2057 Ides of March...240 August 30th

This month 2057 years ago Roman emperor Julius Caesar was assassinated

William Shakespeare:

"Let's be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius.

...And, gentle friends,

Let's kill him boldly, but not wrathfully;

Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods,

Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds;

And let our hearts, as subtle masters do,

Stir up their servants to an act of rage,

And after seem to chide 'em."

      --Brutus from "Julius Caesar" Act 2, scene 1, 166, 171–177

Charles Simic, March 2014:

"...It is the selective morality of our interventionists that offends me. They judge acts of violence not by their consequences, but on whether someone else or we are the perpetrators—if the acts are done by us they tend to have their full approval. Hypocrites who are blind or indifferent to their own country’s atrocities are not well suited for playing the part of moral conscience of the world,...There are few things that never change in this world of ours, but one of them happens to be the near certainty that those who raise their voices against injustice get betrayed in the end."

Judith Flander:

“Murder is like hearing blustery rain on the windowpane when sitting indoors. It reinforces a sense of safety, even of pleasure, to know that murder is possible, just not here.”

Colin Wilson, ‘CRIMINAL HISTORY OF MANKIND’, 1984:

“…Crime is renewed in every generation because human beings are children; very few of us achieve anything like adulthood. But at least it is not self-perpetuating, as human creativity is…”

Caesar's assassination lives in memory largely because of Shakespeare’s great play. 

The most memorable assassination in the medieval history of Maharashtra is that of Narayanrao Peshwa (नारायणराव पेशवा) that took place on the afternoon of August 30 1773 during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival.

There is very little literature in Marathi based on that event, let alone any great one. There is no great painting, done later, either.

This is surprising because Pune then was the most powerful force in the politics of South Asia.

A Marathi novel (not a good one) based on this event was one of the earliest serious books I read as a kid. I have often imagined the bloody event. The Peshwa was not alone to be killed that afternoon. Apparently, almost a dozen people, including two women, and even a couple of cows were killed along with him.

How the young man of just eighteen must have run for his life...did he stumble and fall while running? Which all places he ran to before he got killed? How messy the crime scene must have looked...who cleaned it? How was Peshwa's body prepared for cremation? How was the news received by the stalwarts of the Peshwa court? Which exact Marathi words were used by the plotters of the murder? Did anybody speak like Brutus and Antony? Was it raining that day in Pune?

There is so much tragic drama in all this...

I also think that the event has a great significance as a turning point in Maharashtra's politics.

People, led by Brahmins,  became audacious in their acts to grab the power. They started getting confident that they would eventually get away even with a regicide.

 John Gray says: "The true lesson of Machiavelli is that the alternative to politics is not law but unending war." Maybe this murder averted a revolt or an immediate start of an unending war among various factions that existed in Peshwa's regime.

Another lesson, and a shocking one,  of Machiavelli's 'The Prince' is not that politics demands dirty (bloody?) hands, but that politicians shouldn’t care.


I feel every political event in Maharashtra's politics,  that ordinary people judge as a 'shameful' one,  has its roots in that afternoon of August 1773.  A sitting Brahmin 'king' was brutally slaughtered, in his own house, during one of the biggest Hindu festivals, apparently on the orders of his uncle and right under his nose.

The uncle went on to live for another ten years and continued to play a significant role in the politics of Maharashtra until his death. His son, Baji Rao II, went on to become the 'king' in due course and 'served' the people of India the longest among all the Peshwas.

In India, today, all this does not sound strange at all.

 Should Vijay Tendulkar (विजय तेंडुलकर) have paid more attention to this political murder than the episode of Ghashiram Kotwal (घाशीराम कोतवाल) to write his political satire?

R G Gadkari (राम गणेश गडकरी), Annasaheb Kirloskar (अण्णासाहेब किर्लोस्कर), G B Deval (गो ब देवल), S K Kolhatkar (श्रीपाद कृष्ण कोल्हटकर), K P Khadilkar (कृष्णाजी प्रभाकर खाडिलकर) never wrote any (well-known) play based on the event.

I wonder why.

 'The Death of Caesar', 1804-1805, Oil on Canvas  Artist: Vincenzo Camuccini (1771-1844)  courtesy:  Wikimedia Commons

Thank the Lord He is Dead, This Son of a Gun...Khushwant Singh...

“Amon deshti kothao khojay

            Pabey no ko toomee,

Shokol desher rani shejey,

            Ammar jonmo bhoomee”

 India was unique also because Khushwant Singh lived there.

Mr. Singh has appeared on this blog many times earlier and he will continue to do so. I have almost all his books. I have liked him since when I was a kid.

I still remember reading Dhiren Bhagat's obituary of him  for "Sunday Observer" in 1980's. It obviously came almost three decades too soon. Mr. Bhagat, one of my favourite columnists,  himself died in 1988. 

Artist: Mario de Miranda, The Illustrated Weekly of India


The Times of India interviewed him in November 2011. 

How are you spending your days currently? 

   By not meeting anyone. In fact, I’m happiest when left alone. I have never ever felt lonely...

...Yet, your penchant for contemporary political commentary hasn’t gone – broad comments on what’s happening in the country today? 

    We have an honest and able prime minister but there is rampant corruption…I don’t believe the likes of Anna Hazare can do a thing about this corruption. Only Mahatma Gandhi would have been able to arouse mass consciousness to halt this corruption spreading all around. Meanwhile, on the other side, it’s so obvious that chief minister Narendra Modi is targeting officers in Gujarat who dared to bare the truth...

...Your age is always a matter of public comment; do you privately think about death?

    Yes. I think of death very often. I think of all my friends gone and wonder where they are…I wonder why we don’t discuss death in our homes. It’s one of those realities no one can escape…I also believe in the Jain philosophy that death ought to be celebrated. Years ago, I’d sit at the cremation grounds. That had a certain effect on me, worked as therapy. And years ago, i’d written my own epitaph: ‘Here lies one who spared neither man or God/ Waste not your tears on him, he was a sod/ Writing nasty things he regarded as great fun/ Thank the Lord he is dead, this son of a gun.’

...Clearly, you have few regrets; is there anything you wish you could have done differently? 

    I should have started my writing career much earlier – I wasted several years pursuing the legal profession. The other regret is not to have written more against religious fundamentalists hell-bent on causing divides between communities of this land. They have to be dealt with severely. My worry is over the rise of right-wing fascist parties in the country. We have to save our country from these destructive forces.

 

Is the Korean War, 1950 a Forgotten Conflict?...पलीकडे अन् युध्द- नगारे

Today March 20 2014 is 58th Death Anniversary of B S Mardhekar (बा. सी. मर्ढेकर)

Life.com has called 'the Korean War, 1950' a forgotten war.

Is it so?

Not really for  Mardhekar lovers like me.

At least two of my favourite Mardhekar poems refer to the war: "जमीन म्हणते मीच धांवतें" (Jamin Mhanate Mich Dhawate) and "अजून येतो वास फुलांना" (Ajun Yeto Vas Phulanna)

"This," Duncan told LIFE.com of a picture made during the fight for Seoul, "is the best picture I made in Korea of civilians — a family running down stairs, a father holding a baby, tanks firing away. Those tanks are taking fire from North Koreans right down the street!"

Artist: David Douglas Duncan, Life Magazine

"भूकंपाचा इकडे धक्का
पलीकडे अन् युध्द- नगारे;
चहूंकडे अन् एकच गिल्ला,
जुन्या शवांवर नवे निखारे."

(Here a shake of a tremour*
There war-drums;
and all around one hell of a racket,
new embers on old corpses.")

 * This tremour is the one that shook Assam in 1950 ( 8.6 on the Richter scale), 10th largest earthquake of the 20th century.

Who is Afloat? Joseph Addison or V K Chiplunkar...विष्णुशास्त्री चिपळूणकर

Tomorrow March 17 2014 is 132nd Death Anniversary of Vishnushastri Chiplunkar (विष्णुशास्त्री चिपळूणकर)

George Orwell, 'Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool':

"Ultimately there is no test of literary merit except survival, which is itself an index to majority opinion."

The late Mr. Chiplunkar (20 May 1850- 17 March 1882) is an interesting and controversial character in the history of Maharashtra.

Fifty-six  years after his death, Mr. T S Shejwalkar (त्र्यं शं शेजवलकर)  'blames' him and his followers for wiping out reforms of Lokhitwadi and for opposing any reforms for three generations.

"...लोकहितवादींचे समाजसुधारणेचे कार्य चिपळूणकरांनी बोळा फिरवून पुसून टाकले आणि शास्त्रीबोवांना गुरु मानणारा जो एक मोठा मानभावी पंथ महाराष्ट्रांत बद्धमूल झाला, त्याने कोणत्याही सुधारणेची टाकी रुतू न देण्याचा उपक्रम गेल्या तीन पिढ्या सुरु ठेवला आहे..."

(किर्लोस्कर 'Kirloskar', June 1938)

Backed by a large number of educated urban middle-class, fundamentalist tendencies continue to flourish in 21st century Maharashtra. However, I don't know to what extent we can implicate 19th-century writer Mr. Chiplunkar for it.  

Although,  I had read his essay or two earlier, I started reading a book of his essays in October 2013 and I came across this name: Joseph Addison. The name has appeared on this blog earlier in "Michel de Montaigne: a Humble and Inglorious Life; that Does Not Matter" on September 13 2013.

Mr. Chiplunkar was clearly taken in by the charm of Mr. Addison (1672-1719).

"...उदाहरणार्थ, इंग्लिश भाषेत पहा.  हित जे ग्रंथकार आजपर्यंत झाले त्या  सर्वात आडिसन याची प्रमुखत्वाने गणना आहे.… व जोवर या पृथ्वीवर इंग्लिश राहील तोंवर वरील ग्रंथकाराचे लेख  बुडायचे नाहीत असा खात्रीचा अभिप्राय मोठमोठ्यांनी प्रदर्शित केला आहे…"

(...For example, look at English language. Among all the writers produced by it, Addison is among the best...and many greats have opined with a lot of confidence that as long as English survives on this earth the writings of the said author will not drown.")

Note- No Shakespeare. Milton, Swift, Shelley, Austen, Chaucer but Addison (आडिसन)...

 If you read Wikipedia entry on Addison, he is remembered today largely, not for his books or essays, but for the founding of The Spectator  magazine. More precisely it's called The Spectator (1711) to distinguish it from The Spectator. that is published even today. 

The latter published an article on Mr. Addison to observe the bicentenary of the his death in June 1919.

It makes no claim to his greatness, let alone the immortality of his letters.

Has Joseph Addison or his books 'survived' as proclaimed by Vishnushastri?

When I saw these two articles in a Marathi daily Loksatta (लोकसत्ता), on its editorial pages, dated February 14 2014 and March 14 2014, I feel Mr. Chiplunkar has probably done better than Mr. Addison in "drowning test"!
 

Artist: I Klein, The New Yorker, 6 February 1932