WRITTEN BY R. NANJAPPA                        

Post No. 8641

Date uploaded in London – – – –7 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.

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                                BOOKS INDIANS SHOULD READ – 36

                                                     R.Nanjappa

                                                Chapter 13 Part 3

             THE COLLECTED WRITINGS OF DHARAMPAL-8

Dr.Ambedkar ridicules Gandhiji

During the debate on the second reading (4-9 November,1948, Dr.Ambedkar had ridiculed

Gandhian ideas on the importance of the village, calling the village ‘a sink of localism,

a den of ignorance, narrow-mindedness and communalism.’

H.V. Kamth’s Rejoinder to Dr.Ambedkar

H.V.Kamath joined issue with Dr.Ambedkar and strongly refuted him.

With all deference to Dr.Ambedkar, I differ from him…His attitude yesterday was typical

of the urban highbrow. I heard Dr.Ambedkar refer to our villages …with dislike, if not with

contempt. Perhaps the fault lies with the composition of the Drafting Committee, among the

members of which, no one, with the sole  exception of Shriyut Munshi has taken any active

part in the struggle for the country’s freedom. None of them therefore is capable of entering

into the spirit of our struggle. the spirit that animated us.. That is why the tone of

Dr.Ambedkar’s speech yesterday with regard to our poorest, the lowliest and lost was

what it was….historians and research scholars have also given us precious information…

I do not know if he has read a book called ‘Indian Polity’ by Jayaswal. I do not know if he

has read another book by a greater man, ‘ The Spirit and Form of Indian Polity’  by

Sri Aurobindo. From these books we learn how our polity in ancient times was securely

built on village communities which were autonomous and self-contained; and that is why

our civilisation has survived through all these ages.

[He read out an extract from the book. He concluded by saying that he supported the       

motion  without  enthusiasm.]

Earlier, even while reading the aims and objectives, (1946-47) M.R.Masani said that the

Father of the Nation was not present there. But he quoted him:

The centre of power now is in New Delhi, or in Calcutta and Bombay, in the big cities.

I would have it distributed among the seven hundred thousand villages of India.

But the Constitution drafted by people who did not participate in the freedom struggle,

and some whom were even supporting the British, all lovers of British law, left out the

villages without giving them any thought, leave alone any  power. The British system

of urban exploitation of our villages and villagers continued under so called

Independence. Mahatma Gandhi was informed of this serious omission and he said on

21 December 1947 in ‘Harijan’:

...there is no mention  or direction about  village panchayats and

decentralisation  in the foreshadowed Constitution. It is certainly an omission

calling for immediate attention if our independence is to reflect the

people’s voice. The greater the power of the panchayats, the better for

the people.

Alas! Gandhiji’s voice went unheeded. Nobody cared for Gandhiji’s views.  He died shortly

thereafter, and our luminaries soon forgot about him and his ideals.

Our Constitution is a product of a handful of people who were basically  Anglophiles,

products and admirers of the British administration and its bureaucracy. They forced

a Constitution on us perpetuating the same British savagery on our villages. This

Constitution we have given ourselves has only solemnised the structure that the British

colonial  power created in India  through force, and hence lacked  legitimacy. We have

in our Constitution conferred legitimacy on the methods of the looters by continuing what

they left behind. . This Constitution therefore is a fraud on Mahatma Gandhi. It

mocks Gandhiji and the ideals that guided the freedom movement under

his leadership.

This phrase ‘fraud on Mahatma Gandhi’ is mine. But the IV volume of Dharampal’s

collected papers contains material relating to the debates in the Constituent Assembly.

He has given a detailed introduction. Jayaprakash Narayan has provided a valuable

Foreword which expounds the basic values that should govern a Constitution. Those who

followed the freedom movement will feel sad and painful at how Gandhiji was betrayed

by the English educated elite, and by his own followers who used his name as passport

to power.. 

                                                         ***                             This series concluded. Comments are welcome.

WRITTEN BY R. NANJAPPA                        

Post No. 8635

Date uploaded in London – – – –6 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.

 1947: INDEPENDENCE OR TRANSFER OF POWER? – 3

R.Nanjappa

TRAGEDY OF CONSTITUTION

We then set about the task of giving this British imposed structure an air of Indian legitimacy. When we set about making a Constitution for ourselves, none of the basic structures or their underlying purposes or continued relevance was questioned or reviewed in the light of the ideas that guided our freedom movement. That structure was taken for granted.
The man in charge of drafting it  (B.N.Rau) was a career bureaucrat and part of British administration. There was a 7-member committee to go through the draft and make amendments. 6 of these members had been part of the British system and its beneficiaries. None of them had taken part in the struggle for freedom. One of them- Dr. B.R.Ambedkar –  in fact had been a staunch supporter of the British, did not participate in the freedom movement, and was an  opponent of  Gandhiji.   Ironically, he became the Law Minister! He was a member of the Viceroy’s Council when Gandhiji, Patel, Nehru and the entire top leaders of the Congress were in Jail in 1942-45! None of these people had worked with Gandhiji, really knew or shared or cared for his ideas on Swaraj . They were mostly lawyers practising the law they loved, or were part of the administration! Naturally when they set about making a Constitution, they retained all the elements that the British system had imposed on us and with which they had fallen in love. Not a single idea of Gandhiji was included or even seriously discussed. Most noteworthy was omission of any reference to the village at all! 

INDIAN VILLAGES KILLED AGAIN

Dr.Ambedkar had no love for Indian villages and he made no secret of it. He said in the Constituent Assembly:

“The love of the intellectual Indian for the village community is of course infinite if not also pathetic.” 

He openly boasted of his disdain for the Indian village:

“I hold that these village republics have been the ruination of India…. What is the village but a sink of localism, a den of ignorance, narrow mindedness and communalism? I am glad that the draft Constitution has discarded the village..”

From what we know of historical records, we see that Dr.Ambedkar was completely wrong. Today, with all the historical evidence available to us, his ignorance in the matter is even more appalling. Dr. Ambedkar did not know his facts.
But we have another such gem from another man considered great, Jawaharlal Nehru. His differences with Gandhiji are well known, but are underplayed. Though he pretended to follow Gandhi, he did not share any of his core values, especially about village industries and village Swaraj.. In 1945, he wrote to Gandhi:

” 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.”

This is shocking, coming from someone perceived to be close to Gandhi and supposed to be his follower. One wonders where he got this idea from- it is Cambridge, not certainly Indian villages, where Nehru had never lived or  worked! Such Westernised elite never read our true history, never understood that the poor condition of the village was due to the 150 years of British rule which had “ruined India economically, politically, culturally and  spiritually”, in the words of Gandhiji’s 1930 Resolution.

The result was that with such ’eminent’ people around, the Constitution merely solemnised what the British had created for their benefit and left behind. Our administration. law, education, general attitude to life and society, the philosophy behind the whole edifice- everything continued as before, unchecked and unaltered. With Nehru continuing as Prime Minister for 17 years, there was no chance that there could even be a second look or review. In these 17 long years, Nehru did not implement even a single programme of Gandhiji. It was Nehru who killed Gandhiji’s spirit in free India.

Some people had really informed Gandhiji that the draft Constitution had entirely discarded the village. Gandhi reacted:

“…there is no mention or direction about village panchayats and decentralisation in the foreshadowed Constitution.It is certainly an omission calling for immediate attention if our independence is to reflect the people’s voice. The greater the power of the panchayats, the better for the people……”

Gandhiji wrote this on 21 December 1947. Alas, he was dead in about 40 days. None in the Congress govt who came to power in Gandhi’s name cared to listen to him or do anything in the matter. To think that Gandhi named Nehru his successor- how awful! Great men do indeed make great and silly mistakes.

SWARAJ FOR THE ELITE

The result is that in the name of Independent India we continue with the same British systems and approach which were meant to oppress the people, and suppress their initiative. We still suffer from the cleavage between the elites and others. The police still treat the common  people as cattle, as of no worth.  Our officials still continue to treat the villagers with disdain, and continue to exploit them. Indian officials are every bit as arrogant and mindless of the people as during the colonial times.they are as ready to use force against dissent as the British. Now, they are even more corrupt. Even doctors educated in subsidized government colleges refuse to work in rural areas..  Villagers are steadily leaving their habitats and marching to towns and cities in search of livelihood. The village economy is ruined, its autonomy still lost, and its exploitation continues by the town and city. People exercise their vote once in five years, but by that they ensure their continued bondage to the town masters for another five years.

 The ideal of village emancipation lies buried with Mahatma Gandhi.

So, what was achieved on 15 August 1947 was mere transfer of power from white sahibs to their  brown Indian imitators. It is not Independence as Mahatma Gandhi taught us.

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