026. Vinoba Bhave. John Spenser Essay. Reintroduced By P.S.Remesh Chandran.

026. 

Vinoba Bhave. John Spenser Essay. Reintroduced By P.S.Remesh Chandran.

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum.

8th Jul 2011. Short URL http://nut.bz/21nds2jj/

Once an Australian writer wrote a book about a strange thing happening in India and developing there as a very interesting and great public movement. It was originated by an Indian scholar and saint, which gradually gained momentum and became a landmark in the history of the nation. This interesting story is reintroduced here along with its aftereffects in the recent years. Spenser is not responsible for paragraphs from four onwards in this article. 

The famous foot-marches of an Indian Saint begging for land all the way and distributing it to the poor.

The famous Australian writer John Spenser went to India to study the strange and unique Land Begging Movement of Vinoba Bhave and came back with a fantastic book which explored the question of how cultivatable land could be made available to landless people everywhere without any bloodshed. It was begging for land and giving it to the poor which could have been adopted anywhere successfully at the risk of politicians going bankrupt and jobless. Vinoba Bhave was an Indian Saint with an acute social consciousness and commitment. He made many foot-marches (Pada yaathraas) throughout India begging to rich people for a gift of land for him. In India it is difficult for people to deny a saint his request. So he obtained immense acres of land on the way and after obtaining it gave it all to the landless poor. This ingenuous technique of this great Indian Aachaarya gradually developed into a great social movement and reformation which became the Bhoo Daan Movement or Land Donation Movement. Bhoo in India means Land and Daan means Gifting. Vinoba Bhave came to be known as The Saint who Gave Land to the Poor.

The most efficient theories against communism in matters concerning land.



Cultivative land for the cultivator.

When India became free from the British Rule in the year 1947, Telengana in the Andhra Pradesh State was a region of poverty. Landlords possessed all the land and the peasants were greedily exploited not only by the landlords but by money-lenders also. As a natural consequence, the extremist communist movement of Naxalism flourished there. When Vinoba Bhave had once to visit Andhra to attend a Sarvodaya Samaaj meeting there, he decided to travel by foot from Vaarddha Aashram to Hyderabad so that he could study the people on the way. This Padayaathra or Travel on Foot became popular for many reasons. After the meeting, he travelled to the problem-torn Telengana area and held a prayer meeting at Pochempelly where he requested the rich to offer land to the poor, a willing and peaceful act on the part of the ‘haves’ for the ‘have-nots’. A moved landlord offered 100 Acres then and there which was the accidental birth of the massive Bhoodaan Movement in 1951. The inspired Vinoba began to travel from village to village collecting land. When someone refused to give land, Vinoba asked them to treat him as one of their sons and give him his due share of the land, which was dramatically successful. It was simply impossible to deny a gift to a Saint. Tens of Thousands of Acres of land were given to him willingly. Bhoodaan Movement was a token reply to the extremist communists there who were moving through the revolutionary path to attain the same objective. Bhave asked them why they came at night, and why not came by day and took land as he did, with sincerity and love. 

In North Indian States not only land but even wells, bullocks and houses were donated to the Saint.



Here lies the way to employment and prosperity.

This brilliant success of Aachaarya Vinoba Bhave in collecting land in Andhra made Bhoodaan a national movement. It was a movement with faith in the goodness of mankind. People could be successfully influenced to give up some of their most valuable possessions to the poor. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru invited Bhave to the capital city of Delhi. It was another Padayaathra collecting land all the way. He stayed in a hut near Raj Ghat, the final resting place of Mahatma Gandhi, where this Fakir was visited and listened to by the Prime Minister, President of India and the Planning Commission Members. From there he travelled by foot again to the vast Uttar Pradesh State where not only land but even wells, bullocks and houses were donated to him by exhilarated people. By then, Bhoodaan had become a great national movement in India. Nowhere in this world has such a daring and successful movement been organized by a Saint.

Ask cultivatable land for lease, and if not given willingly, confiscate forcefully and cultivate; then give the lease amount too forcefully.



Marching to professional politics.

After the passing away of such visionaries as Aachaarya Vinoba Bhave and Jawaharlal Nehru, this great and successful movement and silent revolution of India also passed out. People no more begged for or donated land. Things reverted to their former positions of exploitation, want, poverty, aggression, encroachment, attacks, retaliation and revenge. Extremists tempted people to confiscate land where it is in plenty and remains unutilized and the landowners were the least willing to part with their land. The moderates and the extremists in the Indian Communist Movement clashed against one another on their opinions on this issue and their party was split into so many parties and groups such that the boat remains still on the shore. But one among them came up with an excellent solution to the Indian land problem. He was the venerable parliamentarian and workers’ leader A.K.Gopalan. According to his theory, unemployment and poverty are the problems of India that remain unsolved. The greatest number of job opportunities lies in land but the lions’ share of the cultivatable land is kept idling and bare by the great land owners. Therefore the unemployed and the poor shall assemble themselves and approach the land owners asking for the cultivatable land on terms of lease. If they give the land willingly, the jobless may find their jobs in the fields year round. Thus unemployment can be redressed. Because all cultivatable land is now being cultivated instead of lain waste as previously, agricultural production in the country will increase many fold and the problem of poverty also would be solved.

The world wide fear created by Jean Paul Sartre in his play ‘The Stained Hands’.



Who will give away their mother?

But what if the landlords were not willing to give their land on lease? Then confiscate the land forcefully and go through the same process as if the land was given to the needy in lease. If the land owner is not willing to accept the amount of lease, the lease amount also should be given him forcefully. It was a genuine single solution to two most important problems of India. What is disturbing in these deals is the universal fear that the principle of private ownership of land would be violated. This communist visionary’s solution was a guarantee that the private ownership of land would not be affected anyway, unemployment and poverty would be eradicated and a peaceful and silent land revolution like this could be pivotal in turning away the course of international communism. The traitors in the leadership of the Communist Parties in India were terrorized at this suggestion and they tried in all possible ways to oust this visionary from their party. Wherever and whenever possible, he was restricted, restrained and censured. Anyway he led a mass movement of encroachment of lands lain barren as a result of which governments were forced to take hold of such land and distribute it among the poor. The Indian communists are still treading in the dark laying their unsteady and wavering steps reaching nowhere, like the party leadership in Jean Paul Sartre’s play ‘The Stained Hands’ who betrayed and killed their leader, know that they have no way other than to follow the strategy laid out by him, which they can never do for fear of admitting that his views were right. 

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Pictures Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
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Tags

A K Gopalan, Aachaarya Vinoba Bhave, Australian Literature, Australian Writers, Bhoodaan Movement,Crisis In Communist Parties, Crisis In Communist Theories, English Literature, Essayists, Indian Land Movement, John Spenser, Land Begging Movement In India, P S Remesh Chandran, Private Ownership Of Land, Reintroductions, Sahyadri Books And Bloom Books Trivandrum, Solving Unemployment And Poverty,Writers


Comments

Denise O
9th Jul 2011 (#)

Great information on Vinoba Bhave and his movement. Nice read. Thank you for sharing.

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Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan : The Intelligent Picture Book.

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027

017. Waterloo. Lord Byron. Appreciation By P.S.Remesh Chandran.

Waterloo. Lord Byron. Appreciation By P.S.Remesh Chandran.

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum.

By PSRemeshChandra, 26th Apr 2011. 

Short URL http://nut.bz/3.ub8mva/
Posted in Wikinut   Poetry

The maps of Europe were drawn and redrawn many times during the Eighteenth and the Nineteenth centuries. Countries became nations and empires which in no time were reverted back to nations and countries. It was not uncommon for people of those times to lay down spoons and forks in the dead of night and take muskets and pistols to brave war. Lord Byron in his famous poem portrays such a scene from the European arena. 

Political thought should be followed by political action.

Byron in Albanian dress.

George Gordon Noel Lord Byron was born in England in the Eighteenth century and lived through the Nineteenth century. He was a lame person and so he could not take part in the active moments of his nation. Because of this handicap, he possessed exceptional vigour, strength, courage and force at least in his writings. He believed that political thought should immediately be followed by political action. He had firm political opinions which could not be uttered in his century which naturally made him to turn himself into an irresistible revolutionary poet. His name stands brilliant and great among the star line of English poets. The Vision of Judgment, The Prisoner of Chillon and Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage are his most famous poems.

Spoon and fork laid down to take musket and pistol.

Vast Belgian halls where the rich and the famous assembled.

Childe Harold means the child of Harrow University which was the poet himself. Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage is a long poem in which Byron describes his European travels. There are perhaps only two other famous poems of the like in English literature. They are Matthew Arnold’s ‘The Scholar Gypsy’ and William Wordsworth’s ‘Tintern Abbey Revisited’. These three constitute the University Trio in English poetry. Waterloo is a famous section from Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.

The war of English and the French enters Belgium in the dead of night.

A ball in Brussels in 1815.

In Belgium he attended a midnight ball of the rich and the famous in Brussels, the capital city. It was at that time that the French and English opened war which soon reached Belgium. The midnight revelry was broke down by cannon fire but instead of the expected chaos, Byron could not help but admire what he saw of the quickness with which the Scottish soldiers there responded to the sudden attack. Due to graphic descriptions of contradicting scenes before and after the outbreak of sudden war, this part of the poem became memorably fine and specially noted in the poem.

Heavy cannon fire shatters the sound of midnight revelry. 

The battle in Brussels, formed in ranks of war.

All the brave and beautiful in Brussels were assembled in that ball room in a large mansion to celebrate night. There were not less than a thousand people gathered in that vast hall. Lamps shone bright everywhere and soft music filled the atmosphere. It was not just opulence and extravaganza of the rich and powerful. Belgians thought and did everything great and magnificent. Electricity in the atmosphere could be touched by hand. Loving eyes exchanged glances. All went merry as a marriage bell until the deep sound of a cannon struck. 

Youth and Pleasure chase the night with flying feet.

The Austro-Bavarian-French battery charge.

In the midst of the revelry, most of them did not recognize it to be sound of French guns. Some said it was wind and some said it was chariot passing through the stony street. The midnight revelry continued. People had decided to sleep not till morn. Youth and Pleasure had decided to chase the night with flying feet. Personification of Pleasure here is delightful and apt, resembling Milton’s personification of Laughter in his University poem L’Allegro. The aristocrats, government officers, soldiers, students, lovers and lazy personages all reverted back to merriment and carnal festivity. Then the heavy sound was heard once again, this time nearer and louder. Now there was no doubt it was the opening roar of cannons. 

Midnight carnival turns into carnelian carnage.

The Scotts riding to battle.

The noble Duke of Brunswick was sitting in a niche in the festivity hall, passively nursing his drinks. He was fighting on the part of the English and had anger towards the French for taking away his power and authority. He was a soldier head to heel, was always alert and was the first to recognize the sound as a cannon’s roar. When he said it and said it was near, the others laughed. But he knew the sound too well which had stretched his father, a great Chieftain, on a bed of blood years ago. His desire for long awaited vengeance was immediately roused; he rushed into the field outside and fell fighting foremost as a hero. The Duke of Brunswick’s reaction to the sound of cannon heard in the distance was a forewarning to the massacre and carnelian carnage that was to follow. War was at their door step. Byron’s description of the reverberating din of merriment in the hall and the heart-rending rush to his death by the Duke of Brunswick are equally classical. 

Love or lust or wine, the Scottish soldiers are duty-bound.

Lord Byron abroad. His reception at Missolonghi.

It is interesting to note how this sudden crisis affected the Scottish soldiers present. Death of the Duke of Brunswick confirmed that it was not a joke but actual war. No one had thought such awful a morn could rise upon such sweet a night. Dancing stopped and partners parted. Some wept, some trembled, some sighed and all were pale. Many doubted whether they would ever meet again. The civilians all were dumb struck and silent, but the Scottish soldiers in the assembling were the first to recover. Love or lust or wine, they proved once more that they were duty-bound. 

Squadrons and chariots swiftly forming in ranks of war.

Re-enactment of the Battle of Waterloo of 1815 for a film.

They soon began to prepare for the war. There were hurried movements everywhere. Horses were quickly mounted; squadrons and chariots rode out with impetuous speed and all swiftly formed in ranks of war. Horns and trumpets were sounded which roused all soldiers into action. Famous Scottish war songs trumpeted through Scottish bagpipes resounded through the columns and ranks of the armies and thrilled even the enemies. The famous song, ‘Cameron’s Gathering’ rose high and wild and echoing through the Albion’s Hills, and reached the Anglo-Saxons as well as the French. In no time the soldiers were marching away to the battle field.

The Ardennes Great Woods shed tear drops over the unreturning brave.

The Ardennes Great Woods shed tears over the unreturning brave.

Byron stood apart and watched the soldiers marching away to Waterloo. This last part of this portion of the poem is his reflections on the soldiers marching away to their death and glory. It is not possible that many of them may return alive to their land. As the English army marched away through the Ardennes Great Woods, trees waved their branches and shed tear drops over the unreturning brave. It was nature’s send-off and lamentation for her dearest of sons.

Morning noon and night, and morning day again.

The artificial hill raised on the spot of the Battle of Waterloo.

This lamentation of the woods is a fine and memorable scene in the poem, an achievement of Byron’s poetical diction and imagination. The brave soldiers who are now treading the grass might be dead and lying cold and low beneath the same grass before evening. The descriptions go through the calendar of activities of the day: Morning, evening, midnight, morning and day again; how quick and unexpected was the transformation from the peak of happiness to the depth of distress! But death would show no distinctions to man or beast. When the thunder clouds of the war clear away, the Earth would be uniformly covered with dead soldiers from both sides. Nature shows her kindness and justice by allowing the rider and horse and friend and foe to share and enjoy the same red burial ground which is grand and majestic after a war.

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Pictures Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

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Tags

Appreciations, British Poets, Childe Harolds Pilgrimage, English Language And Literature, English Literature, English Poems, English Songs, Gordon Lord Byron, Literary Criticism, P S Remesh Chandran, Poems, Poetry Reviews, Sahyadri Books And Bloom Books Trivandrum, Songs, Waterloo

Meet the author
 
PSRemeshChandra
 
Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan : The Intelligent Picture Book. 

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