Sir, behind the flames of tumult and discontent that have reached this assembly, I find in every member’s heart an anxiety for the rapid progress of nation-building. But as the proposer said yesterday, centuries of slavery have drained the essence of our life, and what we have inherited after independence is merely the skeleton of India. Those whom fate has chosen to infuse blood and flesh into this skeleton and breathe the spirit of youth into it are us, and our present generation and the generations after us will have to remain engaged in this great task for years to come.
There are many problems, and each problem is such that its diagnosis and solution should happen overnight. But it’s impossible to transform the destiny of an entire nation instantly. In the current circumstances of our country, we have only one duty: to cooperate with the plans presented before us, implement them, and achieve whatever good results are possible according to the circumstances.
If our government or our generation becomes arrogant thinking they can solve all problems of reconstruction, I believe such arrogance would be futile. There are many tasks that our ancestors accomplished, many that our generation will complete, and many that our future generations will have to complete. Sir, I believe that no matter how much criticism the government faces, when future historians record the events of this era, they will certainly write that after India’s independence, those who were engaged in its reconstruction faced great difficulties, but they were strong and powerful people. They controlled adverse circumstances and didn’t let the country deteriorate, didn’t let its people sink, and didn’t let its new freedom weaken. However, I think the future historian will not write that those responsible for running India after its independence were lazy, incompetent, or ill-intentioned.
Sir, I consider the reference to India’s spiritual form and tradition in the President’s speech very significant, and its importance increases even more in today’s struggle, when the whole world faces the question of how to structure society so that both human spirit and body can be happy. The question is, when the generation responsible for new construction hands over this country they liberated to the next generation, will it be the India of Buddha and Ashoka, the India of Gandhi and Jawaharlal, or will it be the India of those who don’t like the tradition of Buddha, Ashoka, Gandhi, and Jawaharlal? Another thing that prominently emerges from the President’s speech is whether the India we are building, or that this generation will leave behind, will be united physically only, or mentally as well.
Sir, those who helped liberate India had big dreams, and those ancestors who are still present among us desire to see these dreams realised in their lifetime. These are dreams of a country that shed only its own blood to achieve freedom, not its opponents’. These are dreams of a country that has come to the assembly of free nations through an entirely new path and has assured a war-torn world that the path of peace and non-violence is not just imagination but can be implemented in practice.
Sir, people used to laugh that no country in the world could achieve independence through peace and non-violence, and they thought Gandhi’s experiment with truth and non-violence would prove wrong because history always repeats itself. But we saw in India that history doesn’t repeat itself. History is history because new things are written in it every day. We have found proof of this novelty in India. If we continue to move forward with faith and if God willing, we will open the door to that world through peace and non-violence, which India is no less eager to reach. Amidst all the tumult and discontent, we should recognise the truth that Gandhi ji‘s emergence in this country was no coincidental event, nor is it meaningless that India became independent at a time when the whole world is concerned about human destiny. I offer great reverence to the President for reminding the country from the state platform that India should not forget its spiritual form, because it is due to this form that it has importance in the world today, and it is because of this form that the world expects a great message from it.
The second thing that emerges from the President’s speech, which I think needs to be repeatedly emphasised at least by those engaged in the country’s cultural work, is that our country’s unity is not yet strong. If India abandons its spiritual form, its existence will be of no benefit to the world. But if unity breaks, all our economic and social plans will fail. When we hear voices rising against unity, we feel pain. We fought as one; we progressed as one. But today, when the princely states have become beads in India’s necklace and people from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and from Kamrup to Kutch are sitting together for exchange of ideas, doubts are rising in our hearts, and the snakes of provincialism, communalism, and caste discrimination are preparing to raise their hoods.
Sir, the foundation of our unity is our constitution, our geography, and our history. However, at the cultural level above all this, we need to come closer still. Culture delivers its message through the medium of literature and language. But unfortunately, there are still many regions here that cannot know each other because there are veils of language differences between them. Some coordinated work will have to be done to remove these veils.
The government can easily say this is not practical. This is something the public should arrange themselves. But, due to our special circumstances, I think the government should take steps toward some coordinated program in this direction. How this work will be done is a matter of planning. Possibly, if the government considers this, it might feel the need for a new Ministry of Unity and Culture. Possibly, the Education Department might advance this under the pretext of cultural programs. It’s also possible that some other government institution like Sanskriti-Sangam might start this work under government supervision. My request is that this is a program that must be given attention, and the government should initiate something that assures all languages of the country that the Union government’s policy is to encourage and strengthen all languages.
Culture grows through exchange. A province or country that only knows how to give but not receive anything will go bankrupt. When we see an art form well-developed in one language, we immediately think that this art must have been born in some other language, only then could this miracle appear in this language. But sadly, our people don’t read books in their neighbouring languages. To be honest, our intellectual neighbours are still people from the Western world. It’s true that we have also become their intellectual neighbours. But the difference is that they read us in translation while we read them in original form. That’s why their personality isn’t affected as much as ours.
Sir, the boundaries of culture cannot be determined; but here history makes a difference. Those who share one history should first be intellectual neighbours to each other. All provinces and states of India are under one history, so it’s natural that all provinces of India should be intellectually united. Possibly, all provinces are thinking in the same direction; possibly, the same cultural current is flowing in all languages. But we don’t have the strength that only those people possess who know they are all moving in the same direction, engaged in achieving the same goal. If we want to move our country’s mind in one direction, we must create opportunities where one province can recognise not just the body but also the mind of another province.
Sir, universities can also be utilised in this direction. I think universities should not be left under provincial states. State governments may help them however they can, but universities should be kept under the Government of India. All universities in the country should have one goal. They should have one ideal before them. Universities can make a great contribution in solving the current language problem in the country. All universities should include examinations in all languages, which will result in many scholars of other languages being prepared in each language. Through this, we will create a wave of unity in every state, in every region of the country, and fulfill the dream that our great people have seen.
This is part of ThePrint’s Great Speeches series. It features speeches and debates that shaped modern India.
There are neither poets of this kind nor MPs, these days.