Translations

Original Source: https://www.jeyamohan.in/6028/ Date: 1-Jan-2010   In early July'97, retired IAS officer V. Ramamurthy went to the office of 'The Hindu' newspaper, met with its editor N. Ravi and asked whether he would be interested in publishing as a series, his upcoming work on 'the last 200 days of Gandhi' in his newspaper. Ramamurthy remarked that Gandhi's last days had the makings of a Greek tragedy. Ravi agreed to it. Half a century back, Gandhi was killed on 30-Jan-1948 - a Friday. Similarly, 30-Jan-1998 was a Friday. The series on Gandhi's last 200 days began on that day with sketches from Keshav - 'The Hindu's cartoonist. The series ran continuously and concluded by 200th day. It was later published as a book. Bharathi Puthakalayam published in 2007 its tamil translation by K. Ilakkuvan. This is quite an important work among those about Gandhi in Tamil. It provides an experience of co-travelling with Gandhi in those historically volatile day...

Original Source: https://www.jeyamohan.in/2760/ Date: 27-Feb-2017 Republished. Originally published on 26-May-2009   Dear Jeyamohan Sir, How do you do? I too am a firm believer in non-violence and gandhism like you. I may have inherited it from my family. My grandfather participated in Indian independence movement. He had participated in toddy shop picketing, Quit India Movement and had been imprisoned. We have been devoted nationalists as long as I know.  You would be knowing about the news articles published in the online version of Dinamani about the recent happenings in Sri Lanka. Comments from readers were also published and I had also written my comments. In reply, I was scolded and advised by many. India as a nation state was questioned and criticized in those online comments. Several people stated that non-violence cannot lead to independence. Many insisted that Gandhi was an impostor. Participants of that discussion praised Nethaji and announced that Prabhakaran was o...

Original Source: https://www.jeyamohan.in/79162/ Date: 2-Oct-2015 (This article seems to have a translation already. https://thesabarmati.wordpress.com/2015/10/04/toddy-shop-gandhi/ . Didn't notice it until about half of my translation. Proceeding to publish my translation as well). I had been to Vaikom for some Cinema work a couple of days back. Friend Madhupal and Cinema producer Sukumar accompanied me. While returning back, when we were wondering where to have lunch, Sukumar called up his friend and enquired. That friend suggested a toddy shop in a place called Chempu*. This is a place where actor Mammooty was raised. We enquired the place of the toddy shop. It was a shop thatched with palm leaves on the shore of Vembanad lake. Yet, it had several rooms; small rooms to consume toddy in private. It was late afternoon when we arrived, therefore the usual toddy consumers hadn't yet come. Mostly, people had come there for lunch. As Madhupal was an actor, he was given a royal wel...

Original Source: https://www.jeyamohan.in/133260/ 22-Jun-2020 What really is Gandhi's contribution; Is Gandhism merely just a belief like that of religion? This conversation has been going on among friends for the past few days. In fact, this discussion had been going on from Gandhi's living days. Occasionally, a notable person from another domain would mount a vicious denunciation. Osho or V.S.Naipaul or Sudhir Kakar. Marxists and Hindutvas had similar - mostly in similar wordings - antagonism on Gandhi. It would just keep coming. Marxists have conversed with me like that. I would retort, "Aside Gandhi, who has had real influence on the world? Whose words does the world follow sincerely?". They would hesitate a little and would say "Marx". "Apart from being a pioneer of an intelligentsia, where is Marxism existing now? It is just a political action plan. In the past century, where has this plan succeeded?", I would ask. With some difficulty, they ...

Original source: https://www.jeyamohan.in/2789/ 29-May-2009 Dear Jeyamohan, I am sharing you the link for an article written by a person named Aravindan Neelakandan. He has highlighted some things as Gandhi's faults. Koenraad Elst, a popular researcher of Indian Politics has categorically explained them. What is your views on those points? https://hikari1965.blogspot.com/2008/02/blog-post_1431.html Bheeshma Chennai The interest of the nation or that of the Hindus have never figured in  the lust for power and self-promotion of the Hindu leadership either  before independence or afterwards. All through the 20th century, ever  since Gandhi came on the scene, Hindu leaders have treated India as  their personal fiefdom and Hindus as slaves. Gandhi did not mind even  the slaughter of the Hindus provided it kept the Muslims happy. Jeyamohan, I read your reply to Semmani Arunachalam. I cannot accept it entirely. In today's world, what is your response for the difficulti...

Original Source: https://www.jeyamohan.in/183921/ One of the participants in the discussion on topic of 'Hindu religion and Castes' had sent two questions. He mentioned that these were raised by his atheist friend. Atheists are merely deniers who deny without understanding anything. It is just a mere stance. They do not understand whatever we state. First question, Within Indian religions, is it only the Hindu religion that has birth-based stratification? Second question, Is Hindu religion the only one in the world, where birth-based stratification exists? Both questions are being raised without any basic understanding. Indian religions like Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism etc contain castes and varnas. Scriptures of these religions prescribe these. People who have understood religion and history merely via public speech cacophony wouldn't know about these. Jainism insists on Varnas unconditionally. The scriptures of Jainism mentions that all the 24 Thirthankaras are Kshatriyas....

 Original source: https://www.jeyamohan.in/148563/ Respected Jeyamohan, Around 7 years back, I read the book "Indraiya Gandhi" (Contemporary Gandhi). When I read statements like, "Gandhi politicized people, enabled them to participate in politics, democratized those who were detached from politics", I realized its significance and was gladly amazed at how he did the right thing. But did he complete that undertaking? Is the populace politically knowledgeable? Are they involved in politics? Are they involved in the right way? These questions are gaining in importance. Within a state, crores of people declare allegiance to a certain party permanently. They are identifying themselves with that party and are electing that party no matter what. Have you seen someone rejecting cash for vote? But you would've seen someone raging at not receiving the cash yet. (including non-poor). Do the people have the wherewithal to vote looking beyond personal and factional (caste, r...