By: Bijay Kant Dubey
Understanding Gandhi and Gandhigiri, What Is It Gandhism And
Gandhianness: A Study In Nissim Ezekiel’s The Patriot (A Post-truth Evaluation)
I am standing for peace and non-violence.
The Patriot is one of those poems of Nissim Ezekiel which remind
us of the use and application of wit, humour and irony, fun, pun and caricature
as he does in his other poems in Background Casually, Goodbye Party For Miss Pushpa
T.S., The Railway Clerk, The Professor and so on other than Marriage,
Enterprise and Philosophy where the moral sense is so strong writing with a
didactic purpose to instruct and impart. But in the poems dealing with the
sense of humour and irony, he has tried to take up conversational English as
the medium of his expression as Kipling has, Khushwant Singh too has. Here the
patriot is not the Irish ragged man as the patriot of Lady Gregory in The Rising
of The Moon one-act play nor the loyal Irish sergeant working for the British
who too is not less than in duty and loyalties.
Let us see who is loyal to whom and working under whose
obligation? Whose allegiance where is it? What it colonial, post-colonial. How
the pre-Gandhian, the post-Gandhian stages? How was the freedom struggle and
who fought for whom?
If he was a freedom fighter for us, he was but a rebel, a
revolutionary in the eyes of the British. A Gandhian shisya, he was no doubt a
follower of Gandhi and Gandhian principles rather than knowing other political gurus
morally so sound.
So a Gandhian patriot, freedom fighter, an Indian patriot,
freedom fighter here is the point of deliberation and the poet has chosen him for
delving deeply into the freedom stories. If to see it differently, Gandhian
politics too is not less than a spectacle so theatrical to be staged and
enacted. Gandhian drama is no less than a romance where the followers and the old
man with the danda and the charkha enacted it well. Something was definitely
serious and something was definitely amusing. Let us see in the age of
post-truth evaluation. Let us see the poem colonizing and de-colonizing the
spirit. Let us read it from the insider and the outsider points of view as Nissim
Ezekiel too was not an Indian, but an alien insider, a Jew living in India just
like the British.
Who is what fighter time will say that. When they fought for
freedom, the time had been of theirs. But when India became free, India switched
it from Gandhi to Nehru and the power was transferred. Gandhi too did not take
the responsibility of leading the nation, left it into the hands of Nehru
willing to sit on chair from the beginning. It fell into our duty to take the
nation as we liked it to re-build.
The Patriot is a portrait of an Indian patriot, a freedom
fighter, a Gandhian follower into the footsteps of Gandhi, a Ram-bhakta
hanuman, one going by the Gandhian principles as shown thorough the emblem, the
replica, Gandhiji ke tin bandar, bura mat dekho, bur mat kaho, bura mat shuno.
In the poem The Patriot we see the criticism of Gandhi, Gandhism
and Gandhian followers. What do the critics say, the critics of Gandhi say it
in his life-time, how do they say it now too as everything is not in praise.
Kabir too talks of keeping a critic stationed in a cottage specially built and thatched
for him in the courtyard of his house. Do not be upset with. Let us see what
does a humorist also say it about? The humorist too has a say and style of his
own as we cannot glue to ideals and values all the time. Can we remain serious
for all the time? Jokes, humours, laughters and comics too have warmth of their
own. We need to laugh too, we need to be happy sometimes offloading the load
and taxation of day-to-day life, shrugging off the monotony and drudgery as we
feel it in common life.
Do the look-alike people not give the poses and postures of
Gandhi on the eve of Gandhi Jayanti? Some children too part like little
Gandhijis with the dhoti, lathi and specs. And from Gandhi we have found it Gandhigiri
as a modern idiom. So, the matter keeps turning around in this way or that way.
If we go by Sudhir Kakar, he will definitely psycho-analyse Gandhi and his
relations going by Freud and Jung. Orwell too has talked of him critically s
well as logically the secret of his gat milk.
The Gandhian mass of that time was but a superstitious mass, a
casteist mass believing in karma-dharma, Rahu-Kertu and fate-lines totally new
to logic and reasoning and the India they lived in was a slumbering nation.
Superstitions used to do the rounds combined with racism, ethnic divide,
casteism, fatalism, inaction, lethargy, illiteracy, poverty, hunger,
underclothing, food problem, living below the poverty line. Pundits,
astrologers and palmists, oracle-hearers, soothsayers and fortune-tellers
pleased them all.
Side by side it is also a fact that Nissim Ezekiel is but an
alien insider and he has seen India just as a foreigner sees India, but all the
foreigners are not alike too. A Jew he went by his urbanity and modernity and
from modern city-living he viewed it all. He was conservative and orthodox as
he came not to feel it India, ancient Indian wisdom and thought so heartily and
remained a minority man unto the end in some respect although he taught us to
be modern and up-to-date.
Do the sculptors not make the busts and torsos of Gandhi? They
too study it well before carving, chiselling the sculptures. Do the
costume-directors not think of cloth and dressing before giving a look to the
troupes? Everyone has got an art of own. Had the British been otherwise, they
would have eliminated Gandhi, but they too used to love and like him whatever
say we about their suppression and oppression. India too was a White man’s
burden is nothing to be shrugged off and denied; its poverty and backwardness
as it had regressed during the medieval age while on the other hand they also
liked it not to settle here and to accept it as their own motherland.
The patriot says it in the poem that he is all for Gandhism,
Gandhian principles and philosophy. He abides by the precepts and lessons given
by him; what the master has about non-violence, peace and truth, ahimsha, shantih and satya
and he cannot understand why are there so much troubles in the world, why does
the world keep fighting in between, what the causes of enmity and tussle. Why
do they not look into the matter, come to the table and settle it amicably as
per the Gandhian philosophy and politics? Why do they not derive from him as
his is ancient wisdom what he has from Indian thought and tradition. Indian
wisdom is hundred percent correct. What to say about hundred, it is even more
than, two hundred percent correct. But the modern generation is completely
unaware of that as they like to go matter the European manner and style,
fashion and clothing avoiding the native, swadeshi and khadi things, neglecting
Bhartiyata. Take it my example, I keep reading the Times of India daily as for
to improve my English, the patriot puts it before. Why do they not do it? When
will their English be strong? What he knows it, the present generation knows it
not. The patriot is also sorry to say how someone has hurled a stone on Indira
Behan. Is it correct to hurl? This is not the proper way of showing discontent.
They are but miscreants, rogues; goons and goondaism is not the all. We too
understand it that the age is changing, the times are also not so. They are in
the need of job and employment. Student unrest must be redressed. Generation,
regeneration, these are bound to go by and we cannot check the flux of time. In
order to be cool and healthy, we must take lassi rather than wine which but
many have become addicted to which is but a perverse habit we have lapsed into.
We must abstain from. Wine is for the drunkards, not for the common people. We
are all one, the Maharashtrians, the Gujaratis and the Hindiwallahs. We are
brothers and sisters, as you might heard, mere bhayion aur behano, a leader
addressing with all that in the likewise manner. Why do China and Pakistan
behave like this? Why are they so disturbing? This is just by the way he said
all that. There is nothing to worry. The funny things must be said in the
funniest way and he has all that just by the way. When will the Ram Rajya come?
This is the last wish to see. When will the heaven come upon the earth and the
men be executing their works sinlessly? Will he able to live up to see or not,
God knows it, the Almighty, who is above and over us can say it all.
The Patriot is a caricature of Indian English as well as the
patriot the protagonist or spokesman under our discussion. How do we speak
English as ours is Hindustani English, how do we tag and join to express with
inadequate vocabulary and syntax. We labour for an expression as English is not
our tongue.
The patriot is not a
rugged Irish freedom fighter, but an Indian Gandhian in his attire and with a
danda striding from Dandi March to the attending of the Round Table Conference,
but later on drawing pension too for being a fighter and one will naturally if
one grows old and runs out of time. How long will philosophy and principle keep
serving one if one is in old age and harness?
The man who is not a
Gandhi critic, a Gandhist or a lover of Gandhian way and art of living may not
take to the criticism of it. The poem entitled The Patriot is as such if we sit
to evaluate and assess it in the right perspective it is but a poem of Gandhi
and Gandhism, Gandhian studies and Gandhian philosophy. The point may be it
that Nissim a modern boy has tried to understand Gandhism in his modern way
following the ironical, jocular technique. Only the pure Gandhists will explain
Gandhi this too cannot be. The poet here through the freedom fighter, the
patriot is saying the things of his heart and mind, making it a criticism of
the followers. Did Subhas Chandra Bose not differ with Gandhi? Subhas was a
Shakta as he was from whereas Gandhi adhered to the Vaishnava tradition and
believe you it or not, the diet too plays a role in giving to temperament. It
was a mistake of Gandhi he sided with Nehru rather than Bose. But Bose too was
of the rebellious temperament whereas Gandhi was simple and lowly. One may
question definitely after going through the whole panorama whether there
leaders before Gandhi. One doubt if Gandhism was a drama, even though not, it
seemed to be to some extent, the call given and the people following in large
numbers, taking to as the Bible’s words. Sometimes we do not like it the
overacting of Gandhi, the inspector came, asked to write and the teacher told
him to copy from, but he did not which but does not appeal to as one should
show one too much. On this point we may question, why did you make the teacher
trapped and held guilty? Why did Gandhi not study it well before coming to
class? The dichotomy to feel, was Gandhi a politician or was he a saint, what
was he? Was it not pagletgiri to stay
half-clothed during the winter shivering with cold, a gimmick in itself? But in
pagletgirti lies it Gandhigiri, the tenacity to do it anyhow; the power of
endurance and sustenance very important for survival strategies and struggle
for existence.
Frankly speaking, I too
had the chances of meeting and sharing with the freedom fighters, but could not
adjust with them, the old trendy Indian thoughts. Some of them were really Gandhians,
but many of them illiterate and foolish, stubborn and obstinate. Needless to
say a few of them appeared to be hypocritical and pontifical. But some of them
were no doubt gentle and noble.
Is Gandhism for the
Gandhian scholars or for all? Anybody can give opinion on it as I think it so.
Let them also see who want to criticize him, make a fresh evaluation of his.
What is in a name? What in the image iconic or rudimentary? The iconography of
Gandhi, how to idolize it, Gandhi as in a book of biography and life stories;
Gandhi in the autobiography? Gandhi was not Gandhi, but it was the followers
who made him great. Had the critics been not, could he have been Gandhi, what we
see him today? Let the humorist too imitate him and emulate him. Did he not the
English ways and manners of life when he was in England? Gandhi in dhoti and
shawl and specs is it not all. There was a Gandhi dressed like an Englishman in
the coat and the pants of the earlier stages which but we have forgotten it,
the husband of Kasturba Gandhi.
What is patriotism? Who is
a patriot? Does the definition of it change it too from time to time? If a
freedom fighter outlives, how will the people view him? The poem is a
discussion on patriotism and leader worship.
Once Gandhi used to defend
the people in South Africa as a lawyer and had been connected with in many ways.
Now when the statue has been removed from Ghana Univ. campus, the time too has
come for our arguments instead of the fact that time keeps positioning and
repositioning things whatever be our proposition or disposition.
Nissim Ezekiel too would
have been aware of the strength and robust physique of the Indian patriots who
would have driven the British from just with the body built from taking milk,
ghee, mattha, sherbet and lassi and the Indian danda in hands. It is also a
fact some of them very rural, blunt and litigant beyond doubt. Suppose if give
you wine to him you might have to take a danda which Nissim knows it not. The
poet speaks about Indirabehn but we are not sure of what sort of sister is it
Miss Pushpa whom he is going to bid goodbye and to see her off at the airport.
Let us see how the patriot not, but Nissim Ezekiel in the
disguise of him begins the dialogue:
The conversation replete with Indianness makes us burst into laughter
and we cannot hold ourselves from laughing. We smile to read the lines and hear
the patriot speaking. This is how the Indians talk; how they speak in English
laboriously.
Let us see what the patriot feels about the modern generation:
The patriot shows it that he can even go through the Times of
India. One should not take him otherwise. He is even now trying his best to
improve his English. But what it pains him most is this that one goonda fellow
has thrown stone at Indirabehn which he should not have. But who is this Indira
Gandhi? She is but the daughter of Nehru whom Gandhi used to love and like most
as his political heir.
Friends, countrymen, comrades and Romans whoever be you, one
must heed to him and try to see his experience of serving the nation as he can
feel the pulse of the nation and the world:
The patriot addresses as my dear brothers and sisters and
advises to be patient and bearing upon with:
He will never counsel to take wine. It is better to take lassi,
sherbet and milk. If one does not get cow milk, one may goat milk as Gandhi
used to take and this the secret of his strength.
Take the example of his as he abstains from everything and is a
teetotaller:
Wine, alcohol, liquor are only for the drunkards and drunkenness
is at the root of all evils. Where is the current generation going to? If they
fall into bad habits, what will they do? If they take fast foods, how will
their body develop?
Apart from a patriot, he too thinks of world politics as he
might have heard during the Gandhian period about the Great Wars and other
European nations, even going beyond the saat samudras in idea:
But the activities of China and Pakistan disturb him most. It
saddens him when he sees them invading or attacking or engaged in warfare:
India is of all, all are but brothers and sisters, be they the
Hindiwallahs, Banglawallahs or any other so on:
Instead of regional and provincial differences seen in terms of
food, costume, living, manner, speaking, gesture, look and accent, the things
must be tolerated and sorted out cordially.
The Gandhian or Indian dream of Ram Rajya he has not forgotten
it:
When will the Ram Rajya dawn upon? Where is it? Is it not a
utopia? Whenever he finds time to meet him, he can the patriot as there is
nothing that to stay withdrawn and secluded from. He is ever ready to counsel
and advise if one feels to get it from; ever ready to share his experiences and
feelings. The listener is welcome to meet and his doors are open for him, any
time, any day he may visit him. He does not believe in ceremonious meetings
just meant for the freedom fighters and patriots to meet them on the dais. The
patriot likes to enjoy the company rather than anything and what else to do with
too.
It will better if we go through the two stanzas of ‘The Patriot’
written by Robert Browning:
But the
patriot of Robert Browning taking a U-turn and that too through a dramatic
monologue deplores for the bravery shown as because
nothing stays it here and everything is but circumstantial, occasional and
situational and opinions keep varying from time to time and none can say it
what will it remain what.
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