OPPOSITE SCRIPTURE

Delhi. 14 – 15 August, 1947

It is midnight of 14th August, 1947. Indians, by and large, are awake, eagerly awaiting the dawn of Indian independence. All India Radio(AIR) will broadcast live the historic speech of Mr. Suraha, the first Prime Minister of independent India, to be delivered on this historic occasion.

As the clock struck 12 PM and 15th August,1947 dawned, Mr. Suraha lowered the Union Jack inside rotunda of grand Parliament Building in Lutyen’s New Delhi and hoisted in its place the new tri-color national flag of India to herald independence for 350 million Indians. He then delivered his famous speech, historically known as ‘The Tryst with Destiny’ for the new Indian nation:

“My dear fellow Indians, as the world sleeps, India wakes to freedom. India has now a tryst with destiny.The countless processions, full-throated slogans against the British rule, huge meetings addressed by the leaders and also the supreme sacrifice by a few Indians are culminating in our freedom.”

“We have achieved independence but our country which had survived as one Hindustan for centuries has now been partitioned. In the Second World War which ended only two years back, a million men died fighting in the European front. As many Hindustanis,-Hindus and Muslims,-men, women and children, died in riots. Streams of blood were on the streets of cities, towns and villages. It is as if a demon using a giant sword has dismembered Hindustan in three pieces. Qaide Azam Sinni has taken possession of two truncated parts and has founded a Muslim state Nakistan. I have become the Prime Minister of the torso of Hindustan, that is, Bharat.”

“We have chosen as our new national motif a line from Sanskrit scripture which reads,-‘Satyameva Joyote’, which means: ‘Only the Truth Triumphs’. Therefore I will speak the truth and nothing but the truth in my first speech as the first Prime Minister of independent India”

“During our one hundred years old independence movement we the leaders have indulged in lies or in half-truths which are worse than lies. Our intention, of course, was right even as Mahatma Sondhi always insists that both action and intention should be right.”

“We fancied that we will conduct ‘non-violent struggle’. We thought this to be a very clever psychological tool whereby we disobey the law and order set up by the British who will be forced to use minimum force such as charge with sticks instead of guns, or to put us in their ‘jails’ as political prisoners. Apart from safety of life being retained in non-violent struggle, the rulers will be made to be seen as the oppressors, and to feel guilty. What we failed to grasp is ,- after we have encouraged our people to break laws and burn imported British goods, it will be difficult for us to make the people to unlearn disobedience and law-breaking”

“We thought that by blaming the British for all our ills and by adopting non-violent agitation we will be able to avoid blood-letting and we will be able to maintain Hindu-Muslim unity. We proclaimed that we Indians are all innocent simple folks whom the cunning British had enslaved by applying the ‘divide-and-rule’ imperial policy. We proclaimed that we Indians are morally superior people believing only in non-violence, and we will set a shining example to the world by achieving independence without bleeding. But alas! A million Hindustanis had to die at the hands of ruthless butchers. These butchers are not the British, they are all Hindustanis,-our own people”

“Note another peculiarity of our freedom struggle. In the just-concluded Second World War in the Western European front a million people died fighting. They had defensive weapons, Red Cross and Geneva Convention. In our riot-war motivated rioters simply butchered helpless, unarmed and fleeing men, women and children even as they begged for mercy. In this riot-war there were no Geneva Convention, no Red Cross, no white flag for surrender, no taking of prisoners. What Hitler did to the Jews in secrecy, we Hindustanis did the same to ourselves openly. Our non-violent struggle of decades culminated in bloody, no-holds-barred riot, rape and murder on a massive scale in cataclysmic manner. If now we say that the British had instigated us to riots, then we must say that we Hindustanis have become sub-animal creatures, because animals can not be instigated to engage in self- annihilation on a massive scale”

“Note yet another difference for the sake of the truth. In the Second World War one side won and the other side was vanquished. Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo had to die. But in our riot-war both sides won, I on this side and Sinni on the other side. Both of us will rule supreme, claiming glory and victory. The losers are a million helpless men,women and children.”

“Therefore, let us bid good-bye to lies and hypocrisy. Let us start our new lives based on truth and nothing but the truth. Let us build our new nation on the foundation of truth, honesty and self- reliance. We will not leave the path of non-violence but this non-violence will be reserved only for those amongst us who are really non-violent,- the wildlife and plant life of our country.”

“Of course, not all of us were unrealistic lily-eaters. There was one amongst us who was different,-Netaji Subhash. He was one leader who had said,-‘ Give me blood, I will give you freedom.’ He was one leader who as President of our Congress meeting at Haripura in 1932 had identified our over-population as the collective sin of the people, - a sin which is causing all the misery all-around. He saw the Second World War as an opportunity for us and plunged in it but lost and died as a fighter for his country. Of course he had joined the Nazi-fascist-imperial axis and fell with them. Subhash was truly brave and not a hypocrite”

“In contrast, what did we do? We had declared ourselves to be democrats and socialists, and yet we did not join the Allies in the World War, who fought for democracy and socialism. On the contrary, we declared Quit India ultimatum in the crucial War year of 1942, and all of us were ‘jailed,’ thus allowing our political opponents full opportunity to organize and plan for communal riots and partition of Hindustan. If we had taken the advantage of the Second World War in the positive and natural way, the course of history would have been quite different.”

“Any way, let bygone be bygone but not be condoned. For few weeks Mahatma Sondhi, I and my colleagues could not sleep in remorse. We deliberated to draw up a relentless plan of actions which begins with correcting our national character itself.”

“Do accept and understand the fact that over the centuries of indifferent existence we Indians have lost our character because hypocrisy, beggarly attitude, deceit and irresponsibility have become the hall marks of our masses who breed like pigs, not realizing that humans are consumers and not consumables like pigs, to have value in number. Yet we populist leaders have gathered you in thousands in political meetings to praise you people and to denounce the British for all our ills. We never told you to be disciplined and self-reliant. We never told you to have small family and to give education to children. Slavery and ignorance over the centuries have ruined our national character”

“Therefore we leaders of all political parties have come together to prepare a national plan of integrated development of our people and our country. Human development is not possible without simultaneous development of the environment in which we the people live. I call this plan as our tryst with destiny. I will end my speech with the bare out lines of our integrated plan for Indians and India:”

“Good-bye to Populism. First of all we will do away with the soul-less mob syndrome masquerading as false Gods like the ‘people’, ‘ masses’ etc. Each Indian will be a distinct individual and not an anonymous part of masses. Therefore each one of you will be given an identity card with photograph and basic details like date of birth, residence, education level, profession etc. This will be your membership card for India Club which we intend to make a very special one in the world.”

“Enforcement of Population Control. We will make family planning compulsory and will give all assistance. Understand that a person who procreates recklessly is an unstable person, and his products too are bound to be like him. That is how Indian people have become an unstable mob with which any mean deed can be associated, such as violence, lawlessness and riots. Understand that even after partition we have now 350 million people, twice that of USA which in size is two-and–half times of India. Also understand that the British did not colonize India to settle down and to add to that population like the hordes of invaders coming from north-west Asia did to settle and proliferate here. The few British who lived here are leaving.”

“The British left forty percent of our land covered with deep forest and protected our monuments. We are thankful to them and we should be wise enough to improve on their record. Therefore our population must not increase beyond 400 million so that Indians and India will remain protected and will grow to glory. Which is why we are giving top priority to very strict family planning.”

“Universal Democracy. We are going to establish a Universal Sovereign Democratic Republic in India. It means that all inhabitants of India will be citizen of this Republic with justifiable rights. It means that wildlife and plant life of the forests will have more rights than humans because the former are the really weak and poor under the sun, while humans are gifted with tremendous intelligence and power of mischief. The stronger among the universal citizenry, that is, humans, will be given the duty to protect the meek and the poor,- plant life and wildlife.”

“Nature-Based Economy. Our economy will be nature-based. It means we will increase forest coverage from present forty percent left by the British to sixty percent, where plant life and wildlife will thrive. We will enrich and beautify the forests by planting countless flower trees and fruit trees in them and by making innumerable water bodies in them. The 1200 mile long Himalayan range will be made into world’s largest Alpine forest wherein we will build 100 mountain resorts in the valleys, equivalent to 10 Switzerlands. The whole of Vindhya Range in cental India, the whole of Chotanagpur Plateau in eastern India, the whole of Western Ghats along the Arabian Sea and the whole of Eastern Ghats along the Bay of Bengal will be regimes of giant forests over hills and valleys teeming with wildlife, wherein we will build 100 Safaris. Within a decade we will be able to attract 20 million tourists to our wonderful hill stations and Safaries, which will give us 50 billion Dollar foreign exchange.”

“We need not set up new factories because we will be able to import best of consumer goods without polluting our own land. New industries will be based only on new technologies like electronics, bio-technology and herbal-based medicines and cosmetics. New industries will be set up for processing immense forest and agro products.”

“Reforming Agriculture. Our Agriculture will be recast on the basis of well-thought out plan of our colleague Minu Masani. All plain lands currently devoted to grass-crop growing, that is, wheat and rice, will be converted to alternate ponds and higher fields. The millions of ponds will store water and will be used to rear fish. The higher fields will be used to plant orchard, to grow high yield vegetables and also as pasture for cattle. Fruit and flower plants will be everywhere. For every Indian there will be at least twenty large trees in and out of forests, and at least one milk yielding cow. Natural manure will be abundant. We will not poison our land with chemical fertilizer.”

“Cooperative Generation of Wealth. We will not abolish our one million land -lords and five hundred princely states. Behaving like Genghis Khan one can always forcibly usurp property but that never gives prosperity. The landlords and Princes have money for investment. They will be welcomed and made partners in the new scheme of the giant ‘India Enterprise’. The landlords and princes will turn their numerous palaces into hotels, and they will invest in agro-based and forestry based industries. India has enough wealth. We need not seek outside help if only we employ good sense. Just now as the British are leaving our Rupee is freely convertible at the rate of 3 Rupees to a Dollar. Population control combined with cooperative wealth generation based on improvement of mother nature and human nature, as outlined before, will make our Rupee a hard currency which will gain on Dollar to become on a par or even better.”

“Political Reorganization. Mahatma Sondhi has advised dissolution of our Congress Party as it failed to prevent partition of India and horrendous bloodshed. We are doing that. We will abolish all provinces which all have turned into hot beds of corruption and devious politics. India will have 500 districts as constituent units, each unit sending one representative to the Parliament. The unitary government will collect only 25 percent of the income, irrespective of loss or profit, from every human citizen and every established enterprise without any exemption on any ground.This is to ensure liquidation of loss-making enterprises. Budgetary allocation for each constituent district will depend on the number of citizen of that district, and that number will include large trees and large wildlife of the forests because they too have grown here and the country belongs to them also. Thus districts having forests will have more budget allocations than big cities. Growth of large cities will be frozen and poor people from the cities will be dispersed by giving then jobs in tourism, and in agro–based and forest based industries.”

“New Education Policy. There will be drastic reform in education policy. Education up to junior high school will be made compulsory for all children. English will be made the compulsory national language. Truthfully speaking, our independence movement, our national unity in-spite of diverse provincial languages, and even the progressive ideas, are all gift of the English language which also happens to be the international language. Must we throw away this wonderful gift of the British rule? We can do this only by being very stupid indeed. Practical subjects will taught, such as brick-making, brick-laying, carpentry, simple mechanics, horticulture, animal husbandry and knowledge about flora and fauna. The benefits of this policy are obvious. Inferiority complex of lower caste people will be removed in one stroke as they too will speak English. Students will have to learn only two languages,-English and mother tongue. All schools in villages and in cities will have the same standard because of this spread of English as national language.”

“Students will learn to do things with their own hands and will learn dignity of labor. This education will build character also as theoretical learning will give way to self confidence, creativity and ability to face life. Students can go for higher education even when they are working on Project New India.”

“Taking advantage of our warm weather we will adopt the open air classes under trees as introduced by Rabindra Nath Tagore in his Shantiniketan. Thus we will be able to have a hundred thousand Shantiniketans in India in a short period.”

“Taking Advantage of the War. We must thank the British for raising the superbly trainined two-and-half million strong Indian Army of Second World War, who fought bravely in Europe, Africa and Asia to rout the Germans and the Japanese Armies. We will take the advantage of these battle-hardened forces not for making war but for the hard task of molding the in-disciplined Indian mobs into constructive work brigades everywhere. Therefore instead of demobilizing the great Indian Army,-a superb gift of the British for India, we will merge them in our civil services for spreading out in remote areas for reforming Indians and rebuilding India”

“We have brought the outstanding Indian military leaders of the Indian Army and Airforce, like Mariappa, Choudhury, Thapar, Mukherjee,- all famous for their World War II exploits, in our National Planning Committee. Having taken their advice, we will buy at junk price a million surplus military vehicles, bulldozers and portable generators, thousands of war-surplus Dakota transport planes and various other war-surplus commodities. Our military will train our youth in use of these war-bonanza for deploying them everywhere for construction work for which fifty million young men and women will be employed. A fleet of five thousand war horse Dakotas will be used to open up all five hundred district capitals.”

“National Planning Committee. Second World War has ended; mercifully riot-war of Hindustan has also ended. We will now plunge into a war of construction by waking up the sleeping giant India and by jolting the eternally sloppy and grumbling mobs of India into action of making themselves beautiful and making our India beautiful.”

“The amalgamated military-civil forces working to the plan of National Planning Committee will soon fan out to the five hundred districts of India to prepare detailed district plans which will engage every person of the district. The youth, and the humble poor people who already know some trades like the farmers, the masons, the brick-makers, the carpenters and so on will lead the work brigades in which the so-called gentlemen of up to age sixty will also work for making village roads and drains, to turn mud-huts into decent tenements, to dig ponds, to make orchards and to plant trees everywhere.”

“So my dear fellow Indians, you are all free now. You are all free to come out of miserable existence and to build a new life by hard work and discipline. The poor already work hard but they suffer due to lack of discipline; as soon as they will have small family and they will be given better tools for work, they will become leaders of the society. The idle rich will be made to work and invest in nation-building. As we have mentioned in the beginning, we do not intend to dispossess anyone in the name of nationalization, or to adopt the ideology of robbing Peter to pay Paul while keeping the main chunk of the plunder for the dispenser.”

“Our revolution accepts the rights of the really poor and the really meek amongst us,- the plant-life and the wildlife. We are totally discarding anthropocentric view of the world. We are bringing in a new revolution of seeking beauty. Make yourselves beautiful, make your surroundings beautiful, make your country beautiful. Thus you all will become shining ikons for the World to follow your example. Now onwards you will not have to run after the government to get some help. We will run after you for making you all partners of the giant corporation,- ‘India Enterprise’. Jai Hind.