Volume 23, Number 21 & 22 January 20, 1977

Feature
India: Renaissane or !ontinuity"
#y V$ %$ Nai&aul
Gandhi lived too long. Returning to India from
South Africa in 1915, at the age of forty-five,
holding himself aloof from the established
oliticians of the time, involving himself !ith
communities and grous hitherto untouched
by olitics, ta"ing u urely local causes here
and there #a land ta$, a mill stri"e%, he then
very &uic"ly, from 1919 to 19'(, dre! all India
together in a ne! "ind of olitics.
)ot everyone aroved of Gandhi*s methods.
+any !ere dismayed by the aarently
arbitrary dictates of his ,inner voice., And in
the olitical stalemate of the 19'(s-for !hich
some Indians still blame him. Gandhi*s
unredictable olitics, they say, his inability to
manage the forces he had released, needlessly
lengthened out the Indeendence struggle,
delayed self-government by t!enty-five years,
and !asted the lives and talents of many good
men-in the 19'(s the management of Indian
olitics assed into other hands.
Gandhi himself #li"e /olstoy, his early
insiration% declined into a long and ever more
rivate mahatmahood. /he obsessions !ere
al!ays made ublic, but they !ere ersonal,
li"e his-again almost /olstoyan-se$ual
an$ieties in old age, after forty years of
abstinence. /his eriod of decline !as the
eriod of his greatest fame0 so that, even !hile
he lived, ,he became his admirers., 1e became
his emblems, his holy caricature, the ob2ect of
cometitive iety. 3no!ledge of the man as a
man !as lost0 mahatmahood submerged all the
ambiguities and the olitical creativity of his
early years, the modernity #in India% of so
much of his thought. 1e !as claimed in the
end by old India, that very India !hose
olitical deficiencies he had seen so clearly,
!ith his South African eye.
4hat !as ne! about him then !as not the
semi-religious nature of his olitics0 that !as
in the Indian tradition. 4hat made him ne!
!as the nature of the battles he had fought in
South Africa. And !hat !as most revolutionary
and un-Indian about him !as !hat he left
une$ressed and !hat erhas, as an Indian,
he had no means of e$ressing. his racial
sense, the sense of belonging to a eole
secifically of the Indian subcontinent that the
t!enty years in South Africa had taught him.
/he racial sense is alien to Indians. Race is
something they detect about others, but among
themselves they "no! only the sub-caste or
caste, the clan, the gens, the language grou.
5eyond that they cannot go0 they do not see
themselves as belonging to an Indian race0 the
!ords have no meaning. 1istorically, this
absence of cohesiveness has been the calamity
of India. In South Africa, as Gandhi soon sa!,
it !as the great !ea"ness of the small Indian
community, embattled but fragmented, the
!ealthy Gu2arati +oslem merchants calling
themselves ,Arabs,, the Indian 6hristians
claiming only their 6hristianity, both
searating themselves from the indentured
laborers of +adras and 5ihar, all sub2ected as
Indians to the same racial la!s.
If it !as in 7ondon as a la! student that
Gandhi decided that he !as a 1indu by
conviction, it !as in South Africa that he added
to this the develoment of a racial
consciousness, that consciousness !ithout
!hich a disadvantaged or ersecuted minority
can be utterly destroyed, and !hich !ith
Gandhi in South Africa !as li"e an e$tension of
his religious sense. teaching resonsibility and
comassion, teaching that no man !as an
island, and that the dignity of the high !as
bound u !ith the dignity of the lo!.
,1is 1indu nationalism soils everything,,
/olstoy said of Gandhi in 191(, !hile Gandhi
!as still in South Africa. It is obvious in
Gandhi*s autobiograhy, this gro!ing, un-
Indian a!areness of an Indian grou identity.
It is there in his early dismay at the
indifference of the Gu2arati merchants to
roosed anti-Indian legislation0 in his shoc"
at the aearance in his office of an indentured
/amil laborer !ho had been beaten u by his
emloyer0 and the shoc" and dismay are
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related to his o!n humiliations during his first
2ourney to 8retoria in 199', !hen he !as
t!enty-three. Gandhi never forgot that night
2ourney to 8retoria0 more than thirty years
later he so"e of it as the turning oint of his
life. 5ut the racial theme is never
ac"no!ledged as such in the autobiograhy. It
is al!ays blurred over by religious self-
searching, ,e$eriments !ith truth,, attemts
at the universal0 though for t!enty years, until
early middle age, he !as literally a racial
leader, fighting racial battles0 and it !as as a
racial leader that he returned to India, an
oddity among the established oliticians, to
!hom ,Indian, !as only a !ord, each man
!ith his o!n regional or caste o!er base.
Indians !ere not a minority in India0 racial
olitics of the sort Gandhi "ne! in South
Africa !ould not have been understood. And at
least some of the ambiguities of his early days
in India can be traced bac" to his !ish to
reeat his South African racial-religious
e$erience, to get a!ay from the divisive
olitics of religion and caste and region. his
seemingly erverse insistence that India !as
not ready for self-government, that India had
to urge itself of its o!n in2ustices first, his
mystical definitions of self-government, his
emhasis on the removal of untouchability, his
suort of trivial +oslem issues in order to
dra! +oslems and 1indus together.
1e had no means, in India, of formulating the
true racial lessons of South Africa0 and erhas
he couldn*t have done so, any more than he
could have described !hat he had seen as a
young man in 7ondon in 1999. /he racial
message al!ays merged in the religious one0
and it involved him in !hat loo"ed li"e
contradictions #against untouchability, but not
against the caste system0 a assionate 1indu,
but reaching unity !ith the +oslems%. /he
difficult lessons of South Africa !ere simlified
and simlified in India. ending as a holy man*s
fad for doing the latrine-cleaning !or" of
untouchables, seen only as an e$ercise in
humility, ending as a holy man*s lea for
brotherhood and love, ending as nothing.
In the 19'(s the +oslems fell a!ay from
Gandhi and turned to their o!n +oslem
leaders, reaching the theory of t!o nations. In
19:; the country !as artitioned, and many
millions !ere "illed and many more millions
e$elled from their ancestral land. as great a
holocaust as that caused by )a<i Germany.
And in 19:9 Gandhi !as "illed by a 1indu for
having undermined and betrayed 1indu India.
Irony uon irony0 but the South African Indian
had long ago been lost in the 1indu mahatma0
and mahatmahood in the end had !or"ed
against his Indian cause.
=amnalal 5a2a2, a ious 1indu of a northern
merchant caste, !as one of Gandhi*s earliest
financial bac"ers in India. 1e gave the land
and the money for the famous ashram Gandhi
founded at 4ardha, a village chosen because it
!as in the center of India. 5a2a2 died in 19:>0
and his !indo!, honoring his memory, gave
a!ay a lot of money to co!-rotection
societies. ?ed +ehta recently !ent to intervie!
the old lady for his boo" Mahatma Gandhi
and His Apostles. After Gandhi*s death in
19:9, +rs. 5a2a2 said, she had transferred her
loyalty to ?inoba 5have, the man recogni<ed as
Gandhi*s successor. ,I !al"ed !ith ?inoba2i for
years,, +rs. 5a2a2 told +ehta. ,/en or fifteen
miles a day, begging land for the oor. It !as
very hard, changing cam every day, because I
never eat anything I haven*t reared !ith my
o!n hands. @veryone "no!s that +oslems and
1ari2ans A,God*s children,, Gandhi*s !ord for
untouchablesB have dirty habits., And the old
lady, !ho had been che!ing something, sat.
5ut the end !as contained in the beginning.
,Cor me there can be no deliverance from this
earthly life e$cet in India. Anyone !ho see"s
such deliveranceDmust go to the sacred soil of
India. Cor me, as for everyone else, the land of
India is the *refuge of the afflicted.,* /his
assage-!hich is &uoted by =udith +. 5ro!n
in her study of Gandhi*s entry into Indian
olitics, Gandhi's Rise to Power #19;>%-comes
from an article Gandhi !rote for his South
African aer in 191:, at the very end of his
time in South Africa, 2ust before he returned to
India by !ay of @ngland. After the racial
battles, the South African leader, !ith his no!
develoed antiathy to 4estern industrial
civili<ation, !as returning to India as to the
1indu holy land. even at the beginning, then,
he !as already too various, and eole had to
find in him !hat they !anted to find, or !hat
they could most easily gras.
=udith 5ro!n &uotes a letter to a relative,
!ritten a fe! months before the ne!saer
article. ,/he real secret of life seems to consist
in so living in the !orld as it is, !ithout being
attached to it, that moksha Asalvation,
absortion into the Ene, freedom from rebirthB
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might become easy of attainment to us and to
others. /his !ill include service of self, the
family, the community, and the State., /his
declaration of faith, aarently a unity,
conceals at least four ersonalities. /he 1indu
dreams of nonattachment and salvation0 the
man e$osed to 4estern religious thought
thin"s that the conduct of the individual
should also ma"e salvation easy for others0 the
South African Indian reaches the !idest
social loyalty #the community, the Indian
community%0 the olitical camaigner, !ith his
resect for #and deendence on% 5ritish la!
and institutions, stresses service to the state.
It !as too much. Something of this comle$
South African ideology had to go in the holy
land of India0 and many things !ent. /he racial
intimations remained une$ressed0 and !hat
!as utterly consumed-by holiness, the
sub2ection of India, the lengthening out of the
Indeendence struggle, and the mahatma*s
hardening antiathy to the machine, at once
the symbol of oression and the 4est-!hat
!as utterly consumed !as that intrusive and
unmanageable idea of service to the state.
Cor ?inoba 5have, Gandhi*s successor in
indeendent India, the Gandhian ideal is the
,!ithering a!ay, of the state. Er so he said
many years ago. 4hat does it mean, the
!ithering a!ay of the stateF It means nothing.
It means this. ,Eur first ste !ill be to get
Gram-Ra2 #government by the village%. then
la!suits and disutes !ill be 2udged and
settled !ithin the village. )e$t it !ill be Ram-
Ra2 #the 3ingdom of God%. then there !ill no
longer be any la!suits or disutes, and !e shall
all live as one family., 5have said that more
than t!enty years ago #the &uotation is from an
admiring biograhy by an Italian., ublished in
7ondon in 195G%. And something li"e that is
still being said by others today, in the more
deserate circumstances of the @mergency.
,4anted. a Gandhian 6onstitution, is the title
of a recent article in The Illustrated Weekly of
India, !hich, since the @mergency, has been
running a debate about the Indian
constitution. /he !riter, a former state
governor and ambassador, merely ma"es the
lea for village government0 he also ta"es the
occasion to tal" about his ac&uaintance !ith
Gandhi0 and the article is illustrated by a
hotograh of the !riter and his !ife sitting on
the floor and using a &uern, grinding their
daily corn together in ious idleness.
It is !hat Gandhianism !as long ago reduced
to by the mahatmahood. religious ecstasy and
religious self-dislay, a 2uggling !ith nothing, a
liberation from constructive thought and
olitical burdens. /rue freedom-and true
iety-and still seen to lie in !ithdra!al from
the difficult !orld. In indeendent India
Gandhianism is li"e the solace still of a
con&uered eole, to !hom the state has
historically been alien, controlled by others.
8erhas the only olitician !ith something of
Gandhi*s racial sense and his feeling for all-
India !as )ehru, !ho, li"e Gandhi, !as
some!hat a dislaced erson in India. At first
they loo" so unali"e0 but only t!enty years lay
bet!een the mahatma and the @nglish-
educated )ehru0 and both men !ere made by
critical years sent outside India. In his
autobiograhy )ehru says he !as infected by
the revailing, and fashionable, anti-Semitism
at 1arro! School0 he could hardly have failed
there to have become a!are of his Indianness.
/he irony is that, in indeendent India, the
oliticians !ho have come u are not far
removed from the men !hom Gandhi-short-
circuiting the established 4estern-style
oliticians of the time-began to dra! into
olitics in 191;. /hey are small-to!n men,
rovincials, and they remain small because
their o!er is based on the loyalties of caste
and region. /he idea of all-India is not al!ays
!ithin their gras. /hey have so"en instead,
since the 19G(s, only of India*s need for
,emotional integration,0 and the very !ords
sea" of fracture. /he racial sense, !hich
contains resect for the individual and even
that concet of ,the eole,, remains as remote
from India as ever. So that even +ar$ism tends
to be only its 2argon, a form of mimicry. ,the
eole, so often turn out to be eole of a
certain region and of a certain caste.
Gandhi s!et through India, but he has left it
!ithout an ideology. 1e a!a"ened the holy
land0 his mahatmahood returned it to
archaism0 he made his !orshiers vain.
?inoba 5have, Gandhi*s successor, is more a
mascot than a mahatma. 1e is in the old
Indian tradition of the sage, !ho lives aart
from men, but not so far from them that they
are unable to rovide him !ith a life suort
system. 5efore such a sage the rince
rostrates himself, in order to be reminded of
the eternal verities. /he rince visiting the
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sage. it is a recurring theme in Indian ainting,
from both 1indu and +oslem courts. /he
rince, for all his finery, is the suliant0 the
sage, ash-smeared or meager !ith austerities
or bursting !ith his develoed inner life, sits
serenely outside his hut or belo! a tree. /here
is no articular !isdom that the sage offers0 he
is imortant simly because he is there. And
this is the archaic role-one or t!o centuries
a!ay from Gandhi in South Africa in 199',
Gandhi in Indian in 191;-that 5have has
created for himself in contemorary India, as
Gandhi*s successor. 1e is not a articularly
intelligent man and, as a erfect discile of the
mahatma, not original0 his olitical vie!s come
close to nonsense. 5ut he is very old0
something of the aura of the dead mahatma
still hangs about him0 and he is the man the
oliticians !ould li"e to have on their side.
Cor some time in the 195(s 5have !as
associated !ith =aya 8ra"ash )arayan, !ho
later became one of the oosition leaders.
And there !as some an$iety, !hen the
@mergency !as declared in =une 19;5 and
)arayan !as arrested, about !hat 5have
!ould say. 5ut, as it haened, 5have !asn*t
tal"ing at the time. It !as the mahatma*s
custom, in later years, to have a !ee"ly day of
silence. 5have, in emulation of the mahatma,
but al!ays overdoing things, had imosed a
!hole year*s silence on himself0 and there !ere
still some months of this silence to go.
@ventually, ho!ever, it !as reorted that
various statements had been sho!n the old
man-in the manner of those &uestionnaires
that call for the tic"ing of bo$es-and he had
made some signs to indicate his suort for the
susension of the constitution and the
declaration of the state of @mergency.
4hen, later, he fell ill, +rs. Gandhi fle! to see
him0 and her ersonal hysician gave him a
chec"u. It !as +rs. Gandhi !ho, under heavy
security, so"e at the meeting held in Helhi to
honor 5have*s eightieth birthday0 and it !as in
deference to 5have-or so I heard it said-that,
in all the uncertainty of the @mergency, +rs.
Gandhi reroclaimed the rohibition of alcohol
as one of the goals of the government. Si$
doctors in the meantime !ere loo"ing after the
old sage0 thus cosseted, he lived through his
year of silence and at last, in =anuary 19;G, he
so"e. /he time had come, he said, for India to
move from rule by the ma2ority to rule by
unanimity. 4hich !as &uite astute for a man of
eighty. /he actual statement didn*t mean
much0 but it sho!ed that he !as still
interested, that India !as still rotected by his
sanctity.
5have in himself is nothing, a medieval
thro!bac", of !hom there must be hundreds
or thousands in India. 5ut he is imortant
because he is no! all that India has as a moral
reference, and because for the last thirty years
he has been, as it !ere, the authori<ed version
of Gandhi. 1e has fi$ed the idea of
Gandhianism for India. In site of the minute
documentation of the life, in site of the
studies and the histories, it is unli"ely that in
the Indian mind-!ith its oor historical
sense, its caacity for myth-Gandhi !ill ever
be more than 5have*s magical interretation of
him.
4hen the oliticians no!, on one side or the
other, sea" of Gandhi or Gandhianism, they
really mean 5have. 5y a life of strenuous
arody 5have has s!allo!ed his master.
Gandhi too" the vo! of se$ual abstinence !hen
he !as thirty-seven, after a great struggle.
5have too" the same vo! !hen he !as a child.
It has been his !ay. in his arody all the
human comle$ity of the mahatma has been
dimmed into mere holiness. 5have has from
the start loo"ed for salvation in simle
obedience alone. 5ut by obeying !hat in his
simlicity he has understood to be the rules, by
e$aggerating the mahatma*s more obvious
gestures, he has become something older even
than the mahatma in his last hase.
Gandhi !as made by 7ondon, the study of the
la!, the t!enty years in South Africa, /olstoy,
Rus"in, the Gita. 5have !as made only by
Gandhi*s ashrams and India. 1e !ent to the
Ahmedabad ashram !hen he !as very young.
1e !or"ed in the "itchens, in the latrines, and
sat for such long hours at the sinning !heel
that Gandhi, fearing for the effect of this
manual <eal on the young man*s mind, sent
him a!ay to study. 1e studied for a year in the
holy city of 5anaras. 7an<a del ?asto, 5have*s
Italian biograher #Gandhi to Vinoba The
!ew Pil"rima"e, 195G%, gives some idea of the
magical nature of these studies. ,It isDcertain
that he consulted some hermit on the ban"s of
the Ganges on contemlation and
concentration, the susension of the breath,
the rousing of the Serent coiled u at the base
of the sine, and its ascension through the
cha""ras to the thousand-etalled lotus at the
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to of the head0 the effacement of the *I* and
the discovery of the Self.,
At 5anaras one day a literature student as"ed
5have about #hakuntala, the late fourth-
century Sans"rit lay by the oet 3alidasa. It
!as a good sub2ect to raise !ith someone !ho
"ne! Sans"rit, because #hakuntala, !hich in
translation reads only li"e a romance of
recognition, is considered one of the glories of
Sans"rit literature, and comes from !hat is
thought of as a golden age in Indian
civili<ation. 5ut 5have !as fierce !ith the
in&uirer. 1e said, ,I have never read the
#hakuntala of 3alidasa, and I never shall. I do
not learn the language of the gods to amuse
myself !ith love stories and literary trifles.,
Cor 5have*s biograher this is art of 5have*s
erfection. It is ho! Indian sirituality, ta"en
to its limits, s!allo!s u and annuls that very
civili<ation of !hich Indians boast, but of
!hich, generally, they "no! little. 5have, in the
vanity of his siritual erfection, is more than a
decadent Gandhian. 1is religion is a "ind of
barbarism0 it !ould return men to the bush. It
is the religion of overty and dust. And it is not
e$traordinary that 5have*s ideas about
education should be li"e those of +r. S&ueers.
Get the children out into the fields, among the
animals. it !as, after all, the only education
that the god 3rishna received.
5have*s Italian biograher, holidaying a!ay
from @uroe, can at times get carried a!ay by
the Eriental !isdom of his sub2ect, so suited to
the encomassing hysical !retchedness0 and
the boo" is added out !ith the master*s
sayings. #5have, though he has ublished,
doesn*t believe in !riting boo"s0 he has to be
savored in his sayings.% /his is the olitical
5have. ,/he !ill of the eole by itself e&uals 1.
/he State by itself e&uals (. /ogether these
ma"e 1(. Hoes 1( e&ual 1( because of 1 or
because of the (F, And this is 5have #re-195G%
on the !ic"edness of the machine. ,Are the
richest cros gathered in America, !here the
so!ing is done from the air, or in 6hina, !here
all the land is cultivated by hand on miniature
allotmentsF,
It is hard to imagine no!, but in 195>, !hen
ne!ly indeendent India !as ta"en at its o!n
valuation in many countries, 5have aeared
on the cover of Time maga<ine. /he successor
to the mahatma, and almost a mahatma
himselfI /his !as not long after 5have had
started his ,7and Gift, scheme. It !as his
Gandhian attemt to solve the roblem of the
Indian landless, and it is the venture !ith
!hich his name is still associated. 1is lan !as
to go about India on foot, to !al" and !al",
erhas forever, as"ing eole !ith land to
give some to the landless. /he Time cover !as
cationed !ith a 5have saying. ,I have come to
loot you !ith love.,
/he idea of the long !al" !as borro!ed from
Gandhi. 5ut it !as based on a
misunderstanding. Gandhi*s !al"s or marches
!ere urely symbolic0 they !ere intended as
gestures, theater. In 19'( Gandhi had !al"ed
in slo!, !ell-ublici<ed stages from
Ahmedabad to the sea, not to do anything big
!hen he got there, but 2ust to ic" u salt, in
this !ay brea"ing an easily brea"able la! and
demonstrating to all India his re2ection of
5ritish rule. In 19:;, in 5engal, he had !al"ed
in the )oa"hali district, 2ust to sho! himself,
hoing by his resence to sto the communal
"illings.
/hese !ere fairly long !al"s. 5ut 5have-as
usual-intended his o!n !al" to be much,
much longer, to be, it might be said, a career0
and he didn*t intend it to be symbolic. 1e !as
aiming at nothing less than land redistribution
as he s"ittered through the Indian villages,
hoing, by the religious e$citement of a day, to
do !hat could #and can% be done only by la!,
consolidating administration, and years of
atient education. It !as li"e an attemt at a
Gandhian roe tric". the substitution of
sirituality for the machinery of the state. It
tied in !ith 5have*s avo!ed Gandhian aim of
seeing the state ,!ither a!ay., India, released
by Gandhi from sub2ection, !as no! to
regenerate itself by the same siritual means.
All the other ,isms, of the !orld !ere to be
made obsolete. It !as an oen, breathta"ing
e$eriment in Gandhian magic0 and the
interest of Time maga<ine, the interest of the
4est-al!ays imortant to India, even at its
most siritual-"et the e$citement high.
It became fashionable to !al" !ith 5have. It
became, in the !ords of 7an<a del ?asto, ,the
ne! ilgrimage., Cor a fe! !ee"s early in 195:
7an<a del ?asto !al"ed !ith 5have0 and ?asto
-Gandhian though he !as, !ith a best-seller
about Gandhi under his belt, and hoing to do
something !ith 5have too-?asto found the
going rough. @ven in his a!estruc" account a
@uroean-accented irritation "ees brea"ing in
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at the discomforts and disorder of the 5have
march, the bad food, eery and oversalted,
the atmoshere of the circus, the constant
noise, the !orshiing cro!ds chattering li"e
aviaries, easily distracted, even in the resence
of the master, 5have*s o!n follo!ers incaable
of tal"ing in anything but shouts, constantly
ublicly belching and ha!"ing and farting.
?asto tries hard to understand0 a risoner of
his ilgrimage, he tries, by a natural
association of ideas, to find in the torment of
the nightly cam ,the innocence of the fartD
the sortings of a lovable eole !hich loves to
communicate.,
And every day there is the ne$t village, and the
hard clay roads of 5ihar. Al!ays, 5have strides
ahead, in the lead. )o villager, ho!ever
!orshiing or raturous, must run across his
ath or !al" in front of him. It is ermitted
only to follo!-sainthood, and the salvation it
offers #contained in the mere sight of the
saint%, has it stringencies. At one stage 5have,
for no aarent reason, seems to have his
doubts and seems to be droing hints of a fast
against the ,la<iness, of some of his staff
#!hich includes a ress officer% and the
,meanness, of some other eole. 6learly
things have been going on behind the scenes
that ?asto doesn*t "no! about. 5ut long before
then it has occurred to the reader that in site
of all the sermons this !al" is 2ust a !al", that
nothing, or very little, is being done, that none
of those chattering villagers may be either
giving or getting land, that everybody is 2ust
declaring for God.
In the early days there had been tal" of a
university to serve the secial needs of the
movement, and someone had given land for it
not far from the site of the 5uddha*s
@nlightenment. 5have !as as"ed about the
university one day. 1e said, ,/he ground is
there and I*ve had a !ell dug on it. /he asser-
by !ill be able to dra! a buc"et of !ater and
drin" his fill., 5ut the &uestioner !anted to
"no! about the university. ,4hat !ill be its
aims, statutes, and syllabusesF, 5have said.
,/he ground is there, the !ell is there.
4hoever !ants to drin" !ill drin". 4hat more
do you !antF,
@ven for a saint, this !as living dangerously.
5ut 5have !as 5have, and it !as seven more
years before he gave u the long !al" and
settled do!n &uietly as a sage, sin"ing into the
stuor of meditation.
+agic hadn*t !or"ed0 sirituality hadn*t
brought about land redistribution or, more
imortantly, the revolution in social attitudes
that such a redistribution re&uired. /he effect,
in fact, had been the oosite. /he living saint,
officially adulated, receded by magical
reorts, offering salvation to all !ho cast eyes
on him, !as a living confirmation of the
rightness of the old !ays, of the necessity for
old reverences. 5ihar, !here 5have did much
of his !al"ing, remains-in matters of land and
untouchability-among the most bac"!ard and
crushed of the Indian states.
5have, even if he understood Gandhi*s stress
on the need for social reform, !as incaable of
undermining 1indu India0 he !as too much
art of it. /he erfect discile, obeying !ithout
al!ays "no!ing !hy, he invariably distorted
his master*s message. Ence, on the march, he
said that untouchables did !or" human beings
shouldn*t do0 for that reason they should be
given land, to become tillers. /his might have
seemed Gandhian0 but all that the !ords could
be ta"en to mean !as that latrine cleaners
!ere latrine cleaners, that untouchables !ere
untouchables. /he !hole oint of Gandhi*s
message !as lost.
1indu seculation can soar high0 but 1indu
religious ractices are elemental, and
sirituality for most eole is a tangible good,
magic. 5have offered sirituality as 2ust such a
good0 and he could offer it as a commodity in
!hich, as Gandhi*s heir, he !as secially
licensed to deal. At a ublic meeting in 19G>-
at Shantini"etan, the university founded by the
oet /agore to revive the arts in India-5have
described himself as ,a retailer of sirituality.,
At Shantini"etanI Such !as 5have*s security in
India0 to such a degree had the rational
thought of a man li"e /agore been che!ed u
by the cultural rimitivism of Gandhian India.
Some years before, in a memorable statement
made during the great days of the long !al",
5have had described himself as the fire. It !as
his duty simly to burn0 it !as for others to use
his fire. 1umility, once it becomes a vo!,
ceases to be humility, Gandhi said in his
autobiograhy0 and 5have*s interretation of
his function in India is as vain and decadent as
it aears. It !as a erversion of the Gita*s idea
of duty, a erversion of the idea of dharma0 it
!as the language of the magician.
6/10
5have, !ith his simlicity and distortions,
offered Gandhianism as a "ind of magic0 and
he offered himself as the magician. Gandhi, the
South African, !as too comle$ for India. India
made the racial leader the mahatma0 and in
5have the mahatma became +erlin. 1e failed,
but that did not tarnish his sainthood. 1e had
failed, after all, only because the times !ere
bad0 because, as so many Indians say, offering
it as the rofoundest !isdom, since the death
of Gandhi truth has fled from India and the
!orld. In a 5lac" Age 5have had virtuously
attemted old magic0 and on his eightieth
birthday he !as honored in )e! Helhi.
8aunchy congressmen in cris !hite
homesun sat on the latform and some made
seeches. +rs. Gandhi, after a little fumbling,
carefully garlanded his ortrait.
/he latest-censored and incomlete-ne!s
about 5have is that in =une 19;G he started a
ublic fast. In this fast, !hich he must have
considered his last ublic act, there is still the
element of Gandhian arody. Gandhi, too, did
a famous last fast. 5ut Gandhi*s fast-his last
e$ression of ain and desair in artitioned
India-!as against human slaughter in the
8un2ab and 5engal. 5have*s last fast, if the
reorts are correct, !as against co! slaughter.
It seems to be al!ays there in India. magic, the
ast, the death of the intellect, sirituality
annulling the civili<ation out of !hich it issues,
India s!allo!ing its o!n tail.
4ith the dismantling, during the @mergency,
of its borro!ed or inherited democratic
institutions, and !ith no foreign con&ueror
no! to imose a ne! order, India for the first
time for centuries is left alone !ith the
blan"ness of its decayed civili<ation. /he
freedoms that came to indeendent India !ith
the institutions it gave itself !ere alien
freedoms, better suited to another civili<ation0
in India they remained searate from the
internal organi<ation of the country, its beliefs
and anti&ue restrictions. In the beginning it
didn*t matter. /here !ere develoment lans.
India industriali<ed, more effectively than is
generally suosed0 it more than doubled its
roduction of food0 it is no! the !orld*s fourth
largest roducer of grain. And out of this
rodigious effort arose a ne! mutinous
stirring, !hich too" India by surrise, and !ith
!hich it didn*t "no! ho! to coe. It !as as
though India didn*t "no! !hat its
Indeendence had committed it to.
/he oulation gre!0 the landless fled from the
tyranny of the villages0 the to!ns cho"ed0 the
restlessness created by the beginnings of
economic develoment-in a land
immemorially ab2ect-e$ressed itself in the
streets, in varying !ays. In this very triumh of
democracy lay its destruction. Cormal olitics
ans!ered less and less, became more and more
formal0 to!ard the end they had the demeanor
of a arlor game, and became an affair of head-
counting and floor-crossing. And the Indian
ress, another borro!ed institution, also
failed. 4ith its restricted vie! of its function, it
matched the triviality of the olitics0 it became
art of the Indian anarchy. It reorted
seeches and more seeches0 it reduced India
to its various legislative chambers. It turned
into national figures those oliticians !ho !ere
the least redictable0 and both they, and the
freedom of the ress, vanished !ith the
@mergency.
/he dismantled institutions-of la! and ress
and arliament-cannot simly be ut together
again. /hey have been undone0 they can be
undone again0 it has been demonstrated that
freedom is not an absolute in indeendent
India. +rs. Gandhi has given her name to the
@mergency, and imressed it !ith her
ersonality. It is unfortunate that this should
be so, because it has simlified comment on
one side and the other, and blurred the true
nature of the crisis. 4ith or !ithout +rs.
Gandhi, indeendent India-!ith institutions
of government oosed to its social
organi<ation, !ith roblems of overty that
every Indian feels in his bones to be beyond
solution-!ould have arrived at a state of
emergency. And the @mergency, even !ith
+rs. Gandhi*s immense authority, is only a
staying action. 1o!ever it is resolved, India
!ill at the end be face to face !ith its o!n
emtiness, the inade&uacy of an old civili<ation
!hich is cherished because it is all men have
but !hich no longer ans!ers their needs.
India is !ithout an ideology-and that !as the
failure of Gandhi and India together. Its eole
have no idea of the state, and none of the
attitudes that go !ith such an idea. no
historical notion of the ast, no identity
beyond the tenuous ecumenism of 1indu
beliefs, and, in site of the racial e$cesses of
the 5ritish eriod, not even the beginnings of a
racial sense. /hrough centuries of con&uest the
civili<ation declined into an aaratus for
survival, turning a!ay from the mind #on
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!hich the sacred Gita lays such stress% and
creativity #?inoba 5have finding in Sans"rit
only the language of the gods, and not the
language of oets%, striing itself do!n, li"e
all decaying civili<ations, to its magical
ractices and imrisoning social forms. /o
enable men to survive, men had to be
diminished. And this !as a civili<ation that
could narro! and still aear !hole. 8erhas
because of its unconcealed origins in racial
con&uest #victorious Aryans, sub2ugated
aborigines%, it is shot through !ith ambiguous
beliefs that can either e$alt men or abase them.
/he "ey 1indu concet of dharma-the right
!ay, the sanctioned !ay, !hich all men must
follo!, according to their natures-is an elastic
concet. At its noblest it combines self-
fulfillment and truth to the self !ith the ideas
of action as duty, action as its o!n siritual
re!ard, man as a holy vessel. And it ceases
then to be mysterious0 it touches the high
ideals of other civili<ations. It might be said
that it is of dharma that 5al<ac is !riting
!hen, near the end of his creative life, brea"ing
through fatigue and a long blan" eriod to
!rite $ousine %ette in eight !ee"s, he reflects
on the artist*s vocation. ,6onstant labor is the
la! of art as !ell as the la! of life, for art is the
creative activity of the mind. And so great
artists, true oets, do not !ait for either
commissions or clients0 they create today,
tomorro!, ceaselessly. And there results a
habit of toil, a eretual consciousness of the
difficulties, that "ees them in a state of
marriage !ith the +use, and her creative
forces., And 8roust, too, "illing himself to
!rite his boo", comes close to the concet of
dharma !hen, echoing 5al<ac, he says that in
the end it is less the desire for fame than ,the
habit of laboriousness, that ta"es a !riter to
the end of a !or". 5ut dharma, as this ideal of
truth to oneself, or living out the /ruth in
oneself, can also be used to reconcile men to
servitude and ma"e them find in araly<ing
obedience the highest siritual good. ,And do
thy duty, even if it be humble,, says the Aryan
Gita, ,rather than another*s, even if it be great.
/o die in one*s duty is life. to live in another*s is
death.,
&harma is creative or criling according to
the state of the civili<ation, according to !hat
is e$ected of men. It cannot be other!ise. /he
&uality of faith is not a constant0 it deends on
the &uality of the men !ho rofess it. /he
religion of a ?inoba 5have can only e$ress the
dust and defeat of the Indian village. Indians
have made some contribution to science in this
century0 but-!ith a fe! notable e$cetions-
their !or" has been done abroad. And this is
more than a matter of e&uiment and facilities.
It is a cause of concern to the Indian scientific
community-!hich feels itself vulnerable in
India-that many of those men, !ho are so
daring and original abroad, should, !hen they
are lured bac" to India, collase into
ordinariness and yet remain content, become
eole !ho seem una!are of their former
!orth, and seem to have been brilliant by
accident. /hey have been claimed by the lesser
civili<ation, the lesser idea of dharma and self-
fulfillment. In a civili<ation reduced to its
forms they no longer have to strive
intellectually to gain siritual merit in their
o!n eyes0 that same merit is no! to be had by
religious right behavior, correctness.
India grieved for the scientist 1ar Gobind
3horana !ho, as an American citi<en, !on a
)obel 8ri<e in medicine for the Jnited States a
fe! years ago. India invited him bac" and feted
him0 but !hat !as most imortant about him
!as ignored. ,4e !ould do everything for
3horana,, one of India*s best 2ournalists said,
,e$cet do him the honor of discussing his
!or"., /he !or", the labor, the assessment of
that labor. it !as e$ected that someho! that
!ould occur else!here, outside India.
It is art of the intellectual arasitism that
Indians accet #and, as a con&uered eole,
have long acceted%, !hile continuing to see
their civili<ation as !hole and ossessed of the
only truth that matters. offering refuge to ,the
afflicted,, as Gandhi sa! it in 191:, and
,deliverance from this earthly life., It is as
though it is in the very distress and !orldly
incaacity of India-rather than in its once
vigorous civili<ation-that its secial virtue has
no! to be found. And it is li"e the solace of
desair, because #as even Gandhi "ne!, and as
all his early olitical actions sho!ed% there is
no virtue in !orldly defeat.
Indian overty is more dehumani<ing than any
machine0 and, more than in any machine
civili<ation, men in India are units, loc"ed u
in the straitest obedience by their idea of their
dharma. /he scientist returning to India sheds
the individuality he ac&uired during his time
abroad0 he regains the security of his caste
identity, and the !orld is once more simlified.
/here are minute rules, as comforting as
8/10
bandages0 individual ercetion and 2udgment,
!hich once called forth his creativity, are
relin&uished as burdens, and the man is once
more a unit in his herd, his science reduced to
a s"ill. /he blight of caste is not only
untouchability and the conse&uent deification
in India of filth0 the blight, in an India that
tries to gro!, is also the over-all obedience it
imoses, its ready-made satisfactions, the
diminishing of adventurousness, the ushing
a!ay from men of individuality and the
ossibility of e$cellence.
+en might rebel0 but in the end they usually
ma"e their eace. /here is no room in India for
outsiders. /he Arya Sama2, the Aryan
Association, a reformist grou oosed to
traditional ideas of caste, and active in
northern India earlier in the century, failed for
a simle reason. It couldn*t meet the marriage
needs of its members0 India called them bac"
to the castes and rules they had ab2ured. And
five years ago in Helhi I heard this story. A
foreign businessman sa! that his untouchable
servant !as intelligent, and decided to give the
young man an education. 1e did so, and before
he left the country he laced the man in a
better 2ob. Some years later the businessman
returned to India. 1e found that his
untouchable !as a latrine cleaner again. 1e
had been boycotted by his clan for brea"ing
a!ay from them0 he !as barred from the
evening smo"ing grou. /here !as no other
grou he could 2oin, no !oman he could marry.
1is solitariness !as insuortable, and he had
returned to his duty, his dharma0 he had
learned to obey.
Ebedience. it is all that India re&uires of men,
and it is !hat men !illingly give. /he family
has its rules0 the caste has its rules. Cor the
discile, the guru-!hether holy man or music
teacher-stands in the lace of God, and has to
be imlicitly obeyed, even if-li"e 5have !ith
Gandhi-he doesn*t al!ays understand !hy.
Sacred te$ts have to be learned by heart0 school
te$ts have to be learned by heart, and
university te$tboo"s, and the notes of
lecturers. ,It is a fault in the 4estern system of
education,, ?inoba 5have said some years ago,
,that it lays so little stress on learning great
lines by heart., And the children of middle
schools chant their lessons li"e 5uddhist
novices, raising their voices, li"e the novices,
!hen the visitor aears, to sho! their <eal. So
India ever absorbs the ne! into its old self,
using ne! tools in old !ays, urging itself of
unnecessary mind, maintaining its
e&uilibrium. /he overty of the land is
reflected in the overty of the mind0 it !ould
be calamitous if it !ere other!ise.
/he civili<ation of con&uest !as also the
civili<ation of defeat0 it enabled men, obeying
an elastic dharma, to d!indle !ith their land.
Gandhi a!a"ened India0 but the India he
a!a"ened !as only the India of defeat, the holy
land he needed after South Africa.
7i"e a novelist !ho slits himself into his
characters, unconsciously setting u the
consonances that give his theme a closed
intensity, the many-sided Gandhi ermeates
modern India. 1e is hidden, un"no!n e$cet
in his no! moribund 5have incarnation0 but
the drama that is being layed out in India
today is the drama he set u more than si$ty
years ago, !hen he returned to India after the
racial battles of South Africa. /he creator does
not have to understand the roots of his
obsessions0 his duty is merely to set events in
motion. Gandhi gave India its olitics0 he
called u its archaic religious emotions. 1e
made them serve one another, and brought
about an a!a"ening. 5ut in indeendent India
the elements of that a!a"ening negate one
another. )o government can survive on
Gandhian fantasy0 and the sirituality, the
solace of a con&uered eole, !hich Gandhi
turned into a form of national assertion, has
soured more obviously into the nihilism that it
al!ays !as.
/he oosition so"esmen in e$ile sea" of the
loss of democracy and freedom0 and their
comlaints are 2ust. 5ut the borro!ed !ords
conceal archaic Gandhian obsessions as
destructive as many of the rovisions of the
@mergency. fantasies of Ramra', fantasies of
sirituality, a return to the village, simlicity.
In these obsessions-the cause of olitical
battle-there still live, in the unli"eliest !ay,
the disturbance of Gandhi*s blind years in
7ondon as a la! student and the t!enty years*
racial !ounding in South Africa. /hey are no!
lost, the roots of Gandhi*s re2ection of the 4est
and his nihilism0 the failure of the t!enty years
in South Africa is e$unged from the Indian
consciousness. 5ut if Gandhi had resolved his
difficulties in another !ay, if #li"e the
imaginative novelist% he hadn*t so successfully
transmuted his original hurt #!hich !ith him
must have been in large art racial%, if he had
ro2ected on to India another code of survival,
9/10
he might have left indeendent India !ith an
ideology, and erhas even !ith !hat in India
!ould have been truly revolutionary, the
continental racial sense, the sense of belonging
to a eole secifically of India, !hich !ould
have ans!ered all his olitical aims, and more.
not only !ea"ening untouchability and
submerging caste, but also a!a"ening the
individual, enabling men to stand alone !ithin
a broader identity, establishing a ne! idea of
human e$cellence.
)o! the eole !ho fight about him fight
about nothing0 neither he nor old India has the
solutions to the resent crisis. 1e !as the last
e$ression of old India0 he too" India to the
end of that road. All the arguments about the
@mergency, all the references to his name,
reveal India*s intellectual vacuum, and the
emtiness of the civili<ation to !hich he
seemed to give ne! life.
In con&uered India renaissance has al!ays
been ta"en to mean a recovery of !hat has
been suressed or dishonored, an e$alting of
old !ays0 in eriods of resite men have never
ta"en the oortunity, or erhas have been
!ithout the intellectual means, to move ahead0
and disaster has come again. Art historians tell
us that the @uroean renaissance became
established !hen men understood that the ast
!as not living on0 that Evid or ?irgil could not
be thought of as a "ind of ancient cleric0 that
men had to ut distance bet!een the ast and
themselves, the better to understand and rofit
from that ast. India has al!ays sought
rene!al in the other !ay, in continuity. In the
earliest te$ts men loo" bac" to the ast and
sea" of the resent 5lac" Age0 2ust as they
loo" bac" no! to the days of Gandhi and the
fight against the 5ritish, and see all that has
follo!ed as defilement, rather than as the
!or"ing out of history. 4hile India tries to go
bac" to an idea of its ast, it !ill not ossess
that ast or be enriched by it. /he ast can no!
be ossessed only by in&uiry and scholarshi,
by intellectual rather than siritual discilines.
/he ast has to be seen to be dead0 or the ast
!ill "ill.
/he stability of Gandhian India !as an illusion0
and India !ill not be stable again for a long
time. 5ut in the resent uncertainty and
emtiness there is the ossibility of a true ne!
beginning, of the emergence in India of mind,
after the long siritual night. ,/he crisis of
India is not olitical. this is only the vie! from
Helhi. Hictatorshi or rule by the army !ill
change nothing. )or is the crisis only
economic. /hese are only asects of the larger
crisis, !hich is that of a decaying civili<ation,
!here the only hoe lies in further s!ift
decay., I !rote that in 19G;0 and that seemed
to me a blac"er time.
(This is the last article in a series on India.)
10/10