The experiences bestowed by Kanchi-Mahaswami — Part 17 : Don’t allow the Freedom Spirit(flame) to get doused
(A humble translation of the original article by Sri S.Gurumurthy , as it had appeared in Thuglak Tamil Magazine) —
https://www.thuglak.com/thuglak/main.php?x=curissue/ninaithu_paarkiraen_23_12_2020.php
The very first objective of the resistance movement (against the state of emergency) was to remove the fear in people that was created by the state’s violent acts. And, the only way was to meet those people, who were living in fear and reinforce the belief that the lost freedom can be restored. During emergency, public gatherings were not allowed, cannot talk about fundamental rights, cannot criticize the govt, ruling party and cannot discuss about prevailing political situation. Therefore, we conceived a tricky plan.
From 15th Aug 1975, in alliance with Vidyarthi Parishad, we conducted lectures on important personalities — Vivekananda, Gandhi, Aurabindo, Tilak, thiru.vi.Kalyanasundaram, Bharathi, V.O.Chidambaram pillai. 75–80 people were coming for each lecture. It was a big crowd in those tough times. The objective of that gathering was not to praise about them (who had not sought any fame in their lifetime), but to talk about their efforts in the freedom movement and importance of freedom to the people.
Intelligence bureau was monitoring our lecture series. I gave the first lecture of the series and the topic was “Swami Vivekandanda’s vision”. I was elaborating, how Swamiji was motivating us in the freedom struggle. Suddenly, I got emotional and talked about the prevailing condition in the country. Then, I was reminded by the convener of the lecture, K.S.Nagarajan (DB Jain college principal) about the presence of IB. Old freedom fighters K.Santhanam, N.S.Varadachariar had participated in the lecture series.
Calm before the Storm
Between Nov 75–26th Jan 1976, 70,000 members who had participated in Satyagraha were arrested. On 1st Feb 1976, DMK govt was dismissed. Strict emergency measures were enforced in TN. Then, we slowed down in our campaign. Commoners were participating in the satyagraha. It was not like today’s struggle, where one get arrested & released in the same day. No one knows, when they would get released. From Nov 75 — Jun 76, we were involved in raising funds to support the family of those who were arrested under draconian MISA and consoling the family members.
Govt had put restrictions on the print media from publishing the real news. Print media did not publish anything related to Satyagraha. But RSS volunteers were secretly propagating the details to crores of people. They were in constant conversation with the public and informed about the excesses of the govt. Though a false calm in the country was perceived, a secret storm was brewing. Had the print media published the reality then the govt would have come to know about people’s views. We felt the unyielding anger among public and wanted to channelize in a sattwic way. Only choice was the parliamentary elections.
The Loksabha’s term that was supposed to end in 1976 was extended by one more year by Indira through a constitutional amendment. How can we endure this for one more year? What happens, if Indira refused to conduct the elections? Meanwhile, including my friend Gopalan, arrested Satyagrahis were released in mid 1976. There was a slack in the struggle against the state of emergency. We were contemplating on the next move.
The Lioness that returned from Pune
Krishnabai Nimbkar, who was a native of chennai and became pune resident (after marriage) came back to Chennai to encourage the work against emergency. The Lioness was a freedom fighter too. RSS had requested to return to chennai and meet the prominent people in the public space. She was aged 70. Krishnabai, who was living comfortably in pune, came and stayed with my joint family in the cramped quarters, since the organization was not in a position to support her financially. She was staying with us for many days. We were sharing a common toilet. She was staying in the 2nd floor 6x6 room. Due to low ceiling, it did not have a fan. In spite of all those difficulties, she continued to stay with us for many days. She was constantly guiding my young naive wife. We cannot forget her. She was continuously working in the day & night and left us wondering. One of our team members , lawyer Sankaranarayanan mentioned that we cannot match her pace (Now, Sankaranarayanan is the additional solicitor general in Chennai high court).
Krishnabai convened many meetings with prominent citizens. She resuscitated JP’s organization, “Citizens for Democracy” and held the meetings under that banner. Our first meeting was at Mylapore Srinivasa Shastri’s hall. The hall was overflowing. Krishnabai spoke in that meeting. After seeing the participation, we gained in confidence to conduct a bigger meeting. Till then, we were conducting smaller meetings and started planning for a bigger one. Thanks to Krishnabai for the contacts, we were able to leverage them.
Confidence boosting Conference
This was our plan; We were planning to conduct conference on fundamental rights. Through constitutional amendment, Indira had made the state of emergency a permanent one. Hence, we thought that the restoration of those rights could be a starting point. Laws were amended to enable her continue in the post forever (Those horrible amendments were cancelled by Janata party govt and ensured that they will not get repeated in the future). The purpose of our meeting was to explain the constitutional amendments that empowered Indira to become an authoritarian. We met Constituent assembly member K.Santhanam, Cho & Ira.Chezhian and explained the purpose behind the meeting. They encouraged us. Former Supreme court judge K.S.Hegde had agreed to be the chief guest. It was a huge boost to us. Our plan was to put him with Cho & Chezhian on the stage. But, we ran short of funds — rent for the meeting place, poster, travel allowance for the visitors, lodging expenses etc. We were left to beg to manage all these expenses.
Questions were raised about the feasibility of conducting the meeting & obtaining police permission. Since, our meeting topic was about the fundamental rights, there was a very good chance of all of us getting arrested. The R.R.Sabha administrators, where the meeting was planned, were threatened by the police. They were in a dilemma. With the help of “Citizens for Democracy” coordinator Sankaranarayanan, we filed for police permission. Police was threatening us to withdraw the application.
On the other hand, we were not sure about the methods to inform public about the meeting. On two consecutive nights, we cycled and pasted posters at important places in chennai. Most of them were torn by police. Despite all the hurdles, the conference was a huge success. We were confident of the success of the conference due to the presence of the quality speakers — particularly Cho. Since Cho was not speaking in any public forum for one year, we had calculated that public would surge to listen to his. Our plan did not fail us. Until 5 minutes before the start of the conference, only 20–30 listeners were there. We were all confused.
Police had threaten us and told to drop the meeting plan. We kept quiet. By that time Cho’s car came and he alighted out, like in the movie halls, hundreds of people had entered the hall in a roaring manner. Hall was full and crowd thronged the streets. Police kept quiet. Tears were flowing out of our eyes, due to ecstasy. Cho was everyone’s hero. RSS volunteer sang the patriotic song on Bharata Matha and all stood up voluntarily. Even today, we were flooded with those images.
Do not allow the freedom flame to get doused
On the eve of conference, we were discussing on the resolutions that need to be passed. Freedom fighter K.Santhanam had given a paper on regional autonomy. Ira.Chezhian had accepted it. But Cho was vehemently opposing it and said that the only resolution was to remove the state of emergency clamped down by Indira’s govt. Slowly, we were able to buy in his vision after realizing the separatist nature of regional autonomy which would threaten country’s unity. When we explained Cho’s stance to Ira.Chezhian, he too concurred and accepted it too.
Cho’s vision and Chezhian’s magnanimity were the lessons that we learnt from that episode. All the three speaker spoke beautifully in the conference. When K.S.Hegde explained how Indira soiled the noble constitution through amendments, people were shaken by that. Ira.Chezhian had explained how the congress-only-present parliament had approved the amendments in few minutes. That speech raised an important question, whether it was India’s parliament or Indira’s parliament in people’s mind. Cho’s ridicule of Indira, Congress party and President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed drew huge applause and hip-roaring laughter from the public.
Those three had spoken on matters that was not discussed in the previous one year. People sat in rapt attention for three hours and listened to them. Later, we came to know that no such meeting had taken place elsewhere in the country. Due to paucity of funds, those great speeches were not recorded for posterity. That day’s huge achievement removed our year long tiredness. We started believing that the state of emergency would go away.
In the end, there was an unforgettable experience. After the conference, we met K.S.Hegde in his poonamalli (a place in chennai) hotel room and remarked, “Everywhere there is darkness! When are we going to see the light?”. Then suddenly the power went out in the hotel room. A candle was lit by the hotel employees. Hegde was observing the light and answered back, “Yes, there is darkness everywhere and we are surrounded by it. But this candle’s flame is preventing us from getting subsumed into that. Similarly, we should keep the freedom spirit/flame alive. That is what you folks did today. As long as that spirit stays, the country would not plunge into darkness”.
