By K. RAMAKOTISWARA RAU

Opposing the Congress

While the view is being expressed in certain quarters that India ought to evolve into a party-less democracy, an increasing volume of public opinion s in favour of the traditional system of party Government based on the British model. A multiplicity of parties, some of them of the nature of ‘groups’, is doubtless an evil, militating against stability and orderly progress. But two or three well-defined parties accepting the democratic way of life, and pledged to constitutional methods for the achievement of political and economic programmes, must always be welcome. The growth of an all-powerful monolithic party which tends to swallow all rival claimants to power, proved dangerous in Russia and her satellite countries. The sponsors of the Swatantra Party in India are convinced that, unless an effective opposition to the Congress Party is organised, the present ruling party may eventually become an authoritarian organisation, shutting out all possibility of another constitutional, democratic party providing an alternative Government. The Communist Party which is not wedded to non-violence, and actually fosters extra-territorial loyalties, may in a few years canalise the growing discontent with the present regime and capture power. That would mean the end of true democracy in India. Such is the justification for the formation of the Swatantra Party under the guidance of Sri C. Rajagopalachari, a former Congress veteran and an elder statesman of the front rank.

According to the thesis of the new party, there is no vital difference between the social and economic objectives of the Congress and those of the Communists. State action for the ultimate realisation of a classless society is envisaged by both. The difference lies only in the method of attaining the goal. The Congress pins its faith to parliamentary procedure, but where a considerable minority is opposed to its policies of nationalisation and State Socialism, that minority will be obliged to submit to the coercive power of the State veiled by legal forms. The Communists would in similar circumstances resort to naked force. Parties like the Socialists and the praja Socialists are at present opposed to the Congress as well as to the Communists. But being pledged to the cause of Socialism they cannot possibly welcome the new Swatantra Party. In the view of all these parties, the new party is the symbol of reaction and conservatism. Its plea for individual enterprise and for the preservation of private properly, unimpaired by the impact of socialists dogma, is virtually a challenge to the programme which the Socialists hold dear.

Before the next general elections of 1962, there is bound to be a re-alignment of parties. All Congressmen are not avowed Socialists. There are several among them who have serious misgivings about the type of Socialism which is hardly different from State Capitalism. They are perturbed by the growing power of the official hierarchy which indulges in reckless expenditure without displaying adequate efficiency in the actual implementation of the Five Year Plans. They realise too that the middle-class intelligentsia and the self-employed farmers and artisans will soon be swept out of existence, unless they can find an effective means of having their point of view pressed on the nation’s attention through organised political action in a democratic manner. Such Congressmen will walk over into the new party and function as the natural leaders of the professional classes and of the large sections of the lower middle class, whether they are in business or farmings. There will be a countervailing accession of strength to the ranks of Congressmen from large numbers of the present Communist Party who must deem it their duty to fight the “forces of reaction” represented by a growing Swatantra Party. In this process, they might become more nationalist-minded and forswear their allegiance to International Communism. Under such conditions the Socialist Parties may find it proper to give up their separate identity and align themselves with the Neo-Congress organisation standing definitely for Socialism and drawing into its fold all the elements in the national life believing in Socialism as a way of life.

If this analysis of the situation is correct, India will soon have two leading political parties wedded to the democratic process–the Congress corresponding to the Labour Party of Britain and the Swatantra Party corresponding to the Conservatives. There will always be a sprinkling of representatives of the extreme Left–the Communists,–and of the extreme Right–the communalists and the remnants of the old capitalist groups. But the Congress and the Swatantra will be the main parties of the Centre, providing by turns the effective means of preserving civil order and liberty, and functioning as the Government of the day according to the shifts of public opinion expressed during Parliamentary elections.

Punjab and Assam

The flare-up of linguistic fanaticism in different parts of India, notably in the Punjab and in Assam, is a significant pointer. While the Constitution of India recognises fourteen principal languages and seeks to foster them in their respective regions, the linguistic minorities in each area continue to present a complicated problem. Andhra Pradesh wisely recognised Urdu as one of the State languages and set an example to the rest of India. In the Punjab, Hindi in the Devanagari script and Punjabi in the Gurumukhi script were recognised as State languages, but the leaders of the predominantly Hindi region of East Punjab were unwilling to abide by the rule which required their children to learn Punjabi as a compulsory second language. This, among others, was a reason for some of the Sikh leaders starting an agitation for a Punjabi Suba. Sri Pratap Singh Kairon is trying to restore peace through a new formula designed to allay the fears of the Sikhs regarding the place which Punjabi should occupy. In Assam, the Congress Ministry took steps to declare Assamese as the State language in certain important areas, leaving Bengali as the principal language in others. The leaders of the Bengali minority were not satisfied with the safeguards provided by the Ministry for the protection of their language. Passions rose high and an unprecedented reign of terror followed. Large numbers of the Bengali residents of the State who had lived there for generations were obliged to seek refuge in West Bengal. From the Prime Minister of India down to the common citizens in all parts of India, every one feels strongly that at long last a limit must be set to such exhibitions of temper over an issue which needs calm, dispassionate thinking. It is not the immediate question of a State language which occupied the attention of the disorderly elements on either side. The occasion was availed of to fan into flame the grievances of previous years and the rivalries that smoulder beneath the surface. It is important to remember that any citizen of India is entitled to reside, carry on business, and seek employment in any part of it. In his own interest he will develop cordial relations with the inhabitants of the area, pick up their language, and let his children be taught through it except in the elementary stage. But where hundreds of thousands speaking a particular language have for long been settled in a region, it is unfair to force a language other than their own mother-tongue on the children and impose a second-class citizenship on them in the event of their failure to learn it at short notice. This seems to be the case in Assam. There has been a long-standing prejudice against the Bengali language which was supposed to have gained a predominance over the native Assamese in the realms of literature and public life. This prejudice found sudden and violent expression during recent weeks. If people speaking two different Indian languages cannot learn to live as friendly neighbours in any State of the Indian Union, the very concept of an all-India citizenship will receive a severe blow, and Indians will become aliens in parts of their own Motherland. Most Indian languages owe a great deal to the Sanskritic cultural tradition. There is a community of literary taste and spiritual outlook which needs to be stressed far more than is being done at present. The poets and the artists must make it their special vocation to cultivate an all-India outlook and promote inter-linguistic harmony. They, even more than the politicians, ought to be the promoters of good will. If the litterateurs of Assam–both Bengalees and Assamese-can develop a common allegiance and pay common homage to Shanker Dev and Chandi Das, the rest of the population will imbibe the new spirit. At the moment this seems a distant dream. But it is a supremely worth while one, and the very process of dreaming may bring the reality into being sooner than we dare hope.

An Early Fighter

It is now more than half-a-century since Sri G. Harisarvottama Rao was sentenced to three years’ hard labour for publishing ‘seditious’ articles in a Telugu weekly, the ‘Swarajya’ of Vijayawada. He took his M. A. degree in the Madras University, with Telugu and Kannada as his special study. He had to prepare a thesis in English, and he chose for his theme “A neglected Emperor-Poet”, Krishnadeva Raya of Vijayanagara. This brought him fame as a literary critic of high quality. Young and talented, Rao was expected to carry everything before him. He chose teaching for his profession and was getting trained for it in the Government Training College at Rajahmundry. Those were stirring times and the oratory of Bepin Chandra Pal moved the young men of Rajahmundry and Masulipatam to their depths Rao took a prominent part in the local agitation against Principal Mark Hunter who refused permission to students to wear ‘Vande Mataram’ lockets on their coats. Rao was ‘rusticated’, and his career took an unexpected twist. He turned to journalism as a mission and his ‘Swarajya’ soon gained prominence as an exponent of the ardent nationalism of the years 1907 to 1909. His writing was charged with emotion. The local officials were upset and hauled him up for sedition. The District Judge of Masulipatam, Mr. Kershasp, a Parsi member of the Indian Civil Service, took a lenient view and awarded a light sentence. But the Government of Madras appealed to the High Court and got the sentence enhanced to three years rigorous imprisonment. Rao thus became an early hero in the freedom struggle and underwent the rigours of prison life at a time when political prisoners enjoyed no amenities and were just ‘criminals’.

On his release, Rao found himself in a strange new world. The ‘extremist’ leaders of the Nationalist movement were either in prison or in exile. ‘Moderate’ politics became the vogue. It was difficult for Rao to make a living, for no employer playing for safety could take an ex-prisoner on to his staff. It was reserved for the noble-hearted founder of the ‘Andhra Patrika’ of Madras–Sri K. Nageswara Rao–to entertain him as Editor of his new Telugu Daily in 1914. But that was not for long.

Rao started on his own and founded independent weeklies, once in English and again in Telugu. They were exceedingly good papers but never paid their way. On occasions, Rao forfeited heavy deposits to the Magistracy. He was in the Home Rule and Non-co-operation movements, and wrote books on politics and biographies of Annie Besant and Abraham Lincoln. He was in the Madras Legislature in the Swarajist epoch along with C. R. Reddy and Satyamurti. In later days, he was prominently associated with the library movement in Andhra.

Living to a ripe old age, Rao passed away recently. His was a career chequered beyond description, but always filled with the desire to render self-less service. He struggled continuously against poverty, and failure. The recognition that was his due never came to him. He was a person of unbending rectitude and would not submit to the whims of those who were in a position to confer favours. His patriotism and scholarship, his sterling character and readiness to sacrifice his personal interests were in evidence in his many undertakings. But he was a lonely figure in public life, standing apart from influential groups of fellow-workers, and always intent on pursuing his own individual bent. Such men win more respect than affection. But lives like Sarvottama Rao’s are part of a nation’s heritage, and the heroism which is the chief characteristic of their outer activity is indeed a symbol of the spiritual urges sustaining and uplifting man in moments of utter darkness.

¹ July 25, 1960.

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