Martin Luther King Jr Rosa Parks W.E.B Du Bois

Our Tribute to Tribal People of Every Nation 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 WWorldorld PeacePeace FFollowingollowing inin Gandhi’sGandhi’s Wake...Wake... Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s life was his testament and he would have liked us to follow in his footsteps. Revered and adored by millions in his own life time, Gandhiji rarely allowed arrogance and hubris to overwhelm him. Yet he acknowledged the constant effort it took to keep the baser aspects of human nature in check. I also believe he would have wished to be remembered as a simple man, and not as a demigod removed from reality. It is important to reflect on the profound effect Gandhiji’s message of universal brotherhood and peace had on India. To the un-informed and of Pakistan, even today India remains home to those unfamiliar with that great country, I must say the fourth largest community of Muslims after here that it is polyglot of cultures and beliefs. While Indonesia, Nigeria and Egypt. Given the choice, I a majority of its population are Hindus, but it is also do not believe they would emigrate to Pakistan, as composed of myriads of sects and worship a plethora India has kept faith with Gandhiji’s vision for the of deities. India is therefore not the monocultural Republic. His devout Hinduism did not restrict him and monoreligious society that many like to believe; from recognizing the virtues of other faiths. Together it is a rich and varied cocktail of cultures, religions, with Jawaharlal Nehru and the other architects of regions, languages, sects and beliefs. To this modern India, Gandhiji understood the desirability of establishing a secular state. This entity would ‘If Non-Violence is the law of our being, the future guarantee freedom is with women. - at an evening prayer in Simla, 1946 to all religions to practice as they pleased. Gandhiji knew that religion subcontinent, Gandhiji returned from South Africa was not a State concern but a personal choice that and proceeded to galvanize the country against the related to the manner in which people conducted British Raj by advocating nonviolence and peaceful their daily lives. In many ways this slight, stooped, protest. It engaged the people of India like nothing bespectacled and balding figure clad in dhoti is a had done before or since and reinforced a common paradox. He was the quintessential Indian who sense of destiny. That India remains united nearly appealed to the masses as one of them. At the same six decades on despite its differences and contrasts time, he was able to rise above his people and lead is an inspiration to us. Salman Rushdie in an essay them become a citizen of the world. It was because to commemorate modern India’s golden jubilee of the values he championed- freedom, equality, anniversary remarked as to how tolerant it was of justice, tolerance and nonviolence that leaders and difference. heroes of our time like Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Aung Sang Sui have acknowledged the While Gandhiji could not prevent the creation influence Gandhiji has had on their perspectives. 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009

It is, I believe, one of the reasons why resistance to indenture and colonial rule in Fiji were not more violent. Happily, it appears to have imbued Indo-Fijian relations as well. From the mid 1930s to the early 1980s, the majority of our population was formed by Fijians of Indian origin. Throughout this period, the Indo- Fijian community was insistent but not strident about their rights. But at no stage did any this latter aspect, the rhetoric of exclusivity does Indo-Fijian leader advocate violence. In a country little for nation building. Both Islam and Christianity like ours with its different cultures, faiths and assert the absolutist nature of their respective creeds. people, the one virtue that is critical to our survival I have no problem with that. It is when it is pursued and well-being is tolerance and mutual respect. to distinguish, divide and separate that one has to That was what Gandhiji stood for, and it broke his question the motive. heart when the Muslim League under Mohammed Ali Jinnah refused to settle for anything less than The life of Gandhiji was one of discipline and an Islamic State carved out of India. Godse, the service. From the beginning of his public career man who assassinated Gandhiji, was a member of in South Africa to the end of his life, he remained a Hindu Nationalists group who considered he had close to ordinary people. It was one of his greatest compromised the interest of the Indians by agreeing strengths. It was as far removed from the style of the to the partition of the country. What they failed to British rulers, the Mughal Emperors and the Indian understand was that the Mahatma’s complete ease Maharajas as could be possible. Gandhiji’s greatest with his Indian heritage in general and Hindu faith virtue is that his life itself is a message. He could not in particular, allowed him to be so accommodating be at this gathering were he alive today. He would towards everyone else. His approach bespoke of a say we could do better by doing something concrete sense of security that was thoroughly grounded in for the values he stood for. That too is how I would the precepts of his own culture. Only then can one like Gandhiji to be remembered. His message in fact perceive the world around us and beyond without is too important to be confined and remembered threat or fear. The values Godse and his like espoused only on one day (October 2) of the year; we need to were of a narrow and parochial India that defied its remember it every single day. history - one that had absorbed the Aiyans, Mughals and many other invaders down the several millennia - Excerpted from a lecture by Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi, of its existence. former Vice-President of Fiji Islands. How relevant is that to us in the Republic of the India Perspectives January - March 2008 Fiji Islands? We continue to struggle with partisan views. Ethnic identity persists and is reinforced by religious differences following similar patterns. In 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 EEditorialditorial PagePage CCurrenturrent BoardBoard ofof DirectorsDirectors

Publisher & General Editor: CCurrenturrent BoardBoard ofof DirectorsDirectors ofof Gambhir Watts BBharatiyaharatiya VidyaVidya BhavanBhavan AustraliaAustralia [email protected] Editorial Committee: J Rao Palagummi OOfficeffice BBearersearers : Catherine Knox Rajesh Katakdhond [email protected] President Gambhir Watts Designing Team: Treasurer Catherine Knox Utkarsh Doshi J Rao Palagummi Surendralal Mehta- Chairman Emeritus Advertising: President Bhavan Worldwide [email protected] Company Secretary Sridhar Kumar Kondepudi Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Australia Suite 100 / 515 Kent Street, Sydney NSW 2000 OOtherther ddirectorsirectors aarere * The views of contributors to Bhavan Australia are not necessarily the views Abbas Raza Alvi; Moksha Watts of Bhavan Australia or the editor. *Bhavan Australia reserves the right to edit any contributed articles and NNomineesominees ooff BBharatiyaharatiya VVidyaidya BBhavanhavan Worldwide:Worldwide: letters submitted for publication. Copyright: all advertisements and Homi Navroji Dastur, Executive Secretary and Director General original editorial material appearing remain the property of Bhavan Jagannathan Veeraraghavan, Executive Director, Delhi Australia and may not be reproduced except with the written consent of the Mathoor Krishnamurti, Executive Director, Bangalore owner of the copyright. Palladam Narayana Sathanagopal, Joint Director Bhavan Australia - ISSN 1449 – 3551

AArticlesrticles & FocusFocus ThemesThemes World Peace - Following in Gandhi’s 2 Guru Gobind Singh 21 Wake.... Gandhi’s Impact on American Civil 6 Origin of Vedanta Society in America 25 Rights Movement

Messages from Her Excellency Unity Through Religious Teachings 28 Sujatha Singh, Hon John Aquilina MP, Leader of the House (NSW), Education without Failure 31 Stepan Kerkyasharian, Chair, CRC, 14 - 18 Pravrajika Ajayaprana Mataji, Greg Yoga to Help Overcome Depression 36 Johns, GD Soka Gakkai International Speech by Pratibha Patil, President of 37 Australia India Dr Martin Luther King Address to First Woman Governor General of 19 41 India (All India Radio - 1959) Australia 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009

President’s Page At the heart of Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence, was his belief that strength comes from righteousness, not force. Power comes from truth, not might. Victory comes from moral courage, not imposed submission. He held that means and ends are inseparable and that in fact means themselves shape ends. He believed unworthy means can never produce worthy ends. History, both past and contemporary confirms that violence only begets violence in unending spiral, fostering hatred and revenge. Violence seeks to impose and overwhelm, which why its victories are transitory. Nonviolence seeks to engage and persuade, which is why its results are enduring. The Gandhian practice of nonviolence took many forms, but it always required an intense engagement with the opponent. The victory that Mahatma Gandhi strove for was to win over the adversary, not to vanquish him. The dialogue that he fostered was founded on a spirit of genuine tolerance i.e. the appreciation and understanding of the “other” or “others”. He asked us to introspect, to reach out and ask to what extent are we ourselves responsible. It is often said that Mahatma Gandhi’s times were radically removed from those we live in today. Some question the relevance of his methods in today’s fast-paced and globally interlinked world, where threats to peace, security and social harmony abound. But the essential validity of Mahatma Gandhi’s truth has not changed, because human nature itself has not changed. Looking back if the twentieth century was the most bloody in human history, it was also the century where nonviolence saw its greatest triumphs, cutting across the boundaries of continents and faiths. Today individuals and movements all over the world continue to develop innovative, nonviolent ways to overcome oppression, combat discrimination and build democracy. These are the successes which keep the flame of hope burning bright. Mahatma Gandhi himself was, first and foremost, a man of action. While he was indeed a man of deep contemplation, he was also a man of galvanic energy. It is this energy that enabled him to overcome resistance arising from hostility, indifference and cynicism. It is this energy that gave him the resilience to press ahead, in spite of tremendous obstacles and tribulations. As he once said: “we must ourselves become the change we seek”. Even as we are inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s life, let us today affirm our commitment to the Gandhian way, a commitment that is reflected in demonstrable actions and results. Let us ensure that this Day, does not get reduced to an annual ritual. Let us strive to adopt his methods to our present day challenges, with earnestness and perseverance.

Gambhir Watts President Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Australia

Courage, endurance, fearlessness and above all self-sacrifice are the qualities required of our leaders. – Mahatma Gandhi 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 GGandhi’sandhi’s ImpactImpact onon AmericanAmerican CivilCivil RRightsights MovementMovement

race and color problems are world-wide, and we need your help here”. When Gandhi wrote in May of that year, Du Bois published Gandhi’s reply in the NAACP’s journal: “Let not the 12 million Negroes be ashamed of the fact that they are the grandchildren of slaves. There is no dishonour in being slaves. There is dishonour in being slave owners... Let us realize that the future is with those who would be truthful, pure and loving... Love alone binds and truth and love accrue only to the truly humble.” However, a 1924 symposium in the Crisis had explored, and then largely rejected, the idea of Gandhian - style resistance by American Negroes. But, as Du Bois’s 1929 letter attests, the idea did not die and by the 1930s, as Gandhi was making his mark as a Mahatma, American Negroes flocked to India to learn firsthand about Gandhi’s techniques and investigate whether they could be applied to the struggle for racial equality in the United States. At one such gathering in 1935, Gandhi surprised his guests by asking them to sing one of his favourite songs, “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?” (Interestingly, when King As the “Father of the Nation” and the leader of the wrote of his own pilgrimage to India in 1959, he Indian Independence Movement seeking to end remarked that Indians loved to hear Negro spiritual the British Raj, Gandhi employed a revolutionary songs). After they finished the song, Gandhi made form of nonviolent resistance he called Satyagraha, a prediction: “Perhaps it will be through the Negro which he said meant “the strength that comes from that the unadulterated message of nonviolence will adhering to the truth.” Gandhi’s technique involved be delivered to the world”. King was only six at the the Three Rs, the Three Ss and the Three Ts. The time and oblivious of the fact that he would help Three Rs stand for nonviolent Resistance, Reform make Gandhi’s prediction a historical fact more and Redemption; the Three Ss stand for Simplicity, than two decades later. Self-suffering and Service and the Three Ts are for In the early 1940s, when King was still in his teens, Truth, Tolerance and Trusteeship. This nonviolent Asa Philip Randolph used the threat of a mass blueprint for peace and change requires tireless nonviolent march on Washington to pressure President adhering to the truth while incurring suffering on the Franklin D. Roosevelt into integrating the country’s self, all in an attempt to lovingly and nonviolently war industries. Randolph, who was President of convert, and not coerce or conquer, the opponent. the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and a well Gandhi, who identified closely with the plight of known labor organizer, was convinced that Gandhian the American Negro, had sent a message to W.E.B. resistance would work in the United States. In 1947, Du Bois, the great American Negro scholar, editor his threat to launch another movement designed and cofounder of the National Association for the to integrate the U.S. Army “stirred not only King Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Du but thousands of young Negro college students”. Bois had written a letter to Gandhi in February 1929 Randolph was nicknamed the “American Gandhi” seeking his assistance in the United States: “The years before King earned that same moniker. He gave 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 speeches citing Gandhi’s work in India and urged nonviolence, which King ultimately adopted as a American Negroes to emulate Gandhi’s tactics of philosophy of life. civil disobedience and noncooperation. Randolph’s Rustin was a brilliant peace activist with ties to desire to organize a mass protest march eventually progressive religious and civil rights organizations, culminated in the 1963 March on Washington where most notably the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) King gave his famous “I Have A Dream” speech. The and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). The March brought together more than a quarter million FOR is a liberal Christian-based group founded in people, one third of whom were whites, to peacefully England in 1914, which advocates nonviolent social demonstrate for racial justice. It remains one of the largest, if not the largest, nonviolent “Victory attained by violence is tantamount to protest gatherings in defeat, for it is momentary” - M.K. Gandhi American history. No wonder that King referred to Randolph as the “Dean” of American Negroes. change. The CORE was founded in the United States But the March on Washington would not have in 1942 in part by James Farmer, one of the FOR’s occurred without the considerable organizational Negro members. Farmer was dedicated to applying skills of Bayard Rustin, yet another Negro pilgrim Gandhian methods to racial matters in the American to India and a passionate disciple of Gandhi. Rustin South. He and the other founding members of the was a veteran civil rights organizer and a member CORE were heavily influenced by a Gandhi disciple of the Society of Friends* who spent time in jail for named Krishnalal Shridharani, whose book War refusing to serve in the military during World War Without Violence became the CORE’S “semiofficial II. During the Montgomery Bus Boycott Rustin had bible”. A.J. Muste, a well known American pacifist, visited India and even met the Mahatma in 1931. Muste, who was a founding member of the FOR, returned to the United States on a speaking tour that included stops at colleges and universities. In 1947, James Lawson, a young Negro anxious to find a way to combine his deeply held Christian a profound influence on King’s turn to nonviolence beliefs with social action, met Muste through one as a way of life. For instance, when Rustin learned of Muste’s campus lectures. Lawson, who became that King kept a gun under his pillow, they stayed a passionate advocate of Gandhi’s methods, joined up all night discussing and arguing what it really the FOR and then served time in jail in the early meant to be a nonviolent resister. In the end, King 1950s as a conscientious objector refusing to be discarded the weapon (as well as his bodyguards) drafted into the military for the Korean War. Lawson as Rustin and his friend and colleague Glenn became a Methodist minister and travelled to India Smiley convinced King of the merits of Gandhian as a missionary as well as a student of Gandhian 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009

Satyagraha. It was in India that Lawson learned about Martin Luther King, whose nonviolent resistance had made him famous. Lawson was overjoyed and buoyed by King’s emergence. Upon his return to the United States in 1955, Lawson joined forces with King who urged him to come to the South to help promote nonviolent resistance since few were as qualified and experienced as Lawson. Consequently, Lawson helped organize crucial nonviolent movements throughout the South, especially in the State of Tennessee. He recruited and trained hundreds of nonviolent student volunteers with his spellbinding speeches that echoed Gandhian principles: “Love is the force by which God binds man to Himself and “man to man. Such love goes to the extreme; it remains loving and forgiving even in the midst of hostility. It matches the capacity of evil to inflict suffering with an even more enduring capacity to absorb evil, all the while persisting in love... We will accept the violence and the hate, experienced humiliating treatment at the hands of absorb it without returning it.” whites on public transport,* both were subjected In 1950, while King was studying for a Bachelor’s to personal violence (that would eventually claim Degree in Divinity at Crozer Theological Seminary their lives) and both were committed to practicing in Chester, Pennsylvania, he met Muste at another their faiths by dedicating their lives to the service of of Muste’s college speaking engagements. King others. In his first book, Stride Toward Freedom, King listened to Muste’s lecture with interest but remained chronicles his so-called “pilgrimage to nonviolence” unimpressed. He even got into a heated argument and singles out Gandhi for high praise: with Muste. It was not until later in his studies at “Gandhi was probably the first person in history to Crozer that King began a serious reading of Gandhi’s lift the love ethic of Jesus above mere interaction satyagraha. The catalyst was an electrifying sermon between individuals to a powerful and effective King attendee by yet another Negro pilgrim returning social force on a large scale”. from India, Dr. Mordeca Johnson, then President of Howard University, which is a historically black While Gandhi’s emphasis on loving your enemy fits college located in Washington, D.C. nicely with King’s Christian beliefs, Gandhi showed King the practical effects of loving the opponent. MMARTINARTIN LUTHERLUTHER KING,KING, JR.JR. & THETHE Invoking St. Augustine’s injunction to hate the sin, MMAHATMAAHATMA but love the sinner, King built on Gandhi’s notion of courageous love. He observed that Gandhi’s Galvanized by Johnson’s speech about Gandhian idea of love did not mean passive non-resistance to nonviolence, an energized King immediately went evil but rather an active resistance to evil that was out and obtained as many books on Gandhi as he nonviolent and infused with the loving notion that could find. He borrowed one such book from George suffering would be incurred but not inflicted: Davis, perhaps his closest professor at Crozer. Davis was the only strict pacifist, as well as the strongest “As I delved deeper into the philosophy of Gandhi my admirer of Gandhi, on the Crozer faculty. Based on skepticism concerning the power of love gradually King’s reading of Davis’ and other books on Gandhi, diminished and I came to see for the first time that King ultimately became convinced that, when love is the Christian doctrine of love operating through the deployed in conjunction with nonviolent resistance, Gandhian method of nonviolence was one of the a powerful and effective transforming technique most potent weapons available to oppressed people results. King may also have been attracted to Gandhi in their struggle for freedom.” King was intoxicated because he saw some parallels between Gandhi’s life by Gandhi’s successes in India and found Gandhian and his own: both were people of colour struggling principles of truth, love and self-sacrifice appealing. against a racist white power structure, both had In Gandhi, King found a doctrine for seeking justice 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009

MMONTGOMERYONTGOMERY & INDIAINDIA CHANGECHANGE KKINGING In 1954, as King was finishing his doctorate in Theology at Boston University, he accepted a job as head pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, which was for a short time the capital of the Confederacy during the American Civil War. It had a large Negro community which suffered daily humiliations at the hands of whites. Montgomery’s public bus system is a case in point. Negroes were forced to sit at the back of the bus and then had to give up their seat if a white person wanted to sit down. The bus drivers, who were all whites, required Negro riders to pay at the front of the bus and then enter through the rear entrance. Sometimes, the bus drivers would pull away after the rider paid but before he or she had a chance to board in the rear. The daily indignities Negroes suffered on Montgomery’s buses were magnified several times over by other humiliations and indignities Negroes endured at the hands of Montgomery’s racist white power structure. Rosa Parks who sparked the American Civil Rights Movement But in 1954, when a quiet, dignified woman named that was consistent not only with his Christian Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give her seat beliefs, but that also reinforced his American sense to a white man, Montgomery’s Negro population had of political, constitutional and legal rights. At first, had enough. Through their ministers and churches, however, King’s interest was purely academic. He the Negro community organized a city-wide boycott was not convinced that Gandhi’s method of resistance of Montgomery’s buses. They chose Martin Luther would work on a mass level in the American context. King, Jr. as the leader of their newly formed Rather, he thought that Gandhi’s techniques would Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) in only work on an individual level and that they were part because he was new to Montgomery and hence ill-suited for a mass movement that might lead to was not affiliated with one political faction or real freedom and equality for America’s Negroes. another. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was King’s After all, he reasoned at the time, Gandhi led a first foray into public life and it thrust him onto the resistance movement of Indians that constituted the national and international stage as the moral leader vast majority of the population of India, where the of the United States. white British rulers were an alien power who were At first Gandhi’s influence in Montgomery was noticeably in the minority. American Negroes, on the minor. The Bus Boycott was not overtly organized other hand, constituted the minority population in the as a Gandhian nonviolent resistance movement. United States, roughly 10 to 12 percent. Moreover, Although King admired Gandhi, he admitted to King felt that Gandhi’s style of resistance found a a colleague that he did not know how to apply receptive audience not only among the British rulers Gandhi’s methods and principles. But after a white in India, but also among the British masses and elites librarian wrote a letter to the Montgomery Advertiser in England. King was doubtful that such a form of comparing the bus boycott with Gandhi’s actions resistance would work against the violence-prone in India, Gandhi’s influence on the movement in segregationists in the South who would lynch a Negro Montgomery began to grow. As King said, Gandhi’s just for looking at a white woman. However, King’s name and his concept of nonviolent resistance experience in Montgomery, Alabama, together with became well known throughout Montgomery where his own pilgrimage to India, permanently changed people who had never before heard his name were his views on Gandhian nonviolence. now discussing the “little brown saint of India” with a degree of familiarity. Even the media began comparing the protesters in Montgomeiy to Gandhi 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009

seriously wounded in an assassination attempt), King traveled to India with his wife, Coretta Scott King, and good friend Professor Lawrence Reddick. King’s trip to India proved to be a defining experience for him as it “consummated his conversion to nonviolence”. He had long wished to visit India, but his schedule did not permit it until February and March, 1959- Upon his arrival as an official guest of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, King said that, “To other countries I may go as a tourist, but to India I come as a pilgrim”. King’s trip to India was a spiritual retreat designed to further immerse him in Gandhian ideals. He met with Gandhian activists from all over the country. King was singularly impressed by several things that he often spoke about upon his return to the United States. He remarked at how Indians and Britons seemingly treated each other equally and showed no outward sense of hatred towards one another. He attributed that to Gandhi’s emphasis on nonviolence and love towards the opponent. King also admired how India’s leaders “placed their moral power behind their law” in passing legislation on behalf of India’s dispossessed. W.E.B. Du Bois He marveled at how, “From the Prime Minister, and the bankrupt white power structure in Alabama down to the village councilman” everyone spoke to the moribund British Raj in India. As the boycott out against Untouchability. He witnessed Nehru wore on, King “plunged ever deeper” into Gandhian repeatedly condemn Untouchability while promoting tactics and principles. Reminiscent of Gandhi, King the idea of national atonement. King returned to the believed that what he was doing in Montgomery United States calling on President Eisenhower, and represented “a courageous confrontation of evil by later President Johnson, to do likewise insofar as the power of love”. He told the gatherings stories America’s depressed classes - its poor, its people of how Gandhi fashioned peaceful, nonviolent of color - were concerned. He saw in the Indian resistance to bring the mighty British Empire to an Government’s behavior an attitude and model by end in India. He was quick to point out, however, that which the United States Government could help “I went to Gandhi through Jesus” so as to reinforce cure America’s social ills. Indeed, it was India, and the Christian underpinnings of the movement. King not just Mahatma Gandhi, that served King as an said that Montgomery “did more to clarify my example of how to repair the fabric of a torn society. thinking on the question of nonviolence than all the King’s trip to India left him more convinced than books that I had read”. As such, King was converted ever that nonviolent resistance was the most potent to the ideal — he was not born a Gandhian. While weapon available to oppressed people all over the Gandhi saw the beauty in Christ’s Sermon on the world. King earned the nickname the “American Mount and adapted it to the Indian context, King Gandhi” and it is interesting that King himself, saw the beauty in Satyagraha and grafted it to one of the greatest leaders in American history, his American audience by emphasizing Gandhi’s considered Mohandas Gandhi, “by all standards of common parallels to Jesus Christ and Christian measurement... one of the half dozen greatest men doctrine. King even paid homage to Gandhi by in world history”. To be sure, King’s actions in the naming a new civil rights organization after him. Civil Rights Movement are reminiscent of Gandhian The Gandhi Society for Human Rights was King’s techniques. Boycotts, marches, letter-writing, and open acknowledgement of Gandhi’s impact on the even public fasts, are all evidence of Gandhi’s life Civil Rights Movement. and work in the American Civil Rights Movement. But King’s courageous decision, which did not come After a successful conclusion to the Montgomery lightly, to court repeated jail sentences is perhaps Bus Boycott (and after convalescing from being one of his greatest manifestations of Gandhian-style 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009

nonviolence. Like Gandhi, King had no sadistic Gandhi’s statement that if rivers of blood had to flow desire to be jailed. He was well aware of the abuses before Negroes won their freedom, it had to be their Negroes suffered in southern jail cells. But King told own blood and not that of their white opponents. his followers to go to jail much like Gandhi did: with Perhaps even more importantly, Gandhi’s love ethic a cheery air. Like Gandhi, he urged them to accept found a receptive audience in King as he preached their prison sentence by transforming the prison and spoke about his dream for America, building “from a dungeon of shame to a haven of freedom what he liked to call the beloved community. In and human dignity”. Also like Gandhi, King came such a community, King proclaimed in his famous to see jail as a liberating experience. It was in jail “I Have A Dream” speech, people would be “judged that Gandhi was exposed to Henry David Thoreau’s by the content of their character and not by the essay on civil disobedience that so moved him colour of their skin.” Observe Gandhi’s influence on and confirmed in him his own nonviolent journey. King’s opposition to the Vietnam War, which risked And it was in jail that King wrote the “Letter from losing President Johnson’s and other Negro leaders’ Birmingham Jail,” the most famous treatise of the support. They urged him to avoid discussing the war Civil Rights Movement, which he scratched out but King refused to yield. In one of his most famous on bits and scraps of smuggled paper over several statements, he argued that “justice is indivisible: days of solitary confinement. The Letter echoed injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Gandhian themes of truth, justice, self-sacrifice King also shared Gandhi’s views regarding and nonviolence. For instance, in the Letter, cowardice and repeated Gandhi’s argument that, King implicitly acknowledged his debt to Gandhi if given the choice between cowardice and using when he wrote, “I have consistently preached that violence to defend yourself, it is better to choose nonviolence demands that the means we use must be violence. In a 1965 interview, King confirmed his as pure as the ends we seek.” views on this subject when he said, “As much as I deplore violence, there is one evil that is worse than But it was not only Gandhian tactics or methods violence and that is cowardice”. For both King and that found an eager recipient in King’s leadership Gandhi, showing courage was more important than of the Civil Rights Movement: Gandhian principles rejecting violence. too were at play. It was a recurrent theme in King’s speeches and writings. He frequently quoted Finally, King shared with Gandhi an amazing ability 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009

strict vegetarianism or Gandhi’s celibacy. Indeed, King admitted to a rather healthy appetite and confessed a weakness for barbecue. King also differed from Gandhi insofar as the ends to which he employed Gandhian techniques. Gandhi used noncooperation and civil disobedience to bring an end to British rule in India. He urged his followers not to cooperate with British authorities in any way since he considered the British Raj to communicate powerful symbols with purposeful evil. In contrast, King used the action. They both had a knack for dramatizing, in same techniques not to bring an end to a governing stark and vivid imagery, the injustices that their system, but to reform it and make it live up to its people suffered. Both identified with the poor and own democratic promises and ideals. King was the worked tirelessly on their behalf. They lived like quintessential American patriot who believed in the poor, Gandhi in primitive rural huts, King in American exceptionalism and who saw the United tenements in the Chicago ghetto. They travelled States as a guiding light for other countries. As such, like the poor, Gandhi by third class rail or by bare he was highly invested in American constitutional feet, King by bus or by mule. They dressed like the government. His nonviolence, therefore, sought the poor, Gandhi in his simple white loincloth, King inclusion of Negro citizens into the full promise in his signature farmers’ overalls. They worked and dream of American democracy and society. like the poor, Gandhi toiling in the hot fields or at Finally, King differed from Gandhi regarding the his spinning wheel, King bending down during the role of the government in uplifting the people. harvest with migrant farm laborers. Both were able While Gandhi was adamant about teaching villagers to use powerful symbols that resonated within their to be self-sufficient, King insisted that the Federal respective political cultures. Gandhi’s Salt March, Government play a central role in helping provide for instance, struck a chord deep in the psyche of housing, education and employment to America’s average Indians throughout the country. For his part, oppressed Negro population. King was able to harness both Christian doctrine as IISS GGANDHIANDHI RELEVANTRELEVANT ININ THETHE well as American constitutionalism in such a way UUNITEDNITED STATESSTATES TODAY?TODAY? that both whites and blacks found appealing. King credited the nonviolent resistance of the Civil Rights King said that Gandhi’s revolution in India was Movement as the crucial tool in getting Congress based on hope and love. He said that the Civil Rights to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and then the Movement in America expressed the same emphasis Voting Rights Act of 1965. In both cases, we see the as “we maintained the hope while transforming practical value of Gandhi’s high-minded, spiritually the hate of traditional revolutions into positive infused form of social and political resistance. nonviolent power”. King sought to provide that hope through the aforementioned Gandhi Society But where did King’s methods deviate from for Human Rights, which served as a fund raising Gandhi’s? After all, King was no carbon copy of and nonviolent activist organization in the Civil Gandhi. For instance, King and most others in the Rights Movement. Although this organization is vanguard of the Civil Rights Movement, did not now defunct, Gandhi’s doctrine of hope and love in find attractive, or necessary, Gandhi’s asceticism. the United States did not die with King when he Even though he could have lived ostentatiously, was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine King lived in a modest home, drove a modest car Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968. Today and generally eschewed the trappings of fame African-American civil rights activists, such as the and fortune. However, he did not share Gandhi’s Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton, give commitment to self-abnegation, including Gandhi’s 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 latent attribution to Gandhi as they bring hope to Peace,” which commemorates the Mahatma’s African-Americans and risk arrest while engaging birthday. Houston’s Mayor Bill White, who is a in nonviolent resistance campaigns. Even when he strong advocate of Gandhian nonviolence, as well ran for President in the 1980s, Jackson asked his as Members of the U.S. Congress, regularly attend audience to “Keep Hope Alive!” this event, which draws more than a thousand celebrants. Finally, and perhaps of greatest and most Moreover, there is evidence all around the country lasting significance, there remain mass movements of the Mahatma’s continued relevance in the United in the United States that, whether consciously or States. In 2000, Time Magazine named Gandhi its unconsciously, model their activism after Gandhi runner-up “Person of the Century.” Time’s winner, and King’s nonviolent ideals and tactics. The most Albeit Einstein, was a great admirer of Gandhi recent example of this occurred in September 2007 who believed that Gandhi’s views were the most when tens of thousands of Americans marched in enlightened of their time. In 1986, Gene Sharp, the tiny town of Jena, Louisiana, to protest what a well known American scholar of nonviolent many considered racist and unjust treatment of resistance, founded the Harvard-affiliated Albert six African-American high school students. Racial Einstein Program on Nonviolent Sanctions, which tension at the high school culminated in a fight with is now called the Albert Einstein Institution and some whites being suspended from school while six is dedicated to researching and advancing the blacks were charged with attempted murder. The practice of nonviolent resistance. The United mass protest for the so-called “Jena Six” attracted States is host to Gandhi centers, Gandhi libraries, white and black demonstrators as well as leaders Gandhi memorials, Gandhi conferences and Gandhi of the Civil Rights Movement, including the Revs. publications which promote the Gandhian ideals Jackson and Sharpton. True to the spirit of Gandhi of love, truth and nonviolence. Here we will name and King, the mass protest remained nonviolent just a few for illustrative purposes. The Gandhi and surely played a hand in pressuring the district Memorial Foundation, for instance, was established attorney to reduce the charges against the African- in 1959 and in 1976 it opened the Gandhi Memorial American students. Even though movements such Center just outside Washington, D.C. According to as the Jena Six may not be overtly Gandhian, they the Center’s website (gandhimc.org), the purpose surely pay homage to the spirit and practice of the of the Center is to “disseminate and represent the Mahatma as they remain nonviolent while seeking philosophy, ideal, life, service and teachings of to correct racial injustice. Gandhi and King’s legacy Mahatma Gandhi as well as the cultural heritage of can therefore be seen as a sort of kidney operating India.” In 2000, Morehouse College, King’s alma on the American body politic as it cleanses racial mater, opened the Gandhi Center for Reconciliation, injustice and other social impurities much like a which is adjacent to the King Chapel. Of course, kidney must continually cleanse our blood: most of the King Center in Atlanta, Georgia, is a monument us are unaware of its existence, but we could not to Kingian and Gandhian nonviolence. And the A.J. survive without it. Muste Institute in New York City promotes Gandhian- style nonviolent resistance and reconciliation. - Michael J. Nojeim, Phd, a teacher at the Prairie View A&M University, India Perspectives January - March 2008 Furthermore, there are Gandhi conferences that bring both practitioners and scholars together to exchange Americans are marking ideas on how to promote Gandhian solutions to a the annual public wide slew of global problems, ranging from nuclear holiday in memory of weapons to terrorism to war. At one such conference black civil rights leader in Memphis, Tennessee, in October, 2007, more than Martin Luther King - 750 scholars, practitioners and students attended on the eve of Barack seminars and workshops on Gandhian and Kingian Obama’s inauguration. nonviolence. There are also Gandhi memorials The US president-elect helped to decorate a and celebrations in America’s public spaces that community project in Washington in memory commemorate the life and work of the Mahatma of Dr King, who was assassinated in 1968. and call us to ever work toward the Gandhian ideal. Mr Obama paid tribute to Dr King and urged The Gandhi Library in Houston, Texas, preserves Americans to work together in “renewing the and promotes Gandhi’s legacy in Southeastern promise of this nation”. Texas. Each October, the Gandhi Library sponsors a citywide event called “A Thousand Lights for 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009

Message from Stepan Kerkyasharian

Chair

Communnity Relations Commission

In these days of international tension and warfare, frequently fuelled by religious and racial hatred, the world needs a person of inspiration like Mahatma Ghandi, to straddle these divides - someone who can stand between those who fight for dominance or for territory or simply to harm those they do not like.

Prayer is a great leveller and equaliser and a powerful force for unity.

I congratulate the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan for organising the Interfaith Prayer Meeting on the occasion of Mahatma Ghandi’s Martyrdom Day.

It seems to me that people who pray together, whatever their formal religious ties, are people who will always be able to work together, especially in the cause of peace and harmony.

Those who are gathering at the New South Wales Parliament on January 30 are such people. The event will draw them together in these good causes, under the inspiration of Mahatma Ghandi.

This event not only marks an extraordinary life but it represents a very timely opportunity to pray for world peace.

Dr Stepan Kerkyasharian AM Chair 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009

P.O Box 817, Strathfi eld NSW 2135 Australia Vedanta Hall, 15 Liverpool Road, Croydon NSW 2132 Phone: 61 2 9745 4320 Fax: 61 2 9715 2082 Email: [email protected] Website: www.srisaradamath.org

Ramakrishna Sarada Vedanta Society of NSW Inc. Registered Charity C.C 22963

15 January, 2009

Message for the Special Mahatma Gandhi Issue of the Bhavan Australia’s magazine.

Pravrajika Ajayaprana Mataji

Mahatma Gandhi was not only the apostle of freedom for India, but the symbol and ideal of courage, fearlessness, self-confi dence and implicit faith in God, which are the Vedanti c ideals that India has been nourishing throughout the ages. Renunciati on and service are the two aspects of the mott o of the Ramakrishna Order as given by Swami Vivekananda. Gandhiji personifi ed them in his personal life and exemplifi ed them in his politi cal acti viti es. May the young people of India and the world in general be open-minded and understanding enough to learn from Gandhiji’s life and equip themselves to be strong enough to face the challenges of today’s troubled world.

Arise! Awake! Stop not till the goal is reached! 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 Message from Greg Johns General Director Soka Gakkai International Australia

“The American civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a student of Gandhi’s philosophy. He declared that a person whose spirit is in turmoil cannot truly practice nonviolence. It was my hope that the light of India—a country known in the East since ancient times as “the land of moonlight”—would help spread the spirit of peace, much as the cool beams of the moon bring soothing relief from the maddening heat of the day. From a healed, peaceful heart, humility is born; from humility, a willingness to listen to others is born; from a willingness to listen to others, mutual understanding is born; and from mutual understanding, a peaceful society will be born.” “The Courage of Nonviolence” from The World is Yours to Change [From the book One by One by Dr Daisaku Ikeda] I congratulate Bhavan for promoting and spreading the peaceful philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi has been a monumental influence on the modern world, one of the few philosophers to reach internationally the common people and inspire some sense of hope. His struggle was courageous and profound. In spite of the great cause he espoused his struggle was essentially one of solitude. Few could appreciate or enact his ideals, his behaviour was the very essence of his belief and this was a wall too high for many to climb. “Gandhi was alone. The more earnestly he pursued his religious beliefs, the deeper his love for humanity grew. This love made it all the more impossible for him to ignore the political realities that shaped people’s lives. At the same time, contact with these political realities strengthened his conviction that nothing is more essential than the love for humanity that religious faith can inspire. This placed him, however, in the position of being denounced by both religious figures, who saw his involvement in the sullied realm of politics as driven by personal ambition, and political leaders, who called him ignorant and naïve. Because he walked the middle way, the true path of humanity that seeks to reconcile apparent contradictions, his beliefs and actions appeared biased to those at the extremes.” [Ibid.] In this age when humanity still suffers from the same sense of hopelessness and division that drove Gandhi to such heights of humanism, it remains the common people’s task to bring to life the spirit of this great thinker and leader. Some are excited by the winds of change being ushered by the youthful leadership appearing across the globe even in the super powers. However, the promotion of truly human values, Gandhian thought, can never be achieved through power or politics alone. How then can we remain hopeful knowing the truth that political reformation has never delivered the peace that the globe continues to cry out for? Every great leader possessed only their own actions, thoughts and words in revealing their ideals and message. Perhaps the legacy is not the physical manifestation of his behaviour as a model for all but the spirit to create his own expression of hope for humanity within the environment in which he lived. Each country, city, neighbourhood, family and individual has their own unique expression. It is unrealistic to expect every human to conform to a certain behaviour or expression. Therefore it is necessary to adopt the spirit and not simply try to copy the unique expression of those like Gandhi. In memory of this great human perhaps we can strive to bring hope into our daily interaction by simply listening to others with our heart and opening a new possibility, creating a starting point for us to bring the spirit of Gandhi into our daily life gradually, purposefully and with the conviction that we all have a part to play in the transformation from conflict to peace. 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Radio Address to India All India Radio - March, 1959

Leaders in and out of government, organizations, particularly the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi and the Quaker Center, and many homes and families have done their utmost to make our short stay both pleasant and instructive. We have learned a lot. We are not rash enough to presume that we know India, vast subcontinent with all of its people, problems, contrasts and achievements; however, since we have been asked about our impressions, we venture one or two generalizations. First we think that the spirit of Gandhi is much stronger today than some people believe. That is not only the direct and indirect influence of his comrades and associates, but also the organized efforts that are being made to preserve the Mahatma’s letters and other writings, the pictures, monuments, the work of the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi and the movement led by the sainted Vinoba Bhave. These are but a few examples of the way Gandhiji will be permanently enshrined in the hearts of the people of India. Moreover, many governmental officials who do not follow Gandhi literally apply his spirit to domestic and international problems. Secondly, I wish to make a plea to the people and government of India. The “...Many years ago, when Abraham issue of world peace is so critical, that Lincoln was shot – and incidentally, I feel compelled to offer a suggestion he was shot for the same reason that that came to me during the course of our conversations with Vinoba Bhave. Mahatma Gandhi was shot for; namely, The peace-loving peoples of the world for committing the crime of wanting have not yet succeeded in persuading to heal the wounds of a divided my own country, America, and Soviet nation...” - Martin Lither King Russia to eliminate fear and disarm themselves. Unfortunately, as yet America and the Soviet Union have not shown the faith and moral courage to do this. Vinobaji has said that India, or any other nation that has the faith and moral courage, could disarm itself tomorrow, even unilaterally. It may be that, just as India had to take the lead and show the world that national independence could be achieved non-violently, so India may have to take the lead and call for universal disarmament. And if no other nation will join her immediately, India may declare itself for disarmament unilaterally. Such an act of courage would be a great demonstration of the spirit of the Mahatma, and would be the greatest stimulus to the rest of the world to do likewise. Moreover, any nation that would take such a brave step would automatically draw to itself the support of the multitudes of the earth, so 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009

that any would-be aggressor would be discouraged from risking the wrath of mankind. May I also say that, since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of non-violent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity. In a real sense, Mahatma Gandhi embodied in his life certain universal principles that are inherent in the moral structure of the universe, and these principles are as inescapable as the law of gravitation. Many years ago, when Abraham Lincoln was shot – and incidentally, he was shot for the same “Today we no longer have reason that Mahatma Gandhi was shot for; namely, a choice between violence for committing the crime of wanting to heal the and non-violence; it is wounds of a divided nation. And when he was either non-violence, or non- shot, Secretary Stanton stood by the dead body of the great leader and said these words: “now, he existence” - Martin Lither King belongs to the ages.” And in a real sense, we can say the same thing about Mahatma Gandhi, and even in stronger terms: “now, he belongs to the ages.” And if this age is to survive, it must follow the way of love and non-violence that he so nobly illustrated in his life. Mahatma Gandhi may well be God’s appeal to this generation, a generation drifting again to its doom. And this eternal appeal is in the form of a warning: they that live by the sword shall perish by the sword. We must come to see in the world today that what he taught, and his method throughout, reveals to us that there is an alternative to violence, and that if we fail to follow this we will perish in our individual and in our collective lives. For in a day when Sputniks and explorers dash through outer space and guided ballistic missiles are carving highways of death through the stratosphere, no nation can win a war. Today we no longer have a choice between violence and non-violence; it is either non-violence, or non-existence. - Source : Consulate General of India, Chicago chicago.indianconsulate.com Courtesy Phillip Claxton 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 GGuruuru GobindGobind SinghSingh (A.D.(A.D. 16661666 - 1708)1708)

uru Gobind Singh, the last Sikh prophet, Guru Gobind Singh was born at Patna on December was among the most dynamic figures 22, 1666. This was the time when the nation’s honour of Indian history. He was one of the and prestige was at its lowest ebb. The morale of greatest and charismatic personalities of the people was very low. They were groaning under all times. He fought throughout his life for human pain and agony. The Guru worked tirelessly for the freedom and stood for secularism and democratic restoration of this lost honour. He came into this principles, and pleaded for man’s inalienable rights. world with a special mission. He was sent by the Guru Gobind Singh throughout his life worked for Lord to perform certain duties for the emancipation the uplift of the downtrodden people of the entire of mankind. The Guru has himself explained the mass of humanity, irrespective of their caste, mission, which the Lord desired him to fulfil :

““II haave ccheerrishheed ttheeee as my son Andd maade theee religion, race or sect. He stood for secularism and too exxteend mmy religgiion Goo andd sppreead mmy Name never performed a single act which was parochial in thheere AAnnd foorbiidd thhe worlldd froom eevvil acts.” And character. He always used the words Hindustan and aaggain : Hindustanis in his writings. He stood for national unity and emotional integration of the Indian people. ““II havve ccoomee innto thhiis worlldd, Too spprread The democratic institutions created by him about rigghtteoouusneess eeveerrywwhherree, To desstrroyy the evil three centuries ago are the shining lighthouses, ddooers annd ssinnner s, uunddeerstaandd ye holy men, showing new path to the human race having faith in I wwaas bbornn in thhiis worrlld To hheelp goood and the democratic ideals. The Guru created floourrish, to save saainntss Annd to uprrooott all tyrrantss froom thhis worldd..” the Khalsa, transferring sovereignty to the poor and downtrodden ef this country, so that they might - Baachhittaar NNatak remember in the days to come that there was in The child was named Gobind Das. He spent the first history, too, a Guru by the name of Gobind Singh. five or six years of his life at Patna. Then the family 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 was called to Anandpur by Guru Tegh Bahadur, who Japji. He then walked along the bank of the river. His had earlier reached there. He kept himself busy purpose in creating literature was to infuse new spirit in games and spent his mornings and evenings m into his followers and to steel their hearts against all meditation. He was the son of the spiritual ruler injustice and tyranny. Here at Paonta, Pir Buddhu of the Sikhs—Guru Tegh Bahadur, Sacha Padshah, Shah met the Guru and offered him the services of the True King. His mother and grandmother were 500 Pathans for his army though they deserted him universally respected and revered. Gobind learnt later. Then peace was broken; the Hill rajas marched Punjabi, Sanskrit and Persian. Special training was towards Paonta Sahib. A bloodly battle was fought given to him in horsemanship and in the use of at Bhangani. .The Sikhs fought with courage and weapons. determination, and their patriotic fervour carried the day and victory was Guru’s. Now the Guru became When Gobind was hardly nine years old, Guru Tegh much stronger and very powerful. The battle was a Bahadur was martyred at the altar of dharma. After great event in the history of Punjab. It set the ball his martyrdom, Guru Gobind Singh shouldered all rolling for a major clash between the Guru and the the responsibilities left on his young shoulders. Mughals and the Hill rajas. The battle also gave He was formally installed on the Guru an opportunity to the gaddi on Vaisakh I, 1733 understand the real character B.S. The people of India of his people. Wicked and had realised that the bigoted unreliable persons who had ruler of Hindustan was joined the Guru’s ranks soulless and, if they wanted simply for loot were weeded to lead an honourable life, out. After the victory, the resistance was necessary. Guru returned to Anandpur The Sikhs were in a very and immediately restored precarious position. There Anandpur to its previous was dissension within the glory. Aurangzeb’s policy of ranks of the Sikhs and persecution of Hindus and dangers threatened them other non-Muslims made from outside too. The very people rally round him. existance of Sikh-ism was Two years later, the Mughal in danger and some drastic forces attacked the rulers steps were needed to save it. of Kangra and Bilaspur as The need for unity among the they did not pay tribute to Sikhs was most vital. Several the Emperor. They sought conflicting forces had to be Guru’s help who readily organised and synthesised agreed. A fierce battle was under one banner. Guru fought at Nadaun in 1687. devoted himself to literary The imperial forces were activities, pmioso-phic defeated. The Guru stayed awakening and spiritual at Nadaun for about a week enjoying the splendour enlightenment of the people. He stuck to Guru Tegh and beauty of the place by the bank of the river Beas Bahadur’s dictum, ‘fear no one and strike fear in no and then left for Anandpur. one.’ He followed this principle in letter and spirit. In 1685 or roundabout, the Guru left Anandpur The Emperor was sore at the Guru’s victories. and came to stay at Paonta Sahib. This he did at Upset, he sent Prince Muzzam, who later came to be the invitation of Raja Medni Prakash, the ruler of known as Bahadur Shah, with a large army to attack Nahan. the Guru and arrest him. When the Prince reached Punjab, he was requested by Bhai Nand Lai Goya The Guru took steps to develop Paonta. He continued not to harm the Guru who was innocent; instead composing verses in the pleasant environments and he should punish the persons who were trying to salubrious climate of Paonta, Cold breeze from harm him. The Prince thereafter did not attack the Yamuna refreshed his mind and with every passing Guru. Thus, after Muzzam’s expedition, the Guru day he started devoting more and more time to got some respite to mature his future plans. He had reading and writing. The Guru used to rise in the worked among the people of the semi-independent early hours of the morning, take his bath and read 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 states of the Shivaliks and tried to rouse them to a that a brave death on the battlefield for saving the sense of national unity, but soon he discovered that, dharma was preferable to dying a coward’s death. being steeped in superstition and outdated ideas of The Guru said : religion, they could not rise above their caste and ““GGraannt unnto mmee thhis bboonn, O Loordd I maay nevveerr racial prejudices. Sometimes they would make bbee deebbarrrred ffroom perfformming good deeedds. common cause with the enemy and combine even against the Guru who was their deliverer. Political I sshoouuldd havve nno feear oof thhe ennemmyy when I ggoo to reforms must be preceded by a general renaissance thhe bbaattlleffieeld and religious awakening. He, therefore, resolved to AAnnd victtorry bbee cerrttainnly on mmyy siidde TThhere iss but break the old shackles with greater precision than oonne ddeesiiree in mmy hearrt Thhat I may aalwwaayss siinng had been done before and reorganise society on the HHis pprraiisess, Annd wheen thhe ffiinal timmee comes I basis of common belief and common aspirations. shall ddie ffigghhttinng on the bbatttllee fiieeld..”” The period of peace was utilised by the Guru for The fighting continued for a long time. The Imperial creative activities. He wrote philosophical works viceroys were surprised at the tenacity of the Sikhs. of a high order such as Akal Ustat and Gyan Pra- After a certain day’s fighting, it was complained bodh. to the Guru that a Sikh, Kanahiya by name, had The Guru came into this world with a special mission. been serving water and rendering first aid not only He was sent by the Lord to perform certain duties to the Sikhs but to the wounded enemy soldiers for the emancipation of mankind. In the year 1699, too. The Guru called Kanahiya and enquired from a day before the first of Vaisakh, a large number of him if it was true. The humble devotee of the Guru men, women and children had collected at Anandpur. replied that he had been serving all those who fell The Guru created here the new order of the Khalsa. on the battlefield. “My eyes could not distinguish Charanpahul was replaced by Khande-Ka-Amrit. between Sikh and enemy soldiers, as I saw Guru’s This nectar with steel, the Divine Word, and Guru’s face in every one.” The Guru blessed him and told spirit dissolved in it, brought a miraculous change his Sikhs that Kanahiya had truly understood his in the person who partook of it. The Guru declared mission. The enemy forces suffered heavy losses “Let all embrace one creed and obliterate differences but succeeded in laying siege to the Anandgarh fort. of religions. Let the four Hindu castes, who have The Sikhs continued fighting courageously with different rules for the guidance, abandon them God’s Name on their lips. The fight went on for all, adopt the one form of adoration and become several months. brothers. Let none deem himself superior to another. Inside the fort, provisions ran short and the Sikhs Let men of four castes receive my baptism, eat out had to face stravation, but their sprit remained of one dish, and feel no disgust or contempt for one undaunted. The position worsened day by day. At another.” last, a suggestion was made to the Guru to evacuate The Guru abolished all distinctions of caste, creed and the fort. The Guru did not agree. A few Sikhs lost sex, and integrated his people into one homogenous heart, wrote a letter of renunciation and left the fraternity. He introduced a new ideology but it was fort. not a departure from the old ideals preached by Finally, it became inevitable for the Guru to leave Guru Nanak and his successors. Sikhism in essence the fort as there were no more provisions lei’t. The remained the same as ordained by Guru Nanak. Guru left the fort in December 1704. The Mughal The abolition of caste distinctions was not relished forces were in hot psrsuit. While crossing the Sirsa by high caste Hindus. Mingling of low caste persons stream, the Guru’s family was separated from him. in all the congregations perturbed the Brahmins. Only the two elder sons and a batch of devotees The fire of hatred against the Guru smouldered in remained with him. .They all reached Chamkaur. their hearts and a sort of revolt grew against him. Here another battle ensued. Peace was broken again. The Hill rajas hatched a At last, Guru Gobind Singh reached south-east conspiracy to distroy the Guru’s power and attacked Punjab. From Dina the Guru wrote a historical letter him many times. The final assault was made inl704 to Aurangzeb called Zafamama. When the Guru when the combined forces of the Mughals and the Hill reached Khidrana, now known as Muketsar, the rajas attacked Anandpur. The Governors of Sirhind, Imperial forces again attacked him. Lahore and Multan took part in the campaign. The Sikhs fought valiantly. The Guru told his disciples After the battle the Guru reached Talwandi Sabo, 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009

peace was restored and for sometime, the old atmosphere of Anandpur was created. The Guru bestowed namdan on thousands of people who had gathered there. Guru Gobind Singh now decided to proceed towards the south to meet Aurangzeb who had sent messengers inviting him to come to the Dec-can. When the Guru reached Baghaur in Rajas-than, he heard the news of the death of the Emperor and returned to Delhi. At this point Prince Mauzzam sought Guru’s help in the battle of succession to which the Guru readily agreed. Bahadur Shah received Guru Gobind Singh with SSiimillaar eyees, eearrss, bodyy thheey hhaavee Theey aarre great honour and presented him, in token of his madee of eeartthh, aiirr, firre and wateer allikke Alllaahh gratitude and reverence, a Khillat. aannd Abekkh aarre tthe nnammes oof the saamme oone WWhoomm aaddorre thhe hhooly Puurranaas, and Quurran AAlll aarre ooff In early September 1708, Guru Gobind Singh thhe samee form AAnd onne inn theeir makkinng reached Nanded on the bank of Godavari. Here he met Banda Bahadur, converted him to his faith, and - Akaal UUsstaat sent him along with some of his leading devotees to The Guru was not only the ‘beau ideal’ of the Punjab to punish the wrong-doers. Punjabis,he stood for the whole humanity, irres- One day, while the Guru was addressing a big pective of their caste, religion, sect or race, they congregation, a Pathan came and bowed his head stood for secularism and never performed a single in reverence. When the Guru reached his camp, the act which was parochial in character. He used the Pathan stabbed him and the’day of destiny came. words Hindustan and Hindustanis in his writings Guru Gobind Singh left his mortal coil on October and not Punjabis. He fought battles and sacrificed 7, 1708. His last injunctions to the Sikhs were : “He his all for the honour of the entire nation. He was the who wishes to behold the Guru, let him search the ‘beau’ of all the Indians inhabiting the subcontinent. holy Granth. The Guru will dwell with the Khalsa, He stood for national unity and emotional be firm and faithful ; wherever five Sikhs are integration of the Indian people. The democratic assembled together there will I also be present.” He institutions created by him three centuries ago are bestowed Guruship on Sri Guru Granth Sahib. the shining lighthouses showing new paths to the human race having faith in democratic ideals. The Thus, at the age of forty-two,Guru Gobind Singh Guru created the Khalsa, transferring sovereignty was immortalised. Throughout his life, he struggled to the poor and oppressed of our country, so that against religious intolerance and oppression of the they might remember in the days to come that there downtrodden. He did not fight for capturing any land was in history, too, a Guru by the name of Gobind or wordly power. He had many Muslim followers. Singh who taught ideals of democracy, secularism, People of different faiths, castes and creeds were brotherhood and unity of mankind. He left footprints attracted to the Guru as he taught that all men for posterity to follow-not to surrender to tyranny were equal and that only outer forms differed, the and injustice, come what may. He turned the sect of fundamental truth remained the same. He said : saints and martyrs gradually into a band of bold and ““TThee samme Good ddwells in thhe teempplle annd tthhe courageous warriors. The Sikh movement reached MMosqquue its highest fulfilment under Guru Gobind Singh. TThhe HHinduuss woorshhip Him anndd thhee Musllim pprraayy - Hand Book on Sikhism, Surinder Singh Johar, too Hiimm Published by Vivek Publishing Company, Delhi HHuman bbeeinnggss arre all oone thoouughh of diivverrsse foorms GGodss, deemmoonnss, Yakkshaas annd tthhe mmiinstrrells ddiiviinnee TThhe MMussllimms aand Hinnduss arre alll onne Immbiibbe thhey thhe innffluueenncee of eenvironnss they inhhaabiit.. 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 TThehe OOriginrigin ofof VedantaVedanta SocietiesSocieties inin AmericaAmerica

The exchange of thought with the best minds of America that Swami Vivekananda was gaining was formative for his future work. Through these contacts, he could feel the pulse of the American people and clothe his ideas in their current terminology. He began to fully realise why Sri Ramakrishna had sent him to America. Vivekananda wrote to his fellow disciple, Swami Brahmananda, There is no certainty about my going back to India. I shall have to lead a wandering life there also, as I am doing here. But here one lives in the company of scholars, and there, in the company of fools. . . My intention is to do something permanent here, and with that object I am working day by day. I am every day gaining the confidence of the American people’. . . . My ideas are international and not Indian alone. Vivekananda wrote to Sara that he arrived safely in New York and that his student, Leon Landsberg, who had been attending the classes in New York and Greenacre, met him at the depot. Dr. Lewis Janes and several gentlemen from the Ethical Culture Association also went to meet him. For a time, the Swami lived as a guest of Dr. Guernsey in his Fifth Avenue house and lectured in the rented rooms at 54 West 33 Street. Fifth Avenue is, even today, one of the most posh of addresses and Thirty-third Street, one of the poorest. an excellent teacher. She accepted him as her guru, Leon Landsberg, who stayed in the rented rooms in spite of his still having, what she considered, and worked as the Swami’s secretary, answering his some rough edges on his personality. She assumed letters, was a young journalist on the staff of The she could change her growing boy into a proper New York Tribune, ‘with curly hair and the eyes of gentleman. He had warned her that he was a rough a fanatic’ Landsberg, who was acquainted with Sara diamond and he was proud of it. He said, ‘He who has from New York and Greenacre, wrote to Sara soon to make his own way in life is a little rough, he has after the Swami’s arrival in New York: not much time to be smooth and suave and polite.’ He had an ideal to carry out and no compromise was The Swami tells me, that, thanks to your kindness, the watchword. he is most delighted with the success he had in Boston. I am most happy to learn that you intend He later wrote, ‘Every day I feel I have no duty coining to our city. I am sure that good work can to do; I am always in eternal rest and peace. It is be done here provided that enthusiastic men and He that works. We are only the instruments.’4 He women, who like you, are eager to spread spiritual objected to having any ‘work;’ since he was free of knowledge, take hold of the movement. You can any duty, being a monk. He had only a ‘message,’ rely on me to do everything in my power to help he insisted. you carrying out your plans. He admired the American method of having an The meaningful interaction resulting from Swami organisation; yet he wanted to train individuals Vivekananda’s talks at Harvard in October, and at who would be free to teach in their own way. He The Cambridge Conferences in December l894» needed money to carry out his message; but as he gave Sara the idea that her ‘son’ was growing into himself would not touch it, an organisation with lay 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 administrators, Secretary, Treasurer, and so on, could she had given her at marriage in a note from her do that. He would not be a part of an administration. grandfather, who gave her 6% interest on the same, Sara was eager to help him make contacts with her Norwegian home, etc. Sara’s account of Olea’s people who could help him financially and would misfortune in spite of fortune continued: have the broad intellect to carry the standard of Shortly after, as I was to be absent in New York, I his lofty universal ideas. There were other women asked Mrs. S. [Shapleigh] to stay in Cambridge in who would have liked to help him, but none were my house, closed for the summer, with my care- as determined as Sara, nor as responsible. From her taker, for the purpose of going to take Olea to troubled home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she drive daily. On my return, I found my daughter continued to sponsor his talks in New York. seriously ill in my home, by orders of the doctor, Sarraa’s Haapleesss Daugghhtter who feared, I was told, that the child was already dead in the womb: No sign of life for three days. It was a year since Olea’s marriage to Henry Vaughan. Sara’s father was on his deathbed. Sara’s daughter Henry had the measles and Olea, against the

was pregnant and her marriage was breaking up. Doctor’s orders, nursed him, climbing the stairs Sara wrote about it: often. As a result, From the spirited girl who believed in freedom and responsible womanhood Henry’s health was much impaired as I noticed she had developed the extreme, as is usual of after the marriage. ... I did not imagine her [Olea] such qualities, of personal devotion to Henry, and unhappy only very anxious and concerned about was punctilious towards his family as their praise his state of health. I saw that my daughter was indicated. Her time and efforts were entirely given then approaching motherhood and found this was to Henry and their home. I saw her seldom, and most welcome to her. knew none of the details of her personal married Sara added a note: ‘My own interpretation concerning life. Henry’s health was that his sense of protection I fancied that I noticed that H.’s manner and honour were hurt that I was doing more for was neither as respectful or tender as I was Olea than he received from his family.’ Sara had accustomed to expect of him, and that his visits given her daughter permission to will the $25,000 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009

made her unhappy, followed by a kind of terror. and I felt that all was wrong. Mrs. S. finally told me O. was unhappy. I could only fulfil the courtesies of my place and carefully keep out of the situation, since complaints could be carried to so ill a patient desiring motherhood. At the end of six weeks, if I recall rightly, I. left for Mrs. S.’s home in the country The child was born. It came to my knowledge gradually after the birth of my grandchild, that He had not only been gravely ill from the moment of his marriage but [such] cruelty to had accompanied it, that she had given up hope of becoming a mother. Eventually, Sara, with the aid of Olea’s doctors, helped her daughter to file a legal appeal for a divorce. Olea was seriously ill between the third week of May and the middle of June, l895 during which time she went to stay with her mother in Cambridge. Then she went to her old home at West Lebanon, Maine, and there she remained until a few weeks after the birth of her child. Some time after Sara’s father’s death, Sara could make brief trips to New York to hear the Swami’s lectures. Emma Thursby, living in New York, was able to do much that Sara could not do in person for Sarah Chapman Bull the Swami, but Emma’s family was suffering from a The American Mother of Swami Vivekananda financial crisis. Sara hoped that she could help both the Swami and Emma by staging a benefit lecture frost in Florida which killed their trees. She cares by the Swami combined with a concert by Emma at for her family and it is her loss. the Plymouth Church. Sara wrote to its minister, Mr. I know how often Plymouth Church has asked Lyman Abbott, on January 19, 1895 to convince him Emma Thursby’s aid, and I believe many of its to give his permission for it. She wrote: members love her. It occurs to me, if you think Miss Emma Thursby writes me that she has spoken best, that it would be a good time for them to to you and others of Plymouth Church, about offer her a benefit. She could thus herself ask the having the Hindu monk, Swami Vivekananda, Swami to speak and fill out the programme with speak there. ... music by herself and others. I write to you of this without her knowledge of course. . . . As a teacher of agnostics and inspirer in the truly religious and spiritual life, we have found him I am perhaps the only friend to whom she mentions while he was my guest for five weeks, of infinite her cares and financial difficulties. ‘ help. The promise would seem to be given him of Sara sent along with the letter some newspaper being one to do a very important work for his own reports of Vivekananda’s growing fame in his own country since his love of science, scholarship, country that he had sent her. They were full of pride his reform spirit as to non-essentials and clear in the success of his oratorical genius. The benefit convictions as to the verities are remarkable. concert was a great success. He is still young, thirty-three years of age. His - Saint Sara, The Life of Sara Chapman Bull, The experience in the United States has been and will American Mother of Swami Vivekananda. be of great good to him. Author : Pravrajika Prabuddhaprana Miss Thursby herself is just now in a position of care and uncertainty. Her investments are either uncertain or returning very little. In her last letter she tells me that her brothers have lost six years of work and three thousand in money by the land 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 UUnitynity ThroughThrough ReligiousReligious TeachingTeaching

or democracy, all secularists agree, secularism is a must and unity in diversity, in countries like India, is possible only through secular polity. Religion, in a secular democracy should be at best, a private affair and religion should have no role as far as politics and affairs of state are concerned. Nehruites maintained that schools supported by the government should not teach religion, education should be strictly secular. Gandhians had a different viewpoint from this. Gandhians do not de-emphasise religion while supporting secularism and secular democracy. They believe in promoting religious values with a proviso that one should respect all religions equally. There are those who reject religion altogether and for them secularism means atheism and religion, for them, should have no role in any sphere of public life. Thus there are different shades of secularism, i.e. Nehruvian, Gandhian and atheistic. It appears none of these models seems to be succeeding. Nehruvian model should have been more successful as it partly meets the Gandhian approach and partly the atheistic. The way the political class is behaving, i.e. only interested in power, not in principles and values, it failed as it lives in New Jersey, USA and corresponds with me neither remained Nehruvian in spirit nor Gandhian, through e-mail. We met once briefly in New Jersey. much less atheistic. In a traditional society like I found him quite sincere and enthusiastic. He is India, Gandhian model should have had greater sincerely engaged in promoting his mission. He chances of success but even Gandhians did not approached a many people seeking support for his follow Gandhian principles, and though they did not project and still continues to do so. I fully endorse oppose them, they never practised them. the spirit of his efforts and it is of immense value today in contemporary India where communalism is My friend Prakash Narain is passionately advocating being injected in public life. the revival of religious values and spirit in modern India, the religion of tolerance and compassion. I Prakash Narain’s efforts are like those of Darashikoh wonder at his efforts at this age (he is more than 90 in the 17th century India. Darashikoh who was years old) to infuse true spirit of religion, especially appointed heir apparent by Emperor Shahjahan Hinduism, among people and revive brotherly and wrote a book Majma ‘ul Bahrayn (Co-mingling sisterly relations between Hindus and Muslims. He of Hinduism and Islam) and tried to show that wants religion to be taught in schools so that people Hinduism and Islam are complimentary and not develop truly the spirit of humanity. He is against contradictory to each other. Since he was himself atheistic secularism and wants his message to reach a scholar of Sanskrit and of Hinduism in addition large number of people. He has written a book whose to that of Islam, he compared teachings of both tentative title is Indian Heritage -Oneness in Masses the religions to prove his point. He also translated of Hindus and Muslims through Vedanta, Vahdat and Upanishads into Persian and called it Sirr-e-Akbar. Vivayka. He tried his best to get the book published He would have proved a great boon for India had but did not succeed. He has now put it online and he succeeded to the throne of India. Prakash Narain wants Hindu and Muslim masses to read it. He who is making herculean efforts to promote unity between Hindus and Muslims in contemporary 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009

India, may not be scholar of Islam as Darashikoh Azad or Zakir Husain. Both Maulana Azad and was of Hinduism, but he had the benefit of studying Zakir Husain were soaked in Islamic tradition and under a Muslim teacher during the fifties of last yet were great champions of Hindu-Muslim unity. century and certainly imbibed the true spirit of As Sunderlal and Bishmbarnath had imbibed the Islam and learnt Urdu and Persian as students those best of Hinduism, its tolerance, its universality, days had to learn. That infused into him the right Azad and Zakir Husain too represented the best in spirit of Hindu-Muslim unity. That partly explains Islamic values. Today, as Prakash Narain would his passionate commitment to his project. agree with me, religion is being used to promote political benefits and such politicised religion can He complains that Nehruvian secularists banned never represent the best of its tradition. But one may study of religion is schools and thus deprived Hindu argue, and rightly so, that Nehruvian secularism too students of knowledge of true Hindu religious spirit. lost its real spirit and secularism itself has been But, on the other hand, Muslims showed the wisdom reduced to ‘psuedo-secularism (though I am not of teaching their children Islam through network using it in the sense in which L.K.Advani of BJP of madrasas. Hindus, on the other hand, in their uses it). Indeed, secularism, too, has lost its secular enthusiasm for ‘secular’ education, closed down spirit. Secularism, like religion, itself has been all their pathashalas and deprived their children ‘politicised’ in the wrong sense. of religious education. Prakash Narain, therefore, advocates that Hindus also be given chance of In this age of globalisation and consumerism, to talk studying their religion in schools and thus chance to of values and principles, is to be outdated. Today’s imbibe the true spirit of their religion which in turn generation is achievement-oriented and is obsessed would help strengthen the spirit of Hindu-Muslim with achieving whatever be the cost. Our education unity. I think he says so under the strong influence system is itself part of the problem rather than of his vision of religion as a means of strengthening part of a solution. The education system infuses Hindu-Muslim relations. But even if Hindu religious conformism, on the one hand, and competitiveness studies are introduced, the real question is who will on the other. Education system, if it has to be really control them? Will they be controlled by noble education in the true sense, must create a critical souls like Prakash Narains or those who want to rather than conforming mind and spirit of cooperation promote Hindu-Muslim animosity through misuse and compassion rather than competition. In this of religion? achievement-oriented age who will think of values like compassion and cooperation? Prakash Narain Is religion, as rationalists often maintain a source can succeed in his objective only if our education of conflict? Or a resource for peace as persons like system is transformed and is used to promote the Prakash Narain feel? I have my doubts that given the best values in religion. His Vedantic vision can come contemporary situation in India where majoritarian into being only when our politicians first change rather than democratic ethos prevail, thanks to their own vision and accept vision of persons like communalisation of politics, teaching of religion Gandhi or Azad or Pandit Sunderlal or Prakash would indeed help. Had it been so, Gandhism would Narain himself. not have failed. Most of the Gandhian institutions, though not communalised, have been Hinduised I would now like to throw light on what Prakash completely loosing Gandhian spirit of equal respect Narain believes could help promote Hindu-Muslim for all religions. unity in India. Prakash Narain is a devout Gandhian. He writes in Author’s Note: “My above experience The RSS today has much greater control over most made this book necessary to reach Mahatma Gandhi’s of the educational institutions, in many cases even spiritual India of 400 million (now over a billion) of over professional institutions than the governments. eight religions that alone can save India. Mahatma What Prakash Narain says was advocated by profound Gandhi’s India secured us freedom. We must get Gandhians like Pandit Sunderlal and Bishambarnath rid of our avivaykee and bideshi (i.e. unwise and Pande whom I had the privilege to know and had foreign-oriented) mind in just three years. We can worked for several years for promoting communal start replacing this with a powerful vivaykee mind as harmony. Both Pandit Sunderlal and Bishambarnathji that of Mahatma Gandhi by the defined and detailed were profound scholars of Islam along with strategy in chapter 5 of this book.” What the author Hinduism. Both were passionate and committed means by vivaykee mind is wise spiritual mind to Hindu-Muslim unity. Unfortunately, they could based on Vedic values and well aware of spiritual not produce any other Sunderlal or Bishambarnath heritage of India. He considers Nehruvian model as Muslims could not produce another Maulana 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 of secularism as bideshi and Gandhian secularism Deen and Shari’ah which differs from religion to as swadeshi (of Indian origin).Nehru according to religion since Shari ‘ah . depends on cultural values Prakash Narain was under Western influence and and practices, customs and traditions. I do not know he preferred Western model of secularism over whether Prakash Narain has read Maulana Azad Indian model and hence was avivekiya and must be or not , but he too draws similar conclusion and rejected. makes a distinction between Dharma and religion. Dharma, according to him, is pure roohaneeyat. If Prakash Narain is also a fervent advocate of religious one develops this kind of understanding we can education for Hindu children in schools of which greatly reduce our differences and easily build they are being deprived of in independent India. bridges between polarised religious communities According to him it is necessary to teach Hindu in India. It is not only the question of reading this children Vedic teachings to empower and spiritualise book. It is important to read this book along with their minds. Many would agree that our education the Maulana’s volume on wahdat-e-Deen. If read needs more spiritual content in the form of values so together they can really be much more effective. But that we can produce students with strong foundation even more important is to refashion school syllabi of values like tolerance, respect for other faiths, on these lines. In these days of hate politics it is proud of Indian composite spiritual heritage, truth increasingly important to read such works which and compassion for fellow human beings. These try to build religious unity on the basis of religious values can be imparted through the teaching of one scriptures. This work was done in medieval ages by or also through comparative religion to inculcate Sufi and Bhakti saints and they greatly succeeded in respect for other faiths as all religions stress more building bridges across religions. They also richly or less same values. contributed towards our composite culture. What Our education system is more reason than wisdom we need is to re-emphasise these efforts. An attempt oriented. We must relate our reason to our values and is being made through our constitutional secularism collective spiritual heritage and in a way it amounts but it is not enough. Constitution is after all a legal to marry Nehruvian model to Gandhian one. document based on certain modern fundamental The very essence of this book is unity of all religions, rights. a theme so necessary for our polarised country We also need to supplement these efforts through today. We are more divided along religious lines promoting spiritual values as our people are as never before, thanks to sectarian politics, being soaked in religious practices and traditions. We pursued by a section of politicians with great gusto. need to make multi¬dimensional efforts to keep Apart from DaraShikoh referred to above, Maulana our people united. After all our democratic polity Azad devoted the first volume of his commentary of is competitive and in multi-religious countries like Qur’an to the theme of unity of religion (Wahdat- India, religion provides the fault line of division and e-Din). Prakash Narain has made similar attempt competition takes place along this fault line. In a from a Hindu scriptural point of view. I think the secular democracy, religious and cultural diversity most valuable part of the book is chapter four in should provide enriching public experience but which the author discusses commonalities between political competitiveness has reduced it (diversity) Tulsidas Ramayana and the Qur’an. It is quite a to our weakness rather than our strength. However, detailed chapter. The purpose of the chapter in the books like these are usually written in English and author’s own words: “This chapter is based on the reach only a few chosen people whereas there is a search in the Holy Qur’an for quotations that accord great need to make them available in Hindi, Urdu with the basic in Sanatana Dharma for understanding and other Indian languages so that they have much and mutual respect between Hindus and Muslims.” wider reach. That is however, another problem. What He makes a significant observation which will help is important for me is that still we have people like dispel many misunderstandings. He says, “With Prakash Narain around who can try passionately to these handy definitions we realise that Dharma is promote unity among the people of diverse faiths. roohaneeyat or spirituality and not religion. Religion - Asghar Ali Engineer, Bhavan’s Journal 31 Decem- includes rituals, individual, family and social ber 2008 regulations, customs and visible practices. These have no bearing upon roohaneeyat (spirituality) in our religion. Religion is mazhab not roohaneeyat alone. Maulana Azad, too, makes a distinction between 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 EEducationducation withoutwithout failure?failure? Advances in technology and our understanding of how children learn should enable us to eliminate failure in education, says Professor Tim Brighouse

ince the millennium there has been much schools have to make hard choices - for example, discussion on what schools need to do to about which teachers teach which children - their meet the challenges of the 21st century. needs are promoted at the expense of the group we The increased pace of change in society and the are identifying as gaining the least from school. economy, the global nature of many so called First, however, it is necessary to set out what we ‘wicked’ issues concerned with eradicating social mean by failure and how it might be measured. exclusion and creating a fairer society, and the The moral argument for trying to minimise failure need for interdisciplinary solutions to these matters and optimise individual educational success was have been cited as examples of why schools need to well expressed by William Temple whose words behave differently in the future. powerfully affected R A Butler in the production of The recently announced RSA Charter for Education the 1944 Education Act: in the 21st Century epitomises this widely held ‘Are you going to treat a man as he is with belief in the need for change, especially in secondary many of his tastes warped, with his powers schools, and there are already several initiatives largely crushed or as he might become with devoted to this end - not least the government’s his faculties fully developed? Are you going to Building Schools for the Future programme. treat a man as he is or as he might be? Morality Together with Mike Tomlinson, I co-chair one such requires that you should treat him as might be, partnership, the 21st Century Learning Alliance, as he has it in him to become; business on the which in June presented its first school awards at other hand requires . that you should treat him the National College of School Leadership ‘Seizing as he is. Raising what he is to what he might be Success’ conference in Birmingham. Schools were is the work of education. invited to illustrate 21st-century characteristics ‘And so you can have no justice at the basis of your in their use of time and space, their teaching and social life until education has done its full work ... learning methods or their deployment of people and and you cannot have political freedom any more than resources and the curriculum. you can have moral freedom until people’s powers Next year we hope this award scheme will include have been developed. Nor can there be individual a debate on what is arguably the most important, if freedom, for the simple reason that over and over elusive, issue of all: that, given the advances in the again we find men with a cause which is just (who) use of information and communication technologies are unable to state it in a way which might enable and our improved knowledge of how the brain it to prevail... there exists a mental form of slavery works and children learn, it ought to be possible quite as real as any economic form. We are pledged to eliminate failure in education. The correlation to destroy it... if you want human liberty you must of school failure with subsequent predisposition to have educated people.’ crime, homelessness and ill-health mean that it is To this moral imperative for successful education - certainly a debate worth having. which is not emphasised as much now as it was in the Admittedly such an approach runs the risk of being optimism of the post-war period of reconstruction criticised as ignoring the needs of those who gain - can be added an economic one. Not merely does most and excel at school, education add to the individual’s chances of financial advantage, there is a general political consensus that those whom the government has recently ever-higher standards of education and training are identified as the ‘gifted and talented’. But it is our now necessary for countries to survive and thrive partnership’s contention that this very identification in a rapidly changing and technologically driven has ensured that their needs are in no danger of world. being overlooked. Indeed, we shall argue that when 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009

For any individual to lead a fulfilling life as a recognition of what is possible is extended; get it contributing citizen it is arguable that he/she needs wrong and both are damaged. to be able to tighten an argument and/or to hone a This last point reaches the heart of the matter. skill that will bring him or her financial and other Repeated failure can become so embedded that reward. Both have prospects that are economic and it convinces the individual or group that it is if you succeed at only one, then you at least need impossible ever to be successful. Researchers say to be able to seek the help of someone who has a that it is very apparent in young children aged different skill, rather in the way that the philosopher seven or eight when some of them perceive they are and the plumber need to respect each other and their falling behind their contemporaries in learning to mutual interdependence. Thirdly, in addition to read - a capability they see as clearly very highly these two moral and economic imperatives, there valued by their teachers, their parents and the more is a cultural one, and this is of benefit to both the successful members of their peer group. They start individual and society collectively: we owe it to to see themselves as ‘failures’ in every other sphere our future citizens to ensure they are initiated into of highly valued activity and perform accordingly. the essential culture of a society and are capable of Repeated failure becoming collectively embedded shaping its development. Lastly, society expects its can be seen every week in the performances of schools to reinforce those values such as honesty consistently ineffective sports teams as their ‘heads and truth that are the bedrock of most societies’ go down’ and their self-confidence becomes so low moral norms. It is really against these three - the that they lack the psychological strength to break moral, economic and cultural -purposes that we the habit of losing. Unsuccessful schools are like should measure educational success or failure. this. It is this sort of failure that the educational It is interesting to note that the very idea and system could do without. So let us consider ways in understanding of ‘failure’ varies from country to which we could reduce, if not eliminate, this sort of country. There are, for example, languages that have ‘unnecessary failure’. no word for failure except in relation to an absence of success: it is as though their language implies One final point needs to be underlined: we are simply a postponement of success. In that sense, of sometimes reluctant or unknowing heirs to the course, failure is inevitable and not harmful. expectations of our ancestors. In this respect it’s worth noting that we have been preoccupied with - I am not talking of trying to eliminate the sort of and in a sense dependent on - failure for centuries. failure that arises when an individual or group fails In 1803 the Bishop of London noted that some to understand a concept thought that ‘it was safer for the Church and State or demonstrate a skill and is then prompted to to allow the poorer classes to remain in that state of more endeavour, which leads ultimately to success. ignorance in which God had originally placed them’. Frequently that sort of failure is a useful part of Robert Lowe, the architect of the notorious Revised learning. It allows the learner to see exactly what Code following the 1870 Education Act, said: ‘We he/she has to do to overcome the difficulty and must give the lower classes just sufficient education embark with a clear map of the next few steps on the to give them that sense of awe for higher education journey of learning. This attitude is thankfully much which the leaders of the nation demand.’ more pervasive in schools now than it has ever been More recently, if the 11-plus didn’t ‘fail’ you, then and many are cleverly using the London Olympics O-level would; and if you surmounted that hurdle of 2012 to boost its relevance to their current set of and even A-level standard, you could regard yourself pupils. After all, every athlete who fails to reach or as a failure if you didn’t get a first from Oxford surpass their ‘personal best’ is spurred on by this or Cambridge. Even then, there was the real test of sort of failure to make adjustments and become ever the Ph.D ahead. Such observations may be fanciful better. but they convey our inherited predisposition to find But to complicate matters, the appetite for failure as a means of identifying success. competition varies according to self-confidence The emphasis on academic attainment as the main and the capacity to cope with a comparative lack of means of establishing an individual pupil’s or school’s success. The judgement about the extent to which the success is well noted and sometimes contested as individual is exposed to this sort of competition is being at the expense of other sorts of achievement. inevitably in the hands of teachers, parents and peer Certainly OFSTED inspections and the publication group. Get it right and the individual’s and society’s of exam league tables, for example, encourage 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 schools to focus on a few key measurements such as encouragingly and bear witness to countless stories five or more higher GCSE grades including English intended for them. Their lives and confidence are and Maths, with the probable result that the school enriched by taking part in new experiences. In short, gives disproportionate attention to those pupils at the at every turn they are surrounded by a positive, borderline of this measure at the expense of others aspirational role model. who are unlikely to achieve that level. And they, of Other children, however, come from homes where course, are the very pupils who are already at risk some or all of these things are absent. In some of experiencing that embedded sense of failure we they face apathy or even violence from parents want to avoid. or carers who have lost hope and are simply not The more narrowly and normatively pupil and ‘good enough’, as psychoanalyst Bruno Bettelheim school success is drawn, the more likely it is that would have put it. These children are surrounded there will be embedded failure for some. Therefore by what we might call negative, or at best neutral, the way we decide to measure school success is aspirational role models. important if we wish to be serious in eliminating Furthermore, in the teenage years and sometimes self-fulfilling failure. Included in a more desirable earlier, they are frequently in a culture beyond and wider definition of schools’ success might be the school and home where they spend time in a the way schools and their pupils can demonstrate community characterised by sporadic violence, improvements in: crime and drugs and where it is especially difficult • participation and average performance rates to grow the resilience needed to avoid becoming in various sports ensnared. • annual ‘health fitness’ measures A school’s organisational practices - such as vertical or year-group teaching; setting or streaming; • participation in a wide range of arts activities formative or normative assessment and marking; (music, for example) use of language; a regime of rewards and sanctions - • participation in pupil activities and all have a positive or negative impact on individual experiences (including day pupils. A school may be successful for many, some visits and residential as well as extended or few pupils. Existing evidence is that schools curriculum studies) are less successful with children from apparently disadvantaged backgrounds, but that a few schools • staff professional development activities do buck that trend. • staff and pupil absence rates What the 21st Century Learning Alliance has done • defined student leadership and management so far is to set out a series of statements for schools opportunities to consider and, in doing so, ask themselves whether a particular answer is more or less likely to cause • pupil voluntary contribution to the well-being embedded failure among those youngsters most of the local community at risk. For example, most secondary schools, in • encouragement of opportunities for family adopting a fortnightly timetable ‘to fit it all in’, admit learning that in establishing priority criteria they start with the sixth form, proceed to the higher-grade GCSE One final piece of evidence a society and school sets, ensure that Year 9 have good teachers and end serious about reducing unnecessary failure might with Year 7 ‘making do’ at the end of the process. consider is the regular collection of the views of Yet they would also subscribe to the desirability tor pupils, staff and parents through the use of attitudinal any Year / pupil to encounter eight teachers at most. surveys. With the exception of schools that have adopted the Children are in school for only 15% of their waking RSA ‘Opening Minds’ programme, schools often time between birth and 16; the balance (85%) is spent have Year 7 pupils encountering 16 to 20 different in the home or community — and here children find teachers during their fortnightly timetable. themselves in very different circumstances. In the same way, schools face real choices in elevating Some are fortunate to be immersed in a supportive the needs of some pupils over those of others when culture with clear and well-judged expectations. they decide on ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ banding. The These children feel good about themselves; at an examples are myriad and we have set out some of them early age they play, hear music, are listened to on the website: www.21stcenturylearningalliance. 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009

com. My hope is that we can broaden the debate the support to enjoy success, no matter where their and establish a list of, say, half a dozen essential talents lie and irrespective of their background. school organisational practices and so reduce the This debate should also provoke a simultaneous sort of embedded failure identified in this paper. In consideration of government practices which, at a my view, the list would definitely include: system level, have a similar potential to diminish or increase the likelihood of embedded failure, • ‘vertical’ as well as ‘horizontal’ pupil the reduction of which is surely the country’s top groupings, priority for the 21st century. • more team and less individual activity, assessment and tasks - Professor Tim Brighouse, former London Schools • guaranteed residential experiences Commissioner & Co-chair 21 Century Learning Alliance. RSA Journal Autumn Issue 2008. The debate about what practices harbour embedded Coutesy Gambhir Watts FRSA failure is surely one worth having. As the RSA Education Charter states, all young people need

BBhavan’shavan’s SwamiSwami PPrakashanandarakashananda AyurvedaAyurveda ResearchResearch CentreCentre CCancerancer ResearchResearch AAndnd ServicesServices

Bhavan’s SPARC Fig 6: Improvement of symptoms in terminally ill cancer patients while on treatment faculty has a unique background in cancer Pain (n=29) Depression (n=18) research and care. A Burning (n=16) cancer complementary clinic was ongoing 0% 19% 10% 22% for several years. The major interest has been 31% 59% 61% 17% in the mechanisms 81% of spontaneous regression of cancer and the anticancer role Anorexia (n=18) Swelling (n=19) of medicinal plants and Constipation (n=20) biological products. Indian Council of 0% 0% 28% 30% Medical Research, 42% Gopalji Trust and 58% Go-Vigyan Bharati 72% 65% 5% supported basic and applied research in cancer. Recently the Department Good relief Moderate relief No relief of Biotechnology has supported a “Snakes can only grow by bursting their skin. Moulting has to study with turmeric be painful process, and should it fail the snake would die. (Curcuma longa) Mankind also grows by now and then bursting its outgrown skin of antiquated ideas, thinking and institutions”. in cancer of uterine -Albert Szent–Györgyi cervix. Palliative studies in terminal cancer patients were conducted at Shanti- Avedna Ashram, Bandra. NYT, March 29, 1978. 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009

The salient findings over the years of study are: ACS induces necrosis/apoptosis of the cancer cells. ACS gets excreted in urine and has a low threshold a. Curcuma longa has cancer-preventive value of renal transport. Remarkable and long- activity and regresses oral precancerous lesions. In term regressions have been reported with autourine animals, cancer of the breast could be prevented with therapy and Tinospora cordifolia. Cow’s urine is curcuma longa. Currently, the studies in cervical being investigated for ACS (Spontaneous or induced cancer are ongoing. regression of cancer: A novel research strategy for b. In terminally ill cancer patients, a special Ayurvidya. Ancient Science of Life, 22(3); 75-83: Ayurvedic formulation (Bilwaprash) provided a 2003). significant improvement in the quality of life and symptoms like constipation, nausea etc. (Figure 6) c. The spontaneous regression of cancer is putatively due to the level of anticancer substance (ACS) suddenly rising in the blood and tissues. CCLINICLINIC WITHWITH PANCHAKARMAPANCHAKARMA FACILITIESFACILITIES ANDAND AAYURVEDICYURVEDIC DISPENSARYDISPENSARY

Panchakarma and Ayurvedic dispensary have been an integral Fig 11: Number of patients registered part of AIMD activities right from (From April 2005-March2006) the inception of Bhavan’s SPARC. The activity was located initially at Lotus hospital campus at Juhu upto 1997 and now it has been shifted to Gastro- Andheri Bhavan’s campus since then. intestinal Selected Ayurvedic medicines (40-50 Respiratory formulations) are made available for dispensing. Panchakarma facilities Tract like vamana, virechana, nasya, Skin basti, raktamokshana along with the classical purvakarma (i.e. snehan & swedana) and paschatkarma (diet & Bones & Joints behavioral regime) are advised in selected and suitable patients. Miscellenious The primary objective of the clinic is to provide state of the art clinical services and to create robust experiential database. Besides a comprehensive clinical case record In this ambulant care clinic patients with diverse form for regular OPD patients, special clinical conditions particularly of long-term chronic case record form for each panchakarma ailments such as chronic sinusitis, chronic bronchitis, modality is maintained. bronchial asthma, acid–peptic disorders, chronic colitis/ As an outcome of this experiential constipation, inflammatory/irritable bowel disorders, clinical data a poster presentation skin disorders etc come for consultation and treatment was made in recently held 2nd World Chart (Fig 11) above Ayurved Congress 2006 at Pune on ‘Nasyakarma- an observational study’. 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 YYogaoga ToTo HHelpelp OvercomeOvercome DDepressionepression - SSevapurievapuri HHurst,urst, PPresidentresident ooff YYogaoga iinn DDailyaily LLife,ife, AAustraliaustralia

Stress and anxiety are precursors to depression to renew energy levels, encourage deeper breathing and their symptoms can be addressed through the and lift the spirits complimented by movements practices of yoga. that tone and maintain the endocrine glands and What is Stress? the nervous system that communicates with these glands. Asanas include forward and back bending, Stress is the reaction to any internal or external sideways bending and inverted postures. Balancing stimuli that cause the activation of he fight or flight asanas are explored in Level 3 essential to skillfully mechanism (sympathetic nervous system) – that strengthen the body by building muscle mass and can be helpful, but when it happens continually, bone density. They have a strong calming effect over very small incidents and is never given an on the mind; develop mental focus and a high level opportunity to release, then stress starts to impact of self confidence and concentration. Following negatively on our bodies and minds, e.g. financial asanas practice of Nadi Shodhana pranayama to problems, health and family problems, work related regulate the nervous system, alleviate stress and stress. depression, quietening thoughts and emotions and What is Anxiety? bring inner balance. Self Inquiry Meditation Level 3 develops Visualisation, Observation of Feelings, Anxiety is when there is so much stress that we feel Analysing Relationships with Fellow Humans, unable to cope anymore, we have fearful thoughts Discovering Your Own Moods and Awakening a and physical reactions, these are the same as Sense of Inner Freedom. stress but more exasperated like a pounding heart, sweating, nauseous and breathlessness. The key elements in helping us understand and overcome stress, anxiety and depression are: What is Depression? Physical Health We all get sad for lots of reasons: disappointment, grief, losing something valuable, missing out on a job, Helping ourselves through periods of stress, anxiety break up of a relationship. Sad is a normal reaction and depression by practicing asanas, releasing and we get over it mostly with a good nights sleep, or tension, stimulating organs and glands, cultivating having a talk with a friend or with time. Depression an understanding of our physical and mental state is this sadness but it is more persistent and can last of being. for weeks, months or even years. It affects not only Mental Health how we feel, but the way that we think and behave. It is not something we can just get over or snap out Meditation and breathing techniques help observe of. Depression affects our total wellness and our thought patterns and habits, calm the body and motivation. Depression can arise from hormonal mind, aid in focusing and concentration, balance the disturbances, imbalances of the pituitary gland, nervous system and encourage positive thinking. thyroid gland and reproductive hormones. Reactive Social Health depression arises from environmental stresses and Staying active, walking in nature, making plans and anxiety in life of the person. Stress and anxiety follow them through. can lead drug induced depression - sedatives, anti anxiety drugs, antipsychotic drugs, stimulants, Spiritual Health alcohol, appetite suppressant drugs and other. Develop spiritually with a daily Yoga practice which Yoga Management creates a life affirming ritual; finding acceptance and non attachment and knowing that everything Yoga techniques are an aid and adjunct to any therapy, changes. complimentary medicine or ongoing treatment. Yoga is not an alternative to medication, psychologist or - Yoga in Daily Life the System - Paramhans Swami counselor support, in fact, if feeling depressed, see Maheshwarananda a doctor, as depression can often be part of another illness. Asanas and pranayama concentrate on building up physical and vital energy levels, with a flexible body follows a more flexible mind. In Level 3 of the Yoga in Daily Life System there is a strong focus the bring balance of dynamic movement 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009

SSPEECHPEECH BYBY HERHER EXCELLENCYEXCELLENCY THETHE PRESIDENTPRESIDENT OFOF INDIA,INDIA, SSHRIMATIHRIMATI PRATIBHAPRATIBHA DEVISINGHDEVISINGH PATIL,PATIL, TTOO TTHEHE NATIONNATION ONON THETHE EEVEVE OFOF 60TH60TH REPUBLICREPUBLIC DAYDAY OFOF INDIAINDIA

My Dear Fellow Citizens, Tomorrow, we will be celebrating our 60th Republic Day. I extend my good wishes to our citizens from all walks of life, living in the country and overseas. I convey my special greetings to the members of our Armed Forces and Paramilitary Forces who guard our frontiers on land, sea and air. I also extend my greetings to the Central and State level police forces, including our internal security forces. Today is also an occasion to pay homage to those who laid down their lives for the safety and security of the nation. We owe a deep gratitude to them. For six decades we have been a democratic republic and have been guided by the principles of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity. The 60th milestone is marked with the many successes that we have achieved in different fields, and a host of issues that need our attention. We can look at our achievements with justifiable pride and focus on our shortcomings with a spirit of resolve. It is the manner in which we address the challenges we face that will determine the destiny towards which our nation is steered. We have witnessed, in the last one year, major events in the financial and security scenario both at the global and the national level - terrorism and violence, natural disasters, volatility in oil and food prices, and a global economic slowdown. These tested the inherent structures and systems for dealing with emergent situations, throwing up challenges of addressing inadequacies and highlighting the need to reinforce monitoring and response mechanisms. In the terrorist attacks in our cities and in different States many innocent lives were lost. The concerted and well planned attacks in Mumbai stand out as an example of a ruthless operation undertaken to damage the confidence of India. The nation was outraged. However, contrary to what the terrorists had hoped, the 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 event saw the emergence of a unified and strong voice from India. The elections that were held after the Mumbai attacks to the Legislative Assemblies of some of our States, including Jammu and Kashmir saw a large voter turnout, reaffirming the faith of the people of India in a democratic polity. Unity is our greatest strength. It is that unique amalgam which transforms the over one billion individuals of the country into an over one billion strong resolve of one nation. It is this unity which has seen us through difficult times and is what we must preserve as we seek to fulfill our national ambitions and goals. One of the priority tasks faced by us is to secure the nation against terrorist and fundamentalist elements. Government has put in place a new agency to deal with terrorist threats and has also brought in legislative changes. A determined, coordinated and concerted approach by all agencies to tackle this menace would be necessary. Our security personnel can be confident that every citizen of India is with them as they take action to safeguard our borders and secure our safety and security within the country. I call on fellow citizens and the media to be a part of this security network. This entails responsible behaviour in which we are aware of our surroundings, and do not inadvertently create an atmosphere of fear or insecurity. Our Constitution is our charter of democracy and of the rights of the people. Individual freedom and dignity is guaranteed under the fundamental rights included in the Constitution. Universal franchise has given to the citizens the right to determine their political choices. The development process itself is becoming an increasingly participatory activity. The Right to Information Act provides citizens a channel to seek accountability in governance. All this places the citizen at the centre, in terms of the recipient of the benefits of the growth of the nation and as also the key player in shaping the growth process. For success to be achieved each one has to play his or her part. Gandhiji used to emphasize that, “it is in this spirit that each one of us should act.” I am confident that all citizens will perform their duties towards the nation in accordance with the wise words of the Father of our Nation. Hard work, grit, determination and perseverance of its population are the brick and mortar of nation building, which itself is a complex task. I mention this because at times, cynical views have been expressed, ignoring that it was the will and sacrifice of our people that defeated a mighty colonial power and there is no reason to doubt, that with determination and dedication we will become a mighty nation. I believe each one of us is a proud Indian, willing to work for the nation but the question is how do we bring about unison in our efforts? It cannot be through the following of a narrow agenda. We cannot give in to regional, sectarian or caste considerations. These concepts militate against the very principles we chose to follow when we began our journey as a free nation. All Indians, undoubtedly, have many identities but with an underlying common identity of being Indian. We may hail from one region but belong to a different caste or religion or speak a different language, but that cannot dilute our Indian identity. That identity in essence means a civilizational ethos of a shared experience of living together in harmony through generations, in a milieu of great diversity but in a spirit of tolerance and forbearance, that flows from our basic belief of unity. The incidents of violence by one community against another can have no place in a pluralistic society. I appeal to my fellow citizens to vow that they would fight divisive agendas and work for an India in which our first identity is Indian and, only thereafter, our other descriptions follow. My fellow citizens, The slowdown of the global economy, triggered by the actions of some credit and banking institutions has resulted in a crisis of confidence all around. The need for strengthening oversight mechanisms for financial institutions and for rules which are clear, transparent and uniformly applied is being acutely felt. Some companies that over-extended or functioned in an unethical manner have caused losses to shareholders. Such incidents profile the need for stronger corporate governance. There must be clear principles of accountability when such losses take place. The richness of a few cannot be at the cost of depriving others of their due. The traditional Indian ethics emphasized saving wisely, investing productively and not borrowing more than the capacity to repay. These hold valuable lessons for the business world. As Governments take necessary domestic measures to ensure that financial institutions and companies adhere strictly to high standards and conduct, it should be accompanied with greater international co-operation so that there is coordinated action in this regard. The need for having an inclusive international financial architecture cannot be over emphasized. India will bring to the global discussions considerable weightage and meaningful contribution for a more credible and viable financial structure. The instances of financial imprudence, which can put global welfare at jeopardy, cannot be allowed to happen again. 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009

India has been impacted by the global environment. However, our economy has the fundamental strength and resilience to remain on course for economic growth. The global financial crisis can be an opportunity to reinforce the structures of our domestic economy. Government has announced monetary and fiscal stimulus packages to increase liquidity in the market and encourage investments. We have a very large domestic market and by increasing the purchasing power capacity of all sections of society, our economic development can be stimulated. We could even be one of the nations who can act as an engine to help revive tthe e global g oba ecoeconomy. o y. EEconomicconomic developdevelopmentmmeent serves a sossocialcial purpose when it is for the welfare of the people. It is our effort to wworkork towards providingprovidiingg educationeducation,, hehealthallth aandndn bbetteretter living conditions for the poorest of the poor and the wweakesteakest of the weak. WWee have made proprogressgress iinn the last 60 yyearsears but our task is not yyetet completed. We have ttoo continue our efforteffortss if we are to achieve tthehhe goal that we have set for ourselves to become a developedevelopedd ccountry.ountry. WWee are seeking to addraddressesss inequities in tththee growth process through an inclusive approach that brings wwithinithin its ambit all regionsregioonns and aallll ppeoples.eoopples. This assumes even ggreaterreater importance in these difficult dadaysys ooff economic stress. EcEconomicoonnomic oopportunitiespportuniitit ese should also be accessible in the remotest areas. We shoulshouldd eexpeditexpedite developmedevelopmentntt ooff our basic infrastrinfrastructureucuctut rer iinn the countrcountry,y, includinincludingg in the North Eastern reregion.gion. TThehe poor and the ddisadvantagediisadvantaged people need to be ddrawnrar wnw iintonto circles of growth, to avoid ththeirheir alalienationlieennation ffromrom the mmainstream.ainsstrt eam. Welfare and development schemes iimplementedmpplemented in earnest caccann brbringinng aababoutout tatangiblenggibble ddifferenceifferenncce ttoo ththee lives of the people. Development partners, wworkingorrkik ngg wwithitth ththee ututmosttmoosst ccommitmentommitment anandnd wwithoutithouut the taint of corruptiocorruption,n, ccanana bbee ththehe agagentsents of change. Improvement in the human develdevelopmentoppmmeent pparametersarametters is important to ccreaterer atte a pprproductiveoducu tit vev wworkoro k force and an enriched societsociety.y. It is GroGrosssss DDomesticomestic PProductroduct aalalongong with welwelfarefaarere ooff ththehe pepeopleopplle tthathhat araree ththehe twin ppillarsillars of a prprogressiveogressive nationnation.. RRuRuralural ddedevelopmentvelopment cacann bee a vveryerry efeffectivefectc ivve vevehiclehiiclc e foforor spspreadingprer ading the benefits of balanced growtgrowth.h. The global spspikepiki e in the price of fofoodood ggrainsrains lalastst yyear,ear, aandnd tthehe rresultanteesulltat nnt fears of shortages and hunger, cacarriesrriees the message ththataat the nation must, aat aallll ttimes,imese , beb ffocusedocused oonn ititss agagricultureriicuulture sector and food sufficiencsufficiency.y.. IImprovementmprovement ooff aagriculturegrir culture through bbetteretttere aandnd sscientificciientit ffic agagriculturalgricultl urraall ttechniquesecchnniques would contribute to ththehe foffoodood security of the ccountry.ounntrt y. We have a rrichicch hheheritageritat ge ooff agagriculturalricuultural ppracticesraacticees llikeike land useuse,, crcroppingopppip ngg ppatternsaatterns anandd use of manure. WWee ccanann aalsollso aapappropriatelypropriaatelly ususee ththisis rreservoirese ervoir ooff trtraditionaladdiitioonnal knowknowledgeleeddge in our aagriculturegriculture sector. LocatinLocatingg ffoodood processingprocesssiinng industindustriesries ccloseloose ttoo oouourr rururalraal arareasreae s cacan,ann, while aavoidingvooiiding tremendous losses in aagriculturalgricultural pproduce,roduce, be uususefuleful for ggeneratingennere atini g ememploymentmployo mem ntt ooptionspptioonns for ooururr rruraluural youth. By strengthening our agriculture eeconomy,conomy, we cacann brinbringg ababoutouut thtthee upupgradationgradata iion in this sesector,ctor, and also create internal economic demand, tthroughhrough enhaenhancednnced incomes of the faffarmers.rmmerss. TThushus our agagriculturegrriculture sector can act as a catalyst for stronger anandd ssustainableustainable grgrowth.roowth. MManyany countcountriesrieess of the world have ggreatlyreatlyy bbenefitedeenefited from their forests. SimilarSimilarly,ly, we must look at bettebetterr mmanagementanagement ooff ouoourr forests, which havhavee a wide diversitdiversityy of flora and fauna includinincludingg medicinal plants. TTheyhey can be imimportantpoortr ant in generating sosocial,cial, economic and environmental benefits for the country. We have aadopteddopted lelegislationgislatioon for recorecognizinggnizing hahabitationbbiitation and occoccupationupation rirightsghts of forest dwellers. It is iimportantmportant to bbuilduild their capacicapacitytyy fforor undertaking forforestest based enterprises in a manner that while they use forest resources ttheyhey preserve foreforestsstt hhealthealth and conserconservevve its wild-life and bio-diversitybio-diversity.. My fellow citizens, OOnn the social welfarewelfare agagenda,enda, I wowouldouuld like to highlight two groups that constitute a mamajorjor part of ouourr ppopulationopulation -youth anandd wowwomen.men. IIndianndia is a young nation from a demographic point of view. The youth rrepresentepresent the hohopepe for tthehhee futfutureurre and are an invaluable asset to the nation. Their hhopesopes and aaspirationsspirations foforr ggrowthrowth and prosperity araree iinindeedddeed the aspirations of the nation itself. Productive employment generation prospects can be created through skill development and vocational training. I call on our youth to take advantage of opportunities that are available to them. In addition to self- development, they must pledge to abjure violence and work for the welfare of humanity. I would be amiss if I did not mention the laurels that the youth have brought to the nation in the field of sports in the recent past. The Olympics in Beijing last year saw medals being won by Indians. This, alongwith the commendable performances at various sporting events around the world, is significant. They, perhaps, signal that we are at the beginning of a more fulfilling era in international sports. A focus on providing facilities and encouragement to our young 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 sportspersons is necessary. As the first woman President of India, there is a natural empathy that I have for the women of our country. I am conscious about the constraints and difficulties that they face in realizing their full potential. Their empowerment is necessary and that can only come through education and economic development. A woman has a right to live with dignity and a right to be an equal citizen of the country. I have set up a Committee of Governors, to suggest steps to move forward rapidly on the agenda of gender equality. Government has introduced gender bubudgeting.dggetini g. It should be adopted by every MinistryMinistry,, every Department and all State Governments for prpromotingroomoting gegenderendn er equality. These initiatives alongwith other efforts to make women eeffectiveffective papartnersrtners in ouoourur national llife,iffe, sshouldhooulu d cocconvergenverge into a national mission for eempowermentmpowerment of women. Self Help Groups have pprprovedoved ttoo be eeffectiveffective vvehiclesehicles for the economic transformation of women. It should bbee our endeavour to brbringring every eligible wwomanoomman under the cover of a Self Help Group for her economic eempowerment.mpowerment. We alalsosoo nneedeed to address tthehee ggenderender bias pprevalentrevalent in our societsocietyy which has resulted in social mmalpracticesalpractices like fefemalemaalel ffoeticide,oeticide, dowrdowry,yy, child marriage and other evils. With a view to make society sensitive towards the ggirlirl cchild,hhild, ththee “N“Nationalatatioonnal Girl Child DaDay”y” will be celebrated on 24th JanuarJanuary,y, from this yeyearar onwards. Civil societysocieety and the memediaedid a can also pplaylay a veveryry iimportantmportant role in chachangingnging mindsets and I ccallall upon them to do ssoo wiwithth ddriverive and ccommitment.ommmim tment. Malnutrition amoamongnng wwomenomen and high infant mormortalityttaality are intrinsically linked to affordable memmedicaldical facilities reareachingchhinng ththee common man. Growth in the councountrytry shsshouldould ggetet reflected in reducireducingngg mmalnutrition.allnutrriition. PrograProgrammesmmmess llikeike the National Rural Health Mission require ththehe memmedicaldical ffrfraternityatterninityy ttoo ccocomeme forward iinn llargerargerr nnumbersummbbers ttoo seservervr e hhuhumanitymaniity iinn ththehe hihhighestghhest trtraditionsaddiitiions ooff ththathat nnobleobblle pprofession.roffessiion.n OOlderlder ppeopleeoplle rerequireqquuiire mmedicaledicaal care, which should bbee cacateredtet rer d foforor alaalongwithonngwwith their other welfare needs, includiincludingng secursecurity.ittyy. Fellow ccitizens,iti izens, TTeTechnologychnology plaplaysys a vveryeery imimportantmpop rtant rorolelee iinn ththee prprogressogrreesss of mankind. Its use in improvinimprovingg cocommunicationmmmunication sysystemsysts ems is evident. ScScientistscieentisi ts aarere eexploringxpplorir ng nneweww ffrontiersrontieerss in the medical field. The launch off CChandrayaan-Ihhandrayaan-I hahasas made everyevery IndIndianian prpproud.oudd. OOurur eeffortsffortss aatt cocollaboratingllllaborrata ing with the international comcommunitymuunity to reap the bebenefitsnnefits of technolotechnologyggy fforor tthehee wwelfareelfare ooff ththee nanationtion ccontinueonntinue apace. The concludconcludinginng ofo tthehe nuclear civil ccooperationooppere ation agaagreementgreemennt hhahass mamadeade IIndiandia a pparticipantartit cipant iinn ththehe iininternationalternationaal reregimegimem fforor nnuclearuclear enerenergy.gy. Moreover, iitsts finafinalizationlizatioonn was aann exexpressionxpreessiion ooff coconfidencenfidenncec bbyy ththee internatinternationalioonnal community in India. We will make eeveryvery effort ttoo augmenaugmentt anandnd ddidiversifyveerrsify ouourur enenergynere gyy ooptions.ptptiions. TechTechnologynollogy should be used to counter terrorist tthreatshreats to tthehhee nnation.ation. We shsshouldouuld bbee fafarar ahaheadhead ofo tthehhe terterroristsroorissts who are increasingly using sophisticated ttechnologyechnology ttoo cacarryrry out their viviolentiolo ennt agagenda.geendda. AAss a responsibleresponsiblle natnation,iion, tthehhe conconductdduct ooff our ffoforeignreeiiggn relations since independence has been to promote ppeaceeace and development.devveelopment. We are, however, localocatedteed in a reregiongion which harbors the epicenter of terrorism. We hhaveave been victimsvicttimi s of terrorism over the lalastastt ttwowwo decades. The international community must take decisive and united actactionioon against terrorism, wwhichhiich poses a grave threat to the stability of the world. No country ccanan afford to tatakekkee an ambivalent attitattitudeudde in this fight. Arguments that terrorism is being perpetuated by iindependentndependent actoactorsrss aarere self-defeating anandnd cannot be accepted. Countries must own up their responsibilities as must the interninternationalaattional communitcommunityy inn ddefeatingefeating terrorismterrorism.. I conclude with an aappealppeal to all citcitizensizzeens to brinbringg forth their ververyy best to serve the nation. India has the pprivilegerivilege of being a ggreatrer at civilizatiocivilization;nn; today, it is the world’s largest democracy and its people have the ccommitmentommitment to fulfilfulfilll tththee promise off iitt being a great nation. I quote a line from a known Hindi poet, to descdescriberibe ouourr wwishish fforor tththehe natination:on:

As our tri-colour flutters high in the sky tomorrow, let each one of us take a pledge to bring glory to India and take our country to its destination of becoming a great nation that stands for human values. Jai Hind. 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 FFirstirst WomanWoman GovernorGovernor GGeneraleneral ooff AAustralia:ustralia: HHerer ExcellencyExcellency QQuentinuentin BBryceryce

The Early Life of Quentin Bryce: Quentin Bryce was born on 23 December 1942, in Brisbane, as the second of four daughters. Her parents, Norman Strachan and Naida Wetzel, had taken up residence at Ilfracombe in 1940. Her father was a manager of the local wool–scour. Her mother was employed as a school teacher before marrying Strachan, and Quentin Bryce – along with all of the children in her family – was home- schooled. Her family left the area in 1949, initially relocating to Launceston in Tasmania, where they remained for approximately a year. Returning to Queensland, her family moved to Belmont, where her father was engaged to open a new wool–scour. It was when living in Belmont that she attended the Camp Hill State School, and it was there that she first met her future husband, Michael Bryce. During the period that they were residing in Professional Life of Ms. Bryce Belmont, her father purchased a property near Tenterfield in New South Wales, where he took After spending some time in London, Bryce returned up sheep farming. In 1956 Quentin Bryce started to Australia and accepted a part-time tutoring attending boarding school at Moreton Bay College, position at the T. C. Beirne School of Law at the Wynnum, Brisbane, while her parents managed “a University of Queensland in 1968, thus becoming couple of stations out west”. the first woman to be appointed to the faculty. In 1969 she was took up a lecturing position at the law Upon graduating from high school she undertook school, and she continued to teach at the university studies at the University of Queensland; initially until 1983 enrolling in a social work and arts degree, but transferring to Law in her third year at the institution. In 1978 the Fraser government formed the National She graduated from the university with a Bachelor of Women’s Advisory Council, and Bryce was “vaulted Arts in 1962 and Bachelor of Laws in 1965. In 1965, to prominence” with her appointment to the council, she was one of the first women to be admitted to the taking on the role of convener in 1982. In 1984 she Queensland bar, although she has never practised became the first director of the Queensland Women’s professionally. Information Service under the umbrella of the Office of the Status of Women, and was appointed as the Personal life of Quentin Bryce “women’s representative on the National Committee She married Michael Bryce, Adjunct Professor on Discrimination in Employment and Occupation”. Michael Bryce in 1964 and together they have Then in 1987 she became the Queensland director two daughters, three sons, and five grandchildren. of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Professor Bryce is an Adjunct Professor of Design at Commission (HREOC). the Queensland College of Art (Griffith University), Over a five-year period (1988-1993) Bryce served the School of Design and Architecture at the as Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner University of Canberra, and the College of Fine Arts during the time of the Hawke Labor government. at the University of New South Wales. The period was noted as being one of “galloping legal reform” for the rights of women. Ms. Bryce 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009

became the founding chair and chief executive Governor-General of Australia officer of the National Childcare Accreditation On 13 April 2008 it was announced that, on the Council, where she remained for three years, before recommendation of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, changing direction between 1997 and 2003 when the Queen had approved her appointment as the she became the principal and chief executive officer next Governor-General of Australia. Across all of The Women’s College within the University of political spectrums the decision was unequivocally Sydney, New South Wales. accepted. In other roles, Bryce has been the chair of the From the wider community, Patricia Edgar described National Breast Cancer Advisory Council and sat Bryce’s selection as an “inspired choice”; while Jill on the Australian Women’s Cricket Board, and has Singer in the Herald Sun stated that the decision been a member of organizations such as the YWCA, signalled “an important about face for Australia”. the Australian Children’s Television Foundation and the Association for the Welfare of Children in Honours Hospital. • 1988 - Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for Ms. Bryce, Governor of Queensland service to the community, particularly to women and children In 2003, on the recommendation of the Premier Peter Beattie, Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, appointed • 2000 - Australian Sports Medal for services to her Governor of Queensland, the second woman to women’s cricket occupy the position. Bryce’s stint at Government • 2003 - Companion of the Order of Australia House was not always peaceful, but she continued (AC) to be a “highly respected figure” during her time as Governor. She was appointed Governor-General, • 2003 - Dame of the Order of St John of and she was succeeded as Queensland Governor on Jerusalem 29 July 2008 by Penelope Wensley - Source: Wikipedia, The free encyclopedia, net 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009

From Bhavan’s Journal October 5 1958 Reprinted in Bhavan’s Journal October 15 2008

Wonderful Vision of the Mother Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa “Greatly afflicted with the thought that I might never have Mother’s vision, I was dying of despair. Agonised, I thought, there was then no use in living this life. My eyes suddenly fell upon the sword that was there in the Mother’s temple. I made up my mind to put an end to my life with it that very moment. Like one mad, I ran and caught hold of it, when suddenly I had the wonderful vision of the Mother and fell down unconscious”.”I did not know what happened then in the external world -how that day and the next slipped away. But, in my heart of hearts, there was flowing a current of intense bliss, never experienced before, and I had the immediate knowledge of the light, that was Mother”. The Master said that at the time of his first vision he saw a conscious sea of light. But what about the Divine Mother’s form consisting of pure consciousness only - the form of Hers with boons and ‘freedom from fear’ in Her hands?Did the Master then have the vision of that form also in that sea of light? It appears that he had. For, as soon as he had the slightest external consciousness at the time of his first vision, he, we are told, uttered repeatedly the word ‘Mother’ in a plaintive voice. Way to Abiding Happiness - Gurudev Tagore Man’s abiding happiness is not in getting anything but in giving himself up to what is greater than himself, to ideas which are larger than his individual life, the idea of his country, of humanity of God. They make it easier for him to part with all that he has, not excepting his life. His existence is miserable and sordid till he finds some great idea which can truly claim his all, which can release him from all attachment to his belongings. Buddha and Jesus, and all our great prophets, represent such great ideas. They hold before us opportunities for surrendering our all. In Search of New Standards & Values - Jawaharlal Nehru There is such a thing as a national culture with its deep roots in the nation’s soils and in its history. To uproot a nation is to destroy the soul of that nation which made it a living entity through the ages. This is particularly true of a country like India, whose roots go deep down and whose thought has enriched her and given her strength to overcome disaster and survive even the dangers that success brings. 21st Foundation Day Celebrations - Shri K. M. Munshi’s Address Before we consider “What Gandhiji would have expected us to do”, we must clear our mind of one thing: Gandhiji’s fundamental approach to all situations which was dictated by Truth, Non¬violence and faith in God. Such was Gandhiji’s allegiance to Truth that once he wrote to me: “I once thought that God was Truth. Now I know that Truth is God.” His faith in God also was unshakable. “I believe in God much more than I believe in the fact that you and I are alive and I am speaking to you”, he once said. At the same time, Gandhiji’s was a fresh and receptive mind till the end. In his appraisal of a situation, he never allowed pre-conceptions to overshadow his judgment. Never did he deal with a situation except with great responsiveness. Again, never did he allow his reactions to swerve from the orbit of his fundamentals. 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 Mahmood Khan Composer, performer and recording artist Mahmood Khan will share his songs and performances with the multicultural audiences Australia has to offer in a concert at the Sydney Opera House on March 14th. Mahmood Khan represents an exclusive rare breed of singer/ songwriters to emerge out of Asia who amongst extreme difficulties kept their Art alive and dedicated a lifetime to celebrate the resilience and adaptability of the human spirit. An experienced sound engineer, producer, writer, lyricist and performer, he has pioneered the fusion sound and has continually brought hope to his niche listeners around the world with his spiritual pop oriented songwriting and philosophy. Born in Pakistan to parents who migrated from India after the 1947 war, he wrote songs at an early age. He moved to Los Angeles and started off as an assistant sound engineer in at a company that was a hub for R&B, Rap, Hip Hop and Funk genres. Jam power productions led by visionary Tom Berry was based in Northridge, California and was home to producers Chuckii Booker, Livio Harris, Damon Thomas, Budd Ford and Ronni Van among many others. His first break in LA came when his song won the Los Angeles Songwriters Showcase song competition setting him up with a gig with veteran music producer George Tobin. In the Indian Sub Continent region where original singer/ songwriters are extremely rare Mahmood’s love for original songs was kept alive and inspired by writers such as Barry Gibb, Michael Omartian, Paul Simon, Aziz Mian Qawal, John Denver, Stevie Wonder and David Foster and Arif Mardin. Many singers all over the world have recorded his songs notably Nusrat fateh Ali Khan who collaborated on album ‘Only one’ Internationally released in 1997 and recently 30 Australian independent artists recorded his composition for a charity song for The Red Cross . Local artists involved with Project Down Under include Amanda Easton and Tania Murray who co-wrote the lyrics with Khan, as well as Jo Elms, Yolanda Thomas, Evelyn Duprai, Snez, Melanie Griffiths and Ellen Arthur to perform on the song, which will also include a beautiful Sitar solo performed by Rosie Henshaw He was also commissioned by the Government of Pakistan to compose for the 9th SAf (South Asian Games) games opening and closing ceremonies and was also supported by Alliance Francaise in his struggling years. A master musician he can develop different sounds for his songs by fusing exotic instruments while keeping the American Funk song formation as the foundation, original melodies and lyrics as the soul and South American inspired gypsy guitars as the bed. Mahmood believes the combination of his music and the onstage chemistry between the players will make a once-in-a-lifetime concert performance. “It is both exciting and humbling that considering my geographic disposition I get the opportunity to play at the Sydney Opera House” he said. “There are some amazing moments we captured on film while shooting the documentary ‘Journey of a sound’ of the events which have been nothing short of miracles leading up to the concert”.

Mahmood Khan Funk Live March 14th 2009 - 8 PM Concert Hall - Sydney Opera House

2Rules Media Contact: Zsolt Nagy 0424404337 - [email protected] 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 BBhavan’shavan’s CChildrenhildren SectionSection

There was a lion who feared nothing except the crowing of cocks. A chill would go down his spine whenever he heard a cock crowing. One day he confessed his fear to the elephant, who was greatly amused. “How can the crowing of a cock hurt you?” he asked the lion. “Think about it!” Just then a mosquito began circling the elephant’s head, frightening him out of his wits. “If it gets into my ear I’m doomed!” he shrieked, flailing at the insect with his trunk.Now it was the lion’s turn to feel amused. MMoraal: If wwee cooulldd see our feeaarss as oothheers see them we wooulld rreeallise tthhatt moost off ouurr fears make no sense!

The Power of a rumour A hare resting under a banyan tree had a premonition of doom. “What would happen to me if the earth were to break up?” he wondered. Suddenly, there was a ‘thud’ followed by a rumbling sound.“It’s happened,” thought the hare, “the earth’s breaking up!” He jumped up and ran. “Why are you running?” asked a hare who crossed his path. “The earth’s breaking up!” shouted the hare. “You’d better run too.” The second hare ran so fast he overtook the first. “The earth’s breaking up, the earth’s breaking up!” he shouted to other hares he passed. Soon thousands of hares were scampering through the forest. Other animals got caught up in the panic. The word spread from mouth to mouth, and soon everyone knew: the earth was breaking up. It was not long before the whole jungle was on the move. Reptiles, insects, birds and four-footed animals fled in wild disorder, and their cries of terror filled the air. A lion standing on a hillock, saw the animals coming and wondered what was going on. He hastened down and positioning himself in front of the horde called for it to stop. His commanding presence stemmed the rising tide of panic among the animals. “The earth is breaking up!” shrieked a parrot, alighting on a rock near him. “Who says so?” “I heard it from the monkeys.” The monkeys said they had heard it from the tigers, who said their informants were the elephants, who gave the buffaloes as their source. When the hares were finally implicated they pointed one to another until the one who had started it all was identified. “What makes you think the earth is breaking up?” the lion asked him. “I heard it cracking with my own ears, sire,” squeaked the hare, trembling in fear. The lion investigated the sound the hare had heard and found that it had been caused by a large coconut falling from a tree. It had landed on a pile of rocks, causing a minor landslide. “Go back to your homes,” said the lion to the animals who had been running away, and who were now looking very foolish. “The earth’s safe. Next time, check a rumour before acting on it.” - Source: www.dimdima.com www.incredibleindia.org India Tourism Sydney, Level 5, Glass House 135 King Street, Sydney 2000 Ph +61 2 9221 9555 [email protected]

““II wwantant aallll tthehe cculturesultures ooff aallll llandsands ttoo bbee bblownlown aaboutbout mmyy hhouseouse aass ffreelyreely aass ppossible.ossible. BButut I rrefuseefuse ttoo bbee bblownlown ooffff mmyy ffeeteet bbyy aany.”ny.” ~ MahatmaMahatma GGandhiandhi ~ 6.6 / 6.7 January 2009 HHolyoly & WiseWise LLetet nnobleoble tthoughtshoughts ccomeome ttoo uuss ffromrom eeveryvery ssideide - RRigveda,igveda, II-89-I-89-I

Never do enmities cease by hating in this world, bbut hatred ceases by love. This is the eternal law - Dhammapada -l-5-Buddhavachan Hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat -Harry Emrson Fosdick Virtue is preserved by truthfulness, learning by application. beatuy by cleanliness and lineage by good conduct -Vidira Neeti Honour thy father and thy mother - Ten Commandments from the The Bible. Kulapativani A Many Faceted Mind Few people have an idea of Rajaji’s many-sided interests. Years ago, at Tiruchengodu, I heard him discourse on the ways of the bees. In between political battles, I have seen him reading Shakespeare and Dickens. An important book on politics or economics finds him an ardent reader. He would write on the ‘Raman-Effect,” carry on a campaign against B.C.G. and discuss with you, if he is free, the medical treatment for lumbago with almost professional precision. In a few weeks, he could produce a remarkable lecture on India culture or sum up the quintessence of the Upanishads or the Bhagava Gita with masterly brevity. Rajaji is a master stylist. His style is self-restrained, chaste beautiful and at times biblical. He has the sure literary touch. He can make subtle distinctions and at a moment’s notice, use appropriate words in appropriate contexts. His short stories are inimitable. His English summaries of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana have classical touch. Rajaji feels very strongly that democracy can only be saved if strong Opposition Party comes into existence. Truth is always greater than formulae but as Albert J Schweitzer has said: “It is the fate of every truth to be the object of ridicule when it is first proclaimed.” Rajaji has always been the embodiment of the democratic conscience of the people of India

TThehe TTestest ooff BBhavan’shavan’s RRightight ttoo EExistxist The test of Bhavan’s right to exist is whether those who work for it in different spheres and in different places and those who study in its many institutions can develop a sense of mission as would enable them to translate the fundamental values, even in a small measure, into their individual life. Creative vitality of a culture consists in this: whether the ‘best’ among those who belong to it, however small their number, find self-fulfilment by living up to the fundamental values of our ageless culture. It must be realised that the history of the world is a story of men who had faith in themselves and in their mission. When an age does not produce men of such faith, its culture is on its way to extinction. The real strength of the Bhavan, therefore, would lie not so much in the number of its buildings or institutions it conducts, nor in the volume of its assets and budgets, nor even in its growing publication, cultural and educational activities. It would lie in the character, humility, selflessness and dedicated work of its devoted workers, honorary and stipendiary. They alone can release the regenerative influences, bringing into play the invisible pressure which alone can transform human nature TM

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3 - 5 April ‘09 Tumbalong Park, Chinese Gardens Forecourt and Amphitheater Darling Harbour

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