……he that laboureth right for
love of Me
Shall finally attain! But, if in
this
Thy faint heart fails, bring Me
thy failure!
THE SONG CELESTIAL
‘THE
TRIPLE STREAM’ 1
By K. Ramakotiswara Rau
The New Set-up
The
new set-up in Indian affairs is, in the main, a continuation of the
post-Independence tradition. Gandhiji helped us to win freedom, and his devoted
band of colleagues occupied positions of power and influence and sought to
transform into physical fact the great dreams of the Father of the Nation. The
General Elections have, no doubt, caused a rude shock to the self-complacency
of Congressmen particularly in South India. The Communists have emerged into
prominence as the main Opposition group at the Centre and in a few of the
States. The era of the unchallenged rule of the Congress is at an end, but
certain groups hitherto hostile to it are gradually realising that the Congress
is the only political Organisation capable of ensuring progressive and orderly
administration, avoiding the extremes of feudal reaction and violent
revolution. It is worthwhile noting that despite their large promises to
unsophisticated multitudes, the Communists could secure only five pet Cent of
the total votes cast all over the country. And even this was rendered possible,
because of the splinter groups within the Congress in the southern States. The
methods and ideas of these groups in no way differed from that of the Congress
organisation from which they broke off on the eve of the General Elections. One
of them, the K. L. P. of Prof. N. G. Ranga, is co-operating with the Congress
Ministry in Madras State headed by the veteran statesman Sri C.
Rajagopalachariar. There has been a sobering down among those who fought the
Congress at the polls. The moment it was realised that the inevitable
alternative to Congress run in certain States was a Communist-dominated
Ministry and the eventual liquidation, through non-parliamentary methods, of
all other parties and groups, there was a perceptible and widespread rallying
round the Congress.
Pandit
Nehru and the other Congressmen in office in different parts of the Republic
have now the two-fold duty of strengthening the Congress from within and making
the Congress Governments the instruments of the people’s will, working towards
a new order of peace and plenty. In the Central Cabinet and at the helm of the
States, as Governors and Chief Ministers, are tried administrators and friends
of democracy, who may be depended upon to guide the new Republic with wisdom
and foresight. It is a happy augury that Dr. Rajendra Prasad is once again the
President of the Republic and with him is associated, as Vice-President, the
philosopher-statesman Dr. Radhakrishnan.
Hindi and English
While
the Chief Justice of India administered the, oath of office to the President in
Hindi, the President in his turn administered the oath to the Vice-President in
English. This is symbolic of the present period of transition, when both the
languages are used on important occasions of State. How long the transition will
last can be decided only by the conditions prevailing in the country and more
particularly in the non-Hindi States. The fixing of a time-limit of fifteen
years in the Constitution was a tentative measure; not meant to be enforced
without regard to subsequent developments. Any attempt on the part of Hindi
enthusiasts to abridge the period can only result in a counter-movement in the
non-Hindi States to extend that period by another decade or two, or even to
retain the use of English as a permanent alternative to Hindi in the all-India
sphere, available always for those whose mother-tongue is not Hindi. It is
indeed desirable that perfect freedom should be accorded to the legislators at
the Centre to speak in Hindi or in English or in their own regional language.
And this, for as long a period as may be desired by the representatives of the
non-Hindi States. Such a policy of accommodation is the best antidote to the
feeling of frustration which comes over people who are compelled to learn a new
language late in life, while the citizens of the Hindi-speaking States are
under no obligation to learn another Indian language.
It
is interesting to speculate on the results of a scheme by which, in all schools
in the non-Hindi States, a choice is offered to all students from the First to
the Sixth Form between Hindi and English as compulsory second languages. More
students might elect English in preference to Hindi, if they intend to pursue
their studies to the University level. And if there is a compulsory language test
in Hindi for all-India services, students who have already learnt the
mother-tongue and English at school, would prefer to prepare for such a test
during a short six months’ course outside school, to going through Hindi
lessons for six or more years.
Those
who are zealous for the propagation of Hindi minimise the importance of at
least ten Indian languages, spoken by millions of people, and possessing great
literatures over a thousand years old. While lip service is rendered to the
importance of these languages, the fundamentals are not adequately grasped. It
is important to realise that whatever is done for the improvement and enriching
of Hindi should simultaneously be done for these other languages. If Hindi
replaces English as the medium of instruction at the University level in the
Hindi-speaking States, the other languages should similarly become the media of
instruction at the respective universities in the non-Hindi States. These
universities must make provision for the teaching of Hindi as a language, but
the medium of instruction must be the local language, whenever English ceases
to be such medium. Only by this recognition of the status of the different
languages of India as the vehicles of the highest culture, can an equilibrium
be established as between the claims of Hindi and the other Indian languages.
The effort to convert the Osmania University of Hyderabad into a Hindi
University can only result in the crippling of the three regional languages of
the State–Telugu, Marathi and Kannada. The replacement of Urdu by Hindi is but
cold comfort to the people speaking these languages. The step betrays a lack of
sympathy for the regional languages and an unwillingness to recognise their
importance as vehicles of culture.
Venkataramani
It
is difficult to assess the loss which the cause of culture has sustained by the
passing away of K. S. Venkataramani, essayist, novelist and thinker of modern
India. In his life of dedication to the things of the mind and the spirit, one
witnessed a continuous outpouring of Beauty and Truth. In him was a perfect
unison of thought, word and deed–a rhythm which transcended the many discords
of an unfeeling, and possibly hostile, world. A brilliant student and then a
capable lawyer, Venkataramani was quipped for eminence in the kindred spheres
of law and literature. But his inner urge was always towards literature, and
this became handicap in the practice of a jealous profession. In his later
years, for over a decade, he cut himself away from the Courts and the life of the
city of Madras which he loved in spite of his bias for rural
surroundings.
Recognition
came to Venkataramani from the highest literary circles in England and India.
Commencing with ‘Paper Boats,’ highly commended by Dr. Annie Besant, it was a
triumphal progress through ‘The Sand Dunes’, ‘The Bottom Rung’ and ‘Renascent
India’, to ‘Murugan, the Tiller’ and ‘Kandan, the Patriot.’ His was the
jewelled phrase which led the reader or the listener into a wonder-world of
imagination. He did not write verse, but his prose had a highly poetic quality.
His style was an instrument fashioned by himself, to blend the twin-harmonies
of prose and poetry. He was equally at ease in Tamil and English, and by his
writings and his talks he heralded the Renaissance of which he was a shining
light. The Venkataramani tradition in Indian life and letters will persist, and
as the years pass and the values he upheld obtain increasing recognition, his
name will be cherished as that of one who was a great writer, just because he was
gifted with vision;
But,
at the moment, I am thinking of him as a friend, dear beyond words. I was one
of several fellow-students who gathered round him for the sheer joy of
comradeship. That was forty years ago, when life for us was full of hope, and
the men of my generation were positive that ours was the privilege of building
the beautiful edifice of a new India. We dreamed golden dreams and strove in
different ways to realise them. From those early days, and right up to the end
of his life, Venkataramani lavished on me a brother’s love. He was my senior by
a few years and claimed a senior’s right to guide, to admonish, and to comfort.
He prized ‘Triveni’ as a symbol of our cultural renaissance, and let no
occasion pass without speaking or writing of it in terms of the deepest
affection. During the years he practised in the Madras High Court he would walk
into the ‘Triveni’ office in the Y. M. I. A., Armenian Street, on many
afternoons, and function as the leader of an informal literary coterie associated
with ‘Triveni.’ His coming was like the burst of a monsoon cloud, to use his
own favourite metaphor. We all bathed in the flood of his eloquence and were
grateful for the gift of a surpassingly beautiful friendship.
To
him, as to me, material rewards came but rarely. It was possibly this
fellowship in ‘failure’ which drew us much closer during the final years. We
used to compare notes about the finances of my ‘Triveni’ and his Tamil journal
‘Bharata Mani’. That used to have a depressing effect, but it wore off quickly
and he helped me to dwell in the high altitudes of aspiration and right
endeavour. Vevkataramani’s personal example continued to sustain me through the
darkest hours, and shaped my outlook on life. It is difficult.
for me to write about this friend who is no more. He addressed me familiarly as
‘Ramakoti’, and the unique tenderness with which he uttered my name will be an
abiding memory. For, when I come to think of it, how few are the friends still
left who are capable of a similar warmth of affection! Life now seems like a
banquet from which the guests are rapidly departing. But this attitude might
not have been acceptable to Venkataramani. He would have liked me to persevere
and conduct ‘Triveni’ with greater zeal. This, at least, I owe to his dear
memory.
Our Silver Jubilee
‘Triveni’
was born on the 25th of December I927. The Silver Jubilee is due to be
celebrated in a few months, but I like to think that this number marks the
beginning of the Jubilee Year. Twenty-five years is a long period, and Indian
journals which have completed it are very few indeed. In the case of ‘Triveni’
one could never foretell how long it would last; so, when it survived the first
year, friends heaved a sigh of relief and welcomed the event as something of a
phenomenon! The Journal grew in years and in beauty, while there was a
progressive decline in my ability to finance it. I ran through some borrowed
capital, and then sold bits of ancestral property. Finally, I sought the
co-operation of friends like Sri K. Chandrasekharan and the late Justice V.
Govindarajachari to raise life-subscriptions and donations at frequent
intervals to cover the mounting annual deficits. Then came the troublesome days
of the partial evacuation of Madras for fear of bombing during the second world
war. ‘Triveni’ then migrated to Bangalore and found a home for seven years,
under the guardianship of Sri Masti Venkatesa Iyengar and the new Associate
Editor, Sri K. Sampathgiri Rao. Today ‘Triveni’ is being published as a
Quarterly from Masulipatam, having been by turns a two-monthly, a monthly, a
quarterly, and again a monthly. It is a long long story of loneliness and
struggle. But I rejoice that the Journal continues to hold aloft the banner of
culture. Like a modern Micawber I still hope that something may ‘trirn up.’ But
did not even Micawber make good in his later life?
Controversy
has ranged round Sri T. Prakasam’s conduct at the joint session of the two
Houses of the Madras Legislature on the 6th of May. While the motion of
‘admonition’ sponsored by the Chief Minister, Sri C. Rajagopalachariar, was
finally withdrawn by leave of the Legislative Council, citizens of the State
are left in doubt about the legality and propriety of Sri Prakasam’s attitude.
The
right of free speech is a right which must be exercised within reasonable
limits. And what is ‘reasonable’ can be determined only with reference to the
particular occasion and to precedents gleaned from the practice of
self-governing countries. When the King of England opens a new session of
Parliament, the members of the House of Commons are present in the House of
Lords to listen to the speech from the Throne. It is always understood that the
King’s speech represents the considered policy and programme of the Ministry.
The speech is listened to in respectful silence, and then the Commons withdraw
to their own House. No points of order are raised and the King gives no
rulings. The debate on the address to the King, thanking His Majesty, follows
and it is at this stage that members of the Opposition can move amendments to
the official motion of thanks. But while the King reads his speech, no one
dreams of interrupting him or otherwise marring the dignity and the decorum of
the occasion.
If
Sri Prakasam and his followers had a grievance regarding the formation of the
Congress Ministry, the debate on the Governor’s address afforded them the
requisite opportunity to air their grievances. The Constitution of India
empowers the Governor of a State to nominate a certain number of distinguished
persons to the Upper House. The Constitution places no ban on a nominated
member becoming a Minister. The leader of a political party–even if he is as
eminent as Sri Prakasam–cannot, therefore, question the constitutional right of
the Governor to address a joint session of the Legislature on the ground that
the Ministry, according to his personal view, was not properly constituted. In
this particular instance, the Opposition had actually taken the matter of C.
R.’s nomination to the High Court and failed to get the nomination cancelled.
Sri
Prakasam has unfortunately been misled by his new found colleagues of the
Communist Party into a course of proceeding which is not only illegal and
unconstitutional, but also undignified and highly discourteous to the
constitutional Head of the State.
1
May 15.