Dilip Kumar Roy and Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

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Dilip Kumar Roy and Mahatma Gandhi  

 

Dilip Kumar was a musician in Shantiniketan. He met Gandhi ji. Gandhiji loved his music very much. You have evidently imagined that I was living in a London hotel with all the facilities for communication and access to literature and plenty of leisure, so that I had only to read your letter and do the needful. I do not wonder at your making the mistake of so imagining from your place (in Austria) outside the Indian setting. As it was, your letter was received when I was convalescing at Bangalore. Here am I, travelling almost from day to day and I do not know how to give you satisfaction. From your letter I gather that even if I wrote anything now it would be too late. If you think that you would still want something from me I would send for the manuscript, try to read it and write something. Personally I think that you need nothing from me. Much of the reputation that I enjoy in the West is really undeserved, and I often think that if I went to Europe or America, the people there would be soon undeceived about their many exaggerated notions of me. You would believe me when I tell you that I write this not from any sense of false self-depreciation but that is what I truly believe. 1 

It was a great grief to me that though I was in Pondicherry, I was not able to see any of you. Ambalal Sarabhai gave me your letter of October only yesterday. It had gone with Bharati to Oxford. I wrote to you about your book when I received it. I hope you got that letter. Do write to me whenever you feel like writing. I am glad H is there. Has he given up drink altogether? Tell him he owes me a letter. I would like to hear from him. 2 I am surprised that you have not received my letter. I wrote to you almost immediately after hearing from you and it was a fairly long letter that I sent you. Your Anami I did glance through but the best use I thought I could make of it was to send it to Mahadev who knows Bengali and who is himself a poet. I am not. But that does not prevent me from reading whatever you write. What you told me about the activity there interested me deeply and the information that H. has become a changed man in Pondicherry. I hope you are keeping well and still singing. I often meet your pupils who sing to me and who always remind me of the beautiful bhajans you used to sing for me. 3

 It went first to Bombay and then by oversight remained with one of my helpers for some days. My difficulty is fundamental. I do not believe that my present activity is less conducive to self-realization or merger in the Divine than abstention would be. Sannyasa is not cessation of all physical activity. It means to me cessation of all activity, mental or physical that is selfish. If I could be convinced that cessation is the better way for me, I should adopt it at once. I am no judge of poetry. Of what use, therefore, can be any opinion of mine on your poems! I have really no opinion to offer. But now Mahadev is free. He is himself a poet. And he will, I doubt not, give you his opinion after I have explained the thing to him. 4 Mahadev Desai gave me your letter and the correspondence only yesterday. I glanced through the very interesting correspondence between you and Raihana! I have perhaps a theory of my own about Krishna. I need not discuss it here as it is of no consequence. I hope with you that we shall meet some day. Then we can usefully discuss the Krishna legends and many other things of common interest. And of course I should listen once more to your music. 5

The recollection of your voice tempts me and so do several other things. But I must resist all temptation and keep on to the straight and narrow path as conceived by me. Therefore excuse me. If I can go further, I would say drop the project. If not, you may approach the others you mention. I would have written to you in Hindi as I do generally but I forbore for obvious reasons. 6 Today you have heard a very sweet bhajan. The person who sang that beautiful bhajan may not be known to all of you. His name is Dilip Kumar Roy. He has visited many places. Few persons in India possess the melodious voice he has. I would even say that very few in the world have a voice like his. He came to me in the afternoon. I could not spare much time then. I could give just 10 minutes. He sang Vandemataram, which he has set to music, in his melodious voice. He must know this song because he is a Bengali. I heard him because he wanted to sing for me. I am no expert in music. He has affection for me which people mutually develop. Then he sang for me Sare jahanse achchha of Iqbal. He has set that also to a new tune. I enjoyed it very much. He has been staying at Rishi Aurobindo Ashram at Pondicherry for the past several years. He has not taken any training there. He has been a musician even when he went there. Later he developed his art. 7

 

References:

 

1. Letter to Dilip Kumar Roy, September 20, 1927
2. Letter to Dilip Kumar Roy, February 21, 1934
3. Letter to Dilip Kumar Roy, April 8, 1934
4. Letter to Dilip Kumar Roy, July 16, 1934
5. Letter to Dilip Kumar Roy, June 17, 1936
6. Letter to Dilip Kumar Roy, October 28, 1945
7. Prarthana Pravachan—II, pp. 12