It has been quite sometime since i followed J' s blog, i almost missed his talk at AVM hall in Chennai on G. Thanks to brother enthusiast RV, i didn't . The occasion was a Vallalar event hosted by a Trust of Pollachi N Mahalingam. Mahalingam's stamp was there everywhere- in the books displayed in the stalls and across the stage. J too started off his speech paying respects to Mahalingam.
J started off in his typical sharp note, pointing out that History could be approached in two ways. one was the popular way mythifying and eulogising subjects, and the other was to clinically dissecting facts and presenting them. He was also quick to point out an example in what an earlier speaker had to say about the 'arutpa- marutpa' controversy and what the facts were as presented by Pa. Saravanan in his book on the subject.
J said he was going to dissect the facts on Gandhi in his speech. But the way he veered off into describing how G bravely faced hostile crowds in Naokhali, he appeared to be doing the same eulogising and mythifying. J was after the question, so why arent people as passionate about G as they should be. Y dont people care about him and his ideals as much they even patronise a local or a regional leader? Y dont people defend G against his detractors? Y do they take everything granted about G?
J answered it stating that, it was because majority of the people found G against their 'basic nature'. He went on to describe the 'basic nature' of a group to consider itself pure and highly placed and to conceive an 'other' that is lowly and impure. It is the nature of the majority to draw their strength from denouncing and hating this 'other'. Given this 'basic need' for the other and the hatred involved, it was obviously a big problem to acknowledge a man who was even revered by his enemies. ( brings to mind the warm reception G receives in London and in Europe during his visit on the side lines of RTC. He was even warmly hosted by the mill workers whose livelihood were affected by G' denouncement of Foreign cloth, one of this worker would even visit him in Wardha- these images were flashing fresh in my mind as i had jus then seen the docu compiled by AKC. Also one of the prominent highlights of the movie were how the so called enemies were given a warm farewell and the almost absence of hatred when they were leaving our shores after Independence, all thanks to G's ahimsa )
Another aspect of this Basic nature was the tendency of uninhibited consumerism driving the majority of the people. It was this consumerism that was leading to one group exploiting the other. He opined that the present form of development has resulted in irreversible damages to the environment and cited a dialoge from the movie Matrix, where it is said that Human being was a virus killing the environment and itself in the name of development. He brought to light how some of the African nations were being exploited. G's model was self sustaining and inward looking . He pointed out how G's idea of reusing paper was a pioneer before the idea of recycling came. And infact reusing was more efficient than recycling.
However neither G's idea nor his disciple J C Kumarappa's ideas found any takers in India. It took a Schumacher to study and give us Kumarappa's ideas in 'Small is beautiful'. He summarised that G fails us because of this 'basic nature'. and concluded saying that since the alternatives have failed, there was no way ahead but to turn to G for his ideas.
J also did no forget to add that G wanted every one to find their own truth and that there was no 'one truth'. (This was again a strong import from the docu movie)
While J denounced tendencies to generalise things and shrink them to a few core concepts, he himself showed those tendencies to generalise and capsulize ideas. These are some of the ironies J doesn't pause to ponder.
On y people don't bother to defend G, i believe it is just like God is for believers. G is for those understand him, for others there is no point in defending him.
After the talk, it was nice to catch up with him on a personal note. i was fascinated by his sharp memory reminiscing from what he had read ages ago from a story of Nagupoliyan.
J started off in his typical sharp note, pointing out that History could be approached in two ways. one was the popular way mythifying and eulogising subjects, and the other was to clinically dissecting facts and presenting them. He was also quick to point out an example in what an earlier speaker had to say about the 'arutpa- marutpa' controversy and what the facts were as presented by Pa. Saravanan in his book on the subject.
J said he was going to dissect the facts on Gandhi in his speech. But the way he veered off into describing how G bravely faced hostile crowds in Naokhali, he appeared to be doing the same eulogising and mythifying. J was after the question, so why arent people as passionate about G as they should be. Y dont people care about him and his ideals as much they even patronise a local or a regional leader? Y dont people defend G against his detractors? Y do they take everything granted about G?
J answered it stating that, it was because majority of the people found G against their 'basic nature'. He went on to describe the 'basic nature' of a group to consider itself pure and highly placed and to conceive an 'other' that is lowly and impure. It is the nature of the majority to draw their strength from denouncing and hating this 'other'. Given this 'basic need' for the other and the hatred involved, it was obviously a big problem to acknowledge a man who was even revered by his enemies. ( brings to mind the warm reception G receives in London and in Europe during his visit on the side lines of RTC. He was even warmly hosted by the mill workers whose livelihood were affected by G' denouncement of Foreign cloth, one of this worker would even visit him in Wardha- these images were flashing fresh in my mind as i had jus then seen the docu compiled by AKC. Also one of the prominent highlights of the movie were how the so called enemies were given a warm farewell and the almost absence of hatred when they were leaving our shores after Independence, all thanks to G's ahimsa )
Another aspect of this Basic nature was the tendency of uninhibited consumerism driving the majority of the people. It was this consumerism that was leading to one group exploiting the other. He opined that the present form of development has resulted in irreversible damages to the environment and cited a dialoge from the movie Matrix, where it is said that Human being was a virus killing the environment and itself in the name of development. He brought to light how some of the African nations were being exploited. G's model was self sustaining and inward looking . He pointed out how G's idea of reusing paper was a pioneer before the idea of recycling came. And infact reusing was more efficient than recycling.
However neither G's idea nor his disciple J C Kumarappa's ideas found any takers in India. It took a Schumacher to study and give us Kumarappa's ideas in 'Small is beautiful'. He summarised that G fails us because of this 'basic nature'. and concluded saying that since the alternatives have failed, there was no way ahead but to turn to G for his ideas.
J also did no forget to add that G wanted every one to find their own truth and that there was no 'one truth'. (This was again a strong import from the docu movie)
While J denounced tendencies to generalise things and shrink them to a few core concepts, he himself showed those tendencies to generalise and capsulize ideas. These are some of the ironies J doesn't pause to ponder.
On y people don't bother to defend G, i believe it is just like God is for believers. G is for those understand him, for others there is no point in defending him.
After the talk, it was nice to catch up with him on a personal note. i was fascinated by his sharp memory reminiscing from what he had read ages ago from a story of Nagupoliyan.
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