WHO DO YOU BELIEVE DESERVES THE HONOUR OF ‘FATHER OF THE NATION’ ??
Certainly not MK Gandhi. No stretch of arguments howsoever correct or convoluted, can justify MK Gandhi as ‘Father Of The Nation’. The title was bestowed upon him by some minion of Congress, Party captive of a dynasty, out to deny sterling role and sacrifices of so many other outstanding freedom-fighters viz. Mangal Pandey / Vinayaka Savarkar / Netaji Bose who rendered life for British-Occupiers of the nation a living hell. Mangal Pandey sacrificed himself to ignite first War of Independence 1857 that was entirely successful, all British intruders were brutally killed except a handful few who absconded in disguise as Sadhu-s by smearing ashes and cow-dung all over their bodies, country was absolutely free of British occupation till Sept. 1857; Vinayaka Savarkar was one of the most terrible threats to British Empire, he was most savagely tortured in Andamana prisons; finally it was Netaji Bose whose marching INA caused mutiny in Royal Indian Navy, battle that ensued witnessed sacrifices of more than 26,000 INA soldiers and British-Occupiers chickened out in great panic as terrible sanguinary reminiscences of Mangal Pandey ignited WOI-1857 were refreshed while Netaji had to spend final years of his life in utter seclusion as a ‘Gumanami Baba’ in Ayodhya after the great escape from vicious clutches of Russian dictator Joseph Stalin.
MK Gandhi did not earn nation’s freedom at all and all such claims were blown away by the British Prime Minister Clement Attlee when he was in Kolikata long ago. Ahimsa that he espoused was an Absolute Cowardice. Ahimsa was practised by Vasudeva Sri Krsna who slew His cousin Sisupala after accepting 99 invectives hurled upon Him by His cousin. Satyagraha that MK Gandhi ‘marketed’ in the country was downright intellectual bankruptcy as real Satyagraha was in action when Vasudeva Sri Krsna inspired Arjuna to slay all Kaurava-s in the battlefield of Kuruksetra after long years of injustice and oppression perpetrated upon Pandava-s by them. In fact, WOI-1857 was a genuine reflection of Mahabharata. How many of us are aware of the reality that MK Gandhi did his best to spike and spook renovation of Somnatha Mandira undertaken by Sardara Patel and his devious designs were foiled by Sardara Patel assisted by KM Munshi, then Agricuture Minister ? I have just one argument to counter all those loud-mouthed votaries of the doctrine of ‘Gandhi brought us freedom with his Ahimsa, Satyagraha, Charkha, Goat’s milk, Multani Mitti…’ –
HAD HE REALLY BEEN A FREEDOM-FIGHTER AS CLAIMED BY SOME, CERTAINLY HE WOULD HAVE BEEN HANGED TO DEATH LONG AGO BY THE CRUEL / DESPOTIC BRITISH EMPIRE. BUT HE WAS NOT AND WHY ?
Will any of those ‘brilliant’ votaries respond rationally and convincingly without hurling invectives upon me and my ancestors ? Same question is valid in case of JL Nehru too. I do not believe they were freedom fighters in true sense of the term at all. Occasionally, I am hit by brainwaves like MK Gandhi was a remarkable curiosity-arousing Halloween character of his time !! And Nehru’s precise ‘make or break’ contribution to the war of nation’s freedom is one of the most conspicuous enigmatic riddles in nation’s history. They just redeemed and enjoyed their Punya Karma-s performed in their past lives by them !! No other rational explanation is available to explain their comfortable stay in British Jails or justify the pomp and glory that they enjoyed at a huge expense of this nation and crores of abjectly poor denizens who toiled and trudged for a morsel of bread and a piece of loin cloth to cover their mortal frames, every day for decades. And MK Gandhi’s Ahimsa, Satyagraha were vulgar and macabre jokes on those abject paupers.
Being a downright positivist and an optimist, I shall not leave you languishing in a state of mental turmoil after kicking up this dust-storm of confusion and contemplation in your minds. I offer some rational alternatives to chose from for the honour of ‘Father Of The Nation’ with a few arguments in brief as details are widely available in public domain. Criteria decided by me to select options are ostensibly very stringent and only three historic luminaries have succeeded in crossing the bar.
They are hereinasunder -
Rsi Canakya
Rsi Cāṇakya was born in 371BCE, an ascetic and Guru possessing adept knowledge of several disciplines viz. Philosophy, Economics and Law. Also famous as Kauṭilya and Visnugupta, he authored ancient treatise on politics famous as Arthasastra, regarded as precursor of contemporary economics. Precise rules of strategic governance enshrined in Arthasastra are valid even today. Canakya-Niti is yet another treatise authored by him which is truly remarkable. Diplomatic enclave in New Delhi is rightly named after him as Chanakyapuri. His entire work was lost then rediscovered during early decades of 20th Century.
He is widely regarded as having established and expanded Mauryan Empire and served as Chief Advisor to both emperors, Candragupta and his son Bindusara. He was a great thinker and large number of Bharatiya nationalists adore him as probably the first Hindu who visualised Akhanda Hindu Rastra of Bharatavarsa and strove throughout his life to realise that vision.
Adi Samkaracarya
He was an ascetic and mystic of the highest order, visited Planet Earth in early 8th Century, consolidated and nourished the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta. Regarded as an incarnate of Siva and a titanic giant of Adhyatma, he is rightly credited with unification of all Sanatana philosophies across the nation. Prior to his incarnation, utter religious anarchy prevailed in the country. There were some 72 sects viz. Carvaka-s, Lokayatika-s, Kapalika-s, Sakta-s, Samkhya-s, Bauddha-s, Madhyamika-s etc. vying for superiority over others and striving senselessly and often violently to expand followings. With so many frequent scuffles and no peace around, Deva-s implored Siva to incarnate to redeem the mankind. He was born in Kalady of the state of Keralama and survived only 32 years of glorious life on this planet. He became expert in all the four Veda-s by eighth year of his life, master of all scriptures by twelfth year and enunciated all his commentaries by sixteenth year of his deeply intense life. He recast rituals to establish six major orders of adoration, Ganapatyama i.e. worshipping Ganesa, Kaumarama i.e. worshipping Subramanyama, Saurama i.e. worshipping the sun, Saktama i.e. worshipping of Sakti, Vaisnavama i.e. worshipping Visnu and Saivama i.e. worshipping Siva. Owing to this feat, his legend is also known as Sanmata Sthapakacarya too. Very forthrightly he accepted Gautama Buddha as one of Dasavatara-s and demolished all hostilities between Sanatani-s and Buddhist-s. Like a cataclysmic thunderstorm, he swept away entire nation demolishing several age-old prophesies, heresies and restored pristine glory of Veda-s, composed Samkara-Samhita describing rules of conduct and ethics for Brahamana-s. He established his precepts of Advaita from Himalaya-s in north to Dwarka in west, to Puri in east and Sringeri in south. He raised monasteries in all those four corners of the nation, then settled down at Kamakoti Pithama in Kanchipurama. He dis-incarnated himself in presence of Kamaksi, an erudite scholar of Upanisad-s in this Pithama in his 32nd year of mortal existence. He was the greatest unifier of all sects, faiths and Kingdoms into a composite nation. The great ascetic practised Advaita not only on Adhyamika plane of Cetana but also on national plane of consciousness too. Had he lived longer, he would have certainly succeeded in transforming Adhyatmika unity thus attained, into a unfied mighty political power that would have possibly guarded the nation from foreign invasions in subsequent centuries.
Dr. KB Hedgewar
Doctorji, his other name, born on Pratipada, Caitra, Sukla Paksa, Vikram Samvat 1946 (1 April 1889) in Nagpur, actively participated in Indian National Congress in 1920s. Disillusioned with their anti-national policies and politics, outbreak of Hindu-Muslim Riots 1923 prodded him to mull over an alternate model of nation-building. He observed that in every social turbulence, Hindu-s were the worst sufferers, no one to protect them, every other community out to exploit them and provoke one section of Hindu-s against another. He resolved with a steel determination, if there is no one to protect Hindu-s, Hindu-s shall collectively stand up not only to protect themselves but also all those oppressed, tormented and exploited ones. Soon he arrived at the conclusion that Sanatana spiritual and cultural heritage alone can be the basis of Bharatiya ethos and organised nationhood. Thereafter, Doctorji founded RSS in 1925 on the day of Vijayadasami with the mission to organise Hindu community for it’s cultural and spiritual regeneration and leverage that to get rid of foreign domination. The seed of Sanatana Hindu nationalism that he sowed, has now gown into a gigantic banyan tree covering the entire globe. I regard Doctorji as the greatest visionary and crusader of his century and one of the greatest blessings to the nation. The way he diagnosed ills afflicting the nation, nature of dangers lurking around, absolutely precise course of action that he defined and the way he offered his entire life as oblation into sacred Agni of that Yajna, are unique and far ahead of even Swami Vivekananda. Swami Vivekananda heralded the nation with his clarion call of Uttistha Bharata obscuring the stark reality that without Sanghathit Hindu, Uttistha Bharata was impossible to realise. Doctorji’s message to the nation is, “Uttistha and Sanghathit Hindu; Jagrit Bharata”. With this motto, RSS grew into a finest human resource development organization in the world and there is none other anywhere close to it and won’t be there for a century or more.
Catalogue of spectacular achievements, milestones and benchmarks attained by RSS in rendering service to the nation so far are simply mind-boggling to say the least. Nation not only survived but also flourished in spite of catastrophic calamities like Nehru-Jinnah Partition 1947, Nehru’s China Debacle 1962, Indira’s Emergency 1975…UPA 2004–14 owing to the strength imparted upon the nation by RSS. If Army / Security Forces defend our external borders from invasions and intrusions, RSS have been defending the nation at devious internal borders, much more difficult to identify and act upon that too, without any Government patronage. We have survived from fierce socio-economic-religious onslaughts uninterruptedly lobbed at us by inimical forces, only because of the resurgence and renaissance brought about by RSS at a great sacrifice, in spite of three official bans, scores of arrests, torture and murder of RSS members. Still, the marvellous and unique organization have been growing exponentially much to the heart-burn of so many across the world so much so that if any organization truly represents Bharata today, that is RSS alone. Humanity had never ever witnessed before such an organisation and organised activities with a mission on such a massive scale in recorded history. And all that absolutely SELFLESSLY !! RSS NEVER claim credit for any success at all. It is an organisation of Rsi-s, Parivrajaka-s and Sadhu-s who consume themselves for the sake of nation.
You are at liberty to select any one of them for the accolade of ‘Father Of the Nation’.
Entire exercise of the honour of ‘Father Of The Nation’ being conferred upon anyone is a mere tokenism. Bharatavarsa is an ancient Sanatana nation, as ancient as Planet Earth with the Supreme Father in Sriman Narayana, also adored as Bhagavana Visnu, Tirupati Balaji Maharaja and Sri Padmanabha Swami. Bharatavarsa is the nation where He incarnates often for the sacrosanct mission of consolidation and resurgence of Dharma on Planet Earth for the entire humanity to follow and slaying felons and sinners.
This nation does not need in reality, a ‘Father Of The Nation’ at all !!
