W’end Links – Godse, Nataraj and the “Good Doctor”

This weekend, have a read through Godse’s statement that he made in November 1948 as he stood trial for Gandhi’s assasination.

Then, read Shovana Narayan’s essay on evolution of Nataraja…

and finally, a remarkable story of public service – which should be a lesson for all of us.

As usual, Excerpts from the articles below 

*** Excerpts from “May it please Your Honour” ***

“Born in a devotional Brahmin family, I instinctively came to revere Hindu religion, Hindu history and Hindu culture. I had, therefore, been intensely proud of Hinduism as a whole. As I grew up I developed a tendency to free thinking unfettered by any superstitious allegiance to any isms, political or religious. That is why I worked actively for the eradication of untouchability and the caste system based on birth alone. I openly joined anti-caste movements and maintained that all Hindus are of equal status as to rights, social and religious, and should be considered high or low on merit alone and not through the accident of birth in a particular caste or profession.

…We broke the caste rules and dined in the company of each other. I have read the speeches and writings of Dadabhai Naoroji, Vivekanand, Gokhale, Tilak, along with the books of ancient and modern history of India and some prominent countries like England, France, America and Russia. Moreover I studied the tenets of socialism and Marxism. But above all I studied very closely what Veer (brave) Savarkar and Gandhiji had written and spoken, as to my mind these two ideologies have contributed more to the moulding of the thought and action of the Indian people during the last thirty years or so, than any other factor has done.

…Gandhi had done very good work in South Africa to uphold the rights and well being of the Indian community there.

But when he finally returned to India, he developed a subjective mentality under which he alone was to be the final judge of what was right or wrong. If the country wanted his leadership, it had to accept his infallibility; if it did not, he would stand aloof from the Congress and carry on in his own way. Against such an attitude there can be no halfway house. Either Congress had to surrender its will to his and had to be content with playing second fiddle to all his eccentricity, whimsicality, metaphysics and primitive vision, or it had to carry on without him. He alone was the judge of everyone and everything; he was the master brain guiding the Civil Disobedience movement; no other could know the technique of that movement. He alone knew when to begin it and when to withdraw it. The movement might succeed or fail, but that could make no difference to the Mahatma’s infallibility. ‘A Satyagrahi can never fail’ was his formula for his own infallibility and nobody except himself knew what a Satyagrahi is.

Thus the Mahatma became the judge and the jury in his own case. These childish insanities and obstinacies, coupled with a most severe austerity of life, ceaseless work and lofty character made Gandhi formidable and irresistible. Many people thought that his policies were irrational, but they had either to withdraw from the Congress or place their intelligence at his feet to do with as he liked.

…One of the conditions imposed by Gandhi for his breaking of the fast related to the mosques in Delhi occupied by the Hindu refugees. But when Hindus in Pakistan were subjected to violent attacks he did not so much as utter a single word to protest and censure the Pakistan Government or the Muslims concerned. Gandhi was shrewd enough to know that while undertaking a fast unto death, had he imposed some conditions on the Muslims in Pakistan, there would have been found hardly any Muslims who could have shown some grief if the fast had ended in his death. It was for this reason that he purposely avoided imposing any conditions on the Muslims.

He was fully aware from past experience that Jinnah was not at all perturbed or influenced by his fast and the Muslim League hardly attached any value to the inner voice of Gandhi. Gandhi is being referred to as the Father of the Nation. But if that is so, he has failed in his paternal duty inasmuch he has acted very treacherously to the nation by his consenting to the partitioning of it. I stoutly maintain that Gandhi has failed in his duty. He has proved to be the Father of Pakistan. His inner-voice, his spiritual power, his doctrine of non-violence of which so much is made of, all crumbled against Jinnah’s iron will and proved to be powerless…”

*** End of Excerpts ***

I am also including below a comment by VK (to the article)

 Justice Khosla’s observations after retirement are also worth noting. In a pen picture of the Court scene as it then passed before his eyes he has said: “The highlight of the appeal before us was the discourse delivered by Nathuram Godse in his defence. He spoke for several hours, discussing, in the first instance, the facts of the case and then the motive which had prompted him to take Mahatma Gandhi’s life…..

The audience was visibly and audibly moved. There was a deep silence when he ceased speaking. many women were in tears and men coughing and searching for their handkerchiefs. The silence was accentuated and made deeper by the sound an occasional subdued sniff or a muffled cough….

I have however, no doubt that had the audience of that day been constituted into a jury and entrusted with the task of deciding Godse’s appeal, they would have brought in a verdict of ‘not guilty’ by an overwhelming majority.”

May it please your honour, Surya Bharti Prakashan, Delhi, 1994, pp. 24-25   

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*** Excerpts from Evolution of Nataraja ***

…Have we ever given any thought to the evolution of Nataraja imagery? Have we paused to reflect on the regional variations in his name — Nataraja in southern India, Nateshwara, Nritteshwara, Natakeswara and Bhairava Narteshwara in eastern India, Bangladesh and the Far East such as Cambodia and Vietnam? I must confess, ignorance beyond the fact that the seeds of the Nataraja concept lay in Kashmiri Shaivite philosophy.

The waning influence of Buddhism following the Maurya period saw a gradual elevation of Shiva as a prime deity. The concept of Nataraja grew slowly as attributes kept on being added to the concept of Pashupata (from pre-Vedic times). As early as the 4th century BC, he is referred to as Adinatha in Varanasi in a Prakrit inscription in Ashokan Brahmi script. By the time of the Sungas, several attributes of Vedic deities, especially Rudra and Agni, had been incorporated into Shiva. The reference to Rudra as the one with “golden red hue as of flame” and the “flaming bright” in the Satarudria Sri Rudra Chamakam suggests fusion of the two deities. Agni is considered to be the bull and the bull is Shiva’s Nandi.

It is evident that by the time the Natyashastra was conceived by Kashmiri scholar Bharata (2nd century BC to 2nd century AD), Shiva’s role as Lord of Dance had taken root. In fact, a terracotta sculpture from the Sunga period (2nd to 1st century BC) depicts Shiva as Veena Dakshinamoorthy, emphasising his role as a teacher of performing arts, including dance.

The gradual growth of the visual imagery of Nataraja becomes clear through a study of sculptures. The Gupta period terracotta statue from Gaya, with flying tresses and the “digambara” body holding a sword, indicates not only the seedling of the “Chidambaram” concept but also his prowess as a dancer. The “jata” in this sculpture is reminiscent of a hooded serpent. The 5th century AD Nataraja sculpture from Tumain in Guna, and Khoh both in Madhya Pradesh also echo a similar concept.

…Curiously, most of the sculptures from 5th to 8th centuries AD in Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan neither depict the flowing Ganges nor the crescent moon as do sculptures of later period.

By the 6th century AD, Nataraja appears with several arms as evident from the sculptures of Bengal and Orissa as well as those at Aihole and Badami in Karnataka. Representing supernatural powers reflected in several arms, these arms are shown carrying the serpent in his two uppermost arms in the sculptures of eastern India as the two main hands are in the “Gajahasta” position with a kataka mudra and the abhaya hasta. The remaining arms are shown carrying various objects such as the damaru, kapala, akashmala, kartri, trishoola, gada and a ball of fire among others. These indicate certain variations to the popular imagery associated with that at Chidambaram.

…Till 9th to 10th century AD, there is also a conspicuous absence of the Cosmic Circle jwala prabha mandala (circular nimbus of flames) in the early stages of iconography. Yet in one very early Gupta period representation of tandava dance, a Shiva-like figure framed within a chaitya is shown, one hand in the abhaya hasta mudra while the other hand is held aloft holding a serpent. Another image from Magadha region also shows the tandava nritta against a large chakra. Both the chakra and the chaitya seem to have developed into the prabha mandala later closely following the cosmic halo with flames representing enlightenment in Buddhist iconic representations.

…It has not ceased to amaze me how, after the decline of Buddhism, the popular image of Nataraja that evolved significantly during the Pala and Pallavas, and which reached its refined pinnacle in the Chola period, has come to stay. It has succeeded in knitting together precepts of worship of nature with Tantric beliefs, Shaivism philosophy and Agamas. Whether as Chidambaram Nataraja or as Narteshwara, Nritteshwara, Nateshwara or Natakeswara, the Lord of Dance has come to symbolise the essence of Indian philosophy relating to the cycle of creation and the eternal soul.

*** End of Excerpts ***

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*** Excerpts from The good doctor ***

…Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, 73, …doctor from Ranchi wields his stethoscope at the cost of Rs 5 per patient, irrespective of their economic background.

His consultancy fee has remained unchanged since 1966, making him perhaps the most inexpensive practitioner in the country. He doesn’t even mind seeing patients for free if he knows that Rs 5 is unaffordable for them. The humble doctor also gives away the medicines he gets from pharmaceutical companies.

Everyday when the clock strikes half past ten, Mukherjee, who was the head of the pathology department at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences in 1993, settles down in his clinic where he stays till 7.30 in the evening. The first half of his day is usually dedicated to his pathology laboratory, while he devotes the rest of the day to patients.

“Although I have not been able to devote as much time as I want to because of my declining health, I never refuse a patient, be it over the weekend or at odd hours,” he said.

…Over the years, the doctor has made a few compromises to bring benign smiles on the pale faces of the poor. Even with the little money earned in the name of income, he does not shy away from making donations to schools. Forty-two years after settling in Ranchi, Mukherjee is still treating patients for a pittance. What drives him? “A poor man’s plight and the realisation that my contribution is still too little to make a difference,” he says. In fact, he has refused requests for interviews and awards from international NGOs. “I don’t do it for publicity,” he says. And the good doctor continues with a quiet conviction.

*** End of Excerpts ***