Nandanar 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 E-mail- [e-mail]; [e-mail] Mailing Address- C- 29, Swaraj Nagar, Panki, Kanpur- 208020, Uttar Pradesh, India Nandanar and Mahatma Gandhi Nandanar was one of the bright stars among the satyagrahis of India. I consider myself highly honoured to have had this privilege of laying the foundation of the doorstep of this temple. I consider it to be a great honour that the first act that I am called upon to perform after entering into Chidambaram is to lay the foundation-stone of the doorstep. I am hoping that this will be really a temple where we will be able to see God face to face as Nandanar himself did I pray that this may be a temple of freedom for everyone who would everyone who would visit this. But you should understand that Nandanar was trying to enter, by giving his life-blood, not in a temple built of stone and mortar only. Nandanar saw in the temple, which he was seeking to enter, freedom in his own soul. And so by your own lives, the devotees of the temple will be expected to purify the inward atmosphere of which the visible stone and mortar should merely be the symbol. At the present moment I know many temples, whether they be dedicated to Vishnu or Siva, entered into and visited by thousands of the so-called Brahmins, which are no temples of God. Let this temple not be an addition to those numerous temples which today disfigure this holy land. But if you want to do that; those who will be in charge of this temple will have to purify their hearts of all anger. I am glad therefore to notice that in your address you do not seem to seek to destroy Hinduism itself as I see is being done in many places in the present time. I appreciate your idea not to trample underfoot Hindu traditions whether they be bad or indifferent. But as you have decided to make use of the good faculty of discrimination, and as you seek not to destroy that which is good but only that which is bad, let me congratulate you upon your determination to win status by sheer force of merit. You rightly claim to be the descendants of the original inhabitants of this ancient land and if it belongs to any single individual as a matter of right, that right is certainly yours and yours foremost. You are therefore entitled to every consideration. It seems that you are bent upon gaining strength by reform within. Let me draw your attention to one or two points. There is that drink evil, common almost to every Adi Dravida. You must therefore try your level best to rid the community of this drink evil. If I am not mistaken Adi Dravidas are also given to beef eating. Hinduism is a tolerant religion. But tolerant though it is, it is intolerant of beef-eating on the part of its devotees. You must therefore agitate and agitate till every Adi Dravida has given up beef eating and the slaughter of cows. Make this temple at once a seat of devotion, centre of learning and a centre from which the force should spread to every Adi Dravida and subsequently to every Hindu and still more subsequently to every Indian. You have said in your address that khaddar itself cannot be successful without the removal of the curse of untouchability. Here there is a confusion of ideas. The real untouchability will never vanish from this land until khaddar is worn. Let me inform you that there are even now people in India who are poorer and more downtrodden than many Adi Dravidas. Are there not many Adi Dravidas that I have seen in the course of my tour suffering for want of food? But in many parts of India I can show you many who are not called Adi Dravidas but do not get even a single meal a day. This untouchability, of which you complain, has not to go so much as the untouchabilities of those dying millions. Their untouchability is in one way a far more serious affair than the one with which we are placed. So it pleases me to find mention made in your address to having a weaving institute for Adi Dravida boys and I appreciate your invitation to me to help this weaving institute. I shall do so with the greatest pleasure if you will fulfil the conditions that are imposed on every weaving institute which seeks my assistance. The first and the foremost condition I propose to mention to you is that in the weaving institute nothing but hand-spun yarn can be used. If you are serious about this, place yourself in correspondence with the Secretary, Mr. S. Ramnathan, who is in charge of the All-India Spinners’ Association in this part of the country. You will find him accessible at all times, ready to render any assistance that is in his power. He and I exist for that purpose. As you are about to make this temple a centre of devotion let me also commend to you the two things which are necessary for our children, i.e., the learning of Sanskrit and Hindi which are necessary for our children, i.e., the learning of Sanskrit and Hindi which may be helpful in life. I know therefore that mine is an experiment still in the making. And it therefore always keeps me humble and rooted to the soil. In that state of humility I always cling to every example of Satyagraha that comes under my notice as a child clings to its mother’s breast. And so when I hear or read the story of Nandanar and his lofty Satyagraha and his great success, my head bows before his spirit, all the daylong I have felt elevated to be able to be in a place hallowed by the holy feet of Nandanar. It will not be without a wrench that I shall be leaving this place in a few minutes’ time. But it gave me great joy and I considered it to be a great honour that the very first act I was called upon to perform was to lay the foundation-stone of the gateway of the temple that has been erected in memory of the great saint. How I wish that it could be said about the people of Chidambaram that at least they knew no distinction between Brahmins and Panchamas. If the people of Chidambaram would rise to that lofty height they would have done nothing more than what the Gita expects every Hindu to do. In the eye of God there are no touchables or untouchables. Brahmins are called Brahmins not for their superiority, not for their ability to lord it over others, but because of their ability to serve mankind by their knowledge and their ability to efface themselves in the act of service. Theirs is the privilege; theirs is the duty of serving their fellow-brethren. They cannot do so in its fullness unless they renounce every earthly reward. By his indomitable spirit and by his overwhelming faith in the infinite presence of God, Nandanar was able to bear down the haughty spirit of the haughty Brahmins and showed that he in spirit was infinitely superior to the persecutors who considered him the curse amongst mankind. But let the Panchamas, the Adi Dravida brothers and sisters, profiting by the example of Nandanar, live up to the spirit which they have inherited. Nandanar broke down every barrier and won his way to freedom not by freak, not by lustre, but by the purest form of self-suffering and did not swear against his persecutors. He would not even condescend to ask from his persecutors what his dues were. But he shamed them into doing justice by his lofty prayers and by the purity of his character, and, if I may commit it into human language, he compelled God Himself to descend and made Him open the eyes of his persecutors. What Nandanar did in his time and in his own person, it is open to every one of us to do today. I wish that you, my hearers, will catch something of the spirit of Nandanar, and if so many of us could possibly imitate Nandanar and assimilate the spark of his spirit, we can make the land, a land again of holy people. I hope and pray that the temple with which the trustees have identified me today will keep green the memory of this great saint by keeping the atmosphere about the temple always pure. I would very much like to leave the atmosphere about this meeting at this stage filled with the spirit of Nandanar. But it would be wrong perhaps on my part if I do not say a few words showing how we can illustrate the spirit of Nandanar in our daily life. In my humble opinion we cannot better translate that spirit than by clothing ourselves with khaddar in spirit. I am not saying we can imitate Nandanar by wearing khaddar merely. But I say that we must have the khadi spirit. Even a blackguard, even a prostitute will be expected to wear khaddar since he or she, the blackguard, must wear something as they eat wheat and rice in this country in common with us. But the khadi spirit means that we must know the meaning of what the wearing of khaddar carries with it. Every time that we take our khaddar garment early in the morning to wear for going out we should remember that we are doing so in the name of Daridranarayana and for the sake of saving the millions of India. If we have the khadi spirit in us we should serve ourselves with simplicity in every walk of life. Khadi spirit means illimitable patience. For those who know anything of production of khaddar know how patiently those spinners and weavers have to toil. Even so must we have patience while spinning the thread of swaraj? Khadi spirit means also equally illimitable faith. So must we have that illimitable faith in truth and non-violence ultimately conquering every obstacle in our way? Khadi spirit means fellow-feeling with every living being on earth. It means the complete renunciation of everything that is likely to harm our fellow creatures. And if we are to cultivate that spirit amongst the millions of our countrymen, what a land this India of ours would be! I am well aware that khadi cannot compete with the other articles of commerce on their own platform and on their own terms. Even as Satyagraha is a weapon unique by itself and not one of the ordinary weapons wielded by politicians so is khadi a unique article of commerce which will not and cannot succeed on terms common to other articles. If khadi is asked for in the khadi spirit that I have endeavoured to describe to you, khadi has illimitable capacities and it would outstand every other article that you see in India today. You will therefore perhaps understand why I do not appreciate all these khadi purses that you are giving me. I know that if you had a tenth of the faith in the khadi which I have, you will not give a few hundred or few thousands of your plenty but you will satisfy me till there is no money required for khadi. I was really distressed this morning when I discovered that a friend, who is conducting a khaddar store here, not for making money but for the love of khaddar, is incurring a loss of Rs. 200 year after year. Surely it is the A B C of patriotism; it is the A B C of your love for these starving millions, that you should all wear khaddar. I was equally distressed to find Swami Sahajanand just as I came here telling me that the reason why his boys and girls were not clothed in khaddar was because the persons responsible did not patronize khaddar and it is just the reverse of the khaddar spirit which I have just described to you. In the face of these facts, you will pardon me for saying that even the intrinsic value of these purses of yours suffers. Let me pass on to the drink evil. You must ask those here, who are given to the drink habit, to give up this cursed drink and those who are not given to the drink habit should not remain satisfied, if they have any real love for their less unfortunate brethren, till they have been rid of this curse and total prohibition is established in this land. So must you get rid of this disgraceful and immoral Devadasis institution? You should be no party whatsoever to child marriages and harbouring child widows in your homes. It is time that we should make these elementary reforms in our society without the slightest delay. I thank you once more for all these addresses and the purses and the patience with which you have listened to me. 2 I fail to appreciate the impatience of the Harijans notwithstanding my firm views as stated above. Those who insist on going into the temple are not true devotees. They do not care for Deva darshan; they are running only after their right and away from religion. They write anonymous letters or allow others to write for them. True devotees will not do such things; they will do what Nandanar did. He had no one except God. A Brahmin who regards himself as belonging to a higher class gladly worships that Nandanar today. I want to see among the Harijans a Nandanar who has become a man of God by his own choice and those who are born Harijans should also wish for the same. If non-Harijan Hindus want, let them take Harijans to their temples with due respect. As long as that does not happen, let the Harijans stay at their homes and sanctify themselves with the purifying Ganga of their devotion. There is no need for them to fast before a temple. I believe that it is adharma to do so. Such fasts are called dharmas in Hindi. In Gujarati it is langhan or tragus. There is no merit in it. It is certainly sinful and everyone should keep miles away from such sins. References: 1. The Hindu, 12-9-1927 2. The Hindu, 13-9-1927 3. Harijanbandhu, 1-2-1948