Here are the covers of two of my books. One is a translation of Punjabi Dalit poet Madan Veera's selected poetry and the other a collection of my own stories in English. Hope the books would interest some readers.
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This poem on a contemporary leader might interest the readers of this blog.
On the
Leader-Speak
He has painted
his own face black
with his own
hands
to shine in the
firmament in brightest colours
He mistook his
own face for that of another
to outshine him forever
Would history
that relentless judge assign him
to the murkiest
corner of the firmament
where the darkest
luminaries form a cluster
Turning the pages
of history
if he could in his
afterlife
would he become
remorseful
about the
torrents he let loose day after day
or feel at home among
the ensemble
of Margdarshaks
who mentored him
to unbridle his
tongue
---
---
Raining Guarantees
During the last seventy years
they did nothing worthwhile
at best they were measly miserly
Today we are showering guarantees on all
on th hungry
on the homeless
on the old
on the sick
on woman
on farmers
on one and all
Further we have opened safe havens
for those chased by sarkari bloodhounds and handcuffers
they have just to walk in with their baggage
And above all
We are dishing out Bharat Ratnas
for those who feel their leaders have been left out
Now Ratnas are theirs for the asking
at a price though
---
Please read the poem and two comments that follow.
MENTICIDE
Killing of the mind!
How is it done?
No knives
No clubs
No guns
No bloodletting
No violence
of any kind
not at all
It is done
gently
quietly
seductively
insidiously
projecting the hologram
of a messianic face
all over
everywhere
All else is submerged
in its blinding darkness
The mind sees
only
one insignia
one colour
one face
and bows
in blank submission
---
Two comments
on the poem
FISH DID
NOT DISCOVER WATER
"IN FACT,
BECAUSE THEY ARE COMPLETELY IMMERSED IN IT, THEY LIVE UNAWARE OF ITS EXISTENCE.
SIMILARLY, WHEN A CONDUCT IS NORMALIZED BY A DOMINANT CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT, IT
BECOMES INVISIBLE. "
‒ Marshall McLuhan
"Our may
become the first civilization destroyed, not by the power of our enemies, but
by the ignorance of our teachers and the dangerous nonsense they are teaching
our children."
‒ Thomas Sowell
These days I am translating selected poetry of a Punjabi Dalit poet, Madan Veera, and shortly going to publish the collection. Here is one of the poems from the collection:
Taxidermied Man
Atma
Rama
now
you are neither the veheda’s Atma
nor
the veheda’s soul
because
in the haze of bharm
in
the fog of dharm
your
identity is shrinking
your
existence has been circumscribed
You
are scattering into bits
floating
like specks of dust
rhapsodizing
about dharm
in
the rush of hollow slogans
in
the hope of securing your afterlife
in
the effort to break out of the cycle of eighty-four
seeking
the path to mukti
you
have become a dweller of the chimerical world
of
dharm gurus and dharmsthans
Searching
for moksha
you
have found like many others like you
your
own Sarvashaktimaan
that
matches your deluded mind
Now
the reins of your life
are
in the hands of
your
self-created Tyrant
your
folded hands are bound
in
your self-made handcuffs
your
closed eyes enclose
self-created
stale dreams
your
closed lips are iterating
a cycle of sleepy words
Now
to listen with your ears
to
see with your eyes
to
speak with your tongue
is
sinful for you
Now
you are no longer a
shining
burning
thinking
human being
you are a milch cow’s
taxidermied
dummy
of
the calf that died last month
stinking
stuffed with straw
that
we use
at
the time of milking
---
I wish to draw the reader's attention to the title of this poem, Taxidermied Man. While searching the Internet to check if I had used the right expression, I was horrified to discover that there indeed existed a real example of a Taxidermied Man. Please read the following to experience the horror perpetrated by a white man on a black man:
Taxidermied Man
Man stuffed and displayed like a wild animal
In the early 19th Century, it was fashionable for Europeans to collect wild animals from around the globe, bring them home and put them on display. One French dealer went further, bringing back the body of an African warrior. It was on display as a museum exhibit in France and Spain. Generations of Europeans gaped at his half-naked body, which had been stuffed and mounted by a taxidermist. There he stood, nameless, exhibited like a trophy titled El Negro.
This is what one visitor says on watching the display.
'This was not Madame Tussaud's. I was not staring at an illusion of authenticity - this black man was neither a cast nor some kind of mummy. He was a human being, displayed like yet another wildlife specimen. History dictated that the taxidermist was a white European and his object a black African. The reverse was unimaginable. I flushed and felt the roots of my hair prickling - simply from a diffuse sense of shame.'
Please go to the following link to read the full story on BBC website that makes one’s hair stand on end.
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37344210
This touches the lowest depth of Whiteman’s racism. Thinking of what is happening in Gaza these days one wonders whether the European man has undergone any substantial change of heart.
Let us understand that ethnic cleansing is not new to the Western man. It has a long and continuing tradition: Cleansing of North and South Ameria, Australia, New Zealand and parts of Africa of their indigenous inhabitants.
And why forget Europe itself. The Europeans were bent upon cleansing Europe of the Jews, having had a centuries long history of persecution of the Jews culminating in what happened around the WWII. The Europeans, after the German massacre of 6 million Jews in the holocaust, succeeded in getting rid of the vast majority of their Jewish population pushing them off to Palestine, their so-called Promised Land, and helping them to cleanse Palestine of Arabs who have lived there for centuries. Isn't it ironic that the Zionist Jews who suffered the most at the hands of the European Christians, instead of wreaking vengeance on their persecutors, are using them to persecute the Palestinians who hardly had any serious history of quarrel with the Jews. Gaza is the latest playground of this White man's game of ethnic cleansing.
Readers might enjoy reading this poem.
Dandy and the
Cheetah
[Dandy:(i) a man
unduly concerned with looking stylish and fashionable
(ii) an excellent thing of its
kind; the Winchester Model 37 shotgun is a dandy, at a low price]
and a sleeveless
jacket
holding a
state-of-the-art camera
as if raring to
go on a safari
of course, the
African
But he was on a
different mission:
to unveil to the
nation the homecoming
of the cheetah,
the magnificent cat extinct long ago
He gently rotated
a circular handle to open the trapdoor
and out came,
majestically, two Nambian cheetahs
one by one, one
male another female
But let us first
focus on
the most
excellent thing of the event: the hat
the cheetah the
next excellent thing can wait a bit
What brand of hat
is he wearing?
Fidora?
Homburg?
Bowler?
All three were
made famous by famous men
Fidora, first
worn by fashionable women in the US,
made a symbol of
wealth and status
by Prince of
Wales, later King Edward VII
became a
trademark of rough and tough cowboys, gangsters,
detectives, celebrities,
film stars, political leaders, jaaz musicians:
Humphery Bogart,
Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Michael Jackson
Winston Churchill,
Eisenhower, Adenauer, even our own Raj Kapoor
And lo, even Bhagat
Singh!
Depend on him to
join these worthies
and emulate them
for nation’s glory
And it was on his
birthday too.
The whole country
cheered him on this momentous occasion
The media went
gaga gaga sarey gama sarey gama pa pa…
calling it
another plume on his cap, rather his hat
Don’t be
surprised if he makes another promise,
one more among
his many,
to snatch and bring
back the Kohinoor,
if Shah Jehan’s
name doesn’t baulk him
Or may be some
other spectacular feat:
His best is yet
to be
But we have
almost forgotten the cheetah,
that excellent
animal of its kind: like that dandy
the excellent
Winchester 37 Shotgun, at a low price
Where does he
stand in comparison to
the Fidora, the Homburg, the Bowler?
The pair step
out, relaxed or surprised, crane their necks
to survey and
feel their surroundings, the new landscape,
the new air, the
new smell, the new light, the new touch
Do they like it?
They have no
choice
They have to
survive, procreate, multiply
to obey the
compulsions of Nature
not for the glory
of the country of which they know nothing
Their benefactor
watches them through his branded camera
takes
photographs, cheers them by the clap of his hands
But do they know
who he is?
Do they look back
at him?
Do they thank him
for homecoming?
Or curse him for bringing
them into exile?
We don’t know
But we are
pleased, yes pleased, pleased…
The country has
got its cheetah back
Namaste cheetah,
namaste cheetah, namaste cheetah…
---
A Court Scene from the Mahabharat
Blind Dhritarashtra
yet secure on his throne
is now
deaf
dumb
even though
he can
see
hear
speak
He knows all
Draupadi
disrobed
molested
clawed
mocked
paraded
cries out
for help
Bhishma is mute
sworn to loyalty
Gandhari sits blindfolded
courtiers watch unmoved
Pandavas disabled
having gambled away
their valour
Krishna is nowhere near
Mobs run riot
For Draupadi
all is lost
--
--
The poem given below, 'Ozymandias' is a sonnet, a 14 - line poem written in 1817 and published in1818 by the British Romantic poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, whose name is synonymous with radical social and political change. It is among his most famous poems.
Ozymandias
Percy Bysshe Shelley
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said — “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert … Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
---
As one can read, the poem depicts two trunkless legs along with a half sunk shattered visage, the 'frown', 'wrinkled lip' and 'sneer of cold command' clearly etched out by the sculptor who carved the statue. The wrecked statue belongs to a long dead powerful king, Ozymandias, ruthless and arrogant. The broken statue lies in a desert surrounded by nothing but sand all around, both the ruler and the land he ruled over utterly consumed by the havoc of time. The words on the pedestal speak with deadly irony of the futility of arrogance of power. Time does not spare anyone.
Shelley's poem encapsulates metaphorically the outcome of
the tyrannical wielding of power – no leader, king, despot, dictator, or ruler
can overcome time. Overall, this sonnet paints a picture of an egotistical
character who thought himself without rival but who was cruel to his people.
Ozymandias is a commentary on the
ephemeral nature of absolute political power. Monarchs and dictators and
tyrants are all disappear sooner or later. Only their misdeeds and cruelties survive in history. Shelley's language
reflects his dislike for such rulers.
The poem seems so relevant to our times when democracies world-over are transforming into dictatorships, ironically through elections, democracy seeming to be turning out the midwife of dictatorships.
T C Ghai
A Poem
The Sanskari
Rapists and the Raped
They raped, yet
they did not
even if they did,
as they certainly did,
they didn’t.
They murdered, yet
they didn’t.
They smashed a
child to the ground, yet they didn’t.
That’s why they
were garlanded
feted with
sweets, the sacred ladoos
by their men. By
their women too!
How can the Sanskari
brahmins be guilty?
What they do is
beyond reproach.
Their deeds are
not subject to human scrutiny.
The courts had no
right to arraign them.
That’s why the
celebrations
to honour their
missionary heroism.
What about the
raped?
Of what
consequence
is the life and honour
of a woman of the other race!
And her pain
that has pierced
her innards
each cell, each
pour and settled there
like pulsating, stabbing
poison
that doesn’t let
her live, let her die
let her forget!
The silence all
around tells all.
---
Jawahar Lal Nehru on the
National Flag, the Tiranga
Here
is Jawahar Lal Nehru’s speech in the constituent Assembly on 22 July 1947 when
he moved the resolution on adopting the tricolour as the national flag.
Mr. President, it is my proud privilege to move the
following Resolution.
Resolved that the National Flag of India shall be
horizontal tricolour of deep Saffron (Kesari), white and dark green in equal
proportion. In the centre of the white band, there shall be a Wheel in navy
blue to represent the Charkha. The design of the Wheel shall be that of the
Wheel. (Chakra) which appears on the abacus of the Sarnath. Lion Capital of
Asoka. The diameter of the Wheel shall approximate to the width of the white
band, The ratio of the width to the length of the Flag shall ordinarily be 2:3.
This Resolution, Sir, is in simple language, in a
slightly technical language and there is no glow or warmth in the words that I
have read. Yet I am sure that many in this House will feel that glow and warmth
which I feel at the present moment, for behind this Resolution and the Flag
which I have the honour to present to this House for adoption lies history, the
concentrated history of a short span in a nation's existence. 'Nevertheless,
sometimes in a brief period we pass through the track of centuries. It is not
so much the mere act of living that counts but what , one does in this brief
life a that is ours; it is not so much the mere existence of a nation that
counts but what that nation does during the various periods of its existence;
and I do venture to claim that in the past quarter of a century or so India has
lived and acted in a concentrated way and the emotions which have filled the
people of India represent not merely a brief spell of years but something
infinitely more. They have gone down into history and tradition and have added
themselves on to that vast history and tradition which is our heritage in this
country. So, when I move this Resolution, I think of this concentrated history
through which all of us have passed during the last quarter of a century.
Memories crowd upon me. I remember the ups and downs of the great struggle for
freedom of this great nation. I remember and many in this House will remember
how we looked up to this Flag not only with pride and enthusiasm but with a
tingling in our veins; also, how, when we were sometimes down and out, then
again the sight of this Flag gave us courage to go on. Then, many who are not
present here today, many of our comrades who have passed, held on to this Flag,
some amongst them even unto death. and handed it over as they sank, to others
to hold it aloft. So, in this simple form of words, there is much more than
will be clear on the surface. There is the struggle of the people for freedom
with all its ups and downs and trials and disasters and there is, finally today
as I move this Resolution, a certain triumph about it a measure of triumph in
the conclusion of that struggle. Now, I realise fully, as this House must
realise, that this triumph of ours has been marred in many ways. There have
been, especially in the past few months many happenings which cause us sorrow,
which has gripped our hearts. We have seen parts of this dear motherland of
ours cut off from the rest. We have seen large numbers of people suffering
tremendously, large numbers wandering about like waifs and strays, without a
home. We have seen many other things which I need not repeat to this House, but
which we cannot forget. All this sorrow has dogged our footsteps. Even when we
have achieved victory and triumph, it still dogs us and we have tremendous
problems to face in the present and in the future. Nevertheless, it is true I
think hold it to be true that this moment does represent a triumph and a
victorious conclusion of all our struggles, for the moment. (Hear, hear).
There has been a very great deal of bewailing and
moaning about various things that have happened. I am sad, all of us are sad at
heart because of those things. But let us distinguish that from the other fact
of triumph. because there is triumph in victory, in what has happened. It is no
small thing that that great and mighty empire which has represented imperialist
domination in this country has decided to end its days here. That was the
objective we aimed at. We have attained that objective or shall attain it very
soon. Of that there is no doubt. We have not attained the objective exactly in
the form in which we wanted it. The troubles and other things that accompany
our achievement are not to our liking. But we must remember that it Is very
seldom that people realise the dreams that they have dreamt. It is very seldom
that the aims and objectives with which we start are achieved in their entirety
in life in an individual's life or in a nation's life. We have many examples
before us. We need not go into the distant past. We have examples in the
present or in the recent past. Some years back, a great war was waged, a world
war bringing terrible misery to mankind. That war was meant for freedom and
democracy and the rest. That war ended in the triumph of those who said they
stood for freedom and democracy. Yet, hardly had that war ended when there were
rumours of fresh wars and fresh conflicts. Three days ago, this House and this
country and the world was shocked by the brutal murder in a neighbouring
country of the leaders of the nation. Today one reads in the papers of an
attack by an imperialist power on a friendly country in South-East Asia.
Freedom is still far off in this world and nations, all nations in greater or
lesser degree are struggling for their freedom. If we in the present have not
exactly achieved what we aimed at, it is not surprising. There is nothing in it
to be ashamed of. For I do think our achievement is no small achievement. it is
a very considerable achievement, a great achievement. Let no man run it down
because other things have happened which are not to our liking. Let us keep
these two things apart. Look at any country in the wide world. Where is the
country today, including the great and big powers, which is not full of
terrible problems, which is not in some way, politically and economically,
striving for freedom which somehow or other eludes its grasp? The problems of
India in the wider context do not appear to be terrible. The problems are rot
anything new to us. We have faced many disagreeable-things in the past. We have
not held back. We shall face all the other disagreeable things that face us in
the present or may do so in the future and we shall not flinch and we shall not
falter and we shall not quit. (Loud applause).
So, in spite of everything that surrounds us, it is in
no spirit of down heartedness that I stand up in praise of this Nation for what
it has achieved. (Renewed cheers). It is right and proper that at this moment
we should adopt the symbols of this achievement, the symbol of freedom. Now what
is this freedom in its entirety and for all humanity. What is freedom and what
is the struggle for freedom and when does it end. As soon as you take one step
forward and achieve something further steps come up before you. There will be
no full freedom in this country or in the world as long as a single human being
is unfree. There will be no complete freedom as long as there is starvation,
hunger, lack of clothing lack of necessaries of life and lack of opportunity of
growth for every single human being, man, woman and child in the country. We
aim at that. We may not accomplish that because it is a terrific task. But we
shall do our utmost to accomplish that task and hope that our successors. when
they come, have an easier path to pursue. But there is no ending to that road
to freedom. As we go ahead, just as we sometimes in our vanity aim at
perfection, perfection never comes. But if we try hard enough, we do approach
the goal step by step. When we increase the happiness of the people, we
increase their stature in many ways and we proceed to our goal. I do not know
if there is an end to this or not, but we proceed towards some kind of cosummation
which in effect never ends.
So I present this Flag to you. This Resolution defines
the Flag which I trust you will adopt. In a sense this Flag was adopted, not by
a formal resolution, but by popular acclaim and usage, adopted much more by the
sacrifice that surrounded it in the past few decades. We are in a sense only
ratifying that popular adoption. It is a Flag which has been variously
described. Some people, having misunderstood its significance, have thought of
it in communal terms and believe that some part of it represents this community
or that. But I may say that when this Flag was devised there was no communal
significance attached to it. We thought of a design for a Flag which was
beautiful, because the symbol of a nation must be beautiful to look at. We
thought of a Flag which would in its combination and in its separate parts
somehow represent the spirit of the nation, the tradition of the nation, that
mixed spirit and tradition which has grown up through thousands of years in
India. So, we devised this Flag. Perhaps I am partial but I do think that it is
a very beautiful Flag to Look at purely from the point of view of artistry, and
it has come to symbolise many other beautiful things, things of the spirit,
things of the mind, that give value to the individual's life and to the nation's
life, for a nation does not live merely by material things, although they are
highly important. It is important that we should have the good things of the
world, the material possessions of the world, that our people should have the
necessaries of life. That is of the utmost importance. Nevertheless, a nation,
and especially a nation like India with an immemorial past, lives by other
things also, the things of the spirit. If India had not been associated with
these ideals and things of the spirit during these thousands of years, what
would India have been? It has gone through a very great deal of misery and
degradation in the past, but somehow even in the depths of degradation, the
head of India gas been held high, the thought of India has been high, and the
ideals of India have been high. So we have gone through these tremendous ages
and we stand up today in proud thankfulness for our past and even more so for
the future that is to come for which we are going to work and for which our
successors are going to work. It is our privilege. of those assembled here, to
mark the transition in a particular way, in a way that will be remembered. I
began by saying that it is my proud privilege to be ordered to move this
Resolution. Now, Sir, may I say a few words about this particular Flag? It will
be seen that there is a slight variation from the one many of us have used
during these past years. The colours are the same, a deep saffron, a white and
a dark green. In the white previously there was the Charkha which symbolised
the common man in India, which symbolised the masses of the people, which
symbolised their industry and which came to us from the message which Mahatma
Gandhi delivered. (Cheers) Now, this particular Charkha symbol has been
slightly varied in this Flag, not taken away at all. Why then has this been
varied? Normally speaking, the symbol on one side-of the Flag should be exactly
the same as on the other side. Otherwise, there is a difficulty which goes
against the rules. Now, the Charkha, as it appeared previously on this Flag,
had the wheel on one side and the spindle on the other If you see the other
side of the Flag, the spindle comes the other way and the wheel comes this way;
so, it is not proportionate, because the wheel must be towards the pole, not
towards the end of the Flag. There was this practical difficulty. Therefore,
after considerable thought, we were of course convinced that this great symbol
which had enthused people should continue but that it should continue in a slightly
different form, that the wheel should be there, not the rest of the Charkha,
that is the spindle and the string which created this confusion, that the
essential mitt of the Charkha should be there, that is the wheel. So, the old
tradition continues in regard to the Charkha and the wheel. But what type of
wheel should we have? Our minds went back to many wheels but notably one famous
wheel, which had appeared in many places and which all of us have seen, the one
at the top of the capital of the Asoka column and in many other places. That
wheel is a symbol of India's ancient culture, It is a symbol of the many things
that India had stood for through the ages. So we thought that this Chakra
emblem should be there, and that wheel appears. For my part, I am exceedingly
happy that in this sense indirectly we have associated with this Flag of ours
not only this emblem but in a sense the name of Asoka, one of the most
magnificent names not only in India's history but in world history. It is well
that at this moment of strife, conflict and intolerance, our minds should go
back towards what India stood for in the ancient days and. what it has stood
for, I hope and believe, essentially throughout the ages in spite of mistakes
and errors and degradations from time to time. For, if India had not stood for
something very great, I do not think that India could have survived and carried
on its cultural traditions In a more or less continuous manner through these
vast ages. It carried on Its cultural tradition, not unchanging, not rigid, but
always keeping its essence, always adapting itself to new developments, to new
influences. That has been the tradition of India, always to put out fresh
blooms and flowers, always receptive to the good things that it receives,
sometimes receptive to bad things also, but always true to her ancient culture.
All manner of new influences through thousands of years have influenced us,
while we influenced them tremendously also, for you will remember that India
has not been in the past a tight little narrow country, disdaining other
countries. India throughout the long ages of her history has been connected
with other countries, not only connected with other countries, but has been an
international centre, sending out her people abroad to far-off countries
carrying her message and receiving the message of other countries in exchange,
but India was strong enough to remain embedded on the foundations on which she
was built although changes many changes, have taken place. The strength of
India it has been said, consists in this strong foundation. It consists also in
its amazing capacity to receive, to adapt what it wants to adapt, not to reject
because something is outside its scope, but to accept and receive everything.
It is folly for any nation or race to think that it can only give to and not
receive from the rest of the world. Once a nation or a race begins to think
like that, it becomes rigid, it becomes ungrowing; it grows backwards and
decays. In fact, if India's history can be traced, India's periods of decay are
those when it closed herself up into a shell and refused to receive or to look
at the outside world. India's greatest periods are those when she stretched her
hands to others in far off countries, sent her emissaries, ambassadors, her
trade agents and merchants to these countries and received ambassadors and emissaries
from broad. Now because I have mentioned the name of Asoka I should like you to
think that the Asokan period in Indian history was essentially an international
period of Indian history. It was not a narrowly national period. It was a
period when India's ambassadors went abroad to far countries and went abroad
not in the way of an Empire and imperialism but as ambassadors of peace and
culture and goodwill. (Cheers.)
Therefore, this Flag that I have the honour to present
to you is not, I hope and trust, a Flag of Empire, a Flag of Imperialism, a
Flag of domination over anybody, but a Flag of freedom not only for ourselves
but a symbol of. freedom to all people who may see it. (Cheers). And wherever
it may go-and I hope it will go far, not only where Indians dwell as our
ambassadors and ministers but across the far seas where it may be carried by
Indian ships, wherever it may go it will bring a message, I hope, of freedom to
those people, a message of comradeship, a message that India wants to be friends
with every country of the world and India wants to help any people who seek
freedom. (Hear, hear). That I hope will be the message of this Flag everywhere
and I hope that in the freedom that is coming to us, we will not do what many
other people or some other people have unfortunately done, that is, in a
newfound strength suddenly to expand and become imperialistic in design. If
that happened that would be a terrible ending to our struggle for freedom.
(Hear, hear.) But there is that danger and, therefore, I venture to remind this
House of it , although this House needs no reminder-there is this danger in a
country suddenly unshackled in stretching out its arms and legs and trying to
hit out at other people. And if we do that, we become just like other nations
who seem to live in a kind of succession of conflicts and preparation for
conflict. That is the world today unfortunately.
In some degree I
have been responsible for the foreign Policy during the past few months and
always the question is asked here or elsewhere: "What is your foreign
policy? To what group do you adhere to In this warring world?" Right at
the beginning I venture to say that we propose to belong to no power group. We
propose to function as far as we can as peace-makers and peace-bringers because
today we are not strong enough to be able to have our way. But at any rate we
propose to avoid all entanglements with power politics in the world. It is not
completely possible to do that in this complicated world of ours, but certainly
we are going to do our utmost to that end.
It is stated in this Resolution that the ratio of the
width to the length of the Flag shall ordinarily be 2:3. Now you will notice
the word "ordinarily". There is no absolute standard about the ratio
because the same Flag on a particular occasion may have a certain ratio that
might be more suitable or on any other occasion, in another place the ratio
might differ slightly. So there is no compulsion about this ratio. But
generally speaking, the ratio of 2:3 is a proper ratio. Sometimes the ratio 2:1
may be suitable for a Flag flying on a building. Whatever the ratio may be, the
point is not so much the relative length and breadth, but the essential design.
So, Sir, now I would present to you not only the Resolution but the Flag itself.
There are two of these National Flags before you. One
is on silk-the one I am holding-and the other on the other side is of cotton
Khadi. I beg to move this Resolution. (Cheers.)
xxx
Comments
I wish the little people, many of
them philistines and neophytes, who are cawing like crows about the national
flag should recollect and carefully read this speech by going to the debate in
the Constituent Assembly that is the mother of all what people have to say
about the national flag. This speech presents a vision that connects India’s
past present and future in a string of continuity, its failures and successes,
and its aspirations and great challenges as a new nation. And also, Nehru
connects the living of his own day and the dead of the past with successions of
the generations to come. He also delineates India’s role in the international
arena and the nature of the role he hopes India can play. There is much more in
this speech than I have tried to show.
It is sad to note that the small-minded people fussing over the importance of the national flag, monopolizing proprietary rights over it, seem to believe as if it is they who invented the national flag and are also trying to become the surrogate parents of the freedom movement ( believing that India became free with their arrival on the national scene) paying lip service to the greatest peoples’ movement in India’s history, in which lakhs of people, big and small, participated playing different roles sacrificing their lives and fortunes, about which the neophytes either know very little or are pretending ignorance about it.
T C Ghai
