RISE AND FALL OF LEADERSHIP IN INDIA

Reformers:

01.Raja Rammohan Roy                             1772 – 1833

02.Vidyasagar                                               1820 – 1891

Spiritual Leaders:

01.Ramakrishna                                              1836 – 1886

02.Vivekananda                                            1863 – 1902

Leaders with spiritual inclination:     

01.Tilak                                                               1856 – 1920

01.Gokhale                                                 1863 – 1902

02.Gandhi                                                       1869-1948

Ideological leaders:

01.Nehru                                                    1889 – 1964

02.Bose                                                                1897 – 1945

03.Shastri                                                   1910 – 1967

04.Ambedkar                                                      1891 – 1956

05.Shyam Prasad Mukerjee                          1901-1953

Power leaders

01.Jyothi Basu                                              1914 – 2010

02.Indira Gandhi                                           1916  - 1984

03.Nuroji                                                         1909 – 1988

04.Morarjee                                                   1896 – 1995

05.Charan Singh                                           1902 – 1987

06.Devilal                                                       1914 – 2001

India ranks among the oldest civilizations in the world. It had first cities of the world like Harappa and Mohanjudaro. There were books like Arthasastra and Kamasutra which discuss specialized subjects. Iron pillar beside Qutbminar shows the scientific advancements it made. It had world’s earliest universities Nalanda and Taxila.  It had rebels like great Gautam Budha who opposed the existing practices.

India can be proud that it never killed or threatened opposition. It gave birth to many religions and almost all of religions of the world spread into India immediately after their birth elsewhere and they were encouraged here. It shows the spiritual advancement India made not to talk about Vedas and Upanishads.

Often it is claimed that British united India and there was never a concept called India before them. Any nation to be called as one if it had Geographical, Cultural and Political unity. Geographical unity of the country before British can be seen from every day Sankalpam chanted in Indian temples which talk about Bharatavarsham, Bharatkandam etc. about cultural unity of the nation we can write number of volumes. Then the question arises about political unity. Even though Ashoka of 3^rd Century BC and Akbar in the 16^th century had almost entire India under one rule but for parts of South India it was not under one rule at any time. The main reason for this is in India war was never glorified and annexing other kingdoms through war was never encouraged. As early as in 3^rd century BC India realized during Kalinga war the devastation and dangers of war. Emperor Asoka spread the message of peace to the entire world. Even during British time there were many princely states Zamindaries but definitely controlled by Central Government. The credit of real political unity should go to Sardar Vallabhai Patel even though Goa and Sikkim became parts of India long after Sardar’s death.

Son of servant maid Mura with the guidance of Chankya founded one of the world’s greatest Mauryan Empire. Sivaji son of Jijiyabhai with the guidance of Guru Ramdas rebelled against Moghuls. Down south Harihararya and Bukkaraya founded famous Vijayanagara empire. But all these had replaced only one empire with another kingdom. Basic political philosophy was not changed. Shilpathikaram, the great Tamil epic describes an ordinary woman (perhaps the first book that had woman in lead role) rebels against the kingdom for defending the rights of her family and ultimately burns the city of Madurai. Some stories might have been there but they were not recorded. Ancient Indians were not known for history recording only notable exception being Kalhana’s Rajatarangini. Most of the Indian history owes its existence through the recording of famous Chinese visitors. Whatever history is available also talks about only kings and palaces, at the most about capital cities. It never discussed how the ordinary people in these kingdoms lived. Hence no recording for Indian leadership in true spirit.

As Romila Thapar states national struggle or true freedom struggle was started by only Tilak. Eventhough 1857 struggle is described as first freedom struggle it is a rebellion by some regional kings restricted to only North India UP, Bihar, MP, Delhi regions and it was fought for their own power rather than for true freedom of people.

Real leadership started only with Raja Rammohan Roy rightly called as “Maker of Modern India”. He and later on in the mid 19^th century Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar made lot of efforts in reforming the religion, then with full of unacceptable practices like child marriage, Sati etc. Through Brahma samaj and taking the help of the then British Government they tried to eradicate some of the practices. They propagated that spreading education is the best way for reforming people. They are basically Religious reformers with little political inclination.

With the above policies unintentionally a feeling erupted and which was widely publicized by some British Scholars and British Government that everything in Indian religions is inferior and to be reformed. It cannot be carried by Indians and British Government and English people alone could save it. Protesting the above theory and for reviving the ancient Hindu Culture and creating pride in the vedantic tests and restoring self confidence of people leaders like Swami Vivekananda and Shirdi Sai emerged. Speeches and theories had greatly helped in restoring self confidence and pride in the religion. Although his speeches sometimes had subtle political tone basically he is purely Religious leader. Another important feature of his leadership was he travelled length and breadth of the country and other countries in short span of life and made contact with many ordinary people across the country. First signs of involving ordinary people, though only educated started from Vivekanada.

Then the next stage of political leadership started with the emergence of people like Tilak, Gokhale and Gandhi to mention a few at the turn of century (late 19^th and early 20^th century). Though these people were political leaders they had always checked every act of theirs with spiritual text. Each might have interpreted the text in their own way. But they never deviated from the spiritual path they believed. These leaders can be rightly called Leaders with spiritual inclination. Correspondence between Gandhi and Tilak amply demonstrate the above theory. Though Tilak belongs to the extremist group and Gokhale belongs to  the moderate group both feared to involve common man and less educated people into the political movement. Gandhi was the first who dared to do this and succeeded. There are so many other leaders like Madan Mohan Malaviya, Aurobindo, Lala Lajpati Roy, Surendranath Benarjee. All these were also having spiritual inclination.

Though this sort of leadership succeeded in involving and consolidating the struggle spiritual inclination put seed of suspicion among religions. This was used by the British Government. They added fuel to fire. So a need was felt to separate religion from politics. Next generation leaders emerged who can be called Ideological leaders. Again there were many leaders but some of the prominent people who belong to this category are Jawarharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose, Ram Mohanohar Lohia, Jinnah and Shyam Prasad Mukherjee. Interaction with other countries like America, Russia, Germany had also helped in development of various ideologies. Each was following different ideology but all ideologies were political. They tried to pull other people also into their ideology. These people represent transformation from British rule to Independent India. Due to these ideological differences partition of India took place and Pakistan was born. Democracy had solid foundation due to these democratic processes. All of us should owe to these great leaders for entrenchment of democracy in our country. We had to take note here that many countries which attained independence along with us could not keep the democratic form of Governments.

By the time these people were no more India already completed around 20 years of self rule. Leaders form village Sarpanch to Prime Minister understood the importance of political power. License Permit Raj compounded the importance of political power. So leaders like Indira Gandhi, Morarji Desai, Charan Singh had emerged who were ready to do anything including splitting and merging political parties to gain and retain the political power. Declaration of emergency by Mrs. Gandhi best exemplify this. With their power Chief Ministers and Ministers were changed at their will, bureaucrats were transferred for strengthening their political power. Economic policies were manipulated and catchy slogans like Garibhi Hatao were created to influence the people for getting votes. So these leaders can be classified as power leaders. In this process lot of opportunities were created. Down south people were feeling their self respect was not taken care by the central leadership dominated by North Indian. In north some sections felt that minorities were appeased to gain vote at the cost of majority. Mandal commission respect was another opportunity. Long years of one party one family rule was opposed by some people. In easing these opportunities leaders like NTR, MGR emerged in south. Mulayam, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Nitish Kumar, Naveen Patnaik emerged in north. Rajiv Gandhi who  entered politics after his brother had died in accident.He became Prime Minister after his mother had been assassinated by terrorists. P.V. Narsimha Rao became Prime Mininister after Rajiv’s assasination and new generation was not yet ready to take over. These leaders can be classified as Opportunity leaders because these leaders emerged out of the opportunity created using their position, locality and charisma. Then in 1990 there were economic reforms Globalisation and decline of USSR and emergence of US as sole Super Power. Suddenly for new generation industrialists like Narayana Murthy, Ratan Tata, Ambanis and Azim Premji became role models. These people started commanding more respect worldwide compared to Indian political leaders.

The above situation was wrongly read by politicians. So another political class emerged which started encashing the political power. Unholy nexus between industrialists and political class emerged. Industrialists in the garbs of politicians emerged. Everything was measured in terms of money including leadership. Leaders also were in hurry to increase their net worth like companies. Lot of money is being spent during elections and leaders and celebrities started exhibiting their wealth during marriage and other functions. Lavish spending became the order of the day. These leaders can be classified as Leaders who literally encash the opportunities. Here for obvious reasons names of leaders are not mentioned.

 In vendantic terms first three phases can be classified on Satvic leadership fourth and fifth Rajasic final two Tamasic. Though the above seven are mentioned as different phases some overlapping of phases was there. The presence of next phase in the time of earlier phase was visible. But the dominant phase was clear. More important to this for 160 years starting from 1800 there was rise of leadership. But in only 50 years there is rapid decline. It also fit into the theory propagated by futurologist Alvin Toffler in Third wave and Future shock. Advanced technological tools and military capabilities make a dangerous combination. Urgent course correction is the real need of the hour and cannot be overemphasized.

STATUE THAT SPEAKS!!

On the other day somebody told me that a big statue of more than 100ft of a Bhagwan is put in a village near Kakinada. Very big statues of Hanuman are seen at many places on the highways now a days. A big park at a highly expensive place with number of statues of elephants is constructed in NOIDA .It is not uncommon that for a statue of father of the nation you have to search whereas statues of number of other leaders are crowded everywhere often obstructing traffic due to which those leaders are being cursed for none of their fault.

Supreme Court also gave a ruling against placing statues with public money on highways. Masks were put on statues of Poor elephants during UP elections by the election commission so that elections are not influenced.

Another way statues are in news. Some of the statues on Tankbund like Nannaya, Potana, Srinatha are damaged by the agitators. Neither for the cause of agitation or in solution of the problem these great people had anything to do. They may be feeling sad in their grave after many centuries of their death that someday a state will be formed in which their statues will be erected at some prominent place only to be damaged by others who does not want the state any longer. Neither in the formation or in bifurcation these people hade no hand except that they wrote great books in a language both protogonists and antagonists speak.

Similarly statues of Ambedkar were damaged near Amalapuram. In this case I remember an incident of Andhrakesari narrated by my father .        Sri. Prakasam Pantulu dared the agitators to kill him rather than damaging his statue erected by his followers if they are so much angry.

So damaging or showing disrespect of the statues is highly deplorable and condemnable. However a bigger question always come to my mind whether statues are really required, if so what are the norms?

Hinduism is criticized for its statue worship. Goutam Budha himself opposed it many centuries ago. Not only the preachers of other religions but modern day social reformers who are the prime movers of social renaissance in modern India like Raja Rammohan Roy also opposed statue worship.

But it is ironic that some of the biggest statues in the world are that of Gautam Budha which are great places of worship and tourist attractions. President Obama writes in his autobiography that he used to be fascinated by statue of monkey god in his childhood. It is not uncommon in India that statues of Goddess Mary and Jesus Christ are worshiped. Statue of Liberty and many of the statues of Great Roman Empire still symbolize the greatness of important events by nations. Madam Tussauds Museum houses the vax statues of celebrities. It is considered as great recognition in the modern world. All the above shows that statues do have importance.

Swami Vivekananda who is unquestionably authority of all religions speaks about statue worship in following simple terms. It need not be opposed for the simple reason that the disciples are only praying, doing a very noble thing. But this type of worship should be only a starting point and not the end. Hence statue worship has to be used only as a stepping stone for other higher order things to be performed.

Following things have to be kept in mind while erecting statues. Statues of god and religious people should not be put on streets and highways for the simple reason that there are more than abundant temples available to satisfy all the needs of all the devotees. Moreover to keep the sanctity also this is essential. Statues of living persons have be avoided at all cost however great they may be because tolerance levels had since gone down from Andhrakesari days and emotions may lead to disastrous consequences. Statues should not be erected to demonstrate the one-upmanship of the leaders or that or FOLLOWERS. Followers is put in the capital because nowadays statues are put to show the strength of the followers vis- a -vis his rivals rather than show the respect to the leaders. Only occasional garlanding may be allowed but Palabhishekam and other worships have to be banned which are put on roads. Statues should not be put at places where they may cause traffic problems or possibilities of creating them in future. Otherwise they give opposite effect for which they are intended. Every town planning department should identify the places where statues can be put and limit the number of statues of a leader however great he may be.

Statues should show the core value propagated by the leader or the core competence of the leaders which common people should learn. This is the way historically sasanas are used by Indian kings.

ORDINARY FOR MANY CRUCIAL FOR FEW AN EYE WITNESS ACCOUNT!!

I am writing here about experience of an ordinary woman, a home maker living comfortably in a township with round the clock almost free power supply surrounded by area with regular power cuts. Her husband is a middle level manager in a Maharatna Company paying more than 5 lakhs rupees as incometax.She lives in an independent two storey 4 bed room house with a servant maid in outhouse. In one sentence it can be easily described that she is having everything any middle class woman can aspire in India. But one thing is missing. The township had no college that can prepare students for competitive exams like EAMCET. So she had to send her elder daughter, like many of the township parents to Hyderabad for Junior college. Then she was feeling depressed. At that time a friend of her Mrs. Indu Parmal, another township resident while leaving on her husband’s transfer advised her to work for an NGO. Then she joined an NGO Sai Seva Samithi free school as headmistress.  I am writing her experience there for the last five years. She is my wife, Mrs. Padmavathi. I am not writing to boast about her. Rather I am writing to show that an ordinary effort by a common person can make lot of difference to few people and to describe how skills of many women in our country are simply wasted. If it inspires even two three people, I feel it served its purpose.

Once a little boy went for a morning walk with his grandfather along a sea shore. The boy was busy collecting pebbles while he was walking. He noticed some jelly fishes came to the shore with the tides. The grandfather was throwing the jelly fish back into the water. After sometime he saw some more jelly fish on the shore and watched his grandfather throwing them back into the water. He asked his grandpa what difference does it make  because the jelly fish were repeatedly coming to the shore in spite of being thrown into the water. The grandfather smilingly answered that “throwing the jelly fish into the water doesn’t make any difference to us. But it makes a lot of difference to that jelly fish which is thrown into the water”.

I heard and read many such stories in the motivational classes attended during trainings and in personality development books. But I was skeptical about them because of analogies they make and assumptions of simplifications. After observing for five years unlike for minutes as in the story, I am beginning to accept the truth in it.

Coming back to the main story one day during 2008 my wife expressed her desire to work for a voluntary organization. As usual I took my own time. One day I saw a statement made by Mr. Ramesh Babu an employee of NTPC and committee member on Sai Seva Samithi NTPC-Ramagundam in a local newspaper.

Sai Seva Samithi is an NGO inaugurated in 1999 by Sri. K. Prakasa Rao, the then GM NTPC with 9 members for first aid and primary heath of poor and industrial labour with the money donated by NTPC Employees and a Yoga Society. The infrastructure support for the organization is provided by NTPC. NTPC Management and Deepthi Mahila Samithi are backbones and GMs and Presidents of Deepthi Mahila Samithi are regular visitors and grace almost all functions organized by Samithi. By 2008 it was already running TB centre with the help of AP TB Control Board, Urban Health Centre under AP Government Slum Project, Free school with mid day meal on all days and Annadanam for poor two days in a week and during festivals. Free school was started in 2003 and by 2008 there were 60 to 70 children with four teachers and one honorary teacher.

After reading the news item I contacted Mr. Ramesh Babu a known person over phone. He reacted enthusiastically and next day he was in our house requesting my wife to be the headmistress of the school. She put only one condition that only responsibility of school administration and teaching would be taken and not to involve her in financial and other Samithi activities. Immediately he agreed and next day she went to school. When she asked for auspicious day her father replied over phone that all days are fine for starting any good work.

Teaching ability is natural for her having acquired  from forefathers that include founding faculty of IIT Mumbai and a biomass scientist with lot of patents, Inspector of schools, teacher who taught many people in Pithapuram  samsthan and europeans and  a famous teacher in Kakinada for more than 30 years. She herself worked in DAV School Hyderabad for almost an year. Leadership qualities she acquired as a graduate from Andhra Mahila Sabha, situated in historic OU founded by renowned      Mrs. Durgabhai Deshmukh and during her BEd training from Satya Sai Institute of higher learning Anantapur run by world famous Satya Sai Organization under the direct guidance of Satya Sai himself. Her father is also instrumental in starting and running a high school for many years in his colony and is liked by people like Sri Samavedam Shanmukha Sarma. former DGP Sri Arvindarao and Prof. Pullela Sri Ramachandrudu in conducting philosophical and cultural meetings.  As she completed post graduation in English her English speaking skills are good. Yet I don’t consider any of the above qualities as extraordinary because many of such qualities and advantages are possessed by lot of people.

Children of the school are in the age group of 4 to 12. Most of them are children of oriya migrants residing in colony constructed by NTPC working as daily wage earners. They are innocent people and have lot of superstitions like black magic etc. Sending the children to school itself is a big task for them and regular attendance of the children is the big challenge let alone teaching them. So initially she concentrated on attendance and teachers were given responsibility to regularly bring them. Teachers were also residing in the come colony. Most of the children attend to school without eating any food. Within few days she had realized that what she started is nothing compared to the dedicated committee members who silently work. She was particularly amazed at the selfless service of three people connected to school. Mrs. Radhika, wife of Andhra Bank Manager, a graduate used to come regularly ,lovingly taking care of children and teaching whatever she can. Mr. KSN Raju ,an NTPC employee hard worker PM Shrambushan awardee working in a very important department is as dedicated to samithi work as to his official work. He breaks the scrap wood all by himself for using it in kitchen. He brings all the things needed for school. Dr. Sasmita Dash, a Gynecologist at NTPC Hospital inspite of her busy schedule was a regular visitor for Samiti Hospital treating patients. She was active committee member and always attends committee meetings and functions organized by Samithi and motivates  everybody.

Incidentally Padma tasted her first success in the school through biscuits and snacks.When she had told her Malayalee friend Mrs. Geetha about children attending without eating she immediately offered Rs. 1000 per month as a regular contribution by Kerala Chit members. This amount is being used from then on for feeding children snacks and biscuits in the morning.

Cleanliness and regular attendance are the next priorities after regular attendance. To create interest she started short teaching moral stories. Homework cannot be given to these children as there is nobody to help them at home. Systematic training of teaching skills to teachers is another thing she did. Time table was introduced even to this little school. Meanwhile NTPC constructed toilets through CSR programme. After seeing her interest NTPC officials and Deepthi Mahila Samithi incharges were asking her to tell the requirements and were always ready to fulfill.

All these resulted in small changes initially. Within three months when Madam Tresa Joseph the then President Deepthi Mahila Samithi who worked as a teacher in school for some years visited school one day, she is so impressed by the rhymes the children that she asked some more children to sing. She spent much more time than planned. She had organized a big picnic for the children and spent whole day with them. Food was arranged through ICH. It may be nothing for our children but for these children it is a dream come true. On the anniversary day in 2009 GM        Sri Thomas Joseph commented about two things that best describe the changes in one year. In his own words “I am regularly coming to the school for last 3,4 years. But of late I am seeing the children perfectly combing their hair. This is the first sign of change and will lead to many changes. I am wondering to know that ladies who gather for chit to have some good time can contribute to a noble cause. The idea is much more worth than contribution. If everybody reacts in same way it goes a long way in changing the society”. Sri Thomas Joseph and Madam Tresa Joseph gave constant encouragement and fulfilled all her wishes including expansion of school, construction of a shed etc.When madam was leaving the town tears came through her eyes as well as children during farewell.

Till 2011 school was running in Telugu Medium.As most of the children are from Oriya background the committee decided to change the medium to English. She could make the teachers to teach in English is a testimony of the efforts taken by her and the school applied for Government recognition. The inspecting authority showered all praise on school and its headmistress. Recognition was given in 2013 by DEO Karimnagar. NTPC business excellence audit team as part of audit on CSR visited the school. After seeing the school and its activities one of them immediately donated Rs. 5000 and both of them wished all NTPC stations to have NGO like Sai Seva Samithi.

Free meal scheme for school children is organized without any official support so meticulously that not a single rupee is wasted. The efforts of Sri Ramdas, Satyanarayana, Komuraiah, Raju and others  deserve lot of praise for this. Seeing this Collector of Karimnagar gave samithi  the responsibility for supplying food for the inpatients of Government Hospital. Changeover to English medium also increased the cost on books. Free meal scheme donation of school is preferred choice for many people for sponsoring during the birthdays of their children and other special occasions. Seeing the performance of the school many are donating voluntarily for the school. All this shows that there is no dearth of charity if trusted people and organizations are able to channelize them.

Enrollment for  the school reached above 110. Every year 5 to 10 children are sent to ZP school for higher studies. For  the last 5 years around 30 to 40 children were sent. School headmaster is saying that quality of  the children from samithi had gone up and many of them are leaders for their  respective classes. She brings answer sheets of the children to home sometimes. I am amazed to see the performance of some of the students. Some of them with proper support and encouragement can become very successful in their career. Two other voluntary teachers Mrs. Bharathi and Mrs. Niranjan Reddy joined the school in 2012.  Mrs. Bharathi is very good at teaching children small stories, training students for cultural events and craft activities. Meanwhile Sri. Y.V. Rao, took over as GM in March 2011. He alongwith his wife Smt. Padma Rao, are also regular visitors to the school and samithi. They are instrumental in constructing Kalyana Mandapam for Samithi which is given for hire for a token amount of Rs 500 a day.Later in December 2012 Sri Subhasis Ghosh took over as GM. He alongwith Smt. Soma Gosh provided lot of facilities for school in short span of time including constructions of grills to the verandah and air coolers for the schools to tide over the heat of Ramagundam.

                                              One day when CMO of NTPC Sri. JP Sachdev visited school Padma discussed the health of children and requested him to arrange for health checkup if possible.He was so generous and immediately accepted and for the last two years it was carried out and weak children were given treatment and advice.

Crucial difference it made to three children deserves special mention here. Gayathri aged around 9 years is a fatherless child. She is among two brothers and three sisters. The entire family is fed by her brother, a daily wage labourer at NTPC.  She was studying class 4 and so brilliant that from her answer papers nobody can even cut half a mark . Her handwriting is also excellent.One day Padma told about  the existence of such talent with Mrs. Padma Rao, President Deepthi Mahila Samithi. She immediately offered to pay the tuition fee on behalf of Mahila Samithi upto 10^th class if she is interested to study at any convent school. Padma went to Sachdeva School next day along with Sri. KSN Raju. Principal of Sachdeva School offered 50% fee concession for the child. Padma was ecstatic about it. She continued her success at Sachdeva School also and is top ranker there also. Seeing the success of Gayathri two more children Rajasagar and Sankar were admitted in  the next two years. Sachdeva Principal is putting them in a section where oriya teacher is available. Principal is very happy with them and asked Padma to send some more children. It may mean very little to all of us. But with the same facilities and environment available for any of the middle class children I am sure these children also can one day become bright engineers, doctors etc.

Teachers salaries went up by atleast 3 to 4 times. Two of the four teachers were given accommodation in school. But the biggest achievement is two teachers completed their graduation and one is in the process of completion. One even had Telugu Pandit training. Padma requested Matrumandir  Principal to provide training for the teachers. She was happy to oblige and all the teachers wer for their personal problems and she is a willing counsellor.With all these she created committed group of teachers who are always ready to contribute.

 Sai Seva Samithi was given Appreciation Letter for the activities by NTPC. An entire chapter was devoted to samithi in NTPC book compiled on its CSR activities by Sri PJ Mathews  GM Corporate HR and published by Tata McGrawhill. A special mention was made about Padma and school activities.

Padma was falicitated by Deepthi Mahila Samithi on the occasion of Teachers Day in 2011 for her contribution. An entire half page story was carried out an April 25^th this year by Eenadu local edition for the contribution of voluntary teachers with the title “Ideal Women and Donors of Education” .Sri Subhasis Gosh the present GM NTPC lauded the effort of school and declared that smiles on the faces of children bring lot of optimism about their future. Above all Padma gained a lot herself in the form of self satisfaction, sense of achievement and mental piece. At least two convent school teachers of St. Claire expressed their desire to work for the school.

I would like to conclude with an important event. Our elder daughter attended a job interview. She mentioned in her profile that her mother works as school headmistress at an NGO. They asked lot of questions about  NGO and her mother. Considerable time was spent on this subject. She was selected for the job. Bagawadgita says to carry out duty without an eye on the results. Results will follow. This is a perfect example of unexpected results that can follow.

Mrs. Rashmi Bansal in her author’s note of her popular book “I have a dream” writes about those who think and those who feel. Thinkers believe the world is a neat place with boundaries. Their boundary ends with their house, family, community and own welfare. They don’t feel for the problems of the others. But those who feel at least give something- compassion if not coin. She earnestly appeals for middle class to expand their thinking and start to feel for the suffering of others. In this lot of middle class women can do a lot who are graduates and post graduates by adopting one poor child and teaching them for at least one hour every day.It can make crucial difference to the child.

Discourses in Telugunadu!!

In the early eighties of last century there was one person named Sri Bhashyam Appalacharya, who was giving discourses and lectures on puranasl. Similarly there was one local man in Pithapuram near Kakinada Sri. Varanasi Chintamani, who was looking like Alluri Sitaramaraju, doing similar work at Kakinada. In those days both were good but unfortunately there were no TVs to make them universally popular.

Of late especially during the last 5 years there are four divinely gifted people (Bhagavatvara Prasadulu) who are making these discourses:

01.Sri  Paripurnanada garu.

02.Sri. Samavedam Shanmukha Sarma garu.

03.Sri. Garikapati Narasimha Rao garu.

04.Sri. Chaganti Koteswara Rao garu.

They are doing yeomen service with their discourses and speeches at various places and on various subjects: puranas, good living, interpretation of Geeta and what not.

These speeches make people spellbound. Continuity and connectivity with the day to day living in their speeches make them fascinating. TV Channels especially Bhakti and SVBC are making commendable efforts to reach these speeches to every corner of Telugunadu and every Telugu speaking individual across the world. Day by day audience and popularity for those is increasing.

My intention to write these lines is not to tell about their god gifted skill or the service they or TV channels are doing. But are the audiences getting the benefit that is intended?

This doubt I am getting every time I hear them because most of the time people are discussing the manner in which these people have made speech rather than the content of their speech. Some of them even feel proud that they are physically able to see and listen to them. They even feel fancy to tell that they are regular listeners of these people. Some of  them try to compare one another among these four and try to rank them. But if you ask them to describe what they told they cannot even recollect two, three sentences or sometimes even correctly topic.

I only wish the following things:

01.Attentively listen to these people. Don’t waste time talking to each other while attending their lectures or making running commentary of their speeches like cricket match. For Gods sake don’t attend them to increase your prestige in society.

02.Make note of them if possible or at least try to recollect the content of the speech rather than the style and discuss with likeminded people.

03.Try to teach them in simple terms to the young children.

04.Last but not the least try to practice them rather than thinking about whether these people who are giving discourse are following or not. We need not follow the preacher, we have to follow what good he preaches.

Then only the so called intended revival of religion or revival of humanity in mankind takes place. Till then Telugunadu remains a state who brow beat about their scholars but does nothing to improve.

Kautilya says in his Arthasastra more than 2000 years back “Instruction and training can promote discipline only in a person capable of benefiting from them. People incapable of self discipline do not benefit. Learning imparts discipline only to those who have the following mental faculties-obedience to a teacher, desire and ability to learn, capacity to retain what is learnt, reflecting on it, and finally ability to make inferences by deliberating on the knowledge acquired. Those who are devoid of such mental faculties are not benefited by any amount of training.”

Revival Of MAHATMA!!

On this very day 65 years ago Mahatma was assassinated. Today two things made headlines-Kamalhasan’s Viswaroopam was not allowed to release in Tamilnadu even after clearance from Madras High Court and Censor Board. Out of frustration,the most admired actor of India has announced in a press conference that he may have to leave the country to live in a secular state as was done earlier by a world renowned Indian Painter MF Hussain. Salman Rashide another great Indian born writer of Midnight Children was not permitted to enter Kolkata fearing violence.

Three days back another UP Minister declared in a public meeting that he would have led a demonstration to destroy the TAJ to show the world how pubic money should not be wasted and to demonstrate that he is a champion of the common tax payer. Ironically, it is a state where big monuments and public parks are constructed for a living person only recently and this champion was not known to have protested but want to rewrite history of 500 years. Fortunately, he did not ask to remove in text books Shahjahan’s name for the sin he committed. I would not be surprised if immediately a committee will be constituted to consider the demand. I wish the above is an overstatement. But I am not feeling that way because cartoons of 1950 by great cartoonist Sankar were removed from NCERT text books because our parliamentarians felt that they were showing Nehru and Ambedkar in poor light. The great leaders themselves never felt that way in their times and in fact one story says Nehru was even joking with Sankar when the next cartoon on him would appear.

Recently I was talking to a group of young people who have completed their engineering and some of them are even working. In between  the discussion I asked them to tell about Mahatma. Some were able to recollect the date and year of birth, death, Independence day etc. Fortunately all were able to tell that under his leadership India attained Independence. One intelligent guy declared that bandhs, disruptions, damage to public property during protests which are taking place today had roots in freedom struggle. Immediately my blood boiled. But then I thought who is to be  blamed  for this. The parents are never allowing them to read anything else other than EAMCET, IIT, CAT etc coaching material. For them Mahatma and freedom struggle are considered distractions, hamper their success and obstacles for the student’s growth. Even during the British Regime history of the nation as well as the Great Britain and their colonies from the known periods of origin and besides Basic Geography were taught in schools and colleges in India.

Albert Einstein a great scientist of all times had predicted that world would not believe that a man like Mahatma  lived on this earth, walked and talked with fellow human beings. But even that great scientist did not predict that he will be considered irrelevant in his own country by future generations so early after his demise.

I am writing so early because 65 years is too little considering the recorded civilization of more than 5000 years in India.

These young people are taking democracy and liberty enjoyed in India for granted as if nothing can disturb it. British Empire which lasted for 200 years covering half of the world collapsed in a span of 30 years. Moghul Empire also lasted for 200 years before its collapse. Even a Mighty USSR which was talking in equal terms with US during cold war era collapsed and divided into four to five countries after 75 years. Marxism which  inspired lot of young people for more than 100 years exists now only in the name of some Indian parties.

It is all the more difficult to think otherwise when out of two major political parties one could not find a better candidate than a seemingly reluctant dynastic leader and other one could not find a leader other than the person whose secular credentials are not beyond suspicion by his own party colleagues. We need not blame only these two. Other parties are also feeling dynastic rule as natural and some of the heir apparents claiming the right over their party as if it is an ancestral property. Fortunately courts are yet to entertain such cases.

Our finance minister, RBI and financial experts are concerned that gold imports are increasing and  are second only to most essential crude oil. Ironically, India ranks very low in human development index. India produces a very little gold. Though one of the largest economies still it has the largest poor population in the world. Even as RBI and Government are trying all other failed methods like increasing taxes which only encourage smuggling, banks and other financial institutions are advertising to buy gold with attractive gold loan schemes. But none of our political class has the courage to appeal to people to reduce gold consumption in these difficult times. Compare this with Mahatma’s preaching of boycotting foreign goods and former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Sastry’s appeal for skipping one meal in a week.

Rave parties and pub culture of youth to exhibit their freedom (some of them are financed by their own parents) also raise questions about true nature of freedom and whether we really deserve freedom brought by the sacrifices under the leadership of Mahatma.

Adolf  Hitler writes in Mein Kampf that teaching and studying history does not mean memorizing some important dates and the names of rulers or reciting some doctrines. History reading means studying the process involved leading to those events,causes, effect  of those events, relevance of these events and learning from them for the present day society.

HG Wells writes about preserving historic events with an example on Buddhism.  Disciples of Buddha   preserved the tree under which Gautama attained enlightenment. But they could not preserve the eight fold path prescribed by him. Otherwise Buddhism or  for that matter world would have been different today.

Every political party mentions RamaRajya in its manifesto but follows Coalition Dharma not Sanatana Dharma after coming to power. According to this Dharma everything can be condoned and pardoned in the name of preserving coalition. Blinking is more virtuous than awakening. Sidestepping is more valued than facing the problem. All great debates  take place on TV screen while Parliament meets for passing condolence resolutions or for adjournments to the next day. Every political party agrees on some issues outside the parliament but sees to it that the bill is not introduced in the house. Majority of the members oppose some issues but see to it that the bill is passed so that the government of the day should not be embarrassed. Even the members of major opposition parties abstain from important voting by taking an excuse of more urgent work than expressing the will of the people they represent.

Like these many things can be written and pages can be filled. So, at this juncture Mahatma’s philosophy is more relevant than any other time.

Our politicians must realize the consequences of stopping free expression. A film is banned after clearance from a respected body like censors and justifying the ban by announcing that it may antagonize the feeling of some groups thereby create law and order problems. These people should just refer to American Declaration of Independence authored by Thomas Jefferson and others which is the fore-runner for all modern day democracies. The fate that is deserved by the government which cannot protect liberty is clearly mentioned. No civilization has grown without somebody questioning the existing practices. Questions may be right or wrong but the right to question is never throttled in India. As Nobel Laurette Amartyasen has written that Caravaka and Gautama Buddha questioned.   But they were never stopped from questioning. In fact India is proud that there is no Galileo unlike in the west even in ancient times. Just imagine Mahatma did not question untouchability or British Government stopped it taking shelter under creating unrest among upper classes.

Mahatma never asked his followers to destroy public places to show the might of the movement. In fact, he stopped the freedom struggle when an innocent mob had torched a police station in a remote village in Bihar, much to the dismay of the greatest admirers of Mahatma because of his belief that a seed sown somewhere might grow into big tree which cannot be rooted out.

Criticism of Mahatma was never discouraged. Even Jawaharlal Nehru criticized Mahatma when Bihar earthquake and untouchability were linked by Mahatma. Gandhi’s policy of non-violence was protested by Netaji. Surprisingly, Netaji won the congress presidential election against the nominee supported by Mahatma. Difference of opinion was always respected in India. Atheism is as old as Vedas writes Amartyasen  in Argumentative Indian.

Some leaders across all parties have given statements questioning the girl of the requirement to travel in a bus in the capital in recent sensational gang rape case only to deny it next day and defending again at some other place. Let us set aside a moment of Mahatma’s definition of freedom that a true freedom is a time when a woman can move alone in the middle of night.But let us talk about their convictions. Compare this with Mahatma’s. Mahatma was asked to deny a statement in the court by a judge. He even requested Gandhi at least to apologize, so that he is spared from giving punishment to the great person. Instead, Mahatma asked the judge to do his duty.

It looks silly to mention here at a time that GO’s are made, unmade, tampered, alignment of roads  are changed, bureaucrats and intelligentia work overtime to serve the interest of their sons and their political masters only to blame each other in case the scam becomes open and sons of even honourable judges are involved in taking bribes for arranging bail in a much publicized case whereas Mahatma disowned one of his son’s only because his behavior was improper. But is it not a laughing matter that our country is ranked 94^th in Transparency International’s corruption index and 134^th in the latest human development index of United Nations and the country’s Youth is indifferent to these figures and are only interested and browbeat about their CTCs and pay packets.

Gandhiji went abroad for higher studies. This is not a news to be written for the present day generation when NRIs are one of largest immigrant community living in US and parents aspire to send their children to US or   get married their daughters to a green card holder. But 120 years back crossing the ocean was a taboo for a traditional Indian. Gandhi could persuade his parents, but only after promising his mother that he would never touch wine, other women or take meat. Putlibai did not ask for dollars or wealth but good behavior. For modern day parents every thing that is American is green, but they cannot digest when any young boy or girl dates like their American counterparts. But they fail to teach the good behavior. Mahatma writes in his autobiography that even  after lot of practice he almost came near to breaking the promise before remembering his word to his mother. Here is a lesson of parenting for every parent and behavior for every child.

Gandhiji is totally identified with freedom struggle by text book history. This did a great disservice to the nation or mankind. Because the young generation is identifying with him as a politician only, ignoring more important spiritual quality in him. Another important thing ignored is his transnational character. He fought against South African apartheid as well and he did it much before coming to India and only at the age of 46 he came back to India.  First seed of rebellion against  the racism  was also sown in him only in South Africa. His Phoenix Ashram in Durban is as famous as Sabarmati or Sevagram. His patriotism did not prevent him from making friendship with Europeans including British nationals and he was always surrounded by some white people. His first and fundamental policy was to protest the bad behavior in the person, without hating him like a true sanatanist. When whole India was celebrating the Independence Gandhiji was mourning for the people who were killed in partition riots. For him Hindu Muslim Unity and eradicating the untouchability were far ahead in his priorities than freedom. Just before his assassination also, he was on fast and one of the demands was to pay the money to Pakistan that was promised during the partition. He predicted the consequences of partition of India and tried his best to avoid it. World is facing the result of it and source of terrorism anywhere in the world has its roots in the region and this region is always at the receiving end of the scourge. Apart from this there were three wars between two countries and one of the countries divided again. The basic reason for which the country was born could not keep it united and the Sub continent is always on the boil. Leaders of two nations shaking hands is news of the world and for a casual statement on Jinnah a leader like LK Advani has to face the wrath of the many people. Every statement by one nation is always viewed with suspicion by the other and gives scope for other nations to fish in troubled waters. It is clearly proving Mahatma’s prediction that partition would not solve problems but fuel further problems.

His love for humanity was best exemplified by the letter written by him to Hitler addressing him as Dear Friend. He explains in the letter addressing him as friend should not surprise Hitler because a man like Gandhi cannot have enemies. He further writes that both were fighting  against the same power but it does not stop him from condemning the behavior of  the dictator as it threatens the very existence of humanity. He tried to teach the virtues of non violence to the great dictator.

Another big mistake in our text books is ignoring his spiritual character. With a peep into a few pages of My Experiments with Truth we will realize that he followed more spiritual path than political. His detractors were always complaining that his apolitical behavior would create more harm to the struggle rather than serving it and no political goal could be achieved through spiritual path he followed. But he never deviated from it and he openly declared many a time that he follows Santana dharma. He had always avoided anything that is slightly against Sanatana Dharma.Yet it didn’t prevent him from befriending people of all religions and none of   them, not even Jinnah suspected his secular credentials. At the same time he fought fiercely against sanatanists for eradicating untouchability. After reading few pages we will realize that he would have made a better spiritual leader than a political leader. In fact he had his Ashrams three famous ones (1) Phoenix in Durban South Africa (2) Sabarmati near Ahmedabad (3) Sevagram near Wardha.  But from them, living spiritual life led all types of struggles- political, industrial and spiritual struggles.

Many people and leaders did not believe initially that his truth and non-violence could bring freedom. But one by one including Lalalajpatroy of Lal Bal Pal fame  (one of militant wing) became admirers of Mahatma is a text book itself on leadership and I have not come across any book on personality development or leadership written by any author or any countryman without mentioning Mahatma even once. But unfortunately none of our Youth even do not correctly remember or try to study about him.

Another criticism on Gandhi is that he was against industrialization and only wanted village industries. There cannot be anything far from truth. If he was totally against industrialization, business legends at that time like GD Birla, Kasturibhai Lalbhai and Ambalal Sarabhai would not have come near him nor he would have entertained them given his nature. These people were ardent admirers of Mahatma itself shows his view about industrialization. There were times when Jawaharlal viewed them with suspicion but not Gandhi. At the same time he had seen in his stay in Europe that industrialization did not solve all the problems of Europe. If it could not solve the problems of Europe, then he genuinely  believed industrialization alone can never solve all the problems of more populous, basically rural India. Hence it is important that village industries should also develop in conjunction with big industries. Otherwise problems like urban migration and slums will create their own problems. Importance of rural market and rural industry is emphasized by modern day economists like CK Prahald in his Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. Successes like Prof Mohammed’s Bangladesh Grameena Bank also emphasizes the importance of village industries even in modern era. At the same time Mahatma in his time would not have imagined the invention of cell phones or spread of internet which could reduce rural urban divide and world becomes a global village.

It is disgusting to see or hear the way the politicians, bureaucrats and intelligentsia express their difference of opinion publicly on TV channels and the language they use against one another. They are not even trying to act of emulating the standards set by great leaders around 100 years ago. Mahatma is not alone in this regard. Many leaders have done that. But it is best exemplified by arguably the  two greatest leaders of all time in India, Mahatma and Lokmanya. Two years before his demise Tilak requested Gandhi to attend congress meeting. Gandhi politely declined his invitation telling him he differs with Lokmanya and Mrs. Besant in their method of fighting. He also acknowledged at the same time that both of them do believe Gandhi’s method would not achieve the goal. Gandhi said he differs with moderates led by Gokhale also and told that he strongly believes in his method of truth and non-violence and would be patient so that people will also understand.  At the same time he did want to tell in congress public meeting and embarrass Tilak. He advised both moderates and extremists also to state their positions publicly to people rather than compromising on their fundamental beliefs to project the common face. At the same time Gandhi organized a meeting to collect funds to compensate the loss incurred by Tilak in his court battle against English man  for public good. Mahatma always addressed Tilak as Lokmanya and paid greatest tributes on his demise telling that Tilak felt Swaraj as his passion and advanced the achievement of independence by many years by his acts and deeds.

Mahatma’s personal qualities and behavior like Simple living, Simple eating, Indriya Nigraham (control of senses), renunciation, truthfulness, adherence to non-violence, vegetarianism, courage, fighting for the oppressed,  way of mingling with masses, leadership qualities, of following Sanatana Dharma with the letter and spirit and patience are like a saint and only word MAHATMA can best describe him.

Jim Collins and his co-author  propose a theory of Yin-Yang in their book Built to Last which discusses the long surviving and most successful companies. The secret of these companies is preserving the core and changing the rest rather than trying to change everything.

So as a nation we have to also preserve the core of the nation that is best demonstrated by Mahatma. By writing all the above pages I don’t want to immortalize Mahatma. Jawaharlal Nehru writes in Discovery of India that India immortalize its great scriptures and people make them god to feel satisfied that ordinary human beings need not ever try to follow them, because god is too big to follow for ordinary.  Western nations make their great people as role models and our youth who are overawed by the west should follow west in this aspect also and try to imbibe great qualities of Mahatma not only to pay true tributes to him but for the very survival of our nation and democracy. On this day of my conclusion I came across a news item in a telugu news paper-Eenadu that the Chinese are teaching about Mahatma to their younger generation to build a Good Character and a sense of direction to the whole country for their future. Let us learn from others and imitate them  as we only imitate from others and learn about our greatness.

The cause of today is the effect of past and cause of the future.

Whatever you think that you will be. If you think yourself weak, weak you will be; If you think yourself strong, strong you will be.

What the world wants is character. The world is in need of those whose life is one burning love, selfless. That love will make every word tell like thunderbolt .

                                                -swami Vivekananda.