IF WE KNEW HOW TO HATE

RAMESHCHANDRA MUKHOPADHYAYA



The world suffers more from love than from hatred. See --to love is
the ploy of the weak to outwit the strong and to out wit those who are
in power.Christ the prophet of love came upon the scene when the Jews
were tied to the chariotwheels of Roman empire.How could you pick up
arms against the almighty Romans?The Romans were almighty because the
Jewish elite were but the agents of the Roman masters.And it were the
Jewish elite who posited that Christ’s kingdom of heaven was a
challenge flung at the Roman empire.Gandhi knew that one could not
resist the Britishers with arms . Hence he also preached nonviolence
and love . Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also appeared in the days of Islamic
reign. The weak Hindus could not fight Islam. Hence the Hindus
preached love through Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.We have not seen any one
who is in power and who preaches love Gandhi style.When Gorbachov came
to power and preached love he was thrown out of power .We have not
seen Gandhi to rule. Of course he was so strict in his preachings of
love and nonviolence that he would not allow any dissenting voice in
his party .When Subhas resigned the Congress Presidentship only
because of Gandhis noncooperation they raised the slogan Gandhi Hitler
Long Live at the Congress Bhavan..Gandhi admitted of violence only
during the 1942 movement. It was a spontaneous uprising against the
British almost all over India . The falcon did not hear the falconer.
The Congress leaders ,most of them were in Jail. The Chauri chaura
incident where people spontaneously took to violence was condemned by
Gandhi . Because it was a local uprise. But when the uprising became
widespread it was not practical to condemn violence . However with the
1942 insurrection Gandhi lost his control over Congress. Of course, he
remained the Father of the nation But his will no longer remained the
law. Let us now see what great losses the nation incurred through his
love and nonviolence.Nationalism is an alien concept like Marxism or
capitalism imported to India . It is like Coca Cola an American
product. Nationalism implies one nation one state. President Wilson
preached one nation one state.presently after the First Great War. But
it was not practicable. There was no one criterion for a people to
become a nation. May be people belonging to same language might make a
nation. People belonging to same religion might make a nation. And one
set intersects with another. We Bengali people are not one nation. And
so on.India has several language speaking and several
religionpreaching people and still it is a nation . So is America and
so is England. So ,true that one nation one state theory is discarded.
Every political unit called so called sovereign state tries to impose
upon its various kinds of people the notion of a nation. Thus one
nation one state theory of President Wilson has been reversed and
today one state one nation is being preached In the case of India;
this was more or less achieved under the leadership of Gandhi. Before
the advent of Gandhi people from different parts of the country and
different walks of the people never united themselves against the
British Raj.The extremsists among the Indian nationalists always claim
that India was a nation since time immemorial.True that the concept of
India is as old as the Mahabharatas or even before that. But that does
not mean that India was a nation since the days of the Mahabharata.
Because the word nation for all practical purposes implies one
political unit .India was never a nation in that sense before the
Indian National Congress came upon the scene Here Indian history could
be compared with that of China. The China we know today was more or
less the same as a political unit since the Han rule that dates back
to befoe Christ. Foreign invasions disrupted the unity of China for
five or six hundred years But later during the Tang period China
became once again united .It was say seventh century AD. But this was
not the case with ancient India.And it was the decadent ancient India
that invited Islam to India.Sangram Singha who is acclaimed to be the
hero of Hindu patriotism was responsible for initial victories of
Babar. Be that as it may a large part of India was united only under
Muslim rule. And it was under the British that the whole of India came
under one political aegis.While Bhakti movement could not liberate
India from the Islamic rule the bhakti movement with a tilt under
Gandhijis leadership could help the Indians to unite against the
British rule.Yes Gandhis was a kind of Bhakti movement. True that the
bhakti movement took off in the South with the alwars at its fountain
head. When it expressed itself through Guru Nanak or Chaitanyadeva it
embraced every caste and creed and followers every religion.Gandhijis
prayers were addressed to any God and every God whatever and defined
Truth as God. The truth he pursued was the truths of political
necessities of the contingent for the people of India. Thus he led the
people of India first time united under his leadership to freedom. In
a sense he was a bodhisattva. A bodhisattva does not seek his
salvation . He seeks the salvation of every thing under the sun.There
has been a dispute regarding whether the law is the command of the
sovereign or not.Gandhi the Bodhisattva proved that law is not the
command of the sovereign. Law exists as long as the people observe.it.
Gandhi through his noncooperation movement largely proved that if the
people donot obey the law law is not there and the sovereign who is
apparently the guardian of law becomes superfluous. But by way of
preaching nonviolence love and noncooperation he caused immense damage
to India.During the first Great War Indias economy was at per with
the economy of any country in the West. The boycott movement that
started with the partition of Bengal Movement was sponsored by Gandhi
on a large scale with love. And noncooperation movement shattered the
production system of a strong economy. This is not all . It made the
people indisciplined. Thus todays developing economy and the
countrywide indiscipline are the legacy of Gandhism which is all
karuna love and the urge for truth or Satyagraha.The legitimation here
however is not that violence was preferable to nonviolence in the
context of Indias freedom struggle. In fact freedom struggles are
already dated. Think of Japan. Two of its major cities were turned
into ashes. Japan accepted the reality without a demur the way they
accepted the offers of Conmmodore Perry without any demur.Japan
focused itself on economic development and in the capitalist society
today no one can keep the rich in shackles.Japan is a world power now
although she doesnot display her military might. Similarly if Indians
had not paid heed to the freedom movement and if they had plunged into
economic activities with gusto the already strong economy of India
during the First Great War would be as strong as any economic power of
the world today And who could then bully India today in that case.I
donot say hereby that Gandhi was a real misfortune in the Indian
context. With Gandhi Truth is God .But he never ended his experiments
with Truth.So Truth with him was the truth of the contingent. He was a
pragmatist. True pragmatism has caused a lot of damage to the world
and civilization . Science is pragmatist and it not only helped the
explosion of two great wars , right now it is causing disasters
through generating consumerism. But as long as you do not get at any
absolute truth you have to be a pragmatist---a scientist like a
Gandhian or a Gandhian like Science. The urge for truth however is
supposed to dispel personal desires that might cloud the truth.Gandhi
however characterized his scientific approach with nonviolence.But
nonviolence is not possible unless it acknowledges the fact that
violence is at the root of the world of appearance.The world of
appearance is the synonym of a world of forms. Forms exist through
differences among them. And differences make love and hatred
possible.between two or more forms.Love is a kind of violence.It
bullies the object of love into slavery. And one who makes a slave of
another is himself transformed into a slave. Suppose you have twelve
servants in your house and your whole day is spent in running after
the twelve servants, yourself being the servant of your servants. That
is the attribute of Lord Visnu. It is said that he is the servant of a
devotee. No human being could be like Visnu, To become the servant of
a servant is a Herculean feat.And love for us limits both the lover
and the beloved. Two lovers are like two spent swimmers clinging to
one another to be drowned in the Tiber.In fact Gandhis true
contribution to human thought is not the received interpretation of
his satyagraha or non violence. His satyagraha wanted that every
family should live in peace and every village should be more or less
self supporting. If dishonesty stealing cheating could be driven away
from every village community no foreigner could bully them Yes I am so
fond of thinking that he was absolutely right. But so many primitive
societies even today are naïve and live in perfect peace when they are
left to themselves . But the onslaughts of civilization will not let
them livr in peace. A half naked Maori with a Coca cola only reveals
the true shape of things. Despite that Gandhis stand that the state
should have minimum power and that the true development means the
development of the villages in their elements with me is as true as
the words of the Vedas. I am all for Prince Kropotkin, the anarchists
Tolstoy Gandhi and the Vedanta. I look forward to a world where love
is itself the law and where the law itself will be love, where men
will delight only in lawful things. I am being carried away by words.
True. man might love each other to multiply and survive. But what
happens if man loves every animal and plant. Then we have no other
alternative to think that Nature out of her own bounty will feed
animals. Or else the whole humanity will have to starve to death by
choice just as Vinoba Bhave did or Jain Sadhus are wont to do. May God
give us the strength to die . Of course death is preferable to doing
harm to others despite yourself. If you say- that way human race will
be wiped off from the face of the earth, so what?And if then another
nuclear warfare destroys mankind it is all the same. Only thing is
that if you starve to death on your own you have to take initiative.
Why take that hardship. Better a third world war. You die in comfort
without taking any initiative to die. Hurrah Let us bless science and
technology with all our heart. Death instinct is in the fore of the
collective mind and the world teeming with warheads do not scare us.
The greatest modern English poet TS Eliot has already announced that
we are stuffed men and we are hollow men living and half living. Let
us set aside these fruitless speculations. That which is not does not
exist. The third Great War is not there yet. So it has no existence .
So why ponder over that. Be an optimist. Think of bettering the world
you inhabit. But don’t say love can achieve the object. Earlier it
were the tool of the poor. But right now the rich and the powerful
also have learnt the language of love. The state often lets lose
terrorism only out of love. Ask every man in power. His heart is
always overflowing with the milk of humanity. And he everyday kills
his children flinging their heads at the marble floor. Hence the real
disease from which the world suffers is love. If each one of us were a
little more arrogant and if each one of us were born to hate each
other the shape of things could have been different. If the father in
law of my brother-in-law happens to be a GM with the Union carbide I
lie down in his feet in awe and respect. Do n’t you think that to
become a manager with the Union Carbide speaks of great leadership
skill? But if I knew how to spit at him when he visits my house
because he has killed thousands of men in Bhopal the world would have
been a better place. We saw Tata bragging, when thousands of farmers
at Singur were bleeding.. If we knew how to hate Tata, if hundred
crores of Indians spit at him and at his name where ever it is found
the world could be a better place. Oh! God we are tired of love , give
us the strength to hate. The world is in dire need of hatred.