அறிஞர் அண்ணாவின் கட்டுரைகள்


VIVEK - SABHA'S VERDICT
ON THE VENDDATTA

[All of you are aware of the activities of the Lok-Sabha, at Delhi. The dailies give full reports about the same.

This is about the 'Vivek-Sabha'— it is not constituted by election—nor is it located in one place.

You can come across Vivek-Sabha —anywhere—only you should have a keen sense of perception.

This is a narration about a day's proceedings in a Vivek-Sabha.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Periyar Ramasami, were there—the latter was summoned and the former invaded.

There were also the State Ministers—headed by the Chief—and also silenced by him.

Mr. Statesman, Mr. Justice, and Mr. Prudence, sat on one side.

Mr. Law was engaged in an animated conversation with Admiral Arrogance! Dame Dictatorship was peeping from a convenient distance.

Demos was in the chair!

The Trial began.]

THE CHAIR :- We are assembled here, to...

LAW :- May I correct, Sir, we are not assembled here—certain offenders are summoned and we are here to try them.

MR. PRUDENCE :- Why, the plural? We are to examine an offence........

PERIYAR :- An offence, so called, because you have dubbed it an offence.

THE CHAIR :- Order! Let us not fight over the preliminaries. We are, ... accept, possessed with an intricate problem.

PANDIT NEHRU :- Intricate? No! Certanly not! It is an irritating—insulting...........

THE CHAIR :- Therein lies its intricacy. But, may I ask, Mr. Law, if Mr. Nehru is in order in butting in..........

PERIYAR :- Perhaps, the chair is thinking about sub judice.............that has been given a death-knell already.........

MR STATESMAN :- It has not been brought to the notice of the poper authorities; hence a reference to it now, is inadmissible.

PERIYAR :- I am not pleading for any admission.

PANDIT NEHRU :- Then, out with your confession.

THE CHAIR :- I believe, gentleman that I am still the presiding authority here. Now for the core of the problem. What sayest thou for the very many offences cited against you..............

PANDIT NEHRU :- You are addressing me sir?

THE CHAIR :- Not you! Not yet! Yonder stands a venerable oldman four score years old.... you know him, Panditji?

PERIYAR :- I knew his father—Motilal and his Master, Gandhi.....

PANDIT NEHRU :-I have neither the time nor the inclination to come into contact with, communalists, seperatists,......

MR ARROGANCE :- Traitors and Law breakers.............

PERIYAR :- In spite of these adjectives, they are all citizens of this country.

PANDIT NEHRU :- Unfortunately, it is so..............

THE CHAIR :- Mr. Law! I think that you are ready to present your case.

PERIYAR :- No need for that, Sir, no need! I am not contesting. I am presenting an interpretation of my act—an exposition of a theory.................

PANDIT NEHRU :- It is all rank barbarism.

PERIYAR :- History shows eloquently, who were the barbarians, when we the Dravidians were having a civilisation of high order.

MR. PRUDENCE :- We should not forget, that there has been a synthesis of cultures.

THE CHAIR :- It is an interesting subject—anyway we are here to discuss a specific incident.

PANDIT NEHRU :- A series of incidents.

PERIYAR :- The final scene, is yet to be staged.

MR. LAW :- If the stage is not demolished in the meanwhile.

THE CHAIR :- ....................which are against the law.

PERIYAR :- .....................the purpose of which I question.
the canal gushes rubbish

PANDIT NEHRU :- On what authority?

PERIYAR :- There is my authority, Justice.

MR. JUSTICE :- Please, don't drag me in ........not now at any rate. Don't you see that I am crippled..............

ARROGANCE :- We have given you crutches........ haven't we ?

Heaped Abuses to Reap the Same:

PANDIT NEHRU :- Thank you for your spicy humour. Americans like such humour.... and Russians too.....I find no difference between the two....... absolutely nothing.....in spite of the fact that they are engaged in some cold war..........as far as my Pancha Shila is concerned, they are all united .........Humanity is one, indivisible. That's my discovery, as all of you know...........No difference at all.......... Only here I find, certain people indulging in communalism and casteism.

PERIYAR :- So long as there are castes, there is bound to be casteism.

PANDIT NEHRU :- Whoever wants this ugly, caste system. Be done with it. Down with castes—that system has no place in modern society!.......It is against all canons of justice, decency, democracy, socialism, and even spiritualism—though I know not much about spiritualism.

THE CHAIR :- So, you are also against this caste system.

PANDIT NEHRU :- Yes! Yes! Haven't I written volumes about that...........

PERIYAR :- With what result?

THE CHAIR :- Yes! With what result?

PANDIT NEHRU:- Result? Am I to be worried about the outcome? I give my view—and they are held in very high esteem, you know—in Peking and Budapest, Nepal and New York, London and Berlin.

PERIYAR :- Yes! Except in Calicut and Kallidaikurichi, Trichy and Tanjore, your own Haridwar and Varanashi .........

MR. LAW:- Granting that castes should be annihilated, none is allowed to insult our National Honour!

PERIYAR :- Are you enhancing National Honour, by allowing this caste system to persist, even now, in the twentieth century? What ignorance! What impudence........

Mr. ARROGANCE :- All these are objectionable words ......... I can cite, sections ..........right now..........

PERIYAR :- Total up and then deliver.............

THE CHAIR:- I find, in spite of the heat, that there is unanimity of opinion, as regards this annihilation of caste.............

MR. JUSTICE :- Yes! We should proceed on that basis, Mr. Law is ready to stamp his power—he is out to scent out offences, and punish offenders, but the problem remains!

THE CHAIR :- True......... We as responsible persons should get ourselves interested in the prevention of crimes—rather than in sentencing offenders.

MR. JUSTICE :- Especially when those who are dubbed as offenders, point out a laudable motive for their deeds.

MR. LAW :- Deeds have their own repurcussions, and are to be dealt with as such. No screening, by motives...........

PERIYAR :- Whoever wants your screening.......Should you not, go deeper into the matter and find out the motive........?

PANDIT NEHRU :- I can't be spending my time over such silly nonsense...... It is sheer lunacy. I can't tolerate that...... I brook no dishonour to the National emblems...........
Angel Brandihes Hell-fire

MR. PRUDENCE :- Anyway, you are not going to annihlate easte by flames...........

Periyar :- And you are not going to put down the crusade against caste by sentencing thousands of youths......

PANDIT NEHRU :- Young or old, great or small, Law will take its course.

MR. JUSTICE :- Yea! I am feeble.........crippled ...........what can i do?

MR. ARROGANCE :- Why, Retire........

PANDIT NEHRU :- Or, seek shelter somewhere elso.......no quarter here for those who question authority and order.............bag and baggage they should quit.

PERIYAR :- You have said the same already.

THE CHAIR :- Have you........?

PERIYAR :- Yes, sir, he passes judgment.... I am to be put in prison—or in an asylum, or driven away to some distant land.........

THE CHAIR :- I never expected such remarks from a leader of sobriety......

MR. PRUDENCE :- He had to please his audience—his partymen, you know. When they approached him, with tear-ful eyes, and fear-ful faces, he had to lift them up, a bit.

MR. LAW :- As the leader responsible for keeping up the morale of the people, he has every right to speak in such a way.......

Periyar :- And if by his speech he got the 'applause' from his audience, I had my own vocabulary ......... Ahaha! Do you mean to say, that I have not paid him in his own coins.

THE CHAIR :- Just to administer certain hard and almost indecent words, should a leader of such eminence go all the way from distant Delhi.........

PERIYAR :- There are any number of soap-box orators in his party. They are foul-mouthed enough!

MR. JUSTICE :- May I ask, apart from abuses, what have you achieved. Have you formulated any method for the annihilation of caste?...........Have you pointed out what according to you is the ' correct approach?' Granting that the method of the sword and fire, are pernicious, what is the rational method unfolded by you?

PERIYAR :- He is not a Rationalist ......... sometimes he dabbles in that dainty. Who knows not that he went all the way to take part in the Kumbha Mela!.......After all, he hails from a 'prohit' family, from Kashmir.

PANDIT NEHRU :- You know not my ancient heritage ...........

THE CHAIR :- You have given details about it, in your auto-biography.

PANDIT NEHRU :- Not details—just some notes.......some hints...........

MR. JUSTICES :- That is enough to show, that your—fore-fathers migrated to this land..........

PERIYAR :- To eke out their livelihood.....by prohit profession............
frustration leads to fulmination

MR. ARROGANCE :- It ought to have been a prohit, who named you.............

PERIYAR :- But a grateful people have given me a surname.

MR. LAW :- Nehru is also a surname.

THE CHAIR :- Yes, I find it so, here. But it is not of a happy reading.............

MR. JUSTICE :- Pray, what is it you find.........

THE CHAIR :- Nehru is derived from Nahar, which means canal...........
Heaped Abuses to Read the Same

PANDIT :- It is like this. My forefather, was granted a Jagir by the Delhi Emperor, and it was situated on the banks of a canal..........

THE CHAIR :- I see, Nahar..........Nehru, derivation from Nahar......good .......... meaning canal.........

PERIYAR :- Why doubt that? His speech has been just a canal gushing with all rubbish.

MR.ARROGANCE :- I cannot tolerate abuses, and what else can you reap?

THE CHAIR :- Now, to the point. The hold of law is clear and definite.

MR. LAW :- And powerful......

Mr. JUSTICE :- How else can that be, when I am a cripple..........

THE CHAIR :- So the law will take its course........ But, this I have to say ..........that the 'speeches' of the Pandit, are not calculated to ease the situation, erase the ugliness and find out a solution. For whatever might be the term of imprisonment that Law is powerful to prescribe, the malady will remain, and a correct solution ought to be found out! Find from the 'exhibits' that the speeches of a leader, charged with the supreme task of lifting up the stature of society, falls short. In fact, I concur with the view already expressed, the canal gushes but rubbish. There is no clarity—only animosity is there in abundance. I am of the opinion that frustration is the cause for such fulmination. Had he, having gone there during such a critical time, offered some solution, unfolded some scheme, instead of heaping abuses and reaping the same, there would have arisen a happy state of affairs. To use hard words, is not difficult...........

MR.JUSTICE :- Often-time it is born out of hatred, anger, and prejudice.

THE CHAIR :- And it is precisly such bad elements that ought to be kept under control especially by one placed in an eminent position.

MR. ARROGANCE :- Not, by you..........

MR. JUSTICE :-Nor, by me.............

MR. LAW :- He is the head supreme—properly constituted by law..........

THE CHAIR :- Yes, and that is why, I am but offering my remarks, instead of placing him on the Dock.

MR. ARROGANCE :-Try, if you can.

MR. LAW :- Your powers are but limited.

THE CHAIR :- I am helpless, but I won't retrace.........my verdict is given, taken or rejected.

MR. JUSTICE :- We draw the time table.....

MR.STATESMAN :- Remarks are remarks! Why discuss that. The offender, is to be handed over to Law.

Mr. LAW :-My arms are long....and...........

PERIYAR :- You are terribly hungry, too.......

THE CHAIR :- Be it known then, that while I hand over this venerable old man, to the domain of Law, I do find it necessary to offer my verdict.

MR. ARROGANCE :- Tear up your verdiet.

PANDIT NEHRU :- And put it to the flames.

PERIYAR :- To the flames!—Mark his words, to the flames.........an offence.........

MR. LAW :- Not, if I do not take notice of it!

MR. ARROGANCE :- Why, tarry.........take away the offender..........

MR. NEHRU :- Not yet, not now..........not in such a fashion.

[Having given his vedict, the presiding authority of the Vivek Sabha, hastily withdrew from the hall, the crippled Mr.Justice, following. The rest of the scene was not clear, for, need I till you, that is was all in a Dream!!]

(15-12-1957)