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Deen Dayal Dashottar was inspired by Gandhi at the
early age of 13 as a young man in the former Central Indian Province.
Too young to join Gandhi’s national movement he nevertheless
resolved to take up Gandhi’s call to boycott English cloth.
Since then Deen Dayal has come to mould his life in Gandhian
philosophy.
I picked up strand of my
story the day I went to see Deen Dayal Dashottar. If found him
sitting serenely in his study, spinning yarn at a hand operated
contraption that seemed almost like a mini mill powered by a wooden
chakra-powerful symbol of self-reliance that Gandhi espoused.
Gandhi was not against
the use of machines, nor against industrialization. Deen Dayal was
quick to respond adding, He was against machines that displaced human
beings. And, instead of mass production, he advocated production by
masses. In fact, Gandhi welcomed labour saving devices such as the
sewing machine and like this ambar charkha that I am using.
In the 30s when Deen
Dayal was an impressionable young man, the atmosphere was changed
with ideas and there was a whole range of ideologies to choosen from.
If thee was a special appeal in Marxism, there was also the
fascination for intellectual traditions of Freud and Darwin. And of
course, there was radical nationalism of Shaheed Bhagat Singh and his
compatriots. But young Deen Dayal chose the silent path of
non-violence advocated to Gandhi.
While Deen Dayal
continued his formal schooling, he simultaneously educated himself in
Gandhian literature. And after earning his Master’s degree in
Philosophy in 1942, he joined Teacher’s Training College at
Ajmer where his chief attraction was Basic Education propounded by
Gandhi. Meanwhile, he had already married Sushila who had taken her
training in infant education. In 1943, Deen Dayal along with his wife
and one child, left his hometown, Ratlam to go and settle in Udaipur,
the City of Lakes in old Rajputana.
It was the premier
institution of Vidya Bhawan-a progressive school at Udaipur that was
attracting intellectual talent from around the country and abroad.
Vidya Bhawan had also
established its own Basic School on the outskirts of the city. From
its inception, Deen Dayal took keen interest in the work undertaken
there and developed an intimate relationship while continuing to
teach at Vidya Bhawan. Then in 1956, Deen Dayal was called to head
the Basic School where the served five long fruitful years. During
his tenure he got the opportunity to be in touch with the wider
implementation of Gandhi’s Basic Education at provincial and
national level and came to grips with many a pain and passions of
putting precepts into practice.
Vinobha Bhave had
inherited the mantle of Gandhi after the passing away of the Mahatma.
In the true mould of Gandhi Vinoba had taken to long padyatras
or foot-marches, going from one village to another, making personal
appeal to landowners to voluntarily give up some of their surplus
lands to the landless rural poor as acts of social justice called
Bhudan. In January 1959, Vinoba came calling to Udaipur region
for Bhudan and Deen Dayal along with the staff of Basic School joined
his foot-march for the period of five days that Vinoba took to pass
through this area. This was the first direct social experience Deen
Dayal had of a Gandhian idea in action. He yearned to get involved in
social work at a national level. But with three growing children,
there were yet some domestic duties to fulfill. And while Sushila,
his wife managed Vidya Bhawan’s, Bal Bhawan or Nursery, Deen
Dayal continued his teaching career. As the years rolled by gently, a
new restlessness began to pull Deen Dayal towards the center stage of
the Bhudan movement.
In 1969, a unit of
Gandhi’s Shanti Sena or the Peace Bridgade that sought to combat
communal and social violence, was established in Udaipur with Deen
Dayal as its Convener. In the same year, the whole country was caught
in the throes of a terrible drought-Bihar being one of the worst
affected states in country. Taking leave from his school, Deen Dayal
went to work in famine relief as a volunteer. Based in the state
capital Patna, Deen Dayal worked under Jaya Prakash Narayan-another
leading disciple of Gandhi and torch bearer of Gandhi’s
Sarvodaya Movement that called for making a society, based on
truth and non-violence. During the period of six months that he
worked in famine relief administration, Deen Dayal came to be
recognized for his organizational abilities. He also came in close
contact with the organization and workers of the Survodaya
Movement that left a deep impression on him.
It wasn’t surprising
that in 1969, he prematurely resigned from his duties at Vidya Bhawan
and became a full time voluntary worker of Sarvodaya. From
time to time he was called upon to organize particular aspects of the
movement at the national level. With his reputation of organizational
wizardry, it was natural that Deen Dayal was invited to Wardha, to
organize the national office of Sarvodaya at Gopuri.
Along with his work with
Sarvodaya, he also found himself involved with Bhudan Movement which
was in full swing under a renewed name of Gramdan signifying
involvement of entire villages. For four continuous years Deen Dayal
participated in about a score of intensive campaigns of Gramdan
throughout the country.
In his twenty five odd
years of work with the Sarvodaya, Deen Dayal has been organizing
local, district and divisional level units while his main job is
sorting out problems of Gramdan in some of the neighboring districts
of Udaipur as its Chief Officer. In addition he has also been editing
a monthly bulletin Udaipur Sarvodaya Friend, giving information about
Gandhian and related activities from Udaipur region.
Sarvodaya represented a
holistic approach to life while I only got a piecemeal experience
working for the organization. I now wanted to experiment with the
totality of the ideology. Said Deen Dayal. His opportunity came in
1990 when he started work at Kadia-Sushila’s ancestral village
22 kilometers north of Udaipur. Here he established a Gram Seva
Mandal or a center of village community service. With a little help
from his friends and associates, he began to give shape to different
aspects of Gandhian Philosophy.
There are things that are
apparent-as one does see a nursery for infants as also a gau sadan
or a shelter for cows-a concept dear to the heart of the Mahatma.
There are things that are not so apparent and become so, only when
pointed out-the community water pump, the road under construction,
the repairs in the village school building. And then there are things
of the attitude. How does one touch the minds of the people? What is
truly amazing to witness is his grassroots level contact with the
people of Kadia-farmers, artisans and others.
I accompanied him on his
round of the village. At 81 I found him walking briskly. There was no
doubt that for his years he looked remarkably fit and agile, meeting
and greeting people, half his age. Soon a small gathering collected
at the mukhiya’s or the village headman’s house and
a lively discussion ensued on Gram Swaraj or village autonomy-a
Gandhian dream yet to be fulfilled. Listening to the animated
discussion, I realized that Dean Dayal’s work at Kadia at once
marked a new beginning as well as a culmination of his lifetime’s
devotion to Gandhian thought.
How does it feel to be
married to a man wedded to Gandhian philosophy, I asked Sushila.
Frail from fighting with cancer, she told me that she always
supported her husband because he was a revolutionary in his own
right. I could see she was not ht submissive kind of wife. That
strength of character I could see in the Dashottar daughters who said
that they were proud of their Gandhian parents.
Rekha, the elder daughter
recalls her father’s Gandhian eccentricity of meticulous account
keeping of every paise spent. This was an important habit I acquired
since it now h4elps me to keep my salaried family budget within
limits. But it is teenaged Megha, the Dashottar’s granddaughter,
who is most attached to the grandfather and his work. As Deen Dayal
says with an infectious laugh, she is my secretary.
How come there are no
young followers of Gandhi? Has Gandhi lost relevance in our times?
Who says, retorts Deen Dayal. This is not true. There are many young
people working with Gandhi’s ideas and not just in India but
around the world. And the world recognizes the relevance of Gandhi.
Deen Dayal went on to explain that firstly, the age of mass movement
was over and only committed individuals journeyed on the path of
Gandhi. And secondly, it was not necessary for two individuals to
work together since Gandhian thought is interpreted by each
individual in his or her own unique way. For Deen Dayal ever clothed
in homespun khadi and thinning white hair, Gandhism was touched with
spirituality.
Before leaving Udapipur,
I went to say goodbye and found him spinning yarn in the meditative
silence of his study. It seemed like a deeply religious experience.
Surely, it is, Deen Dayal reiterated saying, you see when I sit and a
pin, I actually see the non-manifest latent God hidden in cotton come
out in the manifest shape of the yarn.
Now there are many other
strands to Deen Dayal’s story. Like his upvaas or
fasting. His padyatras or foot marches. His maun of
silent prayers. His ecological farming or naturopathy. And of course,
there were other more subtle shades of Gandhian attitudes, elements
and ideas. I did not know how to weave them all to present the rich
tapestry of the life and times of Deen Dayal Dashottar-a man who had
anyway woven his own life in the fabric of Gandhian thought and
philosophy.
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