The Andhra State

Everything is being done with a view to the inauguration of the new State of Andhra on the 1st of October, in accordance with the Prime Minister’s announcement of the 25th of March. Sri C. M. Trivedi, the Governor-designate, is now functioning as a Special Officer for Andhra Affairs, assisted by a committee of party leaders. The attempt to revise the decision of the Andhra members of the Madras Legislative Assembly to locate the temporary capital at Kurnool has not succeeded, except to the limited extent of eliciting pronouncements from the Prime Minister and the Home Minister that, after the 1st of October, it would be open to the new Legislative Assembly to resolve to shift the capital. To any one who is not obsessed by local patriotism, and is at the same time aware of the comparative unimportance of the issue of a temporary capital, the amount of bitterness generated by this controversy must appear startling. The democratic parties came to an understanding about Kurnool, because they were anxious to respect the provisions of the Sree Baug Pact and thereby to placate the sentiment of the people of Rayalaseema. That it was a political decision cannot be denied. But it is cruel to attribute improper motives to the leaders, or to predict ruin for the new State merely because of the choice of Kurnool. As in the case of every new State, some inconvenience has to be faced in the initial stages. If the Andhras can sink their differences on this particular question and allow the Cabinet to function from Kurnool for two or three years, some degree of peace and stability attained, permitting the administration to devote its attention to the task of building up Andhra as a prosperous and well-oriented State, till such time as Visala-Andhra becomes a reality with Hyderabad as its capital.

The Bill now passing through Parliament does not incorporate any of the major amendments to the original Draft Bill suggested by the Madras Legislature. Neither a comprehensive Boundary Commission nor a committee of financial experts for the division of assets and liabilities has been conceded. But the President is empowered to give a final decision if any of the States appeals to him on the ground that the decision is inequitable. Problems like the boundary between Andhra and Orissa, and between Andhra and Madhya Pradesh, will be tackled only at a later stage, after the high-power Commission on the reorganisation of the States of the Indian Union submits its report.

At the end of a forty-years’ struggle, the Andhras are having a State of their own with freedom to develop a homogeneous unit, based primarily on language but satisfying other important tests like that of contiguity, historic growth, and cultural heritage. Andhra was never envisaged as an independent sovereign State cut off from the parent stock. The sponsors of the Andhra movement, who held their first Conference at Bapatla in 1913 under the presidentship of the late Sir B.N. Sarma, were far-seeing statesmen and patriots. The free India of their dreams was a Federation in which sister Provinces like Karnataka, Maharashtra or Utkal were to take their due places and vie with one another in contributing to the sum-total of India’s achievement in all spheres of activity. They were aware that, between any two Provinces, there were bound to be bilingual border areas where the two languages must be given equal status in administration and education. Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya hoped that such border areas would serve as the hyphens that connect and not as the dashes that divide.” If that hope has not so far been realised, the reason lies in the continued denial of the demand for reorganisation of the States. When the main demand is conceded and the new States come into being, the rights of linguistic minorities can be safeguarded on the lines indicated in the Constitution, and under the supervision of officers deputed by the Central Government to each border area. These are matters of administrative detail which do not vitiate the thesis of departed patriarchs like Sri Venkatappayya and Sri Nageswara Rao, that the linguistic redistribution of Indian Provinces was an inevitable step towards the rediscovery of India’s soul, and for the harmonious development of Indian political life and cultural activity in accordance with the Indian genius for achieving unity in diversity.

Triveni has sought to mirror, in some measure, this rich diversity of Indian culture in Art and Letters. A child of Andhra, Triveni has received a warm welcome in every linguistic unit of India. Its affiliations with Tamil Nad and Karnataka are particularly close, and, more than ever, it will strive to promote harmony and goodwill all round.

The Change-over in Kashmir

For some months the crisis developing in the internal politics of Kashmir has been causing anxiety to those who hoped that a similarity of aims and comradeship in a common endeavour would knit India and Kashmir in closer bonds. The failure to implement the Delhi Agreement, the unfortunate death in a prison-hospital of the heroic Shyam Prasad Mukherjee, and the alarming statements of Sheikh Abdullah on the prospects of an independent Kashmir, created a tense situation. Even Pandit Nehru, who treated the Kashmiri leader with affection and reposed implicit confidence in him, was perturbed and obviously at a loss to divine the motives that impelled a valued colleague to stray from the path of rectitude. The position became intolerable, but Kashmir saved itself through the prompt action of the young Yuvaraja Karan Singh, Head of the State, and of Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed, the new Prime Minister. The National Conference as well as the Constituent Assembly were divided between rival factions, and each of the factions sought to strengthen itself among the general public of the State. Within the Cabinet itself there was a sharp division. Sheikh Abdullah’s loyalty to the Indian Union, which rushed to his support in the dark days of 1947, gradually changed into hostility. While he blamed the ‘communal’ elements in the Indian Union, he fostered the fanaticism of the Muslim population in his own State, so as to create the requisite atmosphere for the achievement of his private ambition. Deprived of office and kept in detention, the Sheikh must now survey at leisure the history of the last six years, and his own decline from the position of a national hero to that of a person charged with corruption and the betrayal of the State’s interests.

While the frequent changes in the internal administration of ‘Azad Kashmir’ passed unnoticed by the Government of India, and by foreign powers, the recent change-over in Kashmir has created a furore in Pakistan. Foreign influences, believed to have misguided Sheikh Abdullah, are now actively engaged in spreading garbled versions of the happenings in Kashmir and in blaming the Government of India for its alleged desire to grab Kashmir. The Prime Minister of Pakistan came post-haste to New Delhi to discuss this and allied matters with Pandit Nehru. The previous meeting at Karachi created a friendly atmosphere, and everyone hoped that, at long last, the two States would settle their disputes and inaugurate an era of peace and progress. The overthrow of Sheikh Abdullah ought not to make any difference, so far as the settlement of outstanding issues between India and Pakistan is concerned. Sheikh Abdullah was never a persona grata with the architects of Pakistan or its present rulers. Accession to Pakistan was not a part of his programme. He was only toying with the idea of a division of the State and the carving of the Valley of Kashmir into a small independent unit. This brought him into conflict with a majority in the Cabinet and in the Party. His failure to carry his colleagues with him affords convincing proof of his waning influence. The new Prime Minister will seek and obtain a vote of confidence, and proceed with the task of restoring internal harmony and of putting down corruption and inefficiency in the administration. To his banner must flock all those who do not swear by the discredited two-nation theory and are pledged to the ideal of a secular State. And when a plebiscite is held on the question of accession to India or Pakistan, the healthy, non-communal elements will find their voice, unstifled by the tendentious propaganda of the Pakistan Press and of interested foreigners. The assumption of power by Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed is likely to be the prelude to friendlier relations with India.

Sri C. Jinarajadasa

Sri C. Jinarajadasa passed away at Wheaton, Illinois, U.S.A., on the 19th of June after repeated heart-attacks. He retired from the Presidentship of The Theosophical Society last year, for he was nearly seventy-seven and felt too weak and tired for the burdens of office. He was expecting to return to India after a tour in the West and settle down at Adyar. Adyar was always his spiritual home, but he was not destined to revisit it. For fifty years he carried the message of Theosophy to many lands, and delivered it in many languages. In speech as in writing, he combined the precision of the scientist with the beauty of the artist. Teacher and guide of students of religion everywhere, he was specially famed for his exposition of the philosophy of the Beautiful and for his approach to Reality through the adoration of Beauty, in nature and in life, in poetry and in music. His sensitive soul reacted to all that was noble in human endeavour. In his gracious presence one shed for the moment all the petty cares of the individual life and sensed something of the life of the Spirit that pervades the universe.

He was truly a citizen of the world, making no distinction of race, colour or creed. He belonged to the type of the loving and unselfish worker for the world’s welfare, foreshadowing the idealist’s dream of a perfected humanity reaching up to Divinity. Through his writings on art, literature, philosophy, religion and mysticism, and his eloquent speeches to admiring audiences, he upheld the ideal of a dedicated life, so that men and women striving to tread the path of duty “may remain firm in their dedication to the work entrusted to them, in spite of what Karma may bring them.” Even the least among us had, according to him, a part to play in ‘God’s Plan which is Evolution.’

To me, the passing of this esteemed Elder Brother is fraught with intense pain. He watched over me and Triveni with great affection. I recall with gratitude how he wrote the first article for the first number of the Journal in December 1927, under the title ‘New Beginnings in Indian Culture.’ He was a valued member of the Advisory Board, and during the many crises that marked the career of Triveni, I turned to him for advice, guidance, and comfort. These were bestowed in generous measure, for he seemed to perceive, more clearly than I ever could, the value of the role which Triveni was seeking to fulfill as a symbol of the Indian Renaissance. During his travels abroad, he used to write to me and admonish me never to ‘deny the work’, and whenever I paid my respects to him at Adyar, he made detailed enquiries about the progress of the Journal, and poured forth strength to sustain me in my long-drawn fight against adversity.

I met him for the last time in March 1952. He invited me to a series of talks by him, at the School of the Wisdom, to a group of earnest seekers in Adyar. That was a great privilege extended to me, but he went a step further and insisted on sending his car to fetch me from my hotel to Adyar on three successive Wednesday mornings. Those were unforgettable days when I reaped the reward of my continued devotion to the cause of culture. Indeed, what greater reward could a struggling journalist desire than the approbation and the companionship of a savant like Sri C. Jinarajadasa?

I can no longer greet him on the physical plane. But I have a feeling that he is as close to me as ever. May his blessing rest on Triveni!

Sri T. R. Venkatarama Sastri

Mylapore in Madras has always been renowned for its great intellectuals who have shed lustre on South India during many decades. It was in the domain of law that they achieved their particular eminence. But lawyers like V. Krishnaswami Aiyar, P. S. Sivaswamy Aiyar and C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar made significant contributions to the world of scholarship. They held high office in the executive sphere of Government and were acknowledged as scholar-statesmen. But non-lawyers like V. S. Srinivasa Sastri and S. Radhakrishnan also settled down in Mylapore and enhanced its reputation as a home of great causes, and of great minds.

Sri. T. R. Venkatarama Sastri, whose loss is mourned far beyond the limits of Madras State, was a distinguished member of that fraternity. When the Liberal Party came into being on the eve of the inauguration of the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms, it was, led by V. S. Srinivasa Sastri and P. S. Sivaswamy Aiyar, and these stalwarts found in T. R. Venkatarama Sastri an able and well-in- formed co-adjutor. The philosophy of Liberalism which the Indian Liberals owed to the Gladstone-Bright tradition in British political life, came into acute conflict with the Gandhian view of the Indo-British relationship. Non-co-operation, civil disobedience, the ‘Quit India’ programme, and the long series of campaigns for the winning of freedom through ‘unconstitutional’ though peaceful means, widened the gulf between the Congress led by Gandhiji and the Liberals who were pledged to normal, constitutional methods of agitation. But between them and Gandhiji there was not the slightest trace of personal ill-feeling. In fact, the brotherly affection subsisting between Gandhiji and Srinivasa Sastri was an object lesson to smaller men on either side. It is important to recall in this connection that Srinivasa Sastri and Venkatarama Sastri were life-long friends and inseparable companions.

Venkatarama Sastri, in addition to his great qualities as a lawyer, scholar, and leader of thought, possessed a serenity of out-look and an urbanity of manner that marked him out as a friend of humanity. Wherever there was suffering, injustice, or misunderstanding, he could be appealed to for prompt intervention. He was a peace-maker, by instinct and training.

During more than thirty years of personal contact with him, it was a unique pleasure for me to call on him, to speak to him about my work for Triveni, and win his support. He is enshrined in my memory as a great gentleman with a profound interest in everything that makes for progress.

¹August 18.

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