[All
of you are aware of the activities of the Lok-Sabha,
at Delhi. The dailies give full reports about the same.
This is about the 'Vivek-Sabha'— it is not constituted
by election—nor is it located in one place.
You can come across Vivek-Sabha —anywhere—only you should
have a keen sense of perception.
This is a narration about a day's proceedings in a Vivek-Sabha.
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Periyar Ramasami, were there—the
latter was summoned and the former invaded.
There were also the State Ministers—headed by the Chief—and
also silenced by him.
Mr. Statesman, Mr. Justice, and Mr. Prudence, sat on
one side.
Mr. Law was engaged in an animated conversation with
Admiral Arrogance! Dame Dictatorship was peeping from
a convenient distance.
Demos was in the chair!
The Trial began.]
THE CHAIR :- We are assembled here, to...
LAW :- May I correct, Sir, we are not assembled here—certain
offenders are summoned and we are here to try them.
MR. PRUDENCE :- Why, the plural? We are to examine an
offence........
PERIYAR :- An offence, so called, because you have dubbed
it an offence.
THE CHAIR :- Order! Let us not fight over the preliminaries.
We are, ... accept, possessed with an intricate problem.
PANDIT NEHRU :- Intricate? No! Certanly not! It is an
irritating—insulting...........
THE CHAIR :- Therein lies its intricacy. But, may I
ask, Mr. Law, if Mr. Nehru is in order in butting in..........
PERIYAR :- Perhaps, the chair is thinking about sub
judice.............that has been given a death-knell
already.........
MR STATESMAN :- It has not been brought to the notice
of the poper authorities; hence a reference to it now,
is inadmissible.
PERIYAR :- I am not pleading for any admission.
PANDIT NEHRU :- Then, out with your confession.
THE CHAIR :- I believe, gentleman that I am still the
presiding authority here. Now for the core of the problem.
What sayest thou for the very many offences cited against
you..............
PANDIT NEHRU :- You are addressing me sir?
THE CHAIR :- Not you! Not yet! Yonder stands a venerable
oldman four score years old.... you know him, Panditji?
PERIYAR :- I knew his father—Motilal and his Master,
Gandhi.....
PANDIT NEHRU :-I have neither the time nor the inclination
to come into contact with, communalists, seperatists,......
MR ARROGANCE :- Traitors and Law breakers.............
PERIYAR :- In spite of these adjectives, they are all
citizens of this country.
PANDIT NEHRU :- Unfortunately, it is so..............
THE CHAIR :- Mr. Law! I think that you are ready to
present your case.
PERIYAR :- No need for that, Sir, no need! I am not
contesting. I am presenting an interpretation of my
act—an exposition of a theory.................
PANDIT NEHRU :- It is all rank barbarism.
PERIYAR :- History shows eloquently, who were the barbarians,
when we the Dravidians were having a civilisation of
high order.
MR. PRUDENCE :- We should not forget, that there has
been a synthesis of cultures.
THE CHAIR :- It is an interesting subject—anyway we
are here to discuss a specific incident.
PANDIT NEHRU :- A series of incidents.
PERIYAR :- The final scene, is yet to be staged.
MR. LAW :- If the stage is not demolished in the meanwhile.
THE CHAIR :- ....................which are against the
law.
PERIYAR :- .....................the purpose of which
I question.
the canal gushes rubbish
PANDIT NEHRU :- On what authority?
PERIYAR :- There is my authority, Justice.
MR. JUSTICE :- Please, don't drag me in ........not
now at any rate. Don't you see that I am crippled..............
ARROGANCE :- We have given you crutches........ haven't
we ?
Heaped Abuses to Reap the Same:
PANDIT NEHRU :- Thank you for your spicy humour. Americans
like such humour.... and Russians too.....I find no
difference between the two....... absolutely nothing.....in
spite of the fact that they are engaged in some cold
war..........as far as my Pancha Shila is concerned,
they are all united .........Humanity is one, indivisible.
That's my discovery, as all of you know...........No
difference at all.......... Only here I find, certain
people indulging in communalism and casteism.
PERIYAR :- So long as there are castes, there is bound
to be casteism.
PANDIT NEHRU :- Whoever wants this ugly, caste system.
Be done with it. Down with castes—that system has no
place in modern society!.......It is against all canons
of justice, decency, democracy, socialism, and even
spiritualism—though I know not much about spiritualism.
THE CHAIR :- So, you are also against this caste system.
PANDIT NEHRU :- Yes! Yes! Haven't I written volumes
about that...........
PERIYAR :- With what result?
THE CHAIR :- Yes! With what result?
PANDIT NEHRU:- Result? Am I to be worried about the
outcome? I give my view—and they are held in very high
esteem, you know—in Peking and Budapest, Nepal and New
York, London and Berlin.
PERIYAR :- Yes! Except in Calicut and Kallidaikurichi,
Trichy and Tanjore, your own Haridwar and Varanashi
.........
MR. LAW:- Granting that castes should be annihilated,
none is allowed to insult our National Honour!
PERIYAR :- Are you enhancing National Honour, by allowing
this caste system to persist, even now, in the twentieth
century? What ignorance! What impudence........
Mr. ARROGANCE :- All these are objectionable words .........
I can cite, sections ..........right now..........
PERIYAR :- Total up and then deliver.............
THE CHAIR:- I find, in spite of the heat, that there
is unanimity of opinion, as regards this annihilation
of caste.............
MR. JUSTICE :- Yes! We should proceed on that basis,
Mr. Law is ready to stamp his power—he is out to scent
out offences, and punish offenders, but the problem
remains!
THE CHAIR :- True......... We as responsible persons
should get ourselves interested in the prevention of
crimes—rather than in sentencing offenders.
MR. JUSTICE :- Especially when those who are dubbed
as offenders, point out a laudable motive for their
deeds.
MR. LAW :- Deeds have their own repurcussions, and are
to be dealt with as such. No screening, by motives...........
PERIYAR :- Whoever wants your screening.......Should
you not, go deeper into the matter and find out the
motive........?
PANDIT NEHRU :- I can't be spending my time over such
silly nonsense...... It is sheer lunacy. I can't tolerate
that...... I brook no dishonour to the National emblems...........
Angel Brandihes Hell-fire
MR. PRUDENCE :- Anyway, you are not going to annihlate
easte by flames...........
Periyar :- And you are not going to put down the crusade
against caste by sentencing thousands of youths......
PANDIT NEHRU :- Young or old, great or small, Law will
take its course.
MR. JUSTICE :- Yea! I am feeble.........crippled ...........what
can i do?
MR. ARROGANCE :- Why, Retire........
PANDIT NEHRU :- Or, seek shelter somewhere elso.......no
quarter here for those who question authority and order.............bag
and baggage they should quit.
PERIYAR :- You have said the same already.
THE CHAIR :- Have you........?
PERIYAR :- Yes, sir, he passes judgment.... I am to
be put in prison—or in an asylum, or driven away to
some distant land.........
THE CHAIR :- I never expected such remarks from a leader
of sobriety......
MR. PRUDENCE :- He had to please his audience—his partymen,
you know. When they approached him, with tear-ful eyes,
and fear-ful faces, he had to lift them up, a bit.
MR. LAW :- As the leader responsible for keeping up
the morale of the people, he has every right to speak
in such a way.......
Periyar :- And if by his speech he got the 'applause'
from his audience, I had my own vocabulary .........
Ahaha! Do you mean to say, that I have not paid him
in his own coins.
THE CHAIR :- Just to administer certain hard and almost
indecent words, should a leader of such eminence go
all the way from distant Delhi.........
PERIYAR :- There are any number of soap-box orators
in his party. They are foul-mouthed enough!
MR. JUSTICE :- May I ask, apart from abuses, what have
you achieved. Have you formulated any method for the
annihilation of caste?...........Have you pointed out
what according to you is the ' correct approach?' Granting
that the method of the sword and fire, are pernicious,
what is the rational method unfolded by you?
PERIYAR :- He is not a Rationalist ......... sometimes
he dabbles in that dainty. Who knows not that he went
all the way to take part in the Kumbha Mela!.......After
all, he hails from a 'prohit' family, from Kashmir.
PANDIT NEHRU :- You know not my ancient heritage ...........
THE CHAIR :- You have given details about it, in your
auto-biography.
PANDIT NEHRU :- Not details—just some notes.......some
hints...........
MR. JUSTICES :- That is enough to show, that your—fore-fathers
migrated to this land..........
PERIYAR :- To eke out their livelihood.....by prohit
profession............
frustration leads to fulmination
MR. ARROGANCE :- It ought to have been a prohit, who
named you.............
PERIYAR :- But a grateful people have given me a surname.
MR. LAW :- Nehru is also a surname.
THE CHAIR :- Yes, I find it so, here. But it is not
of a happy reading.............
MR. JUSTICE :- Pray, what is it you find.........
THE CHAIR :- Nehru is derived from Nahar, which means
canal...........
Heaped Abuses to Read the Same
PANDIT :- It is like this. My forefather, was granted
a Jagir by the Delhi Emperor, and it was situated on
the banks of a canal..........
THE CHAIR :- I see, Nahar..........Nehru, derivation
from Nahar......good .......... meaning canal.........
PERIYAR :- Why doubt that? His speech has been just
a canal gushing with all rubbish.
MR.ARROGANCE :- I cannot tolerate abuses, and what else
can you reap?
THE CHAIR :- Now, to the point. The hold of law is clear
and definite.
MR. LAW :- And powerful......
Mr. JUSTICE :- How else can that be, when I am a cripple..........
THE CHAIR :- So the law will take its course........
But, this I have to say ..........that the 'speeches'
of the Pandit, are not calculated to ease the situation,
erase the ugliness and find out a solution. For whatever
might be the term of imprisonment that Law is powerful
to prescribe, the malady will remain, and a correct
solution ought to be found out! Find from the 'exhibits'
that the speeches of a leader, charged with the supreme
task of lifting up the stature of society, falls short.
In fact, I concur with the view already expressed, the
canal gushes but rubbish. There is no clarity—only animosity
is there in abundance. I am of the opinion that frustration
is the cause for such fulmination. Had he, having gone
there during such a critical time, offered some solution,
unfolded some scheme, instead of heaping abuses and
reaping the same, there would have arisen a happy state
of affairs. To use hard words, is not difficult...........
MR.JUSTICE :- Often-time it is born out of hatred, anger,
and prejudice.
THE CHAIR :- And it is precisly such bad elements that
ought to be kept under control especially by one placed
in an eminent position.
MR. ARROGANCE :- Not, by you..........
MR. JUSTICE :-Nor, by me.............
MR. LAW :- He is the head supreme—properly constituted
by law..........
THE CHAIR :- Yes, and that is why, I am but offering
my remarks, instead of placing him on the Dock.
MR. ARROGANCE :-Try, if you can.
MR. LAW :- Your powers are but limited.
THE CHAIR :- I am helpless, but I won't retrace.........my
verdict is given, taken or rejected.
MR. JUSTICE :- We draw the time table.....
MR.STATESMAN :- Remarks are remarks! Why discuss that.
The offender, is to be handed over to Law.
Mr. LAW :-My arms are long....and...........
PERIYAR :- You are terribly hungry, too.......
THE CHAIR :- Be it known then, that while I hand over
this venerable old man, to the domain of Law, I do find
it necessary to offer my verdict.
MR. ARROGANCE :- Tear up your verdiet.
PANDIT NEHRU :- And put it to the flames.
PERIYAR :- To the flames!—Mark his words, to the flames.........an
offence.........
MR. LAW :- Not, if I do not take notice of it!
MR. ARROGANCE :- Why, tarry.........take away the offender..........
MR. NEHRU :- Not yet, not now..........not in such a
fashion.
[Having given his vedict, the presiding authority of
the Vivek Sabha, hastily withdrew from the hall, the
crippled Mr.Justice, following. The rest of the scene
was not clear, for, need I till you, that is was all
in a Dream!!]
(15-12-1957)