It was a pleasant encounter with Madhavsinh Solanki, former Chief Minister of Gujarat who was also the External Affairs Minister of India for a brief period, at his Gandhinagar residence after a gap of nearly three-decades. No discussion of politics in the country took place. Somehow he initiated a discussion on death, saying: “I want to experience death but unless I die it is not possible. I want to live for 95 years.” He has turned 92 on 29 July 2019. None could break the record set by Solanki in his political career by winning 149 out of 182 seats for the Indian National Congress in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly in 1985. Of course, he lost Chief Ministership within a few months of setting the record. He set another record for his party in 1990 by winning the lowest number of seats i.e. 33 out of 182, in the Assembly elections when he was asked by the Congress high command to return as the Chief Minister in 1989! Elderly persons may have their perception about death since death is inevitable but curiosity about where the soul travels or lands up was making Madhavsinh uneasy that he even asked his doctor about death at length.
Same was the case of Khushwant Singh (2 February 1915- 20 March 2014) who did write: “At 98, as I look back on my life, I think about what has enriched it, what’s been important to me, the mistakes I’ve made, and what my experiences have taught me.” He was an Indian author, historian, lawyer, diplomat, journalist and politician. He would not hesitate to write: “I retain my curiosity about the world around me; I enjoy the company of beautiful women; I take joy in poetry and literature, and in watching nature.” Though self proclaimed agnostic, he would not mind writing most authentic history of Sikhs in two volumes and returned Padma Bhushan in protest against the siege of the Golden Temple at Amritsar by the Indian Army. Everyday he rose early at four every morning, spending most of the day sitting in his armchair, reading and writing. “All my life I’ve worked hard; I’ve been a man of habit and stuck to a discipline daily routine for over fifty years. That has stood me in good stead into my nineties.”
Like Madhavsinh, Khushwant too kept on asking Dalai Lama and Acharya Rajneesh about death. Of course, he never feared death. He believed in the Jain philosophy that death ought to be celebrated. He even wrote his own obituary in 1943 when he was in his twenties. He had imagined even the headline in the Tribune: “Sardar Khushwant Singh Dead”. He had to cope with death when he lost his wife, Kawal Malik, in 2001. He could not find solace in religious rituals. He discouraged friends and relatives from coming to console with him. He spent the first night alone sitting in his chair in the dark. At times he broke down but soon recovered his composure. Since he had no faith in God, or in the Day of judgement, or in the theory of reincarnation, he had to come to terms with the complete full stop.
Khushwant was keen on a burial because with a burial you give back to the earth what you have taken. Of course, the management of the Bahai faith initially agreed but later came up with all kinds of conditions and rules. He was not okay with that. When he died he was cremated at Lodhi Crematorium in Delhi. Of course, his ashes were buried in his Hadali school, now in Pakistan. He wanted to go like a man without any regrets or grievances against anyone and quoted Allama Iqbal who expressed it so beautifully in a couplet:
Nishaan-e-mard-e Momin ba too goyam?
Choon marg aayad, tabssum bar lab-e-ost
(You ask me for the signs of a man of faith?
When death comes to him, he has a smile on his lips.)
Next Column: Gandhiji observed fast on 15 August 1947
(The writer is a Socio-political Historian. E-mail: [email protected] )
Photo-line:
1.Khushwant Singh
2.Madhavsinh Solanki
