‘The Triple Stream’

BY K. RAMAKOTISWARA RAU

Nasik and After

The Presidential address of Sri Purushottamdas Tandon at the Nasik session of the Indian National Congress allayed the fears of those amongst us who had looked upon Tandonji as a reactionary and an obscurantist. Since the partition of India, he has been a consistent–and even vehement–critic of the Nehru Government’s policy towards Pakistan. In his mental make-up he seemed to be more akin to Khare and Savarkar than to Rajaji or Maulana Azad. It was also well known that Gandhiji had to break with the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan because of the almost fanatical opposition of the ‘Tandon Group’ to Hindustani as conceived and adopted by him. To crown it all, Tandonji created a difficult situation in the Constituent Assembly by his excessive zeal for Sanskritised Hindi and for Hindi numerals. It was the united resistance of the Congress members of the Assembly from the non-Hindi areas, and the eventual acceptance of the Munshi-Iyengar formula, which averted a crisis. In the course of the election campaign for the presidentship of the Jaipur session, the issue between the candidates was narrowed down to ‘Hindu revivalism’ versus ‘State Secularism’. The Hindu Maha Sabha took Tandonji’s defeat as its own, and similarly, right up to the eve of the Nasik session, it rejoiced over Panditji’s success.

Against this background, and taking into account the pre-election statements of Nehru and Mashruwala, it looked as if Tandonji’s election as President might result in a reversal of the Congress attitude to secularism in politics and even hasten a conflict within the Congress Executive between the Nehru-ites and the Tandon-ites. But Tandonji went a long way to conciliate his opponents; and the delegates to the Nasik session expressed confidence in the Home and Foreign policies of the Nehru Government. But one crucial problem was not solved. That related to the setting up of a special body to select candidates to the legislatures all over India. Pandit Nehru was keen on this, but no formula acceptable to all sections could be evolved at Nasik. This gave rise to misgivings; and the prolonged negotiations with Nehru to induce him to join the new Working Committee reproduced in a measure the post-Tripuri atmosphere. But Tandonji has fared better than Subhas Bose, and, for the time being, a Working Committee which is united on essentials can guide the Congress to success in the coming elections.

But to people who are not conversant with the happenings behind the scenes, the situation is not merely obscure but baffling. The President of the Congress is the Executive Head of the Party which runs the Government at the Centre and in the States of the Union. The Prime Minister is the Head of the Central Cabinet charged with the responsibility of carrying on the administration of the country. And just as the Prime Minister is free to choose his team of Ministers the President of the Congress is free to nominate the members of the Working Committee. But in both cases, the freedom is restricted in practice. The Prime Minister chooses his colleagues in consultation with the Working Committee, and the Congress President chooses his in consultation with the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and others, who are not only the leading lights of the Central Cabinet but also top-ranking Congressmen. Some kind of liaison is thus promoted between the Party Executive and the Cabinet. As a broad statement, this sounds satisfactory; but when there are ideological and even temperamental differences between the Prime Minister and the Congress President, an intriguing situation is bound to arise. Conventions have to grow by which any possible deadlocks can be resolved. The nation must be thankful that even at the last moment a semblance of peace was patched up between Pandit Nehru and Tandonji. It is devoutly to be hoped that the peace will be a lasting one.

The Crisis in Andhra

It was for lack of a similar adjustment between the Ministerialist group and the group that dominated the Provincial Congress Committee in Andhra that the Congress suffered a total eclipse in that ill-fated area. It it worth while recalling that Andhra was the first unit in India to be accorded a separate Provincial Committee based on language. At the Calcutta session of the Congress in December, 1917, Dr. Pattabhi put up an admirable fight in the Subjects Committee, and, with the support of the late Lokamanya Tilak, secured permission of the Congress to inaugurate the Andhra Congress Committee. At the first meeting of the Committee at Vijayawada, Desabhakta Konda Venkatappayya was elected first Secretary of the organisation. At Nagpur, in December 1920, the whole of India was carved out linguistic provinces for Congress purposes. The Non-cooperation, Satyagraha and ‘Quit India’ movements found some of their most noted adherents in Andhra, and the people as a whole played a heroic part in these movements. But, after the advent of freedom, personal and group loyalties worked havoc in Andhra public life. The split between the Prakasam-Ranga faction and the Pattabhi-Kala faction has been the bane of Andhra politics. It was bad enough that the Central Government found in this split a convenient pretext for postponing indefinitely the formation of an Andhra State. But it was worse that the split led eventually to the suppression of Andhra Congress Committee. At Nasik, Andhra was represented by a handful of delegates who were deemed to have been elected unopposed. The elections to the Congress Committees in Andhra have yet to be held, and judging from the experience of the last two or three years, there does not seem to be any reasonable chance of their being held in a peaceful atmosphere. It is not necessary to apportion blame for this sad state of affairs but people who have not learnt to swear by the leaders of either faction, are gradually learning to swear at them all. Without intending it, the leading Congressmen in Andhra have brought about an impasse in political affairs, which has had its repercussions even in the literary, artistic, and economic spheres. There is a sense of frustration in Andhra, and while individual achievement is high, there is an almost total absence of co-operative effort. The literary academies, the art associations, and the joint-stock companies languish and face a slow, painful death. It is not a new leadership that is wanted, but a spirit of harmony and friendliness between the present leaders. Even now, it is not too late. The men at the top in Andhra must make up their minds to restore unity or retire.

The Hindi Mission

The Hindi Sahitya Sammelan is the leading cultural association of North India, and amongst its members are to be found great scholars, poets and essayists who have contributed to the enrichment of modern Hindi Literature. Now that Hindi has been accepted as Lingua Indica for inter-State contacts, political and cultural, the leaders of the Sammelan are touring the southern States with a view to promote friendliness between North and South. This goodwill mission is meeting the litterateurs in different areas and making it clear to all of them that there is no desire on the part of the Hind-speaking people to dominate the rest of India. There will be no intrusion of Hindi into the internal administrative, educational, or legislative activities of the various States of India. The Study of Hindi as a second language has to be promoted, but each State, according to the Mission, will be free to devise measures for this purpose. Compulsion is not a necessary element in this process, nor is it contemplated that children of tender age should be taught Hindi before they have progressed in the knowledge of their mother-tongue. These assurances became necessary in South India, because there is a widespread feeling that the growth of the regional languages might be stifled by undue importance being given to Hindi. This was due to the vague generalities indulged in by some advocates of Hindi. For Instance, they talked of ‘driving away English’ and of ‘Hindi taking the place of English’. Now, nobody in any non-Hindi area wants either Hindi or any other language to take the place English occupied while Englishmen ruled in India. Every regional language must, at long last, come into its own, and be the vehicle for the expression of the loftiest thought and emotion of the people. It must be enthroned in the University, the High Court and the Legislature of the State of the Union where it is the principal language. Hindi can be learnt as a second language and treated as the Federal language. The question of getting rid of English does not arise. Indian Universities will teach it compulsorily, and some Indians will write in English as also in their own languages. The interpretation of Indian culture through an international language like English, and more especially the rendering of the best in all Indian literatures into English, is a vital condition of our growth to an international level of achievement.

Back