The Complete Man

People today are quickly and blindly adopting western attitudes, those that are not in many ways apt for our society. And for the actually imitable attributes, there is resistance.

We have pubs where young people of both sexes meet and drink but we haven’t accepted sex education. We have the big shot foreign companies here to exploit the domestic market, but no job-ready workforce, owing to the still ‘unpractical’ education system. Knowledge is being quickly replaced with data. We change the Facebook cover picture to the national flag on one day of the year, and forget the country for the rest of it. We have guided missiles and misguided men. We are readily sharing our selfies taken in malls and multiplexes on Instagram, but are still bound by caste marriages.

The lack of understanding on sensitive issues like the concept of religion, faith, modernity and social setup is still stark, as India struggles to achieve its 2020 goals. A lot of effort is required to take the social framework to the next level. Anyone working towards this goal in any field deserves appreciation. Someone who did this when faith was misguided and intense, and social work wasn't a trending hashtag, deserves a lot more.

Imagine the scenario more than half a century ago. Let’s go back to that time.

Bacchu Singh is another youth among the many despising the foreign rule. What makes him different from the others is that he acts to bring about the change, and the fiery passion to achieve that in his eyes. He joins the extremists in their untiring efforts to uproot the alien rule. In the process, he faces all the hurdles that the colonialists could erect to stop him and his co-revolutionists. He has to disguise himself, carry secret information against the rules and avoid arrests that could lead to severe punishments.

One day, he gets arrested. He is penalized with the infamous ‘Kaala Paani’, and sent to the cellular jail in Andaman. The cells are of such size that you can’t lie down straight in it to maximize the discomfort, among the many other inhuman restrictions. There, in the company of other revolutionaries who are from different backgrounds, he gets insight into the society outside.

Upon release, he comes out a wiser man.

He soon picks up social causes, and enters into married life. He is equally open in encouraging his wife, another revolutionary person, to pursue further studies, and letting her go away for the same in times when communication was a major issue. Later he motivates her to go for a job. Women, even today, are expected to be on the move along with their husbands, take up transferable or non-permanent jobs, and focus on the family. He has the rationality to give her all the freedom a woman deserves.

When the couple is blessed with a daughter, people come to him say that the girl would cause his downfall. They suggest him to throw the child away. He becomes furious and throws these people out. He takes his daughter into his arms and names her ‘Kranti’, or ‘revolution’. Not only does he keep her, but also stays a caring father to her, educates her. He is delighted to have a son and another daughter a few years later. He infuses his values and rationality into his children. After all, change begins at home.

He read a lot of books, which gave him immense knowledge in fields like sociology and religion. Being a BHU graduate awarded with the title of ‘Shastri’ (the most coveted title at that time, given to very select people), and endowed with the knowledge from the books, he set upon the task of penning down his own perception of the world. He wrote few books deep on insight and reflecting upon the thinking of people at that time, what it was, and what it ought to be. He shared his perception on social relations, religion, politics and socialism among others in these books.

Here’s what Ramvriksha Benipuri, a Hindi literature virtuoso, had to say about him and his work ‘Ab manzil door nahi’:

“My friend Bachchu Shastri had actively participated in the do or die movement of 1942 and I am happy that he has given his experiences a form of a play. Not only this, he has also shown us the direction in which society will move in future based on the incidents of the movement. There is a poem by Rabindra – the sun was setting, world was stunned, who will now give light; even stars and moon were afraid. The small ‘diya’ then came up – till then this burden on my small shoulders. This creation of friend Bachchu jee must be seen in this way.”

Despite the lack of government’s support to freedom fighters and of the society to social workers, he got some accolades under his name. The most recent being felicitated by the CM of Jharkhand for his dedicated and valuable support to the freedom struggle. However, the best reward he got was the smile on faces of people he helped and seeing small changes taking place in the society for the better.

He was a freedom fighter, a social worker, a writer, a revolutionary, a patriot and an inspiration.

In the month of November, 2012, the revolutionary breathed his last. The family mourned, the society suffered a loss. He was put on the pyre covered in national flag, honored in his death, as in his life.

I am fortunate to have grown up under his aegis. I had the opportunity to see his legacy at work. I am lucky to have his blessings with me. I am proud that I had such a grandfather.

For a ‘Jharkhand shining’

Long before Telangana, Jharkhand was cut out from Bihar, with the justified expectation that an area geographically and demographically different would be administered and served better if separated. Now, years on, the state of both the parent state and the new one is the same. Jharkhand, just as Bihar, has limped on ever since. Rampant corruption and backwardness has plagued the state bestowed with resources, as development and growth stands stymied. Tending to one problem alone is neither sufficient nor entirely possible. What is needed is a multi-level solution spanning across different sectors.

Naxalism and literacy

These are two things that need prime and undivided attention, and are highly interlinked. These two problems need to be attended simultaneously. The most pressing concern for the state of Jharkhand is naxalism, which is affecting more than 75% of the districts it has among a host of other vital activities. One of the prime reason for new entrants into naxalism is improper or no education and lack of employment opportunities. Both the problems can be diluted to a good extent through education to the marginalized section of the society, a section whose plight is very conveniently concealed in the average literacy level of the entire state. And of course, educating people without tackling naxalism is evidently failing. Thus, a holistic and dedicated effort is required at this juncture.

Employment and opportunities

To prevent people from returning to anti-social career alternatives, employment opportunities needs to be provided. This can be done by allowing some of the private sector industries who are willing to capitalize and invest in the remote areas to do so. Allocation of resources to the correct people on the basis of efficiency and optimum utilization instead of lobbying would be the first step here. The plants and offices set up would provide remunerative sources of income, thus pouring in money (liquidity thus achieved at the base of the income pyramid would go a long way in feeding back returns to the state). Tourism, a major potential sector for Jharkhand might also be helpful in providing opportunities to the locals.

Financial inclusion

Bringing everybody under the umbrella of banking and fiscal policies quickly by removing implementation bottlenecks will be very fruitful. It would help in micro-credit financing, putting money into the right hands, and in this way pulling them out of the vicious cycle of poverty. It would also ensure proven advantageous measures like micro-saving, micro-insurance, and so on. Using technology to leverage an efficient execution will ensure that money comes directly to the poor and doesn’t pass and gets retained in the hands of middlemen. The bank-at-your-doorstep plan of the Govt. is proving to be quite helpful in this aspect, apart from generating employment in banking.

Distributed growth

Generally, rural people move to the cities either for job opportunities, or when they get better-off, and hope to live the urban life. If proper employment is provided in the rural areas itself, along with all basic amenities like good education and healthcare, the problem of cramming and overpopulated cities would be resolved. Growth in rural areas would also be an obvious by-product. As for primary education, the government’s effort will be bearing fruit in the long run, but for healthcare, some amount of strategy revamping is required. Registered doctors could be made to go to a rural area of their choice for a month every two years. There, they would train the local medical personnel and paramedics. This would ensure that the locals are under more professional care even in the absence of the visiting doctor (the doctor will be needed to be aptly remunerated for this task). Tourism would also be helpful in distributed growth, as most of the untapped, natural and attractive tourist hot-spots are in the rural areas, and focusing on tourism in these areas will not only provide income generating jobs to the locals, but also generate local revenue to be reinvested there.

The road ahead

For this, the government needs to focus less on populist measures and more so on growth-oriented measures. For this to happen in turn, people need to favor the political agenda of development instead of merely voting for the divisive politics and short term or personal gains. And here again, actual and proper education would help, for example people should be aware that non-merit subsidies have a negative impact on the economy and its members, the people. Jharkhand has 40% of the mineral resources in India and is home to the most hard-working tribes apart from peace loving people. Shouldn’t development be obvious in the long run?

A stick of peace

Some men threw him out of a train, he threw their entire empire out of his country. And it was not revenge.

I came upon people who didn’t believe in the Gandhian principles and have the misconception that the emergence of Gandhi was not a positive sign for the country and her independence. This is an effort to justify the fact that in fact we needed more men like him.

Non-violence has been claimed by some to be a factor with a retarding effect on independence. Violence could have gotten us a quick independence. It’s quite logical that it was in no way that violence could be used to overthrow one of the most powerful regimes of the world at that time. An unarmed man, however courageous and determined, cannot win another with a gun.

In every situation, the British were simply looking for an excuse to use force against the protestors, and enforce laws that would further limit their freedom. And a violent action provided just that. Gandhi obviously realized this and thus stuck to the path of non-violence. It’s evident in history that whenever there has been a case of violence, the government dealt with the ‘perpetrators’ with an iron hand. Violence also created an environment of aggression that was much undesired at a time when communal hatred was at its tripping point.

Non-cooperation was considered by many to be a passive protest. Nothing could be farther from truth. In Gandhi’s words, “it would be impossible for a few thousand Englishmen to control millions of Indians if they refuse to cooperate”. The non-cooperation movement was accomplishing just that, till the Chauri-Chaura incident (again an unthoughtful act of violence). Gandhi then had to put the movement on a hold, and the British got the excuse they were so desperately looking for.

The non-cooperation movement had another hidden motive, one to strengthen the state of affairs for the Indian craftsmen and the general economy. Gandhi encouraged self-reliance, and refusal of foreign goods as a part of the movement. This lead to an increased demand of Indian goods, strengthening the country at her grassroots. He had devised then, what it took economists longer to comprehend. The country’s economy is built from bottom-up and not top to bottom. You can find it in his statements “a country will develop only when its poorest citizen does.”

When he was arrested for leading the non-cooperation movement that brought down the British administration to its knees, he was taken to the court, were he advocated for himself (quite obvious for a barrister). The judge was willing to cut his sentence short, when for his defense Gandhi said: “I am here, therefore, to invite and submit cheerfully to the highest penalty that can be inflicted upon me for what in law is a deliberate crime, and what appears to me as the highest duty of a citizen.”

He stood for peace and honesty along with hygiene and sanitation at his ashram, some of things most required for development in the true sense. Exactly these factors, among others are used to determine development today through Human development index (HDI).

                                                                                        

He kept protesting in a non-violent manner again and again, despite repressive measures by the foreigners, and after every blow he got, he would say “I won’t cooperate”. And as it is said “it’s not about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward”.

That’s the reason why India has numerous streets named after him, the reason why his face is watermarked on every currency note, why he is called father of the nation, why his picture is hung in government offices, why just a stick and glasses are enough anywhere to denote the Mahatma.