Dandi March day

 

 On 12 March 1930, Gandhi and 78 satyagrahis, among whom were men belonging to almost every region, caste, creed, and religion of India, set out on foot for the coastal village of Dandi in Navsari district of Gujarat, 385 km from their starting point at Sabarmati Ashram. It was to just take a pinch of salt, defying the salt law.

Gandhi had said that he would return to Sabarmathi Ashram only after achieving the freedom of the country.  Unfortunately he could not return to the Ashram in his life time though India gained independence, just months before he was assassinated.

The march, which was initially phoo phooed by the British Administration had shaken them seeing the response of the people on the way and how the crowd swelled. 

There were only 78 sathagrahis who walked along with Gandhi from Sabarmathi Ashram to Dandi.  The others had just joined on the way.  They were selected by Gandhi himself.  They were:

Number	Name	Age	Province (British India)	State (Republic of India)
1	Mahatma Gandhi	61	Porbandar State	Gujarat
2	Pyarelal Nayyar	30		Punjab
3	Chhaganlal Naththubhai Joshi	35	Unknown	Gujarat
4	Pandit Narayan Moreshwar Khare	42	Bombay Presidency	Maharashtra
5	Ganpatrao Godse	25	Bombay Presidency	Maharashtra
6	Prithviraj Laxmidas Asar	19	Western India States Agency	Gujarat
7	Mahavir Giri	20	Darjeeling	Bengal Presidency
8	Bal Dattatreya Kalelkar	18	Bombay Presidency	Maharashtra
9	Jayanti Nathubhai Parekh	19	Unknown	Gujarat
10	Rasik Desai	19	Unknown	Gujarat
11	Vitthal Liladhar Thakkar	16	Unknown	Gujarat
12	Harakhji Ramjibhai	18	Unknown	Gujarat
13	Tansukh Pranshankar Bhatt	20	Unknown	Gujarat
14	Kantilal Harilal Gandhi	20	Unknown	Gujarat
15	Chhotubhai Khushalbhai Patel	22	Unknown	Gujarat
16	Valjibhai Govindji Desai	35	Unknown	Gujarat
17	Pannalal Balabhai Jhaveri	20		Gujarat
18	Abbas Varteji	20		Gujarat
19	Punjabhai Shah	25		Gujarat
20	Madhavjibhai Thakkar	40		Gujarat
21	Naranjibhai	22	Western India States Agency	Gujarat
22	Maganbhai Vohra	25	Western India States Agency	Gujarat
23	Dungarsibhai	27	Western India States Agency	Gujarat
24	Somalal Pragjibhai Patel	25		Gujarat
25	Hasmukhram Jakabar	25		Gujarat
26	Daudbhai	25		Gujarat
27	Ramjibhai Vankar	45		Gujarat
28	Dinkarrai Pandya	30		Gujarat
29	Dwarkanath	30		Bombay Presidency
30	Gajanan Khare	25		Bombay Presidency
31	Jethalal Ruparel	25	Western India States Agency	Gujarat
32	Govind Harkare	25		Bombay Presidency
33	Pandurang	22		Bombay Presidency
34	Vinayakrao Apte	33		Bombay Presidency
35	Ramdhirrai	30	United Provinces
36	Bhanushankar Dave	22		Gujarat
37	Munshilal	25	United Provinces
38	Raghavan	25	Madras Presidency	Kerala
39	Shivabhai Gokhalbhai Patel	27		Gujarat
40	Shankarbhai Bhikabhai Patel	20		Gujarat
41	Jashbhai Ishwarbhai Patel	20		Gujarat
42	Sumangal Prakash	25	United Provinces
43	Thevarthundiyil Titus	25	Madras Presidency	Kerala
44	Krishna Nair	25	Madras Presidency	Kerala
45	Tapan Nair	25	Madras Presidency	Kerala
46	Haridas Varjivandas Gandhi	25		Gujarat
47	Chimanlal Narsilal Shah	25		Gujarat
48	Shankaran	25	Madras Presidency	Kerala
49	Yarneni Subrahmanyam	25		Madras Presidency
50	Ramaniklal Maganlal Modi	38		Gujarat
51	Madanmohan Chaturvedi	27	Rajputana Agency
52	Harilal Mahimtura	27		Bombay Presidency
53	Motibas Das	20		Bihar and Orissa Province
54	Haridas Mazumdar	25		Gujarat
55	Anand Hingorani	24	Bombay Presidency
56	Mahadev Martand	18		Mysore
57	Jayantiprasad	30	United Province
58	Hariprasad	20	United Provinces
59	Girivardhari Chaudhary	20		Bihar and Orissa Province
60	Keshav Chitre	25		Bombay Presidency
61	Ambalal Shankarbhai Patel	30		Gujarat
62	Vishnu Pant	25		Bombay Presidency
63	Premraj	35		Punjab
64	Durgesh Chandra Das	44	Bengal	Bengal
65	Madhavlal Shah	27		Gujarat
66	Jyoti Ram Kandpal	30	United Provinces
67	Surajbhan	34		Punjab
68	Bhairav Dutt Joshi	25	United Provinces
69	Lalji Parmar	25		Gujarat
70	Ratnaji Boria	18		Gujarat
71	Chethan Lucky	30		Gujarat
72	Chintamani Shastri	40		Bombay Presidency
73	Narayan Dutt	24	Rajputana Agency
74	Manilal Mohandas Gandhi	38		Gujarat
75	Surendra	30	United Provinces
76	Hari Krishna Mohani	42		Bombay Presidency
77	Puratan Buch	25		Gujarat
78	Kharag Bahadur Singh Thapa	25	Dehradun	United Provinces
79	Shri Jagat Narayan	50		United Provinces

 We remember that great movement today and all those who participated in the great event.

One of the sathyagrahis in the above list happened to be the Uncle of my father whom we called as Raghavji.  His name figures in Sl. No. 38 above. 

He had completed his Graduation with honours, but decided to join Gandhi in the freedom movement.

After India got freedom, he was offered a Cabinet berth by Nehru, but like many of the Gandhians, he preferred to be in the Gandhian movement and dedicated himself to the cause of sarvodaya and khadhi, till he died at the ripe old age of 85.  He remained a chronic bachelor; did not gather any wealth; was of no use to his family members and rather gave away his ancestorial properties for the work of sarvodaya.

Though he seldom stayed at the homes of any of his relatives, during my college days, he had some how come to like me and stayed at our home a couple of times.

Once, I had playfully asked him what he thought about a politician who had declared that he would burn down the Constitution and when threatened with action, had backed down saying that he did not burn the Constitution, but only some papers, Raghav ji paused for some time and with tears brimming in his eyes asked me, ‘whatever the Constitution is, do you know how many sacrificed their lives to get that Constitution?”.  It stirred me no end.

But though the said politician who had said so that day had done it only to say that there were inequalities even as per the Constitution, really he was not in any position to really distort it or destroy it.

But in later years I find that there have been consistent attempts to dilute the provisions of the Constitution and even the basic structure principle which has been held as its foundation, is now being found fault with.

There is a group of people now thinking that winning an election is enough to make any law including throwing away the Constitution and replacing it with another set of laws which they feel is the correct one.

Those belonging to left wing who found fault with the Constitution earlier, have slowly started realising that any move to dilute it will take away the rights and liberties ensured to the citizens as on date and there will be utter chaos.

Similarly, there were many who found fault with Gandhi due to number of reasons.  But, slowly, they have also come around to see that if that icon is removed, we will fall into an abyss.  

Now, only the hindu right wing believes otherwise.

The recent speech of Prashanth Bhushan regarding the need to reclaim the Republic is very relevant at this time.

A peep into history of the Tatas

 

The book deals with the life of J.R.D Tata.

I am giving some excerpts only to kindle interest of any prospective readers.

I have given the highlights only about Jamsetji Tata and his son Dorab ji and how the University of Science and Tata Steels came to be established in this country.

EXCERPTS:

In 1896 Jamsetji Tata offered half of his fortune consisting of fourteen buildings and four landed properties worth three million rupees (Around Rs 170 million in 1991) to the British Government to establish a University of Science.  For the last eight years of his life he tried to enthuse the British Government to make a contribution equal to his gift and pass an enactment to start a university to offer post-gratuate courses in electrical, mechanical and civil engineering, various aspectos of the humanities to enable students to do research into history and archiology.

Lord Curzon delayed the project thinking Jamsetji was aiming at getting baronetcy. 

In 1903 the Secretary of State for India Lord Hamilton, wrote to Lord Curzon that if the Government delayed the project any further, Jamshedji may withdraw the offer and divert the amount to iron and hydro-electic projects.  Though anyone else would have done so, Jamsetji did not go back on his word.

But only a year after his death, Lord Curzon agreed to the scheme for the University of Science with equal share by the Government to that of the benefaction of Jamsetji. (p 5 & 6)

 ....

In 1860s when Jamsetji Tata was about thirty, he went to a talk in Manchester by Thomas Carlyle.  The steel age was just beginning. With vision Carlyle had declared: ‘The nation that has the steel will have the gold’.

That made Jamsetji start the Iron and steel industry in India. (p 43)

....

When J.R.D. Tata and his wife Thelly were driving down by car after their honeymoon, they were stopped for over an hour on the road in bitter cold at Kolkatta to give way to the Governor’s car. JRD and his wife decided to register their protest.  When the Governor’s car came, Thelly and JRD stepped up before the Governor’s car and when it stopped, JRD went up to his window and shouted, ‘ Who the hell do you think you are, keeping five hundred people, women and children in the cold for an hour?  You damn fool!’.  Among those shivering in the cold was a British Anglican priest, who went up to JRD and said, “Sir I do not approve of your language but I certainly approve of your sentiments’. (p 63, 64)

...

In 1907 Tatas were advised that the kind of capital needed for their projected steel plant was not available in India and that they would better tap the London market.  But the london market was going through a bad patch.  Tata decided to try their luck in India.  To Tatas’ amazement, investors beseiged their Bombay office at Navsari Building, from morning till nate at night and in three weeks the eintre capital was subscribed.  Dorab Tata wrote: ‘,Above all, it was a swadeshi enterprise, finance by swadeshi money, managed by swadeshi brains’. Jawaharlal Nehru had picked the year thatTatas raised funds as the turning point in the country’s struggle for independence (p 68-69)

...Mahatma Gandhi visited the Jamshedpur factory at the invitation of the Directors and workers.  When he was shown the room in which he was to stay, he was taken aback to see the British mattresses and pillows, drapes and carpets.  Gandhiji requested them to be removed.  After his wish was obeyed and the room looked pretty barren, he was asked, ‘Will you be quite comfortable with so many things removed from the room, Mahatmaji?’.  He said, ‘I am quite comfortabe with just a garment’. (p 47)

 ....

Sir Doraab’s finest hour was in 1924, when he pledged his private forutne including his wife’s jwellery for a loan to save a public limited company – Tata Stee.  In the jwellery that he pledged to the Imperial Bank, was the clebrated Jubilee Diamond (245.35 carats) more than twice the size of th Kohinoor. (p 72)

...

When reading about the pledging of the jewels of Tata's wife to save the company I was reminded about a similar instance told to me by an employee of M/s Salzer Electronics, Coimbatore where its founder had also done so to save the company and had refused advised of others to concentrate on farming on the lands instead of having an industry. The MD Mr. Doraiswamy is reported to have said that he had to safeguard the families of the workers of his factory.  

India lives by such great industrialists.

More on JRD himself, later...

Metamorphosis of the human condition

 

Kafka starts by a startling statement: ‘One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed int a horrible vermin.’

Now we do not know whether the subsequent experience of Gregor is an extension of his dream or not.

He is not able to move his limbs.  He is not able to communicate.  But he is able to climb over the walls and roof.  He is in a miserable position that he can no longer go for his duties and due to that his father, mother and young sister of only 17 years are forced to go out for work, to sustain.

But, when his family finds him thus transformed, their attitude changing towards him gradually is what the novel describes.

When he tries to come out of his room, his father pushes him back into his room with a stick in one hand and a news paper in the other. 

The efforts of Gregor to speak to his Mother or Father are in vain.

His sister also who comes into his room takes away the left-over after his meals, not with her bare hands, but with a rag. 

His room gradually becomes a store room for all unwanted items of the household, particularly when a portion of their house was rented out to three persons, for purely monetary considerations.

But then, even his sister who used to be sympathetic towards him, looked after his needs, and loved him, after his presence was objected to by their new tenants, found him abhorrent and declares, ‘I don’t want to call this monster my brother, all I can say is: we have to try and get rid of it’.

Her father agrees and says, ‘If he could just understand us, then perhaps we could come to some kind of arrangement with him.  But as it is..’.

“It’s got to go” shouts his sister.

After he moved back to his room with great effort, his sister closes the door behind him and locks the door with great relief. 

The next day, when their maid arrives, he is found dead.

Even the disposal of ‘that thing’ is taken care of only by their maid.

‘After that, the three of them left the flat together, which was something they had not done for months, and took the tram out to the open country outside the town’.

….

The pain of a person who is a part of the family, but could not communicate is personified in the whole of the novel.  It has to be read, to be understood and felt.

This need not be due to someone becoming a vermin. 

The situation could be due to any incapacitation, whether by illness, accident, old age, etc.  The agony of dependence and yet having emotions on one hand and the limits of endurance of the family members on the other, is existential.

This tragedy of the human, on the side of the protagonist as well as his family members, is demeaning. 

But Kafka, perhaps with a deliberate intend, named it ‘Metamorphosis’.

New Laws and the Supreme Court

 

Three important laws concerning any citizen were first introduced in Lok Sabha on August 11, 2023, as Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, (to replace IPC) the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (to replace CrPC) and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill (to replace the Indian Evidence Act) before being referred to a parliamentary committee headed by Brij Lal for further examination.

They were passed by the Lok Sabha on December 20, 2023, before being passed by the Rajya Sabha the next day.

Subsequently, on February 24, the Union Home Ministry issued a gazette notification announcing that the new laws will come into force from July 1 this year.

          From the time line of the above, it will be obvious that these three important legislations have been passed even without discussion in the Parliament (because most of the time in the Parliament has been even otherwise washed away by pandemonium by one party or the other) and also before being referred to a parliamentary committee.

          In this context, any one with slight concern regarding the enforcement of law and order and criminal justice system is quite aware of some of the realities in India:

(1)  Though the criminal justice system is expected to be reformative, the huge population on one hand and lack of scientific mechanism, dearth of finance for the same and limited number of personnel involved in it has made it difficult to really make it reformative.

(2) The system is so time consuming and expensive that most of those languishing in prisons without even a trial, even beyond a term that they would have served if they had been found guilty, are belonging to the poorer sections of the society who cannot afford to get justice.

(3) It is also a fact that among those poor, those belonging to the suppressed classes would be the most.

(4) The criminal justice system has been systematiclly been hardened against those who go to the aid of the poorer sections vis-a-vis those who are trying to exploit them economically or socially and hence various separate laws have been passed over a period of time by successive Governments. Even they have been felt to be draconian and against human rights and dignity.

(5) The only other class of persons who are at the wrong end of this criminal justice system are those who are on the other side of authority and who are targeted for that reason. For this reason, we find that though various cases are booked against many high and mighty, hardly any of them (with the exception of a Lalu or Sasikala – even the main accused in the Sasikala case did not have to face the ordeal because judgment was kept reserved till her demise) have had to face the final outcome in the case.

In such a scenario, if the existing Penal Code, Evidence Act and Criminal Procedure Code are to be modified, it has to be the concern of each and every citizen because, if not done with enough safeguards they will enable hardening of a Police State and with the already crowded judiciary, justice will become hard to get. There are already numerous cases of Police excesses.  And there is hardly no mechanism to give any compensation to the wronged in such matters.

When the Hon’ble Supreme Court is said to have dismissed a PIL on the above issue on 26.02.2024 with the observations "What is your locus to challenge the three new criminal laws? They are not even in force. Dismissed.:” it gave a sinking feeling. https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/supreme-court-dismisses-petition-challenging-new-criminal-laws-says-theyre-not-even-in-force-250501?infinitescroll=1

It leaves me wondering why the Hon’ble Court should wait for something wrong to happen  Why should we cry over spilt milk or swallow it as a fiat accompli as it has happened in the cases of Article 370 abolition and ban of internet, Demolition of the Babri masjid even when the matter was pending before the highest Court and when assurances had been given that nothing will happen to the structure, in the case of demonitisation, PM CARES fund and Electoral Bonds, etc?

Are these laws not going to affect every citizen, will they pave way for emergence of a police state and will they put more pressure on the Justice delivery system or not are the questions.  However, do not know who will be competent to delve into these, if not the highest Court of this land, when the Parliament has already passed these laws and when the Government has notified that they will take effect from1.07.2024.

The elaborate discussion on Decoding the new Criminal Laws was in this direction very enlightening and also increases the concerns.  Fundamentally, when corporates can pay the parties to purchase legislators, laws cannot be expected to be made for the common man.  Why should corporates invest to empower the citizens after all?