सायमन कमिशन चा रिपोर्ट

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001752998

Gandhi and Temple Entry

Gandhi had asked Sane Guruji to stop his fasting for temple entry to untouchables in Pandharpur - This is because there were already discussions to implement law to remove untouchability. (The law was indeed in place and untouchability was removed by the constitution as well.

His letter to Sane Guruji mentioned -

TELEGRAM TO P. S. SANE
[May 1, 1947] 

ON THE FACTS BEFORE ME YOUR FAST IS WHOLLY WRONG. PANDHARPUR
MANDIR WILL BE OPENED SHORTLY TO HARIJANS. YOUR COURAGE AND
GREATNESS SHOULD DISDAIN TAUNTS OF MEN HOWEVER GREAT OR MANY.
3

PLEASE STOP THE FAST AND WIRE. The Hindu, 3-5-1947 

It is now imperative for us to abolish untouchability. Would the Government have had the courage to open the temples through legislation? When I see that in Madras one temple after another is opening its doors to Harijans, it makes me happy. This is how dharma can be safeguarded. The same applies to Christians and Parsis. Our Government must be dedicated to raising the status of those who are downtrodden. If it does something for the Harijans, why should the Brahmins complain? Yes, if someone suggests that the Brahmins should be beaten and humiliated, then I shall say ‘no, that is bad’.

July 13, 1947

---

The other day I spoke of the temples in Tamil Nadu and
Malabar that had been thrown open to Harijan and I especially mentioned the Rameswaram temple. It is a huge temple and there is a lot of superstition concerning it. Some thought that the entry of Harijans would pollute the temple. I have received a letter today complaining that I had not mentioned the Tirupati temple in Andhra
1
President, All India Kisan Sabha and Andhra Provincial Congress Committee; Member, Congress Parliamentary at the Centre

VOL. 96 : 7 JULY, 1947 - 26 SEPTEMBER, 1947 55

NEW DELHI,
July 15, 1947

NEW DELHI,
July 15, 1947

Desh which is also a great and acient temple. The correspondent asks me to rectify the omission and thus give satisfaction to the people of Andhra. I know the glory of this temple but I make no difference between Tamil Nadu and Andhra. Today the atmosphere is such that everyone wants separation. 

---

I had been asked, now that temples in Tamil Nad and Andhra have been opened to Harijans, what is the situation with regard to temples in the U. P.? There are the temples in Hardwar for instance. Can Harijans visit these temples? In Travancore this was acheived long ago. Sir C. P. Ramaswamy Aiyar, the State’s Diwan, who at the moment is perhaps a little angry with us, had presuaded the Maharaja to abolish untouchability by law. In the U. P., besides Hardwar there is Kashi. Can Harijans visit the temples there? If the Harajans cannot visit those temples, them I shall consider those temples impure. All the religions of the world are today faced with a severe test. Hindusim should in not 99 per cent but 100 per cent marks.

---

You may not have heard about a place called Pandharpur. It is a place for pilgrimage in Maharashtra. There are innumerable legends about the idols in that place, but I do not want to narrate them to you. The temple at Pandharpur was not open to Harijans. Sane Guruji1 installed himself there and argued with the Trustees that when all other temples were thrown open to Harijans, there was no reason why the Pandharpur temple should not be opened to them. When his request was not granted he went on fast2. Sane Guruji is a great devotee, and how could the trustees therefore allow him to die? Sense dawned on them and they were moved to pity. But they told him they were helpless in the face of a number of technical difficulties, which had to be first removed. Then Mavalankar3 joined him there and Sane Guruji was persuaded to give up his fast4. But he ended his fast on the condition that he would resume the fast if the temple was not opened to Harijans. Now I have received a telegram that the necessary Bill has been passed and that the temple has been opened to Harijans. The temple was willingly opened and people thronged there in thousands. There were no protests. There may have been some stray protests among those thousands. So, after all, that great temple of Pandharpur had to be opened to Harijans after so much effort. If all those excesses we have been perpetrating on the Harijans become a thing of the past the country would rise very high.

November 5, 1947 - Speech at prayer meeting 

------

I had spoken to you about Pandharpur. There is a temple there
of Lord Vithoba. It is the largest temple in Maharashtra. I have visited it. I had suggested that it should be opened to Harijans. Afterwards the trustees of the temple also supported my demand. When I got the news that the temple had been opened to the Harijans I had told you of it. Everyone seemed content and no voice was raised in opposition. Now they say that a large number of Brahmin priests are unhappy over this because the temple is visited by many Harijans every day. Some of the priests seem to have gone on a fast. This has distressed me. I have received this wire only today, and since I cannot reach there in any other way I think I should make a mention of the matter here and maybe my voice will reach Pandharpur. I want to say in all humility and sincerity that those who have resorted to the fast and still call themselves priests are really not priests. They are serving neither themselves nor Hinduism. The image in the temple is the image of Vithoba, i. e., of Krishna or Vishnu. It could not be the will of Vishnu that some should have His glimpse and others may not. In my view as long as the Harijans were barred from the temple it had not been really consecrated. Why should these people now fast? A Bill has been passed concerning Harijans’ entry into temples. Even the lawmakers are Hindus. When millions of Hindus say that the temple should be opened to Harijans, how can they say that it should remain closed? I see no merit in the fast. I think it is sinful and should be given up. I think the priests should relent and say they were mistaken and their eyes have now been opened. It cannot be that in the temple of God one man should be admitted and another kept out. It is believed that visiting a temple cleanses the sinner of his sins in the same way as bathing in the Ganga does. I personally do not support the view that the water from the Ganga washes away the sins but it is a belief widely held. And maybe it does good to one who bathes in the Ganga in the faith that his sins will be washed away. Besides who can say that Harijans are all sinners? There are among Harijans persons of great merit as well as sinners.

All India Radio, Dec 30 1947 


------

 Hindus can and do visit Swaminarayan and Jain temples. Harijans should also visit them. For years there has been a movement going on to prove that Brahmins and Harijans have equal rights. It has met with considerable success. Now that the Bombay Government have passed a law to that effect there seems to be no occasion for satyagraha. If the law is in conformity with public opinion it should command respect. If it is against public opinion, its enforcement will be rather slow. In a democracy a law cannot be enforced through coercion. It always calls for discerning circumsp- ection. It will succeed if a reformer takes recourse to it with clear understanding. If he is impatient the law will prove a failure.
Trustees are not the owners of the temples. Even those who get the temples built are not the owners if they are built for public use. The real owners of the temples are the devotees. Devotees are those who visit the temples either for worship or to feign worship. Regarded in this light all Jain and Swaminarayan temples are Hindu temples. I have myself visited these temples. No one even cared to ask me or hundreds like me to which sect we belonged. It was enough that I looked a Hindu. So where Hindus go Harijans can also go. Harijans are not a separate community. Enlightened public opinion and the law which embodies that opinion say that they are one of the varnas, be they four or eighteen, comprising Hindu society. Therefore the contrary view cannot prevail. It is the devotees who make of God a living entity. If they are good, the God is good. 

January 27, 1948 

Gandhi on Pakistan and hindus

Jinnah Saheb has stated that the Hindu and the Sikh minorities would be absolutely safe in Pakistan and that they would not be persecuted. But why are such conditions not obtaining today? I can have a glimpse of Pakistan in only what is happening in the Punjab and Bengal, isn’t it? If that is not what Pakistan is going to be, why does not Jinnah Saheb bring about what he says? Why is not every Hindu in the Muslim majority places protected? Why do the Hindus of Sind, who form only 25 per cent of the population, have to live under the shadow of fear? Does Pakistan mean that all the non- Muslims, the Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and those belonging to other religions have to live as slaves? If that is so, it would not be a true Pakistan. Hindustan too can be considered true Hindustan only when no harm is done even to innocent Muslim children in the Hindu majority provinces. 

M K gandhi, Speech at prayer meeting, May 2 1947

Gandhi, Swami Shraddhanand and Abdul Rashid

This deed was done through the hand of a Mussalman.
Entering the house under the pretext of having a religious
discussion with Swamiji he committed this monstrous act. .... 
The killer, Abdul Rashid, is in police custody. It pains me to imagine the feeling that this will evoke among the Hindus. Without doubt this will create ill feeling for Mussalmans among the Hindus. Today there is no love between the two communities. There is no trust. Both do realize that at the end they have to live together like brothers, but meanwhile each, conscious of its weakness, wants to fight with the other, become strong and then unite. In these circumstances, and with the poison that is spread in the newspapers, it is difficult to say what this deed will lead to....
Let us pray to God that we may understand the real meaning of
this assassination. This is a testing time for Hindus and Mussalmans. Let the Hindus remain peaceful and refrain from seeking revenge for this murder. Let them not think that the two communities are now enemies of each other and that unity is no longer possible. If they do, they will be committing a crime and bringing disgrace upon their religions. And, in my opinion, if a Mussalman thinks than Abdul Rashid did well he will be disgracing his religion. For that is not his religion. His religion is something else. Now is the opportunity for the Mussalmans to show the real teachings of Islam. Shraddhanandji and the Hindus have, of course, got what they had to, but as a man and as a friend and brother of Mussalmans, I must tell them that it will do both our communities good if we would understand this in the right spirit.
May God give us faith and wisdom to survive this test and to behave towards each other, after this deed, in such a way that God can say that the two communities did what they ought to have done.

M K Gandhi, AICC Meeting, Dec 24, 1926

----


Resolution at Congress Session, Guwahati, Dec 26, 1926

This Congress expresses its horror and indignation at the
cowardly and treacherous murder of Swami Shraddhanand and
places on record its sense of the irreparable loss the nation has sustained by the tragic death of a brave and noble patriot who dedicated his life and his great gifts to the service of his country and of his faith and espoused with fearless devotion the cause of the lowly, the fallen and the weak.

The resolution was moved by Gandhi.

Patel on Nehru

Patel and Nehru.......

“Jawaharlal and I have been fellow-members of the Congress, soldiers in the struggle for freedom, colleagues in the Congress Working Committee, and other bodies of the Congress, devoted followers of the Great Master who has unhappily left us to battle with grave problems without his guidance, and co-sharers in the great and onerous burden of administration of this vast country. Having known each other in such intimate and varied fields of activity we have naturally grown fond of each other; our mutual affection has increased as years have advanced, and its is difficult for people to imagine how much we miss each other when we are apart and unable to take counsel together in order to resolve our problems and difficulties.
........Gifted with an idealism of high order, a devotee of beauty and art in life, and equipped with infinite capacity to magnetize and inspire others and a personality which would be remarkable in any gathering of world’s foremost men, Jawaharlal has gone from strength to strength as a political leader.

...It was, therefore, in the fitness of things that in the twilight preceding the dawn of independence he should have been our leading light, and that when India was faced with crises after crises, following the achievement of our freedom, he should have been the upholder of our faith and the leader of our legions. No one knows better than myself how much he has laboured for his country in the last two years of our difficult existence. I’ve seen him age quickly during that period, on account of the worries of the high office that he holds and the tremendous responsibilities that he wields.

…As one older in years, it has been my privilege to tender advice to him on the manifold problems with which we have been faced in both administrative and organizational fields. I have always found him willing to seek and ready to take it. Contrary to the impression created by some interested persons and eagerly accepted in credulous circles, we have worked together as lifelong friends and colleagues, adjusting ourselves each other’s advice as only those who have confidence in each other can.

…It is obviously impossible to do justice to his great and pre-eminent personality in these few condensed words. The versatility of his character and attainment at once defy delineation. His thoughts have sometime a depth which it is not easy to fathom, but underlying them to all is a transparent sincerity and a robustness of youth which endear him to everyone without distinction of caste and creed, race or religion”.

- Sardar Patel  about Jawaharlal Nehru.......

wrote on October 14, 1949, a month before Nehru’s 60th birthday for Abhinandan Granth, where he heaped praises on Nehru’s merits and also went on to elaborate the deep ties he shared with him.

वंदे मातरम राष्ट्रगीत का नाही?

जगातील सर्व राष्ट्रगीतांचा आढावा घेतला तर राष्ट्रगीताची पद्यरचना आणि राष्ट्रगीताची धून दोन्ही राष्ट्रगीत मानले जाते. म्हणजे परदेशात राष्ट्रगीताची केवळ धून वाजवली जाते, गाणे नव्हे. वंदे मातरम या गीताची चाल द्रुत नसून ती विलंबीत आहे, त्यामुळे वंदे मातरम हे गीत मिलीटरी बँडवर वाजवता येत नाही. वंदे मातरम या गीताच्या मुळ चालीला संगीत देताना त्यात कुठेही ड्रमचा वापर होत नाही. संतुर आणि बासरीचा वापर होऊ शकतो. ड्रम किंवा ट्रम्पेट वापरता येत नसल्यामुळे वंदेमातरम या गीतावर ड्रील करता येत नाही. मग त्याची चाल बदलून टाकावी लागेल, जी बाब वंदे मातरम या गीतात जो मुळ देवीस्तुतीचा भाग आहे त्याला क्षती पोचवणारी आहे. त्याकाळी गीते गाऊन म्हटली जात असत , ज्याला 'तरन्नुम मे गाना' असे म्हणत. बंकीमचंद्र  कवि वा गीतकार नव्हते तर ते कादंबरीकार होते व वंदे मातरम हे गद्यरूप आहे, पुर्ण पद्य नव्हे. याऊलट   रविंद्रनाथ हे केवळ गीतकार नव्हते तर ते  संगीतकारही होते!
'जन गण मन' या गीतास त्यांनी स्वत:  जी चाल बसवली होती ती मिलीटरी ड्रम साठी योग्य ठरली.

भारतीय शास्त्रीय संगीतातील वाद्ये आणि  मिलटरी ड्रम मधे फरक आहे. ड्रम आणि तबला, दोन्ही चर्मवाद्ये असले तरी फरक आहे. जन गन मन, वंदे मातरम, सारे जहां से अच्छा, कदम कदम बढाये जा, झंडा उंचा रहे हमारा इत्यादी गीतांचा आणि त्यांना दिल्या जाणा-या संगीताचाही विचार केला गेला होता. त्यातून 'जन गन मन' निवडले गेले. नेहरूं प्रत्येक गीताचे बोल, त्यांचे संगीत, वाद्ये , गाण्यातून प्रतित होणारा अर्थ याबाबत खूप आग्रही होते. जगातील अनेक ऑर्केस्ट्राशी त्यांनी संपर्क साधला होता. खुप बहरदार संगीत असावे अशी त्यांची इच्छा होती आणि आपले राष्ट्रगीत जगातील सर्वोत्कृष्ट राष्ट्रगीत याबाबत ते खूप आग्रही होते. ही बाब पटेल, सरोजीनीदेवी नायडू यांच्यासोबतच्या  पत्रव्यवहारातून स्पष्ट होते.  राष्ट्रगीताची धून अमेरीकन ऑर्केस्ट्राने सर्वप्रथम तयार केली होती. ज्यामधे ड्रम आणि बँगपायपर चा वाद्याचा वापर केला गेला होता.

संदर्भ.  सिलेक्टेड वर्क्स ऑफ जवाहरलाल नेहरू खंड.1 भाग2

- राज कुलकर्णी

जन गण मन आणि वाद

जन गण मन  हे गीत गुरुदेव टागोर यांनी पंचम जॉर्ज च्या स्वागतासाठी लिहिले अशा धादांत खोटा प्रचार करणाऱ्या पोस्ट आणि लेख सध्या वॉट्स अप आणि फेसबुक वर दिसतात. एवढेच नव्हेतर त्यावरून चक्क गुरुदेवांच्या देशभक्तीवर शंका घेतली  जाते. या बाबतची   वस्तुस्थिती अशी कि , हे गीत डिसेंबर १९११ मध्ये लिहिले गेले . याच वर्षी पंचम जॉर्ज यांची भारत भेट ठरलेली होती . कलकत्ता इथे २६ डिसेंबर १९११ रोजी कॉंग्रेस चे अधिवेशन होते ,त्याच्या दुस- या  दिवशी हे गीत गायले गेले. ब्रिटीश वर्तमान पत्रांनी पंचम जॉर्ज ला खुश कारण्यासाठी चुकीची बातमी छापली आणि हे गीत पंचम जॉर्ज च्या स्वागतासाठी लिहिली गेले अशी अफवा सर्व कॉमन वेल्थ देशात पसरवली . वास्तविक रामभूज चौधरी यांनी हिंदी भाषेत लिहिलेले " बादशहा हमारा " हे गीत पंचम जॉर्ज यांच्या स्वागतासाठी लिहिले होते . २८ डिसेंबर १९११ रोजी अमृत बाजार पत्रिका मधील बातमी अशी आहे ...

"The proceedings of the Congress party session started with a prayer in Bengali to praise God (song of benediction). This was followed by a resolution expressing loyalty to King George V. Then another song was sung welcoming King George V." (Amrita Bazar Patrika, Dec.28,1911) 

याशिवाय  "दि बेंगाली" या वर्तमानपत्रातील बातमी अशी आहे ..

"The annual session of Congress began by singing a song composed by the great Bengali poet Ravindranath Tagore. Then a resolution expressing loyalty to King George V was passed. A song paying a heartfelt homage to King George V was then sung by a group of boys and girls." (The Bengalee, Dec. 28, 1911) 

याचा अर्थ असा कि ,त्या दिवशी दोन गीते म्हटली गेली होती . एक ईश्वर स्तुती करणारे टागोरांचे आणि ठराव पारित झाल्यानंतर पंचम जॉर्ज च्या सन्मानार्थ एक ! अशी दोन गीते म्हटली गेली .
कॉंग्रेस अधिवेशनाचा अहवाल सुद्धा याच बाबीचा दुजोरा देतो ....

"On the first day of 28th annual session of the Congress, proceedings started after singing Vande Mataram. On the second day the work began after singing a patriotic song by Babu Ravindranath Tagore. Messages from well wishers were then read and a resolution was passed expressing loyalty to King George V. Afterwards the song composed for welcoming King George V and Queen Mary was sung."

गुरुदेवाच्या देशभक्तीवर शंका घेणे मूर्खपणाचे लक्षण आहे . टागोरांना त्यांच्या रचनेबद्दल अशी अफवा पसरवली गेल्याचे आणि त्याबद्दल वस्तुस्थिती काय अशी विचारणा कांही लोकांनी १९३७ मध्ये विचारली . यावेळी   टागोरांनी १० नोव्हेंबर १९३७ रोजी पुलीन बिहारी सेन यांना पत्र लिहून अधिनायक म्हणजे प्रत्येक भारतीयाची  भाग्यदेवता आहे ,इतर कोणीही नाही असे निक्षून सांगितले याच पत्रात ते म्हणतात " That Lord of Destiny, that Reader of the Collective Mind of India, that Perennial Guide, could never be George V, George VI, or any other George "  याचा अर्थ स्पष्ट आहे ,भारताचा भाग्य विधाता पंचमच काय पण कोणताच जॉर्ज होवू शकत नाही. असे स्पष्टपणे सांगणारे गुरूदेव रविंद्रनाथ  प्रखर देशभक्त होते ,हे सांगायची आवशकता या देशात निर्माण होते ,ही बाब खूप दुर्दैवाची आहे . त्यांनी १९१९ साली  जालियानवाला बाग हत्याकांडाच्या निषेधार्थ  'नाईटहूड' हा किताब सरकारला परत दिला.
गुरूदेव रविंद्रनाथ टागोर जगाचा सांकृतिक वारसा आहेत, त्यांचे मोठेपण आपल्या मेंदूच्या विचारशक्तीच्या क्षमतेबाहेरचे आहे . मनातील किल्मिष बाजूला ठेवले आणि स्वत: चा खुजेपणा स्वत:च समजून घेतला तर सत्य सहज  समजू शकते आणि थोरांचा मोठेपणा देखील उमगतो !

- राज कुलकर्णी .