Daily Times

Professor Rajmohan Gandhi is a grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. Some time ago, he read my book, The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed. He sent an email to me saying that although I had very graphically portrayed the stark reality of the Punjab tragedy, the book itself served as a healer and thus as a therapeutic intellectual endeavour. He invited me to take part in the five-day annual conference of the Initiatives of Change, an organisation founded originally in 1938 under the name Moral Re-Armament (MRA) by an American, Frank Buchman, who was convinced that military rearmament alone would not resolve the crisis that was emerging in the west. Buchman asserted, “The crisis is fundamentally a moral one. The nations must re-arm morally. Moral recovery is essentially the forerunner of economic recovery. Moral recovery creates not crisis but confidence and unity in every phase of life.” MRA became known as the Oxford Group; it set up headquarters at Caux, Switzerland.

The movement originally had Christian roots, but grew into an informal, international network of people of all faiths and backgrounds. It was based around what it called ‘the Four Absolutes’ (absolute honesty, absolute purity, absolute unselfishness and absolute love), and encouraged its members to be actively involved in political and social issues. One of the movement’s core ideas was that changing the world starts with changing oneself.

In 2001 MRA was renamed Initiatives of Change. Its mission was reiterated as “building trust across the world’s divides of culture, nationality, belief, and background.” Emphasis on changing individual lives and relationships as a prerequisite to transforming society remained a major premise of the Initiatives of Change.

For a long time I have been battling with my own political and moral commitments. I became a searcher for the truth when still an adolescent. Initially, it took me to religious sermons of the leading ulema of Lahore (mostly Deobandis), followed by a period of association with the Chishtia Sufi Order, and then at university I was attracted to Marxism. Marxism seemed to provide far more rational and logical answers to the harsh reality of the haves and have-nots; the apathy of the ruling class to those less fortunate; the brutality of the police; and the rampant corruption prevalent in society. It predicated that such injustices derived from economic conditions and such conditions could be transcended by building socialism.

I was a committed Marxist for years, though I found most depressing the sectarianism and hierarchy and a culture of intrigue and gossip pervading Marxist groups in Pakistan and abroad. The disintegration of the Soviet Union, and particularly, the restoration of capitalism in China were the shocks that liberated me from the last orthodoxy and dogma. I now consider communism the last of the great religions, perhaps the best religion, but like all religions ultimately only a hope and a promise.

Ideologically, I consider myself a left Social-Democrat. I believe that a strong, intervening state can best promote development and welfare, while the market must have a leading role in stimulating production. I am fully committed to an open, democratic system that keeps the politicians in check and holds them accountable. For me, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other UN conventions on human rights, women rights and minority and special group rights for historically disadvantaged peoples such as the Dalits are a part of the great worldwide movement for the liberation of humankind from all forms and types of tyranny.

Of late I have been deeply interested in the great pluralist heritage of the Indian subcontinent. I find myself in debt to the sages who down the ages have fought the Hindu caste system and Islamic fanaticism and stood for the equality of all human beings, while simultaneously upholding the right of individuals to find solace and comfort in different spiritual and religious traditions. Gorakhnatha, Bhagat Kabir, Guru Nanak, Bulleh Shah, Mian Muhammad Bakhsh, the list can be very long.

I consider Ghalib my mentor in doubting all dogma while Manto, Krishan Chander, Bedi, Amrita Pritam, Faiz, Sahir, Habib Jalib and many others have helped me identify and protest injustices and inhumanity in our immediate surroundings. Bhagat Singh is the ultimate rebel whose iconic station will always fascinate idealists. I am, however, convinced that Mahatma Gandhi’s emphasis on means and ends being in harmony, and peaceful resistance to tyranny being the preferred strategy to challenge the state and to mobilise public opinion and civil society, as enduring ways to advance a humane political agenda of change.

Above all, my professional training as a social and political scientist has intellectually armed me to critically analyse all modes of thinking and behaviour and never to make compromises in the search for the truth. Nothing is predestined or predetermined. Social phenomena have a material basis and there is no ‘truth’ higher than what the sense perceptions can deliver, which means that such truth can always be improved upon in the light of greater evidence, scientific knowledge and techniques. All such realisations are, in fact, my conscience talking to me and urging me to take responsibility for my beliefs and actions.

I therefore happily accepted the kind invitation to spend five days at Asia Plateau, the Initiatives of Change conference centre at the beautiful hill station of Panchgani in faraway Maharashtra, India. In a series of articles I shall be sharing my seven-week stay and travelling in different parts of India.

The writer is a PhD (Stockholm University); Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Stockholm University; and Honorary Senior Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. Latest publications: Pakistan: The Garrison State, Origins, Evolution, Consequences (1947-2011), Karachi: Oxford Unversity Press, 2013; The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed: Unravelling the 1947 Tragedy through Secret British Reports and First-Person Accounts (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2012; New Delhi: Rupa Books, 2011). He can be reached at billumian@gmail.com