AN INDIAN LEADER
By V. S. SWAMINATHAN
IF an Indian were asked to name the three foremost public figures identified with the National Congress movement, his choice would unhesitatingly be Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Chakravarti Rajagopalachariar (" C. R.," for short). The first two of India's national leaders are fairly well-known to the British public. For one thing, both Messrs. Gandhi and Nehru received their higher education in England, and for another they had visited this country since. The South Indian Congress leader, now in the limelight, is a stranger to Britain.
Like the other two Indians, C. R. can claim an honourable record of distinguished public service to his credit. With them, he shares the privilege--it is reckoned so there—of having been imprisoned for " civil disobedience " activities. Like them, too, this Madrasi Brahmin was counted by the authorities a " model " political prisoner. Again, C. R., like his compatriots, has no animosity against individual Englishmen, though he is opposed to the prevailing system of the country's administration. He has one further point of resemblance with them—he is a lawyer turned politician. Here the similarities end, and marked differences begin to appear.
What distinguishes Mr. Rajagopalachariar from his still intimate twin personal friends is he is more than a selfless patriot and poli- tician. True he was against the Indian Government for over fifteen years, even when Pandit Motilal Nehru and others of his way of thinking formed the Swarajya Party to fight the Govern- ment from within. But as Congress Prime Minister of the premier Indian province he proved his worth as a statesman, and did excellent constructive work in that capacity. It may be added that for more than two decades this man, born of the priestly caste, has laboured hard and unceasingly for rural reconstruction and social reform.
What manner of individual is this right-hand man of Gandhi, reflecting the right-wing view of the organisation, who plucked up courage to declare the current Congress policy " futile;' and re- signed his membership of the Working Committer of that body, thereby dissociating himself from its uncompromising and unrealistic attitude? What are the credentials of this Madrasi leader who has launched a four-point programme—i.e., to form a united national front; come to a working understanding with the Moslem League; labour for a National Government at the Centre; and raise a vast, country-wide Home Guard force to resist aggression from all quarters?
Picture to yourself a slim, somewhat tall, ascetic figure with pro- minent forehead, spectacles .revealing a pair of piercing eyes, and hair getting rather thin on top, clad in pure homespun khadi in the native fashion—there you have the portrait of C. R., the Congress " rebel." Like many other eminent Indians—the late C. R. Das, for example—he was educated entirely in India: partly in the progressive Indian State of Mysore, and later on in Madras. In due course he became enrolled as an advocate (Vakil) of the Madras High Court, and built up a lucrative practice in his native district of Salem.
The tragedy of Amritsar and the Rowlatt Act marked a turning- point in the life of this prosperous up-country lawyer, even as it did with Pandit Motilal Nehru, the father of Jawaharlal. C. R. felt the urge to throw in his lot with Gandhi in his Satyagraha and Civil Disobedience campaigns. Thus began in 1919 his long, en- during and fruitful political association with the exponent of Ahimsa and apostle of non-violence. It may be a fat cry from Salem in the south to Sabarmati near Surat in Gujarat. But love laughs at distances. The friendship between the two elder men from different parts of continental India, and belonging to different castes, had a happy sequel. Devadas, the youngest son of Gandhi, took as his bride Mr. Rajagopalachariar's daughter.
The years of non-co-operation with the British Raj were far from barren. Indeed, they brought this Madrasi leader into close touch with rural India, and the pressing economic problems of the country as a whole. Apart from editing Gandhi's Young India during the latter's imprisonment, C. R. had four passions in life: removal of the curse of untouchability, a blot on the fair name of Hinduism; eradication of the evil habits of drinking and drug- taking prevalent among the masses, who could least afford them; revival of hand-spinning as a source of supplementary occupation and income for people who were seasonally unemployed and chronically under-employed, and making Hindi the lingua franca of India. The village Ashram (rural reconstruction and recreation centre) at Tiruchengode is a monument to his constructive activities for the uplift of rural India. He found time, too, to display his literary bent, and published books in Tamil on Socrates and Marcus Aurelius, and translated several Sanskrit scriptures into the same language.
Later, C. R. successfully persuaded the Congress Working Com- mittee to contest the provincial elections under the 1935 Act, and in mid-August, 1937, we find him the Premier of the Congress Ministry in Madras, holding the portfolios of the Interior and Finance. In office he did his best to promote the welfare of the masses, and gave convincing proof of the administrative capacity and constructive ability of the Congress Party. The latter admitted gladly the co-operation extended by the Governor of Fort St. George. C. R. earned the esteem and regard of Lord Erskine and the European members of the I.C.S., and equally that of the peoples and rulers of the progressive Indian States of Mysore, Travancore and Cochin.
Some of the noteworthy reforms effected by the Madras Congress Ministry during its brief tenure of office are worth recording. They included an all-round reduction in the scale of salaries of Ministers and higher officials to accord with the ability of the country to pay; improvement of the working and living conditions of factory-workers and mill-hands; formulation of a long-term plan of balanced eco- nomic development to cope with the tm,:n evils of poverty and un- employment; and introduction of prohibition by degrees—that is,
declaring certain areas " dry " and banning the production, sale an consumption of alcoholic liquors there.
A week after Japan's eniry into war C. R. made a signific speech to the students of the Lucknow University, wherein he d Glared : " Surely we cannot hope for emancipation at the hands Britain's enemies. . . . The concept of non-violence adumbrated Mr. Gandhi . . . needs modifications to meet changing envirorunen particularly as regards the question of the defence of India." Thr months later, when war was reaching India's shores, he appealed t the people to organise themselves for defence with courage an sober confidence. Japan's success, he warned them, would no mean India's freedom, but more ruthless exploitation.
In reference to Pakistan (partition of India along communal lines C. R. believed that Jinnah, President of the Moslem League, did demand Pakistan as an immediate but as an ultimate solution o the Indian problem. " If it were right, Hindus must accept it; wrong, there was time enough to oppose it." He wholehearted supports the Moslem demand for a just share of power, and be lieves that once power is transferred to Indian hands its equitabl distribution will present no insuperable difficulties. Coming fro Madras, where the Hindus and Moslems have lived in amity fo some centuries, C. R. perhaps does not fully appreciate how strong) the Sikhs and the Hindus—in Punjab, for example—feel on thi matter of " vivisecting " India.
Be that as it may, C. R. sees the menace to his beloved province Madras, and the threat to landia as a whole, more clearly than man others of his party. As a realist, he feels that India as a nation m get together to face and surmount the perils confronting the coun Will this 63-year-old born idealist, imbued with a sense of reali succeed in his new fighting crusade? Much will depend upon ho far other influential members of the Congress and the League ar prepared for a political compromise or truce till the danger to th country they live in and love passes away. Much more will depen on the speed with which the enemy presses his attacks on Ind' This cannot fail to bring the communities together, and they an the Government. Of one thing we may be certain. If M Rajagopalachariar fails in his mission it will not be for lack of try ing. It abundantly deserves success.
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