View-point
Recapturing
the Middle Path
The Philosophy behind Congress Sandesh
 |
| Dr.
Ravni Thakur |
The years leading to the Indian independence threw up a
host of ideologies, a wide spectrum of right, left wing,
religious and other ideas competed for intellectual and
strategic political space. It was an exciting intellectual
period and many larger than life minds traversed the Indian
subcontinent. Here English scholars and the ideas of the
enlightenment must not be excluded for they were fundamental
in making Indian intellectuals re-engage with their own
histories. Along with the rapid spread of English amongst
the middle classes, western ideas of Enlightenment also
spread. The works of Rousseau, Mills, Spencer, Darwin, Marx,
had a large role to play in the making of modern India with
its institutions of democracy and scientific education.
While
the colonial underpinnings of the project of Enlightenment
cannot be denied, its ideas of the individual rights of
man, a focus on humanism and its avowal of scientific rationalism
away from religious superstition, had a large impact on
people all over the world. Amongst Indians, Raja Ram Mohun
Roy started the movement for reforming Hinduism by taking
up, along with the British, the issue of Sati and widow
re-marriage. Amongst the Muslim community too, several advocated
the necessity for western education. From this initial reformist
response, the emergence of a professional, educated middle
class, those who had been through western education and
were familiar with its philosophical bearings, led to the
birth of the Freedom movement. Indians were no longer willing
to accept second class status and after the experience of
the 1857 revolution, they devised new strategies to gain
independence from the British. They were to use, best personified
by the figure of Mahatama Gandhi, the very ideas of the
colonialists against them. Chief amongst these was `The
Equal Rights of Man'. Again, like in the West, Indians also
espoused different ideologies that they hoped would help
achieve this universal equality. While the left, turned
to the Russian Revolution of 1917 for inspiration, others
espoused a more liberal and constitutional approach to fight
for equality.
It
was in such a climate that the Congress party took the lead
in the fight for Freedom. Right from the beginning, the
Congress espoused the middle path. This middle path is not
something that came from the ideas of western enlightenment.
It has always been intrinsic to an Indian ethos and formed
the basis of Buddhism and Hinduism. Even Islam in India
found itself drawn to this middle path and espoused liberality
in governance. One has only to look at Akbar as an example
of this trend. This mingling of faiths and communities meant
that cohesion was always best maintained by an essential
respect for, religious, cultural and social difference.
And when the Congress Party, led by stalwarts like Gandhi,
Nehru, Patel, Shashtri, to name a few, had to choose a way
to achieve independence, the middle path is what they chose.
Along
with taking the best of India's native cultural traditions,
the leaders of the Congress also sought to forge a link
with a rapidly modernizing and changing world. In this Pundit
Jawahar Lal Nehru, as the first Prime Minister of the country,
took the lead. It was his vision that turned India into
a modern, secular country, where the Constitution and the
rule of law were paramount. Along with these basic pillars
of governance, he also gave an impetus to India's higher
education and its excellent scientific manpower. He realized
that religious superstition had been responsible for centuries
of India's backwardness. It had kept, not just the scheduled
castes in poverty but its women too. That is why, the equality
of all citizens was enshrined within the constitution, a
Constitution that was the amongst the most modern in the
world. And one where unlike the west where women and blacks
were granted the vote only after fierce struggle, one person,
one vote and equality before the law became India's fundamental
principles.
Nehruji
realized, that despite the wound of partition, India could
only survive as a nation if religious fundamentalism of
any sort, was kept away from governance. He turned once
again to India's own liberal ethos to ensure that a good
and effective government was institutionalized. The aim
of the government was not only the upliftment of all its
citizens but also one which built India's massive industrialization.
Here again, the middle path was chosen, when neither complete
nationalization nor complete privatization was allowed.
Instead, large scale public enterprises, and at that stage
privatization would have meant no nascent power plants,
mining, steel or manufacture, and India would have been
half the nation that it boasts of being today, with its
brilliant IITs, and other institutions of higher learning,
its indigenous space and nuclear programmes.
India's
intrinsic respect for the middle path was also visible in
its relationship with other states. Post independence India
entered the world of the cold war, and instead of choosing
either the Soviet or American camps, Nehruji took the lead
in gathering newly emerged post-colonial countries under
the umbrella of Non-Alignment. This not only gave post colonial
countries a way to assert their own identity, it also provided
an important anchor for India's own ethos _ the capacity
to get on with every one and still to stand on one's own
feet.
The
past few years may have again redrawn fatal boundaries between
communities and castes. This has been the BJP's gift to
the nation. The polarization of communities has now reached
a stage, especially after Gujarat, where we no longer need
terrorists from Pakistan. Educated Muslim youth, who always
felt a part of the great India, today find themselves questioning
their place in this country and have become easy prey to
the politics of hate espoused by Pakistan. The Supreme Court
itself has been forced to remind the Gujarat government
of what `Governance and Rajdharma' mean. Apart from the
temple in Ayodhya, a programme that always seems to become
active when elections are close, extremism seems to be the
only agenda that the BJP has. Issues of development, economic
and social, seem to have taken a back seat to the pretentious
rumblings of religious bigots with little understanding
of the basic parameters of the Hindu faith. This is where
the Congress's Middle Path becomes so fundamental again.
We cannot allow our nation to be held to ransom by religious
fanatics who have no respect for the law of the land and
misuse our great faith and disregard its even greater traditions
of humanism and tolerance.
The
role played by the Congress Sandesh has been important in
this regard. Started five years ago, the Congress's in-house
magazine has consistently projected the basic ideology of
the Congress and propagated it amongst its cadres. As Shrimati
Gandhi said in her letter to the first issue of Sandesh
:
"The
Congress has given the country its greatest Prime Ministers,
Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi
and Rajiv Gandhi. We remain dedicated to the great principles
on which the house of free India has been erected : democracy,
secularism, socialism and non-alignment. "
The
Sandesh has tried to live up to these principles of the
Congress. In each and every issue, it has carried articles
which not only put across the Party's viewpoint but also
take issue with the BJP's divisive politics. The magazine
has covered the history of the Congress Party and the work
of the major thinkers of the Congress who have contributed
to the Freedom movement and the development of the nation.
The main aim of the Sandesh has been to give voice to the
Congress's stated middle path in its quest for the equitable
development of all citizens of the nation. This is even
more important because the party magazines of the Shiv Sena
and the RSS have been constantly covering issues that polarize
society and undermine its basic constitutional legality.
The Sandesh has ensured that the viewpoint of the Congress
does not get lost under the rabble rousing din of the BJP
and its affiliated organisations like the RSS and the VHP.
Apart
from espousing the main ideological principles of the Party,
the magazine has functioned as the mouth-piece for the Party's
achievements in the different states where the Congress
is ruling. It has also systematically covered the work being
done by our frontal organizations like the Mahila Congress,
the Sewadal and the Youth Congress. It has also covered
the various issues raised by Shrimati Sonia Gandhi in her
speeches at different venues, thereby helping spread her
message amongst party workers. Above all, the Sandesh has
tried to voice the concerns of the millions of Party workers
who keep the Congress flag flying. The Sandesh is today
an intrinsic part of the Congress Party's policy and reaches
out to all Indians. As Shrimati Gandhi has said :
"Sandesh
is designed to reach each one of our Congress workers in
their homes and places of work. We also hope this Newsletter
will be read by Congress sympathizers and all those with
an interest in public affairs, indeed all who have the good
of the nation at heart. We want Sandesh to become the platform
where any reader can share his or her views and debate his
or her opinions with others in the Party."
The
Sandesh will continue to do its work in this regard and
we hope that in the years to come, it will become not just
a party magazine but a magazine read by widest audience
possible, becoming an icon of the middle path that represents
the inherent philosophy of India.
