Intro : Deendayalji was unique because of his political activities, which were entirely different from the western style. He opined that Indian economy suffered setback due to copying west. Indians should think in terms of their own style, otherwise others would not respect us.
“The social life and development should have Bharatiya parameters. Deendayalji was unique because of his political activities, which were entirely different from the western style. Deendayalji opined that Indian economy suffered setback due to copying west. Indians should think in terms of their own style. Otherwise others would not respect us. Deendayalji’s greatest contribution was the novel political language he formulated,” said former Union HRD Minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi while addressing a national seminar on Ekatma Manava Darshan in Kochi on April 4.
The two day seminar, ‘Ekatma Manava Darshan; A Vision for Better Tomorrow’ was organised under the joint auspices of Bharatheeya Vichara Kendram and Pragna Pravah. The seminar was inaugurated by RSS Sahsarkaryavah Shri Dattatreya Hosabale on April 4 in the presence of Dr Murali Manohar Joshi, noted economist and columnist Shri S Gurumurthy and veteran Sangh Pracharak Shri Ranga Hari.
In his inaugural speech Shri Dattatreya Hosabale said the ‘Third Way’ is more relevant than ever before. The fall of communism is not the victory of capitalism. This is not the end of the history. All are not equal in the democracy propounded by capitalism. Some are more equal than others under this system. Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya’s Ekatma Manava Darshan highlights the divine oneness in individual, society and creation. He said in 1960s when Bharatiya Jan Sangh was in its infancy, Panditji did not think twice before expelling eight MLAs from the Party when they voted in favour of the zamindari system. Those days the Jan Sangh’s assembly tally was handful throughout the country.
Shri S Gurumurthy said all social activities in India are interconnected. It is relations that exist among individuals, not social contracts. Western thinkers failed to understand these relations. Karl Marx and Max Weber failed to understand India. Our relations are not depending upon law, jurisprudence and contracts. They are based on dharma and Ekatma Manava Darshan. It is not market, but society the pivotal factor of life, he emphasised.
He said he was the advisor to the corporates until Swadeshi Jagran Manch was launched in 1992. While travelling he studied the country’s economic conditions. After visiting 42 industrial clusters his approach underwent conspicuous changes. Society is an open university. Deendayalji adopted the same methodology. Paul Bairoch studied world economy from 1750 to 1900. His report shocked the West. Economic growth of China in 1750 was 33 per cent whereas India’s was 24.5 per cent. But growth of both Britain and the US put together was 2 per cent. By 1900, China and India came down to 8 per cent whereas Britain and US put together was 41 per cent. This decline happened in one and half century. In 1850, India commanded 16 per cent of the whole world’s GDP. But, it dropped to 1.8 per cent after 50 year, he said. He further said, Angus Maddison was appointed to study the 2000 years’ world economic history; his findings were not different. The West attained the development not because of their genius, but due to the colonial exploitation.
The seminar was presided over by Dr M Mohandas, president of Bharatheeya Vichara Kendra. Reception Committee chairman Justice (Retd) Padmanabhan Nair and Dr CI Isaac and Dr KC Sudheerbabu were also present on the occasion.
In his valedictory speech Dr Murali Manohar Joshi on April 5 said western scientific approaches divided the society into rich and poor. Twenty per cent of the world population controls 80 per cent of the resources. Only 1 billion out of 7 billion people are able to enjoy the fruits of the development. The protection of the nature, environment and natural resources are the specialities of Ekatma Manava Darshan. Our mindset should change. Human conscience should rise. Inequality, illiteracy and other factors leading to disasters should be eradicated, Shri Joshi emphasised.
In his speech Shri Ranga Hari referred to Pandit Satvalekkar. The British government banned the first book of Satvalekkar. It was in Marathi. The title was National Anthem in Vedas. In that book he analysed Prithvi Suktas in Adharva Veda. The book was published either in 1905 or 1906; before Gandhi returned to India and when Lokmanya Tilak was leader of the Freedom Movement. When the book was translated into Hindi, it was banned too. The British administration saw it as a threat to them. The second article in it was on the ‘Ojaswikatha in Vedic Prayers’. It inspired patriotism in a great manner. These days, they all are not popular among our compatriots. Pandit Satvalekkar authored about 420 books. Eighty to eighty five of them were on Vedas. They are invaluable treasures.They all should be translated into various Indian languages. Pragna Pravah should come forward to accomplish this task, Shri Ranga Hari emphasised. He further said that environment enjoys excellent regards in Mahabharat and the Vedas. When we go through Panchatantra, we come across the parrot and mouse talking to the lion, lion as the tortoise’s friend, etc. Giving examples from the buyer–seller behaviour in our culture, he said that he was fortunate enough to travel all over India more than 15 times as part of the organisational work. Two things he found. One is in favour of consumer, the other is in favour of producer. That is, in our Indian behaviour of consumer-producer relationship, when somebody buys something from a seller after taking the money the seller gives little bit of that commodity to the buyer free of cost. If it is two liters of milk, the vendor gives a bit extra. The thelekidookanwala gives us a handful of groundnuts, and then puts two more and the buyer is satisfied. That is the culture of our land. He further said that when he visited Malwadi, north of Goa, a farmer was selling coconuts. He gave 100, and then gave 10 more. When asked about it, he said: “These are God’s 10. They are God’s coconuts. So. I give it.” It is to compensate the human error or weighing or measuring machine’s error.
So it is a dharmic compensation for an inadvertent economic error that one unwittingly committs. That is in favour of the consumer. It is Swalpadhik. In every language there is a separate word for it. It is called pova, pumka, jhumka, in different languages. This denotes the dharmic behaviour of the economy, Shri Ranga added.
The valedictory session was presided over by Dr CI Isaac, vice president of Bharatheeya Vichara Kendram and the member of Indian Council for Historical Research. Earlier, Dr K Jayaprasad presented a paper on ‘Ekatma Manava Darshan and Education’. Dr Ashok Modak and Sushri Niveditha Bhide (vice president of Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari) also presented papers.
T Satisan (The writer is Kerala based correspondent)
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