‘THE TRIPLE STREAM’

By K. RAMAKOTISWARA RAU

Meet the New Editor

Ever since the celebration of the Silver Jubilee of Triveni at Bangalore in November 1954, I have been feeling that I ought to retire from the editorship and shift the responsibility on to the shoulders of someone younger and more energetic. No literary venture like Triveni should depend for its survival and its continued efficiency on a single individual, especially when that individual happens to be, like me, fatigued in mind and body. The desire to rest in my quiet home-town, amidst the familiar surroundings of boyhood and youth, became so intense towards July 1957 that I requested Sri Burra Venkata Subrahmanyam, a leading Advocate of Hyderabad, to take over the entire responsibility, literary and financial, for the future conduct of the journal. To my great relief, he agreed to do so, as from the 1st of July 58 when we commence a new volume, the twenty-ninth. That is how his name appears along with mine on the front-page.

But this juxtaposition of names is nothing new. During the years 1936 to 1941, Sri Subrahmanyam was closely associated with Triveni; and he did most of the editorial work while I worried about the finances. He was then at the beginning of his career as a lawyer in Madras and found time to scrutinise manuscripts, read proofs, review books and correspond with contributors. He loved the work and did it with efficiency and zeal. And then the day came–in November 1940–when, as a Congress Member of the Madras Legislative Assembly, I offered individual Satyagraha and was sentenced to imprisonment for a period of one year. Sri Subrahmanyam kept the flag of Triveni flying in my absence, with the co-operation of Sri K. Chandrasekharan and the late Justice V. Govindarajachari. When I came out of prison, conditions in Madras were so difficult, on account of the partial evacuation of the city, that Triveni migrated to Bangalore.

Sri Subrahmanyam pursued the profession of Law with single-minded devotion, and today he is in the front rank, admired and courted by a growing clientele. It was gracious of him, and very affectionate too, to have come into Triveni once again. He is fifteen years younger and still on the right side of fifty. With his pronounced literary ability and rare business acumen, he is bound to stabilise Triveni and win for it a fresh lease of life and added glory of achievement.

As for me, I shall continue to write these Notes and do such other work of Triveni as will not involve any strain. Fulfillment for me., however, lies no longer in doing this work but in watching others do it.

A Valued Colleague

Sri M. Sivakamayya, Principal of the Andhra Jateeya Kalasala (National College), Masulipatam, has been known to readers of Triveni as Joint Editor and as a writer of distinction whose renderings, into English, of classical Telugu poetry have been widely welcomed. When Triveni found a third home in Masulipatam eight years ago, Sri Sivakamayya kindly agreed to co-operate with me on the literary side. It is a happiness for a much-harassed Editor to be able to rely on the judgment of a scholar like Sri Sivakamayya who is also a writer. I have always received such assistance in my work, right from the commencement of Triveni in 1928. And on the eve of my entrusting Triveni to Sri Subrahmanyam, I wish to assure him that all former colleagues of mine will now be his colleagues too.

Like his predecessors, Sri Manjeri S. Isvaran of Madras and Sri K. Sampathgiri Rao of Bangalore, Sri Sivakamayya has honoured me by accepting a place on the Advisory Board. I am grateful to him for what he has done for Triveni and for the personal affection he showered on me. Between them, Sri Sivakamayya and Sri Bhavaraju Narasimha Rao–who continues to be printer and publisher–made life interesting for me in Masulipatam and enabled me to maintain the journal in that dear city. It is a significant coincidence that Sri Sivakamayya is now head of the institution which I loved and served for some years prior to launching Triveni in Madras. This is yet another link in a chain of precious memories.

The Indian Scene

Parliamentary Government and the Party system which usually goes with it, have been accepted by independent India as the kind of democratic set-up suited to Indian conditions. Universal suffrage on a gigantic scale has been tried in the elections to our State and Central Legislative Assemblies with results which impartial observers from abroad have acclaimed as satisfactory. The Constitution to which we have sworn allegiance is the handiwork of our national leaders gathered in a Constituent Assembly with plenary powers, though the basis was the Government of India Act of 1935. The British type of Parliamentary Executive was familiar to the leaders of our freedom movement, and when the choice had to be made between that and the Presidential type prevailing in the U. S. A. they were definitely in favour of the former. The path of constitutional progress for India seems to lie that way, and it is not useful at this stage to examine too critically to implications of the Parliamentary and Party systems we have freely adopted.

Democracy is not always government by the best individuals ideally conceived, though there should be constant striving to seek out and put in office the ablest as well as the wisest. But politics and administration do not monopolise the life of a nation, and some of its choice spirits may be drawn to Science, Art or Literature. Yet others may seek fame in professions like Law or Medicine. It is the full flowering of a nation’s genius and a high level of achievement in diverse fields of endeavour that will bring distinction to any people with a progressive outlook. But it still remains true that every individual citizen owes it to himself to take an intelligent interest in the political activities of his people and ensure the purity as well as the efficiency of the administration at all levels. A feeling has been growing within recent years that while India has won self-government, she has a long way to travel to attain even a reasonably satisfactory standard of good government. The Cabinets at the Centre and in the States contain men of considerable ability intent on labouring for the public good. They are served by an administrative personnel which, in its higher reaches, is both efficient and honest. But the sphere of administrative activity is rapidly widening and departments are being multiplied with breathtaking speed in order to meet the new conditions. We have a whole army of ill-trained recruits in our offices seeking to cope with the exacting work of ambitious and costly schemes in connection with our Five-Year Plans. Propaganda and preparation of reports assume such importance that by the time the benefits of any scheme trickle down to the common man in the countryside, the ‘welfare’ he experiences is almost negligible. In its pursuit of rapid industrialisation, and its eagerness to forestall the demands of the leftist groups, the present Government of India is taking upon itself too many tasks of a complicated character. Nothing is lost, and a great deal may be gained by way of efficiency, if our Plans cover lesser ground and are spread over longer periods. As Sri D. V. Gundappa points out in his exceedingly valuable article in this number of Triveni, the day-to-day administration which is interwoven with the normal life of millions of people is being neglected. Inefficiency and corruption are on the increase; they have been the topics of common conversation everywhere. The situation is rendered worse by the local political bosses in villages and small towns, who interfere with the work of the officials and even threaten to invoke the ire of the Ministers if their unreasonable demands are not met! Even matters like the transfers of minor officers and petty schoolmasters become the subject matter of political controversy and paralyse all normal life in a locality.

It is easy to suggest remedies and to exhort the men in power at different levels to manage public affairs with the sole aim of achieving the Public good. But where an entire nation is marching forward the success of every effort depends ultimately on the quantum’s of un-selfish interest that is roused all round. The wish to do even the ‘littlest’ bit of work with devotion is the foundation of all progress. If the grocer and the hotel-keeper adulterate our food, and masons and carpenters ruin our houses, and the clerks in our offices bungle our files and pilfer money-orders, where shall we turn for redress? It is not useful to depend too much on prosecutions and punishments. A way must be found to strengthen the ethical and spiritual nature of man, and to implant in him the desire to do the right thing every moment of his life because it is right. A process of moral re-armament must be set in motion. And to this end, there must be a recovery of faith-faith in human values. The individual man is of importance, and whatever will contribute to make him ‘good’ must engage the attention of statesmen asking to shape the future. Better men, going about their daily tasks in a spirit of devotion and humility,–this is our greatest need.

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