanidhi to appeal against repeal of prohibition to avert a tragic reversion
to the spectacle of broken homes and drunken village orgies, we saw the broad
spectrum of Rajaji’s humanism. A few million hearts were touched. It made all
the difference to the contemporaneous generation of Indians that they lived in
his time. Carlyle said, “The clock strikes when there is a change from hour to
hour.”
“Here
is no hammer in the Great Horologe of Time which peals through the Universe
when there is a change from Era to Era”. Rajaji’s departure marks the end of an
era of knowledgeable and eminent freedom-fighters, who were anxious to give the
freedom that was won far deeper meaning and content than we have been able to
import into it.
“About
nine years ago, I was in the benign presence of the Sage, Jagadguru Sri
Sankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam at Sullurpet in Nellore District. After
paying my obeisance to him when I started taking leave of him His Holiness
asked me, ‘Is Rajaji eighty?’ ‘Rajaji is eighty-four,’ I said. His Holiness
then said in Tamil:
‘Rajaji
is the first child of Bharat Varsha, If he is well and happy, then all would be
well and happy with Bharat.’….”
T. SADASIVAM
–Rajaji-93 Souvenir, December 8, 1971