Freedom is in peril

“I have traveled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that I do not think we could ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and , therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own ,they will lose their self esteem, their native self culture, and they will become that we want them , a truly dominated nation .

It is an extract from the speech delivered by Lord Mc Caulay , the now ill famed British educationist in India , on February 2, 1835 in British Parliament.

To a considerable degree many Indians succumbed to this type of British trait of conceit full of chicanery.  No wonder, if, even after getting freedom from British yoke, learned Indians like Chandrabhan Prasad  celebrate birth day of  Mc Caulay in India itself, and foreign nationals turned Indians, like Gail Omvedt plead for English. In her write up titled Why Dalits Want English (Times Of India, New Delhi, November 9,2006) Gail Omvedt  recommends ,”Like blacks they (Dalits) can make it (English) their language”.

The deprived and oppressed Hindus, tactically and politically called Dalits, can not be equated with the blacks of African-American origin. While the colour scheme for skins of humans seems to be in the hands of God, the lot of the deprived and oppressed has been only man’s creation. Colour of the skin may not be changed, but the state of the oppressed section of society can always be ameliorated. Social reformers like Swami Vivekanand, Mahatma Phule, Mahatma Gandhi and Dr Ambedkar, and the social organizations like Yuga Nirmana Yojana, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Art Of Living, Mata Amritanandamai Mutt and the Brahma Kumaris, and so many other persons and outfits have been quite alive to the disgrace.

The varying stages of Dalitness and /or backwardness should not be allowed to persist forever. Unfortunately, the politicians desiring to build and retain their permanent vote bank, and the agents of English desiring to disintegrate India, and bring her again under foreign yoke, want to retain this social stigma for their own vested interests. It is a sad commentary that the comfort loving intellectuals still crave to follow and propagate the Mc Caulay’s selfish and caballing strategy mentioned above , with a hope to secure some baksheesh from their masters.

The trend of the Christian missionaries busy in the business of conversion has been to convert the oppressed Hindus to Christianity via Buddhism. When Gail Omvedt, wants the Dalits to treat English as a goddess she seems to have taken a short cut .To follow the traditional line she could first  prescribe Pali to understand Buddhism better, and become Buddhists before converting to Christianity. Why some followers of the Buddha let Buddhism afford becoming conduit for some Dalits to become Christians is quite intriguing . It must be plugged in national interest.

Every nation- loving Indian will have to sacrifice some thing to keep the Independence intact. In deed Freedom is in peril again. We will have to defend it with all our might.