It was a pleasant surprise when my friend from school days Richard invited my family and myself to ‘The Grand Hockey Dinner Dance’ at the St. Bede’s School Grounds on Saturday, the 9th January 2010. This dance was the culmination of a 2-day long hockey tournament of Anglo-Indian teams from all over the country.

I was not surprised that a dance would signal the end of the tournament because in all Anglo-Indian social occasions, dance plays a very crucial role. Whether it is a wedding or a community event or a party, great importance is given to the ball-dance, to the presence of an orchestra and the ambience of the dance floor. This expression of community spirit through dance is but a small fraction of the larger sense of gaiety, camaraderie and joyfulness that the Anglo-Indian community stands for – they are a colorful and proud people who trace their traditions to hundreds of years of the interaction between European and Indian civilizations.

My first interaction with Anglo-Indians was through my primary school teachers most of whom were Anglo-Indian women: the images of Mrs. Grant, Ms. Tina, Mrs. Johnston and Mrs. Devotta can never be forgotten for their dedication to the children whom they had under their care. One of the myths that is propagated about Anglo-Indians is that they are more European than Indian. Many have missed out the hyphenated identity “Anglo(-)Indian.” As a result of a lack of acceptance in mainstream Indian society and appropriate employment opportunities, there has been a mass migration of Anglo-Indians to places as far as Australia, Canada, England and the USA.

The history of the Anglo-Indian community is a testimony to the struggle of a sub-minority within India’s evolution as a post-colonial nation-state [Article 366(2) : Constitution of India]. While it is true that the earliest Anglo-Indian families were the by product of relationships between Europeans and Indians, the community has come a long way since. It is characteristically Indian in several ways while retaining some cultural traditions of yore. Most Anglo-Indian communities, it is famously known, lived near railway cantonments where many of them worked as engine drivers.

Again, sports like hockey, football etc had good Anglo-Indian representation. In many ways, Anglo-Indians were the backbone of the Indian educational system in the form of committed and strong educationists and teachers.

The Indian Constitution guarantees their right to retain English as their medium of instruction. Further, both the Lok Sabha and the State assemblies have place for nominated seats for the Anglos [Article 334]. With a dwindling population (almost like the Parsis), the Anglo-Indians struggle to retain their firmament in Indian society and not get completely marginalized or non-existent. A remarkable feature about the Anglo-Indians is their open-mindedness as a people, one dimension being several inter-marriages with other castes and communities in Indian society. Among the most famous Anglo-Indians of post-independent India was Frank Anthony, a Supreme Court lawyer (also a member of the Constituent Assembly) who represented Mrs. Indira Gandhi during most of her trials and tribulations. Other prominent Anglos on the national scene were/are A.E.T. Barrow (educationist and brain behind the ICSE board of education), Lt. Gen Henderson-Brook (who prepared a classified report on the Oct-Nov 1962 debacle), Roger Binny (cricketer), Diana Hayden (former Miss India), Leslie Claudius (hockey legend) and Ruskin Bond(writer).

Anglos in the wind is the name of a magazine edited by Harry MacLure whoalso led the organizational effort of the Hockey event. Being in the midst of the Anglos at The Grand Hockey Dinner Dance was a poignant experience.

Not only were there representatives of the community from places overseas mentioned above, there were Anglo-Indians from all over India at the dance, as it was an extension of the tournament. Many would have heard of the ‘Bow Barracks’ of Kolkata, an Anglo-Indian synonym for a place. Nowhere else have I seen the aged 50/60 and above take to the dance floor with such an enthusiasm and sustain it over long hours. Young and old were at it into the wee hours of the night.

Wishing that the moments with the Anglos on a Chennai Saturday night would last longer, not to miss their love of dance, I was reminded of the album Saturday Night Fever by the Bee Gees (1977). The following lines from that album were evocative:
“Here I am
Prayin’ for this moment to last
Livin’ on the music so fine
Born on the Wind
Making it mine “

What I was grateful to Richard for inviting me to the Grand Dance was that it gave me an opportunity to join one segment of India in its celebration of the nation. This is a beautiful community and that came across at The Grand Hockey Dinner Dance.

Chak De, Anglos !
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References:

1. Frank Anthony, Britain’s Betrayal in India: The Story of the Anglo-Indian Community (Paperback, 2007);
2. Hostages to India: or The Life Story of the Anglo Indian Race : by Herbert Alick Stark
3. These are the Anglo-Indians: James Reginald Maher
4. Bow Barracks Forever is a 2004 Indian film directed by Anjan Dutt (the real life story of a tiny but resolute Anglo Indian community right in the heart of bustling north Kolkata)

On the occasion of Republic Day this year, it is important to recall that this day in 1950 we gave to ourselves our Constitution.

The Constitution of India is the most sacred and central legal document. It is on the basis of this document that many other laws are derived and that we learn to uphold the ‘rule of law’ in a democracy under all circumstances.

Critics of our Constitution have been silenced as the document has shown its strength and mettle for more than 60 years. This just goes to show that it is critical to salute and reaffirm our faith in the Constitution because around us in South Asia and other parts of the world we see ‘failed’ if not ‘almost-failed’ states where the rule of law has broken down and anarchy prevails. Again, in the media when there are references made to ‘banana republics’ it’s a vicarious reminder to the achievement of our founding fathers in consolidating the ‘rule of law’ and state in India in what they envisioned would befit generations of Indians to come.

The history of the forming of this Constitution goes back to several decades of legal debates under British rule. The defining debate and draft was the Government of India Act of 1935 which functioned as the backbone of the later-to-be Constitution of India. With the Constituent Assembly in place, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar was appointed the chairman of the drafting committee of the Constitution.

In the transition between colonial rule and freedom, our leaders showed a remarkably global outlook in learning from the political and constitutional experiences of other countries and this has stood us in remarkably good stead. Some highlights of the borrowings for our Constitution are as follows:

Chapter on Fundamental Rights in the Indian Constitution [Part III] which are enforceable if a citizens rights has been infringed by any action of the State : modeled on the American Constitution notably the American Bill of Rights (contained in the first Ten Amendments to the Constitution of USA).

Parliamentary System of Government which is based on that of Britain [Part V]: The system has three main institutions, the Parliament, the Executive and Judiciary each with their roles and responsibilities cut out for them. This was adopted because our leaders had some experience with this system during years of British rule.

Directive Principles of State Policy based on that of Ireland (Eire )[Part IV] : These are broad guidelines of action for the state and society in India but they are not enforceable in a court of law. Despite this, these principles are considered fundamental to the governance of the country and achieving social and economic justice in Indian society.

Emergency Provisions based on that of the German Reich [Part XVIII] : clause 48 of the Weimar Constitution.

It was a continuing testimony to the Indian historical experience, even post-independence, that we have never been an insular people. East or West, what would work is what needed to be retained, borrowed and built upon into the fabric of our national life. The members of the Constituent Assembly showed tremendous acumen and foresight in the melee that was partition and the transfer of power. I suppose this is why in all the countries mentioned above and other like-minded ones continuing generations refer to the ‘wisdom’ and ‘sagacity’ of the ‘founding fathers’. Cheers to them !!!

I write this post with an acute sense of anguish and helplessness. I was trying to cross the road the other day and preferred to take the zebra crossing at the end of the road. Dutifully, I started walking when the light turned green and to the utter shock of my life one motorcyclist whizzed past, jumped the red light at the signal and would have almost hit me had I not ducked him and his bike. What do you do when fellow-citizens mistake the regular main roads or high streets as grand prix racetracks? Several stories abound like this: it’s a miracle that the accident rate is where it is (i.e. not higher) in our cities.

 
Our citizens are now delighted that the vehicles available for sale in the Indian market and visible on the roads have long passed the old models of cars and bikes of the pre-Maruti era. Now everything that we own that moves is besides being a mode of transport also a personality statement. Along with globalization and increased business, we now have many more commercial vehicles plying our roads. What does this mean? Less space on our old roads and almost no footpaths. Few reworked roads have become expressways and flyovers. By and large the new volume of traffic is still operating within the older confines. The poor public transport system has also led to a steep increase in the number of privately owned vehicles. One would think that this would result in a greater sensitivity and alertness on the part of our citizens to manage road space in a careful and responsible manner.

Cut to the chase. Here begins the blame game. The motorcyclist blames the car-driver for chaos, the car-drivers blame the auto-rickshaws, the latter blames the motorcyclist and they all take turns in blaming the big lorries, buses, trailers and we cannot omit the cyclist who launches into a break dance in the midst of all this. Our commandos can learn a trick or two from our motorists: the calm of a main road can be shaken with a screeching halt of a vehicle because of a surprising intruder from a side-lane. What happens to our people when they sit behind a wheel or are at the helm of a bike defeats my understanding. There is a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde problem there. The feel of the wheel and the roar of the engine transform an otherwise well-meaning citizen into a sort of ‘beast’ almost who terrifies all on the road. Again, there is some confusion in the minds of our citizens if repeated collective honking qualifies for the symphony of some orchestra or pure cacophony that pierces and hurts our ear-drums. That kind of noise-pollution does add to our stress levels. So, our be-good, do-good vehicle rider has to have eyes in the front, back and the sides of his head. Whoever said, we needed to be trained to multi-task. Anyone who has driven on our roads and followed the rules knows what that means.

There are a couple of other players whom we cannot omit in all this. The pedestrian! Those who have travelled abroad have seen the streets of Europe and Singapore where every pedestrian crossing is activated with the help of a switch enabling pedestrians to move across smoothly. In India on the contrary, struggling with kids and even grandparents, there is the other type of pedestrian who choses to exhibit what a dreamer he is. These pedestrians are the ones with complete disregard for vehicles moving on the road, jaywalking anywhere and everywhere, putting the vehicles and themselves at great risk! Then of course, is the contribution of telecommunications to road risk in the form of the omnipresent mobile phone and single-handed driving, again putting several people at risk. The best part of all the above is if anyone in his (in)sane mind choses to correct the other party, there would be a slew of abuse, interestingly and obviously by the wrong-doer. This abuse by the party making the mistake is clearly a defense-mechanism to cover up his/her error. Immediately, peace-loving citizens try to play down the incident for the sheer fear of it becoming a full-blown case of road rage in which they would not even want to be involved as witnesses. Several have been the cases reported of arguments between motorists becoming cases of road rage and turning fully violent with sad consequences. How often would we also have not noticed the haywire movement of vehicles coming in from the opposite direction not being given a margin of space to move forward resulting in a stalemate or a complete jam?

How can I omit the other culprit? Vehicle exhaust. The famed emitter of fumes, carbon-dioxide/CFC’s, keeping our doctors on their toes and resulting in loss of health to individuals and man-hours to our organizations. I am very allergic to these fumes and if I happen to inhale them at any point, it takes me 2-3 days to recover. What in the name of the Lord makes the owners of these vehicles think they can get away playing with the health of their fellow-citizens without paying a penalty beats my imagination! One has been given to understand that in certain countries there is a fine of more than a thousand USD to ensure that the person gets his vehicle in order and does not repeat such behavior. Some point to the poor enforcement of traffic rules and corruption that prevails in certain quarters that makes public safety and health a casualty.

In the middle of all this, is the spectacle of our population who use the roadsides as public washrooms, throw rubbish all over the place and finally spit anytime anyplace.

I recollect the title of a nice book “All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten” (by Robert Fulghum). An important point: that’s where our earliest lessons on how to use the road were taught to us. In those textbooks in primary schools, there were the instructions and diagrams on how to cross, how to treat a traffic signal etc. If we followed those instructions today, we would be in great difficulty(?!!) My friends are amused to no end when I say that when I take the first step to cross a road, I look both ways. For you can no longer assume on our streets and roads what the lanes indicate and what the behaviour of the motorist is! It seems all are culpable and all are in a state of denial. Speaking of traffic-signals, the erratic nature of their functioning in several places leaves much to improve upon. I have often wondered why at some very critical junctions and points there is neither the traffic signal functioning nor anyone manning that point. Utter chaos prevails in such places! Truly as believing people, we, Indians have the hand of God helping us. :)  Given such a context that I have attempted to describe in this brief contribution, it should be no surprise to us that our main roads are full of long and winding traffic jams delaying the movement of people. Just saying that the state of affairs of road behaviour in one city is better than another does not condone us; likewise comparisons between developing countries where unplanned urbanization has also taken its toll also does not help us.

Our homes are our private spaces. Once we step out into the streets, roads and expressways then we are onto what are known as public places or what we can also call national spaces. As an extension, if one were to see that public place also as national space, we do great injustice and unfairness to how we should conduct ourselves in these places/spaces. We take pride in propping up statues of our yesteryear leaders along all these roads. For a minute, if one were to imagine that they were looking down and observing as to what was happening on our roads, they would be very saddened. For this was not the nation for whose freedom they fought for. Everyone today wants to get to their destinations in the fastest manner possible even if it is reckless and even if it is at the cost of God forbid, the life of a fellow-citizen. The value of life has thus diminished. That is not the value-system our forebears bequeathed us. In sum, the meaning of responsible conduct on our roads would go a long way in establishing a life-enhancing, less-stressful and clearly a healthier society.

The future belongs to science and those who make friends with science.
- Jawaharlal Nehru

Nehru’s birthday, November 14, as we all know, is celebrated as Children’s Day every year in India. On this occasion, it is appropriate to pay tribute to a formative leader of India who illuminated a lot during his lifetime and beyond. Through his intellectual legacy, he continues until this day to guide India on the path of liberal democracy. His vision of India was that of a secular and modern nation. A flamboyant personality and yet a clear thinker, he held his own during much of the freedom struggle.

Nehru led from the front, expressing his positions during the course of various constitutional, political and other debates in the colonial period thereby indelibly stamping free India-to-come with his vision. He became India’s first Prime Minister and held that post for almost 17 years. He has been described severally as architect of modern India, world statesman and great administrator.

In the days that freedom fighters were incarcerated, many of them took to writing. Nehru showed his capacity as a historian of the first order, even though his own first degree at Trinity College, Cambridge, England was in the natural sciences. The strength of his scholarship lingers on in the form of the ‘Discovery of India’, ‘Glimpses of World History’ and ‘An Autobiography.’ It is difficult to condense the thought of such a complex body of work in such a short space. In this post, I choose to focus on the concept of “scientific temper” that was very dear to Nehru. He considered science to be rational, universal and inspired by the eighteenth-century European Enlightenment.

This was not to be mistaken with scientific expertise or building resources in science and technology, the latter having been pursued in different ways. For Nehru, who was an agnostic, science had multiple functions to perform: not only was it an instrument to solve the economic problems of a developing society like ours, it also had to make India a strong and self-reliant country with scientists competent to hold their own in the world scientific community. Part of this policy was the building of top-notch scientific educational and research institutions that Nehru promoted like the IIT’s, CSIR, ICMR, ICAR,  and, aided by business houses, institutions like the IISc and the TIFR.

While many celebrate the fact today that its India’s large pool of managerial and scientific manpower that is winning accolades worldwide and also bringing in the moolah, very few acknowledge that it was Nehru’s educational and scientific policies that made possible such an achievement including the Indian “IT revolution” [R. Guha, p. 1962]. That makes him a great visionary who though much derided for his economic policies could peep into the future and build the foundation for the Knowledge-based Economy (KBE) that we are all busy celebrating as the current and future source of wealth-generation.

What was important to Nehru was not just the change in the mere economic status of his country but also a change in the attitudes or the narrow-mindedness of its citizens. He said, “It is science alone that can solve the problems of hunger and poverty, of insanitation and illiteracy, of superstition and deadening custom and tradition, of vast resources running to waste, of a rich country inhabited by starving people. . . . Who indeed could afford to ignore science today? At every turn we have to seek its aid.”

But what did he mean by scientific temper? Srirupa Roy in her book “Beyond belief: India and the politics of postcolonial nationalism” notes that Nehru’s emphasis on the need for scientific temper predated independence (p.123). The features of scientific temper were mainly two-fold as Roy elaborates:

1. Scientific temper referred to a mentality or an outlook rather than a specialized body of knowledge. It addressed itself to universalist concerns of “values of life” rather than to narrow and specialized questions of scientific research and application (Roy, p.124)

2. Unlike scientific expertise alone, the project of scientific temper was a call for the diffusion of “science mindedness” throughout the population. The growth of scientific temper was measured by the extent to which ordinary people were using the methods of science to life’s problems (Roy, p.125)

Clearly what the above meant was that science would not just play a role in building scientific expertise but also help reject superstition, prejudice and injustice As Prof. Yashpal has noted, “science will also have to come forward in changing our thoughts and eradicating various social evils, including casteism, extremism…”(Times of India, 16th May 2005). India, in Nehru’s vision, could become a great country if the people adopted such a ‘scientific temper.’ Nehru pointed to the contradictions in the lives of scientists themselves who uphold science in the laboratories but discard science in everything else they do in their life.

Beyond Nehru’s lifetime, the propagation of the concept of ‘scientific temper’ was negligible and became reduced to a debate among intellectuals of various hues. As part of the 42nd amendment to the Indian Constitution in 1976, ‘scientific temper’ joined the list of Fundamental Duties of every Indian citizen vide Part IV-A, Article 51-A (h): ‘to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform.’

A group of intellectuals led by P. N. Haksar released a “Statement on Scientific Temper” in October 1980. It has on and off been noticed at the highest levels of governance as a concept bearing great transformative potential. In his first Independence Day address to the nation from the Red Fort in 2004, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also called for the promotion of scientific temper, which he added must become a “national movement” and not a prisoner of bureaucracy or ideology.

A full and proper assessment of the impact of ‘scientific temper’ in the 62 years since independence is yet to be made. There is countervailing data that superstition, occult, irrationality, prejudice, gender inequality and injustices are very resilient in Indian private and public life, in other words, the idea of ‘scientific temper’ has not sufficiently penetrated Indian society. These days, because of the electronic media, news travels faster and there is greater awareness of these issues. A positive fallout of such media analysis and debates might be greater skepticism of superstitions and their peddlers. A moot point for research could be the ways in which the concept has panned out in the context of urbanization.

In the final analysis, to do justice to Nehru’s vision for India, ‘scientific temper could be a useful concept in ‘deschooling’ our society from received wisdom about obscurantist and superstitious practices that it is led to believe is in its interest. Scientific temper has to be an essential component of the socialization of our populace and needs to be promoted as an integral approach to nation-building. If that succeeds, then there can be no greater tribute to Jawaharlal Nehru and the millions of children who form the destiny of our nation.

References:

1. R. Guha, ‘Verdicts on Nehru’, Economic and Political Weekly, May 7, 2005.
2. Srirupa Roy, “Beyond belief: India and the politics of postcolonial nationalism”(Duke University Press, USA: 2007).

***An important recent contribution to the discussion on scientific temper is Prof. Amartya Sen’s The Argumentative Indian : Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity (Penguin, 2006).
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“Generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe that such one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth ! “ – Albert Einstein (referring to Mahatma Gandhi).

Recently the President of the US was asked as to if he preferred any personality dead or alive with whom he would like to have dinner with, whom would it be? Barack Obama unhesitatingly replied, “Mahatma Gandhi,” whom he considered a real hero. The legend lives on beyond the shores of India. He is the ‘Father of the Nation’ here, crucially remembered for having led the freedom movement against colonial rule. Besides that, there have been several facets of the Mahatma’s thinking and practice that have generated debate over the decades.

The front pages of the newspapers over the last few weeks centre around the concern of world leaders over climate change and the alert that has been sounded that there is not much time to redress the natural imbalance. Tsumani (warnings), earthquakes, floods, greenhouse effects have all become the order of the day. Unbridled consumption of energy and continued depletion of nature in various forms is a grim reminder as to the limits as to how much we can exploit natural resources in our march towards industrialization and urbanization.

While Mahatma Gandhi’s economic philosophy and village model might have been difficult to implement, the broad tenets of his advice on moderation in our consumption and patterns seem to be finding more takers today. Suddenly, everybody is busy finding alternate sources of energy (wind, solar etc) and methods like organic farming.

The pace at which post-independence Indian economic planning and implementation probably called for ‘big dam’ methods of development but now there is room to pause and think of how we plan to move ahead. Environmental movements around the country today are a pointer to what Gandhi had said about our way forward at that time itself. We are severely affected by drought in several districts and starvation-deaths among farmers. How can we be at ease until those who work to fill our national granaries are not assured of two square meals a day? Gandhi used to say that God smiles in the face of the poor and until we can address that all-round grim poverty by a combination of methods the nation cannot be at peace. As he is known to have said, ‘there is enough in this world for everybody’s need but not for everybody’s greed.’

Related to technology for economic development is also the major concern about technology for warfare, In one form or the other, whether it is about nuclear treaties or atomic tests or related debates, at a global level the debate around advanced technology for warfare is getting embedded in the popular imagination. It is known to have been said that the third world war would be fought with sticks and stones. The Mahatma abhorred all forms of violence. The sophistication and bedazzlement of the weaponnry used in conflict zones in the world is something to watch with distress but it is also equally sad to see the number of innocent civilian casualties that are the outcome of the use of such weapons. For a strong believer in non-violence like Mahatma Gandhi, the (unfortunate) proliferation and sophistication of any form of weapons would have been an anathema to him. He would have wept at such insensible development of weapons of any kind. Technology is indeed a double-edged sword. If we are indeed true admirers of Mahatma we cannot leave this facet of the new millennium unaddressed.

Mahatma Gandhi was the true champion of a plural society and diversity in India. Wherever there was communal violence, he campaigned hard to stop it and showed the way forward for amity. He was backed by several able leaders of the freedom movement. In this effort as in all his endeavors, he had critics all along but that did not discourage him from pursuing what he did through numerous marches, fasts and speeches to the people. He replied to this critics, ‘An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind.‘ All in all, he emerged as a powerful symbol of co-existence, tolerance, spirituality, peace and love that shines and is powerful till this day.

Be it on questions of ecology or concerns of technology or national unity, Mahatma Gandhi emerged as a world figure of some importance that numerous later legends claimed inspiration like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, Jr., to name a few. Satyagraha or the struggle for truth or non-violent resistance became a global catchword among many fighting for injustice. That the first couple of decades of this non-violent movement were tested in the colonial waters of South Africa, beyond India, gave it even more strength.

Different sections of Indian and global society would continue to draw different messages from Gandhi’s life and message. The core values however when addressed to the changing forms of material and cultural existence of every epoch would still find relevance as for example today it is regarding environmental balance, positive use of  technology and communal harmony. The message to get across to the succeeding generations is that the Mahatma’s life was something beyond just the struggle for freedom. It was about the moral fibre of the individual and the nation in the march towards its destiny. Any attempt to become a superpower would have to take into account that the nation-state is anchored in the moral message of the Mahatma and its other founding fathers.