Dr.Radhakrishnan-The Teacher

Dr.Radhakhrishnan
-The Teacher.

U.N.Biswas*
(The Constituent Assembly adopted the National Flag of India on 22 July 1947. This paper draws attention to a few points of the address of Dr. Radhakrishnan on this momentous occasion.)
Dharma
Philosopher Dr.Radhakrishnan, in his speech, emphasized virtue. Purity and goal of truth cannot be achieved without recourse to virtue. “The Asoka’s wheel represents to us the wheel of the Law, , the wheel of Dharma. Truth can be gained only by the pursuit of the path of Dharma, by the practice of virtue, Truth,- Satya, Dharma, Virtue, these ought to be the controlling principles of all those who work under this Flag.”
Dynamism
Dr.Radhakrishanan, then dwells on the dynamic character of The Wheel of law. The country suffered due to our resistance to change.“It also tells that that the Dharma is something which is perpetually moving.”
Challenges
Thereafter he mentions the challenges before the nation and especially points out caste and untouchability. “There are ever so many institutions which are worked into our social fabric like caste and untouchability. Unless these are scrapped, we cannot say that we either seek truth or practice virtue. This wheel is a rotating thing, which is a perpetually revolving thing, indicates to us that there is death in stagnation. There is life in movement.”
Saffron
Saffron symbolizes the spirit of renunciation. “Sarve tyga rajadhrmesu drasta. All forms of renunciation are to be embodied in Raja Dharma, Philosophers must be kings. They must be dedicated spirits. They must be people who are imbued with the spirit of renunciation which that saffron color has transmitted to us from the beginning of our history. That stands for the fact the World belongs not to the wealthy, not to the prosperous but to the meek and humble, the dedicated and the detached. … If we are not imbued with the spirit of renunciation in these difficult days, we will again go under.”
The demolition squad of the media has been abusing the word saffron for than two decades. ‘Saffron brigade’ and ‘saffronization’ are now commonly used. The political dramatis personae were not far behind. Now they are in the fray to institutionalize it to include in the lexicon with pejorative connotation.
In a three-day conference of Police chiefs of India on August 26, 2010, Home Minister P.Chidabaram said, “There is no let-up in attempts to radicalize young men and women in India. Besides, there is the recently uncovered phenomenon of saffron terrorism that has been implicated in many bomb blasts of the past." Congress party distances itself and raped P. Chidabaram on ‘saffron terror’. Janarddhan Diwivedi, Congress General Secretary and head of media department of the party, said, “Saffron or bhagwa or kesariya(Hindi equivalents of saffron)is not the issue here. The issue is terrorism. Terrorism does not have any colour other than black.” The party disapproved the controversial formulation and Dwivedi added that terrorism could not be associated with any colour, “be it saffron, green or red. Terrorism is terrorism and should be opposed in whatever form it comes. … “Saffron colour has been part of our ancient tradition and is associated with our freedom struggle.” (August27, 2010)
Congress leader Digvijay Singh too objected to the use of the phrase ‘saffron terror’. “I have objection to the use of the use of caste, colour and religion to describe terror.” He however mentioned ‘Hindu fundamentalists.’ Singh added, “Terrorism in the country arises from fundamentalists among Hindus and Muslims.” In reply to question on the comment of P. Chidabaram; Singh said, “ he should come out with the name of the patent holder.” The Home Minister shot back, “These are religious fundamentalist groups. The message ought not be lost in the phrases and perhaps the phrase has brought the message home. So the purpose has been served.” The Minister referred the debate in the parliament in the past on ‘saffronization of education’ and said, “A number of others have used the phrase. I have told that a number of my colleagues in the UPA have used the phrase in the past. So I can’t claim patent over the phrase.” So ‘saffron terrorism’ stands. A student to day will perceive it to condemn. What an irony! We, either my wife or I daily hoist the National Flag at our home and see the saffron to go first in the sky. I feel proud to be an idiot to do this exercise three hundred sixty-five days in a year and feel sad when saffron is under assault.
They say what is there in a color! It can be red now and green tomorrow. The poster boys of one color become the commanders of the guerrilla bands of another color. They are honourable wise men. They can read the seeds of time and change faster than mind.
Renunciation &Immorality
Renunciation is taking Sanyas. It is Pabbajja- going forth, going forth from home to homeless life. This life is completely severed from family and social life to realize the supreme truth of deliverance. A monk has nothing except a begging bowl. This is poignantly depicted in an Ajanta painting. The Buddha, after his enlightenment visited Kapilavastu. Ysodhara asked, ‘What has he brought for his son Rahula?’ ‘I have only a begging bowl’ replied the Buddha. The public servants are not expected to be a Pabbajja, but the spirit of renunciation has to be his principle to lead a public life.
The criminal syndicates influence every aspect of governance. The apex court dealt the extent of corruption in the system and refereed a report of the State. “It has said that the network of the mafia is virtually running a parallel government pushing the State in to irrelevance.”
“ These syndicates have acquired substantial financial and muscle power and social respectability and have successfully corrupted the Government machinery in all levels and yield influence to make the task of Investigating and prosecuting agencies extremely difficult ; even members of the judicial system have not escaped the embrace of the Mafia.” (Vineet Narain & Ors.v.Union of India &Anr., 1998(1) SCC 226.)
Since then things have not have improved; on the contrary it has gone further down. We have now a ‘Corruption Carnival’ in the name of festival of games, an IPL that swindled a few billions. A gentle and popular minister once told me, ‘Can you look in to the case of a man who has employed a few hundred young men and women in our State? If he goes to jail, these young people will be thrown out of employment. The development of our State will be affected.” Don’t you know he has cheated more than a hundred crore?’ I replied. ‘I know that; still, I make a request.’ ‘Then why not invite D Company who will invest a billion? The minister did not request me again.
Another known fraudster of national notoriety made his foray in the developmental override of a State. I thought it was my moral but not legal duty to inform the State. I passed on the information to the person who was on a roll to industrialize the State in break-neck speed. He never came back to me. The member of the Mafia was welcome to the State and as usual, within a couple of months, he started his operations which became public.
Our hope lies in the basic structure of our Constitution. No one change it. All public servants are duty bound to be selfless in public life. To pay homage to Dr. Radhakrishan is to follow the spirit of renunciation. Renunciation symbolizes the Civilization of India from early period.
Education
Whose education are we talking of in West Bengal? Seventy percent people of West Bengal are directly and indirectly engaged in agriculture. And this agrarian economy is sustained by about a hundred million agricultural labourers ( 73,62,957 in 2001 Census) mostly belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe and Muslim communities. They contribute 76.46% of agricultural labour force in West Bengal. This 53.7% people are economically, socially and educationally most backward in West Bengal. It reminds me of Asok Mitra who said, “… there is nothing like illiteracy to keep the lowest of the socially low always under your heels, reduced to a permanent reserve pool of labour at below subsistence cost.” ( Mitra, Asok: Caste and Class in Indian Society, The Asiatic Society, 1995, p.25.) The presence of boys and girls from these communities in IT hub of sector V of Salt Lake City is awfully insignificant. However, they have been the captive vote banks of the ruling parties.
Growth is not development. Higher GDP and Multidimensional Poverty Index are often found inversely related.(UNDP:2010.) Appropriately educate the Third Estate, you will see the results! Will the political leadership in West that invariably comes from the upper crust of social hierarchy do it? “A Bengali takes great pride in claiming that caste plays no role in politics. Indeed so absolute is the ascendency of the top castes in Bengal that the subordinate castes take their status as a divine compensation.” (Mitra, Asok:1995) Can we come out from this caste syndrome! I have no answer, but if we do not, we will go under as Dr. Radhakrishan said. How long the economically and socially will remain silent? Ambedkar, the architect of the Constitution of India, warned, “How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life? If we continue it for long, we will do so only putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which this Assembly has so laboriously built up.” (Address of Ambedkar in the Constituent Assembly, November, 25, 1949.)
In the killing fields of West Bengal socially, educationally and economically backward kill or killed. Nine out of 13 people killed and identified in Nandigram Carnage of March 14, 2007 were persons belonging Scheduled Caste although the percentage of Scheduled Caste population in Nandigram is not high. At Singur the girl raped and burnt alive belonged to Scheduled Caste. Why? Is it all unrelated and isolated incidents that keep on happening? Or is it the result of an engineering of vicious stranglehold of social control set in motion by the invaders in the long past who thrust it upon the indigenous people of Ancient Bengal? Impartial history of indigenous people of Bengal has not yet been written. (The Asiatic Society: 2005.)
They are bought and sold to kill or to become cannon fodders. Who make these transactions? They are people, larger than life size. Do they have the DNA of the Prince of Machiavelli or Hitler! Could be, who knows. Sure it is; they can control the mind of people. Who will identify their gene? Microbiologists! How long will it continue! Let those who rule or lead answer.
Education & Media
Media plays a vital role in mass education. Not only that; media brings well researched knowledge. The web to day is really a knowledge box to those who can wisely use it. Coverage in important dailies are so vast that there this nothing that is left of the previous day. Democracy is meaningless unless people are informed in all aspects of life. The press empowers us with information. There is a section of media which is not always without blemish. “ One -sided information, disinformation, misinformation, and non –information all equally create an uninformed citizenry which makes democracy a farce when medium of information is monopolized either by a partisan central authority or private individuals or oligarchic organizations.” (Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India and Ors.v.Cricket Association of Bengal and Ors.[1995(2)SCC 161] Can we say all media channels are impartial? Is it not a fact that some channels are the subsidiaries of political parties? Are these unbiased?
When media commits defamation under section 499 of the Indian Penal Code, is it so easy to get relief? If the relief comes at all to a victim after long delay, the reputation of the person concerned is already harmed. Reputation is considered by many as ‘immortal part’ of their being. What remains without that is ‘bestial’. Since I have gone to Cassio of the Bard, let me conclude with Iago.
“Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls.
Who steals my purse steals trash; ‘tis something, nothing;
‘Twas mine, ‘tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs of me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed.”

September 5, 20190.
CG 22 Sector II, Salt Lake City, Kolkata-700091.

*Director, Research, Bhavana,HRD Centre of NCMB Memorial Trust, Calcutta.
E-mail id: dhammachakra2@gmail.com
Blog: http://dhammachakra.blogspot.com
This address was delivered by Dr.UNBiswas on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Dr. Radhakrishnan at Number 9 Ward, ABAC Park, Salt Lake City, Kolkata-700064 in a function hosted by Mr. Aninda Chattaopadhaya, Concillor, Ward 9.