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Speeches of Alagappa Chettiar |
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CONVOCATION
ADDRESS OF Mr. chancellor, Member of the University and my young friends on the threshold of graduation: I feel honored in being called upon to deliver the Convocation Address of our University. I am not unaware that neither by age nor by experience I am competent to perform this task. It was generous of the Chancellor to have asked me to do so. I have accepted the responsibility with diffidence, but my singularly happy associations with academic institutions, and my intimate contact with professors and students alike, have given me the courage to discharge this duty. Permit me to render my thanks to you Mr. Chancellor. In three years from now, our University will be celebration its Centenary. Starting its career as the only agency of higher education on this career as the only agency of higher education on this side if the Vindhyas, in the second half of the century of its life it has had the unique privilege of giving birth to a number of other Universities. After Mysore, Andhra, Annamalai and Travancore, has come the turn of Sree Venkateswara Universities and it is our duty and pleasure to wish Godspeed in its career. I am particularly happy to address you under the auspices of our pleasant duty to felicitate on your behalf and mine our distinguished Vice- Chancellor on the unique privilege conferred on him to be of service to the University for the fifth term in succession. If it were possible, I would prefer to talk to each one to you individually, rather than address a gathering. It is difficult for me to look upon this assembly in the mass. Actually, I see before me hundreds of young men and women, each naturally with a separate aspiration and a distinct hope for this strange interlude that we call life between the glimmering eternity of the past and unknown eternity of the future. Some of you will go through life in the quiet obscurity of middleclass contentment. Other may have to battle with the problems of comparative majority will choose congenial careers and fulfill useful roles in society as teachers, civil servants, engineers, doctors, lawyers or business men. Some of you will "ride the whirlwind and direct the storm", and through politics, religions or art, endeavor to bring a new heaven on an old earth. Each of you will have your measure of happiness and your measure of suffering. Far be it from me to advise you on the qualities that will enable you to compromise with the forces of inner inclination and external circumstance. Each of you will learn these lessons the hard way, the only way, and hammer out a little philosophy for yourself. But in a world in which God has endowed each person with an uncompromising individuality, so much so that even the lines on the hand or not the same for any two, and the pattern the mind is not the same for the same person for two moment in succession, what is it that can be laid down as enduring for all time and true for all? This is the problem that has faced the world since the dawn of civilization. This is the failure that men attempt to forget and recreate. When one contemplates the little system that have had their day and ceased to be, then turns one's eye to the contemporary scenes of men trying to legislate and order the universe towards the motion of some compulsory good; of the lust for power masquerading as political ideology; of science being harnessed to forge weapons of destruction on a cosmic scale; of the insidious increase of fear in the hearts of men, of the shadows that are creeping like an eclipse over the sunshine of personal liberty; one feels the imperative necessity for a little reflection. This is all I propose to do today; indeed, in a sense we shall do it together Let us look back a little. Till 1947 our conception of freedom was dominated by the urgency of achieving freedom from British rule. Sufficient thought was not bestowed on the implications that inhere in the concept of political freedom or the practical problems that arise in the wake of its exercise. Mahatma Gandhi invented the weapon of non-violent, non-co-operation. The Second World War weakened the proud nations of the West. The countries of Asia of their slumber with a lively realization of their own strength. Meanwhile, two opposing political doctrines are facing each other across the earth, poised for combat, while the world is watching uneasily for the storm to burst. This is the consummation that two thousands years of human effort has achieved, the finale that is looming in front, after Buddha and Christ, Galileo and Newton have lived and died. Ten years after the termination of the war, Winston Churchill was forced in sorrow to call the last volume of his monumental work; 'Triumph and triumph', because the great democracies after their triumph have resumed the follies that so nearly cost them their life. According to the late Professor Laski, 'we regard with a wry smile those who think that the development of education on a much wider scale will like "W If it were possible, I would prefer to talk to each one to you individually, rather than address a gathering. It is difficult for me to look upon this assembly in the mass. Actually, I see before me hundreds of young men and women, each naturally with a separate aspiration and a distinct hope for this strange interlude that we call life between the glimmering eternity of the past and unknown eternity of the future. Some of you will go through life in the quiet obscurity of middleclass contentment. Other may have to battle with the problems of comparative majority will choose congenial careers and fulfill useful roles in society as teachers, civil servants, engineers, doctors, lawyers or business men. Some of you will "ride the whirlwind and direct the storm", and through politics, religions or art, endeavor to bring a new heaven on an old earth. Each of you will have your measure of happiness and your measure of suffering. Far be it from me to advise you on the qualities that will enable you to compromise with the forces of inner inclination and external circumstance. Each of you will learn these lessons the hard way, the only way, and hammer out a little philosophy for yourself. But in a world in which God has endowed each person with an uncompromising individuality, so much so that even the lines on the hand or not the same for any two, and the pattern the mind is not the same for the same person for two moment in succession, what is it that can be laid down as enduring for all time and true for all? This is the problem that has faced the world since the dawn of civilization. This is the failure that men attempt to forget and recreate. When one contemplates the little system that have had their day and ceased to be, then turns one's eye to the contemporary scenes of men trying to legislate and order the universe towards the motion of some compulsory good; of the lust for power masquerading as political ideology; of science being harnessed to forge weapons of destruction on a cosmic scale; of the insidious increase of fear in the hearts of men, of the shadows that are creeping like an eclipse over the sunshine of personal liberty; one feels the imperative necessity for a little reflection. This is all I propose to do today; indeed, in a sense we shall do it together "Equality" and "Fraternity" have fallen from their high estate, the concept of freedom undergoes a spectacular change when it crosses frontiers". It is in such a world that we are building a new India. The problem that we have to face is whether in this test, we shall bring to bear atleast a part of the knowledge that we have gained from our own history, of thought as well as events; and of the lessons to be learnt from the success or failure resulting from the application of science in large-scale industries; and of the effect of scientific advancement on political power; or whether we shall mistaking steel and electric power as the main instruments of human happiness, and the extremity of a particular tenet as a measure of its value. Let us attempt to discover what it is in the quality of Indian thought that has enabled us to survive several centuries of political disaster and social obscurantism. Every civilization lays emphasis on some cardinal objective, in the attainment of which other and lesser objectives get submerged get, through not lost. The Greek Philosopher, Aristotle, said that man is a social animal because that finer faculty of men arte developed only in society. The ancient rishis of India felt that the search for truth and an explanation of the nature and purpose of life cannot be undertaken except in silence and solitude away from society. Therefore, has the civilization of the East given to the world what is best in human introspection? We owe to the West the concept of the nation, the music of the orchestra, political democracy, parliamentary government, the noble principles of freedom enshrined in the Common Law of England, the Achievements of the men of science, the large-scale industries that have enable the common man to share in an ever-widening scale of material property, and in the real of knowledge, the techniques associated with the scientific outlook of observation and experiment. The corollary of this progress, however, was to circumscribe the field of philosophical enquiry to a study of the individual in relation to society rather that in relation to the universe, and in proportion to the free area of scientific and political thought to limit the right of reason to reject the dogma imposed by a revealed religion. The conflict that Western philosophy has sought to reconcile is not the one between life and death, but the one between Freedom and Authority. Let us be clear and unequivocal about one thing. No amount of prosperity or security can ever become a substitute for the existence and vigilant preservation of a climate in which man can think freely, speak freely and within certain limits act freely. The qualities of the mind developed thereby are the only guarantee against the evils wrought by the possible unwisdom of those in power, and in favor of the acceptance of new ideas. If individuals fail to fight for this minimum right, the welfare state will deteriorate into a vast organization for the purveying of Government charity to a society, which may be classless but which has certainly, abdicated its heritage for the security of the stomach. It is in this contest that the history of India deserves a close study. The West studies the relation of man to man. The same earnestness was shown in India to a study of the relation of man to God. In Vedic times, they wondered at the mighty forces of nature, and propitiated the super-human agencies behind them. Soon, however synthesized all manifestation. Hinduism, says Professor Hiriyanna, is an experimented and realized that the true freedom was not freedom from death but freedom from birth, and in knowledge lay salivation. Fear was the cause of suffering and the knowledge was the freedom from fear. Several centuries latter, the Tamil saint, Appar, Sang "We are subject to
none; we fear not death". This freedom of faith and intellectual speculation being the primary pursuit of life, nothing was more natural than that the function of government should have been considered to be the preservation of the peace necessary for this pursuit. This was Rama Rajya, that held the scales even and enabled the individuals to practice his Dharma as he thought fit. Those who say that the Indians had little scene of history ignored the fact that in the scale of values as formulated by the Indians, the chronicles of kings were matters of no importance, certainly not worthy of the mental effort of great minds, and that in the remote villages of India where thought flourished, the change in dynasties, and the rise and fall of kingdoms were heard, if at all, as dim echoes aspect of knowledge then extant, ritual, teology, architecture, medicine, astronomy, erotics, law, music and dramaturgy, yoga and a hundred other subjects should be sufficient to show that the omission to write history was deliberate and appropriate to culture that concentrated on the subject and not the author. One also notices that in addition to freedom of thought and the minimum of government, ancient Indians life was characterised by practical adjustments of social relationship to the changing circumstances of successive ages. The vexed social questions of more recent years do not appear to have troubled the ancients over much. But at one stage in our history we lost the gift of free thought and courageous innovation and became hidebound followers of forms that had lost their meaning and usefulness. Alberuni, who visited India in the eleventh century, was fairly appalled at what he found. ' The Hindus' he wrote, 'believe that there is no country but theirs, no nations like theirs, and no kings like theirs, no religion like theirs, and no science like theirs. They are haughty, foolishly vain, self conceited and stolid. If they traveled and mixed with other nations they would soon change their mind, for their ancestors were not as narrow minded as the present generation'. The history of India for the nest several centuries till the impact of this criticism. We have to eradicate the middle past if we are to be true to our real tradition. In the building of new India we should synthesise the twin heritage of Eastern and Western thought. In doing so, however we have to guard against the dangers inherent in both. The focal point of the dangers inherent in both. The focal pinot of the danger at the present time is the possible disappearance of the individual freedom in the welfare state. It makes little difference to this danger in what manner or in favour of which particular creed freedom is suppressed: whether in favour of what is communism. Each of these political religions is being advocated with turbulent zeal and a degree of combativeness that make reasonable men wilt at their impact. It is dangerous to be communist in one country. It is equally dangerous not be a communist in another country. Witch-hunting of men of letters, professors, civil servants, artists and scientists is a feature of both the religions. To a person who thinks that reason has its place in this world it would be as repugnant to be prosecuted for indulging in "un-American activities" as to be liquidated for the crimes of "formalism" or "deviationalism". The secret police says what these crimes consist of and the prosecutor is the judge. No greater condemnation of a system can be conceived of than that it introduces orthodoxy in science, and punishes scientific heresy exactly as the church punishes religious heresy. The danger has been intensified a thousand-fold because the State is more powerful today than at any time in history. Science has strengthened the State. An army can be moved thousands of miles in a matter of hours. Air power has endowed the State with a weapon of coercing the civil population with dramatic intensity. The control of industry and trade gives the party in power the support of the most important sections of the community. The press whose natural function is to be in opposition to Government outside the legislatures is becoming haulting and cautious. The radio is under the control of the Government. The cinema is used for propaganda. Most important of all, education is used for dissemination of ideas that are considered suitable and any knowledge that is in official disfavour is killed by censorship. In fact the weapons available to the Government are so potent that by skillfully using them a party can remain in power almost for ever unless it perpetrates some folly so outrageous that it makes the worm turn. The inculcation of loyalty to a policy or purpose right from childhood is the surest way of the process is not a body of thought but the apparatus of thinking. A generation so brought up is made feel that it is thinking for itself and that its thoughts are right. This is how freedom of thought is destroyed by striking at the roots. It may be readily agreed that in the modern world the enlargement of the functions of Government in the interests of the community cannot be abrogated. We cannot possibly bring back the purely negative State that merely provides us the conditions for individual enterprise. At the same time it will be a tragedy if the State regulates the individuals and ushers into existence an era of unrelieved uniformity based on State-planning. We cannot allow ourselves to be planned against. The solution perhaps lies in the preservation of certain diversities within a unity of purpose; such as small enterprises create distinctive fabrics alongside of the uniformly good products of the mills, the small cultivators to whom agriculture is a way of life alongside of large estates; the villages communities alongside of cities; the development of local cultures alongside of national language and literature; the continuation of English at certain levels; and an overall freedom of association for the dissemination of any idea that does not advocate actual violence. In this view the difference that one finds already in India will be a blessing and not a hindrance to survival. The universities are the nurseries of thought and therefore can shape the future in a manner that this truth not long ago. I happened to be present at the centenary celebrations of the late Dr.Besant of revered memory when our Vice-Chancellor spoke on educational problems. That speech sowed the seeds of my interest in education. Out of those seeds have sprouted under the fostering care of our benign Vice-Chancellor and the University, an Arts College for women, a Professional College for Engineering and another for Teacher-trainees at Karaikudi. I may also mention with gratitude that it has been possible for me to associated with the College of Technology after my name, run by the University of Madras at Guindy, an institution that owes its birth and sustenance to the inspiring guidance of our revered Vice-Chancellor. Graduates of the year, while congratulating you on your achievements so far, I should like you to shape your individual life in conformity with social conduct unless you are sure you are right in your deviation. I trust you will take advantage of the opportunities that free India offers you in the field of agriculture, industry, commerce, medicine, co-operation and public service, to name only a few avenues where you can earn distinction. Your character, I hope, has been formed and you must have learnt to be respectful to religion without indifference to your interests, to be patient under provocation and resigned under misfortune, never to be dull in intellect or vulgar in your pursuits or be slow to profit by the advice of the elderly and the experienced. Your education so far and your experience hereafter will be happily fruitful only if you contribute your bit to secure a just balance in society, politically by throwing your weight on the side of law and order, to ensure the just balance of power, economically to increase efficiency in production and justice in distribution and socially by reverence for the rights and privileges of every individuals by generosity in the appraisal of worth and consideration for fallen merit. Let it be said of you that you too shared in the reconstruction of India that is taking shape before our eyes; an India that has lived but not died with might empires of the world, an India that shall be self-reliant, strong and free, the splendor of Asia and light the world. " JAI HIND "
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