K. M. Munshi

23

K. M. Munshi

When Sri Aurobindo wholly gave up his job at Baroda, the College students were naturally sad at losing such a teacher, but their pride in him more than offset their sadness: 'their' Professor was now a political leader of all-India stature. We may note too that many of those who served the country under B. G. Tilak's leadership were Sri Aurobindo's students from Baroda College. Just as Auro-dada had tried to kindle the spirits of his brother and cousins at Deoghar with patriotic fire, so did Prof. A. Ghose with his students.

K. M. Munshi was one of them. Munshi was the founder of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, an organ to revitalize Indian culture. His own position in Gujarat's literary world was preeminent ; plays and novels (many of them written while in jail) flowed abundantly from his pen. His historical novels in particular gave life to the epic of the ancient Aryans, living on the banks of the Saraswati in Vedic times. Agastya and Lopamudra, Vasishtha and Arundati, Vishwamitra and kings and gods all became characters of flesh and blood. His novel in English, Krishnavatara, based on the life of Sri Krishna is

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fascinating —being a historian helped. By profession he was a lawyer, which did not prevent him from becoming a successful educationist and journalist; in each and every field he rose to prominence. After India's Independence Kanhaiyalal Maneklal Munshi (1887-1971) held charge of several ministries in the cabinet of Jawarharlal Nehru. As a member of the Constituent Assembly, his contribution to the drafting of Indian Constitution was considerable.

When I visited Ooty, in the Nilgiris of South India in the late '70s, I was disappointed to see most hillsides either barren or dotted with houses. But I noticed that on several hillsides there were stands of trees. An old local resident told me that those trees had been planted at the request of K. M. Munshi in the '50s when he had visited Ooty and seen the ongoing de-greening of the mountains. He was a nature lover. But both he and his wife Lilavati were botanists. I know because when they visited the Ashram they greatly rejoiced seeing all the flowering plants and came out with many botanical names. I told them the meanings given by Mother.

Writing in Bhavan's Journal in 1962, he readily admitted that Sri Aurobindo "whose contact goes back to my boyhood" influenced him profoundly.

"To the students of our College, Prof. Ghosh was a figure enveloped in mystery," ran his article, "He was reputed to be a poet, a master of many languages and in touch with Russian nihilists." Was he? "Many stories of his doings were whispered from mouth to mouth among the students almost with awe.

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"The Russo-Japanese War, declared in 1904, shook some of us in the College to our very depth. Port Arthur fell to the Japanese in January 1905. Admiral Togo destroyed the Russian Fleet in May. Asia had successfully challenged the mastery of Europe!

"Prof. Ghosh, as our acting Principal, declared a prize in an essay-cum-debate competition on 'Japan and the Japanese'........

"We became ardent revolutionaries. We talked of Garibaldi and the French Revolution, and hoped to win India's freedom by a few hundred drachms of picric acid.

"I remember only one occasion when I directly talked to Prof. Arvind Ghosh. 'How can nationalism be developed?' I asked. He pointed to a wall-map of India and said something to this effect:

"'Look at that map. Learn to find in it the portrait of Bharatmata. The cities, mountains, rivers and forests are the materials which go to make up Her body. The people inhabiting the country are the cells which go to make up Her living tissues. Our literature is Her memory and speech. The spirit of Her culture is Her soul. The happiness and freedom of Her children is Her salvation. Behold Bharat as a living Mother, meditate upon Her and worship Her in the nine-fold way of Bhakti----'

"During the Partition [of Bengal] movement, Prof. Arvind Ghosh resigned his post of professor in our College. While leaving Baroda, he gave us a stirring speech, the substance of which I noted down on the spot. The summary of that speech and his messianic utterance, the Uttarpara Speech,

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remained the source of inspiration for me for years."

Decades passed. Many changes had taken place in the schoolboy's life; the most important of which was his becoming a Gandhian. What, however, had remained unchanged was Munshi's profound concern for Indian culture. His thoughts were turning more and more towards Sri Aurobindo. On 2 July 1950 he met Sri Aurobindo. We came across two texts¹ by Munshi where he described what he saw.

"As you may know, Sri Aurobindo was my professor in the Baroda College, and his militant nationalism of 1904 moulded my early outlook. Later, I casually read some of his works. During the last few years, however, his influence has been coming over upon me intermittently, but, more and more perceptibly I have felt benefited by it. Often in the past I wanted to go to Pondicherry, but I did not wish to offer formal respects to a man whom I revered so deeply. In July 1950, however, I felt an urge to visit the Ashram. Normally, as you know, Sri Aurobindo would not see people, except on three days in the year. But in my case, he told the Secretary, he treated me as a disciple and would make an exception.

"When I visited him, after the lapse of more than forty years, I saw before me a being completely transformed, radiant, blissful, enveloped in an atmosphere of godlike calm."

It was indeed 'a rare privilege' that was granted to him, and he was the first to acknowledge it.

1. Our Greatest Need and Other Addresses (1953), Janu's Death and Other Kulapati's Letters (1954), published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

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"The other day I had the rare privilege of meeting Sri Aurobindo. I had seen him last in 1908 at Bombay. Now, however, I saw something different; the most beautiful old age imaginable in an atmosphere of inspiring serenity. He sat enthroned on an upholstered chair with a quiet, unaggressive dignity. His thin white beard and well-brushed, long hair framed a radiant face which bore me down with the unfamiliar weight of veneration. A deep light of knowledge and wisdom shone in his eyes. The wide calm of the Spirit appeared to have converted the whole personality into a radiant Presence, not that of a thunder-wielding Jove but of one who shone with the light of Consciousness.

"It was neither my old Professor whom I admired from a distance, nor the seer from whose teachings I had profited at several periods of my life. It was a being complete in himself. In my works, I have written about integrated personality. I have seen it in a vision. I have described it in fiction. I sensed it in the titanic efforts of Gandhiji to realise Truth and Nonviolence. But this was absolute integration of personality; attachment, wrath and fear had been transmuted into a power which was at the same time beautiful and calm; the Central Idea in Aryan culture materialised in human shape. When, in our objectives I mentioned Sri Aurobindo as one of the great architects of creative life, it was an estimate; at that moment in Pondicherry, I saw, I felt, he was." He is.

Munshi also has given a very brief account of the interview. "He spoke in a low, clear voice, which stirred the depths of my being.

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"I talked of my spiritual needs. I said: 'I am at a dead end. The world is too much with me.'

"The Sage replied: 'You need not give up the world in order to advance in self-realization. But you cannot advance by impatience. I wrote to you that I would help you, and in my own way I am helping you.... You have the urge and the light. Go your own way. Do not be deflected from the faith in your natural evolution. I will watch over your progress.'

"Then we discussed Indian culture, its present crisis, even the Hindu Code. When I said: 'The younger generation is being fed on theories and beliefs which are undermining the higher life of India,' Sri Aurobindo replied: 'You must overcome this lack of faith. Rest assured that our culture cannot be undermined. This is only a passing phase.'

"Then he sprang a surprise on me. 'When do you expect India to be united?' he asked.

"I was taken aback. I explained to him how our leaders had agreed to partition. 'So long as the present generation of politicians is concerned, I cannot think of any time when the two countries — India and Pakistan —can be united.'

"The Master smiled. 'India will be re-united. I see it clearly.' Was it an opinion? Was it a prophecy? Or was it clear perception ?

"I shook my head in doubt and asked how India could be re-united. In two short sentences he described what Pakistan stood for and indicated how the two countries could come together."

What does Pakistan stand for?

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24

Resistance to Evil

Sri Aurobindo's words, "The spirit of her [India's] culture is her soul," had taken root in the heart of K. M. Munshi. Unlike his Prime Minister who never made a real discovery of India, Munshi had done it. He had imbibed her culture. He was a novelist among other things, and what pleases me more than anything else is that his heroes are no weaklings. A man of integrity, he had the moral courage to act on what he perceived as right and truth. To him the Mahatma, M. K. Gandhi, was his 'master,' but it did not prevent him from revolting to Gandhi's advice to Congressmen. Mr. M. K. Gandhi advised Hindus not to resist Muslim goondas, not to stand up to Muslim violence, and certainly not to retaliate. Munshi was thrown into a turmoil when he read that advice of Gandhi's in the papers. He dashed off a letter to his master, saying he was resigning from the Congress.

"Forgive me," he wrote on 26 May 1941 from Nainital, "if I cannot reconcile myself to these injunctions. Since [the movement for] Pakistan has been in action in Dacca, Ahmedabad, Bombay and other places, it is clear that such riots are going

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to be a normal feature of our life for some years." He feared that the riots "will perhaps grow more frequent and intense if a division of India is sought to be enforced by internal and external agencies through organised violence. If life, home and shrine and honour of women is threatened by goondaism, organised resistance in self-defence appears to me to be a paramount and inalienable duty, whatever form such resistance may take." Firm in his resolve, he added, "I cannot pledge myself not to preach, help, organise or sympathise with organised resistance to violence in self-defence by all possible means. I do not want to be dishonest to myself nor to the country whose integrity is now threatened ...."

Two points in Gandhi's letter had specially shocked Munshi.

1)"Those [Congressmen] who favour violent resistance (by way of self-defence) must get out of the Congress and shape their conduct just as they think fit and guide the others accordingly."

2)"A Congressman may not directly or indirectly associate himself with gymnasia where training in violent resistance is given."

Munshi had already been for over fifteen years associated with such gymnasia. He resigned from the Congress.

That advice of Gandhi's, flying in the face of actual happenings as it does, is surprising, if not unbelievable. Muslim goondas had let loose a reign of terror. The 'law-

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abiding' Hindus generally waited for the police to come and rescue them, or simply ran away. These riots were "outbursts of the predatory instincts of the goondas in a community," to put it in Munshi's words. He also felt that "cowards will always create bullies."

So what did the Mahatma teach? Non-violence or cowardice? As a matter of fact, the Mahatma's 'non-violence' had become the excuse of the coward, the opportunity for the ruffian. Not to speak of the humiliation of a whole society.

When M. K. Gandhi captured the Congress in 1920, and launched his Khilafat Movement, Annie Besant, the leader of the Home Rule movement, foresaw certain dangers. She did not hesitate to warn Gandhi that the movement he contemplated "would result in the release of forces whose potentialities for evil were quite incalculable."

There was an ominous trait in Gandhi's nature which Munshi had missed. So had I. It was reading a narrative¹ of my uncle's that suddenly opened my eyes.

The Mahatma was famous for his fasts. But when communal riots broke out a subtle pattern emerged: So long as Muslim hoodlums held the upper hand, Gandhi held his peace, or, at best, verbally expressed his dismay. But when the Hindus began to retaliate then—only then —he would go on a fast.² The criminal elements in the Muslim society were always the first to start riots. "But when," said Bijoy Singh Nahar, "during the riots, we Hindus had organized ourselves, and not only begun

1.Ja dekhéchhi ja karechhi (What I have seen , what I have done).

2.R. C. Majumdar's A History of Modern Bengal, vol.2 , is illuminating in this respect.

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to resist but to beat back the attackers, Gandhiji announced that he was going on fast to stop the riots."

Intrepid that he was, my uncle had not hesitated to move about in the streets of riot-torn Calcutta during those pre-partition days, at the risk of his life and limbs. He and a few other Bengali leaders had organized the 'Resistance Group' in Calcutta. At first the Muslim Chief Minister of Bengal had watched unmoved the unfolding riots: what harm if Hindus are trampled and killed? But when the tide began to turn, the Hindus resisted keeping the Muslim ruffians at bay, he went and met Gandhi who was then in Calcutta. After a talk, at his instance, Gandhi invited my uncle and the other resistance leaders to meet him. They went. They saw a feeble man lying in his bed. Their soft hearts melted at the sight. It was then very easy for Gandhiji to extract a promise from them to stop retaliation. For, said he, he had resolved to withdraw his 'indefinite' fast only when people, 'Muslims and Hindus,' could move about freely in the streets of Calcutta.

Instead of telling everybody "You are Indian," and healing the rift, Gandhi widened the communal divide.

A few ambitious politicians decided the fate of millions of Indians.

India was partitioned.

Did Mr. M. K. Gandhi try to prevent it?

Did the Mahatma go on a fast? Never heard of it.

Pakistan was created. A bloodbath.

Now listen to Sri Aurobindo.

Decades earlier, commenting on similar circumstances of Muslim ruffianism, he said that it was high time to give our

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youth a physical and moral education "of our old Kshatriyas or the Japanese Samurai." It was the British who had sown the seeds of violence. Terrified at the rising nationalism the Anglo-Indian Governement had turned to turbulent Mahomedan fanaticism, hoping to drive out poison by poison. It took no time at all for the seeds to bear fruit. "We must organise physical education all over the country," Sri Aurobindo wrote in the Bande Mataram on 18 March 1907, "and train up the rising generation not only in the moral strength and courage for which Swadeshism has given us the materials, but in physical strength and courage and the habit of rising immediately and boldly to the height of even the greatest emergency." We must be trained, he said, to protect ourselves and "not be at the mercy of a Police efficient only for harassment, whose appearance on the scene after a crime means only a fresh and worse calamity to the peaceful householder."

How strange to link cowardice with spirituality! The product of a weak brain, I decided; and taken up by people who are too lazy to think for themselves. Spirituality, by its very definition, is a resistance to evil. A constant war against evil. That is the first step. Mastery over evil is a next higher step. The ultimage step is the rooting out of the evil.

Do you know what Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486-1533) did when threatened with dire consequences by the Kazi (Muslim magistrate) of Nabadwip? He defied the order. The very evening Kazi's prohibitory order came into force, Chaitanya led his san-kirtan¹ party, larger than ever, around the streets of Nabadwip.

1. Public singing of hymns to Sri Krishna.

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Thus singing, the party marched to the Kazi's house. Such a huge crowd! The Kazi was intimidated. Then he admired the courage of Chaitanya. So charmed was the Kazi by young Chaitanya that he himself ended up taking part in the sankirtan.

Is it 'immoral' to resist evil? Sri Ramakrishna Parama-hamsa, after telling a story to his disciples, gave its moral: "You must hiss at wicked people. You must frighten them lest they should do you harm."

Who says resistance to evil is 'irreligious'? Swami Vivek-ananda said flatly, "Strength is religion, and nothing is greater than strength." He explained that "before reaching the highest ideal, man's duty is to resist evil; let him work, let him fight, let him strike straight from the shoulder. Then only, when he has gained the power to resist, will non-resistance be a virtue."

Sri Aurobindo told Indians: "The brain is impotent without the right arm of strength.... What India needs especially at this moment," he wrote in June 1907, "is the aggressive virtues, the spirit of soaring idealism, bold creation, fearless resistance, courageous attack.... We would apply to the present situation the vigorous motto of Danton, that what we need, what we should learn above all things is to dare and again to dare and still to dare." He declared: "Strength attracts strength; firm and clear-minded courage commands success and respect; strong and straight dealing can dispense with the methods of dissimulation and intrigue. All these are signs of character and it is only character that can give freedom and greatness to nations."

With his unerring instinct, Sri Aurobindo went to the

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heart of the matter. "It is not enough that our own hands should remain clean and our souls unstained," he wrote in the Essays on the Gita, almost like an antidote to Gandhi's creed of 'nonviolence,' "for the law of strife and destruction to die out of the world; that which is its root must first disappear out of humanity. Much less will mere immobility and inertia unwilling to use or incapable of using any kind of resistance to evil, abrogate the law; inertia, tamas, indeed, injures much more than can the rajasic principle of strife which at least creates more than it destroys." The individual's abstention from strife, he said, "leaves the Slayer of creatures unabolished." He asked, "We will use only soul-force and never destroy by war or any even defensive employment of physical violence? Good, though until soul-force is effective, the Asuric force in men and nations tramples down, breaks, slaughters, burns, pollutes, as we see it doing today, but then at its ease and unhindered, and you have perhaps caused as much destruction of life by your abstinence as others by resort to violence."

Sri Aurobindo warned. "But even soul-force, when it is effective, destroys. Only those who have used it with eyes open, know how much more terrible and destructive it is than the sword and the cannon; and only those who do not limit their view to the act and its immediate results, can see how tremendous are its after-effects, how much is eventually destroyed and with that much all the life that depended on it and fed upon it. Evil cannot perish without the destruction of much that lives by the evil, and it is no less destruction even if we person nally are saved the pain of a sensational act of violence."

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