WRITTEN BY R. NANJAPPA                        

Post No. 8618

Date uploaded in London – – – –3 SEPTEMBER 2020   

Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com

Pictures are taken from various sources for spreading knowledge; this is a non- commercial blog. Thanks for your great pictures.

                             BOOKS INDIANS SHOULD READ – 35

                                            R.Nanjappa

                                       Chapter 13 Part 2

             THE COLLECTED WRITINGS OF DHARAMPAL-8

GANDHIJI’S  SCHEME

So for Gadhiji, Swaraj meant a direct reversal of the prevailing pattern of exploitation and

exchange, in favour of the urban areas, and against the villages. This would be possible

only if the Polity of free India restored to the village its dignity and economic strength

and autonomy in local affairs. The village had to be made the basic unit of administration,

and economic and political life. He said:

There are seven hundred thousand villages in India each of which would be

organised according to the will of the citizens, all of them voting. Then there

would be seven hundred thousand votes. Each village…. will have one vote.

The villagers would elect the district administration; the district administrations

would elect the provincial administration and these in turn would elect the

President who is the head of the executive….

Gandhiji’s ideas were the base of Congress policies. His ideas on the reorganaistion of

village  life and restoration of its powers were widely shared by Congressmen, many of

whom had taken part in the Constructive Programme. 

However, Nehru did not have much love for the villages. He wrote to Gandhiji in 1945: 

” I do not understand why a village should necessarily embody truth and non-violence. A

village, normally speaking, is backward intellectually and culturally, and no progress can

be made from a backward environment.”  

[Nehru also had strong Socialist views, running counter to Gandhi’s ideas. It is strange

that Gandhiji still chose Nehru as his heir!]

HUMBUG BY THE DRAFTING COMMITTEE 

When the Constituent Assembly was formed to draft the Constitution, B.N.Rau, a pucca

bureaucrat, was given the job of making the initial draft. He did this by studying  and

borrowing from the Constitutions of the countries of Europe, Americas and USSR. He

submitted the draft just after Independence. The Assembly then appointed a committee to

scrutinise the draft and suggest  amendments. 

The members of the Committee were:

• Alladi Krishnaswamy Ayyar
  – N.Gopalaswami Ayyangar
  – Dr.B.R.Ambedkar
  – K.M.Munshi
  – Saiyed Mohd.Saadulla
  – B.L.Mitter
  – D.P.Khaitan
  
  When the draft of the constitution was read and discussed in the Assembly, the

omission of any place of importance to the villages was noticed and seriously

discussed.

• Member after member expressed support for recognising the village and the

overwhelming opinion was in favour of it. But it did not finally happen.

The problem was with the composition of the Committee itself. Of the seven members,

only K.M. Munshi had taken part in the freedom struggle under Gandhiji. Dr.Ambedkar

had been a supporter of the British and worked against Gandhiji. Saadulla had been

a British supporter. The others had no concern with the

freedom movement. None of them could therefore enter into the spirit of the freedom

struggle and the ideals that had motivated them. 

Three members made strong points.

T.T.Krishnamachari: on 5 November 1948:

….the amount of attention that was necessary for  the purpose of drafting a Constitution …

has not been given to it by the Drafting Committee. ….of the seven members nominated…

one has resigned… and was replaced. One died and was not replaced. One was away in

America and his place was not filled up..another person was engaged in State affairs and

there was a void to that extent. One or two were far away from Delhi and perhaps reasons

of health did not permit them to attend… the burden of drafting this Constitution fell on

Dr.Ambedkar…attention that was due to a matter like this has not been given to it by the

Committee as a whole. …certain aspects of our Constitution have not had the amount of

expert attention that was necessary.

[He also pointed out a legal lacuna in the status of the Committee’]

                                                                  *

WRITTEN BY R. NANJAPPA                        

Post No. 8612

Date uploaded in London – – – –2 SEPTEMBER 2020   

Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com

Pictures are taken from various sources for spreading knowledge; this is a non- commercial blog. Thanks for your great pictures.

BOOKS INDIANS SHOULD READ – 34

                                                 R.Nanjappa

                                            Chapter 13 Part 1

             THE COLLECTED WRITINGS OF DHARAMPAL-8

                 Our Constitution: A Fraud on Mahatma Gandhi?

VILLAGE SWARAJ, THE BASIS OF SWARAJ

In leading the struggle for Independence for 30 years, Gandhiji never forgot that the

object of Independence was the emancipation of the villages.
Gandhiji wrote:

India is not Calcutta and Bombay. India lives in her seven hundred thousand

villages. 

” India does not live in its towns but in villages. But if the cities want to

demonstrate that their populations will live for the villagers of India the bulk

of their resources should be spent in ameliorating the condition of and

befriending the poor. We must not lord it over them, we must learn to be

their servants.”

Young India, 23-4-1931

In the nearly 90 years since these lines were written, India has continued to live in villages.

According to 2011 census, there were 6,49,481 villages of which 5,93,615 were inhabited.

83 crore people or 68.8% of our population still lived in villages. There has been large scale

migration towards the towns and cities. Such migration continues. Still most Indians live in

villages.
But do these villages live? What sort of life do they lead? Are they villages or illages?

PROSPEROUS INDIA

When the British came to India, India was a nation of prosperous village republics. Kings

and kingdoms, big and small, existed. But the villages lived on their own. Each had its own

system of finance, public services, education, administration of justice. These have been

well documented by the British themselves. [See the previous articles.] They had survived

invasions and onslaughts by Muslims and others. Charles Metcalfe wrote:

Dynasty after dynasty tumbles down. Revolution succeeds to revolution. Hindoo, Pathan,

Mogul, Maharatha, Sikh, English are all masters in  turn but the village communities remain

the same. In times of trouble they arm and fortify themselves. A hostile army passes

through the country. The village communities collect their cattle within their walls, and

let the enemy pass unprovoked.

And:

The village communities are little republics having nearly everything that they want

within themselves. They seem to last where nothing else does.

“This union of the village communities, each one forming a separate little state in itself,

has, I conceive, contributed more than any other cause to the preservation of the people

of India, through all the revolutions and changes which they have suffered and is in a high

degree conducive to their happiness and to the enjoyment of a great portion of freedom

and independence.”  

[Care: This does not mean that the villages were isolated. They were economically

independent but socially, religiously, culturally cohesive.]

India lived on through all these changes because the villages were prosperous and lived.

FEEDING THE URBAN MONSTER

The British system of administration drastically changed this.They lived in cities and

fortifications. Their aim was to suck the wealth of India and send it to England, which

they did for well nigh two centuries. To this end, they changed land taxation, which took

away all surplus. The local communities were left without resources to continue public

services like medical care, education, etc . When taxation became excessive, they

abandoned farming and migrated to cities and towns. But the British took over local trade,

and closed down industries, in order to promote their own goods. Industries also declined,

and along with it employment. Vast numbers were shoved into poverty, and famine struck.

This is how India lost its freedom.

Among all our leaders, Mahatma Gandhi alone realised this from the beginning. He knew

that it was impossible to create jobs for all the seekers in the towns and cities. The jobs

had to go to where people lived. The villages had to be revived. Thus ‘village swaraj’

became the building block of Indian Swaraj. Three items in his 18-point Constructive

programme directly related to villages: village industries, village health, and improvement

of the lot of agriculturists.

Gandhiji was not idealising or idolising the village. He was fully aware of the shortcomings

and defects of village life. But he knew that these were the direct result of the British

model of top-down administration, where the village survived to serve the urban economic

monster. The villages were sucked to feed the town and the city. Villagers toiled so that

urbanites might prosper. The village and villager were mere numbers. Only cities and urban

elites mattered.
                                                          * To be continued

WRITTEN BY LONDON SWAMINATHAN

Post No. 8609

Date uploaded in London – –1 SEPTEMBER 2020   

Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com

Pictures are taken from various sources for spreading knowledge; this is a non- commercial blog. Thanks for your great pictures.

tamilandvedas.com, swamiindology.blogspot.com

நேற்றும்,அதற்கு முந்தைய தினமும் 18 என்ற எண்ணின் மஹிமையைக் கண்டோம் ; இன்று மேலும் சில 18க்ளிக் காண்போம்.

18 வகை கூலம்

நெல், புல் , வரகு, தினை,

சாமை, இறுங்கு/சோளம் , துவரை,

கேழ்வரகு , எள்ளு , கொள்ளு, பாசிப் பயறு,

உளுந்து, அவரை, கடலை,

மொச்சை , காராமணி , கோதுமை,

தட்டைப்பயறு ;  சில நூல்களில் தோகை என்ற வகை காணப்படுகிறது.

******

18 வகை குடிமக்கள்

வண்ணான் , நாவிதன்/அம்பட்டன், குயவன், தட்டான், கன்னான் ,

கல்தச்சன், கொல்லன், தச்சன், எண்ணை வாணிகன், உப்பு வாணிகன்,

இலை வாணிகன், பள்ளி, பூமாலைக்காரன், பறையன் ,

கோவிற்குடியான், ஒச்சான், வலையன், பாணன்.

****

குற்றங்கள் 18

பிங்கலம் என்னும் நிகண்டு கூறும் 18 குற்றங்கள்–

பசியும், பயமும், நீர்வேட்டலும்,

 வெகுளியும் உவகையும் வேட்டலும் ,

நினைப்பு, உறக்கமும் ,நரையும்

நோய் படுதலும் பிறப்பு, இறப்பு,மதமும்,

இன்பமும் அதிசயமும், வியர்த்தலும் ,

கேதமும் ,நகை யும்.

******

18 மூலிகைகள் / அஷ்டதசமூலம்

கொடிவேலி , கண்டங்கத்தரி, எருக்கு,நொச்சி ,

முருங்கை, மாவிலிங்கம்,சங்கங்குப்பி ,

தழுதாழை, குமிழ், பாதிரி,

வில்வம், கறிமுள்ளி, சிற்றாமல்லி,

பேராமல்லி, கரந்துறை,  தூதுளை,

நன்னாளை, வேர்க் கொம்பு.

****

அஷ்டாதச ரஹஸ்யம்

(விசிஷ்டாத்வைதம் முமுக்ஷு ப்படி )

தத்வத்ரயம், அர்த்தபஞ்சகம்,ஸ்ரீவசனபூஷணம்,

 அர்த்தசராதி , பிரமேயசேகரம், பிரபன்னபரித்ராணம் ,

சாரசங்கிதம், சம்சார சாம்ராஜ்யம் , நவரத்னமாலை,

நவவித சம்பந்தம், யாத் ருசிகப்படி,பரந்தபடி ,

ஸ்ரீயப்பதிகப்படி, தத்வசேகரம், தனித்வயம்,

தனிச்சரமம், தனிப் பிரணவம் .

முன்பு கண்டது போல மஹாபாரத பர்வங்கள் 18, பகவத்கீ தை அத்தியாயங்கள் 18, மஹாபாரதப் போர் நடந்த நாட்கள் 18 என்பதுடன் , யதுவின் வழிவந்த யாதவர் குடிகள் 18 என்றும் மஹாபாரதம் இயம்பும். அதைவிட அதிசய விஷயம் மாபாரதத்தின் பழைய பெயர் ‘ஜய’ அதன் எண்ணும் கடபயாதி முறைப்படி 18 ஆகும்.

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