Department of English,

Payyanur College, Payyanur

DISCOURSING DIVERSITIES

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Department of English,
Payyanur College, Payyanur

CONTENTS

1 The Story of a Dalit Woman’s Education and Job

2 The Election

3 Indian Constitution: Limited but Necessary

4 The Rich will make Temples for Siva

5 Centre-State Relations: Union Government, Not Central

Government
6 Nehru and Science in the Age of Corona virus

7 Democracy

8 Blackout

9 Ambedkar’s Concluding Speech in the Constituent

Assembly
10 Postcard from Kashmir

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Department of English,
Payyanur College, Payyanur

The Story of a Dalit Woman’s Education and Job

(Kumud Pawde, excerpt from her Autobiography)

The Story of a Dalit Woman’s Education and Job is an excerpt from the
autobiography of Kumud Pawde, “Antahspat”(The Inner Burst). She is the first Mahar
woman to complete her masters in Sanskrit Literature facing caste discrimination
throughout. After her matriculation she decided to do an MA in Sanskrit considering
her fine marks. Her neighbors ridiculed her and the people who discouraged her
were of her own caste. She decided to give reply to them only through her result and
studied hard. She had to go to the famous Morris College for MA which is known for
its learned professors and huge library. Hindus from high caste taunts her but she
ignored all of it and wondered what Savitribai Phule must have endured on account
of her husband Mahatma Jyotiba Phule’s zeal for women’s education.
She had some mixed experiences while she studied. Her teachers were all
fair to her and encouraged her. But many officials made ironical comments about her
scholarship as if she was having fun with the government money, which irritated her.
They acted as if it was some charity which she questions.
She passed BA with very good marks and was very happy. In the second year
of MA she went to the Post Graduate Department in the university where very well-
known scholars taught them. But the Head of the Department, a scholar of all India
repute did not like her learning Sanskrit and he made it clear. His talk was honeyed
and reasonable but filled with venom. She was terrified of him and often compared
him with Gokhale Guruji, her upper caste school teacher who inspired her with his
broadmindedness and affection. The professor was a great man with a doctorate
and an excellent teacher, exposed to modernity unlike orthodox Gokhale Gururji but
he failed to practice the philosophies he taught and was shriveled by tradition.
Eventhough she survived his taunts they made permanent wounds in her mind. She
passed with distinction. A congratulatory bouquet of flowers was send to her by
Professor Dr. Kolte, the Vice Chancellor of Nagpur University which symbolized his
pride in her achievement and boosted her joy and self-confidence.
Now she wanted to become a lecturer in Sanskrit and being the first woman
from a scheduled cate to pass with distinction in Sanskrit, she thought the
government would give her a job soon. But these illusions proved worthless. She

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attended interviews in Private colleges but it was of no use. Some said how she can
stay with them with such good marks. Some others made fun of her. Some called
her “government Brahmin” and taunted her. These people were not upper caste but
reformers from lower caste who thought themselves anti Brahmin but still could not
accept a Mahar girl would teach Sanskrit. She states that hypocrites like them in
respectable positions are responsible for the fall of the society. Even after two years
she remained unemployed. She presented her case in writing to Honorable Shri
Jagjivan Ram, Minister in Central Cabinet. He placed the letter before Pandit Nehru
who was astonished by it and sent her a reward of Rs. 250 asking her to meet the
Chief Minister of Maharashtra, who also sent her a telegram asking her to meet him.
She was hopeful again about getting a job, at least as a clerk in a government office
but the Chief Minister simply promised her that they will make efforts for her. He also
asked her to pursue research rather than running after a job. She lost all her control
and told him if he cannot give her a job he should say so. She does not need any
false hopes and promises. Research is fruit of mental peace. She cannot have
mental peace when she is starving she was fed up with everything that she spoke
out to the Chief Minister. Waiting for a job, she passed the first year of MA in English
Literature to keep herself engaged. She got married to an upper caste man and two
months after that she got Assistant Professorship at a government college. The
Deputy Director in the interview board wondered why she remained unemployed for
two years. She later became a Professor in the college she studied. But it still hurts
that she got the job because her surname and caste changed in marriage. The caste
of her maiden status remain deprived.

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Department of English,
Payyanur College, Payyanur

The Election
-Sitakant Mahapatra
The Election by Sitakant Mahapatra focuses on the present Indian political
reality. The poem is a narrative of an election day in India. The poem narrates the
incident of a politician coming to make a campaign for votes in a remote area. In the
beginning, the poet criticizes the politicians but at the end, the criticism moves to the
voters. The poem explains how election, meant for the welfare of people and which
could bring about the change in the country, becomes a site of corruption and
malpractices.
The Politician forces the villagers to accept the problems and difficulties he
has faced by travelling under the hot sun through rough roads to reach to them. We
find politicians, the servants of the public, as their masters. They claim that they are
leaving their comforts for the sake of the poor people. The politician says that the
villagers do not see the ‘hard work’ done by him because they have their own
problems. He triggers their problems to gain favour and comes to power.
The villagers suppress their desires as they know well that their condition will
never be changed. However, they hope that their children might be able to live in a
better way. They consider politicians as men with some magical powers to do
something for the poor. The people never try to bring the change on their own. So,
they remain in the same condition for ever.
The politicians succeed to lessen the heat of the sun during elections by
giving cool promises. They divert people’s attention from the welfare measures by
giving away the cheap goods during the election campaign. The people become
selfish in their demands and ask the politicians for favours. At the same time they
talk about the basic rights and social change. They cannot decide to which side they
should go and ultimately fail in making the right decision during elections. Thus
social issues like inequality, class-divide and poverty are not solved because of the
wrong choice of people. The failure of democracy is caused by the people and not by
the politicians.

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Department of English,
Payyanur College, Payyanur

Indian Constitution: Limited but Necessary

-Prof. Gopinath Ravindran
Professor Gopinath Ravindran
Professor Gopinath Ravindran is an Indian historian and current Vice-
Chancellor of Kannur University. He had his doctoral degree from Jawaharlal Nehru
University, Delhi. He was the Secretary of ICHR (Indian Council of historical
Research). He is known for his work on historical demography and agrarian regime.
He is also famous for his article on William Logan.
Indian Constitution: Limited but Necessary
Constitution is the foundational principle as far as any democracy is concerned.
In a democratic system, it is the corner stone upon which the democracy is built.
Prof. Gopinath Ravindran begins this essay by highlighting the significance of the
constitution. He is concerned about the fact that though Indian Constitution is
necessary, highlighting the role it has played in building present India, it has
limitations as far as the redistributive justices to millions of people living in poverty
and facing discriminations are concerned. He begins the essay by stating that the
Constitution serves as a legal foundation for the nation and sets forth the objectives
and values of the state and the relationship between the different elements of the
state including people. In addition to that, he analyses the strengths of the
constitution and the need to uphold the spirit of the constitution to guarantee decent
living condition for all sections of people irrespective of any barrier, economic,
political, communal or territorial.
Prof. Gopinath Ravindran speaks about the specialties of our constitution. Three
main points are highlighted:
1. Indian Constitution was drafted over a period of nearly three years by an
elected Constituent Assembly. The Constituent Assembly was formed on 6 th
December 1946 and it met on 9 thDecember 1946 for the first time from which
a seven member committee headed by B.R Ambedkar had been formed to
draft the constitution.
2. It is the longest written constitution in the world. It is running into about
140000 words. It had 22 parts, 395 articles and 8 schedules. Now it has 25
parts, 470 articles and 12 schedules.

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3. It invokes people of India as the source of the constitution unmediated by any

God or religion.
The Constituent Assembly
There were 389 members in the Constituent Assembly of which 292
represented the provincial legislatures that came into being in 1946. 93 were the
representatives of the Princely States and four were from the chief commissioner
provinces of Delhi, Ajmer-Merwara, Coorg and British Baluchistan. After 1947, after
the partition, a section of the members left. After June 1947, the Constituent
Assembly had only 299 members.
Strength of the Constitution
Our constitution has the potential to anticipate the changes that are needed in
future. We have provisions for amendments. But these amendments cannot be
made easily. There are rigorous procedures for these amendments. Some of these
amendments can be passed through simple majority in the parliament. For some
other amendments, special majority is needed in both the houses of the Parliament.
And in some other cases, special majority in both houses and particular number of
state assemblies are also required.
Kesavananda Bharati vs State of Kerala Case
Kesavananda Bharati judgement, is a landmark decision of the Supreme
Court of India that outlined the basic structure doctrine of the Indian
Constitution. The case is also known as the Fundamental Rights Case. The court
asserted its right to strike down amendments to the constitution that were in violation
of the fundamental architecture of the constitution.Kesavananda Bharati was an
Indian Hindu monk who served as the Shankaracharya (head) of Edneer Mutt,
a Hindu monastery in Kasaragod district, Kerala. He filed a case against the Land
Reform Bill of the Govt. of Kerala when there was an attempt to annex the territory
belonging to his institution. In 1973, 13 member constitution bench of the Supreme
Court of India gave a landmark judgment that the basic structure of the constitution
cannot be amended by the Parliament. It is a historic judgment in the sense that it
upheld the spirit of the constitution.
Another amendment Prof. Gopinath Ravindran speaks about in the essay is
the 42th amendment that effected changes in almost all sections of the constitution.
It was passed when internal emergency was operational in India. It was for the first
time that the preamble of the constitution was amended. It became a controversy

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because it gave the Prime Minister and the Parliament the power even beyond the
judicial review. The amends were in the line of making the Parliament and
Executives stronger and Judiciary weaker. The Janata Party Government who came
into power in 1977 repealed most of the amendments by subsequent amendments in
1977 and 1978. The essay says that our constitution, so far, has been able to
withstand the pressures even when there were huge majority of seats for the ruling
party. The basic structure doctrine came for the rescue of the constitution.
Context of the Rescue of the Constitution
We had a long freedom struggle. For about 200 years, we fought in organized
and unorganized ways against the imperial forces. There were different sections in
Indian society that took different positions with respect to the nationalist movements.
The members of the ancient regimes were easily defeated by the British. They took
sides with the British. Feudal Lords and a section of the religious nationalists also
supported British imperialism. The long drawn struggle of Indian Independence was
primarily led by the liberals and the leftists. They were carried by the Congress Party
and later the Congress Socialist Party. They carried this struggle zealously forward.
Though India got freedom, there was no structural change so that the lion part of the
Indian population is living in poverty and discrimination even now. There was no
redistribution of wealth and property. They got accumulated in the hands of very few
and poor people remained poor.
Another point he discusses is that constitution is the legal embodiment of the
values aspirations and anxieties of our national leaders. They have been sacrificing
their comforts for building a free and democratic India when they were framing the
Constitution; they had to take everybody to confidence for building a nation. It was a
huge task for the administrators to take India to progress. So the support of all
sections of the society is needed. All of their interest had to be considered. An
outright revolutionary transformation would not be possible. That would do more
harm.
The Historical events that led to the formation of the Constituent Assembly
The speaker goes back to history to point out our demands for democracy.
There were very organized demands for democracy from the early 20 th century
onwards. In 1927, The Indian Statutory Commission (Simon Commission), a group
of seven Members of Parliament under the chairmanship of Sir John Simon, was
sent by the British to review the situation in India and report on India’s constitutional

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progress for introducing constitutional reforms as promised in 1919. The

Commission was strongly opposed by many Indians. It was opposed by Nehru,
Gandhi, Jinnah, the Muslim League, and Indian National Congress because it
contained seven members of the British Parliament but no Indians. Instead we setup
a commission headed by Mothilal Nehru in 1928 to determine the principles of our
constitution. In 1938, during the civil disobedience movements, the Congress Party
repeatedly put for the demand for a constitution for India which is drafted by the
Indians not by the British. In 1935, the Government of India Act was passed. It gave
autonomy to the provinces and the provincial legislatures were formed. In 1942, the
Cripps Mission was sent to India by the British. They agreed that the Indian
constitution would be ultimately prepared by the Indians. After the Second World
War, the Labour Party Government under Clement Attlee assumed charge in
England. In 1946, Cabinet Mission planned and recommended the Constituent
Assembly of India which came into being in December 1946.
Nehru called the constituent assembly “a nation on the move”. It had to
understand the aspirations of the people. Prof. Gopinath Ravindran says that the
basic structure doctrine ensures India as a sovereign, socialist secular democratic
republic and a welfare state based on directive principles and strong federal system.
It has been successful in maintaining the unity and integrity of the country. We have
to give special care to safeguard the religious minorities and interests of the people
from different territories. He refers to many communal riots unleashed in India in the
past years. He reiterates that the constitution has been successful in ensuring
political democracy and secularism. But he adds, it could perform only a limited role
in redistributive justice to millions of people living in poverty. He quotes Ambedkar,
“Parliamentary democracy in India developed a passion for liberty but unfortunately
this passion for liberty swallowed the commitment to equality.”
Prof. Gopinath Ravindran reiterates that though the constitution could perform
only a limited role in ensuring redistributive justice to millions of people living
desperately in poverty, it has, till now, protected our democratic rights and the
secular fabrics of the country. He praises the constitution for laying down a
foundation for a democratic India and accommodating changes that are likely to
happen and providing rooms for amendments and at the same time putting in check
for amending the basic structure of the constitution.

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In the concluding part of the essay, Prof. Gopinath Ravindran asks us to be

vigilant against any attempt to alter the basic structure as well as the directive
principles, be it in the name of religion, nationalism economic efficiency. As
responsible citizens of this democratic country, it is our responsibility to make sure
that the spirit of the constitution is upheld. He highlights that the spirit of the
constitution should reign supreme in a democratic country at any cost.

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Department of English,
Payyanur College, Payyanur

The Rich will make Temples for Siva

-Basavanna
Worship of God in India is varied and people of different localities have
diverse rituals and conventions. It is highly undemocratic to homogenize everything
to an almighty at a particular place. It is not necessary to visit temples to feel the
presence of God. Only the rich people will be able to build huge temples and make
pilgrimages. In this context, it is important to recover the local traditions.

Poet Basava of the Bhakti tradition addresses the topic of God and worship in
the poem “The Rich will Make Temples for Shiva”. He states that the rich people
make temples for Shiva, and asks what the poor must do to prove their faith. Rich
people have the means to finance temples, but the poor do not. So, the poet asks
what alternative the poor have to show their devotion. Basava gives the solution
offered by saints everywhere: make the body itself a temple. Different parts of the
body are different parts of the temple structure. The legs are pillars, the body the
shrine, the head a cupola of gold.

By making the body a temple, the people dedicate their lives to God. Ordinary
person can worship God. The inner temple of the body is far superior to the material
temple. Temples built by humans do not stand forever. The temple of the body shall
remain for generations. People will carry devotion in their bodies. It is important that
he is not invoking the Shiva of Kashi or Kailasa. The poet calls to his chosen deity-
the Shiva of his locality, Lord Shiva at Koodalasangama, the lord of the meeting
rivers, in Karnataka.

In Kerala too, there were Ezhuthachan and Poonthanam as Akka Mahadevi

and Basavanna in Karnataka. The temple-centred worship of the Brahmins and
class, caste and gender issues of their period were addressed by those saintly
poets. The exploitation of the poor in the names of religious worship was resisted by
imagining alternatives. The rich make temples for Shiva, the poor make their bodies
into temples, the poor have to show their devotion.

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Department of English,
Payyanur College, Payyanur

Centre –State Relations: Union Government, Not Central

Government

(Heras Memorial Lecture By Nani A. Palkhivala, Bombay, Febraury 18, 1972)

Nani Ardeshir Palkhivala was an Indian jurist and liberal economist. He was
born in a Parsi family in Bombay in 1920.He had his master’s degree in English
Language and Literature. Later, he was enrolled at Government Law College,
Bombay where he discovered that he had a gift of unravelling the intricacies of
jurisprudence. He started practicing in the Supreme Court of India and became one
among the great interpreters of the Constitution of India. He was committed to the
legality as well as the morality of the constitution. He had appeared before the
Supreme Court a number of times when constitutional issues are involved. He was
offered a seat in the Supreme Court in 1963 that he subsequently declined. Later he
was offered the position of Attorney- General in 1968 by Govinda Menon, then Law
Minister in the Congress Government. In 1977, he was appointed as Indian
Ambassador to the United States by the Janata government headed by Morarji
Desai and he served in the capacity till 1979. There are a number of instances where
Nani A Palkhivala appeared in the rescue of the spirit of the Constitution.
Kesavananda Bharati vs State of Kerala case is an example for such an instance
that made him prominent. A book edited by General Nilendra Kumar entitled Nani
Palkhivala, A Role Model by Major discusses 150 constitutionally important cases for
which Palkhivala appeared before the Supreme Court.
The chapter titled “Centre-State Relations: Union Government, Not Central
Government” is originally a speech delivered by Nani A Palkhivala in Bombay in
1972 as a part of a memorial lecture. The lesson discusses the constitutional rights
guaranteed to the states and how these rights were taken away by the central
governments. His speech revolves around the idea that India is a federal state.
Indian Constitution borrowed the concept of federalism from the Canadian
constitution. India is a federal system but with more tilt towards a unitary system of
government. So, it is sometimes considered a quasi-federal system as it has
features of both a federal and a unitary system. A part of the Article 1 of the Indian
Constitution read “India, that is Bharat, shall be a union of states”. Elements of

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federalism were introduced into modern India by the Government of India Act of
1919 which separated powers between the centre and the provincial legislatures.
India is a federal country because of the following reasons:
 There are levels of governments—Central Government, State Government and
Local Government.
 Each level of government administers over the same region, but they have their own
jurisdiction in matters of administration, taxation and legislation.
 The Government at each level derives its power from the Constitution of the country.
Thus, the Central Government cannot easily dilute the powers of the State or Local
Governments.
 The basic principles of the Constitution and the rights given to the people cannot be
changed by only one tier of the Government. It requires the consent of governments
at both levels.
 Both levels of the Government can collect taxes from the people according to the
guidelines of the Constitution of the country.
 The Indian Constitution contains three lists which contain subjects in which the Union
and the State Governments may form laws. Only central government can make laws
in the Union List and state government in the state list. Subjects related to the
interests of both Central and State Governments are included in the concurrent list.
Nani A Palkhivala points out that the union government is acting as the
centre. He adds that it should not be a central government but a union government.
He delivered this speech immediately after India’s winning of Bangladesh Liberation
War and Indo-Pakistani War in 1971 that made the central government standing in
the limelight. These achievements made the government slightly despotic and
dominant to try to control over the privileges of other constitutional functionaries like
the states, the judiciary and the people. We had seen this increasing despotism
culminating in the emergency period in 1975 against the democratic principles and
fundamental values of the constitution.
Nani A Palkhivala delivered this speech 22 years after India became a
republic. He says, during this period various principle underlying constitutions have
been drawn overboard. The values of human dignity and pubic justice have been
subverted. The provisions regarding the powers of the states including the powers to
deal with industry, trade and commerce had been perverted. Many of the provisions
that guaranteed certain powers to the states have been disrespected by the central

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government. He adds that the states were reduced to the positions where they have
far less power to deal with industry, trade and commerce than the second class
native states during the British Raj. Princely states during British Raj were treated
better, he argues. It is significant that the constitution speaks about union not centre.
The union government claims that it is a central government. They are assuming
powers beyond what is given in the constitution. The concept of a centre is
adversarial with the constitutional scheme of the union of states. Palkhivala even
goes far to argue that in the exercise of the important and significant powers the
states have the right to go wrong in freedom rather than go right in being enthralled
by the centre. He claims that there is nothing wrong in states going wrong to uphold
its freedom. The states need not to live in slavery under the centre. The constitution
guaranteed good checks and balances between the powers of the states and the
central governments. The constitution has legal and moral provisions to see that the
rights of the states are protected and India remained as the union of states not as an
administrative unit with a strong centre. This concept of a strong centre is only a
self-cited concept by the union government.
In the concluding part of the speech, Palkhivala assures that the time will
come soon when the states refute the claims of the centre and try to win their
constitutionally guaranteed powers. The day of inevitable fall of unconstitutional and
unjust supremacy exercised by the union government over their state governments
will soon happen. To cement his reassurance, he borrows the words of famous
American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson that claim that “the man who thinks he
may live as freely as his unconsidered desires prompt him and yet not carry the
burden of an eventual reckoning, is binding his own life to a hollow dream. Whoever
sins against his fellows or against himself pronounces his own sentence thereby”. He
argues that though its operations are often unseen and not always be found in the
stone built courts, justice will do its operations whenever and wherever necessary. If
the union government is disrespecting the rights of the states, they will, sooner or
later, raise in rebellion to refute the claims of the central government. Even after
Palkhivala’s speech, we have seen many instances of clash of the centre and the
states in India especially when the centre and the states are ruled by different
political parties. So, Palkhivala’s speech has contemporary relevance and it will be
pertinent in the future also.

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Department of English,
Payyanur College, Payyanur

Nehru and science in the age of corona virus

-Santosh Paul and Dr Harsh Hegde

The essay begins by introducing us to the alarming problems that we face

today i.e the increasing number of people who are infected with the corona virus.
Nehru`s vision of science and his efforts in creating a scientific society gains
immense importance and relevance. Science, according to Jawaharlal Nehru, was
the major triumph of the human mind and he believes that this could liberate
humankind from illness, want and misery. This lesson is highly significant and
relevant in the current scenario as we are all hit hard by corona virus and are going
through an era of pandemic. In this context, Nehru`s concepts of science become
important.
He believed that only science can solve the problems of hunger and poverty,
of insanitation and illiteracy, of superstition and deadening custom and tradition, of
vast resources running to waste, of a rich country inhabited by starving people.
Nehru offers science as a solution to all the problems that we face today.
Scientific temper is a phrase used by Nehru in 1946 in his book the
discovery of India. This phrase denotes an attitude of approaching life and world
applying one`s critical faculty. The use of rational faculty for observation, analysis,
hypothesis, trial and testing and correction in the case of new evidence is the
scientific method.
Nehru understood the important role of scientific temper in nation-building.
Nehru’s interest in science and technology can be traced back to his opting for
Science Tripos in Cambridge and he had associations and friendships with leading
British scientists of the age like James Jeans, Arthur Eddington.
Creating scientific institutions for nation-building
Nehru played a major role in establishing many scientific institutions in India.
Nehru`s blueprint was twofold. He wanted to replicate world-class institutions here in
India. His celebrated visit to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1949
ultimately led to the creation of the 5 iconic Indian Institutes of Technology in
Kharagpur (1950), Bombay (1958), Madras (1959), Kanpur (1959), and Delhi (1961).
(Now 23 IITs including Palakkad)

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Secondly, he had the ability to induct or bring the greatest scientific names of
the times into nation-building. Vikram Sarabhai, Sir C V Raman, Homi Bhabha,
Sathish Dhawan, S S Bhatnagar and many others were to run the premium institutes
of scientific learning and research.
He was influential in the creation of Department of Atomic Energy (1954), the
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (1954), the Physical Research Laboratory (1947),
Indian Space Research Organization (1962), Council of Scientific and Industrial
Research (CSIR) (1942).
Under the stewardship of S S Bhatnagar, Nehru helped set up the National
Chemical Laboratory (Pune), the National Physical Laboratory (New Delhi), the Fuel
Research Station (the Glass & Ceramics Research Institute (Calcutta) and the
National Metallurgical Laboratory (Jamshedpur, Jharkhand).
Nehru believed that there is no boundary for science. Equally important was
the role of scientific temper in nation-building i.e we have to develop a positive
attitude towards scientific advancements
Nehru’s idea of public institutions adopting the utilitarian principle of the
greatest good to the greatest number assumes significance. In the post-
independence period, revolutionary attempts and mass campaigns were made by
the socialist policies of the government to eradicate smallpox, polio, plague and
prevented the growth of many other deadly diseases. With the introduction of
different plans and methods to eradicate such epidemics the levels have decreased
tremendously.
In 1951, smallpox-related deaths totalled 1,48,000 and in a span of 10 years,
it was reduced to 12,300 deaths. Every 5-year plan began to dedicate more and
more resources to fight these epidemics
The plague which accounted for 3% of deaths around 1940 was completely
eradicated by the middle of the 1950s.
Efforts were being made to control venereal diseases, leprosy, filariasis,
diphtheria, typhoid, whooping cough, pneumonia, meningitis, rabies which were
endemic. This was brought under control by public healthcare systems and
accessible and affordable medicine and widespread government-initiated vaccination
programs. The importance of public healthcare systems is underlined here.
The essay also emphasizes the need to build new medical colleges and
upgrade existing ones and to bring in a larger number of medical practitioners. The

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number of medical colleges rose from 15 in 1946 to 81 in 1965 and the number of
students admitted also increased.
Nehruvian influence in policy making is visible in different parts of our country
as the world fights the deadly pandemic. Nehru’s optimism and faith in man’s quest
for science will always ring a bell in this age of Corona virus. He was aware of the
wonders that human beings could do. Nehru wrote to his daughter in Glimpses of
World History in 1934, “ sanitation and health and the conquest over some diseases
depend on science.” Nehru again emphasizes here the importance of science.
Nehru was influential in the establishment of institutions relating to medical
science. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (New Delhi) was set up in 1956,
Maulana Azad Medical College (New Delhi) in 1958, Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of
Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (New Delhi) in 1961, the National
Institute of Virology in 1952. Nehru placed his faith on science, and the scientific
institutions that he has built with the help of the ablest of men of his time stand as a
testimony to his contribution for the advancement of science in India. These
institutions will help us to confront and overcome this devastating pandemic.

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Payyanur College, Payyanur

Democracy
-Langston Hughe
Langston Hughes was an African American writer and an important figure of
the Harlem Renaissance. Harlem Renaissance is the flowering of black intellectual,
literary, and artistic life that took place in the 1920s (particularly between 1924-1929)
in a number of American cities, particularly Harlem. It was known as the "New Negro
Movement", named after “The New Negro”, a 1925 anthology edited by Alain Locke.
Hughes sought to honestly portray the joys and hardships of working-class black
lives, avoiding both sentimental idealization and negative stereotypes.
Democracy:
Democracy is a narrative poem. Langston Hughes states certain facts in a
direct and straight forward manner. The poem is about the importance of attaining
democracy as it is denied to certain groups of people. He is becoming the voice of
the voiceless. He points out that there is injustice in democracy and not everyone
gets it. He says democracy will not come this year nor ever through compromise and
fear.
He wants the people especially the black Americans to act and be active in
attaining their rights. The right to vote is a freedom granted in democracy and a
freedom that the poem concerns itself with in its discussion of democracy. Langston
Hughes encourages the people not to take the issue of democracy lightly; it is a
serious issue and something crucial. He asks for his right as a human being and
does not want to be discriminated on the basis of his colour. He wants equal right for
all and intends to send this message sharply and clearly.
In this poem of five stanzas, he portrays the ways in which the Black
Americans were treated. They were tortured, humiliated and harassed and were not
given the freedom to enjoy basic human rights. The use of enjambment in these
lines makes the whole poem flow quite easily and smoothly.
He says he also has the same rights like the other fellow and has the right to
stand on his own two feet and to own the land. This means that he has the right to
be independent. He gives emphasis to his independence and his right to be self-
reliant. He says I have the same right as you. In this stanza the words “stand” and
“land” rhyme. This adds certain solidness to the statement.

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Department of English,
Payyanur College, Payyanur

He is tired of people who ask him to wait and wait for the things to take its
own course; he is not ready to accept these words as he doesn’t feel the same way.
He believes that one cannot live merely on the hopes of tomorrow. Tomorrow is
another day. He doesn’t want freedom when he is dead. And he says he cannot live
on tomorrow`s bread. That is if he is hungry today, he needs to pacify his hunger by
eating on the same day itself. He cannot feed on tomorrow`s bread. Similarly, in the
case of freedom he needs it today and cannot wait for it any longer. He is asking for
his rights and wants it now itself when he is alive and when he is able to enjoy all his
rights and freedom. Here food is used as a metaphor to exemplify freedom.
In the fourth stanza he uses another metaphor i.e. freedom is a “strong seed”
that’s planted “In a great need”. Freedom is important and we all want freedom. It is
a great need to all of us and the need is very strong. We realise the value of freedom
only when it is denied to us. He is speaking for a group of such people to whom
freedom is denied. He is speaking for the African Americans as a whole and for all
the people who are denied freedom based on the colour of their skin. By using the
seed as a metaphor for freedom, the speaker is saying that it will grow steadily and
then flourish. Freedom will allow his community to blossom in strength and then
benefit the larger American community and the world community.
The fifth stanzais strong and powerful and is noted for its effective and perfect
end rhymes. The words “too” and “you” emphasise the point that the speaker is just
like “you,” the listener. He deserves to “live here” and he wants to enjoy the same
freedom that the oppressors experience. He says I live here too. The importance of
freedom is emphasised again.

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Department of English,
Payyanur College, Payyanur

Blackout
- RogerMais

'Blackout' is a short story by Roger Mais. It is set in Jamaica and is about

racism and the contrasts of different races, sexes and cultures.
The story starts off by explaining the blackout in the city as part of the war
time policy of the country. The general atmosphere of discomfort and tension over
the city is described. A White American woman is waiting at a bus stop. She is not
bothered or unnerved by the darkness because she is an American woman (who is
not easily scared) and also knows that with a loud scream, she can easily gather a
group of people around her for assistance.
A black man slowly approaches her and asks for a light for his cigarette. As
she does not have matches, she offers him her cigarette and as he thanks her, she
throws the cigarette away. She does so because she is disgusted that a Black man
touched her cigarette and does not want to smoke it anymore. After this instance,
there's a moment of discomfort and she asks him why he is still there. He passes a
comment on her action. He stays and keeps talking about her apparent wealth and
as he talks, she becomes more uncomfortable. The conversation between the two
then focuses on gender and race. At that moment the reader can sense that the
woman is starting to get interested in this situation, and that she might actually be
looking at it as an adventure. But he tells her that she is not his type, which
undermines her. During the conversation the reader can also see that the woman
has some very racist thoughts.
After a while he sees the bus coming and points at it. She gets on the bus and
as it starts moving, she thinks of looking back at him, but thinking of the society; she
does not. However, the man picks up the cigarette from the gutter.
`

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Department of English,
Payyanur College, Payyanur

Ambedkar’s Concluding Speech in the Constituent

Assembly

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in his concluding speech in the Constituent Assembly

outlines certain standards that are to be maintained if India is to progress as a
nation. Ambedkar warns against taking for granted that a diverse country like India
would automatically become a nation.
If only we were ever vigilant, we could retain the freedom that was at hand.
He cautioned that the working of a Constitution does not depend on the drafting of
the document itself. Ultimately, its effect depends on those who implement it. One
must put into practice things guaranteed by the constitution.
The speech highlights the significance of parliamentary democracy. The
proceedings of the Assembly didn’t become dull as no member surrendered to the
party discipline. Party discipline, in all its rigidity, would have converted this
Assembly into a gathering of “yes men.” Ambedkar listened to the voice of the
opponents as well. In our times when the role of the opposition is often ruled out as
mere noise, Ambedkar’s readiness to listen to them becomes important.
Referring to historical events such as the invasion of Sind by Mohammed-Bin-
Kasim, the invasion by Mohammad Ghori to fight against Prithviraj Chauhan, as well
as disunity among Indians in the fight against the British colonial rule in 1857,
Ambedkar has noted that, “…not only India has once before lost her independence,
but she lost it by the infidelity and treachery of some of her own people.”
In this context, he went on to speak about the dangers of placing Creed over
Nation. History would repeat and this thought filled him with anxiety. This is
deepened by the understanding that in addition to our old enemies in the form of
castes and creeds we are going to have many political parties with different and
opposing political motives.
First of all, we must hold fast to ‘constitutional methods’ of achieving our
social and economic objectives. It means we must abandon the Grammar of
Anarchy, the bloody methods of revolution, like civil disobedience, non-cooperation
and satyagraha. The second thing is not to lay our liberties at the feet of great men.
So many men have rendered life-long services to the country. Hero-worship will lead
to degradation and to gradual dictatorship. The third thing is that we must make our

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Department of English,
Payyanur College, Payyanur

political democracy a social democracy with underlying principles of equality, liberty

and fraternity.
Two things are to be taken into serious consideration. The first one is equality
in the social and economic life. There is graded inequality in India. Some are
elevated and some others are degraded. Some are very rich and some others are
utterly poor. The second one is fraternity. How can people divided into several
thousands of castes be a nation? The castes are antinational. In India there are
castes… We must overcome all these difficulties if we wish to become a nation in
reality.
Ambedkar’s final words on the topic sums up his views on the measure of
responsibility owed to preserve the idea of India, as envisioned in the Constitution.
Let us not be late in identifying and removing the evils that lie across our path and
make people to prefer Government by the people and not Government for the
people. “If things go wrong, we will have nobody to blame except ourselves,” he
concluded.

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Department of English,
Payyanur College, Payyanur

Postcard from Kashmir

-Agha Shahid Ali
The poem "Postcard from Kashmir" by Agha Shahid Ali is the opening piece
of the volume The Half-inch Himalayas. In this poem, the poet expresses his love for
his homeland Kashmir. The poet also expresses his concern over the turmoil that
later affected the serenity of Kashmir.
The poet has received a postcard from Kashmir with a beautiful image of
Kashmir. The beautiful Kashmir is shrunk in size to fit the 4 by 6 inches postcard
size. It's pristine glory is lost. Kashmir is his home. He talks about the neat
photograph of Kashmir , but the present reality surrounding Kashmir is not so neat.
The poet narrates the difference between what is reality and what is portrayed in the
postcard image of Kashmir. While looking at the photograph, the poet says "This is
home". The poet relives his lost memories. The poet knows that the chance to go
back to Kashmir is limited. So he feels that this is the closest he can be to his home.
In that postcard image, the colours are brilliant. But, the reality is different. The poet
says that his love for Kashmir is so overexposed and so glorified, but at the same
time, it is distorted and blurred. The pain of the poet can be seen in these lines. The
image that is there in the postcard is clear but his memory is vague. It is like a black
and white negative. His memories of Kashmir are now fading.
This poem presents the poet's love for Kashmir and it also expresses his pain
for the present deteriorated condition of that place.

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