Looking at the Bloodied Hands of Communism!

 

Darwin says all beings, across species, and the related phenomena across various natural processes, are propelled by the survival instinct among the constituting elements. In this tussle between the superior and the inferior, the nature evolves in its multitudinous forms comprising tragedies, ecstasies, pleasures and pains. It is basically a class struggle both at the intra- and inter-species level. Both in natural and human systems (we humans now operate almost in exclusion of nature), the fittest ones adapting better to the plummeting circumstances are the ones to take a lead in either milking the resources or in laying the framework for the overall system to function.

 

The human system is a big behemoth, intriguingly evolving, following the parameters of the jungle in its human variants. There is basically a fight for individual and even collective interests. Of course to make us believe that the human society does not follow the raw principles of nature (like the lion eating the deer—unsinfully—to survive), we have interposed the institutions of religion, morality, ethics, concept of good and bad, sin and pious deeds, karma, etc. However, as per the principle of social selection (derivative of natural selection), the human society moves ahead over time defined by clash of interests at various levels in different fields. If we remove the differentiating layers and levels in the society; if we remove the hypothesis of sin out of this struggle—like we have removed from the struggle between lion and deer—the leftover will simply boil down to a struggle between the more skilled and the less skilled. Out of the numerous levels of interests (ranging from individual, family, religious, state, earth,….), one clash of interest is at the level of the upper and the lower class. From the start of the known history, human affairs have been shaped directly and indirectly by the class struggles (between the upper and the lower), among individuals within a particular class on the basis of their less or more suitability, and even among the individuals of different classes. Although with changing times, the fields of struggle have changed as well. This broad overarching struggle contains many sublevels to trickle down to the tiniest triumphs, humiliations, wins, losses, exploitations, etc.

 

The communists have been tonking their ideas and ideology infested heads against this almost inevitable defining differential in the society that seems to be pushing the motley mix of minority’s triumph and the majority’s woes. As a counter to this, one might say that the Western liberal democracy might reverse the ratio. However, it comes at the cost of an invincible super state which with the purpose of safeguarding the majority’s interests has to be a still exploitative institution that mightn’t exploit its own have-nots much but then it can very easily do so to the teeming millions in the third world.

 

Taking up cudgels from the famished majority’s side, the communists thus unite the working class interests to make it super-strong so that it can suddenly go berserk and break apart the centuries old system of exploitation and its supportive elements. For this reason the communist movements are called ‘revolution’. Earlier it was against the monarchy, nobility, aristocracy embaling in them what we call ‘luxury’ aesthetically and intelligently supported by the religion. Religion, for its pious injunctions seems to be more effective in stopping a poor person from seeking alternatives than stopping the exploitation by the upper class. So the revolutionaries as atheists pluck out the sinews of long-held beliefs, convincing, providing solace and sympathy to the underclass. A Godless person is less accepting; carries immense prospects of imposing his will through covert and overt means. Hence religion is held culpable by the revolutionaries in the sense that it forces people—makes them habituated to their woes as the will of the divine forces beyond their control—to become adapted to their ill fate rather than putting the same time and energy in remedial measures. Religion, of course, for centuries has been good, sympathetic, solacing companion to the masses helping them in licking their wounds and swallow the sorrows. Thus the revolutionaries break its façade, terming it stagnant in its principles and in cohort with the exploitative classes. Religion too unfortunately demands its share of glitter and glamour that only the upper class can provide. After all, a poor person’s God is a lesser God. The religion of the poor with limited resources is even termed as animism.

 

Once the revolution led by the newly pious injunctions of classless society tears out (generally in a bloody manner) the ancient system, the interests of the former upper class are either hijacked by a dictator or an all powerful super-body—polit-bureau or the central committee—which in itself replaces the empty seat of godhood; a tiny blackhole type superforce to root out the still surviving differences of any type. Unfortunately, differences are bound to crop up somehow. So they keep on nipping the buds. This sudden rush of purgatory blood leaves gory tales far more horrible than the ones committed by the former system over centuries. Their tales of atrocities committed in just years outmatch the ones perpetrated across decades or even centuries by the earlier system. It is just like a helpless group of sufferers running away from the semi-lethal teeth of a wolf into the shelter of a hungry lion with super-strong claws. In this religionless weeding out for the cause of the supreme ideal, the religious tools of mercy and pity do not exist to act as the check dams. After all, religion has been constructed to function as a check dam to save a situation where ‘the lion eats the deer’ principle is allowed to operate in milder nastiness in the human society. In a Godless state all hell breaks loose. After many bloody strivings, the communists much to their chagrin find that the divisive curse of the selfish, individualistic interests still survives in one form or the other.

 

Capitalist, socialist, liberal democracies on the other hand are less glaring and more subtle in their deeds, because here the old exploitative forms have been redressed as modern principles of liberty, equality and fraternity. It is a subtle and white-blooded exercise: the old forces in their more acceptable avatars. It also promises to provide ample opportunities to the masses to struggle through the lawful checker work to move up the capitalist ladder to reach the class on the top. It believes in conversion rather than coup born of the clash of interests.

 

However hard the communist regime might try the class differentials will persist in one form or the other; simply because we are human beings, cast in so unique and numerous ways with billion ways of thinking; and not just same colour factory product.

 

PS: Something away from the main discussion in this topic! The reason why a democrat politician, an industrialist or a dictator occupies his/her influential position can be—among others off beat factors like luck, fate, destiny—that the said person is stronger in getting his conscience unchained from the restricting principles of good and bad in the game of survival. It boils down to: Who is more skilful? It is just a matter of more or less skills.

 

Was Colonialism Really that Bad?

 

Consider a small village typically set in the Indian countryside. Have a look at the social structure. Look at the pathetic condition of the so called low class secluded pockets. You will find poor, unconfident, exploited people. Its opposite class, smartly perched on top of the social structure comprises more moneyed confident persons who given their contrastingly better position appear like exploiters.

 

During the ancient times when the classes, castes and categories were settling down, it was more of fighting in a lawless land to cement your position in the present and sow the seeds of better position for your progenies. Under the brutally impartial and indifferent gaze of nature, in the emerging social system some groups gained ascendency, others lagged behind. Some groups claimed more rights and fought for these. Others surrendered more and settled at lower positions. Across generations, these differences kept on being augmented with clearly defined social rules and restrictions, always in favour of those who had taken the lead generations ago. So at the end of the tunnel, if we just ignore the gradual process and look at the position of the people on both sides of the divide, we might, equipped with our sensitivities and modern human values, dub one as the exploiter and the other as the exploited. Reality has many angles, so are the ways and means of looking at a thing, phenomenon or process. Somebody, though at a risk of condemnation, might just summarise it as a natural game between the stronger and the weaker, like it happens in nature. After all social Darwinism has such parallelisms with the way we act, behave and manage in the social jungle: the human variant of survival, fight, loss and gain, like it happens in the natural forests.

 

Colonialism has drawn an exclusivist debate about its character and affects. Just like a particular community has come to excel at the village level, and this dominance of course comes at the cost of those at the lower rungs, in the international social system also bunches of seafaring, courageous, more enterprising, less God fearing, fitter physically and mentally people came to dominate. This is the law! We try to occupy the best possible position. Be it at the community that can maintain itself just at the village level, or the Westerners whose industrialising, exuberant selves sent them on rampage to occupy territories beyond the seas. Do they become exploiters just because they gained more in a field that was open for all? Do we become the victim by default because we lost more given our inherent shortcomings? If a village level politically ambitious person manages to politically dominate a village only, does Modi become a political exploiter and a trampler on the rights of this village-level politician because Modi given his better political acumen has acquired the highest political seat? We analyse and interpret colonialism more as victims and less as sound academicians accepting certain cold hard facts.   

   

In the Indian perspective, millions of pages about the dark face of colonialism have already been written. One page about the positives of colonialism, though not popular, has also been allowed for a change of literary taste. Even some bits of facts on this solitary page need no repetition. All it includes is codification of laws, railways, telegraph, waterways, system of modern education, system of administration, the ways and means of running a democracy, great hill stations, consolidation of Indian sovereignty in the North East, dispelling evils like Sati from the Indian society, etc. But what are these?! These are very small doings by the plundering hand, they say. But what will be left of modern India if these components are taken out?

Imagine a Britishless India. The Mughal dynasty still continuing to rule for the next 200 years! India at the most would have got a few more forts, grand mosques, luxurious palaces, and possibly a still grander Taj Mahal! But where would have been the modern India we are so proud of? When Major Hudson killed the sons of the last Mughal and they packed the poet King to Rangoon, as historians we cannot judge it as a crime only. Bloodshedding even among brothers has been the norm to capture thrones in pre Muslim as well as Muslim ruled India. Possibly they even did us a favour, the valiant Britishers, in finally extinguishing the old medieval lineage which had long outlived its past splendour and architectural glory. Given Hindu apathy, and the so called ‘peace loving nature’, we might still have been ruled by some titular head, some decapitated small time great great great grandson of the last Mughal. And the last of all, consider an India without the few positives of Colonialism mentioned shyly on the single page dedicated to its positive affects! Where would have we stood? Possibly like Iran, at the most!    

 

Why does He Want to Continue Writing?

 

Well, very small mundane facts define him. He continues writing with the intention of adding a bit bigger facts to define him. He writes not with the intention to outwit others claim to similar bit more bigger facts. Self justification is one of the easiest things coming to our nature. We justify even the worst of our deeds. He writes to justify the inherent tendency in him to survive as a professional writer. Not that he cannot do something else to earn his bread and butter. He definitely can. And he is doing in fact. But you know there is a piously whispering cooing of the real self that eggs him on to still keep trying to give his writing a platform.

 

Coming from that part of the north Indian countryside, where literature will be the last thing on anybody’s mind, where agriculture is the culture itself, he is the black sheep that is trying to get out of the herd to make this most unlikely career for anybody coming from the Jat land, or synonymously the buffalo land. Well on the down slope of youth, more than once he has abandoned the dream of full time writing. Many a time he has realised his limitations as a writer. Still many more times he has felt himself a victim of the forces beyond his control. Today when he gets up to try again to get a slippery foothold, he can very well hear the anticipating applauding whispering of the inherent voice again.

 

He fought for the most prestigious civil services positions in India. Fought decently well also, given his limitations and more importantly the literary limitations of the socio-cultural unit he comes from. The harder he worked, the more distant became the goals. He saw the worst of politico-bureaucratic-judicial game. When he finally fell his inner voice told him, it is more on account of the system’s failure than his own. So he has little sips of justice in the form of the inner thumbs-up by his soul.

 

Every time he fell, deeper were the analytical impressions on the neurons of his brain; graver were the bruises on his heart. If nothing more, it gave him the mood and inclination to write. Still he is fighting for his take away. His reward! He does not want it at the cost of somebody more deserving. He is not into comparison. We can compare just simple tangibles. How can we compare life’s thousand catapults that all of us get uniquely, single-handedly?

 

He is not taking writing in life as a competition, but as a fate’s lottery pot, wherein somebody will walk out with a smile. Having full faith in the fates’ evaluation, if he builds a platform to support his writing, he would also prefer to walk away with a broad smile!

 

Wishing him and others best of luck!

 

Why Americans will Remain the Lions of the Jungle in the Present Century?

 

Do you think the chances to succeed and be a leader over the fellow humans depend on somebody being good or bad? Most moralist theoreticians will cast their dye in favour of ‘being good’. Just look at all those who occupy the front ranks of society in terms of power, influence and money, you will soon realize being ‘good’ or ‘bad’ hardly matters when it comes to these successful social lions. What matters is the degree of fear, apprehensions, constrictions and restrictions all combining in an individual uniquely to make him/her weaker or stronger in both mind and body. Physical wellness runs a step ahead to make an individual stronger at other levels like in mind, attitude, confidence, etc. We can even summarize that less fearful means being stronger at various interpretational levels. So those who course away to distant glories are the ones who fear less, because they are stronger physically (foremost) and better mentally (mental interpretations of strength are just a subset of overall physical strength).

Learn from nature. It has all the clues. It holds all of its secrets in the open. It does not promote one species over others on the basis of being good or bad. It is just about the self-evolving scenario of the stronger surpassing and suppressing the weaker. Weakest species are the most in numbers. But these are also very limited in their level of participation in the whole drama. Mere numbers does not mean a larger role in the game. Had it been so, the ants would have ruled the roost in a forest, not the lion! The weaker a species is, the more apprehensive is its each and every step under the cold, impartial glare of the mother nature. Take for example a mouse. The moment it steps out of its hole, its heart pounding with uncertainty and fear, its nose twitching to sense danger, its cowering paws keeping it on tenterhooks! Where is strength; where is surety; where is determination; where is confidence; where is relaxation? It fears most, because it is primarily weak at the physical level. In proportion to its weak, fearful existence, it leads a limited life among the few bushes and rat holes. If we move up, we get dogs, deer, jackals, wolves, etc., all of them having a larger role in proportion to their degrees of being less or more fearful decided by their physical strength. Look at the lion! Watch its carefree gait, its confidence, its sure steps, its relaxing persona under the shade of a tree! All these are the derivatives of its fearlessness, of it being strong physically. Have a look at the majestic ‘I care a damn’ gait of an elephant and compare it with thousand deaths a mouse dies the moment it comes out of its hole. We have the same human variants in social jungle, the social lions, elephants, mouse, etc., depending on their degree of being less or more fearful!

Asians are producing more offspring, Indians and Chinese are doing it, Islamists are also adding to their stock like anything! Does it mean that with more numbers in their category, they will dominate! No it cannot be! From what we observe in nature, it does not look so. Poultry production compromises quality, instils fear, procreates weaklings, booms and bangs confidence, limits motivation. If it is not so, deer in larger hordes will roam freely in the jungle. Ever wonder why Americans, or for that matter Westerners, are hardy bothered about adding to their numbers. It is about maintaining a standard pedigree. Limited procreation has maintained a stable, strong, confident stock. And they rule the roost. Someone might say that with billions of numbers on their side, Indians and Chinese are acquiring a larger role and significance. They are but they are scampering to crowded glory only in the grasslands. At a level where they can just be suitable paper crowned kings in the thoroughfare set by the top honchos. American system instils fearlessness in an individual by making them follow free paths beyond the compulsions of conventions and socialized shit. The chronic compulsions and conventions in the oriental world tame down an individual under forced priorities of education, careers, peer expectations, marriage, children, leaving an inheritance, etc. All these priorities take the individual to the backseat, demand many sacrifices, and force him/her to live for the future at the cost of the present. Under such an assault, of course they are more inclined to be weaker physically and consequently weaker at many other variants of individuality and persona.

In comparison, for Westerners generally and Americans particularly the top priority is staying physically fit, follow own path, stay independent and fearless. They are not bothered about wearing out body and mind just for future generations like Asians do and have no present at all. They do not have to carry the burden of conventionalised expectations to lose their present by being yoked in tiny duties and responsibilities at more common levels. The former breeds leaders, the latter just numerous followers. With technological advancement of a few decades and choice-limited lion-type maintained pedigree, Americans will continue to run worldly affairs throughout the current century. The rest of the populous world will have its noisy crowded share of glories in a subordinate world. 

Chaudhary Devi Lal: The Apolitical Politician

 

Politicians are smart outwitters. They outwit we smaller fish in whatever we assume, presume or think. This chicken-hearted Indian feels like diving into a ditch every time the mighty caravan of an influential politician zooms on the road. Here was I coming on the road just occupying a foot on the road’s edge carrying my small self on a stiller smaller motor bike. And there he was coming, the Congress Chief Minister of Haryana, occupying 99 per cent of the road, carrying his large self in a still larger motorcade. Black hooded commandoes in open escort jeeps in the front found my one foot encroachment on the road too risky for the Honoured Lion King in the state. So they brandished their weapons, ordering me to abandon my encroachment on the road. Boss, it was scary. I would have straightaway jumped into a ditch to clear the way if not for this big acacia foliage to my left. So there I tucked up, like a dog holding its tail down, thorny acacia branches crowning my dispossessed head as the common man, in utter submission, still guilty that I could not clear the road completely. Meanwhile, the motorcade zoomed past with God knows how many departments ranging from security, police, hospital, fire service, cranes, and endless trail of hyenas who survive on the bones thrown by the Lion after his masterful catches.

 

Brothers and sisters, I am too common a man, and thus get jittery when I come across a typical politician with his predatory aura. I just cannot manage to stand anywhere around the place where a politician stamps his authority by gracing the earth with his footfall. My fear of the political class would have been unbreakable and unsurpassable if not for some comforting images from childhood drawing me near a huge white dhoti kurta clad patronising figure. A politician, but an apolitical one. A figure who was into politics, who thundered affably from political stages, but never appeared daunting and intimidating to the masses. This figure still holds me back from dispensing whole of the political class as predatory sharks. It is the maker of modern Haryana, Ch. Devi Lal – our Tauji – the Jan Nayak; the spirited non-conformist against the shadowy overtures of lopsided development at the cost of countryside; the man crowned with the unadulterated halo of farmers' interests. My liking for him is not borne of any political favour directly indirectly to anybody in my or even extended family across a few generations. Just that he did not make us feel intimidated. Simple. He towered over the surroundings, but appeared looking down with supportive gaze, not the typical hawkish gaze of a politician, prying into your eyes with nefarious motives, or just looking at you simply as a faceless, identityless another vote.

 

The basic proof of his apolitical approach is his saying ‘no’ to the most coveted political seat in the country, the prime ministership. The third front had chosen him to be the leader, but selflessly realising his worth as a farmer leader, he chose to be the agriculture minister and chose V P Singh for the highest post. It clearly proves that ambition, the famous bug biting the politicians, had not been successful in biting him, thus leaving him apolitically humane.

 

It is a matter of pleasure and pride to write something positive about somebody from the contemporary politics in modern India. I feel it is a Godly intercession in my little literary journey that I have been provided the opportunity to hitch my tiny literary cart to the strong and swift horses of his legacy to get some moments of positive thoughts about politics and politicians. There is voluminous testimony to the impressiveness of Ch. Devi Lal's calmly commanding personality. And if a son of Haryana – the karmabhoomi of the farmers' messiah – entails himself to the fag end of Tauji's enormously elderly aura and legacy, it should be forgiven and appreciated. We have our inexplicable extremes of likes and dislikes. From the glimpses of my childhood when Haryana was all about agriculture, villages, struggling farmers and buffalos, all I muster up is genuine appreciation for this son of the soil.

 

The Jan Nayak's overriding benevolence shining through the rack and ruin of time beckons to the time when we ran after some lone vehicle plying on the dusty road, loudspeaker blaring and we children competing with each other to get some election campaign leaflet. The leaflet, the printed words and the symbol on low quality mossy colour paper appeared more charming than any toy to the countryside lampoons. It was a small world. The leaflet and the persona too big. Now when my mature brain cudgels up memories of this unblemished character and analyse his works for the country's downtrodden, those childhood luminous memories become firmly fadeless. Lustrous whirls of the extravagant green decorated so proudly in the agricultural fabric of this country will continue to inspire generations to come. His work, worry and weariness for the cause of rural India make him outstandingly standout amongst the rag-tag parliamentary disorder.

 

The old age pension, the small offering to the elderly and the neglected as a token, as a salute for their life-long struggles and sacrifices. When a frail hand, not able to earn anymore, not having any supportive hand to hold it, pockets a few hundred rupees as the old age pension, it appears miraculous support to the fragile body, more supportive than any kith or kin. This humane touch from Ch. Devi Lal’s caring heart, this spin off of his sympathising self, today serves as a lifeline to the millions of neglected elders in India in the form of old age pension scheme.

 

Despite achieving so much at the highest level of Indian politics, he was uncommonly sobered; his simple, stout spirit, merry and mellow elderly aura made him immensely approachable to the people from the lowest rung of life. Where else would you find a Chief Minister, who dropped in by a poor hutment and heartily enjoyed the frugals offered like he had been served with the choicest delicacies from the costliest restaurant? Every settlement in Haryana happily cradles scores of such sweet memories. He would arrive at the scene mired in heartbreaks and dejection. And lo! An encouragingly buzzing transformation would take place. His mere presence would sprinkle new life. His malleable sensitivity, kind and condescending behaviour, subtle and strong physique dispelled the disharmony and dispassion from the scene.

 

We grew up in our village taking him the single synonym of all that 'politics' means to the children. Such has been the sweeping scope of his charisma across the length and breadth of Haryana! That casual flightiness of flickering childhood can still clearly recall the grand impressiveness of his hold over the rural psyche. While I was 13-year-old, finding me unconcernedly lost in the slow grandeur of childhood, my grandfather – a devout farmer follower of the Jana Nayak – scolded me:

 

‘You haven't yet learnt how to talk like a youth. At your age, Ch. Devi Lal not only spoke like a fiery youth, but acted like one also. At such a tender age of 13, he raised the flag of revolt against the Britishers and courted arrest for the cause of mother India!’

 

It was then I got to realise the real force of his selfless valour, courage and conviction.

 

Generic sacredness of his socially prominent policies--for which he life-long lugged it out and lugged it in--made him the favourite son of Haryana's destiny. The Jan Nayak was compulsively attached to the cause of the sons of the soil. Throughout his life, he apolitically slogged ahead, shouldering the responsibilities of those whose interests – up to that time – were politically sterile. And this cherished goal of his would never get off his uncomplaining shoulders till he left this world. Even during his last days, his feeble, old eyes envisioned a golden future for the deprived and dispossessed masses in the state. A very-very old farmer whom I met in a bus broke down while he narrated the dreamy moments he shared with the farmers' messiah when the latter had been bedridden by the inevitable and cruel hand of age.

 

‘His eyes were peacefully closed,’ the farmer told me about his life-long hero. ‘When I touched his feet, slowly but with sudden urgency his eyes opened. He had energy just enough to say few words and asked, “How is it with the crops?’ And then those big, passionate eyes were closed again, as if he was praying for me and the crops.’

 

Tauji's all-fired urgency had blossomed fresh morning's verve in the sublime stillness of the traditional hinterland of Haryana. Yes! We as children have been the first hand witness to this silent revolution of 'coming of age of the rural Haryana.' His name connoted all that leadership, politics, elections and statesmanship meant to us. Far away from the hoot and holler, and flimsy vanities of 'utilitarian politics', ‘the leader of the common man’ was selflessly busy in his mission. And later when his benevolently beaming imagery shone at the national level, perhaps for the first time this country came to understand and realise the real worth of the Jats, who have been the bread earners of this big country, and who in return were uncomplainingly scraping a living — ‘barely’ — for their impoverished and almost famished families.

 

It is a pungent irony that the mountainously big legacy and stature of this great son of Haryana has proved to be too broad and comprehensive for the local literature to accommodate in its pages. May be it is due to the fact that literature is in its nascent stage in this traditional land of agricultural community. Still the myth and aura spreads through the mouths of the old generation who saw him at their peak. Many hollow cheeks lit up with life around hookah in chaupals as they recall their experiences with this apolitical politician. His political legacy is still encashed for political gains by his sons and grandsons. I have nothing to say in favour or against these endeavours. All I say is that my admiration is limited to the source of the legacy, Ch. Devi Lal. I just cannot help admiring this peasant leader’s exceptional simplicity, magnificent profusion of forthrightness, unflinching righteousness and fierce possessiveness about the cause of downtrodden and deprived.

 

In Haryana the people of every caste, class and political spectrum treat his memories as common legacy and he draws all encompassing reverence, gratitude and hearty salutation from each and every one of us.