How Can Bharatvarsh Progress?

It is a day of great joy that, here in the small town of Ballia, we see so many people gathered in one place with such enthusiasm. In this unfortunate, indolent country, anything that gets done is already a great deal. When nothing happens even in large cities such as Banaras, how could we fail to say that what we have seen in Ballia deserves the highest praise?

On examining the source of this enthusiasm, I found it plain that, by the good fortune of this region, the whole community is now assembled here. Wherever there is a Collector such as the esteemed Mr. Robert, why should such a society not arise? In the land and age in which God produced Akbar, He also produced Abul Fazl, Birbal, and Todar Mal. Here Mr. Robert is Akbar, while Munshi Chaturbhuj Sahay, Munshi Biharilal, and others are the Abul Fazls and Todar Mals.

Our Hindustani people are like railway carriages. First-class and second-class carriages, excellent and costly, may be coupled to a train, but none of them can move without an engine. In the same way, ==if someone will only set the people of Hindustan in motion, what can they not accomplish? Say to them only, “Why do you sit silent, O mighty one?” and then see how Hanuman remembers his strength. But who is to remind them of that strength==: the kings and princes of Hindustan, the nawabs and nobles, or the officials?

The kings and princes never find time away from their worship, their meals, and their idle tales. The officials are occupied partly by government work and partly by balls, horse races, the theatre, and newspapers. If any time remains, why should they care to waste their precious hours meeting poor, dirty, dark-skinned people like us? It comes to the same old saying: “When are you free from others, and when are we free from grief? Come, enough of meeting; neither you nor we are free.” Three frogs sat one above another. The one on top said, “Zauq, shauq” - pleasure and delight. The one in the middle said, “Gham, sum” - grief and gloom. The one at the bottom cried, “Gaye hum” - we are done for.³ That is the condition of the ordinary people of Hindustan: “We are done for.”

When the Aryans first came and settled in Hindustan, it was the duty of kings and Brahmins to spread many kinds of learning and sound policy throughout the country. Even now, if they wished, Hindustan could advance not merely every day but every moment. Yet the idleness of the whole world has overtaken these very people: “Those who understand are consumed by envy; those in power are corrupted by pride.” I cannot understand why they feel no shame. At a time when their forefathers possessed no equipment, those men sat in huts of leaves and mud in the forest, observed stars and planets through bamboo tubes, and recorded their movements so accurately that telescopes built in England at a cost of sixteen lakh rupees produce the same calculations.

Today, through English learning and the progress of the world, we have millions of books and thousands of instruments ready at hand; yet we are busy making nothing grander than carts for carrying away municipal rubbish. This is an age in which progress resembles a horse race. The Americans, the English, the French, and others gallop ahead like swift Turkish thoroughbreds. Each is determined to reach the finish-line first. Meanwhile, the Hindu Kathiawari stands still, merely pawing the earth with its hoof. Leave the others aside: are we not ashamed even when we see the Japanese ponies racing forward, panting as they run? The time is such that whoever falls behind will not catch up, even after trying ten million remedies. In this scramble, in this rain of opportunity, anyone who still holds the umbrella of misfortune above his head and keeps a blindfold of ignorance over his eyes must surely be suffering the wrath of Ishwar.

My friends asked me to say something today about how Hindustan might progress. What more can I say? There is a verse in the Bhagavata Purana: The human body, the foundation of all attainment, is rare though now obtained. It is a well-built boat; the teacher is its helmsman, and I send the favorable wind. A person who, even with all this, does not cross the ocean of worldly existence is the killer of his own Atma. Paramatma says that human birth itself is exceedingly rare. Once it has been received, there is the grace of the teacher and, beyond that, my favor. A person who receives so much assistance and still fails to cross the ocean of this world deserves to be called self-destructive. Hindustan is in precisely that condition today. ==Under English rule, we have received every kind of resource and opportunity. If we still fail to progress now, it can only be our misfortune and the wrath of God==.

Imagine a woman who, with her mother-in-law’s consent, goes by night to an empty private chamber to meet the husband she loves more than life, a husband long absent in a foreign land. If, out of shyness, she neither looks at his face nor speaks to him, her misfortune is her own; tomorrow he will leave for foreign lands again. In the same way, if under English rule we remain frogs in a well, wooden owls, or caged parrots, then our wretchedness is wretchedness upon wretchedness.

Many people will say, “Sir, the struggle to fill our stomachs leaves us no free time. How are we to make progress? Your belly is full, so you can dream of impossible things.” That is a grave mistake. England’s stomach was once just as empty. With one hand it filled its belly, while with the other it cleared the thorns from the road to progress. Are there no farmers, laborers, cart drivers, or coachmen in England? No country has a population in which every stomach is full. But while people there plough and sow a field, they also ask what new machine or method they might devise so that the field will yield twice as much grain in the future.

Even coachmen in England read newspapers. When the master steps down to visit a friend, the coachman immediately draws a newspaper from beneath his seat. A coachman here would spend that time smoking a hookah or gossiping, and even his gossip would be useless. There, people discuss the management of their country even while gossiping.

Their governing principle is that not a single moment should be wasted. Here, by contrast, the more idle a person is, the greater a gentleman he is thought to be. Laziness has grown so powerful here that Malukdas composed this couplet: “The python takes no employment; the bird performs no work. Servant Maluka has said: Rama provides for all.” Look around in every direction and you will see the numbers of those who do no work increasing everywhere. There is scarcely any honest occupation: one may flatter the rich, act as a broker, corrupt the young sons of wealthy families, or misappropriate money entrusted by someone else. Apart from these, tell me what employment exists by which a person may earn a little money. The fire of poverty burns on all sides. Someone rightly said that a poor householder struggles to preserve his honor as the modest daughter-in-law of a respectable family tries to cover her body with torn clothes. Such is the condition of Hindustan.

The census report makes it plain that the number of people here increases day by day while the amount of money diminishes day by day. We can no longer manage without a way to increase wealth, and wealth cannot increase unless intelligence increases. ==Brothers, do not keep looking toward kings and princes. Do not hope that some learned pandit, while reciting a sacred tale, will reveal a method by which the country’s wealth and intelligence can grow. Gird up your own loins and abandon laziness.== How long will you allow yourselves to be called barbarous, uncouth, ignorant, dull, and cowardly? Run! Whoever falls behind in this race will have nowhere left to stand.

“When will Rama come to Janakpur again?” If you fall behind this time, you will descend to the lowest depths. When Prithviraj was captured and taken to Ghor, someone told Ghiyasuddin, the brother of Shahabuddin, that Prithviraj was highly skilled at shooting an arrow toward a sound. An assembly was arranged, and seven iron plates were set up for him to pierce with an arrow. Prithviraj had already been blinded. The signal was that he should shoot at the plates when Ghiyasuddin said ‘Hum’. The poet Chand, who was also a prisoner with him, saw the preparations and recited this couplet: “The bow is drawn this time; who knows when it will be drawn again? O Chauhan, do not miss: with a single arrow, strike the one man.” Understanding the signal, Prithviraj fired when Ghiyasuddin said ‘Hum’ and struck Ghiyasuddin himself.⁴

The same is true now: the bow has been drawn this once. If, under the present government and with so many means of progress available, you still do not reform yourselves, then you are beyond help. ==Reform must mean progress in every respect: in religion, in work at home and outside it, in occupations, manners, conduct, physical strength, strength of mind, and social life; among children, young people, and the old; among women and men; among rich and poor; in every condition, community, and region of India.== Abandon everything that places a thorn in this path, whether people call you useless or shameless, Christian or corrupt. Look only at the wretched condition of your country, and do not listen to them.

Let dishonor stand before you and honor remain behind. The wise person should accomplish his task, for to let the work be destroyed is folly.

Those who call themselves friends of the country must rise, girded for action, sacrificing their comfort and offering up their wealth and reputation. Once a few lead by example, everyone will follow within a short time. Search for the root causes of your failings. Some hide behind religion, some behind the customs of the country, and some behind comfort. Drag those thieves out from every hiding place. Bind them and imprison them. What more can I say? ==If a man came into your home to commit adultery, you would seize and beat him in anger and, to the extent of your power, destroy him. In the same way, dig out by the roots and throw away everything that now forms a thorn on your road to progress.== Do not be afraid. Until one or two hundred people are disgraced, expelled from their caste, impoverished, imprisoned, or even killed, no country will reform.

You may now ask, “Brother, we do not even know what “progress” and “reform” really mean. What should we consider good? What should we adopt, and what should we discard?” I will therefore tell you a few things that come quickly to mind. Listen.

==Dharma is the root of every kind of progress, so Dharma should be reformed first.== See how closely religion and statecraft are joined among the English, and how they advance day by day. Leave them aside and look at your own society. Beneath the covering of Dharma, your traditions contain many forms of public policy, social organization, and medicine. Consider a few examples.

Why were the fair at Ballia and the practice of bathing here established? So that people who would otherwise never meet might travel five or ten kos,⁵ gather in one place once a year, meet one another, learn of one another’s joys and sorrows, and buy household articles unavailable in their villages. Why was the Ekadashi fast established? So fasting once or twice each month might cleanse the body. When you go to bathe in the Ganges, why are you instructed to pour water first over your head and only then place your feet in the river? So that heat from the soles does not rise to the head and cause illness. Diwali exists so that, on this pretext, a thorough cleaning takes place at least once a year. Holi exists so that fires lit in many places may cleanse the unhealthy air of spring. Your festivals are, in effect, your municipalities. Every festival, pilgrimage, and fast contains some practical wisdom.

The sages blended religious policy and social policy as thoroughly as milk and water. ==The trouble that arose later was that people failed to understand why the sages prescribed these religious observances, and began to regard the observances themselves as true religion.== Brothers, true religion consists only in Bhajan at the lotus feet of Parameshwar. All these other practices belong to social religion and may be examined and changed according to place and time.

A second trouble arose when descendants of those great and intelligent sages failed to understand their ancestors’ intentions, invented many new religious duties, and inserted them into the scriptures. Every date became a fast and every place became a pilgrimage site. Open your eyes, examine these matters again, and understand why those wise sages established each practice. Accept what suits the time and place and benefits society. Put into practice the many things that society regards as improper even though Dharmashastra permits them, such as sea travel and widow remarriage. Do not marry boys in childhood and thereby diminish their strength, vitality, and length of life. Are you their parents or their enemies? Allow their bodies to mature. Allow them to obtain some education. Let them acquire enough judgment to concern themselves with salt, oil, and firewood - the ordinary responsibilities of a household - and only then place their feet in the wooden stocks of marriage.

Abolish the Kulin system⁶ and polygamy. Educate girls as well, though not in the manner now in fashion, which causes harm instead of benefit. Educate them so that they learn the duties of their country and family, remain devoted to their husbands, and can easily educate their children. Vaishnavas, Shaktas, and the followers of other sects must abandon their mutual hostility. This is no time for such disputes. Hindus, Jains, and Muslims must come together. Whether a person is considered high or low in caste, respect everyone and judge each person according to merit. ==Do not wound people of the lower castes by treating them with contempt. All must unite.==

Our Muslim brothers, too, should cease to regard Hindus as inferior while living in Hindustan. They should treat Hindus as true brothers and avoid actions that cause them pain. When a house catches fire, elder and younger sisters-in-law must set aside their jealousy and put out the fire together. Through the influence of their religion, Muslims already possess with ease what Hindus cannot obtain: they have no caste divisions, no ritual restrictions around the kitchen and dining, and no prohibition against traveling to England. Yet it is deeply regrettable that Muslims have still done little to improve their condition. Many seem to imagine that the imperial courts of Delhi and Lucknow still survive. Friends, those days are gone. Abandon laziness and obstinacy.

Run beside the Hindus; one and one will make two. Cast aside the old habits. Do not ruin boys from childhood by making them read Mir Hasan’s ‘Masnavi’ and ‘Indar Sabha’. No sooner have they mastered the elementary primer than they put on tight clothes and begin humming a ghazal: “Śauq tiflī se mujhe gul kī jo dīdār kā thā, na kiyā hamne gulistā̃ kā sabaq yād kabhī” (From childhood I longed for the sight of the rose; I never learned a single lesson from the rose garden). Think: if boys are raised in this condition, why would they not go astray when they grow up? Do not even let them touch such books. Give them the best education possible. Stop depending upon pensions, stipends, or salaried posts. Teach boys a trade. Send them to England. Accustom them to hard work from childhood. Do not raise them in palatial indulgence and show them a path that leaves them ignorant of the world.

Hindu brothers, you too must give up your insistence upon competing doctrines and increase your love for one another. Repeat this great mantra: whoever lives in Hindustan, whatever his color or caste, is a Hindu - an inhabitant of this land.⁷ Help every such Hindu. Bengalis, Marathas, Punjabis, people of Madras, followers of the Vedas, Jains, Brahmos, and Muslims: take one another by the hand. Develop crafts and industries so that your wealth remains in your own country. See how, just as the Ganges divides into a thousand streams and enters the sea, your goddess of wealth flows by a thousand channels to England, France, Germany, and America. Even so trivial an article as a matchstick comes from abroad. Look at yourselves. The coarse cotton dhoti you wear was made in America. The longcloth tunic on your body came from England. You comb your hair with a French comb, while a German tallow candle burns before you.

It recalls the story of a carefree man who went to a gathering dressed in borrowed clothes. Recognizing the garments, one person said, “Why, that tunic belongs to so-and-so.” Another said, “And that cap belongs to someone else.” The man laughed and replied, “Only the moustache is my own.” Alas, you have been reduced to such a state that you cannot make even the ordinary things you need. Brothers, wake from sleep at last. Advance your country in every way. Read only those books, play only those games, and conduct only those conversations that serve your welfare. Do not depend upon foreign goods or foreign languages. Progress in your own country and in your own language.