***************************************************************************************************************
I was talking of fasts and superfasts.
I lived in Bengal all my adult life and loved it, although I didn't exactly take to hilsa and shandesh...it is tough to overcome childhood imprinting:
IIT KGP, where I stayed for all of 40 years from 21 to 62, was not altogether an integral part of Bengal like Midnapore 6 miles away...ours was a centrally-funded walled campus with an all-India mix in its student and faculty. But Calcutta was just 70 miles away and touched us in every way.
Enlightenment started in Bengal along with its Renaissance in the 18th century. Just walk into the vaults of the lovely Victoria Memorial and read the letters of the period hanging on its walls. Bengal's fight against the British Rule was peaceful to start with but took a violent turn in the 20th century. Gandhiji was not the role model of Bengal...Netaji was. Armed struggle had been part of the Bengali revolution.
Bengal didn't take kindly to hunger strikes as a weapon against injustice till Didi came along with her admixture of political armory. But the longest of hunger strikes that ended in death (unlike Gandhiji's) was by a Bengali youth:
Jatindra Nath Das (27 October 1904 – 13 September 1929), also known as Jatin Das, was an Indian freedom fighter and revolutionary. He died in Lahore jail after a continuous hunger strike for 63 days and it shocked the whole of India.
JN Das was not a believer in non-violent satyagraha...he was a revolutionary. His hunger strike was against the treatment of prisoners by our British Rulers.
Gandhiji didn't take kindly to JN Das's hunger strike and its aftermath...
Like celibacy and virtue, hunger resents competition.
Gandhiji used his weapon of Satyagraha that included hunger strikes against the white rulers of South Africa. He fought for the immigrant Indian community there, most of them indentured laborers from South India (coolies). He didn't fight for the native blacks against the apartheid of the white regime...that was left to Nelson Mandela who wasn't exactly a Gandhian in his fights.
Anyway, during a large part of my stay in Bengal we were ruled by Jyoti Basu who never went on hungers strikes, I believe. Nor did Charu Mazumdar nor Kanu Sanyal who were the bywords of our Maoist movement. Nor did Mao himself who believed that power flows from the barrel of the gun rather than the growls of empty bowels. Nor did Marx who is there in Jyoti-da's party's name.
As a consequence we never went on huger strikes against the Directors of our IIT KGP for their misrule like not giving us undue promotions...except once.
Suddenly one day our IITTA (Teachers Association) thought that we should start hunger strikes as a last resort.
And decided to conduct a One Day Relay Hunger Strike.
I didn't take part in it since I felt shy.
But my colleague and roommate and close friend, DB, did. He wanted to watch the Relay Hunger Strike as a matter of scientific curiosity.
And he reported it to me the next day.
Apparently, he had his full breakfast (loochis and aloor-dam) and filled his pockets with two packets of Charminars and joined the strikers who were assembled in the Foyer of the Main Building right below the Director's Office. There were all sorts of banners and posters. And a huge carpet was laid out on the floor that could seat 20 hungry faculty members.
As he walked in, he was warmly welcomed by the Secretary because of his popularity with the students and stature as a theoretical physicist publishing in the prestigious Journal of Mathematical Physics (one hefty paper a year).
And as soon as he took his seat among the hungry at the right end, the one at the left end stood up and walked away...there were only 20 seats on the carpet and, as you know, it was a Relay Thing...everyone has to be given a chance.
Pretty soon, he told me, the boy from Harry's arrived with his kettle of strong chai, and every gent on the war-floor was incentivized to continue his hungry fight against injustice.
And within a few minutes, Dileep-da arrived smoking his Charminar and took a seat beside DB who moved one step to his left; and the man leftmost stood up and left, to make place for the new revolutionaries. And the Relay went on. And in about a couple of hours, DB found himself at the leftmost end and was soon eased out by the latest arrival at the right end.
DB's fight lasted all of 2 hours after which he went home, had his lunch, and relaxed for the rest of the day resting after his labors in the morning in the Foyer whose foundation stone was laid by none other than our Nehruji who doesn't seem to have undertaken too many hunger strikes...just now I Googled for:
"jawaharlal nehru's hunger strikes"
And the lead item turned out to be:
...Posted by Ishani
*********************************************************************************
I was talking of fasts and superfasts.
I lived in Bengal all my adult life and loved it, although I didn't exactly take to hilsa and shandesh...it is tough to overcome childhood imprinting:
Enlightenment started in Bengal along with its Renaissance in the 18th century. Just walk into the vaults of the lovely Victoria Memorial and read the letters of the period hanging on its walls. Bengal's fight against the British Rule was peaceful to start with but took a violent turn in the 20th century. Gandhiji was not the role model of Bengal...Netaji was. Armed struggle had been part of the Bengali revolution.
Bengal didn't take kindly to hunger strikes as a weapon against injustice till Didi came along with her admixture of political armory. But the longest of hunger strikes that ended in death (unlike Gandhiji's) was by a Bengali youth:
Jatindra Nath Das (27 October 1904 – 13 September 1929), also known as Jatin Das, was an Indian freedom fighter and revolutionary. He died in Lahore jail after a continuous hunger strike for 63 days and it shocked the whole of India.
JN Das was not a believer in non-violent satyagraha...he was a revolutionary. His hunger strike was against the treatment of prisoners by our British Rulers.
Gandhiji didn't take kindly to JN Das's hunger strike and its aftermath...
Like celibacy and virtue, hunger resents competition.
Gandhiji used his weapon of Satyagraha that included hunger strikes against the white rulers of South Africa. He fought for the immigrant Indian community there, most of them indentured laborers from South India (coolies). He didn't fight for the native blacks against the apartheid of the white regime...that was left to Nelson Mandela who wasn't exactly a Gandhian in his fights.
Anyway, during a large part of my stay in Bengal we were ruled by Jyoti Basu who never went on hungers strikes, I believe. Nor did Charu Mazumdar nor Kanu Sanyal who were the bywords of our Maoist movement. Nor did Mao himself who believed that power flows from the barrel of the gun rather than the growls of empty bowels. Nor did Marx who is there in Jyoti-da's party's name.
As a consequence we never went on huger strikes against the Directors of our IIT KGP for their misrule like not giving us undue promotions...except once.
Suddenly one day our IITTA (Teachers Association) thought that we should start hunger strikes as a last resort.
And decided to conduct a One Day Relay Hunger Strike.
I didn't take part in it since I felt shy.
But my colleague and roommate and close friend, DB, did. He wanted to watch the Relay Hunger Strike as a matter of scientific curiosity.
And he reported it to me the next day.
Apparently, he had his full breakfast (loochis and aloor-dam) and filled his pockets with two packets of Charminars and joined the strikers who were assembled in the Foyer of the Main Building right below the Director's Office. There were all sorts of banners and posters. And a huge carpet was laid out on the floor that could seat 20 hungry faculty members.
As he walked in, he was warmly welcomed by the Secretary because of his popularity with the students and stature as a theoretical physicist publishing in the prestigious Journal of Mathematical Physics (one hefty paper a year).
And as soon as he took his seat among the hungry at the right end, the one at the left end stood up and walked away...there were only 20 seats on the carpet and, as you know, it was a Relay Thing...everyone has to be given a chance.
Pretty soon, he told me, the boy from Harry's arrived with his kettle of strong chai, and every gent on the war-floor was incentivized to continue his hungry fight against injustice.
And within a few minutes, Dileep-da arrived smoking his Charminar and took a seat beside DB who moved one step to his left; and the man leftmost stood up and left, to make place for the new revolutionaries. And the Relay went on. And in about a couple of hours, DB found himself at the leftmost end and was soon eased out by the latest arrival at the right end.
DB's fight lasted all of 2 hours after which he went home, had his lunch, and relaxed for the rest of the day resting after his labors in the morning in the Foyer whose foundation stone was laid by none other than our Nehruji who doesn't seem to have undertaken too many hunger strikes...just now I Googled for:
"jawaharlal nehru's hunger strikes"
And the lead item turned out to be:
Stray dogs in Jawaharlal Nehru University
...Posted by Ishani
*********************************************************************************
No comments:
Post a Comment