• The disillusioned prophet One of his last interviews, printed in India Today August 15 1977
• Field Work More Important Letter to members of the national executive of the CSP, August 29, 1951
• Stock Taking Press statement on Independence Day, 1948
• The Revolution of 1942 The Searchlight, April 22, 1946
• First Things First Congress Socialist, Vol. I, No 52, December 26, 1936
• Why Socialism

Stock Taking

Press statement on Independence Day, 1948

The other day an American asked me: “how do you find your independence?” what I told him was my private opinion, but if the same question were put to the Indian people, I wonder if they would not reply: tasteless. Except for the few “carpet-baggers”, independence has turned into dust in the mouth of people.

On this day, a year ago, there were mad celebrations throughout the land. The people approached the day with suspicion, but when officialdom whipped up enthusiasm they were convinced and entered with zest those unprecedented moments of joy making.

The miseries and muddles, the ascendant corruption and self-seeking, the runaway prices and profiteering, the killings at the war , and above all the supreme blunder which cost us the life of the nation’s father have made of that independence festival a historic mockery.

There are a great many things wrong with us. But the thing that is more strong is that there is no life in us today, no enthusiasm: the country looks dead. The great emotional flood that broke through the gates of Indian freedom on August 15 last, was not harnessed to any national endeavor. And the hearts that were uplifted with faith and joy on the historic day sank before the grim reality of freedom.

It is not that the people expected a miracle on the morrow of Independence Day. Centuries of suffering have made them patient, and they would have waited with undimmed hope and faith for the day of deliverance – from want, exploitation, disease and ignorance -had they proof that the old order was changing.

What they saw, however, was the same old system of the rule continuing and the very same social order of which they had so long been the underdogs. The people were, as they are, steeped in poverty. They would have borne their hardship without despair or despondency had they evidence that those who assumed power with their support were partaking of their poverty.

In terms of money, the salaries of ministries and their way of living, are of no importance. But as psychological factors, their significance is overwhelming. It alienates the people and disillusions them to find that those who till yesterday preached the virtues of sacrifice and voluntary poverty have moved into the palaces vacated by the British and have surrounded themselves with all the pomp of power and, from the pockets of the poor are drawing emoluments that are hundreds of times larger than the incomes of those who foot the bill. A little sacrifice in high quarters, a sharing in the poverty of the people, would have evoked a generous response from the people, would have evoked a generous response from the latter and cleared the atmosphere of greed and selfishness that pervades them today. but in small things as in big, the people see no evidence of any real change since the days of slavery. So they lose faith and sink into despondency.

To construct a new India many things are needed, but what is needed most is faith and enthusiasm, there must take place a psychological revolution in our country so that the people might be inspired to action. Today even a major war is being conducted without evoking any popular zeal. The loans the government asks for are treated by people and government alike as peacetime measures, and though there is such a grave emergency, the loans are not subscribed. Who will believe we are at war! The Indian soldier who fought as a mercenary in the British army received little presents and the tokens of love and appreciation from make believe citizens’ organisations at home. Has the soldier, fighting so bravely in Kashmir, received any such cheering token of love? No, in small things again as in big, our popular government fails to make a popular approach. The hand that rules is till the old wooden hand of bureaucracy.

Here there are two fundamental failings of the present government. It has failed to create popular enthusiasm without which national effort to build the nation is impossible. It has failed because it has shown no imagination, and it has kept intact which it inherited from the British, and has taken no bold step to shatter the old rotten social system and mould it nearer to the people’s desire.

The other failing is an extension of the first. It is the distrust of the people and the reluctance to get anything done, through popular initiative. Whether it is adult literacy, or recruitment for the army; raising loans or fighting the Nizam or anything else, it is the wooden machinery of bureaucracy through which the government worked. The result in every case is the same: the people are left cold and distrustful.

Wherever you go in India, from cabinet ministers to gossip-makers, everyone will tell you how inefficient is present system of administration, how lacking in initiative, how dilatory and how corrupt. The movement of files through the labyrinthine channels, the laborious noting’s, the checks and counter-checks, the shifting of responsibility, the lack of imagination and inertia – all these are common topics of conversations. That the present system of administration was fashioned by the British for the limited purpose of maintaining law and order and collecting revenues, and that it cannot therefore fulfill the task of nation-building are universally admitted.

Yet, no steps have been taken to transform the administrative machinery nor to root out corruption. Responsible ministers wise duty is to cast out corruption, have the brass to use it as an argument against progressive policies. “Look at the railways” , they say, “what use is all this talk of nationalistaion in view of the mess we find on the railways? There is no use taking industry form the hands of corrupt businessman only to pass it on to equally corrupt bureaucrats”.

Not only was no serious attempt made to check the corruption in the services, but it has actually invaded the ranks of the party in power, and a sort of link has been forged between corrupt officialdom, corrupt congressman and the profiteers and the black marketeers. Nothing has added more to the disillusionment of the people than this unholy alliance.

A secular democracy is the declared objective of the people. Yet, communalism has thrived, and where it is strong, as among the Sikhs and Hindus of east Punjab, it has received the imprimatur of nationalism. Everywhere the congress has bowed before the politics of caste domination and race.

Democracy should have been the most cherished ideal of free India. But the liberties of the people are far more at the mercy of the govt than even the British rule. The citizen is less independent, thanks to the Public Safety Act, after a year of independence than he was in the days of slavery. Even the right of habeas corpus has been nullified. Those in power are impatient of criticism and intolerant of opposition. Totalitarianism is gathering force. The picture of democracy that the constituent assembly has drawn up is disheartening at the extreme.

It is not my intention here to make an inventory of the failure of the govt. The list would be too long and the task too boring. The muddles on the economic front with their attendant miseries are alone a story too long to be told here. I have drawn attention only to a certain basic fault, if not corrected will turn independence either into fascism or to a sorry mess similar to that in Kuomintang China.