A rickety train with wooden seats last week brought a crotchety old man called Rajrishi (King of Saints) into the town of Gandhinagar and into the center of India’s tense and teeming political stage. Rajrishi Purushottamdas Tandon, 68, white-bearded and frail, had beaten candidates backed by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for the presidency of India’s dominant Congress Party. Nehru stood for progress and Westernization (with important reservations). Tandon stood for the dim & distant past, for pressure on the Moslem minority, for a Hindu state (with no reservations whatever).
From all over India 200,000 men & women had come to the 56th annual meeting of the Congress Party to see whether the policy of dynamic, popular Nehru or saintly, reactionary Tandon would prevail.
Stepping off the train into a milk-white “duck” (amphibious truck), Tandon was pelted with flowers. Headed by an elephant borrowed from an itinerant circus, the procession jogged through packed and bedecked streets. Behind Tandon’s duck came 5,000 Congress delegates, a score of mounted military cadets and a group of 100 folk dancers tripping to the shrill notes of the flute-like shanai.
Rubber Sandals. They knew what Tandon stood for. For instance, he goes even further than his late, great leader Gandhi in opposing industrialization. He will not eat ordinary sugar because it is refined in mills; instead he uses jaggery, a home-refined sugar. He thinks that all Indians should, like himself, be teetotalers, non-smokers and vegetarians. He hates soap, believes that rubbing the body vigorously with plenty of water is adequate. He condemns Western medicine as evil quackery and believes in the nature cures of Hinduism’s innumerable Ayurveda doctors.
Recently he solemnly declared that “the cause for the deterioration in health is the smallpox vaccination.” Last April, though greatly desiring to attend the Kumbh-mela held at Hardwar (TIME, May 1), Tandon stayed away because cholera inoculations were compulsory for all pilgrims. Tandon has complained that Nehru’s approach to public health is almost the same as that of the British; e.g,, he advocates distribution of medicine made by Western methods and is in favor of injecting people’s bodies with poisonous drugs. So revered by Tandon is the sanctity of animal life that he condemns leather shoes, wears rubber sandals.
Born in Allahabad (the home town of Nehru), Tandon started life as a lawyer. He soon threw up his promising career to join Gandhi’s struggle for independence and was imprisoned seven times. Tandon’s family was poor and has remained poor; he always refuses assistance from the Congress Party’s rich patrons. He has often missed meals and worn rags. But, at a time when corruption and nepotism are deeply rooted in many Congress Party leaders, Tandon’s unimpeachable integrity shines brightly in his favor.
Neon Ads & Cow Protection. Last week visitors to Gandhinagar got a glimpse of both Tandon’s traditional past and Nehru’s wondrous future. Sitting in a specially built, galvanized iron-sheeted dining hall, they ate Tandon’s strict orthodox menu: rice, wheat pancakes, lentils, sweets, vegetables, buttermilk. Shuffling around the ten-stall “village uplift” exhibition they gaped at tractors, bulldozers and an improved oil seed crusher. They gasped at a lecture on artificial insemination (illustrated with plaster models) and were dazzled by shimmering neon advertisements. They saw posters on the evils of drink; noted the stall which sold cottage-made, unrefined palm juice sugar, and listened when Tandon declared that “Cow protection is part of Indian culture and as such . . . the cow should be afforded full protection even if it leads to the collapse of the country’s economy.”*
Of more urgent importance than unlimited cow protection was Tandon’s demand that the government put more pressure on the 40 million Moslems in India. He argued that the Moslem government of Pakistan would never stop persecuting its Hindu minority (12 million) until the Pakistanis were convinced that India would retaliate in kind.
Nehru, overconfident, had not openly campaigned against Tandon. But at Gandhinagar the Pandit set about making up for lost time. Driving around in his bloodred, brand-new Oldsmobile convertible, Nehru made 13 speeches.
Winding up his campaign at the official meeting, Nehru attacked the U.S. for not recognizing Communist China. But when some Congress leaders said that the U.S. was motivated by imperialism, Nehru defended the U.S. He said that the present world crisis was due to fear of each other on the part of two rival blocs. Then he took direct issue with Tandon on Pakistan. Nehru’s resolution said: “Whatever disputes and conflicts may exist now or may arise in the future between India and Pakistan, they should be considered as political problems between two countries and should be treated as such. In no event should communalism or the misuse of religion be allowed to mar and distort consideration of our internal problems. We cannot forsake our own policy in a spirit of retaliation. We have not only to treat our minorities with full justice and fairness, but should make them feel that they are so treated.” Then, in a voice breaking with emotion, Nehru turned on the heat. Said he: “I am ashamed at the way this question has been looked at by Congressmen . . . You cannot waver. If you want me to lead Congress you have to pass the [Nehru]resolution unequivocally … If you do not want me to remain Prime Minister you tell me and I shall go.” Nehru’s resolution was passed amid loud acclamation. Even Mystic Tandon, in a 15,000-word speech studded with quotations from Hindu epics, agreed with the Premier.
Last week in the town of Gandhinagar some thought that Nehru had won a great victory. Others, who knew the depth and strength of the extremist movement behind Tandon, felt that the issue had been postponed rather than settled.
*An unlikely occurrence since most of India’s 176 million cow population perform the useful function of providing motive power, milk, and dung for fuel. The relatively small number of aged cattle who roam the streets and paths are cared for like beggars by the community. Their meager grass ration is no serious drain on food resources.
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