Childhood days -4

You are four years senior to me. You don't know my story. said Agastya. Varsha remained silent.  Do you remember that I had left home when I was in seventh class. said Agastya. "Yes I do " replied Varsha.  They remembered the childhood days. "Nothing is sweeter than childhood. In fact Childhood is the sweetest part of the life" said Varsha. 

                                     

How beautiful are the school days. Agastya remembered his schooling. We played together though we are not of the same class. We walked to the market, climbed the trees. There was no difference between boys and girls. So sweet was our childhood but my father made it bitter. That was the time my father was crazy about a young girl of half his age. "Oh I didn't know that" said Varsha. I too did not know all those things at that time.

My parents used have clashes everyday.   At that age I  didn't understand so many things that happen right before my eyes. My mother would often say  "I have no peace" This went on for  months.  Ever since the clashes began I lost my father's love.  My mother became both father and mother. Only my mother would listen to me play with me.   My father moved to different place. After a year I understood that my father and my mother got separated. My mother's responsibility and priority was my education. She often said that those words to my grandfather who wanted her to move to Chennai. I heard that she hails from wealthy Tanjavur family? asked Varsha. My mother's grandfather is in Tanjavur. He is a sanskrit scholar. His forefathers served Tanjavur naik kings. She doesn't want to reveal  her woeful story and share her tears with them.  So, she stayed here until I finished my tenth class and then moved to Chennai to work and live on her own" said Agastya. 

We think that your father and mother are away but together. But I did not all together understand the divorce issue. You said that they got separated years back.  Yes they were only separated but not divorced. My father rose with the help of my mother's assets. My mother was unwilling to fight for the assets but my grand father wanted to. He persuaded my father to give half of the share because the capital for the father's business is my mother's money assets. My father offered partnership in his business instead of  cash settlement. My mother wanted neither. My grandfather is in legal battle for the money. After nine years the final hearing is over. The judgement was delivered" said  Agastya.  "Who won the case and who go the money? asked Varsha. "My grandfather died. My mother won the case but left the money to my father because if she demands the money his business will ruin. He will lose his new life partner too. His life will be miserable. My mother didn't want that."said Agastya.  Varsha's face turned pale.  He is filled with pity for that great lady. 

Oh! noble lady thy generosity and they nobility 

thy kindness and thy tolerance spring from the blood 

of great the royal dynasty and thy great sagacity 

is surely above ordinary that enlightens the world

Thy kindness is so deep that made wounds so deep

thou art the stood tempests thousand

 thy qualities make humanity weep and weep 

Where is the fair God for this foul game to end 

It is not possible for ordinary people. She is a great lady with a great quality of compassion and charity. Said Varsha. "But my father's case it is apaatradana or charity to the undeserving.  My father is a person without any remorse." concluded Agastya with a gloomy face. 

I can understand your pain but I can't understand how your father Dakshinamurty a renowned scholar noted for his righteousness fell in this mess. A man like Buddha became a butcher. said varsha. That is the magic of Kaliyug the paradoxical age. Ravana becomes hero, thief becomes ruler, a murderer becomes a priest. a Baba becomes a rapist" said Agastya.  Betrial of the innocent is the worst sin. Varsha  " To a renegade who changed his religion it is very simple to betray his wife.  It is shocking to see your mother accepting the divorce. your mother should not have accepted the divorce. 

She is so pious that she took thorns and returned flowers to my father.  Many people believe that the reason for the rift between my father and mother is the affair but it is different. My mother would have tolerated if he had not changed the faith. Not only did he change his faith but also tried to change my mother. One day he asked her to go to church. It is like going to war of swords with a kitchen knife, catching a whale with a fishing hook, throwing a fishing net on elephant.  I was more surprised than shocked. Agastya said.  Varsha smiled and said "There is no surprise in this. The Catalan ministry sowed seeds of Christianity in Surat.  Ever since the conversions are common practice. But it is not so easy a task to convert noble souls.  Your mother is indeed one.  So great is her dynasty that she can never be nasty to change faith besides she is economically, educationally, spiritually strong. said Bharatavarsha.    

But the Britishers were the rulers. They had the power so they converted people easily. replied Agastya.   You are right. Did you know Toru dat the renowned Indo-anglian poetess who was famed like Sarojininaidu, the nightingale of India?" Yes, a little. She is the first French novelist I think?" said Agastya. She wrote the French novel Mademoiselle D'avre. It was an incomplete novel. She died of tuberculosis at the age of 21 like john keats. Their parents are Pandits. They belong to Dat Dynasty. Her father Govind Datt under the influence of the British converted to Christianity in 1862. Toru Datt grandfather Rasame Datt is the founder of Hindu school and her cousin Romesh chandar Dutt is an IAS officer but they converted to Christianity  under the influence of the British. But don't think it was so easy as it appears. There was so much of pain and sacrifice behind the process. You need to read history to understand the present day word and your position in that." Sounds interesting can you throw more light on that? said Agastya. Varsha the bard started... 

The role of Christian Missionaries,  predominantly reflected during the British rule. However,  the missionary movement which means superimposing a foreign religion was not a cake walk.  During the 1770s and 1780s that several Englishmen, such as Edmund and Burke, argued that the East India Company’s power could not be justified unless it were exercised with morality. But there efforts were not paid heed to. 

Then Charles Grant, a junior officer in British East India Company, along with his two friends drafted the original proposal for mission in 1786-87, in their personal capacity, and campaigned for it for decades at their own expense. Grant sought only for an official endorsement of the East India Company for his proposal to start a missionary endeavour. He neither sought for Company’s money nor its manpower. He himself offered support to one of the missionaries from his personal capacity. He had sever brickbats in his journey. He received only resistance everywhere.  Lord Cornwallis has only given him a hearing. He said that he could not, as the Governor General, give his active support. However he assured him that he would not oppose the move for missions.

Grant was therefore forced to go to the Christian leaders in England, who were big enough to influence the Government or to fight the Company. At that time, the only missionary-minded Christian figure in England, who had the status to bypass the East India Company and influence the Government itself, was John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. Refusing permission to John Wesley to open mission would thus have been politically incorrect for the British. 

In 1793, Wilberforce studied Grant’s Book, which went beyond Burke’s argument and Wilberforce, consulting with the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Henry Dundas moved the famous Resolution on Missions, which were drafted by Grant himself. Three days later, ‘the missionary clauses’ were accepted by the Committee, which sought to empower the East India Company. However, on the third reading of the Bill, the Clauses were rejected and the Court of Proprietors of East India  had a special Meeting and passed a resolution against the Missionary Clause.

In 1853, the Committee chaired by Sir Charles Wood, a devout Evangelical who was also an ‘undercover’ missionary drafted a renewed commitment of Educational responsibility of the Company.   In 1858 Proclamation of Queen which said that ‘it should breathe feelings of generosity, benevolence and religious feelings, pointing out the privileges which the Indians will receive in being placed on an equality with the subjects of the British Crown. 

The Charter of East India Company came up with such a proposal several officials of the Company argued that the restrictions on the missionaries should continue: the Indian are civilized enough and do not need the missionaries. 

Charles Grant, started demanding religious freedom for India in 1793. He championed missions as a means of educating India, used the Parliament (as a member) to force his company to reinvest a part of its own profits for educating Indians. He further wrote, “Missions would bless India with English, technology and economic prosperity. The Missionaries educated the Indians of their shortcomings.  They completely destroyed the self confidence and the self-respect of Indians.  

When Bharatavarsha finished the story of conversions in the name of charity and education Agastya said " I feel that this is the real shock. My father changing his faith is a smaller issue but do you think that education has helped missionaries to convert Indians?

Bharatavarsha said  "Swami Vivekanada wrote about English education  wrote that when the child is taken to school  the first thing he learns is that his father is a fool, the second thing is his grandfather is a lunatic, the third thing is all his teachers are hypocrites, the fourth thing is that all his sacred books are a mass of lies. By the time he reaches sixteen, he is a mass of negation, lifeless and boneless... 

Oh!  The white man who killed millions of Indians started preaching the way for deliverance. It is like sinner guiding angles devils chanting scriptures but now after seeing the bigger picture  my sadness vanished " said Agastya.

I am glad that you are light hearted said Varsha and smiled. I am light hearted but I don't take history lightly. I will learn the history " said Agastya and said "Oh! Look at the sky. It is awesome. I have not observed it. I am totally absorbed in history!" said Agastya.