Speech as action

Collections celebrating the rich tradition of oratory throughout history.

IN the days of the Raj, the speech was very much a form of action for the constitutionalists who first led the freedom movement, alike on the public platform and in the legislatures. They were greatly influenced by British traditions in politics, Parliament and the rule of law. Things did not change much in the Gandhian era of civil disobedience. Its foremost leaders were Barristers of England Gandhi, Nehru and Patel.

It is a service to remind the present generation of a rich tradition in oratory throughout history before speech-writers debased it. Historian Simon Sebag Montefiore writes in the Introduction: A great speech does not just capture the truth of its era; it can also capture the big lie. The first collection is a fairly representative one. It begins with Moses and ends with George W. Bush to adapt the hackneyed phrase, from the sublime to the contemptible. Heroes rub shoulders with monsters. This profusely illustrated and well-produced volume prompts one to ask whether a more prosaic edition with room for some more of the great speeches, omitted inevitably here, would not be more enlightening. How can you exclude Bismarck, as this volume does?

Every reader will have his own criticism of the selection. Simon Heffer is an erudite journalist and his selection is, on the whole, faultless. But omission of David Lloyd Georges famous speech on September 21, 1914, at Queens Hall in London is inexcusable. Even Lloyd Georges opponent Sir John Simon characterised it as a classic of English elegance. Read the peroration:

May I tell you in a simple parable what I think this war is doing for us? I know a valley in North Wales, between the mountains and the sea. It is a beautiful valley, snug, comfortable, sheltered by the mountains from all the bitter blasts. But it is very enervating, and I remember how the boys were in the habit of climbing the hill above the village to have a glimpse of the great mountains in the distance, and to be stimulated and freshened by the breezes which came from the hilltops, and by the great spectacle of their grandeur.

Jawaharlal Nehru with

We have been living in a sheltered valley for generations. We have been too comfortable and too indulgent many, perhaps, too selfish and the stern hand of fate has scourged us to an elevation where we can see the great everlasting things that matter for a nation the great peaks we had forgotten, of Honour, Duty, Patriotism, and, clad in glittering white, the great pinnacle of Sacrifice pointing like a rugged finger to Heaven. We shall descend into the valleys again; but as long as the men and women of this generation last, they will carry in their hearts the image of those great mountain peaks whose foundations are not shaken, though Europe rock and sway in the convulsions of a great war.

The academic Rakesh Batabyals collection is by far one of the best to appear yet, so comprehensive and representative it is. It covers topics like education, economy and development, labour as well as political life. It is not ungenerous to mention strange omissions and inclusions. Maulana Azad did little credit to himself by his taunts in a self-indulgent speech to the traumatised Muslims of Delhi on October 23, 1947. His presidential address to the Congress session at Ramgarh in 1940 and his speech in defence at his trial were masterpieces of oratory.

Nor does Jinnahs speech on July 30, 1917, in protest against Annie Besants internment deserve inclusion at the expense of his superb speech at the Muslim League session in December 1917 in support of the Congress-League pact of 1916 at Lucknow, of which he was co-author along with Tilak, whom he admired greatly all his life. Jinnah said: It is said that we are going on at tremendous speed, that we are in a minority and the Government of this country might afterwards become a Hindu Government. I want to give an answer to his. I particularly wish to address my Mahomedan friends on this point. Do you think, in the first instance, as to whether it is possible that the government of this country could become a Hindu Government? Do you think that Government could be conducted by ballot boxes? Do you think that because the Hindus are in the majority, therefore they could carry on a measure, in the Legislative Assembly, and there is an end of it? If seventy millions of Mussalmen do not approve of a measure, which is carried by a ballot box, do you think that it could be enforced and administered in this country? Do you think that the Hindu statesmen, with their intellect, with their past history, would ever think of when they get self-government enforcing a measure by ballot box? Then what is there to fear? Therefore, I say to my Moslem friends not to fear. This is a bogey, which is put before you by your enemies to frighten you, to scare you away from the co-operation with the Hindus which is essential for the establishment of self-government. If this country is not to be governed by the Hindus, let me tell you in the same spirit, it was not to be governed by the Mahomedans either and certainly not by the English. It is to be governed by the people and the sons of this country and I, standing here I believe that I am voicing the feeling of the whole of India say that what we demand is the immediate transfer of the substantial power of Government of this country.

It is unfortunate that the historian-journalist Rudrangshu Mukherjee also omits this speech in his useful compilation, sadly marred by some comments and odd selections. He gratuitously asserts in a prefatory note to L.K. Advanis speech, after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, that at one point he did try to restrain the mob but in vain. Two dailies of repute, The Hindu and The Indian Express, reported the day after the demolition that Advani was heard asking the mob to seal the roads in order to prevent the Central Reserve Police Force from arriving. Two judicial pronouncements found a prima facie case against him of conspiring to commit that dastardly crime. For over a decade he has, like any common accused, avoided accountability to the courts.

In a collection of great speeches, two speeches by Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, founder of the Jan Sangh and the Hindu Mahasabha leader, stand out like a sore thumb. One is on the terrible Calcutta riots of August 16, 1946, the other in 1952 was on Nehrus Kashmir policy. Another great speech? As Sheikh Abdullah tartly reminded Mookerjee in a letter of February 4, 1953, You happened to be a part of the Government which sponsored Article 370 in the Constituent Assembly. Inclusion of the Sheikhs speech in the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly at its inaugural session in 1951 would have been more appropriate.