Swarajya, January 2, 1965
It is the convention to go lyrical on new year day; but the poetry in India’s New Year 1965 would have to be tragic and so it is best we drop poetry and speak in plain prose.
There is no hope for progress or prosperity for mankind in Statist economy. It is against natural laws and against the biological craving for freedom. Hope lies in responsible individualism. This was told us by far-seeing Gandhi. People misunderstood his advice as an apology for helping some of his friends and supporters who were rich. But that was not only a less than fair interpretation of his attitude, but stupidity—a refusal to see true social wisdom which he could so easily see. Responsible individualism is the dharma which all our scriptures and the scriptures of all other nations preach. It is the oppuravu aridal which good wise Tiruvalluvar stressed in his great Tamil classic. The responsibility of the individual to those around him is oppuravu.
Nationalist feelings, tariff-barriers, protective imposts, all form an evil complex of impediments in the way of human progress and welfare. The US and Canada are trying something new for the new year, free trade across the border in automobiles and auto-parts. The US Congress will think of abolishing tariffs which are 6.5 per cent on vehicles and 8.5 per cent on parts. Canadian duties of 17.5 per cent on vehicles and 25 per cent on parts will have to go by the board. It will be a great international example towards a unified world and a rational division of human labour.
Our opponent is entrenched in power, political and economic, with a hold on the purses of all the wealthy people of the land. Today so-called democratic elections depend on money-power and the Congress depends on this fact to defeat all other parties.
We must be patient as well as brave and await the revolution which is bound one day to come, and cast out the present immoral, discredited and ruinous regime.
It is the convention to go lyrical on new year day; but the poetry in India’s New Year 1965 would have to be tragic and so it is best we drop poetry and speak in plain prose. Graham Wallas of the London School of Economics wrote a book titled The Great Society. Of what avail, asks good David Lawrence of US News and World Report, is any system of government if we do not respect the fundamental rules of human behaviour which are necessary to the enjoyment of happiness in society? There can be no security within any country, if morality is not respected among the ruling groups as well as among the citizenry. Where shall we turn for a compass to steer us through the seas of unmorality? Compulsion imposed by majority rule will not suffice. Moral force is the only instrument that can regulate human conduct. We shall not achieve the goals of the happy society of Graham Wallas, or of any other theorist, unless we begin to recognize the eternal pre-requisite to human happiness—morality. And morality rests on faith, on a firm mind-hold on God, not on empty words and declamations, certainly not on the compulsions of the State.
There is no hope for progress or prosperity for mankind in Statist economy. It is against natural laws and against the biological craving for freedom. Hope lies in responsible individualism. This was told us by far-seeing Gandhi. People misunderstood his advice as an apology for helping some of his friends and supporters who were rich. But that was not only a less than fair interpretation of his attitude, but stupidity—a refusal to see true social wisdom which he could so easily see. Responsible individualism is the dharma which all our scriptures and the scriptures of all other nations preach. It is the oppuravu aridal which good wise Tiruvalluvar stressed in his great Tamil classic. The responsibility of the individual to those around him is oppuravu. To know and always remember that responsibility is aridal. Nationalist feelings, tariff-barriers, protective imposts, all form an evil complex of impediments in the way of human progress and welfare. The US and Canada are trying something new for the new year, free trade across the border in automobiles and auto-parts. The US Congress will think of abolishing tariffs which are 6.5 per cent on vehicles and 8.5 per cent on parts. Canadian duties of 17.5 per cent on vehicles and 25 per cent on parts will have to go by the board. It will be a great international example towards a unified world and a rational division of human labour.
Swatantra membership is now confined to effective workers. But every Swatantra Party office ought to keep a register of sympathizers and enrol in it all those who agree with the Swatantra Party’s aims and principles. They need not, like the registered workers, undertake active work throughout the year or pay any membership fee. But every sympathizer is a source of strength, and party-offices should therefore enter in a register kept for the purpose the names and addresses of all sympathizers legibly written. This register will be of great use during election-time.
It is hard to win in elections. Our opponent is entrenched in power, political and economic, with a hold on the purses of all the wealthy people of the land. Today so-called democratic elections depend on money-power and the Congress depends on this fact to defeat all other parties. But it is certain that good government in India must ultimately rest on the success of the Swatantra Party and the acceptance by the people of its principles. There is only a fiddle-stick between the Statism and totalitarianism of the Congress and the Statism and totalitarianism of the communists. We must be patient as well as brave and await the revolution which is bound one day to come, and cast out the present immoral, discredited and ruinous regime.
