For British travellers going to Gujarat the cancellation of the direct flights was the legacy of the then UPA Government’s mismanagement and the Civil Aviation Ministers argy bargy. Never mind. A direct flight campaign is in full swing but the real problem is the £4 billion accumulated debt of Air India. The then Chief Minister Narendra Modi was able to start the direct flights using his leverage in the NDA Government but today Prime Minister Modi’s hands appear to be tied in spite of his personal support of the direct flights.
Correction and apology
In last week’s Asian Voice on page 25 there is a very interesting and inspiring news item about the launch of an online competition on Gandhiji’s life. At the Kochrab Ashram on 9th January - exactly a hundred years after his permanent return from South Africa to India at 45 years age with international name and fame for his anti-apartheid campaign, the project was launched.
This website is the brain child of Ms Piaili Ray, Director of Sampad Arts, a Birmingham-based organisation who last year successfully had another online competition on the writings of Tagore and received well over 1,600 entries from forty countries.
The ceremony in the early morning of 9th January was a historic event and Dr Anamik Shah, a distinguished scientist (chemist) who is the Vice Chancellor of the Gujarat Vidyapeeth launched the project and spoke about promoting the Kochrab Ashram. He also said CB Patel has pioneered promoting Gandhiji’s first Ashram. The headline was inaccurate and I genuinely apologies.
Wealth generation and its utilisation
India and the US are coming closer much more rapidly, since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister of India. Today (24th January) President Barack Obama will travel to India to attend the Republic Day celebrations on 26th January in Delhi. Let’s not remind ourselves about the misguided visa stoppage for the then Chief Minister Modi but today he and President Obama appear to have resolved their differences and become friends.
In the recent past President Obama has heaped enormous praise on Prime Minister Modi. Apart from material success of the US it’s scholastic endeavours on almost all aspects of life is exceptional. Yes it is important to make money. Wealth creation is not easy. It requires vision, devotion, dedication, etc. The question comes when you accumulate vast sums of money. I am not only talking about the recent reports about inequality on a world stage in which one percent of the human race (some 7 billion and more) control 50 percent of the world’s economic assets both in cash and kind. In Hindi we call it ‘adhe me ram, adhe me gam’.
When you make lots of money the question baffling most tycoons is not only how to spend it but to how to spend it wisely. Squandering wealth is not so difficult and you will always have ample assistance from chumchas (cronies) who will be very willing to misguide all the time. But to utilise one’s wealth for the welfare of others is the most admirable and also difficult to implement and put in practice - Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and several other US billionaires are a few names that come to mind.
In India Narayana Murthy, Azim Premji and others are able to follow in the footstep of Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford or John D Rockefeller. But one Kathiavadi who made his billions in diamonds is making waves. Ninety percent of the world’s diamonds are polished in India predominantly in Surat. Most of the workers, traders and tycoons in Surat in this trade hail from Saurashtra. Nearly half a million Kathiavadi Patels have made Surat the fastest and richest growing city in India.
Govindbhai Dholakia is one of the rare breed. He has set aside the equivalent of several million pounds into a trust fund and a few months ago he was making headlines almost all over the world when he gave a gift of a small residential house or a car to some seven hundred of his employees. Mr Dholakia has created the Santokba Manav Rana (Jewel of a Person) Awards.
Last month one such award was presented to the Dalai Lama. On 8th February similar awards will be presented to Father Carlos Valles (a Spanish Jesuit priest based in Ahmedabad at St Xavier’s College and has written over 50 books in Gujarati and presently is residing in Spain and will be flying with medical doctors to receive this well deserved award in Surat.
Another well earned recipient is Sudha Murthy, wife of Infosys founder NR Narayan Murthy. She qualified as an engineer, helped her husband build the company as well as contributed so much to education and literature.
Another recipient is our very own Prof Lord Bhikhu Parekh who needs no introduction to the readers of Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar.
Govindbhai Dholakia celebrates his wealth in his own unique style. Every recipient of the award will not only receive Rs 2.5 million but in addition there will be a specially prepared coffee table book of the recipient’s life story (similar to ‘This is your life’) along with a 40-minute specially prepared video. A book of each recipient will also be distributed as a gift to 1,500 people who will grace the auspicious occasion.
So here we have an ideal blending of wealth creation and its admirable use.
Then there are two events taking place over the next few days. The University of Cambridge has organised a special event in Delhi on 12th February - the theme of which is ‘The Life and Legacy of Nehru’. amongst the speakers are Professor Bhikhu Parekh, Professor Akeel Bilgrami of Columbia University, Dr Faisal Devji, fellow at St Anthony College, Oxford, Dr Shruti Kapila, Fellow of Indian History at King’s College London and Shri Pratap Bhanu Mehta of Delhi.
On 29th January a different type of event is taking place in Vadodara, Gujarat. Professor Lancy Lobo of the Centre for Culture and Development at Vadodara has organised a high level seminar for “A critical assessment of Nehru’s contribution to India”.
So in India now there is more and more interfacing of various recourses, material and intellectual.
Gujarat earthquake
During my five and a half hour wait in Mumbai Airport (while returning to London) I met a Japanese technocrat who hails from Kobe and had visited Kutch a few days earlier. On 26th January 2001 a massive earthquake killed thousands of people including hundreds of children who were celebrating Republic Day and destroyed several thousand properties. It was shocking and people believed that India and specially Kutch would not recover after such a devastation in the future. But according to this gentleman what he saw in Kutch today is unbelievable. The relief, regeneration and reconstruction that has taken place in Kutch was perhaps as good as the reconstruction of Kobe after its devastating earthquake of 1995 if not better - especially if you take into consideration the wealth and experience Japan has gained in handling the aftermaths of earthquakes. This tragedy will also celebrate its fifteenth year next Monday and I hope nobody will proclaim again that Indians can’t manage their affairs properly.
I would like to draw the attention of my esteemed readers to this week’s Scrutators column on page 12. There is so much hope, confidence and expectation in India’s new government both from young to old, students to entrepreneurs and that in itself is a big turnaround for the progress of any society and country.
History and traditions of the Patels
It will be of immense advantage for the nearly 1 million Patels residing abroad to know about their history and traditions as well as their strengths and weaknesses. Rajmohan Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and whose maternal grandfather was C. Rajgopalachari has studied the Patel community and its characteristics over many years.
The following three paragraphs have been taken from Rajmohan Gandhi’s latest offering entitled ‘Prince of Gujarat: The Extraordinary Story of Prince Gopaldas Desai: 1887-1951 (2014) and has been published in India by Aleph Book Company based at 7?16 Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110002.
“The customs of different Indian communities attracted European curiosity. Alexander Kinloch Forbes, a Briton serving as a judge in different parts of western India, offered an early portrayal of some Gujarati jaatis in his Rasmala, Or Hindu Annals of Western India, first published in London in 1878. Of the Patidar peasant, who was also described as a kanbi, kunbi or koonbee, he wrote:
“The Koonbee, though frequently all submission and prostration when he makes his appearance in a revenue office, is sturdy and bold enough among his own people. He is fond of asserting his independence and the helplessness of others without his aid, on which subjects he has several proverbs, such as, ‘Tens of millions follow the Koonbee, but the Koonbee follows no man’.
“The [Koonbees] rise before daybreak, and throwing grass before their bullocks, busy themselves for a few minutes … By the time their cattle have finished their food, they are themselves ready for the field, to which they now set out, driving their beasts before them. There they remain the whole of the day … About nine o’clock their wives, having prepared their breakfast at home, bring it out to them in the field, and they return home for the evening meal, which is served after sunset.”
Rajmohan Gandhi has written many books including:
l Punjab: A history form Aurangzeb to Mountbatten (2013)
l A Tale of Two Revolts: India 1857 and the American Civil War (2009)
l Mohandas: A True Story of a Man, his People and an Empire (2006)
l Ghaffar Khan: Nonviolent Badshah of the Pakhtuns (2004)
l Revenge and Reconciliation: Understanding South Asian History (1999)
l Rajaji: A Life (1997)
l The Good Boatman: A Portrait of Gandhi (1995)
l India Wins Errors: A Scrutiny of Maulana Azad’s India Wins Freedom (1990)
l Patel: A Life (1989)
l Understanding the Muslim Mind (1987)
