By Vishwamithra –

“Censure me in your wisdom, and awake your senses that you be the better judge.” ~ Brutus, Julius Caesar

Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once called Mahatma Gandhi “a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir… striding half-naked up the steps of the Viceregal Palace.” Churchill was unhappy at Gandhi’s participation at the Second Round Table Conference in London in 1931. Churchill even suggested Gandhi should be allowed to die if he goes on hunger strike. There was a time when Swami Vivekananda was in England. We all know he used to wear traditional saffron suit (Bhagava). One person came and asked him, “Why don’t you wear a suit and look like a Gentleman?” Swami’s gentle reply to this question was: “In our nation ‘Character’ makes a gentleman while in your country ‘a Tailor’ makes a gentleman.”

British Raj, when her sphere of influence and power stretched from Asia to the far West, where the sun was never to have set, when they treated her subjects all over her empire with contempt, derision and without mercy, now have to bow down to a subject, although attired in full suit, an Indian Fakir, born of that same national lineage and character in the third decade of the twenty first century. The new British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak may not be Indian-born and nor were his parents. He was born in Southampton, England to parents of Indian descent who migrated to Britain from East Africa in the 1960s. But neither the world nor Rishi, himself can dish his originality as an Indian, belonging to the large family of Indians and following the same traditions and customs which are uniquely Indian. 

Mahatma Gandhi, as former American President Bill Clinton called, was the ‘voice of the age’. Gandhi not only set an unparalleled precedent in action against cruel discrimination against race, religion and language by the British Raj, set the world ablaze with non-violent Satyagraha and performed incredible and miraculous human magic. Yet today India, the birthplace of Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and above all Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, is in a league by itself. She is in the exclusive nuclear club and amongst her children are Kamala Harris, Vice President of United States of America and Prime Minister of England, not to mention some other illustrious CEOs of some multinational corporations. What national prestige, what national pride! 

Twenty miles south of India is Sri Lanka. Close to twenty percent (20%) of Sri Lanka’s population, of which nearly 15% are Tamils from the North. That 15% has been in the country for more than 1500 years, maybe even 2000 years. Yet one cannot even mention their names in the context of the country’s mainstream political leadership. Buddhist Monks, who, according to the scriptures of Mahavamsa, the Great Chronicle, chose the King (except the last three Kings in Kandy) and would not allow a Tamil or for that matter any non-Sinhalese Buddhist to be near the office of Presidency or Prime Minister. They still live in the dark corridors of historical nonsense, having not stepped into the enlightened age of the twenty first century. That indeed is a tragic commentary about the Sinhala-ness about our country. A nation whose darker characteristics overwhelm the positives of a given paradigm is entrenched in race-ridden stupid, stupid politics.

How could this have happened? A nation, who has claimed to have been following the fourfold virtues of Buddhist way of life, ‘metta (loving kindness) karuna (compassion) mudita (sympathetic joy or empathy) and upekkha (equanimity)’ has abandoned every fundamental element of the Dharma. She is engaged in some of the most polarizing ways of life and this living would have been unthinkable during the days when Siddhartha Gautama was teaching his unmatchable philosophical Dharma of wisdom and eternal compassion.

Questions are many and answers are none. Rishi’s ascendance to Premiership is only a historical symbol. One must not read more into it other than the mere facts that a non-white-skinned fellow, a non-Christian has taken up the nation’s premier executive position. Also, prior to becoming Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak was elected the leader of the Conservative Party, one of England’s mainstream parties which have been successful in gaining electoral success in last couple of elections.               

Rudyard Kipling, the Victorian-era poet is known for his celebrated work. His illustrious poetic creation, “The White Man’s Burden” is thematically related to Kipling’s belief that the British Empire was the Englishman’s “Divine Burden to rule God’s Empire on Earth” and celebrates British colonialism as a mission of civilization that eventually would benefit the colonized natives. Such condescending opinions may have had their days during the Victorian era but this is the twenty first century. Internet and the social media have taken the planet by storm. The white man’s burden has been set down. Instead the whole wide world is resting on the shoulders of bright and wise young nations whose only goal is a peaceful and prosperous way of life for all that occupy the planet.

In that race to a peaceful and prosperous way of life, many nations may fall behind; many may stumble and fall down. But it is no more the white man’s burden to carry. The empire has evaporated, again thanks mainly to a great ‘half naked fakir’-Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi instilled more fear in the minds of the British than thousands of armies. Now in the twenty first century, each and every small nation is taking care of itself in its own way. The good elements of the British way of governance such as a great civil service, orderly administration and so forth are amongst many of such positives. Sri Lanka is one of those small countries whose, as its sociopolitical behavior indicates, ethnic divisions and racial violence took ahold of its citizens and ultimately climaxed in a thirty-year separatist war. Nonetheless, it is no excuse for the Sinhalese majority in Sri Lanka to shed her decent conduct in politics and consider their Tamil brothers and sisters as unequal partners in a very simple enterprise called living.

With all that prejudicial conduct and polarized demeanor, the Sinhalese majority, led by Buddhist Monks have been successful in instilling in the majority that granting even an inch more in the fields of land and police powers to the Northern Provincial Council is a no-no. Such fear, such hatred and such foolhardiness should not belong in the modern era of the social media. Accountability and transparency have taken deep root, especially amongst the young and educated. The very optics that usually supports the one who throws the proverbial ‘first stone’, seems to have had a very telling effect on the people. That is one glaring element that came out during short span of the ‘Aragalaya’ time.

In the context of ethnic divisions, our youth displayed a remarkable sense of balance and total rejection of discrimination. It was further buttressed by the young Bikkhus who took part in the Aragalaya movement and the way in which the Christian clergy and Buddhist Monks intermingled was a sight beyond comparison. Yet we should outthink the dirty politicians who would resort to the most devious acts of ethnic and religious divisions when they fear that their political death is in the offing. In such a situation, one cannot expect accountability and transparency from them at all. In fact, it is accountability and transparency that would be the first two casualties when things start turning against them again.

Any which way one looks at the current status of affairs, the picture looks more and more blurry and more and more unrecognizable as to the final outcome. Such a national dilemma is threatening the very forward movement of a nation and in the absence of any tangible and trustworthy leadership at the helm, looking for a solution might as well be most futile. Rishi Sunak might succeed or he may not. That depends on, among others, how far the British nationals would go to accept his conservative manifesto. But the very optics of occupancy of British Premiership by a person of Indian origin speaks volumes for the absence of ethno-racial factors in their thinking when it comes to political judgments.

Such non-prejudicial political and social judgments are most welcome in an atmosphere of otherwise widely-divisive ‘conservative’ schools of thought. For instance, the potentially dangerous turns the Republican Party in the USA has taken with entry of Donald Trump into politics in 2016 Presidential Elections are quite dramatic and the total lack of condemnation by other Republican leaders in the USA is audibly ominous. 

When one starts thinking in terms of seeking power at any costs and relegating ideas and ideals to a lower level in the hierarchy of life’s goals, triumph of evil is inevitable. That might sound melodramatic, yet one cannot ignore the obvious. Such apathy and option to disregard the potentiality of a more severe outcome at the end would certainly be disastrous.

When the sun goes down with its final rays leaving a hazy horizon, the twilight takes over for a short time until total darkness envelopes the countryside for almost half the day. During that darkness, especially in rural Sri Lanka, the eldest in the household, old grandma chooses to engage in her daily religious ritual. For her, the world is within herself and her family. Her devotion to the teachings of the Great One has not dithered. In a vacillating paradigm of the human drama, the actors and actresses may perform on stage, but those who work behind the curtain, the musicians, lighting man, makeup artists and  other fellows who execute insignificant jobs matter too. In the panorama of life everyone matters and everything has to depend on one another. He who thinks in terms of ‘me and mine’ is the most disgraceful being one could find.

*The writer can be contacted at vishwamithra1984@gmail.com