AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Chapter 2: DR. A.K.B. PILLAI, Ph.D)
Published on 27 August, 2020
TOUCHING GANDHIJI, AND GANDHIJI TOUCHING MY HEART AND SOUL, FOREVER MY CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCE AT AGE SIX
DEDICATED TO:
THE LATE M.P. MANMADHAN
THE LATE K.C. PILLAI, SANTINIKEPAN
THE LATE P.N. PANICKER]
DR. A.K.B. PILLAI, Ph.D., (COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY NEW YORK)
At age six, I touched Gandhiji when he came to my school in Kottayam, Kerala, India.
Gandhiji touched my heart and soul, forever! This experience has been most significant in my life. Gandhiji opened the door of a lifelong pathway for me- a commitment to make my life creative, fulfilling and for social well-being.
There was a walkway of around 200 feet from the road to my school. My fellow 6 year old students and I, stood on either side of this walkway holding hands. Gandhiji soon appeared, walking forward with a joyous smile, almost hinting laughter. His face vibrated purity of heart, honesty and dedication to human well-
well-being. When he reached nearby, I broke loose from my friends, walked toward him and touched his left hand. As usual, he was only wearing a short piece of cloth around his shoulders, his arms almost bare. He wore another piece of cloth around his waist. He looked at me with his gorgeous smile and walked on. I was so happy, I ran back to my friends, transformed forever.
Gandhiji, the Spiritual Political Leader
I didn’t know at that time about India’s Freedom struggle against British imperialism. I didn’t know then that Gandhiji was leading the fight of the people of India. Still, I could feel that he was a great person, almost sacred. A great deal of Gandhiji was expressed in his facial features, honest smile, and bare clothing. I know now that it was incredibly courageous for him to assert that simplicity, symbolized in his scant cotton clothing, could become so powerful as to command the common people against a mighty power.
As soon as he came from South Africa he was accepted as the leader of the Freedom Movement in India. This itself tells us about the dynamism of his personality. Indian politics has always been riddled with divisiveness, as competing party leaders have been creating chaos. However, the common Indians, who were socialized in the Hindu philosophy of standing for justice and righteousness, were easily influenced by Gandhiji. His philosophy of life, as well as his politics, was rooted in non-violent militancy. He was also influenced by the American writer Henry David Thoreau. In Gandhiji’s ‘non-violent militancy’, the commitment was to the goal, even sacrificing one’s own life if necessary. The means to achieve the goal should be also nonviolent and humanistic. The goal was ‘people based’ and so very sacred. Gandhiji was influenced also by the life of Sree Rama, a righteous king, who considered his duty towards his subjects more important than his love of his own wife and children. Sree Rama has been worshipped as a God by the Hindus. Gandhiji must have drawn inspiration and strength from Him.
Myself Immersed in the Gandhian Movement
I learned about Gandhiji more and more in the following years of my life. I was exposed to the Gandhian movement and tried to follow his guidance, wearing native cotton fabrics (khader), from when, I was fourteen years of age, studying in the fifth grade. In those days I was studying in the government high school in Quilon. My mother and I had to leave our home in Valady and stay with my uncle who lived near the school. I then started joining in activities with other Gandhians. I got a ‘chakra’ (spinning wheel) making my own yarn which I then gave to the khader store in exchange for khader cloth. I would take the cloth to a tailor who stitched shirts for me. The first time I tried to have such a shirt made, the tailor told me that I did not have enough cloth. So the tailor put a piece of factory made cloth in the inside of half the collar. Although no one could see it, I was very upset about it for a long time.
I became a preacher for khader. My aunt’s sister’s daughter, the late Rajamma Akkan (akkan means older sister), inspired by me, bought a ‘chakra’ and made yarn. Her brother, the late Devakuttan Chettan (Chettan means older brother) whose name was Sri G.S. Unnithan, started wearing khader clothes too. He was a very affectionate man to me and supported my Gandhian work. I had been in the Gandhian Freedom Movement from that time onward.
In Quilon, especially when I was in the sixth grade (the final year of India’s high school education ), at age 15, I took part in the meetings and demonstrations of the National Congress of India. On weekends, I used to walk ten miles back and forth from Quilon to Mayyanad to the house of the late respected C. V. Kunjuraman, to take part in his assembly of Freedom Fighters. He was the father of late C. Kesavan and the grandfather of late K. Balakrishnan, outstanding political leaders in Kerala. I was also walking another ten miles a day for 4 days a week, to work as a tutor to earn the living expenses of my mother and myself. I did all that with excitement and joy. Sometimes, when I was walking at night on the streets of Quilon, I spoke to myself, even raising my right hand as a symbol of India’s freedom and India becoming a nation of people’s well-being, with no poverty and suffering. I believe that my own poverty and suffering transformed into my inspiration to take part in the freedom movement. At age 17, while I was a first year student at NSS College in Changancherry, I used to address public meetings on Freedom for India. Several times, I escaped narrowly from getting arrested by the police.
During my travels of field study in India, 1949/1950, after my 2nd year of college, I lived in many Gandhian ‘ashramams’ (centers), including Wardah. The dedication to Gandhian ideals by the residents of the Gandhian centers, was very moving. All, men and women, ate simple food, with organic vegetables, grown in the center’s yard. They wove their clothes from khader, made from the yarn in their own chakras. They had prayer meetings every evening, to which outsiders also came. They had regular classes on Gandhian philosophy, including non-violent militancy. I slept with them on simple mats. If their activities had been supported, these centers might have become strong enough to spread organic farming, handicrafts, Gramaswaraj, and movements for equality and justice in free India.
When Gandhiji was shot and murdered on January 30, 1948, I was a student at NSS College. It was shocking and horrifying to me, as well as to so many others. He was killed by a Hindu fanatic. When Gandhiji was shot he uttered, “Hare Ram”.
Gandhiji’s Spiritual Politics: Non-violent Militancy
The day he was shot, he was going to his prayer meeting, as usual, attended by many persons. His prayer meeting was a means of inculcating spirituality into the Freedom Movement. His nonviolent militancy was also a case study of spiritual militancy. Two other great leaders were inspired to follow the non-violent, spiritual militancy of Gandhian principles: Martin Luther King in America leading the Civil Rights Movement; and Nelson Mandela in South Africa harnessing a Freedom Movement against the imperialists and apartheid. Unfortunately, King was also assassinated, also by a fanatic who was a white supremacist. Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Tuttu and their associates in South Africa saved thousands of lives from revengeful killing by the Black people, through creating an intense reconciliation program toward the murderers and oppressors of the apartheid. The forgiveness that was asserted saved the lives of millions of white people.
Gandhiji never was afraid of the personal dangers in his movement. Attenborough’s film, Gandhi (1982) presently available for viewing, is an exposition of Gandhiji’s life and accomplishment. He faced the ruthless soldiers of British imperialists, fearlessly. He walked for miles through areas such as Navakhali where there were Hindu-Muslim riots and killings, even creating peace among these peoples.
To Gandhiji even the British were not enemies. He made a distinction between the doer of evil and evil. He preached that the evil doer could become free from evil and even transform oneself into good. This is the way a person can free oneself from enmity toward evil doers. Similarly, he preached that the dominant classes of society could become free of their own dominance and exploitation, and the exploited people could also be uplifted to better living conditions, economically and culturally. Gandhiji was interested to create a classless egalitarian society.
Comparison of Marx and Gandhi
Karl Marx and Engels wanted this also. Marx’s method to achieve this was described in his “Manifesto” and other writings, with theories of classes and class war. Gandhi’s method was opposite to Marx. In Gandhian conception, there was no class war and no revolution, as oppressed classes can be, and should be uplifted to better living conditions. As noted above, the means to accomplish social equality should be as humanistic as the end goal. The members of a society should be led by cooperation and human values. Gandhi did not approve the Marxist materialistic view of society. Gandhiji emphasized humanistic and spiritual values. Nothing was mechanical for Gandhiji. Everything, every person and every action should be led by inner feelings of goodness and compassion. Gandhi did not accept the Marxian political system of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Presently, as evident from the historical experiences in the Soviet Union and China, the dictatorship of the proletariat ended in dictatorship of individuals and oppression of the peoples at large. Another big difference from Marx, is the Gandhian concept of creating small village communities. In these communities, the members relate very closely and cooperatively with each other, and through this the village as a whole becomes economically self-sufficient, Gandhiji called this ‘Gramaswaraj’ (village sovereignty). I am happy to note here, that for some time I worked as an assistant to the late M.P. Manmadhan in his Malayalam weekly Gramaswaraj. He was a very devoted Gandhian, but unfortunately, the publication did not continue due to the fragmented nature of the Gandhian movement in India, especially in Kerala.
I want to make it clear, as an intellectual, that my view of Marx and Marxism is in the historical context. During Marx’s time, European feudalism was brutal and ruthlessly oppressing people at large, and capitalism had been firmly forming its foundation. Thus Marx saw society as divided by classes. In light of the stubborn and uncompromising dominant classes of Europe, Marx sought class consciousness, and revolution. So Marx and his associate Engels preached revolution. Again, Lenin in Russia and Mao-Tse-Tung in China, saw the social condition in the same way and followed Marx by forming their own revolutions.
Marx did not see the colonial nations becoming free in the early part of the 20th century, and taking the pathway of democracy, although capitalistic. The Soviet Union fell apart, and took the democratic pathway. While China continuing to call itself ‘Communist’, has been developing economically through state controlled capitalism, while giving room for private capitalism to develop. This is the way that China could adapt to international corporate capitalism, by accepting it. In democracy, class is very flexible, in the sense that the lower classes aspire to move upward, tempted by Capitalism. The Communist parties in third world nations were forced to become part of the election processes, and could not gain power of the national governments.
I’d like to add here that marxist contribution to social science is historically outstanding, in cases such as, characteristics of agrarian culture, formation of economy and social classes and the valuable concept of ‘alienation’ etc.
Gramaswaraj for India?
Gandhian Gramaswaraj within national social democracy would have been the best for India. If the Indian leaders carried that out, India in ten years after freedom would have become economically self dependent, and even affluent, with human well-being. The late Jawaharlal Nehru, the prime minister of India followed a policy of supporting high technology and industrialization at a ‘freelance’ level. So certain industries led by individuals and native corporations grew, while the small farmers, farm workers and handicraft people who constitute the majority of the people of India had been neglected, even now.
I should specially point out here that a freelance approach to the industrialization of India will only help corporate capitalism and will not advance the ordinary people of India who constitute the numerical majority. Gandhian cooperative economics of organic farming, organic protection of handicrafts within each village unit system (panchayat) can constitute the pathway of India’s development, especially at this time of ecological destruction, global warming, pandemic corona virus, etc. India needs a totalistic development policy focused on the uplift of the small farmers and agriculture and that through Gandhian cooperative organizations, supported by heavy industry and high technology wherever they can be used without pollution and global warming. I want to add here that ‘high technology’ is needed today to solve the problems of high technology itself, such as removing ecological pollution, from the earth, air and ocean, certain degrees of genetic interference into the life of plants to combat pollution (never genetically modified organisms), etc.
Gandhi’s Way, the Present Global Solutions
Gandhiji’s direction is the best one suited not only for India, but for humankind all over the world. It preaches practical living with peace and cooperation among peoples at large. In many parts of the world, Gandhiji’s ideals are practiced, maybe in the name of Buddhism, as in parts of Japan and in self-dependent communities and as different parts of the world, especially Christiana, in Denmark.
In short, Gandhian philosophy and methods provide guidance to create humanistic societies with social equality and freedom. The first and most important task of every government in the world is to create a sustainable economy and basic healthy living conditions for all its subjects. This is also the only way to combat global warming as well as prevent pandemic viruses.
Take the Gandhian pathway!
Copyright Dr. A.K.B and Donna Pillai. Please quote up to ten lines with recognition of the author and the name of the publication. Please reprint the article as a whole only with the written permission of the author.
DEDICATED TO:
THE LATE M.P. MANMADHAN
THE LATE K.C. PILLAI, SANTINIKEPAN
THE LATE P.N. PANICKER]
DR. A.K.B. PILLAI, Ph.D., (COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY NEW YORK)
At age six, I touched Gandhiji when he came to my school in Kottayam, Kerala, India.
Gandhiji touched my heart and soul, forever! This experience has been most significant in my life. Gandhiji opened the door of a lifelong pathway for me- a commitment to make my life creative, fulfilling and for social well-being.
There was a walkway of around 200 feet from the road to my school. My fellow 6 year old students and I, stood on either side of this walkway holding hands. Gandhiji soon appeared, walking forward with a joyous smile, almost hinting laughter. His face vibrated purity of heart, honesty and dedication to human well-
well-being. When he reached nearby, I broke loose from my friends, walked toward him and touched his left hand. As usual, he was only wearing a short piece of cloth around his shoulders, his arms almost bare. He wore another piece of cloth around his waist. He looked at me with his gorgeous smile and walked on. I was so happy, I ran back to my friends, transformed forever.
Gandhiji, the Spiritual Political Leader
I didn’t know at that time about India’s Freedom struggle against British imperialism. I didn’t know then that Gandhiji was leading the fight of the people of India. Still, I could feel that he was a great person, almost sacred. A great deal of Gandhiji was expressed in his facial features, honest smile, and bare clothing. I know now that it was incredibly courageous for him to assert that simplicity, symbolized in his scant cotton clothing, could become so powerful as to command the common people against a mighty power.
As soon as he came from South Africa he was accepted as the leader of the Freedom Movement in India. This itself tells us about the dynamism of his personality. Indian politics has always been riddled with divisiveness, as competing party leaders have been creating chaos. However, the common Indians, who were socialized in the Hindu philosophy of standing for justice and righteousness, were easily influenced by Gandhiji. His philosophy of life, as well as his politics, was rooted in non-violent militancy. He was also influenced by the American writer Henry David Thoreau. In Gandhiji’s ‘non-violent militancy’, the commitment was to the goal, even sacrificing one’s own life if necessary. The means to achieve the goal should be also nonviolent and humanistic. The goal was ‘people based’ and so very sacred. Gandhiji was influenced also by the life of Sree Rama, a righteous king, who considered his duty towards his subjects more important than his love of his own wife and children. Sree Rama has been worshipped as a God by the Hindus. Gandhiji must have drawn inspiration and strength from Him.
Myself Immersed in the Gandhian Movement
I learned about Gandhiji more and more in the following years of my life. I was exposed to the Gandhian movement and tried to follow his guidance, wearing native cotton fabrics (khader), from when, I was fourteen years of age, studying in the fifth grade. In those days I was studying in the government high school in Quilon. My mother and I had to leave our home in Valady and stay with my uncle who lived near the school. I then started joining in activities with other Gandhians. I got a ‘chakra’ (spinning wheel) making my own yarn which I then gave to the khader store in exchange for khader cloth. I would take the cloth to a tailor who stitched shirts for me. The first time I tried to have such a shirt made, the tailor told me that I did not have enough cloth. So the tailor put a piece of factory made cloth in the inside of half the collar. Although no one could see it, I was very upset about it for a long time.
I became a preacher for khader. My aunt’s sister’s daughter, the late Rajamma Akkan (akkan means older sister), inspired by me, bought a ‘chakra’ and made yarn. Her brother, the late Devakuttan Chettan (Chettan means older brother) whose name was Sri G.S. Unnithan, started wearing khader clothes too. He was a very affectionate man to me and supported my Gandhian work. I had been in the Gandhian Freedom Movement from that time onward.
In Quilon, especially when I was in the sixth grade (the final year of India’s high school education ), at age 15, I took part in the meetings and demonstrations of the National Congress of India. On weekends, I used to walk ten miles back and forth from Quilon to Mayyanad to the house of the late respected C. V. Kunjuraman, to take part in his assembly of Freedom Fighters. He was the father of late C. Kesavan and the grandfather of late K. Balakrishnan, outstanding political leaders in Kerala. I was also walking another ten miles a day for 4 days a week, to work as a tutor to earn the living expenses of my mother and myself. I did all that with excitement and joy. Sometimes, when I was walking at night on the streets of Quilon, I spoke to myself, even raising my right hand as a symbol of India’s freedom and India becoming a nation of people’s well-being, with no poverty and suffering. I believe that my own poverty and suffering transformed into my inspiration to take part in the freedom movement. At age 17, while I was a first year student at NSS College in Changancherry, I used to address public meetings on Freedom for India. Several times, I escaped narrowly from getting arrested by the police.
During my travels of field study in India, 1949/1950, after my 2nd year of college, I lived in many Gandhian ‘ashramams’ (centers), including Wardah. The dedication to Gandhian ideals by the residents of the Gandhian centers, was very moving. All, men and women, ate simple food, with organic vegetables, grown in the center’s yard. They wove their clothes from khader, made from the yarn in their own chakras. They had prayer meetings every evening, to which outsiders also came. They had regular classes on Gandhian philosophy, including non-violent militancy. I slept with them on simple mats. If their activities had been supported, these centers might have become strong enough to spread organic farming, handicrafts, Gramaswaraj, and movements for equality and justice in free India.
When Gandhiji was shot and murdered on January 30, 1948, I was a student at NSS College. It was shocking and horrifying to me, as well as to so many others. He was killed by a Hindu fanatic. When Gandhiji was shot he uttered, “Hare Ram”.
Gandhiji’s Spiritual Politics: Non-violent Militancy
The day he was shot, he was going to his prayer meeting, as usual, attended by many persons. His prayer meeting was a means of inculcating spirituality into the Freedom Movement. His nonviolent militancy was also a case study of spiritual militancy. Two other great leaders were inspired to follow the non-violent, spiritual militancy of Gandhian principles: Martin Luther King in America leading the Civil Rights Movement; and Nelson Mandela in South Africa harnessing a Freedom Movement against the imperialists and apartheid. Unfortunately, King was also assassinated, also by a fanatic who was a white supremacist. Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Tuttu and their associates in South Africa saved thousands of lives from revengeful killing by the Black people, through creating an intense reconciliation program toward the murderers and oppressors of the apartheid. The forgiveness that was asserted saved the lives of millions of white people.
Gandhiji never was afraid of the personal dangers in his movement. Attenborough’s film, Gandhi (1982) presently available for viewing, is an exposition of Gandhiji’s life and accomplishment. He faced the ruthless soldiers of British imperialists, fearlessly. He walked for miles through areas such as Navakhali where there were Hindu-Muslim riots and killings, even creating peace among these peoples.
To Gandhiji even the British were not enemies. He made a distinction between the doer of evil and evil. He preached that the evil doer could become free from evil and even transform oneself into good. This is the way a person can free oneself from enmity toward evil doers. Similarly, he preached that the dominant classes of society could become free of their own dominance and exploitation, and the exploited people could also be uplifted to better living conditions, economically and culturally. Gandhiji was interested to create a classless egalitarian society.
Comparison of Marx and Gandhi
Karl Marx and Engels wanted this also. Marx’s method to achieve this was described in his “Manifesto” and other writings, with theories of classes and class war. Gandhi’s method was opposite to Marx. In Gandhian conception, there was no class war and no revolution, as oppressed classes can be, and should be uplifted to better living conditions. As noted above, the means to accomplish social equality should be as humanistic as the end goal. The members of a society should be led by cooperation and human values. Gandhi did not approve the Marxist materialistic view of society. Gandhiji emphasized humanistic and spiritual values. Nothing was mechanical for Gandhiji. Everything, every person and every action should be led by inner feelings of goodness and compassion. Gandhi did not accept the Marxian political system of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Presently, as evident from the historical experiences in the Soviet Union and China, the dictatorship of the proletariat ended in dictatorship of individuals and oppression of the peoples at large. Another big difference from Marx, is the Gandhian concept of creating small village communities. In these communities, the members relate very closely and cooperatively with each other, and through this the village as a whole becomes economically self-sufficient, Gandhiji called this ‘Gramaswaraj’ (village sovereignty). I am happy to note here, that for some time I worked as an assistant to the late M.P. Manmadhan in his Malayalam weekly Gramaswaraj. He was a very devoted Gandhian, but unfortunately, the publication did not continue due to the fragmented nature of the Gandhian movement in India, especially in Kerala.
I want to make it clear, as an intellectual, that my view of Marx and Marxism is in the historical context. During Marx’s time, European feudalism was brutal and ruthlessly oppressing people at large, and capitalism had been firmly forming its foundation. Thus Marx saw society as divided by classes. In light of the stubborn and uncompromising dominant classes of Europe, Marx sought class consciousness, and revolution. So Marx and his associate Engels preached revolution. Again, Lenin in Russia and Mao-Tse-Tung in China, saw the social condition in the same way and followed Marx by forming their own revolutions.
Marx did not see the colonial nations becoming free in the early part of the 20th century, and taking the pathway of democracy, although capitalistic. The Soviet Union fell apart, and took the democratic pathway. While China continuing to call itself ‘Communist’, has been developing economically through state controlled capitalism, while giving room for private capitalism to develop. This is the way that China could adapt to international corporate capitalism, by accepting it. In democracy, class is very flexible, in the sense that the lower classes aspire to move upward, tempted by Capitalism. The Communist parties in third world nations were forced to become part of the election processes, and could not gain power of the national governments.
I’d like to add here that marxist contribution to social science is historically outstanding, in cases such as, characteristics of agrarian culture, formation of economy and social classes and the valuable concept of ‘alienation’ etc.
Gramaswaraj for India?
Gandhian Gramaswaraj within national social democracy would have been the best for India. If the Indian leaders carried that out, India in ten years after freedom would have become economically self dependent, and even affluent, with human well-being. The late Jawaharlal Nehru, the prime minister of India followed a policy of supporting high technology and industrialization at a ‘freelance’ level. So certain industries led by individuals and native corporations grew, while the small farmers, farm workers and handicraft people who constitute the majority of the people of India had been neglected, even now.
I should specially point out here that a freelance approach to the industrialization of India will only help corporate capitalism and will not advance the ordinary people of India who constitute the numerical majority. Gandhian cooperative economics of organic farming, organic protection of handicrafts within each village unit system (panchayat) can constitute the pathway of India’s development, especially at this time of ecological destruction, global warming, pandemic corona virus, etc. India needs a totalistic development policy focused on the uplift of the small farmers and agriculture and that through Gandhian cooperative organizations, supported by heavy industry and high technology wherever they can be used without pollution and global warming. I want to add here that ‘high technology’ is needed today to solve the problems of high technology itself, such as removing ecological pollution, from the earth, air and ocean, certain degrees of genetic interference into the life of plants to combat pollution (never genetically modified organisms), etc.
Gandhi’s Way, the Present Global Solutions
Gandhiji’s direction is the best one suited not only for India, but for humankind all over the world. It preaches practical living with peace and cooperation among peoples at large. In many parts of the world, Gandhiji’s ideals are practiced, maybe in the name of Buddhism, as in parts of Japan and in self-dependent communities and as different parts of the world, especially Christiana, in Denmark.
In short, Gandhian philosophy and methods provide guidance to create humanistic societies with social equality and freedom. The first and most important task of every government in the world is to create a sustainable economy and basic healthy living conditions for all its subjects. This is also the only way to combat global warming as well as prevent pandemic viruses.
Take the Gandhian pathway!
Copyright Dr. A.K.B and Donna Pillai. Please quote up to ten lines with recognition of the author and the name of the publication. Please reprint the article as a whole only with the written permission of the author.
Facebook Comments
Leave A Reply
മലയാളത്തില് ടൈപ്പ് ചെയ്യാന് ഇവിടെ ക്ലിക്ക് ചെയ്യുക
അസഭ്യവും നിയമവിരുദ്ധവും അപകീര്ത്തികരവുമായ പരാമര്ശങ്ങള് പാടില്ല. വ്യക്തിപരമായ അധിക്ഷേപങ്ങളും
ഉണ്ടാവരുത്. അവ സൈബര് നിയമപ്രകാരം കുറ്റകരമാണ്. അഭിപ്രായങ്ങള് എഴുതുന്നയാളുടേത് മാത്രമാണ്. ഇ-മലയാളിയുടേതല്ല
EMalayalee Available in MediaAppUSA
Copyright © 2024 emalayalee.com - All Rights Reserved.
Webmastered by MIPL, Web Hosting Calicut Kerala