Seer Defied British for Unified India

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MAHENDRA VED

 

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2004 11:53:41 AM ]

 

NEW DELHI: At a time when the Shankaracharya of Kanchi, Swami

Jayendra Saraswathi, is being prosecuted on a murder charge, it may

be worthwhile to recall the how and why, way back in 1921, Jagadguru

Sankaracharya of Puri, went to jail.

 

 

He did so for upholding what he considered the "Hindu Dharma" of

promoting Hindu-Muslim unity.

 

The Khilafat Movement against the British for having deposed the

last Caliph was at its peak.

 

Swami Bharati Krishna Tirath Ji shared platform with the famous Ali

Brothers — Maulanas Mohammed Ali and Shaukat Ali — Dr Kitchlew,

Maulana Husain Ahmed of Deoband and others.

 

All of them, called "Karachi Non-cooperators", because they

delivered their speeches at the All India Khilafat Conference in

Karachi, were accused of "criminal conspiracy to seduce Mohammedan

soldiers in the Army of His Majesty the King".

 

But they earned Gandhi's approval. In his Forward to the

book "Historic Trial" that published the proceedings in the court,

Gandhi noted: "The prisoners may have lacked dignity, they may have

lacked grace. They certainly did not lack courage and truth. They

dared to think audibly."

 

To Gandhi, the trial that witnessed "such open and studied defiance"

of the court, marked "the beginning of the end of the present

system."

 

The most strident "defiance" of the court came from Swami Bharati

Krishna Tirth, alias Venkataraman, an acknowledged authority on

Vedic mathematics.

 

While others made their depositions, the Swami refused to get up

from his chair in Karachi City Magistrate S M Talati's court while

answering questions put to him.

 

Warned repeatedly, he said while sitting that his position was

higher than that of the judge and that his religion forbade his

getting up "before anyone except his Guru."

 

His statement was not recorded and a note to that effect was made by

the judge.

 

Swami also stood out for his speech that was submitted as an exhibit

in the court.

 

Regarding Khilafat as "a question of supreme Dharmik importance", he

argued that what the British did to an Islamic institution, they

could do to institutions of other religions as well.

 

He approvingly quoted Sarojini Naidu, another leading light of the

Khilafat Movement, that "Mecca ought to be to Hindus as Kashi or

Rameshwar."

 

"Going into the technical ecclesiastical point of view, we see that

Khilafat is a matter of vital importance to every Hindu who believes

in Hindu scriptures," the Swami declared.

 

The trial came soon after Jallianwala Bagh massacre and the

Congress' call for Swaraj.

 

The two appeared to have impacted Swami's thinking.

 

"The Punjab wrongs and the Khilafat wrongs remain unredressed today,

as they were in the past. We have no option but to take the matter

in our hands."

 

But he was for a non-violent freedom struggle that he predicted

would mean much suffering — just the way, as per the Puranas, the

Devas got amrita (nectar) after much churning.

 

Old records show that rather than punish the popular leaders, the

court had justifiable declared them as hostile and let them off.