MYSTISM AND TRADITION IN THE WEST
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- Title
- MYSTISM AND TRADITION IN THE WEST
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RF_RJS_2_SUDHA
Man with Serpent and Flies
(left) by Heinrich Anton
(1865-1930). Very little is
known of Anton’s family or
background. For many
years he was a vineyard
labourer and he claimed he
had invented a machine for
pruning vines, the idea for
which was stolen from him.
His bitterness grew so ob
sessive over the years that
eventually he lost his reason
and. was committed to an
asylum.
In 1912, when he was
58, he began to draw, cover
ing the walls of his room in
the asylum with elaborately
symbolic pictures. Pre
occupied by the idea of per
petual motion, he also
created highly complicated
machines which obstinately
refused to function.
He spent much of his
time in a deep cave which
he built in the asylum gar
den and he saw himself as
a top-level diplomat, acting
on behalf of the govern
ments of his day. He re
ferred to himself as “God”,
to his wife as “The Divine
Virgin”, and usually signed
his letters “The Almighty”.
Sr Adolph’s Gazelle Polka
(opposite) by Adolf Wolfli
(1864-1930). Bom of work
ing-class parents in Berne,
Wolfli worked as a shep
herd’s boy until, when he
was 25, he was jailed for
assaulting young girls. A
. year later he was committed
to an asylum for similar
offences. His mental health
rapidly deteriorated, he be
came violent, and was kept
in solitary confinement for
20 years. He began to paint
during this period, starting
at dawn and painting until
there was no longer light
enough to see.
Wolfli’s huge output of
work was heavily influenced
by religion: Saints Adolf
and Adolfino (bearing a
pointed resemblance to the
artist) appear again and
again; the colours of stained
glass and mediaeval tapes
tries predominate;
and
many of his works resemble
ikons. The paintings have
elaborate interwoven bor
ders of musical notes and
calligraphic symbols.
W"SUbllket
considers
Wolfli to be one of the most
important artists in the col| lection.
3W 7"
Emile Hodinos-Josome, son of a Paris baker, was
trained as an engraver. Soon after cpmpleung his
military service he was committed to an-asylum
where he began drawing coins and medallions. His
intricate designs eventually covered thousands of
sheets of paper.
■
Gaston Duf, son of an alcoholic calif-owner in
northern France, started work as a minerih-his early
teens. Too unstable for such rigorous work, he was
dismissed from one colliery after another, becoming
more and more withdrawn and spending his time in
cinemas and cafes. When he was 20, Duf was com
mitted to an asylum, and made two suicide attempts.
He was periodically violent but began to spend hours
over his personal appearance, paying special atten
tion to his hairstyle, combing his hair in front of a
mirror for hours. He began to draw in 1948, always
depicting monsters, which he created with immense
conviction. He formed the habit of secreting litde
drawings, always done in black pencil, in his pockets
and carrying them with him wherever he went.
Although he can spell perfectly adequately, Duf cap
tions his drawings with seemingly deliberate mis
spellings (as above).
Laure’s drawings were contributed to the Compagnie by a membr of the Spiritualist circle to
which she had belonged. Around 500 drawings had
been found after her death, but there were no ex
planations as to the drawings’ meanings, and no clue
as to why she had done them. All are precisely dated,
indicating three distinct periods in her work. The
second period coincides with her husband’s leaving
her for another woman, and the third period dates
from the time of his return and death. AU Laure’s
drawings were executed with a blue baUpoint pen;
exquisitely delicate line-drawings weave a series of
elaborately filigreed patterns.
Two Chairs by Laure (1882-1965)
Jeanne’s sketch-books and diaries reveal a mass
Horses’ Heads by Jeanne (b. 1887)
of abstract drawings and messages from the spirit
world. The elder of her two sons died as a baby in
1913 and she has always consulted his spirit over any
important decision. One typical entry in a diary
reads: “WiU A ... help me to buy the coal for next
winter? If Yes, Horse’s Head.” “Yes.” An abstract
drawing of a horse’s head completes the page. Sig
nificantly, her pages proUferate with affirmative
horses’ heads. Jeanne was bom in southwest France
where she still lives with her husband, a retired
“ft- \f.
Medium Drawing by Raphael Lonne (b. 19i0)
Raphael Lonne is a postman in south west France,
where he plays in the local brass band. When he w*
40 he became intensely interested in spiritualism,
he firmly believes in reincarnation; he is also convinced
that he possesses supernatural powers. His drawings like the one above - were mostly produced between
1950 and 1951 and are remarkable for their fine linear
quality. Unable to explain their meaning, Lonne can
remember only that he did them, never how or why.
Guillaume was the youngest son of a French cabinetmaker. He was a serious and sensitive child, doted
K upon by his parents. He followed his father’s profession
BP even though his father had to sell up his own business
>n order to pay his gambling debts. Guillaume, who
was an obsessionally tidy young man, led a quite life
until the outbreak of the First World War, when he
HB was conscripted. When he returned to civilian life,
HI Guillaume quarrelled with his family, married, and took
; a job as a Customs clerk. His personality had undergone
L1- a profound and disconcerting change. He was tyrannical
Bn at home and almost impossible to work with. He began
BE to spend hours gazing at himself in mirrors and in
K 1926 attempted suicide. He invented a malevolent
Le Provence by Guillaume (b. 1893)
|■ daughter who persecuted him. At the age of 33 he was
|H committed to a psychiatric hospital. Nine years later
be began to produce his series of calligraphic paintings,
many of which were inspired by pictures from maga
zines. Working with brushes made from paper and
hair, he continued to paint until 1942. Now an infirm
old man, he is still living at the hospital.
Riverside scene by D. Guider
to create her wedding-dress.
developed pronounced schizo- • Made entirely from threads i
phrenic tendencies in middleage taken from worn-out sheetsand I
and in 1935 was admitted to a dish-cloths (no piece of actual
mental institution where he re fabric was ever used), and resem- |
mained until his death in '1950. bling the finest ’facework, Mar
Braz’s work reflects his’-'pro guerite’s wedding-dress is one
found sexual dilemma: it seems of the most beautiful exhibits.
that he was never able to deter Another artist in the Commine whether he was:"male or p'agnie was more interested in I
.female. The figures he' 'drew the delights in store after the I
.were invariably hermaphrodite: ceremony rather than in the
virile bearded men display vol preparations for the wedding.
uptuous breasts. Sexual symbo- ■ -Aloise (1886-1964), a governess
lism abounds: figures brandish in' France, was a spinster
obvious phallic emblems, and all her life. Each of her highly
animals (like the bull above) sensual paintings was given the
are aggressively potent.
" seal of respectability with an
initial depiction of a prim mar- I
Marguerite (1890-1957), daugh riage ceremony; thereafter she
ter of southern French peasants, shows herself in the arms of the
was admitted in her early forties chosen love - always an enor
’ to a mental hospital where she mously distinguished historical
_spent the rest of her life. A figure: Luther, Wellington,
““schizophrenic, she claimed that Napoleon and De Gaulle were a
“she had died 122 times. In her few on her roll of honour.
middle sixties Marguerite be
lieved herself to be 18 years old, D. Gui tier, who painted the river
and that she was to be married side scene (far left) was a schizo
on her 21st birthday. She sent phrenic. The picture was in a
The Wedding-dress, Marguerite wedding invitations and began psychiatrist’s collection. ^j>)) y
“5 T m
5U //0J72.
’ 'J
Ji7
THE MIND S EYE
„ ■ TJ^rTon^rimitive naintings
Next year a unique collection of . „
P,
and sculptures, the Compagnie de I’Art Brut, will move into a
permanent home being enthusiastically prepared for it by the
Swiss Government in the Chateau Brunel, Lausanne. The Com
pagnie is kept at present in a Parisian house belonging to the
French painter Jean Dubuffet, who began the collection in
1945. The French authorities would not provide the backing
for a permanent home because the collection consists entirely
of the work of non-professional artists. Most of them spring
from peasant or artisan stock and few showed any creative
promise until their middle years. A great many are under stress
of one form or another - frequently mentally or physically
handicapped - and many have spent much of their liyfes in
prison or mental institutions. To track them down Dubuffet
wrote thousands of letters to clinics, mental hospitals, prisons
and local authorities. Now the Compagnie is one of the bestpresented and most meticulously documented collections in
Europe. The Compagnie de I’Art Brut is not a pretentious
statement on art as therapy. The artists make their own point
with disturbing effect. By Roger Law and Celestine Dars
THE VISION OF THE PROPHET
The mysterious testami nt of Carlos Castaneda
The hottest literary property in
America - and certainly the most
elusive - is a Los Angeles anthro
pologist called Carlos Castaneda.
For 10 years Castaneda claims
to have been ‘apprentice’ to a
Yaqui Indian sorcerer whom he
calls Don Juan, and during that
time he recorded a series of extra
ordinary conversations with him.
The results, contained in three
best-selling books, have sparked
off a Castaneda cult in America,
though there is some scepticism
as to whether the mysterious
Don Juan actually exists. Casta
neda is almost as difficult to pin
down as his mentor. He has
shunned publicity, and coy pic
tures like the one below are the
only ones taken of him.
Castaneda gives us little infor
mation about Don Juan. We learn
that he was about 60 when they
met, that he was poor, lived near
Sonora, Mexico, and was a hun
ter by trade, a gatherer of plants
and animals. This explains why
he spent so much time with
Castaneda in the wilds.
Castaneda’s first book, The
Teachings of Don Juan, records
his efforts to wrest from the
Indian his knowledge of native
drugs. The second, A Separate
Reality tells how, after a lapse of
several years, he went back to
continue his apprenticeship, and
how his education progressed
beyond psychotropic experiences
into the problems of ‘seeing’. In
his last book Journey to Ixtlan
(just published by The Bodley
Head, at £2-25) from which we
print these extracts, he goes back
plants,” he said. “Talk until you lose
all sense of importance. Talk to them
until you can do it in front of others.
“Go to those hills over there and
practise by yourself.”
I asked if it was all right to talk
to the plants silently, in my mind.
He laughed and tapped my head.
“No!” he said. “You must talk
to them in a loud and clear voice if
you want them to answer you.”
I walked to the area in question,
laughing to myself about his eccen
tricities. I even tried to talk to the
plants, but my feeling of being
ludicrous was overpowering.
After what I thought was an
appropriate wait I. went back to
where Don Juan was. I had the cer
tainty that he knew I had not talked
to the plants.
■
■
He did not look at me. He sig
nalled me to sit do wn by him.
“Watch me carefully,” he said.
“I’m going to have a talk with my
little friend.”
He knelt down in front of a small
plant and for a few minutes he moved
and contorted his body, talking and
laughing.
I thought he was out of his mind.
“This little plant told me to tell
Losing self-importance
/‘Now we are concerned with losing
“elf-importance. As long as you feel
that you are the most important
thing in the world you cannot really
appreciate the world around you.
You are like a horse with blinkers,
all you see is yourself apart from
everything else.”
He examined me for a moment.
“I am going to talk to my little
friend here,” he said, pointing to a
small plant.
He knelt in front of it and began
to caress it and to talk to it. I did not
understand what he was saying at
first, but then he switched languages
and talked to the plant in Spanish.
He babbled inanities for a while.
Then he stood up.
lc"“It doesn’t matter what you say to
a plant,” he said. “You can just as
well make up words; what’s impor
tant is the feeling of liking it, and
treating it as an equal.”
He explained that a man who
gathers plants must apologise every
time for taking them and must assure
them that some day his own body
will serve as food for them.
“So, all in all, the plants and
ourselves are even,” he said. “Neither
we nor they are more or less impor
tant.
“Come on, talk to the little plant,”
he urged me. “Tell it that you don’t
feel important any more.”
I went as far as kneeling in front
of the plant but I could not bring
myself to speak to it. I felt ridiculous
and laughed. I was not angry, how
ever.
Don Juan patted me on the back
and said that it was all right, that at
least I had contained my temper.
“From now on talk to the little
COMMjNmY .; .ALTH CELL
47/1,(First Floor)St. Marks Aoad
over his earlier material and
retells his whole relationship with
Don Juan from the standpoint of
his new understanding.
In the end he realised that
drugs were beside the point. Don
Juan’s teaching was about ‘seeing’
the world rather than ‘looking’
at it. It was about stepping
through the thick veils of western
rationalism that enveloped Cas
taneda’s mind and blinded his
eyes. To understand Don Juan,
he had to find a new relationship
with everything about him.
you that she is good to eat,” he said
as he got up from his kneeling
position. “She said that a handful
like her would keep a man healthy.
She also said that there is a batch of
her kind growing over there.”
Don Juan pointed to an area on a
hillside perhaps two hundred yards
away.
“Let’s go and find out,” he said.
I laughed at his histrionics. I was
sure we would find the plants,
because he was an expert in the
terrain and knew where the edible
and medicinal plants were.
As we walked towards the area
in question he told me casually that
I should take notice of the plant
because it was both a food and a
medicine.
I asked him, half in jest, if the
plant had just told him that. He
stopped walking and examined me
with an air of disbelief. He shook his
head from side to side.
“Ah!” he exclaimed, laughing.
“Your cleverness makes you more
silly than I thought. How can the
little plant tell me now what I’ve
known all my life ?”
He proceeded then to explain
that he knew all along the different
properties of that specific plant, and
that the plant had just told him that
there was a batch of the same species
growing in the area he had pointed
to, and that she did not mind if he
told me that.
Upon arriving at the hillside I
found a whole cluster of the same
plants. I wanted to laugh but he did
not give me time. He wanted me to
thank the batch of plants. I felt
excruciatingly self-conscious ^j> >
This painting, by William Wiley, teas
originally designed as a cover for Time
Magazine to illustrate a story on
Carlos Castaneda, but was not used
and could not bring myself to do it.
He smiled benevolently and made
another of his cryptic statements.
He repeated it three or four times as
if to give me time to figure out its
meaning.
“The world around us is a
mystery,” he said. “And men are
no better than anything else. If a little
plant is generous with us we must
thank her, or perhaps she will not
let us go.”
The way he looked at me when
he said that gave me a chill. I hur
riedly leant over the plants and said,
“Thank you,” in a loud voice.
He began to laugh in controlled
and quiet spurts.
Death is an adviser
“The thing to do when you’re impn^nt,” he proceeded, “is to turn
to your left and ask advice from your
death. An immense amount of petti
ness is dropped if your death makes
a gesture to you, or if you catch a
glimpse of it, or if you just have the
feeling that your companion is there
watching you.”
He leant over again and whis
pered in my ear that if I turned to
my left suddenly, upon seeing his
signal, I could again see my death on
the boulder.
His eyes gave me an almost
imperceptible signal, but I did not
dare to look.
I told him that I believed him
and that he did not have to press the
^jue any further, because I was
terrified. He had one of his roaring
belly laughs.
He replied that the issue of our
death was never pressed far enough.
And I argued that it would be mean
ingless for me to dwell upon my
death, since such a thought would
only bring discomfort and fear.
“You’re full of crap!” he ex
claimed. “Death is the only wise
adviser that we have. Whenever you
feel, as you always do, that every
thing is going wrong and you’re
about to be annihilated, turn to your
death and ask if that is so. Your
death will tell you that you’re wrong
that nothing really matters outside
its touch. Your death will tell you,
‘I haven’t touched you yet.’ ”
“Of course we’re equals,” I said.
I was, naturally, being very con
descending. I felt very warm towards
him even though at times I did not
know what to do with him; yet I
still held in the back of my mind,
although I would never voice it, the
belief that I, being a university
student, a man of the sophisticated
Western world, was superior to an
Indian.
“No,” he said calmly, “we are
not.”
“Why, certainly we are,” I pro
tested.
“No,” he said in a soft voice.
“We are not equals. I am a hunter
and a warrior, and you are a pimp.”
We remained silent. I felt em
barrassed and could not think of
anything appropriate to say. I waited
for him to break the silence. Hours
went by. Don Juan became motion
less by degrees, until his body had
acquired a strange, almost frighten
ing rigidity; his silhouette became
difficult to make out as it got dark,
and finally when it was pitch black
around us he seemed to have merged
into the blackness of the stones. His
state of motionlessness was so total
that it was as if he did not exist any
longer.
It was midnight when I finally
realised that he could and would
stay motionless there in that wilder
ness, in those rocks, perhaps for ever
if he had to. His world of precise
acts and feelings and decisions was
indeed superior.
I quietly touched his arm and
tears flooded me.
A worthy opponent
Before I came to a sharp bend in the
road I encountered two other people
whom I did not recognise, but I
greeted them anyway. The blasting
sound of the record player was almost
as loud there on the road as it was
in front of the store. It was a dark
starless night, but the glare from the
store lights allowed me to have a
fairly good visual perception of my
surroundings. Bias’s house was very
near and I accelerated my pace. I
noticed then the dark shape of a
person, sitting or perhaps squatting
to my left, at the bend of the road.
I thought for an instant that it might
have been one of the people from the
Becoming a hunter
party who had left before I had. The
Don Juan watched my movements person seemed to be defecating on
the side of the road. That seemed
with apparent fascination.
“Well ... are we equals?” he odd. People in the community went
into the thick bushes to perform
asked.
their bodily functions. I thought that the game he was playing with me was
whoever it was in front of me must cruel.
“It would be cruel if this would
have been drunk.
I came to the bend and said, have happened to an average man.”
“Buenas noches.” The person an he said. “But the instant one begins
swered me with an eerie, gruff, in to live like a warrior, one is no
human howl. The hair on my body longer ordinary. Besides, I didn’t
literally stood on end. For a second find you a worthy opponent because
I was paralysed. Then I began to I want to play with you, or tease you,
walk fast. I took a quick glance. I saw or annoy you. A worthy opponent
that the dark silhouette had stood might spur you on; under the
up halfway; it was a woman. She was influence of an opponent like ‘la
stooped over, leaning forward; she Catalina’ you may have to make use
walked in that position for a few of everything I have taught you. You
yards and then she hopped. I began don’t have any other alternative.”
We were quiet for a while. His
to run, while the woman hopped like
a bird by my side, keeping up with words had aroused a tremendous
my speed. By the time I arrived at apprehension in me.
Bias’s house she was cutting in front
Disrupting the
of me and we had almost touched.
I leaped across a small dry ditch
^routinesoflif^^
in front of the house and crashed
We gathered some sticks and
through the flimsy door.
Blas was already in the house and proceeded to build the hunting con
seemed unconcerned with my story. traptions. I had mine almost fin
“They pulled a good one on you,” ished and was excitedly wondering
he said reassuringly. “The Indians whether or not it would work when
suddenly Don Juan stopped and
take delight in teasing foreigners.”
My experience had been so un looked at his left wrist, as if he were
nerving that the next day I drove to checking a watch which he had
Don Juan’s house instead of going never had, and said it was lunchtime.
I was holding a long stick, which I
home as I had planned to do.
Don Juan returned in the late was trying to make into a hoop. I
afternoon. I did not give him time automatically put it down.
Don Juan looked at me with an
to say anything but blurted out the
whole story, including Bias’s com expression of curiosity. Then he
mentary. Don Juan’s face became made the wailing sound of a factory
sombre. Perhaps it was only my siren at lunchtime. I laughed.
imagination, but I thought he was
“I’ll be damned,” he said.
worried.
“What’s wrong ?” I asked.
“Don’t put so much stock in what
He again made the long wailing
Blas told you,” he said in a serious sound of a factory whistle.
tone. “He knows nothing of the
“Lunch is over,” he said. “Go
back to work.”
struggles between sorcerers.
“You should have known that
I felt confused for an instant, but
it was something serious the moment then I thought that he was joking,
you noticed that’the shadow was to perhaps, because we had no provi
your left. You shouldn’t have run sions to make lunch with. I picked
either.”
up the stick again and tried to bend
“What was I supposed to do? it. After a moment Don Juan again
Stand there?”
blew his ‘whistle’.
“Right. When a warrior encoun
“Time to go home,” he said.
ters his opponent and the opponent
He examined his imaginary
is not an ordinary human being, he watch and then looked at me and
must make his stand. That is the only winked.
thing that makes him invulnerable.”
“It’s five o’clock,” he said.
“What arc you saying, Don
I put everything down and began
Juan?”
to get ready to leave. I presumed
“I’m saying that you have had that he also was preparing his gear.
your third encounter with your When I was through I looked up
worthy opponent. She’s following and saw him sitting cross-legged a
you around, waiting for a moment few feet away.
of weakness on your part. She almost
“I’m through,” I said. “We can
bagged you'this time.”
go any time.”
I felt a surge of anxiety and
He got up and climbed a rock.
accused him of putting me in un He stood there, five or six feet above
necessary danger. I complained that | the ground, looking at me. » >
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I heard Don Genaro yelling
“Where’s my car ?” I asked,
He put his hands on either side of my whole car away ?” I asked.
something and I saw the hat bobbing
“What did I mean, Genaro?” addressing both of them.
his mouth and made a very prolonged
“Where’s the car, Genaro ?” Don up and down and then falling to the
and piercing sound. It was like a Don Juan asked.
“You meant that I can get into his Juan asked with a look of utmost ground, where my car was. It all
magnified factory siren.
took place with such speed that I did
“What are you doing, Don Juan ?” car, turn the motor on, and drive seriousness.
away,
” Don Genaro replied with
Don Genaro began turning over not have a clear picture of what had
I asked.
small rocks and looking underneath happened. I became dizzy and absent
He said that he was giving the unconvincing seriousness.
“Take the car away, Genaro,” them. He worked feverishly over the minded. My mind held on to a very
signal for the whole world to go
home. I was completely baffled. He Don Juan urged him in a joking tone. whole flat area where I had parked confusing image. I either saw Don
“It’s done!” Don Genaro said, my car. He actually turned over Genaro’s hat turning into my car,
looked at me, smiled and winked
every rock. At times he would pre or I saw the hat falling over on top
again. I suddenly became alarmed. frowning and looking at me askew.
I noticed that as he frowned his tend to get angry and would hurl the of the car. I wanted to believe the
Don Juan put his hands on both
latter, that Don Genaro had used his
sides of his mouth and let out eyebrows rippled, making the look rock into the bushes.
in his eyes mischievous and pene
Don Juan seemed to enjoy the hat to point to my car. Not that it
another whistle-like sound.
scene beyond words. He giggled and really mattered, one thing was as
He said that it was eight o’clock trating.
“All right!” Don Juan said chuckled and was almost oblivious awesome as the other, but just the
in the morning and that I had to set
same my mind hooked on that
up my gear again because we had a calmly. “Let’s go down there and of my presence.
“Genaro is a very thorough man,” arbitrary detail in order to keep my
examine the car.”
whole day ahead of us.
“Yes!” Don Genaro echoed. Don Juan said with a serious expres original mental balance.
I was completely confused by.
“Don’t fight it,” -I heard Don
then. In a matter of minutes my fear “Let’s go down there and examine sion. He’s as . thorough and meticu
lous as you are. You yourself said Juan saying.
mounted to an irresistible desire to the car.”
I felt that something inside me
I looked down to the area at the that you never leave a stone unturned.
runaway from the scene.
was about to surface. Thoughts and
foot of the hill, some 50 yards away, He’s doing the same.”
images
came in uncontrollable waves
where I had parked my car. My
Don Genaro took off his hat and
The sorcerer’s ring
stomach contracted with a jolt. The rearranged the strap with a piece of as if I were falling asleep. I stared at
of power
the
car
dumbfounded. It was sitting
car was not there! I ran down the string from his pouch, then he
“Do you remember the time when hill. My car was not anywhere in attached his woollen belt to a yellow on a rocky flat area about a hundred
feet
away.
It actually looked as if
I jammed your car?” Don Juan sight. I experienced a moment of tassel affixed to the brim of the hat.
“I’m making a kite out ofmy hat,” someone had just placed it there. I
great confusion. I was disoriented.
asked casually.
ran
towards
it and began to examine
I looked all round again. I re he said to me.
His question was abrupt and
I watched him and I knew that it.
unrelated to what we had been talk fused to believe that my car was
“
Goddamnit!
” Don Juan ex
ing about. He was referring to a time gone. I walked to the edge of the he was joking. I had always con
when I could not start the engine of cleared area. Don Juan and Don sidered myself to be an expert on claimed. “Don’t stare at the car.
Genaro joined me and stood by me, kites. When I was a child I used to Stop the world 1”
my car until he said I could.
Then as in a dream I heard him
I remarked that no-one could doing exactly what I was doing, make the most complex kites and I
forget such an event.
peering into the distance to see if the knew that the brim of the straw hat yelling, “Genaro’s hat! Genaro’s hat!”
I looked at them. They were
“That was nothing,” Don Juan car was somewhere in sight. I had a was too brittle to resist the wind.
asserted in factual tone.
moment of euphoria that gave way ■ The hat’s crown, on the other hand, staring at me directly. Their eyes
“Nothing at all. True, Genaro ?” to a disconcerting sense of annoyance. was too deep and the wind would were piercing. .I felt a pain in my
“True,” Don Genaro said in- They seemed to have noticed it and circulate inside it, making it im stomach. I had an instantaneous
began to walk around me, moving possible to lift the hat off the ground. headache and got ill.
dSerently.
Don Juan and Don Genaro looked
“You don’t think it’ll fly, do you ?’
“What do you mean ?” I said in their hands as if they were rolling
at me curiously. I sat by the car for
Don Juan asked me.
a tone of protest. “What you did that dough in them.
a while and then, quite automatically,
“I know it won’t,” I said.
day was something truly beyond my
“What do you think happened
Don Genaro was unconcerned I unlocked the door and let Don
comprehension.”
to the car, Genaro ?” Don Juan asked
and finished attaching a long string Genaro get in the back seat. Don
“That’s not saying much,” Don in a meek tone.
; v=: Juan followed him and sat next to him.
Genaro retorted.
“I drove it away,” Don Genaro to his kite-hat.
It was a windy day and Doit I thought that was strange because
They both laughed loudly and said and made the most astounding
then Don Juan patted me on the back. motion of shifting gears and steering. Genaro ran downhill as Don' Juan he usually sat in the front seat.
“Genaro can do something much He bent his legs as though he were held his hat, then Don Genaro pulled
I drove my car to Don Juan’s
better than jamming your car,” he sitting, and remained in that position the string and the damn thing act house in a sort of haze. I was not
myself at all. My stomach was very
went on. “True, Genaro ?”
for a few moments, obviously sus ually flew.
“Look, look at the kite!” Don upset, and the feeling of nausea
“True,” Don Genaro replied, tained only by the muscles of his legs;
then he shifted his weight to his Genaro yelled.
puckering up his lips like a child.
demolished all my sobriety. I drove
It bobbed a couple of times but mechanically.
“What can he do ?” I asked trying right leg and stretched his left foot
to mimic the action on the clutch. it remained in the air.
to sound unruffled.
I heard Don Juan and Don
“Don’t take your eyes off the Genaro in the back seat laughing
“Genaro can take your whole car He made the sound of a motor with
away!” Don Juan exclaimed in a his lips; and finally, to top every kite,” Don Juan said firmly.
and giggling like children. I heard
booming voice; and then he added thing, he pretended to have, hit a
For a moment I felt dizzy. Look Don Juan asking me, “Are we
bump in the road and bobbed up and ing at the kite, I had had a complete getting closer?”
in the same tone, “True, Genaro ?”
“True!” Don Genaro retorted in down, giving me the complete sen recollection of another time; it was
It was at that point that I took
the loudest human tone I had ever sation of an inept driver that bounces as if I were flying a kite myself, as I deliberate notice of the road. We
without letting go of the steering used to, when it was windy in the were actually very close to his house.
heard.
“I jumped involuntarily. My body wheel.
hills of my home town.
“We’re about to get there,” I
Don Genaro’s pantomime was
was convulsed by three or four ner
For a brief moment the recol muttered.
stupendous. Don Juan laughed until lection engulfed me and I lost my
vous spasms.
They howled with laughter. They
“What do you mean, he can take he was out of breath.
awareness of the passage of time.
clapped their hands and
y
After investing in a Slumberland Gold Seal bed
I thought my troubles were over.
In fact they were only just beginning.’
C I knew something was up. That
well rehearsed officious glare had
already set hard on his squirrel
like features.
The ensuing speech lasted for
ten minutes. And by the end of it I
had been left in no doubt that the
senior partners were unanimous
in their dissatisfaction with my (as
they put it) lack of purpose.
Precisely what they meant by
that, I wasn’t certain.' All I knew
was that in a way, I agreed.
My wife, in typical style, said it
was probably all her fault.
And I, for want of something
better to say, put it down to a
general lack of sleep and promptly
changed the subject.
Two days later, my wife, in
typical style, took it upon herself to
remedy the situation, and pro
ceeded to spend no less than. £150
on a brand new bed.
From what I could gather, it had
a hand built frame, a stretch
Crimplene cover, Double Posture
Springing, and goodness knows
what.
According to the salesman, the
Slumberland Gold Seal was the
finest bed she could buy. The only
bed in the world with Double
Posture Springing. (Equivalent to
over 3,000 springs I’m told.)
After just one night on it, I must
say I felt somehow that my prob
lems might just be over.
The second night, after over
sleeping for the first time in living
memory, and arriving 40 minutes
late for an important meeting, it
occurred to me that they might just
be beginning. ?
Should any points in the above story
strike you as being somewhat familiar,
write for a free Slumberland Gold Seal
brochure and list of stockists to:
Dept. D.L.16., Slumberland Limited,
Redfern Road, Birmingham Bl 12BN.
62
slapped their thighs.
When we arrived at the house I
automatically jumped out of the car
and opened the door for them. Don
Genaro stepped out first and con
gratulated me for what he said was
the nicest and smoothest ride he had
ever taken in his life. Don Juan said
the same. I did not pay much atten
tion to them.
I locked my car and barely made
it to the house. I heard Don Juan and
Don Genaro roaring with laughter
before I fell asleep.
“I will tell you one more thing,”
Don Juan said and laughed. “It really
does matter now. Genaro never
moved your car from the world of
ordinary men the other day. He
simply forced you to look at the
world like sorcerers do, and your
was not in that world. Genaro
wanted to soften your certainty. His
clowning told your body about the
absurdity of trying to understand
everything. And when he flew his kite
you almost saw. You found your car
and you were in both worlds. The
reason we nearly split our guts
laughing was because you really
thought you were driving us back
from where you thought you had
found your car.”
Stopping the world
“Go there,” he said cuttingly.
I drove south and then east, fol
lowing the roads I had always taken
jvhen driving with Don Juan. I
parked my car around the place
where the dirt road ended and then
I hiked on a familiar trail until I
reached a high plateau. I had no
idea what to do there. I began to
meander, looking for a resting place.
Suddenly I became aware of a small
area to my left. It seemed that the
chemical composition of the soil was
different on that spot, yet when I
focused my eyes on it there was
nothing visible that would account
for the difference. I stood a few feet
away and tried to ‘feel’ as Don Juan
had always recommended I should.
I stayed motionless for perhaps
an hour. My thoughts began to
diminish by degrees until I was no
longer talking to myself. I then had
a sensation of annoyance. The feeling
seemed to be confined to my stomach
and was more acute when I faced the
spot in question. I was repulsed by
it and felt compelled to move away
from it I began scanning the area
with crossed eyes and after a short
walk I came upon a large flat rock. I
stopped in front of it. There was
nothing in particular about the rock
that attracted me. I did not detect
any specific colour or any shine on it,
and yet I liked it. My body felt good.
I experienced a sensation of physical
comfort and sat down for a while.
I meandered in the high plateau
and the surrounding mountains all
day without knowing what to do or
what to expect. I came back to the
flat rock at dusk. I knew that if I
spent the night there I would be safe.
The next day I ventured farther
east into the high mountains.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
I wiped my eyes and as I rubbed
them with the back of my hand I
saw a man, or something which had
the shape of a man. It was to my
right about 50 yards away. I sat up
straight and strained to see. The sun
was almost on the horizon and its
yellowish glow prevented me from
getting a clear view. I heard a pecu
liar roar at that moment. It was like
the sound of a distant jet plane. I
again strained to see if I could dis
tinguish the person that seemed to
be hiding from me, but I could only
detect a dark shapeagainstthebushes.
I shielded my eyes by placing my
hands above them. The brilliancy,of
the sunlight changed at that moment
and then I realised that what I was
seeing was only an optical illusion,
a play of shadows and foliage.
I moved my eyes away and I saw
a coyote calmly trotting across the
field. The coyote was around the
spot where I thought I had seen
the man. It moved about 50 yards in
a southerly direction and then it
stopped, turned, and began walking
towards me. I yelled a couple of
times to scare it away, but it kept on
coming. I had a moment of appre
hension. I thought that it might be
rabid and I even considered gather
ing some rocks to defend myself in
case of an attack. When the animal
was 10 to 15 feet away I noticed that
it was not agitated in any way; on
the contrary, it seemed calm and
unafraid. It slowed down its gait,
coming to a halt barely four or five
feet from me. We looked at each
other, and then the coyote came
even closer. Its brown eyes were
friendly and clear. I sat down on the
rocks and the coyote stood almost
touching me. I was dumbfounded.
I had never seen a wild coyote that
close, and the only thing that
occurred to me at that moment was
to talk to it. I began as one would
talk to a dog. And then I -»■>
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thought that the coyote ‘talked’ back
to me. I had the absolute certainty
that it had said something. I felt con
fused but I did not have time to
ponder upon my feelings, because
the coyote ‘talked’ again. It was not
that the animal was voicing words
the way I am accustomed to hearing
words being voiced by human
beings, it was rather a ‘feeling’ that
it was talking. But it was not like
a feeling that one has when a pet
seems to communicate with its
master either. The coyote actually
said something; it relayed a thought
and that communication came out in
something quite similar to a sen
tence. I had said, “How are you,
little coyote?” and I thought I had
heard the animal respond, “I’m all
right, and you?” Then the coyote
repeated the sentence and I jumped
to ♦ feet. The animal did not make
a single movement. It was not even
startled by my sudden jump. Its
eyes were still friendly and clear. It
lay down on its stomach and tilted
its head and asked, “Why are you
afraid ?” I sat down facing it and I
carried on the weirdest conversation
I had ever had. Finally it asked me
what I was doing there and I said
I had come there to “stop the world”.
The coyote said, “Que bueno!” and
then I realised that it was a bilingual
coyote. The nouns and verbs of its
sentences were in English, but the
conjunctions and exclamations were
in Spanish. The thought crossed my
mind that I was in the presence of a
Chicano coyote. I began to laugh at
the absurdity of it all and I laughed
so hard that I became almost
hysterical. Then the full weight of
the impossibility of what was hap
pening struck me and my mind
wobbled. The coyote stood up and
our eyes met. I stared fixedly into
them. I felt they were pulling me
and suddenly the animal became
iridescent; it began to glow. It was
as if my mind were replaying the
memory of another event that had
taken place 10 years before, when
under the influence of peyote I wit
nessed the metamorphosis of an
ordinary dog into an unforgettable
iridescent being. It was as though
the coyote had triggered the recol
lection, and the memory of that
previous event was summoned and
became superimposed on the coyote’s
shape; the coyote was a fluid, liquid,
luminous being. Its luminosity was
dazzling. I wanted to cover my eyes
with my hands to protect them, but
I could not move. The luminous
being touched me in some undefined
part of myself and my body experi
enced such an exquisite indescrib
able warmth and well-being that it
was as if the touch had made me
explode. I became transfixed. I
could not feel my feet, or my legs,
or any part of my body, yet some
thing was sustaining me erect.
I have no idea how long I stayed
in that position. In the meantime,
the luminous coyote and the hilltop
where I stood melted away. I had no
thoughts or feelings. Everything had
been turned off and I was floating
freely.
Suddenly I felt that my body had
been struck and then it became en
veloped by something that kindled
me. I became aware then that the
sun was shining on me. I could
vaguely distinguish a distant range
of mountains towards the west. The
sun was almost over the horizon. I
was looking directly into it and then
I saw ‘the lines of the world’. I actu
ally perceived the most extraordinary
profusion of fluorescent white lines
which criss-crossed everything around
me. For a moment I thought that I
was perhaps experiencing sunlight as
it was being refracted by my eye
lashes. I blinked and looked again.
The lines were constant and were
superimposed on or were coming
through everything in the surround
ings. I turned around and examined
an extraordinarily new world. The
lines were visible and steady even if
I looked away from the sun.
I stayed on the hilltop in a state
of ecstasy for what appeared to be an
endless time, yet the whole event
may have lasted only a few minutes,
perhaps only as long as the sun shone
before it reached the horizon, but to
me it seemed an endless time. I felt
something warm and soothing ooz
ing out of the world and out of my
own body. I knew I had discovered
a secret. It was so simple. I experi
enced an unknown flood of feelings.
Never in my life had I had such a
divine euphoria, such peace, such an
encompassing grasp, and yet I could
not put the discovered secret into
words, or even into thoughts, but my
body knew it.
Then I either fell asleep or I
fainted. When I again became aware
of myself I was lying on the rocks.
I stood up. The world was as I had
always seen it. It was getting dark
and I automatically started on my
way back to my car©
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Despite the success of the
technological age and the continuing
advance of scientific thought, we are
still a superstitious people. Many
old beliefs remain - but with 20thcentury modifications. BYRON
ROGERS examines the extent
to which we still cross our fingers
On this island (left) in north Scotland men once
threw pennies in a well and wished. The well dried,
so ambitious Scotsmen stuck coins in a tree
above. The tree is now dying of copper poisoning.
Above: Eternal lodger. Mrs Kerton-displays the
skull of Theophilus Broome, who died in 1670
requesting that his head be kept at. his house at
Chilton Cantelo. Burial produces “horrid noises”
“This happened during the war. A distant relative
of mine, a lad from Tiree in the South Hebrides, was
helmsman on a destroyer. The ship was part of a
flotilla escorting a convoy out into the mid-Atlantic
where an American flotilla would take over. It was
night and he was alone on the bridge except for the
officer of the watch.
“Suddenly he felt the wheel moving against him.
As he looked down in some bewilderment he saw in
the gloom two hands - severed hands, a woman’s
hands - pulling at it. The force exerted was so strong
that the ship lurched off course. The officer of the
watch shouted at the lad, and by using all his
strength he pulled it back on course.
“But it happened again. This time he told the
officer exactly what he had seen and was happening.
„ The officer failed to see the hands but then he too
3 saw the wheel move. He ran for the captain, who
1 came up on bridge. The captain saw the wheel
“ moving but again failed to see the hands.
o
“This time the ship really was on another course.
> The captain asked the officer to plot it. Then,' by
£ sheer force again, they managed to get the ship
| back with the convoy. This time the hands seemed
2 to give up.
f
“After their rendezvous they started back. When
At the Cloutie Well north of Inverness (above) people tie rags along the pipe which is all
that remains, and on the fence above. Mrs Jean Gray, who lives nearby, tries her luck. Below:
Dupath Well, near Callington, Cornwall, reputedly cures whooping cough. Mrs Coombe and her
son Andrew, of Dupath Farm, stand beside the shrine erected by coughing pilgrims. Right:
Rev. Harold Lockyear of St Nectan’s Church, Stoke, Devon, points to the place where he saw a
hooded ghost. St Nectan, a Welsh missionary, was beheaded by the English, but kept walking
22
great number of people. Even in a
society as traditional as that of the
Hebrides, some are in eclipse and
survive only in anecdote. Thus a
belief in fairies is now universally
regarded as pure superstition. But
in living memory it was not so. John
Maclnnes, as asmall boy, met a minister
in Skye who claimed to have seen
them.
“He would have taken an oath in
court about it. He had seen, he said,
the fairies dancing in the moonlight.
They were small people. That was
some time towards the end of the
19th century. All his Christian doctrine
would have made him reject this, but
he was convinced that he had seen
them, and this had frightened him.
Pressure of belief in a society can
make people see things.
“My own great-uncle in Skye, a
hard-headed businessman, announced
when he was 80 that he had seen the
Washerwoman at the Ford. She is the
figure who washes the shrouds of the
dead, and to see her is an omen of
your own death. I don’t think he
would have believed in her at any
other time of his life. But if the com
munity you grow up in believes in
something, even though you yourself
reject it, something such as old age or
ill-health can still jolt you back.”
Mrs Eilidh Watt of Dunfermline, a
retired schoolteacher, comes from
a Skye family who have the second
sight. It is acknowledged to be a
hereditary thing. “Nobody practises
the second sight, you just have it.
efinitions are central to any dis
Nobody seeks it. People try to get rid
cussion of superstition. One of it in general as the experiences you
man’s belief, as Voltaire said, is have are so frightening. My father, for
another man’s superstition. “A French instance, never talked about it, except
man travelling in Italy finds almost sometimes to my mother. She would
everything superstitious. The Arch tell us children.
bishop of Canterbury claims that the
“They never try to prevent what
Archbishop of Paris issuperstitious; the they have seen. A man on Mull
Presbyterians levy the same reproach dreamed on three successive nights
against his Grace of Canterbury . . .” that his son would be drowned. The
The frontiers of superstition change following day he decided he would not
constantly. Few people would believe let the boy out of his sight, so he took
today that it is possible to work out him to work. As they came down a
the Day of Creation from evidence road a horse suddenly bolted towards
provided in the Bible; yet for much of them. The man threw the child aside,
the last century this belief was stoutly out of danger, while he caught and
defended.
quietened the horse. When he looked
Superstitions survive, despite the back he saw his child floating face up
encroachments of secularly, science in the bum.
and the media. Danger, uncertainty,
“You cannot intervene. What you
fear bring them surging up again, as have seen will always take place. The
in times of war and ill-health. Often, child, had it stayed at home, would
in the classic dictionary definition, just have fallen face down into a
they are beliefs sheepishly clung to in bucket of water.”
spite of the fact that no rationality or
There is no tradition in a Gaelic
scientific evidence underwrites them.
community of anyone consulting
A superstitious man would appre someone with the second sight to see
ciate that wonderful exchange between into the future. It is not boasted
Chesterton and a Cambridge student. about, not even mentioned except to
Chesterton asked him whether he friends or close relatives. Though it is
knew if he existed.
possible to pass it on, by the secondThe student: “No I should say I sighted one placing his left foot on
have an intuition that I exist.”
another’s left foot, and his left hand
Chesterton: “Cherish it. Cherish it.” on the other’s left hand, it is never
Yet there is little joy in superstitions. sought. There is a chilling story of one
Usually they are an attempt to pro man who sought it, and at last pre
pitiate, or ward off, something - or vailed upon someone to do this for
just to ensure good fortune. They are him, only to lose his reason as the
difficult to index as few people are result. The second sight was not
prepared to talk about their super hereditary, and he could not cope.
stitions, unless they are shared by a
Second sight is the best con-
they got to the point where it had
happened the captain ordered that
the ship take the course the hands had
indicated. They sailed for six hours.
At the end of this time they came upon
a raft. There were two bodies on the
raft, that of a woman and a baby. The
baby was still alive. The woman was
quite cold.
“The lad came from a family in
which there was a tradition of the
second sight. Now if you make that
story up either you’ve got a very
powerful imagination or it actually
happened. I’m an agnostic about the
second sight; but you must remember
that if I, sitting here in Edinburgh,
can tell you that story it’s an indication
of how strong is the tradition.”
John Maclnnes is a lecturer in
Scottish Studies in that shrine to
rationality, the University of Edin
burgh. A Gaelic speaker, he left his
native Hebrides over 20 years ago,
at 18, but frequently returns to a croft
he owns there. He grew up in a cul
ture which believed firmly in the
second sight: the ability to see the
future, and especially doom in the
future, superimposed upon the present.
“The primary living superstition in
the Hebrides and in the Highlands is
the second sight,” he says. “Only I
wouldn’t call it a superstition. This is
pretty firmly believed in, still. I don’t
see any diminution in their beliefs at
all, and there is no feeling of super
stition. People there get very angry
when outsiders laugh.”
D
23
temporary example of a belief shared
by a community who cannot account
for it rationally. This is what the great
superstitions of the past were like,
dark things on the fringes of ex
perience, often an alternative to the
official teaching of Church and State,
and one’s own common sense.
Maclnnes thought that belief in
wishing wells had disappeared in the
Highland communities. This is the
idea that one gives an offering to a
well in order to have a wish granted.
Yet the wells survive, if only as a
tourist attraction, or as a ritual for the
living to carry out just for the amuse
ment it affords, as at Christmas.
In his book Haunted Britain* Antony
Hippisley Coxe instances the Cloutie
Well in the Black Isle above Inverness
as “the most telling visual manifesta
tion of superstition” he had ever seen.
Here on the first Sunday in May
people hang out rags as offerings to
the goddess of the well. The well is a
pipe coming out of a bank beside the
road. Just above it, fencing off a clump
of <es, is some 30 yards of wire
netting.
It looks like a rubbish tip. About
the netting are tied pieces of trousers,
string vests, handkerchiefs, petticoats,
tights, sheets, pyjamas, linen drawers,
socks, net curtains. They flutter
weirdly in the wind, and look rather
menacing.
An old lady, who had lived near the
well all her life, talked about it. “We
all used to go in the old days when I
was young. It was a meeting place.
People came from all around. Yes, I
used to wish. No, I don’t now. You
don’t believe in it as you get older.
The education has finished it off, you
see. No, the ministers never inter
fered with it 1 think it’s for the
tourists now.”
The attitude of the Church is always
a good index to the strength of a
superstition. In the Highlands it has
b^m and remains, as Mrs Watt bore
out, opposed to the second sight. It
represents an alternative belief. John
Maclnnes said that he knew even now
of one man afflicted with the second
sight who would not go out at night
except with a Bible in his pocket for
protection.
But most superstition in Britain
today is of a rag-bag variety, like a
tendency not to walk under ladders
or to touch wood for safety, which add
up to no organised system of belief.
A good example are the superstitions
of sports players, particularly profes
sional footballers.
Jackie Charlton, late of Leeds and
England, now manager-elect of
Middlesbrough, admits to being
superstitious. “I go to the lavatory
before every game. I take a programme
with me. I put it down to the left of
me if we’re playing at home, and to
the right if we’re playing away. It was
awful playing abroad where some
times they don’t have programmes.
What did I do? Well I’d have to take
the team sheet in with me.”
Charlton’s superstitions are all re
served for football. “Basically it’s
what you’ve found either brings you
experience in that time was that when
I got up to go to work I got to work.”
The irony about superstitions is the
way modern technology has adopted
them. To the headless horseman and
white ladies of folklore the Midlands
has added one of its very own,
fashioned understandably, out of the
internal combustion engine. A ghost
lorry with dim headlights haunts the
wrong side of the A428 from Coven
try to Rugby: it has no doubt figured
in many a hopeful insurance claim.
Stewart Sanderson, Director of the
Folk Studies Department at Leeds
University, has done some research
into the superstitions that have grown
up around the motor car. There are
the talismans like St Christopher
medallions on dashboards and old
number plates transferred to new
cars to bring luck.
Sanderson is particularly struck by
the short length of chain attached to
the rear bumber of a car as a cure for
travel sickness. The explanation ad
vanced is that it transmits to earth the
figure, 2,000 years old. Legend says that childless couples passing a static electricity built up in the car’s
night on the relevant portion of the giant will be blessed with fertility bodywork during travel, which, it is
claimed, causes sickness. Yet, as he
success, or doesn’t bring you failure. superstition of not passing under a notes, almost invariably the chain is
For years I’d never touch a ball unless ladder simply by putting a ladder only a few links long and does not
I could crack it into the net first shot. against a wall over a pavement. There reach the ground, thus earthing
Gary Sprake’s first job was always to was no one up the ladder, yet 37 of nothing. “The practice is in fact
roll a ball to me gently and I’d hit it the 51 people who passed by in 15 normally magic, and if indeed effica
into the goal. I’d go crackers if a minutes stepped into the road.
cious, presumably works by auto
goalkeeper caught it.
Immigrant communities, if only suggestion.”
“I think everyone in football has his because of their smaller numbers, are
Sanderson has also indexed a series
pet superstition. I know players who easier to study. One Leeds student for of myths widely believed in connec
wouldn’t change their boots until the his post-graduate diploma investigated tion with Rolls-Royces: that no one
end of the season and you’d see them their superstitions. Two West Indians, is-allowed to drive a Rolls-Royce
with their laces all covered in knots. In who wanted to settle down with as unless he has been trained at the
changing rooms you can often see them little difficulty as possible in the city, company’s driving school; that the
doing something, but that’s their brought with them to Britain a bonnet of a Rolls-Royce is sealed and
business. I wouldn’t dream of laughing small sample of their native soil. When the breaking of the seals invalidates
at them.
they got to Leeds they mixed this with the guarantee; that the company will
“I suppose I’m more superstitious some Leeds earth, and added water. not allow any owner to make modi
than most, but Revie . . . he’s worse They then drank the lot.
fications to a Rolls (especially strong
than me. He’s even had people to lift
Occasionally there is delicate social in the case of people who want to turn'.
curses from the Leeds United ground. comedy in the meeting of cultures, as the car into a van); and that the Silver
At one stage the team wasn’t having when the immigrant from St Nevis, Lady mascot is always made of silver.
any successes and someone told seeking to ensure a supply of good
This is one of the few instances
Revie that it was because of a curse luck, went round the shops of Leeds where a piece of technology has
laid on it by a gypsy who’d been asking for horseshoes, with no result. acquired its own folklore. Usually it is
moved off the site years before. Revie
a case of a very old superstition
had a woman over from Blackpool to
ne or two are quite peculiar,
acquiring its own modem slant, as in
and it will be fascinating to see ghost lorries, or perhaps unidentified
lift the curse. I think he had her over
more than once.”
how long they persist on alien flying objects. Modem technology
Charlton has the classic conflict of soil. To comb your hair at night is an seems to have done little to diminish
a modem superstitious man, between open invitation for the Jumbies to call. superstition.
the ritual he observes and his own (Jumbies are West Indian ghosts). A
Perhaps it is a case of wanting to
common sense. “I’m not a religious dry leaf carried on the wind brings believe in the strange, and the wonder
man but I do have certain beliefs, so good news if it touches someone.
ful and the dreadful. Perhaps it is a
I’m a bit guilty that I do have these
Certain jobs, such as mining and the case of just having to. As Sanderson
superstitions.”
stage, have their own superstitions. To remarked: “One might say that more
It is difficult to work out just how quote Macbeth back-stage is bad luck highly-educated people are less super
superstitious Britain is today. The (John Osborne once changed a men stitious; but the more I observe my
only large-scale survey was under tion of Macbeth in one of his plays fellow dons the less I am convinced
taken by Geoffrey Gorer who in 1955 to Antony and Cleopatra because the of this. The logic that mankind has
invited readers of a newspaper to cast objected.) Bad things are sup pieced together so painfully is easily
answer a lengthy questionnaire. More posed to happen when Macbeth is broken through.”
than 14,000 replied. He found that one performed: the cast get injured or
Perhaps complete rationality, like
in six believed in ghosts, and nearly forget their lines.
the Golden Age and the Just City, is
one quarter were uncertain as to
Mining superstitions, as one ex out of reach of humankind. If any
whether or not they existed. One per miner observed dourly, mostly involve thing goes wrong, like disaster or
son in three had been to a fortune not going to work. You turned back if disease (magicians, as Defoe noted,
teller. About two-thirds read their you saw a woman on the way to the pit, throve during the Plague), then the
horoscope at least occasionally. One or if you heard a crow croak. Yet it is old terrors lurch back. Perhaps they
person in ten believed they had lucky arguable how many of these persist will always be there, beyond the light,
days or numbers.
today. A Barnsley miner said: “I’ve out of reach of faith, or knowledge, or
A psychologist investigated the been in the pits 35 years. All my even humour, their greatest enemy.
O
• Haunted Britain—A Guide to SupernaturalSites frequentedby Ghosts. Witches. Poltergeists and otherMysterious Beings by Antony Hippisley Coxo. will be published by Hutchinson & Co. on October 1. at £4.
25
Of God’
Are Edgy
By WILLIAM J. DRUMMOND
Los Angele* Time* Service
NEW DELHI—The first na
tionwide public opinion poll
among India’s lowly untouch
ables shows a growing will to
rebel that carries explosive
possibilities.
The landmark survey was
carried out by the Indian In
stitute of Public Opinion here,
an affiliate of the interna
tional Gallup group.
The poll described the treattnent of untouchables prevail
ing today as “indian apar
theid.”
• “The high-handedness of
dominant castes is creating
what might be described as a
gsychologicail
backlash
among the Harijans (untouch
ables) said institute Director
Eric P. W. De Costa. Hari
jans, literally “children of
God,” is the name given to
the untouchables by Ma
hatma Gandhi.
f "Forty percent of those sur
veyed throughout the country
would opt for organizing their
Community to fight against
injustice committed by other
castes,” said De. Costas, add
ing:
Violence Threat
i “A sizable segment of the
Harijan community is thus in
<t ferment that carries explo
sive possibilities, a majority
oT those willing to organize I
themselves would not hesitate I
to resort to violence in self
defense.
“This
militant
section I
constitutes only one-fifth of
the Harijan community. But
this small but determined
segment may eventually con
vert the silent and resentful
majority to opt for violence
when the chips are down.”
; The number of Harijans in
India is estimated at 80 mil
lion, or about 15 percent of
the totql population.
■ “They’ are eligible for spe- |
cial government quotas in
gaining employment or edu- J
cation.
■ Apart from constitutional
guarantees for a number of
individual rights, discrimina
tion on grounds of untoucha
bility is a crime punishable
by law.
A special act provides pen
alties for preventing a Hari
jan from using public facili
ties or subjecting him to so
cial or occupational discrimi
nation.
• However, De Costa found
(hat the legal guarantees had
been ineffective.
; The survey of 1,500 respon
dents found that 13 percent of
Harijan
youngsters
were
placed in segregated seating
arrangements
in schools,
more than 50 percent of Hari
jans were made either to
stand or to sit on the ground
during visits to the home of
caste Hindus and 40 percent
of Harijans said they were
forbidden to enter a caste
Hindu temple to worship.
Losing Battle
Economically, the Hari
jans are still downtrodden,
De Costa said.
■ “A vast majority, notwith
standing the evidence of some
improvement in economic
condition, still have to wage a
■losing struggle for making
■ends meet,” he said.
‘ “This is reflected in the
Heeling shared by a sizable
^segment (43 percent) that
'their lot is more titan their
parents’.”
; De Costa drew attention to
ithe recent formation of a
'.'group in Maharashtra state
^calling itself the Dalit Pan'thers (Black Panthers), a
►militant organization of unllouchables that has borrowed
la page from Eldridge Cleaver.
‘ Earlier this year, the Dalit
►Panthers engaged in violent
iclashes in the streets of Bom;bay with caste Hindus and
£ police in which dozens of per
sons were injured.
The possibility that the
j Dalit Panthers might become
• the leaders of Harijans seek' ing change "must surely call
“for some furious thinking on
• the part of India’s privileged
I classes.”
34
THE jJ^V TIMES, NOVEMBER 25 1973
THE SUNDAY_THyiESj_NOyEMBg^ 25_12Z2.
myself included, decided to do
no more than was really neces
sary, following orders but if
possible keeping out of harm’s
way. I have a feeling that many
of the officers felt the same
way.”
Keeping from freezing was a
major front line preoccupation
during the ensuing bitter win
ter. Chancy recalls an occasion
when it brought opposing
trenches into a kind of brother
hood of mutual suffering.
J| Continued from
yl preceding page
rifle, but we hoped for the best. ing out of their uniforms,
meeting with his father, who
We each made little piles sometimes smelling to high
was serving as a staff sergeant
in charge of an advance field
beside us of the clips of heaven.”
hospital.
cartridges for easy reloading,
Such memories remained
left and right. There they sat,
loading with nine cartridges buried for many years after the
“ I saw him standing by the
squat monstrous things, noses
in the magazine and one in war when Chaney, like so many
roadside anxiously scanning
stuck up in the air, crushing
the
breech,
and
waited.
Noth
others who had been promised
the faces as we passed by, but
the sides of our trench out of
ing seemed to be happening a “ Land fit for Heroes.”
1 had to shout to him and wave
shape with their machine-guns
so I thankfully dropped down plunged into another kind of
my hand frantically before he
swivelling around and firing
into the ditch half full of water fight for survival. It was dur
spotted me. He scrambled
like mad.
and fell asleep.
ing the days of the Depression
through the marching ranks to
“ I was awakened with the in 1928 that two particular
" Everyone dived for cover,
get to me and gazed at me in
except the colonel. He jumped
astonishment. ‘ My God, son,’
shout of ‘ Here they cornel’ A memories began to haunt his
long way off could be seen an dreams.
on top of the parapet, shouting
he exclaimed. ‘I would never
uneven line of men in grey
at the top of his voice, ' Run
have recognised you. How the
ner, runner, go tell those tanks
hell did you manage to get out
uniforms, almost shoulder to
of that lot in one piece? ’ He
shoulder, moving slowly but
to stop firing at once. At once,
said that not counting the mud
steadily forward towards us.
I say.’ By now the enemy fire
Suddenly everyone seemed to I worried-hud I
had risen to a crescendo but, What a slaughter- that hid me we all looked more
or less the same, grey-looking,
be firing and I added my quota
giving no thought to his per
unshaven, with staring eyes.
to the din. At the beginning of been a coward?
sonal safety as he saw the what a disgrace
He did not believe it could be
the war I had been a first class
tanks firing on his own men, he
shot, but this day I found
" One night snow fell making me. After cleaning up I went
ran forward and furiously
In one he saw again the face
rained blows with his cane oil life for the boys in the slit to his hospital where he
myself unable to really hold of the dead German with the
my rifle steady. I found’myself spiked helmet, “ on his knees
the side of one of the tanks trenches almost intolerable. It showed me off to his mates
jerking the trigger instead of staring up at me as I had first
in an endeavour to attract their was top cold even to hold a and then gave me a right royal
rifle, and soon heads could be feed in the sergeants’ mess.”
squeezing it, and binked my seen him in May 1915, the man
attention.
eyes every time I fired a shot. who. though dead, had made
“ Although, what with the seen popping up over the top
Chaney devotes relatively
Jerk, fire, blink—so it went on, me feel fear for the first time.”
sounds of the engines and the of the German trenches as they little space to rest periods
stamped
about
and
swung
their
for hours as it seemed. God In the second he went back to
firing in such an enclosed
away from the front line.
arms
in
an
effort
to
keep
knows where my shots went, a forgotten occasion in Novem
space, no one in the tank could
In between drills and parades
except in the general direction ber 1917 when he had been
hear him, they finally realised warm. Our lads followed suit, there
were football
and
of the enemy, but our shooting ordered by the adjutant to take
they were on the wrong trench and before long the war on that cricket matches, band concerts,
on the whole must have been a party of “ odd-bods ” with
and moved on, frightening the part of the front was forgotten swimming galas if there was a
good enough, for line after line rations, water and rum to
Jerries out of their wits and in the general endeavour to canal handy, gymkhanas with
keep
from
freezing.
Fires
were
of advancing Germans were troops holding out in Bourlon
making them scuttle like
lit in the trenches and men displays by the gunners and
stopped.
The boys began dig Wood on the Cambrai front.
frightened rabbits. One of the walked about on top without officers’ races.
But it was
ging in and I with my section
tanks got caught up on a tree fear of being fired on. This feminine company that most
“ I took a compass bearing
moved off in the hope of find from our position and off we
stump and never reached their lasted for some days until the hankered for.
ing our own battalion, my right set—buglers, cooks, batmen—
front line and a second had its brigadier got to hear about it
shoulder aching like hell from heads down, knees bent.
n„rl, As
...
“ As more and more French
rear steering wheels shot off and came round on a tour of
the unaccustomed recoil of my we hurried
a sunken road
and could not guide itself. inspection. He said he was men were called up, girls took
nne butt.
strewn with equipment and
The crew thought it more pru appalled at what he saw and over their jobs. In one small
town
the
barber's
daughter
dent to stop, so they told us ordered us to ‘ make a bloody
For the next four months, as dead bodies, we heard a voice
afterwards, rather than to keep war of it.’ So firing broke out took over the job of shaving.
the Germans kept up their last calling for help.
desperate attempt to turn the
- darkness
- ■
going as they felt they might again and things went back to There were so many customers
“ In the
we began
that some of the men waited
tide of war, Chaney’s division searching around and eventu
go out of control and run on normal.”
hours for a shave. She was big
was moved up and' down the ally found, lying an[UI
until they reached Berlin. The
among. ua
But it was the mud-churned and buxom, with large, round,
third tank went on and ran
jiumbti Gx <xC«<x bodies ir. th.2
through Flers, flattening every holocaust of Passchendaele, slightly hanging bosoms, wear
ditch, a young soldier. I asked
ing
a
blouse
of
rather
thin
Bert
Chaney
in
1973
at
his.
Dublin
home
with
memoirs
of
the
war
and
his
printing
career
during
the
third
battle
of
Ypres
Casualties
seemed
greatest.
"
thing they thought should be
him what was wrong with him
were heavy on both sides. but all he could say was that
flattened. This was one of in the autumn of 1917, that material with a “ V ” neckline. framed on the wall beside him. Even today he still feels haunted by a sense of guilt at the
Twice Chaney i
the rare occasions when they most forcibly impressed on The chair for the customer was memory of the young soldier he was forced to leave in a ditch at Cambrai. Did he give the
he was unable to move. He did
escaped death.
had passed through the enemy Chaney the seeming indiffer an ordinary bentwood chair, stretcher-bearers the right directions? Did they ever find him—or did he die there?
not know where he was
fire and they were enjoying ence to suffering of the “ high- which meant he had nowhere we thanked our lucky stars for their loft and would not start the persisting morning mist,
The occasion ithat most wounded, all he knew was that
themselves chasing and round ups.” He watched an attack by to rest his head while being our nice deep dugout.
quickly
regained
the
ground
deeply
affected
him
came
h
e felt paralysed. Most of my
until
they
could
see
it.
ing up the Jerries, collecting men of his division over ground shaved. After a small boy had
they
had
lost
during
the
British
when
his
brigade
had
been
“ So down into the dugout
k““” party had hurried on. By
“ It was hours afterwards
thousands of prisoners and so pitted and churned up by lathered the customer's face, that we discovered that he was again to write another message offensive of 1916.
pulled out of the line shortly now the windiness of the
the
girl
would
take
up
her
oldbombardments
as
to
be
impas
sending them back to our lines
“ As we fell back through the after a gas attack by the Ger- others had got into me and
style cut-throat razor and, rest by-passing us by going down and put it into the small pouch
escorted only by Pioneers sable.
ing the man’s head on her the river on rafts, thereby cut attached to the dog’s collar. hitherto untouched country- mans. “We stayed for a day it took me only a moment to
armed with shovels.
“ Over the top they went, ample breasts, proceed to shave ting us off from the rest of Leading it to the entrance I side. French civilians hurled or two in a small village school, leave him
mm there.
mere. Ir would
wvuiu pass
“ The four men in the tank out of the mud in the trench him. turning his head this way our troops on the northern gave it a parting slap on the insults at us and even spat at and my heart still aches when the word on to the nearest
At last the line began to I remember parading for roll stretcher bearers, giving them
that had got itself hung up into the mud on top. They and that, leaning over him and side of the river. As was to be rump, at the same time shout ’us.
"
,J
„.n
„„<■
,
hjs
position
>managed
to
struggle
about
half
hold,
mainly
due
on
our
part
call,
to
get
a
check
on
how
expected
in
such
a
blitz,
one
by
ing firmly ‘ Home, boy I Allez 1 ’
dismounted, all in the heat of
pressing his head into her
the battle, stretching them way across No Man’s Land, bosom, especially for the up one our telephone wires were I watched it for a minute or of the front to Major Carey, an many of us were left. Just a
It all came back in Chaney’s
two as it trotted off, then unknown behind-the-line town handful of us faced the ser- ,rpam
selves, scratching their heads, dragging one foot after the strokes of the razor around smashed.
amdropped the gas blanket back major. As our boys, dazed and geant-major standing in front aly
. then slowly and deliberately other until getting literally the throat. All the time father
"‘I1 asked
myself why. I had
sheets and sheets of
as
stuck in the mud, unable to
in position. Even while we falling asleep as they marched, with
walked round their vehicle in move
was
quietly
cutting
hair
at
paper, shouting
snouting out
out names
names one
one Jeft many men, hundreds even,
one way or the other. As
were still sighing with relief a stumbled along the road he paper,
specting it from every angle
another
chair,
a
proper
after th:
the other.
Any r.:~:
name net
not b'mg wounded and passed on
ether. Ar.y
wet nose pushed the blanket stopped and collected every after
and appeared to hold a con they wallowed in the mud they barber’s chair, and just as
answered he called
called a second
second — ‘t "’as not possible to act
aside and in crawled the dog, man he could see, every cook, answered
ference among themselves. were simply so much target quietly taking the money and Undignified deaffh
and third
third time,
time, no
no answer
answer and
and —
as an -------ambulance
driver,
messman, and
--•—. man ,"henT
scared out of its wits. All our batman,
After standing around for a practice for the Jerries. They putting it in his pocket.”
n® ha ,
efforts could not budge him., artilleryman, unmounted the name was crossed out. °
few minutes, looking somewhat were not even moving targets
for a Highlander
had
U
cavalryman,
any
of
the
odds
and
Occasionally
there
was
" sent
""" many men out -on
"
and
the
wounded
as
they'
fell
In
February,
1918,
the
divi
We
shoved him,
we pushed
pusnea and
aim ouwcu
nun,
-j.------. jjg a motion in the ranks and aa comlost, they calmly took out from
jobs
from
which they had
---'
xi
-----u
------raiswearing a
the inside of the tank a primus just quietly drowned in the sion moved so’uth to St Quentin
“ It was impossible to see pulled him by the collar to get sods whoJUhough
Inever
—.J Hlon the Somme, where they anything of our visual com him moving’but he just lay uniform, had
used -a rifle
rifle ing of an arm, causing someone never returned. But somehow
stove and, using the side of water-fillefl shellholes.
this
lad
would
repeatedly
lives. Thev
They were given to answer, ' He’s present sarn’j..... damped his k
„j,, Arm
■<> in their lives
learned that there were signs munication station, the Aldis down,
body
firmly
the tank as a cover from enemy
“ What a slaughter—and
rifles and ammunition taken major, but he can’t talk. It's intrude into my subconscious.
fire, sat down on the ground what a disgrace to the thinking of the Germans building up lamps were unable to pene to the ground arid pretended to
from the wounded as they the gas’.”
4I began to worry’ about Lit,
and made themselves some tea. of our General Staff. Field- strength for a big attack. They trate the mist, even the tele be asleep. We eventually took passed through our lines, and
IIUU X UV.V-,. — .Vi.x.d
Throughout the war Chaney 1™?^®.™^^^!?!®™
were positioned as the las't scope did not help. Dashing the message from his collar,
The battle was over as far as Marshal Haig might ride
while we waited we gave them never got used to death on the and just left him there to die?
English troops on the right of
they were concerned.”
around on his big white horse, the expected attack. Chaney down into the dugout I scrib put it on the other dog and
Did I really tell the stretcher
battlefield. “ It did not seem
bled two similar coded mess tried to send that one on his rifle shooting lessons.
bearers
exactly
where he was
accompanied
always
by
his
two
The battle of the Somme
“ The major, who had the right, and sometimes I did not
made thorough preparations ages on the special thin paper way. Whether he was more
Had they found him arid
marked a turning-point for mounted orderlies, one proudly to ensure^ that his section provided,^cicwed them up and timid than ,triv - fuisL. -dog,, or . appearance^ of an. old turkey think it was possible-to see a lying?
brought him in? Had he died
most of its survivors in their carrying the marshal s pennant, would maintain communica pushed them into the little con sensed its fear* he would not cock as he strode up and down, strong healthy fellow suddenly up there? What must his feel
attitude to the war. “ To but his knowledge of condi tions with battalion head tainers which clip on the even move. He dropped flat told us to wait until we could drop and become immediately ings have been as we burned
our minds the generals would tions up front must have been quarters when the Germans pigeons’ legs. I and one of my on his stomach and there was clearly' see the enemy. ‘ Then useless. It was not fair to the down the road, leaving hiiii
keep us out here until we practically nil. Either that or struck.
boys, each carrying a pigeon, no shifting him. Once again shoot like hell and keep on same young men when they lying there in pain, helpless?
were all killed, and although he and his staff did not give a
'In the dawn of March 21st crept up the steps, pushed the we went through the pushing shooting until you have no fell in grotesque and some“ I made excuses for myself.
nobody thought of disobeying damn how many men went it was seen that the whole of gas blanket to one side and and pulling, but it was no good. more ammo left. Get them times ugly attitudes, Scotsmen
But it did not stop me from
orders some of the originals west in their endeavour to gain our front was blanketed in a threw our birds into the air.
“ So ended all our wonderful before they can get you.’ This in their kilts being the most
continually grumbled at the a few yards of worthless, use thick mist, thickest along and Away they flew. We watched preparations for keeping com was his order to the motley vulnerable in this respect. I dreaming about him, week
less
ground.
It
looked
well
in
after
week, month after
way the war was going,” writes
remember thinking how disbeside the river. One could them as they circled round a munications going during the crew and shoot we did.
Chaney. “ We were proud of all the papers, a report that our not see more than a few yards couple of times and, then, attack. Within a few minutes
“ I was one of those unfor- respectful death can be when month. Even today, although
the new guns, the new men troops had advanced. They and there was not a breath of like divers, they swooped of its commencement we had tunates who stumbled into this I saw a Highlander hanging I do not know his name • or
coming out were just as enthus seldom said how many yards wind to dispel it. Then sud straight down and settled on become completely isolated.”
shambles and found everyone over the wire, his kilt thrown regiment or even remember
what he looked like, I still have
iastic as we had been origin for how many men.”
For six uneas'v days the lying on the sloping sides of the up over his back, exposing his
denly all hell was let loose. top of the dugout. We re
ally, but after two years away
It was when they were The Germans began such a trieved them and tried once troops south of the Somme ditches, resting on the top, all bare buttocks to the sky. And a guilty feeling about him. My
from home we were beginning marching back to rest billets blanket bombardment that one more, but those birds refused remained isolated from the pointing the same way. It was there was disgust at the ugli- imagination sees him still lying
there among the dead at the
to think, the war would never from this engagement that got
the
impression
that to fly in the mist. They had bitter fighting to the north surprising how many there ness of death as the bodies
”nd. From now on the veterans, Chaney had an unexpected nothing could exist in it and been trained to fly direct to where the Germans, aided by were who had never handled a swelled up like balloons, bulg- side of the sunken road.”
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The Mechanists and the Mystics
Four years ago when he was 30,
William Irwin Thompson left his
teaching post at MIT, dismayed at
what he called the “mindless, liberal
technocratic managerial vision” he
found there. At York University in
Toronto he became a professor of hu
manities and wrote At the Edge of
History, a provocative little book
greeted variously as “dazzling” and as
“not so much an analysis of the de
cadence of our civilization as a symp
tom of its decline.” Wrote one review
er: “Thompson's Edge is to Charles
wittiAM irwin Thompson
Keic,,s The Greenin8 of America
what chess is to Chinese checkers." In
a lengthy interview, TIME Correspon
dent John Wilhelm pursued further Thompson's ideas about
technocracy, beginning with the Club of Rome, the inter
national organization of scientists and industrialists that has
called for zero population and economic growth (TIME, Aug.
14). But Thompson’s remarks about economic growth were
only the starting point for an amazing, freewheeling discus
sion that ranged from education and art to mysticism and evolution. Excerpts:
N At the Edge of History I said that there would likely be
an invisible college surfacing in the ’70s or ’80s after the ex
Ihaustion
of the protest movement, and I was surprised to see
it come up faster than I expected. I was, however, thinking
more in terms of a Cromwellian protectorate than a bunch
of behavioral engineers round the world who would be try
ing to consolidate their power. The intriguing idea about the
Club of Rome is its incredible sophistication as a prestige
structure. They finesse the whole power situation by not even
trying to go for power, but they say: “We’re going to show
you in our computers that disaster is ahead of us. However,
we happen to be just sitting here cornering the market on di
sasters, and so we’re ready when you want to buy disaster con
trol. We’ll solve the planet for you.”
I think it’s probably useful to try to plan ahead, and I
don’t object to that. My ambivalences stem from the bu
reaucratic, technocratic and managerial structure of the
group. I’m suspicious. In order to solve our problems, we
have to use the structures that they’re almost putting in our
hands, so in some sense, I think it’s a plea for a shift of
power toward technocratic international managers. Now the
only thing managerial people will respect is power blocs,
like the ability of the Third World to disrupt. The managers
will pay attention only to violence, which is why the Archie
Bunkers of the world were fed up with the Kennedy-liberal
Democrats, who would eliminate the white working class
and listen only to the blacks.
I am frightened by the political implications of leading
people into the promised land, moving them away from pol
itics to political management.
from being citizens to becom
ing subjects. Futurism, I think,
is ideological camouflage, and
should be very, very suspect.
Yet nobody talks about the
end of the citizen. In Future
Shock. Alvin Toffler writes =
about participatory democra- 1
cy and the future of it, and yet i
everything in the new technol- g
ogy is antidemocratic. If ►
you’ve got computers, you |
COMMUNITY HEALTH CELL
47/1,(First FloorlSt. Marks .io
BAN-itO .• p . vr..ni
don’t have to share information with the bureaucracy; you
just give the elite access to instant information. All the in
formation coming in from different sides—economic, polit
ical, religious, social—has one common thing and that is that
it is antidemocratic, which is one reason why the kids keep
talking about participation democracy. Because when some
thing is about to go, it has its sunset. It has its most beau
tiful, passionate colors and then disappears. When the rail
roads are coming in, people write poems to trees. When
people are talking about sexual automation and the elimi
nation of motherhood, that’s when you have a sexual ex
plosion. Now that democracy is going, every naive kid says
“participatory democracy,” and it’s an absolute fantasy.
Herman Kahn’s Hudson Institute is a think tank. You
would imagine that they would be able to be at least five
years in advance of themselves. Yet in their book The Year
2000, which was written in 1967, there was not a thing about
pollution, nothing about the Club of Rome. Already that
book is ancient history. So i.n some sense it shows the kind
of bankruptcy of that sort of imagination. It’s so lineal.
They are either glowingly optimistic or they are intense
ly pessimistic. There is no tragic sense of endurance and
strength. That comes from a more cyclical and spiraling vi
sion of history that doesn’t flip back and forth between this
kind of shallow optimism and shallow pessimism. It has a
greater sense of the realities of human strength and growth.
With a tragic sense of history, you can see the limits to
your own growth in technology without feeling that you’ve
reached the end of the world. You can see other dimensions
of possibility. It's the kind of strength that the blacks have
had to see them through 400 years of suffering, that the Irish
have had for 700 years to see them through the mess that’s
still going on, and the Jews throughout millenniums. It’s a
kind of capacity to endure. But now that we have reached
the limits of one kind of technological expansion, there is a
tendency on the part of progress-oriented thinkers to flip to
tally out and see lines going up or lines going down. It is
more likely that the disintegration of one cultural structure
is going to occur at the same time that the creation of an
other is going on, and that these things will be binary and
paired and it won’t be an either/or situation but both.
What’s going on now is that the culture has split into
mechanism and mysticism, and the people who are thinking
of problems on a planetary scale are moving in opposite di
rections. Their solutions are different in content but have sim
ilar structures. So that planetary mysticism—the countercul
tural movement, Yoga, Zen, Subud, Sufism and all of the
other newly popular religions—is trying to create an ideol
ogy for the planet that can relate to the limits of growth: non
aggression on nature; different relationships between men
and women; a mysticism that is rooted in the physical, as it
is in, say, Yoga. These things, new, mythic forms of imag
ination that seem to be unrelated, should be included in books
like the Club of Rome’s The Limits to Growth. But in that
book there is nothing about any of the imaginative, emo-
Modern Maecenas
The man across the table from Igor
Stravinsky in Chicago’s Union Station
restaurant was an unlikely luncheon
partner for a great composer to seek
out on a stopover. He was a prosper
ous local wine importer, and his som
ber, heavy-set air evoked stocks and
bonds rather than sharps and semiqua
vers. But when the man started to order
coffee, Stravinsky insisted on cham
pagne instead. “Contemporary music
has many friends,” Stravinsky toasted
him, “but only a few lovers.”
The man was Paul Fromm, and in
the 14 years since that meeting he has
continued to express his love of con
temporary music in the most practical
way. Each year he has set aside up to
$100,000 and, through his Fromm Mu
sic Foundation, parceled it out in com
missions to an international Who’s Who
of composers: Milton Babbitt, Alberto
Ginastera, Alan Hovhaness, Ernst Krenek, Roger Sessions, Stefan Wolpe
—some 90 names in all. Composer Gun
ther Schuller describes Fromm as “the
single most important benefactor in the
field of contemporary music."
Boos. “Composers,” says Fromm,
“are the sources of musical culture; yet
their status in the musical world is un
certain. They are professionals without
a profession.” Fromm’s efforts to offset
this situation begin rather than end with
his individual commissions ($ 1,000 for
a piece by a young unknown, up to
$5,000 for one by an established mas
ter). He befriends his composers—most
often while they are still obscure
—keeps in touch with them, sells wine to
them. He makes sure that their works
get performed and even subsidizes re
cordings. “There can be no living musi
cal atmosphere,” he insists, “without
sympathetic interaction between com
posers, performers and listeners.”
Nowhere is this interaction better
exemplified than at the Fromm-supported Festival of Contemporary Music
each summer at Tanglewood. Last week
the festival marked the 20th anniver
sary of Fromm's foundation with a
week of special concerts, forums and
workshops, which, for Fromm, were
fraught with both the perils and joys of
being a modern Maecenas. When mem
bers of the Boston Symphony rehearsed
for the premiere of Fromm’s latest com
mission, an electronically amplified vi
olin concerto by Charles Wuorinen,
they disliked the piece so much that they
booed. When the Tanglewood listeners
heard it, some of them booed too.
Much more successful were reprises
of two of the most important works ever
commissioned by Fromm: Luciano Be
rio's Circles (1960) and Elliott Carter’s
Double Concerto for Harpsichord and
Piano with Two Chamber Orchestras
(1961). These performances flanked a
TIME, AUGUST21,1972
rare public appearance by Fromm in
which he pleaded eloquently for better
integration of contemporary and tradi
tional music rather than a mere “busing
of indiscriminately chosen new music to
the halls of Brahms and Beethoven.”
The son of a cultured Bavarian wine
merchant, Fromm learned enough pi
ano as a child to join with his brother
Herbert in four-handed transcriptions
of Mahler symphonies. His first hear
ing of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, he
says, “made a 20th century man of me."
But unlike Herbert, who became a com
poser, Fromm settled into the family vo
cation, and after immigrating to Chi
cago in 1938, used it to support music
FROMM WITH SCHULLER AT TANGLEWOOD
Commissioning o Who's Who.
as a passionate avocation. Fromm and
his wife live in an unpretentious apart
ment near the University of Chicago,
where she teaches psychology (a field
in which Fromm’s cousin Erich has
become prominent as the author of
The Art of Loving). When a visiting
Ford Foundation official asked to see
Fromm’s foundation offices and library,
Fromm led him to a battered file cab
inet in the corner of his wine firm’s of
fice and pulled open two drawers.
This year Fromm has shifted the ad
ministrative base of his foundation to
Harvard University and passed the re
sponsibility for making commissions to
an expert committee of Schuller, Mu
sic Scholar A. Tillman Merritt and him
self. At 65, he intends both steps as pro
visions against the future, hoping that
the foundation will be able to continue
and even extend his work after he is
gone. Where new music is concerned,
he likes to quote Mae West: "Too much
of a good thing is wonderful.”
tional, spiritual or deeply in
tellectual forms of human
culture.
What’s a nonpolluting
culture, a non-growth, a nonFaustian Western culture
going to be like? The people
who have really been doing
the research and develop
ment on that kind of cul
ture have obviously been in
MONKS IN THEIR REFECTORY & H.G. WEILS' "THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME"
the counterculture. The nongrowth culture is closer to the Hopi Indian way of life* than And then Rome came in and said, “No, you can’t have it
it is to that of the jet-setting industrialist’s. Frank Waters’ this way. You have to have a bishop, you have to have man
Book of the Hopi is the most directly relevant book to some agement, you have to be related to the central Roman struc
thing like The Limits to Growth. It’s very clear that if you ture, and you’re now going to belong.” And so they consol
are going to humanize technology, you’re not going to be idated all these monasteries and put in their own kind of
able to do it within the limited terms of books and civili- men. The battle between the Irish anarchist vision of culzation and the other older containers. You’ve got to go very tural change and the Roman imperial one was a fascinating
far out. In this sense, the people who really understand elec kind of collision. Now that we’re in the Dark Ages all over
tronic technology, bio feedback, new forms of consciousness again, I think back to this particular collision and see in it
where you don’t have to keep up by reading 36,000 books a more of the problem of the difference between authority
year are the mystics. Seemingly you move away from cul and power. But the trouble with separating authority from
ture and technology and become a world-denying mystic. power was that it was only temporary. Later on Caesar and
But in reality—in a spiral—you are coming back into the Christ were brought back together again and the papacy
was created. And, you know, none of the early, really pa
heart of the post-technological culture.
It is a continued paradox that the only way to get to the tristic Christians anticipated that.
But in the Dark Ages the Lindisfarne schools were trycenter is to move in the opposite direction and then find that
ing to take the old GrecoRoman knowledge and minia
turize it by copying it, and in
the process of copying it they
created a new medium. They
illuminated manuscripts, so
that even in the act of trans
mission there was transforma
tion. They put the old civili
zation as a content into the
new larger structure, which
was Christian civilization. To
day if you take the old civi
lization—which isn’t working
—and you miniaturize the old
knowledge, it will probably be
done two ways, mechanistical
VINCENT VAN GOGH'S "WEAVER AT HIS LOOM" & A DETROIT ASSEMBLY LINE
ly and mystically. The me
somehow or other there’s been a contrary swing and you’re chanist will miniaturize it in terms of microfiche, and the
now in dead center. In this sense the yogis and the mystics mystics will miniaturize it by moving to a certain core of
are world-activating, planetary men of action. The ones that books and developing consciousness. By putting our old in
£ are irrelevant are the managers. The mechanists are so busy dustrial civilization as a content into a new structure and de
with the machines that they can’t see that the gods that they vising new forms for the transformation of consciousness
think are their opposites are really just picking up the other through Yoga, Sufism, Zen—I don’t care, pick the one your
personality likes the best—and by a new recognition of the
half of the culture.
Some of our problems stem from the fact that authority body, I think it’s more likely that one can create the kind of
today pretty much comes from those who have power. What deeply individuated self where technology isn’t a problem
we need is a clear distinction between authority and power any more. But if one tries to work in the bureaucracy, being a
—as in the days of Christ and Caesar before the papacy. We student, being job-trained to go on to teach English majors
must realize that there are areas of human culture in the imag how to teach English majors, or computer programming
ination, in religious instincts, in the full dimensions of human —there’s such an utter futility in it that that kind of edu
culture rather than its mere technocratic husk that are im cation is really irrelevant.
The universities are no longer on the frontiers of knowl
portant and that have to be affirmed. If we look upon our Pres
idents as colorless managers and develop alternative systems edge. A lot of students are leaving, professors are leaving.
for cultural regeneration, then I think we have ways of cre The universities won’t die or disappear, but they’ll lose their
ating new institutions that aren’t weighed down with insti charisma and their imaginative capacity to innovate, which
tutional inertia. So the attempt to create a Club of Rome is means that they will become the kind of places where you
useful, but it’s such an imperial model. First it’s a club, and learn the past, where you consolidate, and then, when you’re
it’s also the idea of Rome again: the old Roman imperial ready to really get into things, then you’ll say, “O.K. I’m
model of the center of civilization sending its structures out gonna go and work with Soleri, or I’m gonna work with Pia
get, or I’m gonna study with Gopi Krishna, or I’m gonna go
into the provinces.
There are only two models when you are in a disinte to India or go to the Lama Foundation in New Mexico—*and
grating civilization, the Roman and the Lindisfarne. Lindis if civilization is still holding together, you might have an
farne were the monastery schools in Britain that held on to
knowledge during the Dark Ages. They had no power. Each ’Paolo Soleri; an architect working with student apprentices in Arizona on
to redesign cities. Jean Piaget: eminent Swiss child psychologist.
abbot, each visionary, was the guru of his particular place. schemes
Gopi Krishna: Indian philosopher who has written about the evolution of
*The Hopi way of life is deeply religious, with esoteric prayers and cere
monies that are supposed to maintain the harmony of the universe.
TIME, AUGUST 21,1972
man toward a new state of consciousness. The Lama Foundation: a com
mune devoted to the study of Eastern mysticism.
37
education credit card like an American Express card. We
could give every adolescent $3,000 on his 18th birthday,
and say, “Here. Open up a boutique and become a hippie cap
italist. or blow it on a trip round the world, or finance your
first rock album or your own book of poems, or have a chan
nel on cable television or let it sit in your bank until the in
terest is sufficient to finance your whole Ph.D. after you go
to college at the age of 28, which is the right age for uni
versity.” This would probably put more energy into society
—would be more truly capitalist than any kind of state-go
liath-socialist system that we have reached.
I think that I would basically subscribe to the thesis that
we have reached the limits of the growth of the Protestant
ethic, the spirit of capitalism, the system of industrial nation
states. And the danger that’s built into this is that it's like a re
turn to the Middle Ages. Many contemporary technological
critics are medieval thinkers. Soleri is a medieval thinker,
Ivan Illich is a medieval thinker, Marshall McLuhan is a me
dieval thinker, Jacques Ellul
—they’re all medieval Chris
tians.* Basically they're seeing
the end of the modern era and
the return to the Middle Ages,
which they prefer.
They think in terms of cul
ture. hierarchy, cathedral cities,
the concentric universe and the
integration of science, religion
DR. FAUSTUS IN HIS MAGIC CIRCLE; COMPUTER ART (RIGHT)
and art. Their vision is the Middle Ages reachieved on a
higher level of order, with a new content but a similar
structure. And that may be what’s happening, because
after a period of enormous creative expansion we're mov
ing into a period of consolidation. And the medieval vi
sion, Ptolemaic or what not, is a vision of consolidation,
of structure, harmony, and correspondence rather than ex
pansion. So most thinking this way is conservative.
A lot of this was anticipated in The Shape of Things to
Come, where H.G. Wells envisioned that out of a military
apocalypse, somewhere in the world, hidden during the pe
riod of tribulation, would emerge a freemasonry of scien
tists, engineers and technicians who would create a new rule
of efficiency and would clean up the world after the mess.
They would put away the old artist, the old military warlord
and the politician with his raging ideology. Well, when we
do put away these people, we can’t kid ourselves that we’re
not also putting away the bourgeois middle-class democratic
system.
Now some of this is O.K., because middle-class democ
racy meant freedom for the middle classes but not for the
lower classes. And it meant the destruction of the culture of
the upper classes. So that from top to bottom, there’s a kind
of revulsion against middle-class, bourgeois industrialism.
•Ivan Illich: brilliant priest who believes in deschooling society but found
ed a school of his own in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Jacques Ellul: French his
torian and lay theologian of a Calvinist persuasion.
38
This is why many intellectuals like T.S. Eliot, William Faulk
ner or D.H. Lawrence would be disgusted by the modern
world, and why the peasants would not like it either, and the
top and bottom would come together to get rid of the mid
dle classes. Except: the intellectuals are always betrayed, be
cause the peasants basically want to become middle class,
and so there’s a slippage. Many of the intellectuals now are
so hungry for order that they would be willing to see the end
of democracy and some new kind of Napoleonic order com
ing in. Arnold Toynbee, in his recent book Surviving the Fu
ture, says that as far as he can see we have a choice between
a world federal state with an Alexander at the helm or nothing
—annihilation.
1 think that the intellectuals will be the first people to
make accommodation with the new power structure. As long
as they can still have their elitist sense as professors and com
puter scientists, they will be quite happy in an aristocratic pro
management system. They don’t stand to lose that much.
Thus the ones who cry the loudest for freedom might not be
all that much in favor of it.
These political implications are nowhere being discussed.
Even the mystics don’t really discuss the meaning of their in
tensely hierarchical system. All these mystical religions have
gurus at the top and discihopi art (left); hopi priests
pies at the bottom, and
they’re very much men.
They are graded according
to their state of conscious
ness and evolution, and
there are some who are
more highly evolved than
others.
If we’re moving toward
limited growth and toward
staying in your place,
doesn’t that mean no up
ward mobility? If we are
going back to the Middle
Ages where the little guy
stayed in his place, we have
to remember that the one
thing that kept the guy in
his village was the large cos
mic vision of Christendom.
The only thing that can make you small is
to have eternity in a grain of sand, you
know. Some religions would say one can
strive, but Zen would say even to strive is
to miss the satori. The goal is being rather
than becoming. This is again where I feel
that the mystical movements are the
most technologically sophisticated politi
cal movements now operating. They make
everything in Herman Kahn and the Club
of Rome seem incredibly naive.
Incidentally, it’s very interesting that any guru who has
any kind of thing going for him is heading for the U.S.: Ti
betan, Indian—all of them. They’ve all got this heavy mes
sage: “The planetary transformation and human evolution
are going to occur through the instrumentality of the U.S.”
The blacks too are more into the culture in the U.S., bad as
the problems are, than in Africa, Even the American In
dians are coming back in with the Indian cultural renais
sance. It seems to me that the one place where the four
continents and the four races come together in any kind of
planetary intermingling and transformation is the States.
We are again moving into a very hierarchical, mystical,
Pythagorean, antidemocratic system. Half of me is in favor
of that. The other half does not want to go through the Mid
dle Ages all over again. Will it be good or bad? Take the In
dustrial Revolution. It may be that the Industrial Revolution
was an ambiguous event that was equally good and equally
evil. And this new revolution, which is not just a technolog
ical but a cultural transformation—probably the biggest one
we’ve ever seen since we were hominized—is equally going.
to share those ambiguities.
TIME, AUGUST21,1972
SCIENCE
juvvnu
inwuvn i jmdvu
viadi—iv
SECOND THOUGHTS
ABOUTi /MAN
IV
{ «S/ Reaching B@y©nd fite Reifomai
For the past three weeks,
TIME has been examining Amer
ica's rising discontent with entrenched intel
lectual ideas: liberalism, rationalism and scientism. In previous ar
ticles, Time’s Behavior, Religion and Education sections discussed
how this trend has affected their domains. This week the Science
section considers the repercussions for science and technology. It
finds a deepening disillusionment with both, as well as a new view
among some scientists that there should be room in their discipline
for the nonobjective, mystical and even irrational.
N the years after World War II, few professional
people were more widely acclaimed or publicly ad
mired in the U.S. than scientists and engineers. Together they
not only perfected key weapons for the triumphant Allies,
^ut also compounded the miracle of modern medicine, discov
ered among other wonders the mechanism of heredity, and not in
cidentally helped give America a material standard of living high
er than any in history. More recently, they capped their
achievements by landing men on the moon. Indeed, such was
their success that many people became convinced that there were
scientific or technological “fixes” for all the nation’s problems, in
cluding its most serious social ills. Even as late as 1967, after
Watts. Newark and Detroit had been engulfed in flames, the dean
of M.I.T.’s College of Engineering, Gordon Brown, could be heard
to proclaim: “1 doubt if there is such a thing as an urban crisis,
but if there were. M.I.T. would lick it in the same way we han
dled the Second World War.”
Such arrogant and naive optimism sounded questionable even
then. Today it has a particularly hollow ring. For after years of
sunny admiration, science suddenly finds itself in a shadow. No
longer are scientists the public’s great heroes or the beneficiaries
of unlimited funding. Unemployment runs high in many scien
tific disciplines; the number of young people drawn to the lab
oratory in certain key areas has diminished significantly. Indif
ference to scientific achievement is the mood of the moment.
Even such bold ventures as new voyages to the moon or Mars, con
struction of giant atom smashers, and journeys to the depths of
I
the sea fail to excite a public that is half jaded, half doubtful of
the future benefits of such extravagant undertakings.
In part, the turnabout came from an increasing awareness of
the environmental ravages that seem to accompany technolog
ical advance. On a more philosophical level, the reversal is the re
sult of a new mood of skepticism about the quantifying, objec
tive methods of science. Moreover, there has begun to emerge,
even within the laboratory, a new fascination with what tradi
tionalists consider the very antithesis of science: the mystical and
even irrational. Says Harvard Biologist-Historian Everett I. Men
delsohn: “Science as we know it has outlived its usefulness.”
That statement comes at a curious juncture in Western history
—the 5OOth anniversary of the birth of the Polish churchman
and scholar Nicholas Copernicus. It was his dryly mathematical,
yet brash book On the Revolution of the Heavenly Bodies that dis
lodged the earth—and man along with it—from the center of the
universe, moving the sun into that place. The Copernican theory
shook the most basic theological and philosophical canons of the
day. Even more important, it provided the intellectual spark for
the tremendous acceleration of knowledge that Western culture
has since come to call science.
Under the stubborn prodding of Galileo Galilei, Johannes
Kepler, Sir Isaac Newton and Copernicus’ other intellectual heirs,
questions of nature were thrust directly into the combative, pub
lic arena of empirical inquiry. For the first time, experiments be
came crucial. Theories were supported by close observation. The
new scientific method, stressing reason and logic, was born. In
dividual scientists might still occasionally be wrong—sometimes
outrageously so, as when Newton believed that the sun was in
habited. Yet it was the testing of such hypotheses, however far
fetched, that caused a new intellectual excitement to sweep the
Western world, a determination to explore, understand and dom
inate nature, which had hitherto dominated man. Indeed, such
was the faith in “natural philosophy,” as science called itself,
that its practitioners quickly came to believe that all mysteries
would eventually yield before it. Science in effect became the
new religion.
The ease with which scientists uncovered nature’s secrets—the
HHBM
laws of planetary motion and gravity, the basic principles of mag
netism. the intricacies of the blood system—encouraged such a
heady feeling. The universe, the scientists claimed, was simply
smoothly functioning clockwork; each action within it had a
cause. Chop the actions into small enough slivers, reduce them to
their “simplest” forms, and science would identify all their caus
es. It was a highly mechanistic view, and it became more firmly en
trenched with each new breakthrough by the new science and its
offspring—technology.
Science did indeed bring forth a Brave New World—of tran
sistors and miniaturized electronics, antibiotics and organ trans
plants, high-speed computers and jet travel. But progress came at
a price. It was the genius of science that also made possible such
horrors as the exploding mushroom cloud over Hiroshima, the
chemically ruined forests of Indochina, the threat of a shower of
ICBMs, a planet increasingly littered with technology’s fallout. It
is this Faustian side of science, with its insatiable drive to con
quer new fields, explore new territory and build bigger machines,
regardless of costs or consequences that worries so many critics.
The current disenchantment is also rooted in the growing
gulf between scientists and laymen. In an earlier age, one man
alone might dare take up a host of scientific challenges. Now sci
ence has been subdivided into so many cubbyholed disciplines
that not even a Galileo or a Newton could keep pace with all de
velopments. Some 25,000 books and a million scientific articles
are published each year. Most of them are written in such ab
struse jargon and abstract mathematical terms as to be incom
prehensible except to specialists. Even computer systems seem
unable to cope with the onslaught of information, to say nothing
of translating it into understandable language. “It is quite easy to
visualize a situation, perhaps in 100 years," says Economist Ken
neth Boulding of the University of Colorado, "in which the whole
effort of the knowledge industry will have to be devoted to trans
mitting knowledge from one generation to the next.”
Of the spokesmen for anti-science, none has been more ar
ticulate or corrosive than Theodore Roszak, 39, a historian by pro
fession, a cultural Cassandra by inclination, the man that Brit
ain’s New Scientist calls the “romantic at reason's court.” It was
he who best described the youthful dissenters of the late '60s in
his bestselling The Making of a Counterculture. In his latest book.
Where the Wasteland Ends, he turns his considerable polemic
skills on what he calls the West’s bleak “mindscape of scientific ra
tionality” and pleads for a return of submerged religious
sensitivities.
According to Roszak, science’s alleged objectivity and its at
tendant evils have denatured man’s personal experience and taken
the mystery and sacredness out of his life. In his eyes, reason is a
limited human skill, only one among many. Insisting that there is
also “spiritual knowledge and power," Roszak adds: “Here is a
range of experience that we are screening out of our experience
in the name of what we call knowledge.”
N the eyes of Roszak and other critics, each suc
cessive advance into the clockwork universe has
been achieved at an extremely high cost. Under the tradition of
mechanistic, scientific methodology, they contend, nature has be
come an object to poke, probe and dissect. “We have learned to
think of knowledge as verbal, explicit, articulated, rational, log
ical, Aristotelian, realistic, sensible,” wrote the late psychologist
Abraham Maslow. “Equally important are mystery, ambiguity, illogic contradiction and transcendent experience.”
This theme is echoed by other scientists as well. Says Geol
ogist Frank Rhodes, dean of liberal arts at the University of Mich
igan: "It may be that the qualities we measure have as little
relation to the world itself as a telephone number to its sub
scriber.” In fact Rhodes and others are certain that the language
of science is a metaphor for a limited kind of experience. De
clares Richard H. Bube, a professor of materials science and elec
trical engineering at Stanford: “One of the most pernicious false
hoods ever to be almost universally accepted is that the scientific
method is the only reliable way to truth.”
Faith has also been shaken in one of the central beliefs of sci
entific methodology. Even the most “detached” scientific observ
ers, says Harvard’s Mendelsohn, are beginning to realize that they
bring certain “metaphysical and normative judgments” to their
work. In other words, scientific observations are not “theory-neu-
I
56
PRINCETON'S THOMAS KUHN: EXPONENT OF SCIENTIFIC PARADIGMS
tral,” as scientists once claimed, but are actually “theory-laden."
Such a radical attack on science’s vaunted objectivity is supported
by no less a scientific dictum than Physicist Werner Heisenberg's
half-century-old Principle of Uncertainty, which points out that
the very act of observing disturbs the system. Writes Physicist Die
trich Schroeer in his perceptive book Physics and Its Fifth Dimen
sion: Society: “It seems to be just as the romantics have been claim
ing. The observer cannot be separated from the experiment.”
The Heisenberg Principle also suggests that rational science
may be limited in its ability to comprehend nature; at best it can
only arrive at certain statistical probabilities in determining, say,
where an electron is at any given moment. The concept that the
universe cannot be known by more definite methods than such
“guesswork” was so revolutionary that even Einstein could not ac
cept it. “God does not play dice with the universe," he insisted.
Reverberations from the Uncertainty Principle are still being
TIME, APRIL23,1973
felt. Heisenberg has recently used it to argue against construct
ing even bigger (and more expensive) atom smashers on the ground
that little more of a fundamental nature can be learned of the subnuclear world. In his controversial book The Coming of the Gold
en Age, Molecular Biologist Gunther Stent brashly assumes that
all basic questions in his field are either solved or close to so
lution. He also thinks that all scientific progress is fast approach
ing the point of diminishing returns. Man will never know how
the universe began or what is the most fundamental of atomic par
ticles, he says, because such mysteries remain “hidden in an end
less and ultimately tiresome succession of Chinese boxes."
Heisenberg’s and Stent's pessimistic prophecies are widely dis
puted. Many scientists, in fact, see very drastic changes on the ho
rizon. They frequently invoke a model of scientific advance pro
posed by Historian Thomas Kuhn, who argues in The Structure
of Scientific Revolutions that science is not cumulative, but that
it collapses and is rebuilt after each major conceptual shift. Par
adigms is the word he uses for those overreaching models and the
ories according to which each new era of science conducts its
normal, day-to-day operations. Copernicus, for example, estab
lished a new paradigm of science with his heliocentric universe,
Overthrowing the old. Newton did likewise, and so did Einstein.
Following such fundamental changes, “normal” scientists go back
to work again, but with a different set of assumptions. Maslow
pointed out that it is these “normal” technicians who created the
stereotype of scientists as mechanical men with narrow vision.
The innovative, imaginative paradigm makers, “the eagles of sci
ence,” are another breed entirely.
Is science on the verge of some bold new paradigm? Con
vinced that it is. Physicist David Finkelstein of New York's Yeshiva University has been searching for a link between particle
physics, relativity and human consciousness. “The way has been
prepared to turn over the structure of present physics,” he de
clares, “to consider space, time and mass as illusions in the same
way temperature is only a sensory illusion."
Espousing an equally radical idea, Britain’s Fred Hoyle be
lieves that there may be processes under way in the universe that
are totally at odds with accepted physical laws. Even so con
servative a physicist as M.I.T.’s Morrison is willing to risk the rid
icule of fellow scientists by participating in a symposium on un
identified flying objects. “The idea of rationality is not that we
should always be sober and do everything like Euclid,” says Mor
rison. “Rationality has to include, so to speak, the irrational."
Some scientists, in fact, are exploring what once would have
been dismissed as the irrational. In medicine and physiology, there
is new respectability for such subjects as biofeedback—the idea
that man can consciously control such functions as body tem
perature and heartbeat—and the ancient Chinese art of acupunc
TIME, APRIL 23,1973
ture. There is even a renewal of curiosity about the cataclysmic
ideas of Immanuel Velikovsky, author of Worlds in Collision. A
psychoanalyst turned amateur geophysicist, he attempted to ex
plain stories such as the biblical account of the flood in terms of
close encounters between the earth and a giant comet, a theory
that conventional geophysicists totally reject.
ERHAPS the strangest realm in which there has
been a new ripple of scientific interest is extra
sensory perception (ESP). Not that scientific discussion of psychic
phenomena is new: Freud, Physicist J.J. Thomson (discoverer of
the electron), Thomas Edison and even Einstein at one time or an
other seriously considered the possibility. “Sheep” is the para
psychologists' word for those who believe in ESP; “goats” are
skeptics. There is evidence, at least in England, that the number
of sheep is increasing and the number of goats is decreasing. A
questionnaire in the New Scientist last fall drew more than 1,500
answers, most of them from working scientists and technologists.
Nearly 70% of the respondents could be classified as sheep of var
ious hues, while only 3% were really “black” goats who believed
that ESP is an impossibility.
In the U.S. the first serious investigations of psychic phe
nomena were begun at Duke University in the late 1920s by Dr.
(of botany) J.B. Rhine, who had his subjects shuffle cards and
throw dice while others tried to predict the results. More re
cently, a few scientific centers, notably the Stanford Research In
stitute. have undertaken investigations of this magic- and fraudfilled arena. Even Astronaut Edgar Mitchell (unofficially)
conducted an ESP experiment on his Apollo 14 flight to the moon,
and now devotes himself full time to investigations of psychic phe
nomena. In spite of these efforts, however, experiments have been
far from scientifically convincing. Only a few “psychically gift
ed” subjects like Artist Ingo Swann seem to make the rounds,
and at least one of them, Uri Geller, has a highly questionable rec
ord (TIME, March 12).
Moreover, even if it could be proved to the general satis
faction of scientists that certain “endowed” individuals can trans
mit messages from one to another (telepathy), predict events (pre
cognition) or control an object by their mental powers
(psychokinesis), scientists would still ask, How did they do it?
What mysterious powers lurk inside them? In short, says Gun
ther Stent in a recent article in Scientific American, there would
have to be some revolutionary new paradigm to explain what
now seems to be a complete breach of elementary physical laws.
One of the few serious physicists who believe that such a
breach is imminent is Columbia University’s Gerald Feinberg,
who suggests in his book The Prometheus Project that man may
eventually find the means to achieve immortality. Feinberg thinks
P
57
that psychic transmissions may one day be linked to as yet un
discovered elementary particles, so-called mindons or psychons.
Other scientists, however, give less credence to such will-o’-thewisps than they give to another conjectured particle championed
by Feinberg: the tachyon, which always travels faster than the
speed of light, the theoretical speed limit of the universe.
Such fanciful musings as Feinberg's are hard to refute defin
itively, especially in view of the proliferation of weird subatomic
particles discovered by physics (more than 15 at last count). At
least so says Arthur Koestler, the novelist and interpreter of sci
ence who once compared Rhine’s work favorably with that of Co
pernicus. In his recent book The Roots of Coincidence. Koestler
calls on his considerable skills as a popularizer of modern quan
tum physics to buttress his beliefs. Matter, he notes, quoting Ber
trand Russell, is “a convenient formula for describing what hap
pens where it isn’t." An absurdity? Not to the new generation of
quantum physicists, says Koestler. No longer able to accept the
atom as simply a miniature solar system in which negatively
charged electrons blithely circle the positive nucleus, they found
that the "electrons kept jumping from one orbit into a different
orbit without passing through intervening space—as if the earth
were suddenly transferred into the orbit of Mars without having
to travel.” Even stranger notions were still to come, he says, when
physicists succeeded in producing such ghostlike particles as the
neutrino (which has no mass, no electrical charge, and can hurtle
with ease through the entire earth). In view of all this, argues
Koestler, there should well be room in the “common sense-de
fying structure” of modern physics for ESP.
OR most scientists, there are already enough mys
teries to contemplate without such conjecturing.
Indeed, recent discoveries in astronomy alone seem to have turned
scientists into what Koestler calls “Peeping Toms at the keyhole of
eternity.” Many of them, for example, believe that those incred
ibly bright objects known as quasars (for quasi-stellar) sit at the
very “edge” of the universe; that possibility got renewed support
only last week when astronomers reported finding a quasar that
may be as distant as 12 billion light-years from earth. A dissenting
minority, including Fred Hoyle, offers another startling view: qua
sars are nearby objects, possibly newborn, in which supposedly in
violable constants such as the acceleration of gravity are not con
stant but continually changing. Then there are pulsars, the
collapsed cadavers of giant stars that give off extraordinary pulses
of radiation, and kindred black holes, which are totally invisible
but act like cosmic vacuum cleaners in sweeping up any stray stel
lar material in their vicinity. Where does this material go?
England's Roger Penrose and Robert Hjellming of the National
Radio Astronomy Observatory have dared to suggest that it might
F
58
surface elsewhere, perhaps in an entirely different universe.
From such mind-boggling ideas it is a short leap to wilder spec
ulations. The overwhelming majority of scientists would prob
ably agree with Mathematician Martin Gardner that “modern
science should indeed arouse in all of us a humility before the im
mensity of the unexplored and a tolerance for crazy hypoth
eses.” Says Harvard’s Owen Gingerich, who is an astronomer as
well as a historian of science: “There might be non-causal things
in the world.” He adds that it is only people with tunnel vision
who “think our science will go on in a lineal, explanatory fash
ion. It may be that aspects of mysticism totally outside science
may come back and be incorporated within its framework.” The
eminent German physicist-philosopher Carl Friedrich von
Weizsacker believes that such a unity already exists. At his in
stitute outside Munich, he is attempting to show the essential con
vergence between Eastern mysticism and Western science. Gopi
Krishna, an exponent of Kundalini Yoga, was his guest there for
six months. From their discussions, Weizsacker has become in
creasingly convinced that “mysticism is one of the great discov
eries of mankind.” He adds: “It may turn out to be far more
important than our time is inclined to believe.”
For all their occasional tolerance of radical new ideas, how
ever, few scientists are ready to discard the old rationality. Even
the iconoclastic Mendelsohn admits that “there is too much of
use in the scientific way of knowledge to simply brush it aside."
Most scientists believe that a swelling chorus of anti-scientism
could jeopardize solutions to the technological problems that so
distress Roszak and other critics. "We have created the kind of
world we cannot reverse,” says M.I.T. President Jerome Wiesner,
a presidential science adviser in the Kennedy Administration.
"Too many people are too dependent on technology for every
thing from agriculture to distribution of goods.”
Science’s critics may nevertheless have performed a highly im
portant service by putting forth their questions, their doubts about
relentless progress, their special pleas for a new harmony with na
ture. At the very least, they have helped prod scientists out of
their old arrogance and aloofness and encouraged them to be
more concerned—both spiritually and pragmatically—with the
ends to which their quests will eventually lead. No longer are sci
entists likely to say, as Robert Hooke did three centuries ago
when he helped found London’s Royal Society: “This society
will eschew any discussion of religion, rhetoric, morals and pol
itics.” Beyond that, the new critics have suggested that science
does not have a stranglehold on truth, and that the cold, narrow ra
tionality so long stressed by scientists is not the only ideology for
modern man to live by. If such notions gain widening accep
tance, they may usher in a new paradigm as significant as Co
pernicus’ own revolutionary idea.
TIME, APRIL 23,1973
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What is ARICA ?
Arica is a body of theory, doctrine and method, synthesised by
Oscar Ichazo, that takes into account the wisdom of the past and
modern scientific knowledge to solve the problems of the present.
Arica has achieved and experimentally proven the effectiveness of
its system with a great number of people. Arica recognises that the
final goal of human history is to produce a perfect society which, in
turn, is capable of producing perfect individuals. Perfection, in this
case, means the total realisation of the possibilities of any human
At first sight, this may seem like an unrea.lisabie pretension, but if
the structure of man and society are known, it will be understood
that their natural process leads to this goal. Everything in nature is
perfect, and only in man does this natural law seem not to be
operating. If this is so, it is due to man's ignorance of himself. All
ancient wisdom affirms that when man discovers his true nature, he
becomes perfect.
Arica maintains that in order to reach human perfection, the task is
greatly facilitated by working in groups. Considering this, it is
possible to dramatically speed up individual realisation through
relations with the entire group. With this system the goals of a
perfect society and perfect individuals can be achieved at the same
time, thereby unifying two ideals which, in the past, were considered
antagonistic.
In 1969 a group of people living on the West Coast of the United
States made contact with Oscar Ichazo in Arica, Chile. Subsequently,
a group of fifty travelled to Arica for a ten-month training which
began on July 1st, 1970.
In this first training a great number of traditional methods were
worked and experimented with to give the group the greatest
possible quantity of information. The purpose of this intentional
eclecticism was to accustom the group to working with security
within the human psyche, and, at the same time, to obtain a deep
experience and understanding of future work - to teach the method.
answers the vital question, “Who am I with?” The syntony instinct
answers the vital question, “Where am P“
Normally, the imbalance of the instincts creates deep states of
tension and anxiety which are reflected in our physical body, in
our emotional temperament, and in our personal idiosyncrasies. That
is to say, as time passes,, we absorb karma which instills in us a
particular way of being, of living, and of doing, or reaching our goals.
This entire complex produces in us what we call our personality, an
arbitrary and unpredictable manifestation of the instinctual im
balance. It is seen in the form of habits, hidden fears, physical,
emotional and mental tensions, anxiety, susceptibility, sickness,
phobias, and in extreme cases, psychosis. Therefore, we say that the
personality which projects itself as an individual ego is a synthesis of
past negative experiences. As the personality is an artificial product,
it is not our essential Being. Personality is our illness, and we see the
world through the anguish of that sickness. In the sickness, the “I"
isolates us from the world, causes fear, contradiction, and dis
orientation.
If we clearly answer our vital and instinctive questions, our psyche
becomes purified and we see the world exactly as it is. This is the
healthy and essential view - in other words, our natural or essential
state. The Arica system uses methods for physical cleaning which
returns natural balance to the body, and teaches us to use the entire *
musculature in a conscious and relaxed way. Methods are used to
break emotional blocks and to allow a free flow of emotion.
Emotional blocks cause poor communications between people.
Methods are also used to produce a development of consciousness
which breaks down the barriers of duality and intellectual prejudice.
Group work is employed as well. The group is an important part of
the Arica system for the following reasons:
1. Group work moves away from the personal and is an important
element in transcending the individual ego.
2.
Ina group, the tolerance of the lies projected by the sickness
we call ego is substantially eliminated.
In 1971 and 1972, the number of people integrated into the Arica
Institute was increased to 250. In 1973, it was decided that the
group had reached the necessary maturity to begin teaching the Arica
system.
3. Our essence learns rrore rapidly when it finds that other
essences are stimulated by the work. This is to say, there exists a
law of essential contact that is entirely healthy for essential
stimulation. A relationship develops between essences which awakes
in them the need to express themselves, thereby transcending the
limitations of the individual ego.
The methods used in this training seek to correct the lack of
equilibrium caused by the imbalance of the three basic instincts:
conservation, relations and syntony. The conservation instinct
answers the vital question, “How am I?" The relations instinct
4. A group that does essential work creates pressure inside itself
which greatly increases the velocity of the psychic processes. This
means that work that would take years for individuals to do can be
done by a group in a short time.
The next 40-Day Training begins on August 24th. This is a highly intensive, tightly
scheduled 320 hour programme, the primary aims of which are to increase vitality,
provoke changes in metabolism and energy transfer, eliminate negative states and replace
them with positive ones, increase mental clarity and create a permanent higher level of
consciousness. For further information call 01—235 8298.
ARICA
'<7/3/?X
The last two decades have been a
marvellous period for the biologists.
Their science has always been con
cerned with how living creatures
work, but their recent efforts, com
bined with those of physicists and
chemists, have led to astonishing new
successes in the attempt to see more
deeply into the ‘secret of life’.
They have discovered in fact that
there doesn’t seem to be a secret; and
that the enormous variety of nature
and the richness of human culture
can all be explained by the laws of
physics and chemistry. One of the
most distinguished spokesmen of the
‘Life is nothing more than__ ’ school
is Professor Jacques Monod, who
won a Nobel Prize in 1965 for his
work on inheritance in bacteria. His
latest book on the nature of life is a
marvel of clarity, but it is far from
^asy reading.
Even so, it has become a bestseller. It quotes the fifth-century b.c.
philosopher Democritus: “Every
thing that exists in the universe is the
fruit of chance and necessity”, and
the book (to be published here in
May by Collins) is called Chance
and Necessity. The message is that
everything around us-the living
world, ourselves, our institutions,
even our publications and our poli
tics-results from the chance colli
sions of atoms and molecules. These
produced the first life on earth, and
more chance physical events pro
duced changes - mutations - in them.
Only some of these changes produced
improved, better-adapted forms of
life. These new forms suffered more
random changes, and natural selec
tion worked inexorably on these
until, in the end, there arrived the
20th century. Throughout geological
history, nothing had been working Jacques Monod, best-selling author and Nobel
but hazard and natural selection, the
Prize-winner, is one of the most distinguished
chance and necessity of the title.
Jacques Monod is a quiet, rather advocates of science’s startling claim to have
pale man, much involved with the finally robbed life of its mystery; that Man
organisation of the Institut Pasteur,
and the world about him can all be explained in
of which he is director. Fortunately
he is far from being the grey scientist terms of physics and chemistry. A profile by
with no background and no emotions Tony Osman; photograph by Bruno Barbey
that so frightens the rest of the world.
He is the son of a painter; he fought
in a Communist section of the Resis of Life can be understood in terms of of morality, and Monod says he rec
tance, leaving it after the war on a physics and chemistry. He would ognises the consequences and is wil
matter of principle, and he was once certainly object, in fact, to the use of ling to accept them.
a very good cellist. There was even the capital ‘L’. I asked him if this
This is just as well. As Samuel
the question of a choice between a meant the universe had no discern Johnson might have said, a man had
career in science and one in music, ible purpose. “It means that it can better accept the universe as it is, as
and for many years he organised have no purpose at all, discernible or there is uncommonly little he can do
choirs and musical groups in the otherwise.” This view does a fair to alter it. On the other hand, it is a
research institutes where he worked. amount of damage to what people bit difficult to believe that anyone
According to his boo^who^ l^vtjal^cl^d to be the basis lives out an eventful life - an import
47/1,(First FIgo: i - . fvlaiks rioiid
BANtaAiOrtE - 6c>v 001
ant one from a less than universal
viewpoint - while believing that the
whole process signifies nothing. Does
this mean, for example, that discus
sing political theories and ideas of
right and wrong is a waste of time ?
“No, it is not a waste of time. They
have been thrown up as part of evo
lution, in the Darwinian sense, and
those that have survived have had
selective value, in the same sense.”
Best-sellers about the implica
tions of modem science are not all
that rare these days, but best-sellers
by actual scientists still are, and they
have an important distinction from
the general run. They may be less
clearly dramatic, but they are right
about their science, and it is very
difficult to refute their conclusions.
There are still people about, no
doubt, who say that scientists should
stick to science, leaving discussions
of the Nature of Man to the profes
sionals - the theologians and the
philosophers. Monod’s reply would
be that the nature of man is yet
another phrase that is not worthy of
capital letters; that it is pointless to
try to describe any aspect of life with
out understanding its mechanism;
and that once you have understood
the mechanisms of life, and particu
larly of evolution, there is no room
left for a Meaning of Life, passion
ately though many people want one.
This is, of course, the distinction
between this modem nihilism and
the older forms. Ever since man has
left any record of his thoughts, one
of the ideas he has a bit ambivalently
gone to the trouble of recording is
that there is no meaning to life. But
it is only now that there is knowledge
to back this view. Previously, oppon
ents could say, “But surely, no-one
could believe that the infinite variety
and richness of life came about with
out some plan. And that implies an
Architect [the capital letters rise
again]”. But as Monod puts it: “In
the last few years, we have come to
understand life.” And from this
understanding he has found that not
only is there no need for an architect,
but that there can be no architect.
There is no Plan, no Design. The
living world about us is “the product
of a gigantic lottery that draws num
bers out at random. From these,
natural selection blindly chooses the
winners”.
If we were asked to say where the
real secret of life lies - the part, if
there is a part, that distinguishes the
living from the mechanical and arti
ficial - we would have to say
y
that it is in reproduction and in
heritance. We can readily accept that
movement and digestion of food
are not mysterious processes. Even
the idea of death, seen at its simplest,
is comprehensible. Motor-cars wear
out, so why not living creatures. But
reproduction and inheritance are
unique to life. In his book Monod
sets us the task of devising instruc
tions for the computer of a Martian
spaceship, to enable it to report if it
finds signs of life. The only sign, in
the end, that it can be told to look for
is that of something developing
according to a built-in plan. Crystals
grow from solution, but they become
only larger, similar crystals. Frog
spawn or a butterfly’s eggs on the
other hand each hold a single cell
containing all the instructions neces
sary for it to develop into the mature
creature. To unravel this process
really is to solve the secret of life.
Monod himself worked with
simple creatures - bacteria, the tiny
organisms we think of as germs. He
discovered that bacteria could com
pletely change their ‘eating’ habits
and digestion, much as if humans
were suddenly able to eat and digest
grass. He then discovered that the
ability to digest the new food-a
sugar-was inherited and was trig
gered off by the sugar itself. The
sugar actually caused the bacteria to
make the chemical it needed to
digest the sugar.
M his explanation was crucial
to understanding life, and
understanding how living crea
tures are controlled to make
only the right amount of anything,
from chemicals used in digestion to
the proteins that make up a limb.
But the real, inner secret of life was
explained by Watson and Crick. In
fact, we have James Watson’s word
for it that the two of them rushed off
into the pubs of Cambridge telling
anyone who would listen that they
had solved the secret of life. The
story has become famous, and any
broadly educated person reckons to
bandy the names DNA and RNA
around with a fair understanding.
But, as Monod points out, not every
one has spotted the full significance
of their discovery. What Watson and
Crick set out to explain was how a
cell was able to produce two identical
cells when it divided. In other words,
they wanted to know what was the
basis of inheritance.
Long before this, microscopists
had found that the centre of a cell
appeared to break up as the cell divi
I
ded. This meant that, somehow or
other, the part of the cell that organ
ised its life and development had to
double and produce two identical
copies, one for each new cell. Watson
and Crick showed that the inheri
tance was in the form of a chemical
called DNA, and that this was made
up of four fairly simple compounds
arranged on a spiral string of sugars
and phosphate. The exciting part of
their discovery was that the arrange
ment of the four compounds was a
coded message to the cell, instructing
it how to live and develop. Why was
this arrangement copied perfectly
every time the cell divided ? Because
the size and shape of their molecules
prevented the compounds fitting to
gether in any other way. The secret
of life was merely the shapes of four
^simple compounds.
1 tag
H| hen scientists know so
■ H ■ much about life,
t
AJ
11131 only
details remain to be
filled in. How did life start? There
must have been three stages. The first
was ‘pre-biotic’ .The chemicals - amino
acids, for example - that are essential
to life must have been formed then.
It is certainly imaginable that nitro
gen, carbon and oxygen, or their
compounds, could have been brought
together so energetically that they
combined. These essential pre-biotic
compounds would then have had to
combine to form large molecules cap
able of repeating themselves - direct
ing the assembly of another, identical
.molecule from the pre-biotic mix.
*The third stage would result in real
life. Somehow, these self-copying
molecules had to become more com
plex, until they could cause the first
living cell to assemble itself. This is
difficult to imagine, but not impos
sible, and in any case, as Monod put
it, “This must be what occurred”.
Did Monod foresee scientists creat
ing ‘life in a test tube’ in the near
future ? “There is no immediate pos
sibility of creating even the simplest
of the organisms we know now. Even
bacteria are very complex - they have
been evolving throughout geological
time, and they must have a chain of
ancestors in evolution that left no
fossil traces. It will be a very long
while before we can create anything
as complex as that. But if you make
your definition of life something
simpler, something that can repro
duce itself following some internal
instructions, then, certainly, life may
soon be created in a test-tube.” This
would be similar to the ‘life’
>
that first appeared on earth. Suppos
ing we were to create this form of
life, and then go away and leave it.
Would it evolve? Would it evolve
into all the forms of life that now
exist on earth ? Would it, even more
fascinatingly, evolve until, a few
hundred million years later, there
was again a journalist questioning a
Nobel Prizewinner ? In other words,
did the ‘necessity1 of his book’s title
mean that the future was predeter
mined and fixed? Monod certainly
couldn’t guarantee a similar meeting
in what we might call the geological
future. But if our primitive form of
life ‘took*, if it came into existence in
the right surroundings, then it would
eventually evolve into forms that
were adapted to their niches in the
universe. “There would be a certain
amount of hazard about whether evo
lution got under way at all. I believe
that life started several times on
earth and then petered out. The
changes that occurred to the original
form would be a matter of chance.”
If none of these changes were adap
tive, life would stop. If the correct
set of physical and chemical circum
stances occurred again, life would
start again from the beginning.
The ‘chance’ that the title of
Monod’s book refers to is the stream
of random mutations on which
natural selection works, but there
have always been people who have
rejected the idea that evolution is
pure chance. “I cannot believe,”
Einstein once said, “that God plays
at dice.” But as Monod pointed out,
we could have a lot of opinions before
we knew the exact mechanism of
evolution and of the heredity through
which it occurs. Nowadays no-one
could believe in an overall Great
Plan or the Inheritance of Acquired
Characteristics. “We know that all
that is passed from generation to
generation is a chemical. Except in
rare cases [some viruses] this is DNA,
which must be very stable, otherwise
offspring would not resemble their
parents. Like any chemical, it can be
affected by heat or by radiation, and
the mutations that evolution works
on can be accounted for simply by
these.” Not only does science not
need a plan, but it now knows that
there cannot be a plan.
ut if there was no plan, and
we arrived by chance, could
1 we at least take care of
our future ? We know what
it is that carries our inheritance.
Could we tamper with it to produce
B
JUST LOOK AT THE TIME
GRADUATES
CAN HAVE IN THE NAVY.
3 YEARS.
With an engineering degree, you could
become a naval officer for just 3 years.
Filling a key role in a team which keeps
the Navy’s complex hardware fully
operational.
It’s a job which will constantly test your
technical know-how, your judgment, your
ability to handle men.
An altogether stimulating way of life in
fact. And one that’s financially rewarding
into the bargain.
Starting pay is at least £1,971; it could
be as high as £2,734.
And when your 3 years are up, you can
take full advantage of further opportunities
in the Navy if you wish. There are plenty
to go for.
4YEARS.
Whether you’re an arts or science
graduate, you can join the Navy on a Short
Career Commission, if you’re under 25.
Either as a Seaman Officer, which means
you’d learn seamanship and navigation
and become experienced in, say, gunnery
or undersea warfare.
Or you could become a Supply and
Secretariat Officer, and be responsible for
administering stores, pay or the
secretariat.
Whichever branch you choose, you’ll
earn £1,719 on entry.
And likely to be earning £2,500 or more
as a lieutenant when you leave. if you’re
able to resist the temptation to stay, that is.
FULL CAREER.
Ifyou’d like to make a life’s career of
the Navy, and are under 25 (under 26 for
engineers), you’ll be given every
encouragement.
Including high levels of pay. Generous
help with family accommodation and
education. And a pension that’s well
worth having.
Not that these factors are, in
themselves, motives for making the Navy
your life.
Indeed, for many officers, the reason
goes beyond travel, the sea, the exciting
life, even the long-term opportunities
to get on.
For them, satisfaction comes from
solving complex problems in real-life
situations.
And for a cause that’s indisputably
worthwhile.
[""Captain R. A. Stephens, R.N. Officer Entry-]
<2°NB3), Old Admiralty Building, 1
I Whitehall. London, SW1A 2BE.
| fte*? send me details about Graduate Entry
| into the Royal Navy
1 3 yean 4 yearaQ Full Career (Tide which).
I The Royal Marines also offer Full Career
I
I opportunities for graduates.
i
I (Tick here for detaiIs)
|
I ____________ Date of birth__________ _ j
It will also be helpful if you
ft I
* tell us your University or
1^1*1
I
40
KIM
I___________________ ROYAL NAVY
perfect, or at least superior, crea
tures? Couldn’t we, a worse possi
bility, produce that science-fiction
nightmare - imperfect and inferior
creatures willing to be nothing but
workers and soldiers ? Monod has no
time for the idea. “It could be pro
posed only by those who do not know
the difficulties. There are ways of
changing the heredity of cells, but we
can understand the method only for
something simple - the manufacture
in the body of a single chemical. And
the methods are hazardous and, in
any case, there is no way of altering
all the cells in the body, say, or even
all the blood cells.” In fact, since we
met, there have been reports of a
technique in which viruses can
actually repair colonies of cells, but
at present this is only at the test tube
stage. No-one knows what would
happen if the experiments were tried
on a whole, living creature, and
because some viruses can start can
cers, the process is risky.
There is another way of getting
at all the cells in a living creature,
and that is to repair the egg or the
sperm before fertilisation. Two Brit
ish scientists, Edwards and Steptoe,
have perfected a technique for remov
ing an egg from a woman’s ovary and
fertilising it in a test tube. They
intend to replace the egg in the womb
to develop into a child, and they
defend this medical legerdemain by
saying that it could permit some ster
ile women to have children, and,
more remotely, it could be used to
remove a genetic defect permanently.
Monod, again, has no time for the
idea. Although a genetic defect cured
at this stage would be permanently
and completely changed, it would be
a fantastically difficult task. “And,
really, sterility in women is not a
pressing medical problem. We are all
agreed that too many children are
bom. Likewise, research to eliminate
genetic defects is not exactly of major
importance. It is so much simpler to
sterilise the people concerned.”
MB BB H| hat is the most imperi
al ant scientific problem
of the moment ?
“Without a doubt,
understanding the way that the fer
tilised cell develops. What controls
the shape the new cells take up?
How do cells tell one another where
to go? When to stop multiplying?
That, in fact, is the real importance
of cancer research. It may lead to a
cure for some kinds of cancer, but
it is most interesting in the fight it
throws on normal development. A
cancerous cell was not getting the
proper information from its neighbours, and if we understood the
faults, we might understand how
normal cells communicate. ”
Science and technology at the
moment have a pretty poor standing
in the public’s opinion, largely be
cause scientists do seem to go about
their work in an amoral way. You
can, it seems, hire a man to perfect
gas chambers and nuclear bombs,
and the technologist, even nowadays,
is not over-concerned about who is
downstream of his effluent pipes. If
you accept Monod’s view of the
nature of beliefs about right and
wrong, you cannot be surprised if
scientists do their science amorally.
It is, after all, a bit difficult to know
how evolution is going to look at
your effluent pipe. It is equally un^
surprising that the public does no?
take science and scientists to its heart.
Monod is conscious of the prob
lem, and mentions it in his book. It
is not a good section. It is short, and
all it amounts to is the statement that
science rests on what can be called,
vaguely, an ethical basis, and, more
certainly, a basis that stands outside
science. This is its objectivity.
Scientific observations may affect the
object observed, but any scientist
should be able to repeat another’s
observations. In that sense, they do
not depend on the observer.
This is a bit inadequate as a re
joinder to those who say that scien
tists are monsters and loathe them for
it, and Monod recognises the defect^
“I should have devoted more space to
ethics and morality. I am conscious of
this as a failure, and many people
have mentioned it to me.”
There may be something in the
fact that Monod is now a scientist
who can find no meaning in the uni
verse, whereas he was a Resistance
fighter and an idealist when young.
He used to be a musician, too. Did he
still play the cello ? “Nowadays, very
little.” As an ex-cello player myself,
I know that means that he has
stopped. The cello is an unforgiving
instrument, and unless you practise
frequently you cannot produce an
even tolerable tone. “As you grow
older,” he said, “you leant to be
hard.” What did he mean by that?
“You learn that you have to give up
some pleasures.” Perhaps it is only
young people who need a meaning to
fife. Others know that it is a course
they will run, finding that decisions
and judgements are made by their
actions*
. 7-7
R- D. Laing - psychiatrist and
philosopher - is back in England
after a year in India and Ceylon
studying Oriental religion and the
Oriental way of life. Studying medita
tion techniques with Buddhist and
Hindu holymen has convinced him
that they can bring a measure of
peace of mind to the mass of people
in the West who suffer mentally.
Laing’s books have made him a
celebrity and a cult-hero. At 44 he is
acknowledged to be the most widely
read and influential writer in
psychiatry today. Laing is an origina
tor of the social theory of mental
illness which inspired the film Family
Life. According to this theory,
expounded by Laing in his books
The Divided Self and The Politics of
Experience, it is other people who
drive a person mad rather than the
^person’s own inherited biochemistry.
While in Ceylon Laing stayed in
a Buddhist monastery where two
monks instructed him in traditional
techniques of meditation designed to
increase ‘mindfulness’. Sitting all day
in a cell 6ft. by 7ft., without books
or writing materials and eating only
one meal a day, he was able to forget
all his preoccupations. “It was the
most relaxing holiday I ever had,”
he says.
The monks taught him to con
centrate on his breathing so that he
was aware only of the air hitting the
membrane of his nose as he breathed
in. When-he was distracted by sights
and sounds, perhaps the buzz of a
fly or a crack in the wall, the monks
instructed him to say to himself,
“Hearing, hearing,” or “Seeing,
seeing,” until his attention returned
to its original focus at the nose. Then
he began to recognise sensations
within his own body - such as the
beating of the pulse in his neck. One
by one he attuned to them until they
disappeared and he felt a deep calm.
Meditation was supposed to be
maintained unbroken while he was
in the monastery and with practice it
was, except for two or three hours’
light sleep. The monks instructed
him in how to maintain the medita
tion while eating and washing.
Was the experience mystical? “I
have lost track of what that word has
come to mean,” he said. “Meditation
is a straightforward training of the
mind - although for many people it
is shrouded by religious fantasies.”
What was the purpose of the
meditation? “To consider the nature
of mental suffering - my own and
other people’s. To the Buddhist
'/J_____ ‘ //
Busman’s Holiday
The psycho-analyst R. D. Laing is today’s most influential
and controversial explorer of the human mind. He has just returned from
a year in India studying Oriental meditation, an experience
which many of his followers regard as an inevitable culmination of his
“relentless voyage into the recesses of the soul”. Oliver Gillie
talks to him about the discoveries he made and why he believes they can
bring us peace of mind. Photograph by John Haynes
everything is transient, nothing can
last. But human suffering is not neces
sary - it is bom of ignorance, desire,
hatred and bewilderment of mind.
Suffering can be diminished by
skilfully seeking means to give up
personal attachments. ‘Mindfulness’
meditation does this by reducing
input of sensation from the world,”
says Laing.
After six weeks devoted solely to
meditation, Laing began the study of
Pali Buddhist texts with the help of
an English crib. These are the texts
which possibly most nearly preserve
the original .tradition as taught by
Buddha. Although they have been
elaborated by his followers, they con
tain practical instructions for medita
tion derived from those given by
Buddha himself.
Next stage in Laing’s Grand
Tour of the East was a visit to
Kashmir but the India-Pakistan war
intensified and he and his family,
who accompanied him, were driven
back. In the foothills of the Himalayas
he heard of a baba - a Hindu holy
man - who lived as a hermit under
a crag halfway up a mountain. Laing
visited him and was allowed to stay.
They sat together meditating on the
hillside, cross-legged on either side
of a sacred fire. The baba wore only
a loincloth although it was winter
time and sleeting down beyond their
narrow shelter. Laing wore a heavy
sweater and ate only once a day.
Laing believes that this experi
ence - which lasted a month - taught
him not to fear hunger and cold.
They. were_not always alone on the
mountain. People often came from
villages in the valley to talk to the
baba about everyday things and also
to ask advice. When the mood took
him the holyman got out a home
made instrument with three strings
- one silver, one gold, and one
platinum - and played an eerie
resonating melody.
These experiences reinforced
Laing’s belief that meditation can
calm rhe disturbed mind and reduce
mental suffering. “The disturbed
patient who comes to a psychiatrist
who is himself agitated in mind may
go away more disturbed' than when
he came. Two disturbed,; minds
agitate each other with bad vibra
tions,” says Laing. He believes that
however people describe Meditation
- as the heart filling with love or as a
door opening on to a beautiful
vision - the effect is a new inner
peacefulness.
Now Laing has a new desire to
set up an asylum, perhaps in Devon,
perhaps in New Mexico, where
people can have a mental breakdown
in peace. They will be looked after
while they regress into madness and,
hopefully, are reborn with a new and
happier state of mind. As well as a
meditation room and a room for each
person, Laing hopes that the asylum
will have a sauna bath and a masseur.
Helpers in the asylum will be chosen
because they have already learned
to be undisturbing to disturbed
people. The aim will be to create a
“substantial ambiance” which will be ’
curative in itself.
Breaking into computer jargon
Laing explains that disturbed people
suffer from “scrambled input”.
“There is no justification for con
cluding that central processing in the
brain is at fault because the output is
scrambled, when the input is also
scrambled,” he says. He maintains
that anyone might be made psychotic
if his life is sufficiently disturbed, his
input scrambled and biochemistry^
upset. The aim of the asylum will be
to provide a refuge where people can
learn to form new personal relation
ships and unscramble their input, if
necessary by regressing to childhood
and starting anew.
In the 19th century there was a
call for the ‘non-injurious treatment
of the insane’ - the madhouses were
opened and the iron shackles taken
off the lunatics. Now Laing is calling
for a new search for non-injurious- treatments for the insane - alterna
tives to drugs and electric shocks. He
realises he is pursuing a direction
contrary to the mainstream ofpsychiatric practice but believes that
conditions may be created where dis
turbed people can cure themselves.
He recalls the dictum of the 16thcentury French surgeon, Ambroise
Par6, who said: “I dressed him and
God healed him.” This philosophy
should be applied to psychiatry, says
Laing#
87
RELIGION
COVER STORY
The Jesuits’ Search For a New Identity
If ever any Congregation of Men
could merit eternal Perdition on Earth
and in Hell, it is the company of
Loyola.
—John Adams, writing to Thomas
Jefferson, in 1816
The expense is reckoned, the en
terprise is begun; it is of God, it can
not be withstood.
—Edmund Campion, S.J., in
1581, shortly before being
hanged, drawn and quartered
OME of their critics have con
signed them, in holy outrage, to
the lower regions of hell. Some of their
defenders, with equally fervent convic
tion, see them as saints destined for the
higher reaches of heaven. Whatever
their presumed destination, they are ar
guably the most remarkable company
of men to embark on a spiritual jour
ney since Jesus chose the Twelve Apos
tles. With a certain pride, they have
adopted the name their enemies once
used against them in derision. They are
the Jesuits.
Their founder, St. Ignatius Loyola,
wanted them to be all things to all men,
and even in today’s pluralistic secular
world it sometimes seems that they are.
Apart from their shared religious identity and their common appendage—S.J.,
for the Society of Jesus—they are a bewilderingly diverse fraternity. They are
seismologists, swamis, architects and
engineers, theologians and winemakers,
politicians, lawyers, social workers, as
tronomers, revolutionaries, economists
—as well as missionaries, teachers and
parish priests. The dictionary lists the
adjective jesuitical as a condemnation
—“given to intrigue or equivocation"
—but the title of Jesuit also carries the
tradition of their aggressive brilliance.
Mystics. From the very beginning,
they have been originals. When Igna
tius first brought together his handful
of friends 439 years ago, he gave the
Christian world a revolutionary cre
ation. They were a company of men
who chose the discipline but rejected
the shared observances of a religious or
der so that they could free themselves
for work among their fellow men, a
band of mystics who chose to find their
enlightenment in a combative encoun
ter with the world around them. Like re
ligious orders before them—Benedic
tines, Dominicans, Franciscans—they
pledged themselves to strict obedience
but, like the Renaissance men they
were, they also preserved a high regard
for individual talent and initiative.
The synthesis of discipline and free-
S
i?*'
40
exist to give the conservative Catholic
a pat on the back.”
Within the society itself, there is a
visible—and highly audible—gap be
tween the enthusiasts of aggiornamento
and the defenders of older, stricter
ways. Older Jesuits remember when
their priestly training took 15 years,
much of it in acute isolation from
the world: some lived through most'
of World War II without hearing
a radio or seeing a newspaper. The
new Jesuit must still spend perhaps
ten years in preparation, but he
may live in fraternity-style surround
ings in Berkeley, in Cambridge,
Mass., or in Manhattan. Under the old
ule of tactus, Jesuit seminarians were
orbidden even to put an arm on the
shoulder of a buddy ; now they greet one
another with warm abrazos.
Ordained, the young Jesuits now
join a fluid, sometimes flamboyant min
istry. John Crillo, a San Diego Jesuit,
says a free-form English Mass in home
made vestments of peacock greens,
blues and yellows; some older col
leagues in the order still stick doggedly
HEAD OF ST. IGNATIUS, FROM DEATH MASK
to the superseded Latin Mass. Other
dom proved to be formidable. It has older Jesuits, like Marquette University
kept them at the cutting edge of Ro Historian Paul Prucha, resent the “di
man Catholicism, and often on the fron lettantism” of the young: “They think
tiers of Western civilization. It is an ex they’re taking theology by taking coursposed position, open alike to opportu es in theology of the theater or theol
nity, risk and scorn. As a result of it, ogy of ecology.” Together with a grow
the Jesuits have become, both inside and ing cadre of radicalized older Jesuits,
outside the church, the objects of pe many younger ones sharply criticize the
rennial controversy.
order’s acquisition of property at the ex
They are still in the vanguard, still pense of the freedom of poverty—the
vulnerable, still controversial. Today, inhibiting burdens, for instance, of vast
the Society of Jesus is a microcosm of educational plants.
the tensions and turmoil that are sweep
Mating Dance. Now that the
ing the Roman Catholic Church as a church and the order are trying to un
whole. The old certainty that guided the derstand and learn from the world,
Jesuits for so long has vanished; the new many Jesuits are disoriented, looking in
anxieties have arrived. Says Father vain for the old landmarks: the triumDavid Tracy, a non-Jesuit theologian at phalist faith, the proud discipline. The
the University of Chicago’s Divinity tight old Jesuit houses offer little solace.
School: “At one time, when you were Deserted by the young and the adven
seeking an answer, you’d find a Jesuit. turous in favor of small communal res
Today, when you are looking for a ques idences or private apartments, many of
tion, you find a Jesuit."
the houses have become sadly depopu
Conservative Catholics, especially, lated. Too many Jesuits no longer seem
are distressed that an order claiming a to be able to recognize one another. Says
special fealty to the Pope should so of Jesuit Kenneth Baker, editor of Hom
ten include some of the most vehement iletic and Pastoral Review: “Ten years
critics of the church; that what was once ago when you met a fellow. Jesuit, you
the church’s first line of defense should knew that he was a brother and that
now seem to be a fifth column. Many his experiences and thoughts would be
Catholic parents complain, for exam like yours. Now when you meet a Je
ple, that their sons attending Jesuit suit for the first time, it’s like the mat
schools are sheltered from neither the ing dance of the crabs—trying to find
drug culture, early sex, political radi out if the other crab is male or female."
calism nor the general youthful antag There are Jesuits young and old all
onism to modern society. A young St. across the spectrum of opinion. Ob
Louis Jesuit counters: “We no longer served Catholic Journalist John Cogley
TIME, APRIL 23,1973
RELIGION
COVER STORY
The Jesuits’ Search For a New Identity
If ever any Congregation of Men
could merit eternal Perdition on Earth
and in Hell, it is the company of
Loyola.
—John Adams, writing to Thomas
Jefferson, in 1816
The expense is reckoned, the en
terprise is begun; it is of God, it can
not be withstood.
—Edmund Campion, SJ., in
1581, shortly before being
hanged, drawn and quartered
OME of their critics have con
signed them, in holy outrage, to
the lower regions of hell. Some of their
defenders, with equally fervent convic
tion, see them as saints destined for the
higher reaches of heaven. Whatever
their presumed destination, they are ar
guably the most remarkable company
of men to embark on a spiritual jour
ney since Jesus chose the Twelve Apos
tles. With a certain pride, they have.
adopted the name their enemies once
used against them in derision. They are
the Jesuits.
Their founder, St. Ignatius Loyola,
wanted them to be all things to all men,
and even in today's pluralistic secular
world it sometimes seems that they are.
Apart from their shared religious iden
tity and their common appendage—S.J.,
for the Society of Jesus—they are a bewilderingly diverse fraternity. They are
seismologists, swamis, architects and
engineers, theologians and winemakers,
politicians, lawyers, social workers, as
tronomers, revolutionaries, economists
—as well as missionaries, teachers and
parish priests. The dictionary lists the
adjective Jesuitical as a condemnation
—“given to intrigue or equivocation"
—but the title of Jesuit also carries the
tradition of their aggressive brilliance.
Mystics. From the very beginning,
they have been originals. When Igna
tius first brought together his handful
of friends 439 years ago, he gave the
Christian world a revolutionary cre
ation. They were a company of men
who chose the discipline but rejected
the shared observances of a religious or
der so that they could free themselves
for work among their fellow men, a
band of mystics who chose to find their
enlightenment in a combative encoun
ter with the world around them. Like re
ligious orders before them—Benedic
tines, Dominicans, Franciscans—they
pledged themselves to strict obedience
but, like the Renaissance men they
were, they also preserved a high regard
for individual talent and initiative.
The synthesis of discipline and free-
S
40
exist to give the conservative Catholic
a pat on the back.”
Within the society itself, there is a
visible—and highly audible—gap be
tween the enthusiasts of aggiornamento
and the defenders of older, stricter
ways. Older Jesuits remember when
their priestly training took 15 years,
much of it in acute isolation from
the world: some lived through most
of World War II without hearing
a radio or seeing a newspaper. The
■■ j
new Jesuit must still spend perhaps
\ 5'iLT ten years in preparation, but he
' K'/ may live in fraternity-style surround,.Ty ings in Berkeley, in Cambridge,
LJ Mass., or in Manhattan. Under the old
fl I rule of tactus, Jesuit seminarians were
A' forbidden even to put an arm on the
'
shoulder of a buddy; now they greet one
another with warm abrazos.
Ordained, the young Jesuits now
join a fluid, sometimes flamboyant min
istry. John Crillo, a San Diego Jesuit,
says a free-form English Mass in home
made vestments of peacock greens,
blues and yellows; some older col
leagues in the order still stick doggedly
HEAD OF ST. IGNATIUS, FROM DEATH MASK
to the superseded Latin Mass. Other
dom proved to be formidable. It has older Jesuits, like Marquette University
kept them at the cutting edge of Ro Historian Paul Prucha, resent the “di
man Catholicism, and often on the fron lettantism” of the young: “They think
tiers of Western civilization. It is an ex they’re taking theology by taking cours
posed position, open alike to opportu es in theology of the theater or theol
nity, risk and scorn. As a result of it, ogy of ecology.” Together with a grow
the Jesuits have become, both inside and ing cadre of radicalized older Jesuits,
outside the church, the objects of pe many younger ones sharply criticize the
order’s acquisition of property at the ex
rennial controversy.
They are still in the vanguard, still pense of the freedom of poverty—the
vulnerable, still controversial. Today, inhibiting burdens, for instance, of vast
the Society of Jesus is a microcosm of educational plants.
Mating Dance. Now that the
the tensions and turmoil that are sweep
ing the Roman Catholic Church as a church and the order are trying to un
whole. The old certainty that guided the derstand and learn from the world,
Jesuits for so long has vanished; the new many Jesuits are disoriented, looking in
anxieties have arrived. Says Father vain for the old landmarks: the triumDavid Tracy, a non-Jesuit theologian at phalist faith, the proud discipline. The
the University of Chicago’s Divinity tight old Jesuit houses offer little solace.
School: “At one time, when you were Deserted by the young and the adven
seeking an answer, you’d find a Jesuit. turous in favor of small communal res
Today, when you are looking for a ques idences or private apartments, many of
the houses have become sadly depopu
tion, you find a Jesuit.”
Conservative Catholics, especially, lated. Too many Jesuits no longer seem
are distressed that an order claiming a to be able to recognize one another. Says
special fealty to the Pope should so of Jesuit Kenneth Baker, editor of Hom
ten include some of the most vehement iletic and Pastoral Review: “Ten years
critics of the church; that what was once ago when you met a fellow Jesuit, you
the church’s first line of defense should
knew that he was a brother and that
now seem to be a fifth column. Many his experiences and thoughts would be
Catholic parents complain, for exam like yours. Now when you meet a Je
ple, that their sons attending Jesuit suit for the first time, it’s like the mat
schools are sheltered from neither the ing dance of the crabs—trying to find
drug culture, early sex, political radi out if the other crab is male or female.”
calism nor the general youthful antag There are Jesuits young and old all
onism to modern society. A young St. across the spectrum of opinion. Ob
Louis Jesuit counters: “We no longer served Catholic Journalist John Cogley
TIME, APRIL 23, 1973
Justice Uncoiled
“A disgrace," said the Brooklyn
district attorney. The judge heartily
agreed, as he vacated the attemptedrape conviction. Thus last week George
Whitmore, 28, was finally released from
a Dickensian legal nightmare in which
police, courts and prisons had entangled
his life for nine long years.
In 1963 Janice Wylie, a Newsweek
research assistant and niece of Author
Philip Wylie, and her schoolteacher
roommate, Emily Hoffert, were sadis
tically beaten and stabbed to death in
their Manhattan apartment. Picked up
eight months later for questioning about
another crime, Whitmore, a black la
borer, had a picture of a white girl on
him that looked to police like Miss Wy
lie. Within hours, interrogators had ex
tracted a confession not only to the
Wylie-Hoffert murders, but also to an
other stabbing murder and to an at
tempted rape.
Whitmore was never tried in the
Wylie-Hoffert case, however, because
another man was found and convicted
of the killings. Accordingly, that charge
was dropped, and so was the other mur
der charge after a trial ended in a hung
jury. Nonetheless, the state tenaciously
prosecuted him three times for the at
tempted rape; the third time, his con
viction survived appeals. It was that ver
dict that fell last week after the
prosecutor’s office learned that the vic
tim had picked out a mug shot of her as
sailant at a time when no mug shot of
Whitmore was in police files.
“It just became very important for
someone to stick him with something,”
commented Selwyn Raab, a New York
City reporter who dogged the case over
the years and helped turn up the ev
idence that finally liberated Whitmore.
“The honor of the police was at stake.”
Though his wife divorced him and dis
appeared with their two daughters
—and though he was imprisoned for
WHITMORE, LAWYER & RAAB (SEATED)
nearly four years—-Whitmore claimed
he was not bitter toward anyone. Less
forgiving, his lawyers were considering
suing the city or state for malicious
prosecution.
The Gang’s All Here
It started as the first shift of pris
oners was marching out of the mess hall
at the Illinois State Penitentiary at Pon
tiac; the next group came shuffling by,
headed toward the tables. Suddenly
more than 100 convicts were battling
with cleaning utensils, metal trays and
homemade knives. The melee lasted un
til a guard fired tear-gas grenades into
the hall 20 minutes later—too late to
save the lives of two young convicts who
had been stabbed.
Their deaths last December were vi
olent evidence of a serious new form
of prison unrest. They did not die in an
ordinary penitentiary riot, but in a fullscale street-gang rumble, transported
virtually intact from the Chicago slums
into the prison. Gang activity now
plagues penal systems not only in Il
linois but in California, New Jersey and
New York, among others. Indeed, near
ly every prison that draws inmates from
large urban areas these days must deal
with gangs operating behind bars.
At Pontiac the problem is especially
acute. Two years ago, police began a
crackdown on such Chicago gang “na
tions” as the Black P. Stones, Black Dis
ciples and Vice Lords. Today, there are
probably as many members inside Pon
tiac as on the streets. After the fatal
rumble, most prisoners were kept "on
deadlock”—that is. in their cells all day
as well as all night. Only this month
were the final 200 inmates released
from deadlock. With the return to com
parative calm, TIME Correspondent Jo
seph Boyce was admitted to Pontiac and
talked with inmate leaders about the
killings and what might happen next.
His report:
All four prisoners were in their ear
ly 20s—tough, street-smart, prison-wise.
They compared jails the way Yalies
compare prep schools. They shied away
from pointing to specific causes for the
fight. “All the tensions just came out,"
said Earl Moore, Pontiac head of the
Disciples. Gang rivalries had been go
ing on for some time. According to the
leaders, each organization had pre
served some form of identification—ei
ther a private greeting that members
gave each other or special berets or in
signia they were permitted to wear.
Fights that normally would have re
mained disputes between two individ
uals exploded into confrontations be
tween the exclusively black gangs. The
grapevine was ripe with ominous ru
mors about a mass confrontation. But
“no one realized that someone might
EARL MOORE, RUDY MOORE & BROOKS
The rumor man has to validate.
lose his life,” said John (“Shaka”) Par
ker, an editor of the prison newsletter.
Afterward, while the cons were on
deadlock, Warden John Petrilli began
meeting with the gang leaders. “At first
everyone came and just glared at each
other,” said Rudy Moore, chief of the
Black P. Stones. The initial meetings
were heated and dominated by loud talk
and bad-mouthing. But, said Rudy, “it
finally dawned on us that this wasn’t
too hep.” Gradually agreements were
reached: recruiting was prohibited;
there would be no interference with a
guard disciplining an inmate; an orga
nization leader was to be held account
able for the actions of members; dis
putes were to be negotiated.
The leaders also agreed to crack
down on the prison rumor mill. “Be
fore,” said Rudy, “if a guy saw a Stone
[Black P. Stone] with a knife, he'd go
and tell the Ds [Disciples]." Added An
drew (“Candy Blue”) Brooks, boss of
the Vice Lords; “Now when a dude
makes that kind of charge, he is brought
before the leaders. Now the rumor man
has to validate his stories.” Finally, a
drive was organized by the leaders to
dispose of all “shanks" (knives). “What
we have here now,” Earl Moore said,
“is a sort of United Nations to settle dis
agreements. The U.N. folks have their
salt talks; we have our shank talks.”
The leaders were not eager to re
linquish all organizational individuality,
and Petrilli was reluctant to press too
hard. Members continue to give gang
salutes. “The guys still identify as mem
bers," admitted Rudy, “but it's more like
belonging to a political party.”
Despite all the talk about detente,
things are not settled at Pontiac. No one
has yet been charged in the knifings dur
ing the mess-hall scrape, and between
25 and 30 cons believed to have been
most involved are still isolated in a spe
cial cell unit. Petrilli has long been crit
icized by guards and others for work
ing with the gangs instead of trying to
break them up. But, he argues, “the
gangs didn’t form here. The men have
their own leadership—they came in
with it.” He is still committed to the del
icate task of trying to use that struc
ture to restore peace at Pontiac.
39
in an accurate bit of doggerel in the Je
suit weekly America: “There are Jesu
its left and Jesuits right/ A pro and con
for most any fight/ So wherever you
stand, you stand not alone:/ Every lit
tle movement has a Jebbie of its own.”
It is an odd position, almost a pub
lic embarrassment, for an order of such
traditional rigidity—“the long black
line”—to play out its differences before
the world. Older Jesuits feel lost in a
dangerous indiscipline; the younger
members sense themselves on a ragged
edge of change. The clenched dictum
promulgated in Jesuit schools, Age
quod agis (Do what you are doing) be
gins to seem like a narrow tunnel vi
sion, tempting sidelong glances at the
confusing larger world.
Departures. As with the church,
the current Jesuit controversy has been
simmering for years, but it came to a
boil as the Second Vatican Council
drew to a close. The society’s superior
L°eneral, John Baptist Janssens, died, and
’he order convened in 1965 one of its
rare “general congregations,” both to
elect a successor and adjust its ways to
the council’s rapprochement with the
modern world. Jesuit superiors and pro
vincial representatives from around the
world converged on Rome. The man
they elected as the society’s 28th gen
eral (to serve, like the Pope, for life)
was a career missionary named Pedro
Arrupe, the first Basque to head the or
der since Ignatius himself. Something
of a mystic, also like Ignatius, Arrupe,
now 65, presides over the troubled or
der today with disarming calm and good
cheer.
He needs it. The Jesuits are al
ready a smaller order than the one Arru
pe took over in 1965. Though still the
largest religious order in the Roman
Catholic Church, they have suffered
the same kind of attrition that has affected other groups of priests and
^nuns. There were 36,000 Jesuit
priests, brothers and scholastics
in 1966, but by the end of 1972
there were fewer than 31,000.
Some of the lost numbers are
men abandoning the order—so
many in recent years that the
newspaper of the society’s Or
egon province has a feature head
lined DEATHS—LEAVES—DEPAR
TURES. The emigrants are not
merely from the ranks, either.
U.S. Jesuits who have left have
included such eminent names as
Theologian Bernard Cooke,
Maryland Provincial Edward
Sponga and former Woodstock
College Rector Felix Cardegna.
In addition, the number of new
recruits has plunged, especially
in developed countries. The U.S.
—the society’s largest national
community with 6,600 Jesuits
—used to get some 350 novices
each year; now it is down to
fewer than 100.
“The Jesuits are in crisis be
cause we are in a world of criTIME, APRIL 23,1973
sis,” says Father John Blewett, who ad
vises Arrupe on educational matters.
Indian Jesuit Herbert de Souza observes
that Jesuits react to the crisis in one of
two ways: “Some of us become numbed
while others overreact. There will be a
split among thinking men, especially de
voted thinking men, in a crisis situation.
They will often clash head-on because
of a common devotion.” Arrupe pre
sides over a sometimes chaotic variety
of individuals, whose special Jesuit in
tensity, a quality of the breed, often
gives them individualistic interpreta
tions of the society's slogan. Ad maiorFATHER NICK WEBER IN CIRCUS ACT
ENGLISH JESUIT MISSIONARY IN RHODESIA
em Dei gloriam (To the greater glory
of God). Some examples:
► Father Robert Drinan, onetime
dean of the law school at the Jesuits'
Boston College, is now a Democratic
Congressman from Massachusetts'
Third District with a 100% A.D.A. rat
ing. He has irritated conservative Cath
olics with his stand on the Viet Nam
War (vehemently opposed), tax credits
for parochial schools (opposed), and
abortion laws (opposed because he feels
abortion is a moral, not a legal issue).
Philadelphia's John Cardinal Krol has
stated publicly that Drinan should re
sign from Congress.
► Another Jesuit, the Rev. John Mc
Laughlin. joined the White House staff
in 1971 as a speechwriter for President
Richard Nixon. A former associate ed
itor of America magazine and a defeat
ed antiwar Republican candidate for
the Senate from Rhode Island in 1970,
McLaughlin became a vocal supporter
of Nixon's Viet Nam strategy. This has
prompted Jesuit William Van Etten Ca
sey of Massachusetts' College of the
Holy Cross to call him “a Judas."
► Father Daniel Berrigan, S.J.
(Time cover, Jan. 25, 1971), convicted
of destroying draft records, led the FBI
on a merry chase up and down the East
ern seaboard, finally to be carted off.
smiling, by two stern-faced agents. He
was paroled from prison last year after
serving 18 months.
► Shortly after Philippines Presi
dent Ferdinand Marcos declared mar
tial law last September, American Je
suit Vincent Cullen was clapped into
jail. The reason: Cullen was a social ac
tion director on the island of Minda
nao, where his labors on behalf of mi
norities and poor farmers in a land
dispute provoked the wrath of local of
ficials. Now Cullen has been released,
but is under the custody of the Phil
ippines provincial. While Cullen chafes,
a fellow Jesuit, Father James Donelan,
regularly offers Mass at Marcos’ Malacanang Palace, and other Jesuits have
given retreats for the President.
Witness to the Apocalypse
IS face is thinner than that of the order’s founder, but his
high, broad forehead and strong nose bear the same
Basque imprint. It is an open face, quick to smile. “He is op
timistic by disease," says one colleague. But the Very Rev.
Pedro Arrupe has reason to be optimistic. He is a survivor of
a cataclysm next to which the problems of his Jesuits must in
stantly pale. As rector of a Jesuit novitiate in wartime Japan,
he was in Nagatsuka, a suburb of Hiroshima, on Aug. 6,
1945, when the atomic bomb struck. “Arrupe," says a Jesuit
associate, “has seen the Apocalypse.”
Arrupe started toward that rendez
vous in Hiroshima some two decades ear
lier in Madrid, where he had gone to study
medicine. The only son among five chil
dren of a wealthy architect and newspa
per publisher, he had grown up in com
fort in the Basque city of Bilbao. The
slums of Madrid shocked him: “1 found
terrible suffering—widows with children
begging for bread, sick people begging
for medicine, waifs running through the
streets like stray dogs."
The daily visits to the slums pricked
Arrupe's conscience. "I began asking,
‘Why did I come into this world?’ ’’ he
later wrote. He made a pilgrimage to
Lourdes, where he witnessed what he was
certain were three miraculous healings.
“I felt that God was calling me not only
to cure bodies but also to cure souls." In
1927. at the age of 19. he entered the
Jesuit novitiate at Loyola.
When the new, anticlerical Republi
can government expelled Spanish Jesuits
in 1932, Arrupe finished his studies in
other parts of Europe and the U.S. After
his ordination in 1936, he began to study
psychiatry, but was stopped short by su
periors who were then uneasy about a
marriage between Jesus and Freud. His
new assignment: Japan.
At a mission parish in the western
Honshu city of Yamaguchi, Arrupe be
H
42
► Jesuits are at loggerheads in Lat
in America over a Christian-Marxist
synthesis known as the “theology of lib
eration.” A Chilean Jesuit, 50-year-old
Gonzalo Arroyo, wants to put its prin
ciples into action through a cadre of
Christian Marxists called the “Group
of Eighty” (TIME, June 5). But long
time Political Activist Roger Vekemans, a Belgian Jesuit who has spent
years backing Christian social democ
racy in Latin America (most particu
larly Chile’s former President Frei), de
cries the theology of liberation as
simplistic and totalitarian.
► Young Dutch Jesuits who were
popular student pastors in Amsterdam
created a stir when they married but in
sisted on continuing their ministry. The
controversy has left (he Jesuits in The
Netherlands split fifty-fifty between
sympathy for the student pastors and
sympathy for a growing group of hard
line conservatives.
► In San Diego, Calif., an inner-city^
Jesuit parish called Christ the King be
came an aggressive Japanophile. So well did he learn the lan
guage (one of (he seven he speaks) that he went on to write
eight books in it. He also wrote haiku, studied calligraphy,
practiced the tea ceremony. Once he advertised a “great con
cert” at the church. The musicians proved to be three Je
suits, one of them Arrupe. He still likes to sing Spanish songs
at the top of his lungs in a deep bass.
Arrupe was transferred to Nagatsuka in 1942. When the
bomb fell on Hiroshima, his old medical experience proved
priceless. Disregarding reports of poisonous gases in the ru
ins. he and his fellow Jesuits waded into the smoldering city,
taking victims back to the temporary infirmary they had set
up in the novitiate.
Arrupe stayed in Japan for 27 years;
when the country became a Jesuit prov
ince in 1958, he became its first provin
cial, a post he held until his election as
superior general. He still loves Japan, but
mourns the “brusque change of values"
that brought abortion to “a country that^
loved children so much."
At the Jesuits’ Roman headquarters,
a severe, pnZazzo-like building on Borgo
Santo Spirito, a stone’s throw from St. Pe
ter’s, Arrupe still emulates Japanese
ways. In the tiny private chapel off his
room, he prays, sitting Zen-style on a
cushion, each morning and evening that
he is there. Often he is not. Though pre
vious Jesuit generals stayed close to
Rome, Arrupe has logged 200,000 miles
on more than 30 trips. Says an aide: “His
face lights up when he’s on the road.”
Traveling or at home, Arrupe puts in
an 18- to 20-hour day. But his labors as
superior general can bring criticism from
both sides. Many Jesuits accuse him of
being a second-rate administrator. Con
servatives say that his permissive stan
dards have weakened the order. Liberals
sometimes think that his most daring in
novation has been the automatic Pepsi
machine he installed at the austere Jesuit
headquarters. Through it all, Arrupe pro
ceeds with a deep serenity that his friends
find saintly and his foes infuriating.
TIME, APRIL 23, 1973
came the focus of disputes with the local
bishop when the Jesuits assigned there
twice offered the church as sanctuary
to sailors who refused to board Viet
Nam-bound vessels.
► Within the Pope’s own bailiwick,
a veteran moral philosopher disobeyed
Arrupe. A faculty member of the Je
suits’ prestigious Gregorian Pontifical
University since 1961, Father Jose
Maria Diez-Alegria set off the squab
ble last December by publishing his au
tobiography, 1 Believe in Hope, with
out Jesuit clearance. The book is
sympathetically leftist, and somewhat
candid about priests’ sexual frustra
tions, but what piqued Arrupe was
Diez-Alegria's refusal to submit to
Jesuit censorship before publication.
Arrupe has since suspended the Span
iard from the society for two years. One
important reason for his action: the case
revived talk among a group of conser
vative Jesuits in Spain about starting
separate houses where they could folftw a traditional, disciplined regime.
Rogue. Such conflicts of interest
and direction are not exclusive to the Je
suits; they bother other religious orders
as well. But the Jesuits, almost since
their inception, have been the most dra
matic of the church’s orders. What is
most fascinating about them is their per
ilous attempt to live energetically in the
world without being of it. The risks in
volved in this attempt mark their long
and flamboyant history—a history that
reaches back to a junior officer in a mi
nor battle in a small war in 1521.
He was known at the time as Inigo
de Onaz y Loyola, the last of perhaps
eleven children of a family of lower
Basque nobility. He had left the gloomy
castle of Loyola as a boy, packed off to
one of his father’s noble friends, who
took him to court. He had grown into lit
tle more than an engaging rogue, spend
ing his days in military games or read
ing such popular chivalrous romances
his Amadis of Gaul, his nights pursuing
less noble adventures with local girls.
In the year that Martin Luther stood
before Habsburg Emperor Charles V at
the Diet of Worms, Inigo was fighting
for the Emperor’s borderlands against
the invading French at Pamplona. A
cannonball shattered one of his legs.
During a long, painful convalescence,
he turned out of boredom to two pop
ular inspirational works on the lives of
the saints and the life of Christ, and his
long process of conversion began.
Months later, at the Benedictine abbey
of Montserrat, he exchanged his gen
tleman’s clothes for a rough pilgrim’s
habit and dedicated his sword and dag
ger to the shrine’s famed Black Virgin.
In a little town called Manresa, he
devoted nearly a year to an orgy of aus
terity, begging door to door, wearing a
barbed girdle, fasting for days on end.
For months he endured the terrible de
pressions of the mystic’s dark night of
the soul, even contemplating suicide at
one point. But what followed was the
mystic’s singular reward, an immense
TIME, APRIL 23,1973
breakthrough to enlightenment. In a
wave of ecstatic illumination one day
at the River Cardoner, Inigo became,
in his own words, “another man.”
He entered a Barcelona school to
sit with boys less than half his age to
study Latin, then threw himself into a
dizzying year of courses at the Univer
sity of Alcala. Out of it came Inigo’s
conviction that learning must be orga
nized to be useful. The idea eventually
grew into the Jesuits’ famed ratio stu
diorum (plan of studies), which mea
sured out heavy but manageable doses
of classics, humanities and sciences.
He became such a fervent evangelist
that the Inquisition imprisoned and ex
amined him more than once about his
life, teaching and theology. Perturbed,
he left for Paris, where he spent seven
years at the university, became “Mas
ter Ignatius," and gathered around him
the first of his permanent companions,
among them a young Spanish nobleman
named Francis Xavier.
Ignatius shared with them one of
the most remarkable spiritual guides
ever written—his Spiritual Exercises. A
distillation of Ignatius’ own religious ex
perience during and following his con
version, the Exercises are measured out
prosaically in four flexible “weeks” of
meditation that begin with a week on
Sin. Death, Judgment and Hell, and
move on to Christ’s Life, Passion and
Resurrection. They are the basis of ev
ery Jesuit’s spirituality, returned to for
refreshment through his career.
In the Exercises, Ignatius laid out
paths to spiritual perfection: rigorous
examination of conscience, penance,
and a resolute amnesia about guilt once
God’s forgiveness has been obtained.
Though Ignatius designed the Exercises
for individuals, they were later applied
to the group retreats so vividly recon
structed in James Joyce’s Portrait of the
Artist as a Young Man. A certain vi
olence, even a spiritual terrorism, has
often characterized Jesuit rhetoric. The
young hero of Portrait, Stephen Dedalus, is reduced to horror by the sermon
CHINA MISSIONARY MATTEO RICCI
on hell (“A wave of fire
swept through his body
... flames burst forth
from his skull"), but
after he has gone
to confession, "the
past was past.”
In Paris in 1534
Ignatius and h
friends made their first
vows of poverty and
chastity (Ignatius was or
dained a priest three years
later), but it was not until 1540 that
Pope Paul 111 approved the small band
as a new religious order. As part of the
bargain, they placed themselves at the
express call of the Pope. In Ignatius’
metaphor, they were to be chivalrous
soldiers of Jesus, mobile, versatile, ready
to go anywhere and perform any task
the Pope assigned. As a recognized or
der, they added to their earlier vows the
traditional vow of obedience to their su
periors and a fourth vow expressing
their special fealty to the Pope. They
gave command to a superior general
elected for life. Their choice for the first
general was Ignatius.
The Jesuits rode full gallop into
their new assignments: convert the hea
then, reconvert Protestant Europe.
Francis Xavier hopscotched from In
dia to Southeast Asia to Japan, a coun
try that had never before heard the
Christian message. More than any oth
ers, the Society of Jesus stemmed, and
sometimes reversed, the tide of Protes
tantism in France, the Low Countries
and Central Europe. When Ignatius
died in 1556, his order was nearly 1,000
strong and had dispatched its apostles
to four continents.
The Jesuits rose to eminence in the
two centuries that followed Ignatius'
death. Seeking to be the consciences of
kings, they served as confessors to ev
ery French King from Henry III to
ST. ISAAC JOGUES UNDERGOING TORTURE
The Jesuit Swamis of India
ESPITE their talent as missionaries, the Je
suits have left their imprint most deeply
on the culture of the West. Now, not so much
as missionaries but as citizen Christians, they
are making a mark on a major culture of the
East—that of India. “If India is today in some
degree Christian, it is because of the Jesuits,"
says Father Theo Mathias, S.J., head of the Ro
man Catholic education organization in India.
The 3,100 Jesuits in India constitute the third
largest national contingent in the society after
the U.S. and Spain, and fully 2,600 of them
are native Indians. In 1972 they took in 161
new entrants, almost as many as did Western
Europe, Canada and the U.S. combined. The
De Nobili seminary at Poona is the largest Je
suit “house” in the world. Indian Jesuits are
even sending missionaries to other countries.
The Indian Jesuits still take their cue from
the adaptability of the pioneer missionary, Fa
ther Roberto de Nobili, who adopted the as
cetic life of the Hindu holy men shortly after
he came to India in 1605. The Jesuits reflect
the broad spectrum of the subcontinent’s cul
ture. At Poona, for instance, a group of De No
bili Jesuits are experimenting with an Indianized version of the Mass that incorporates
Indian serving dishes, Indian music, language,
and postures of prayer. Father Matthew Le
derle, a German-born Jesuit who is now an In
dian citizen, directs the serene modern center
of Sneha Sadan in Poona specifically to encour
age an intellectual exchange with the city’s
200,000 Maharashtrian Brahmins. Some De
Nobili seminarians live out in the city’s slums
where they have won the friendship of the poor.
Jesuits are engaged in pressing secular prob
lems. They administer the country’s Roman
Catholic medical network, with its 400 small
hospitals and 600 dispensaries. They run In
D
Louis XV. In 16th and 17th century
China, the great Jesuit missionary Mat
teo Ricci and his successors labored for
decades to impress the Emperor and the
powerful mandarin scholars with their
own impeccable scholarship, eventually
becoming keepers of the imperial cal
endar. But this opportunity to win
China for Christianity was lost when
Rome denied the missionaries’ pleas
that Chinese converts be left undis
turbed in their Confucian reverence for
their ancestors.
Jesuit achievements were as often
secular as spiritual. French Jesuit
Jacques Marquette paddled down the
Mississippi in the first European expe
dition to explore that river. Brother Jiri
Kamel, a Moravian botanist at the Je
suits’ College of Manila in the 17th cen
tury, gave Europe the camellia. A Ger
man mathematician and astronomer of
the Society of Jesus, Christoph Klau,
contributed to the Gregorian calendar
and gave his Latinized name, Clavius,
to a lunar crater that he discovered.
Jesuits used the arts to reach the
consciences of their fashionable audi
ences, and in so doing, made significant
44
dia’s only social sciences institute. But perhaps
the most engaging of the Indian Jesuits are the
handful who have chosen to adopt the life-styles
and manner of Hindu sanyasi—holy men
—while continuing their work as Roman Cath
olic priests. Two such Jesuits are Swami
Amalananda and Swami Animananda, who
work in remote, poor villages in the state of My
sore. The 70-year-old Animananda, whose cho
sen name means “devotee of the small,” turned
sanyasi in 1947. Now he travels by bullock cart
to five small villages talking about religion with
clusters of interested listeners in Hindu tem
ples. Because the villagers are monotheists, Lingayat Hindus who worship the God Shiva, An
imananda preaches “less about Christ and more
about God the Father.”
Swami Amalananda, 54, whose name
means "taking joy in the immaculate,” is build
ing a small stone church at Deshunur in the
style of the Hindu temple, the mandir. But it
will have Stations of the Cross carved into the
outside wail and ten windows symbolizing the
Commandments. Sitting on a small cement plat
form in the holy man’s traditional style, he di£
penses advice to reverent villagers. The advice
is often practical as well as religious, perhaps
warning them about such practices as thatch
ing their cow sheds because of the danger of
fire. He has also started both a savings bank
and a seed bank for the villagers.
The Indian Jesuits are in an enviable po
sition compared with priests elsewhere. The re
ligious man is still hallowed in India; the priest
is still an authority as he was in Europe before
the Industrial Revolution. Because he is expect
ed to be an ascetic, there is little temptation to
become “relevant” by marrying. Eventually, of
course, Indian Jesuits may face the same prob
lems as their colleagues in the West. Already
they are getting fewer novices from the West
ernized parts of the country than from those
that are still underdeveloped.
contributions to opera, drama and bal
let. They produced thousands of plays
in the 17th century, and ballets as well,
many of them to lure the balletomanes
of the French aristocracy. One such bal
let portrayed the triumph of free will
over predestination.
But Jesuits were more than dance
masters; their martyrs died in Japan, in
Elizabethan England, and in North
America, where St. Isaac Jogues was
tomahawked by the Iroquois—and
where the British put prices on Jesuit
heads.
Reductions. Despite their remark
able accomplishments, the Jesuits were
suppressed in 1773 by Pope Clement
XIV, and the order was disbanded for
41 years. The suppression grew out of
a convergence of hatreds. The anticler
ical freethinkers of the Enlightenment
detested the Jesuits. So did Jansenist
Catholics, who adhered to a puritanical
view of man’s depravity. Their most ar
ticulate spokesman was Blaise Pascal,
who, in his eloquently satirical Provin
cial Letters, accused the Jesuits of abet
ting the decay of Christianity by their
lax moral and ascetic teachings. Their
papal loyalty, furthermore, infuriated
believers in the new nationalism. A,
magnanimous missionary project iifl
New Spain—the “Paraguay Reduc
tions”—grew into self-sufficient Indian
strongholds under Jesuit protection, an
gering European colonists who spread
calumnies against the order. Finally, the
Pope bowed to the mounting pressure
of France, Portugal and Spain and de
creed that the Jesuits should disband for
the sake of church harmony.
Some Jesuits found a haven in the
realm of Catherine the Great of Rus
sia, who esteemed Jesuit teaching and
resolved to keep the society's schools
alive. Others functioned as secular cler
gymen, joined other orders or created
ad hoc communities with new names.
When the order was restored by Pope
Pius VII in 1814, there was a cadre of
600 Jesuits to begin again. But so wary
were the Jesuits of earning new criti
cism that their first post-restoration gen
eral, Jan Roothaan, set a pattern for de
fensively prudent administration that
few successors have risen above.
The relative timidity of Jesuit lead
ership in the years since restoration has
TIME, APRIL23,1973
not meant the eclipse of Jesuit accom
plishment. Contemporary Jesuit theo
logians, for instance, helped shape the
Second Vatican Council. Probably the
most eminent Catholic theologian alive
is Germany’s Jesuit Karl Rahner, whose
works have been translated into more
languages (47) than Goethe’s. Canada’s
Bernard J.F. Lonergan has built a for
midable reputation on two brilliant but
difficult works, Insight (1957) and
Method in Theology (1972). A newer
name, at least to Northern Hemisphere
Christians, is Montevideo’s Juan Luis
Segundo, whose theology is just begin
ning to appear in English. The restored
society has also produced the other
kinds of creative minds that distin
guished its earlier eras, including Phi
losopher-Paleontologist Pierre Teilhard
de Chardin and Poet Gerard Manley
Hopkins.
The question troubling Jesuits to
day is not so much what they have done
or can do, but rather who they are or
♦who they should be. Says Father Paul
Reinert, now in his 25th year as pres
ident of the Jesuits’ St. Louis Univer
sity: “I have been a Jesuit since 1927.
Never have 1 engaged in so much in
trospection as I have in the past five
years.” Pedro Arrupe has called anoth
er general congregation to meet in
Rome in 1974 or 1975, at which Jesuit
delegates will decide which directions
they want to explore and which they
need to turn away from.
Ignatius himself once said: “If the
whole society should come to an end, it
would take 15 minutes for me to re
gain my composure.” Such a spirit of
brusque and even self-abnegating util
itarianism now goes against the Jesuits’
institutional traditions. They still oper
ate one of the most prestigious private
ly run school networks in the world,
with 420 high schools and universities
on six continents, including 52 high
schools and 28 colleges in the U.S. Most
♦ of them are urban schools that helped
THE OLD WAY: JESUIT SEMINARIANS IN 1954
form an immigrant Catholic population
into an accomplished class of educated
Catholic professionals.
Today, however, there is some sen
timent that the society should pass on
some of its educational responsibilities
to others and find more urgent work.
In an article urging his fellow Jesuits
to stay “on the ragged edge of nowhere,”
Theologian Joseph Conwell of Wash
ington State’s Gonzaga University sug
gests that educated Catholic laymen
could take over much of the Jesuits’ role
as educators. Arrupe has shown a will
ingness to let a few “good things” die,
notably two of the nation’s five Jesuit
theological schools—one of them the
famed Woodstock College (Time, Jan.
22). Still, it is a'difflcult idea for some
of the world’s best educators to accept.
Values. For the most part, Jesuit
educators and the ten U.S. provincial su
periors think that the educational ef
fort is still worth it. They acknowledge
that there have been changes. The ra
tio studiorum no longer prevails; stu
dents can create their own educational
plan—or chaos—from a smorgasbord
of electives. The old, tough discipline is
gone. The Jesuits themselves, clad in ev
erything from jeans to wide-lapel sports
jackets, often look like older versions
of the students. A generation ago, young
men and women could seldom share the
same campus; now they sleep in the
same dorms, and not always separately.
Even so, the defenders of the new Jesuitcollege style in the U.S. insist that the
schools still offer an atmosphere differ
ent from that of secular campuses. Ex
plains Richard Matre, a layman and
dean of Loyola University of Chicago:
“Our school says to the student that
there are good things and bad things in
the world, that there are real values.”
Jesuit politics have also been chang
ing. An order that seenied predominant
ly conservative two decades ago now
nurtures almost every shade of polit
ical style and ideology. In the 1950s
many Catholics were reading Total Em
pire, written by Edmund Walsh, a
Georgetown political scientist, priest
and, according to Author Richard Rovere, the man who gave Senator Joseph
McCarthy the idea for his anti-Communist campaign. In his book, Walsh
set down moral justifications for a pre
ventive first-strike nuclear attack.
There are still a few Jesuits who per
petuate the Walsh syndrome: Father
Daniel Lyons, columnist and founder
of the right-wing Catholic newspaper
Twin Circle, still hammers away at the
containment theme. But he now has an
articulate group of opponents within
the order. Father Aldon Stevenson, who
recently returned to his post at the Uni
versity of Safi Francisco after a trip into
Mao’s China, cited the Communist Chi
nese as exemplary “anonymous Chris
tians” that Western Christians could
well emulate. “People are valued above
things,” says Stevenson, “and neighbors
love and help each other. There is hope
in abundance, and that is the beginning
of charity.”
Father Arrupe got a heady taste of
both political sides on a visit to the U.S.,
when on the same day he visited Dan
iel Lyons in New York City and Dan
iel Berrigan in Danbury prison. There
are many more in the society who mir
ror the polarization. One of the most se
rious dichotomies that Arrupe must try
to bridge is between those who patrol
the corridors of power, still hoping to in
fluence the conscience of the king, and
those who have chosen to work for the
only remedy they consider effective
—the complete change of society. Many
Third World Jesuits, despairing of a
change of heart by developed nations,
are growing more and more sympathet
ic to the idea of total change. One be
wildered Chilean Jesuit sighs: “We don’t
seem to believe in the same Gospels.”
Peru’s Father Luna Victoria, a prom
inent Latin American Jesuit intellectu
al, hopes for a more evolutionary kind
THE NEW WAY: JESUITS DINING AT WOODSTOCK COLLEGE IN 1971
of change that would fuse the thought ly spiritual, caught up in a renewed in Ignatian spirit. Father Lyndon Farwell,
of Teilhard de Chardin with that of terest in prayer. “We are going back to a recently ordained California Jesuit,
Marx. “It could be done,” he says, “if the Spiritual Exercises in a huge rush,” would in fact like to see the upcoming
we substitute Christian love for Marx he says. “They go around quoting from general congregation focus on that ide
this little black book. They are con al by conducting its meeting as a spir
ist class hatred."
In the U.S., Jesuits seem to tolerate sciously and deliberately spending more itual retreat, with no agenda. It would
a wide diversity of sociopolitical proj time in personal prayer." One quip go be “a great witness to the faith of the Je
ects. In the California province, for in ing around: “Any day now, somebody’s suits—coming together to see what God
stance, a young priest from the Jesuit going to invent the rosary."
wants them to do next. I would like to
School of Theology at Berkeley last
Indeed, though the number of Je see them define the spirit and priorities
summer donned a sports coat and tur suits may have dropped drastically, su of the society, but it should be a re
tleneck, picked up a briefcase, and trav periors round the world widely agree ligious, not a legislative, thing.”
eled into San Francisco, where he coun that the quality of the new recruits is
However they go about it, of course,
sels executives and other personnel in generally better and the number of vo the society will have—as is appropriate
a corporate office. Across the bay, in cations seems to be stabilizing. More to Jesuits—some important this-worldly
East Oakland, two other Jesuits are im over, there remains a special fraternity decisions to make. A number of Jesuits
mersed in work among the city’s many about the Jesuits that smaller numbers within the order and admirers without
minorities: the old, the poor, the
would like to see some way de
black, the brown. They may be
veloped for interested men to
out on the streets by 7 a.m.,
become sort of Jesuit reserve of
checking to see that a wrecker
ficers—taking temporary vows,
has shown up to knock down an
perhaps, for three or five years
unsafe building, or be battling
at a time. There is growing sup
until 3 in the morning at a neigh
port for the order to find a way
borhood meeting.
for dedicated married couples to
At the School of Medicine
affiliate with it, perhaps along^
of the University of California’s
the lines of the successful Jesu
it Volunteer Corps run by the
San Francisco campus, Father
Oregon province, which has
Al Jonsen is analyzing health
some 250 laymen in domestic
policy issues and the moral de
and foreign assignments. Fran
sirability of such technical ad
cois Cardinal Marty, the Arch
vances as the mechanical heart.
bishop of Paris, wants to see Je
From a base in Los Angeles, Fa
suits engaged in resolving the
ther Nick Weber, 33. and two
“metaphysical crisis” in modern
companions carom round the
society. “Jesuits are needed in
country in a battered station
the intellectual world,” he says.
wagon giving performances of
“Alienation is their specialty.”
the Royal Liechtenstein OneSome Jesuits want to discuss is
Quarter-Ring Sidewalk Circus,
sues that are harder to nail down
an amiable blend of circus acts
—a return, for instance, to more
and low-key morality plays.
heroic poverty within the order,
Weber and company live a
a goal Arrupe heartily favors.
frugal, catch-as-catch-can exis
Many Jesuits, including Su
tence, begging meals and a place
perior General Pedro Arrupe,
to sleep wherever they stop. A
would like to see the general
Rochester, N.Y., Jesuit high
congregation put some kind of
school teacher. Father William
cap on the Jesuit gusher, push
S. O’Malley, is in a different kind
ing the very visible turmoil back
of show business: a role in The
underground for a while. It may
Exorcist.
be a vain hope. The Jesuits are
The sexual revolution has
certainly settling back a bit
had a disconcerting effect on the
these days, resting from the
society, probably because Jesu JESUIT PROVINCIALS CONCELEBRATING MASS IN NEW ORLEANS
traumatic departures and heady
its were so ill-prepared for it. “I
The conscience of the king or total change?
changes in the order, but it is
was a scholar-athlete,” says
Robert Blair Kaiser, a journalist and au cannot destroy. “In my work around the far from clear yet whether the Society
of
Jesus
is at the far edge—or merely
thor who studied for ten years as a Je world," says Philip Land, a Jesuit priest
suit in the ’50s. “We were taught to be on the Vatican’s Commission for Jus in the eye—of the storm.
Arrupe, observes Richard Hill of
well-rounded in everything except how tice and Peace, “I run into a network
to relate to women.” As a result of the of our people everywhere, people in the Jesuit School of Theology at Berke
ley, is not a man who takes more than
protective environment, says Presiden whom I have total confidence.”
Many former Jesuits preserve that reasonable risks. But he lets others move
tial Aide John McLaughlin, the newly
freed Jesuit often seemed to be struck kind of family feeling and regard them imaginatively in new directions, then
by “delayed puberty.” In the encounter, selves as Jesuits years after they have defends and protects them. He does
some debarked. Many of those who re left the order, even if they left long be that, suggest some of his fellow Jesuits,
main seem to have resolved the issue. fore ordination. Author George Riemer because he looks to the victory of Res
A remarkable number agree with Arru- (The New Jesuits) studied as a Jesuit urrection where many others are able
pe that the Jesuits should preserve cel for only seven years in the 1940s, but to see only the defeat of Golgotha. In
ibacy as a rule even if—and many of he continued to think of himself as a Je Christian life, however, the two are in
them recommend it—voluntary celiba suit until his death from cancer two extricably joined—and in few places
cy is instituted for diocesan priests.
weeks ago. “When I’m confronted with more than in the Society of Jesus. As
Despite the considerable criticisms my own death,” he said a few days be long as he is the Jesuit general, Pedro
of some older Jesuits, Father Richard fore he died, “I believe I’m still a Je Arrupe will likely have no real rest: he
Hill, the president of the Jesuit School suit, because the core of the Jesuit is will be defending and protecting the
troubled and sometimes troublesome
of Theology at Berkeley, contends that still the Spiritual Exercises."
many young Jesuits are in fact earnest
Many Jesuits see an instauration of sons of Ignatius long into tomorrow.
46
TIME, APRIL23,1973
Basic Communities
in the Church
Over the last fewfyears, in everycontinent it has
been more or less strongly accepted that basic or
“grass-roots" communities constitute one of the most
characteristic signs of the times. The phenomenon
of grass-roots communities is not primarily an event
confined to the Church. It is a phenomenon belong
ing to the realm of general anthropology and is an
expression of the quest for new relationships between
persons. That the Church feels the effect of these
currents is no matter for surprise; al I the more so
since, throughout the centuries, she has been more or
less happy to put forward the ideal of the communi
ties of the Acts of the Apostles. There are many
Christians who feel themselves crushed by church
structures both on the plane of ideology and that of
organization. The feeling of'powerlesness in face
of these structures is all the stronger since the
arousal of high hopes by Vatican II. The aspirations
after a ‘fraternal faitlj' bearing witness to its credibi
lity by the way it is lived in a group becomes a
necessity for many people.
The following document is based on a study
which appeared in "Blueprint" (May 1977).
We
reproduce it here in.an abridged and edited form.
AICUF Documentation Service
AICUF House,
125, Sterling Road, Madras-600 034.
1980/No. 2
COMMUNITY HEALTH CELL
326, V Main, I Block
Koramangala
Bangalore-560034
j,.
. n
.
^Historical Perspectives
lndia
In every country in every continent church leaders are
faced with the problem of the future of the "paiish” or
"mission” of the traditional type.
There was a line of continuity between the little domestic
•communities of the first centuries, numbering 20-60
•Christians, and the diocese-parish of small towns or rural
parishes which were "founded" by princes, feudal lords,
abbeys or chapters, and rarely comprised more than 300
members.
But a change took place when towns became
commercial centres of ever increasing importance, and the
clergy an "estate", more and more distinct and set apart
from the people, exercising power by virtue of its monopoly
■of education, its authority in the sphere of the sacred, its
-civil functions and its concentrated accumulation of
financial resources.
It was a slow change, but one which gradually spread
•everywhere. At first it came about as the result of mutations
in Church and society at the time of the Reformation and the
^cqunter-ReformatiOn.
(These mutations were largely an
•expression of the deep malaise caused by an estrangement
between laity and clergy, by urbanization, and by the then
developing scientific outlook of the relations between man
and nature). But this change subsequently led to important
shifts in the structure of society Church and State became
more and more separate from each other, parish and
commune became more and more differentiated. Finally the
medieval structure of the parish was confronted with the
kgreat uroanization of the 19th and 20th centuries, which saw
* the movement of enormous masses of people, resulting in a
megaloplis of 9 - 10 millions.
This does not mean that the parish lost its raison d'etre,
but rather that a fundamental reorientation became necessary.
It is true that serious efforts were made to improve contact
between clergy and laity, between church and society;
catholic Action movements of a general or more specialized
nature, liturgical renewal (still very timid when looked at
from this distance, but at the beginning quite revolutionary
for public opinion), the discovery of the values of married
life, the experience of priest-workers, a theology of terrest
3
rial realities, all these were so many attempts at opening up*
the way. Backed up by monumental efforts at a renewed:
theology (J. A. Mohler, E. Mersch, H. de Lubac, Y. Congar,
K. Rahner), in the years 1930-1950 they prepared the way for
the inspiration of the Council. Al I this however could not
slow town the inexorable process described by many authors
as the disappearance of authentic community life. The parish
was still too far removed from the life of the average man,
too sacralized, too clerical, too vast. It afforded insuffici
ent scope to those at grass-roots level who felt truly
concerned to exercise creative activity, spontaneity ar
coresponsibility.
A turning point in the west and in
of the third world
the
Church
It really seems that a turning point has been reached
both in the West and in the Church of the Third World but
most of all in Latin America and in Africa. Mgr. Matagrin.
thus describes this turning point: "What is happening is a
revolution in the Copernican sense of the term, a complete
reversal, corresponding to the theological definition of the
Church as the People of God: a switch from a Church resting
on the point of a pyramid, in the person of bishop or priest,
to a church resting on the base, the community of the
baptised. This is to be connected with what we have said
about the need for remaking a fabric of interwoven
communities by increasing the number of groups, teams, and '
communities. It involves substituting for the scheme of a
Church that emphasized the vertical relation of each one to
the priest, considered as the sole person responsible, the
idea of a Church made up of Christians who feel themselves A)
jointly responsible within groups, teams, anti communities,
on .the basis of their common faith, and who are anxious to
be corresponsible for the life and mission of the Church.
The phenomenon of Grassroots communities belong
to the realm of general Anthropology.
The phenomenon of grass-roots communities is not
primarily an event confined to the Church.- It is a’phenomenon belonging to the realm of general anthropology and is
4
■an expression of the quest for new relationships between
'Persons. There appear to be three determining factors in the
sudden flowering of a variety of grass-roots groups, small
■communities, non-official groupings, etc.
1.
There is first of all the increasing pressure from social
structures, which limits the liberty of the individual as well
as his interpersonal relationships.
2.
An important factor in t’he process of alienation is the
weakening of intermediate groups.within society. The family
| finds itself forced to abandon a great number of its functions
to society, the mass media, and organised leisure.
Big
•organisatons of a professional, cultural or political order,
enterprises and universities-not to mention trade unions and
the Churches - often afford but little room for community
experiences: relations between individuals are often of too
short a duration, too functional, too free, perhaps too un
committed.
3.
Man s deeper needs on both the affective and the
ideological plane require social structures on a smaller scale
and of greater variety. Psychology and pedagogy have laid
bare these often repressed needs and encouraged man to be
come more free and creative,but,by the same token,havs ren
dered him more vulnerable in the face of conflict and frustra
tion. The tension between his conscience and his personal
convictions on the one hand and the need for social recogni
tion on the other have led him to look for new ways of being
integrated into society which will guarantee him a minimum.
of personal harmony and al low him to be recognized and
recognizable in his “otherness" at the social level: "the
homeless mind” (Peter Berger) wants partners to share its
ideology within a world of different fundamental options.
Charismatic gro'ups and religious "sects“of all oorts provide
to some degree at least, an answer to these needs. Due
to thses factors, attempts to form limited groups have the
following characteristics:
an aspiration after security, in a group aiming to live
according to one and the same scale of values and offering
a guarantee of authenticity in relationships within and comm
itment outside:
5
- a protest against the inhuman character of many social*
strutures and the scale of values on which these structures•est;
-an ideal type of small-scale society really capable of
replacing a society which has fallen a prey to gigantism.
Basic communites in the Church
That the Church feels the effect of these currents is no
matter for surprise; all the more so since, throughout the JKi
centuries, she has been more or less happy to put forward w
the ideal of the communities of the Acts of the Apostles.
There are many Christians who feel themselves crushed by
church structures both on the plane of ideology and that of
organization, : strong organization, stress on the power of
the hierarchy and the ministry, maintenance of ways of. life
and standards which are outdated,etc. The feeling of power
lessness in face of these structures is all the stronger since
the arousal of high hopes by Vatican II. With the growth of
a certain sense of marginalization among the poor, the young
and the intellectuals (who incidentally have progressively less
connection with the high-income groups ), this feeling
has increased.
In the Church, too, intermediate structures, parishes as well
as organizations, are in a state of crisis. Final ly, account must
be taken of the fact that the faith of the modern Christian has
become more vulnerable; in a pluralistic society the faith,
less protected than before, is being continuously called into"
question. The aspiration after a "fraternal faith" be aring
witness to its credibility by the way it is lived in a group,
becomes a necessity for many people.
Characteristic of most, though not all, of the groups
within the Church are the following features :
1.
Grass-roots communities start at ground level, more
or less spontaneously, as the result of a number of men
and women feeling a need to share their faith, thejr
commitment, and their researches, sometimes to the point
6
of being willing to live in community. They are different
from parishes and Catholic Action groups of former times in
so far as they are built up from below, though they may well
be encouraged by the institutional church, as is the case with
many basic communities in South America and Africa. Where
that is not the case these groups generally have a position
of their own vis-a-vis the official Church: Sometimes they
tend to chailenge it, sometimes they are simply parallel to
it, sometimes they are very marginal to it.
2.
Many people join a group because they need to meet
other people, to establish human relationships, and such
<ajnersons give importance to the more affective aspects (toge
therness); traditional roles'are blurred; few formal leaders,
more group responsibility. The essential thing is the experi
ence of being brothers and sisters and partners. Natural
leadership, which crops up spontaneously in most groups, is
balanced as far as possible, in the most healthy groups, by
new modes of influencing people andsharing out the various
tasks.
3.
Al I are anxious to arrive once more, by some new road
at an authentic community of faith after the model of Jesus
and his disciples. Even if the Eucharist is not celebrated
regularly it is always of central significance for the group:
when this significance is lost an ecclesial grass-roots group
easily develops into a basic community that is purely secu
lar and political in aim. Most communities try to take up a
new position vis a-vis man's classic idols; possessions,
power, and sexuality. But the actual way in which they
ezpres their liberating criticism concerning these idols varies
greatly from group to group.
4.
For the majority of these communities a life accord
ing to the Gospel has no meaning if it is not related to the
needs and problems of man today, in a context that is real.
The importance attributed to an exemplary personal life
along the lines emphasized in days gone by is increasingly tra
nsferred to the giving of witness through committed life in a
group or else the important thing is the community’s own
witness,; sharing in a man’s adventure as he creates and suf
fers working for the. liberation of new humanity and here
what counts is the liberating of the other person, not one's
own personal perfection. The ascetical practice and mystique
of these groups are profoundly different from those held in
honour 25 years ago .
5.
It is noticeable that many groups are formed around
one'or more personalities of the charismatic type, but the
latter are far less "founders" in the old sense than interpreter.sljof a group process : through them the groups sometimes
stress conversion to a more interior life,
sometimes
conversion to social and political commitment, sometimes
both.
6.
There is a great variety among the groups
very difficult to reduce them to any one type.
and it is
- They differ greatly in their composition, the number of
members, social backmund, predominant characteristic (lay,^f^
clerical, religious), origin, race, etc.
- They also differ as to the frequency of their meetings,
the intensity ot their community life (for example, occasio
nal help, regular mutual help, sharing of income arid manage
ment), and their will to continue.
- There is great variety in their.aims, the stress they put
on the life of faith and Iiturgy, on social and political com
mitment, on training, etc.
- As regards their attitude towards the official Church
the position of the groups varies from total indifference to
the closest possible attachment.
the entirprHfpen-faii'embraCJn9'' communities which 'affect
touch hut nn! °ftth8 fm®mbers and ‘here are others which
touch but onesector of their members' Iiffe
. . .
area1 soHXSndbie|n°W'aSJl was durin9 other periods ofW
of the directing K-Lg,°US de.ve|oPments, to get a clear view
woufd seem that off m-a7’Sic!ed Phenomenon is taking. It
given to divers^i °^^aXXtfts:nCreaSingly
The Case of Latin America
’icit^^SoS^^’^nner^ that the most exp==
given to grass-roots communities
8
as an ecclesial phenomenon. Many reports by bishops frbrh
Latin America during the 1974 Roman Synod afford proof of
this. ]n his ''general survey of evangelization", Mgr. Pironio characterized "basic ecclesial communities or groups''
as''the primary cells of the entire ecclesial edifice, centres
of evangelization and the most important factor for human
development". "Their formation" he added, "calls for the
presence of ministers of the word and of the Eucharist
coming from the ranks of these same communities for the
accomplishment of their purpose.
Description and Origin of Basic Communities in
Latin America
The evolution giving rise to basic communities must be
put into the context of the pastoral trends that marked the
post-conciliar period. Let us here distinguish three funda
mental features. Upto Vatican II, the attention of the Church
focussed mostly on teaching, preaching, and apostolic move
ments. The council reawakened awareness in the Church of
its social .nission, promoting in particular more rapid and
more just development. Social and economic analysis made
from this point of view aroused in many the desire to turn the
Church into a kind of pressure group, taking its inspiration
from the theology of liberation. Many realised that the
Church had to free itself from long-standing collusion with
economic and political groups in power, which were an
obstacle to or a brake on real liberation of the people.
Naturally, the reaction of political systems has been one of
mistrust and often even a resort to repressive measures,
amounting to persecution. Open-minded church leaders have
felt it necessary to make special efforts to call upon the
"grassroots”, which stil I lacked motivation and often had
become fatalistic, inviting them to take part in a process of
liberation likely to result in real community.
A new pastoral aim was born out of the two features just
emphasized: the social process of making people aware had
to be combined with the people's profoundly religious senti
ments; there had, to be a creative synthesis of the people’s
religion and the theology of liberation. The place, then, for
achieving such a synthesis with nothing artificial about it and
for starting an evolution with an organic rythm of its own, is
the grass-roots community. There, plans for development and
plans for evangelization are not made for the people, but
9
rather by the people themselves, starting from the people,
with leaders of their own, in accordance with their own.
rythm of growth and respecting their own cultural values.
A long road has to be travelled before this result is achieved
and all illusion has to be guarded against.
Many Christians understood that their commitment in the
world and their life of faith had to develop simultaneously
and that old ideas on a dualistic conception of the relations
between Church and world had to be got rid of. The ground
was, then, relatively well prepared for a gradual acceptance
of Vatican II doctrine concerning a non-pyramidal, non
clerical Church (Lumen Gentium) and a world marked by
justice and progress ( Gaudium et spes). The resolve to
endow the Church with a more specifically South American
character through closer contact with the people, and there
fore with the poor, became increasingly clear-cut. The value
of cultures and communities of Indian origin received greater
acceptance. At the same time the great lack of priests in the
countryside and the demographic explosion in the towns led
to ever greater number of believers meeting together to form
grass-roots communities of a size appropriate for face-to-face
relationships, organic in character and as far as possible
capable of being self-supporting.
Most of the.basic communities in Latin America are to be
found in country parts and on the outskirts of big towns. In
the towns basic communities’ cater for groups which are
homogeneous in their way of life.. Most basic communities
are run by lay people, assisted by a priest, who devotes
himself to animating several communities. Basic communi
ties are found, tor most part, at the poorest levels of
society; the middle classes hold back from them and the rich
have practically nothing to do with the movement. When
basic communities meet, most of the time is given to the
liturgy of the Word, to community prayer and to mutual
help. In some basic communities a whole year may pass
before the Eucharist is celebrated. Though basic communi
ties have a social commitment, they do not for all that
follow any definite political option.
However through a
a process bf conscientization they lead their members to
commit themselves on the political or social level -- not
however, in the name of the basic communities, but for
personal reasons inspired by the faith. In ever-increasing
numbers they are beginning to have the sacraments (baptism
marriage, penance) celebrated within the community.
10
COMMUNITY HEALTH CELL
326, V Main, I Block
Koramongala
Bangalore-560034
I
j
India
CHRISTIAN PARTICIPATION IN POLITICS
"The Church praises and esteems those who devote
themselves to the public good for the service of men and
take upon themselves the burdens of public office....
Christians must be conscious of their specific and proper
role in the political community : they should be a shining
example by their sense of responsibility and their dedication
to the common good; they should show in practice how
authority can be reconciled with freedom, personal initiative
and with the solidarity and the needs of the whole social
framework and the advantages of unity with profitable
diversity. They should recognise the legitimacy of differing
points of view about the organisation of worldly affairs and
show respect for their fellow citizens, who even in association
defend their opinions by legitimate means. Political parties,
for their part, must support whatever in their opinion is
conducive to the common good, but must never put their
own interests before the common good.
So that all citizens will be able to play their part in political
affairs, civil and political education is vitally necessary for
the population as a whole and for young people in particular,
and must be diligently attended to. Those with a talent for the
difficult yet noble art of politics, or whose talents in this
matter can be developed, should prepare themselves for it,
and forgetting their own convenience and material interests,
they should engage in political activity. They must combat
injustice and oppression, arbitrary domination and intolerance
by individuals or political parties, and they must do so with
integrity and wisdom. They must dedicate themselves to the
welfare of all in a spirit of sincerity and fairness, of love and
of the courage demanded by political life".
—Second Vatican Council, The Church in the Modern World, art. 75
CBCI Centre
Easter 1981
Pope John Paul II
On the 3rd of March 1981 met a spirituality
group of French Members of Parliament, who had
come to the Vatican to return the visit paid by the
Pope to France last June. This "spirituality group"
was set up within the French Parliament in 1946 to
allow members to meet for common prayer and a
deepening of faith. The group was led by the
President of the French Senate, Alan Poher.
The Holy Father delivered the following address.
0
Mr President.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let me thank you in the first place for the sentiments of
respect and confidence that you have just expressed to me
with such delicacy on behalf of all the participants, and also
for the brief introduction you made of your distinguished
group. I deeply appreciate the fact that you have come in
such large numbers as pilgrims to Rome and to visit the
Pope.
An unusual group
1.
Your assembly offers an unusual characteristic. You
assume or have assumed high functions, serious responsibili
ties—particularly of a legislative nature, in the service of.
your country, within the Chamber of Deputies, the Senate,
the economic and social Council, and other authorities.
Sharing the same Catholic faith, you meet in this "spirituality
group" to deepen this faith and be better inspired by it in
your lives as politicians.
A
I am happy to know the special events that mark the
life of your group: the evenings of meditation and discus
sion, round the Word of God or the great documents of the
Magisterium, and festimonies about the major problems of
the Church; Eucharistic celebrations and, among others, the
more solemn re-opening Mass with the Archbishop of Paris;
the pilgrimages in which you participate; your annual retreat:
these longer moments of contemplation are necessary for you
to rediscover your Christian identity in depth and set yourselves in God's plan which secularized society blurs. I hope
that your other Catholic colleagues of the parliamentary
Assemblies, especially the young, have ample access, like
yourselves, to these activities, and feel at home in them. Is it
necessary to add that they will bear all the more fruit if they
correspond to a regular commitment ? I also congratulate
the priests who assist you.
Certainly, your multiple responsibilities impose a very
intense rhythm of work on you and, on the ecclesial level,
you also have your place to fill in your usual Christian com
munities, parishes or other associations. But since you have
3
a specific field of action, it is natural that you should also
have a place for Christian reflection at this level. And I now
come to what characterizes you.
Right to dialogue
2. I myself receive here, as you know, the most
diverse groups. Meetings with politicians of all horizons are
among them. I consider, in fact, that they have the right to
a special dialogue with the Church, in view of their heavy
responsibilities: it is in the interest of their lives as believers
for those who, like you, present themselves as such; and for
all, it can be fruitful for the quality of their service in national
and international society. Pastors have to listen to them
in order to grasp better the complexity of their problems, and
also to bear witness to the light and power of the Gospel
before them.
As regards you, the office of Member of Parliament,
among the institutions of a democratic regime, remains a key
office to ensure the smooth operation of social life and
management of national affairs, in a loyal atmosphere of free
discussion permitting those who have been elected to this
noble task to offer their cooperation, their opinions and
decisions with a great sense of responsibility. I know that
you often have other local duties as well, but the former, on
the national plane, seems to have a priority demand on your
studies, your competence and your presence. For the least
texts of laws deserve the greatest vigilance, wisdom and
equity, and at every stage of their elaboration: preparation
in commissions, proposals, introduction of amendments,
debate and vote. The common good of the whole nation is
at stake, and repercussions, in the short run or in the long
run, will be of great weight, whether it is a question of a fair
distribution of advantages or of burdens, of educational
projects, or of morals themselves for everything that concerns
moral conduct: as you can see for yourselves, what is
permitted legally while being morally evil, soon leads to a
confusion in consciences and a degradation of morals. I
hope that you will always merit the esteem and gratitude of
your fellow countrymen for the accomplishment of this
highly qualified service whose importance I was anxious to
stress, and I pray to God to assist you in it.
4
Witnessing to the primacy of spiritual values
3.
And when you meet at the level of this spirituality
group, with an animator, what do you seek ? You do not
generally envisage a concrete answer to the precise ques
tions raised by your political discussions, all the more so in
that you have chosen to belong to different political parties,
according to a legitimate pluralism, in a democracy. But
above all, you strengthen your Christian being which will
enable you to act as Christians; and the fact of sharing a
certain spirituality is already an important witness in a
society in which oppositions tend to harden and to be
transposed to the whole of life. In this way you show that
your personal political opinions, or those of your party—for
party discipline can never dispense one from acting
personally according to conscience—are not the whole of
your life, are not its last word; that beyond these party
choices, there is your life of faith properly speaking, your
common membership of the Church. There is Christ towards
whom you all turn to receive the Life of God from him; there
is his Word and the sacraments upon which you all draw;
there is prayer in which your common divine sonship and
your deep brotherhood is expressed; there is the same
doctrine of the Church which structures your faith; there is
the cordial and warm exchange between brothers and the
witness you bear together to the primacy of spiritual values
and charity. This ecclesial experience unites in what is
fundamental, as, moreover, in many other ecclesial move
ments and places where people of different horizons respect
one another, draw nearer and fraternize.
Judging with an enlightened conscience
4.
But I think that beyond this spiritual communion,
you can also strengthen your convictions on essential ethical
points which will enable you to pass judgments and direct
your action according to an enlightened and upright
conscience. That is, furthermore, the problem of every
person and of every Christian, whatever the field of his
activity may be.
Certainly, outside the points manifestly and directly re
quired by the moral order (cf. Const. Gaudium et Spes, n.
5
74, par. 4), faith does not determine, in an indisputable way,
the concrete attitude that should be adopted with regard to
individual situations or political projects, for many elementsare involved which belong to another order than that of faith
and which call for prudence, to the extent that one can
speak of a legitimate autonomy of politics. But, in order to
weigh his political decisions, every Christian must take into
consideration not only the inviolable imperatives of funda
mental morality, which every person or every public authority
must take into account, but also a certain number of goals
which are an integral part of the Gospel or which are consis
tent with it. For if the Gospel does not have the monopoly
of these attitudes common to believers and to men of good
will, it sharpens their requirements and gives them a deeper
and renewed meaning. Is that not the whole meaning of
the conciliar Constitution on the Church in the modern world
and of the documents that have extended it?
Serving mankind
5.
Allow me to mention some examples.
In the first place, the Christian sees his political role as
a service of men and a rigorous pursuit of the social con
ditions of their development in all respects: la service which
has very evangelical echoes of unselfishness, loyalty,
justice, lucidity and charitable attention to persons and
situations.
To serve man is to consider all "the dignity of the
human being, understood in his integrity, and not reduced
to a single dimension"; it is, therefore, to consider all his in
alienable rights, which I recalled before the United Nations
Assembly (2 October 1979, n. 13). Respect for human life,
at all the stages of its development, is the first of these
rights, and therefore the first of the duties of citizens as a
whole, and particularly of those who have legislative res
ponsibilities.
To serve society is to promote ardently the sense of
the common good, the good of the whole nation, of the
whole people; it is to ensure that the selfish action of in
dividuals and particular groups, harmful to the interests of
6
■others, will be overcome. But at the same time it is to pre
vent rightful freedom from being stifled, it is to prevent the
transcendence of the person, who, for Christian faith, is
never a means, but an end, from ever being sacrificed.
As the recent Synod stressed once more, the Christian
gives special attention to the family, which is the primary and
fundamental cell of society and which must find the maxi
mum protection and assistance in laws; he also relies on the
contribution of intermediary bodies.
The Christian considers it an essential duty to safegu
ard and promote the conditions of moral and spiritual educ
ation: how can we fail to recall it when a purely material
istic and hedonistic view of life is emphasized, when the
■reasons for living are dimmed?
Social inequalities worry the Christian particularly, and
especially the fate of those whose conditions of housing,
wages, work, or unfortunately unemployment, do not permit
a decent life, and cause serious damage to family life; and
like-wise the precarious situation of the handicapped and of
immigrants.
On the other hand the Christian refuses to confine him
self to the problems, even acute ones, of his own environ
ment or country, for he feels united in solidarity with the
underprivileged countries, the innumerable masses that do
not have the bare necessities of food, medical care and free
dom. He will not accept anything that may foster or fan,
directly or indirectly, oppositions and wars, even if it rs in his
interest. He considers with extreme seriousness the threats
of destruction of which I have just spoken at Hiroshima.
Positively, he tries to direct the immense resources of science
and technology towards development, the solution of the
problem of hunger and the progress of health.
Beyond legitimate differences in political means, the
Christian maintains concern for truth and respect for persons.
He counts on the power of reconciliation and on the progress
of unity. He knows that, without love, a civilization goes to
its ruin.
7
I hope and trust, ladies and gentlemen, that these few
Christian principles, which are, moreover, very general ones,
are familiar to you. At least they confirm, as the Second
Vatican Council recalled, that "faith throws a new light on
all things and makes known the full ideal which God has set
for man, thus guiding the mind towards solutions that are
fully human" (Gaudium et Spes, n. 11, par. 1).
I hope that your spirituality group will enable you to
deepen these principles and develop them, so that they will
inspire you more and more when you assume your important
responsibilities, in particular when you work out or vote on
laws in your Assemblies. The witness and activity of
Christians must, in fact, be manifested here in all clearness and
in conformity with the Gospel. My intention was to encour
age you in this, while realizing the complexity of your task.
COMMUNITY HEALTH CELL
326, V Main, I Block
Koramcngala
Bangalore-560034
India
8
Socialism and Man
Che Gyievara
Notes on Man and
Socialism in Cuba
Guevara wrote "Notes for the Study of Man and Socialism in
Cuba" in the form of a letter to Carlos Quijano, editor of Marcha, an
independent radical weekly published in Montevideo, Uruguay. It
bore the dateline "Havana, 1965." In addition to appearing in Marcha,
it was printed by Verde Olivo, the magazine of the Cuban armed
forces. It is translated in full below.
Though belatedly, I am completing these notes in the course of
my trip through Africa, hoping in this way to keep my promise. I
would like to do so by dealing with the theme set forth in the above
title. I think it may be of interest to Uruguayan readers.
*
*
*
A common argument from the mouths of capitalist spokesmen,
in the ideological struggle against socialism, is that socialism, or the'
period of building socialism into which we have entered, is charac
terized by the subordination of the individual to the state. I will
not try to refute this argument solely on theoretical grounds, but I
will try to establish the facts as they exist in Cuba and then add
comments of a general nature. Let me begin by sketching the
history of our revolutionary struggle before and after the taking of
I power :
As is well known, the exact date on which the revolutionary
struggle began—which would culminate January 1st, 1959—was the
26th of July,'1953. A group of men commanded by Fidel Castro
attacked the Moncada barracks in Oriente Province on the morning
of that day. The attack was a failure ; the failure became a
disaster ; and the survivors ended up in prison, beginning the
revolutionary struggle again after they were freed by an amnesty.
In this stage, in which there was only the germ of socialism, man
was the basic factor. We put our trust in him—individual, specific,
3
with a first and last name—and the triumph or failure of the
mission entrusted to him depended on his capacity for action.
Then came the stage of guerrilla struggle.. It developed in two
distinct elements : the people, the still sleeping mass which it was
necessary to mobilize; and its vanguard, the guerrillas, the motor
force of the movement, the generator of revolutionary consciousness
and millitant enthusiasm. - It was this vanguard, this catalyzing
agent, which created the subjective conditions necessary for victory.
Here again, in the course of the process of proletarianizing our
thinking, in this revolution which took place in our habits and our
minds, the individual was the basic factor. Every one of the
fighters of the Sierra Maestra who reached an upper rank in the
revolutionary forces has a record of outstanding deeds to his credit.
They attained their rank on this basis. It was the first heroic period
and in it they contended for the heaviest responsibilities, for the
greatest dangers, with no other satisfaction than fulfilling a duty.
In our work of revolutionary education we frequently return to
this instructive theme. In the attitude of our fighters could be
glimpsed the man of the future.
On other occasions in our history the act of total dedication to
the revolutionary cause was repeated. During the October crisis
and in the days of Hurricane Flora we saw exceptional deeds of
valour and sacrifice performed by an entire people. Finding the
formula to perpetuate this heroic attitude in daily life is, from the
ideological standpoint, one of our fundamental tasks.
In January, 1959, the Revolutionary Government was esta
blished with the participation of various members af the treache
rous bourgeoisie. The existence of the Rebel Army as the basic
factor of force constituted the guarantee of power.
Serious contradictions developed subsequently. In the first
instance, in February, 1959, these were resolved when Fidel Castro
assumed leadership of the government with the post of Prime
Minister. This stage culminated in July of the same year with
the resignation under mass pressure of President Urrutia.
There now appeared in the history of the Cuban Revolution a
force with well-defined characteristics which: would systematically
reappear—the mass.
This many-faceted agency is not, as is claimed, the sum of
units of the self-same type, behaving like a tame flock of sheep,
and reduced, moreover, to that type by the system imposed from
above. It ts true that it follows its leaders, basically Fidel Castro,
without hesitation; but the degree to which he won this trust
corresponds precisely to the degree that he interpreted the people’s
desires and aspirations correctly, and to the degree that he made a
sincre effort to fulfill the promisses he made.
The mass participated in the agrarian reform and in the difficult
task of the administration of state enterprises; it went through the
heroic experience of Playa Giron; it was hardened in the battles
against various bands of bandits- armed by the CIA; it lived through
one of the most important decisions of modern times during the
October crisis; and today it continues to work for the building of
socialism.
Viewed superficially, it might appear that those who speak of the
subordination of the individual to the state are right. The mass
carries out with matchless enthusiasm and discipline the tasks set by
the government, whether economic in character, cultural, defensive,
athletic, or whatever.
The initiative generally comes from Fidel or from the Revolu
tionary High Command, and is explained to the people who adopt
it as theirs. In some cases the party and government utilize a local
experience which may be of general value to the people, and follow
the same procedure.
Nevertheless, the state sometimess makes mistakes. When one
of these mistakes occurs, a decline in collective enthusiasm is
reflected by a resulting quantitative decrease of the contibution of
each individual, each of the elements forming the whole of the
masses. Work is so paralyzed that insignificant quantities are
produced. It is time to make a correction. That is what happened
in March, 1962, as a result of the sectarian policy imposed on the
party by Anibal Escalante.
Clearly this mechanism is not adequate for insuring a succe
ssion of judicious-measures. A more structured connection with the
masses is needed and we must improve it in the course of the next
years. But as far as initiatives originating in the upper strata of the
5
government are concerned, we are presently utilizing the almost
intuitive method of sounding out general reactions to the great
problems we confront.
In this Fidel is a master, whose own special way of fusing
himself with the people can be appreciated only by seeing him in
action. At the great public mass meetings one can observe some
thing like a counterpoint between two musical melodies whose
vibrations provoke still newer notes. Fidel and the mass begin to
vibrate together in a dialogue of growing intensity until they reach
thedimax in an abrupt conclusion culminating in our cry of struggle
and victory.
The difficult thing for someone not living the experience of the
revolution to understand is this close dialectical unity between the
individual and the mass, in which the mass, as an aggregate of
individuals, is interconnected with its leaders.
Some phenomena of this kind can be seen under capitalism,
when politicians capable of mobilizing popular opinion appear, but
these phenomena are not really genuine social movements. (If they
were, it would not be entirely correct to call them capitalist.) These
movements only live as long as the persons who inspire them, or
until the harshness of capitalist society puts an end to the popular
illusions which made them possible.
Under capitalism man is controlled by a pitiless code of laws
which is usually beyond his comprehension, The alienated human
individual, is tied to society in its aggregate by an invisible um
bilical cord—the law of value. It is operative in all aspects of
his life, shaping its course and destiny.
The laws of capitalism, blind and invisible to the majority,
act upon the individual without his thinking about it. He sees
only the vastness of a seemingly infinite horizon before him. That
is painted by capitalist propagandists who purport to draw a lesson
from the example of Rockefeller—whether or not it is true—about
the posibilities of success.
The amount of poverty and suffering required for the emer
gence of a Rockefeller, and the amount of depravity that the
accumulation of a fortune of such magnitude entails, are left out of
the picture, and it is not always possible to make the people in
general see this.
(A discussion of how the workers in the imperialist counttries are
losing the spirit of working-class internationalism due to a certain
degree of complicity in the exploitation of the dependent countries,
and how this weakens the combativity of the masses in the imperialist
countries, would be appropriate here', but that is a theme which goes
beyond the aim of these notes.)
In any case the road to success is pictured as one beset with
perils but which, it would seem, an individual with the proper
Qualities can overcome to attain the goal. The reward is seen in
the distance; the way is lonely. Further on it is a route for wolves;
one can succeed only at the cost of the failure of others.
I would now like to try to define the individual, the actor
in this strange and moving drama of the building of socialism, in
his dual existence as a unique being and as .a member of society.
I think it makes the most sense to recognize his quality of
incompleteness, of being an unfinished product. ‘The sermons of the
past have been transposed to the present in the individual conscious
ness, and a continual labour is necessary to eradicate them. The
process is two-sided : On the one side, society acts through direct
and indirect education; on the other, the individual subjects himself
to a process of conscious self-education.
The new society being formed has to compete fiecely with
the past. The latter makes itself felt in the consciousness in
which the residue of an education systematically oriented towards
isolating the individual still weighs heavily, and also through the
gkery character of the transitional period in which the market rela^t ionships of« the past still persist. The commodity is the economic
cell of capitalist society; so long as it exists its effects will make
themselves felt in the organization of production and, consequently,
in consciousness.
Marx outlined the period of transition as a period which results
from the explosive tranformation of the capitalist system of a country
destroyed by its own contradictions. However in historical reality
we have seen that some countries, which were weak limbs of the tree
of imperialism, were torn off first—a phenomenon forseen by Lenin.
7
In those countries capitalism had developed to a degree suffici
ent to make its effects felt by the people in one way or another ; but
having exhausted all its possibilities, it was not its internal contra
dictions which caused these systems to explode. The struggle for
liberation from a foreign oppressor, the misery caused by external
events like war whose consquences make the privileged classes bear
down more heavily on the oppressed, liberation movements aimed at
the overthrow of neo-colonial regimes—these are the usual factors in
this kind of explosion. Conscious action does the rest.
In these countries a complete education for social labour has
not yet taken place, and wealth is far from being within the reach of^jYp
the masses simply through the process of appropriation. Under
development on the one hand, and the inevitable flight of capital on
the other, make a rapid trar sition impossible without sacrifices.
There remains a long way to go in contructing the economic base,
and the temptation to follow the beaten track of material interest
as the moving lever of accelerated development is very great.
There is the danger that the forest won't be seen for the trees.
Following the will-o’-the-wisp method of achieving socialism with
the help of the dull instruments which link us to capitalism (the
commdity as the economic cell, profitability, individual material
interest as a lever, etc. ) can lead into a blind alley.
Further, yoa get there after having traveled a long distance in
which there were many crossroads and it is hard to figure out just
where it was that you took the wrong turn. The economic founda
tion which has been formed has already done its work of undermi
ning the development of conciousness. To build communism, you
must build new men as well as the new economic base.
Hence it is very important to choose corrrectly the instrument
for mobilising the masses. Basically, this instrument mnst be '
moral in character, without neglecting^ however, a correct-utilization
of the material stimulus—especially of a social character.
As I have already said, in moments of great peril it is easy to
muster a powerful response to moral stimuli ; but for them to retain
their effect requires the development of a consciousness in which
there is a new priority of values. Society as a whole must be con
verted into a gigantic school.
8
In rongh outline this phenomenon is similar to the process by
which capitalist consciousness was formed in its initial epoch.
Capitalism uses force but it also educates the people to its system.
Direct propaganda is carried out by those entrusted with explaning
the inevitability of class society, either through some theory of
divine origin or through a mechanical theory of natural selection.
This lulls the masses since they see themselves as being oppre
ssed by an evil against which it is impossible to struggle. Imme
diately following comes hope of improvement—and in this, capita
lism differed from the preceding caste system which offered no possi
bilities for advancement.
For some people, the ideology of the caste system will remain
in effect : The reward for the obedint after death is to be transpor
ted to some fabulous other-world where, in accordance with the old
belief, good people are rewarded. For other people there is this
innovation : The division of society is predestined, but through
work, in'iative, etc., individuals can rise out of the class to which
they belong.
These two ideologies and the myth of the self-made man have to
be profoundly hypocritical : They consist in self interested demons
trations that the lie of the permanence of class divisions is a truth.
In our'case direct education acquires a much greater impor
tance. The explanation is convincing because it is true ; no sub
terfuge is needed. It is carried on by the state’s educational appa
ratus as a function of general, technical and ideological culture
through such agencies as the Ministry of Education and the party’s
informational apparatus.
Education takes hold of the masses and the new attitude tends
to become a habit; the masses continue to absorb it and to influence
those who have not yet educated themselves. This is the indirect
from of educating the masses, as powerful as the other.
But the process is a concious one ; the individual continually
feels the impact of the new social power and perceives that he does
not entirely measure up to its standards. Under the pressure of
indirect education, he tries to adjust himself to a norm which he
feels is just and which his own lack of development had prevented
him from reaching theretofore. He educates himself.
9
In this period of the building of socialism we can see the new
man being born. His image is not yet completely finished—it never
could be—since the process goes forwarded hand in hand with the
development of new economic forms.
Leaving out of consideration those whose lack of education
makes them take the solitary road toward satisfying their own per
sonal ambitions, their are those, even within this new panorama of a
unified march forward, who have a tendency to remain isolated from
the masses accompanying them. But what, is important is that
everyday men are continuing to acquire more consciousness of the
need for their incorporation into society and, at the same time, of
their importance as the movers of society.
They no longer travel completely alone over trackless routes
toward distant desires. They follow their vanguard, consisting of
. the party, the advanced workers, the advanced men who walk in
unity with the. masses and in close communion with them. The
vanguard has its eyes fixed on the future and its rewards, but this is
not seen as something personal. The reward is the new society in
which men will have attained new features : the society of commu
nist man.
The road is long and full of difficulties. At times we wander
from the path and must turn back ; at other times we go too fast and
separate ourselves from the masses ; on occasions we go too slow
and feel the hot breath of those treading on our heels. In our zeal
as revolutionists we try to move ahead as fast as possible, clearing
the way, but knowing we must draw our sustenance from the mass
and that it can advance more rapidly only if we inspire it by our
example.
The fact that there remains a division into two main groups
(excluding, of course, that minority not participating for one reason
or another in the building of socialism) despite the importance given
to moral stimuli, indicates the relative lack of development of
social con Piousness.
The vanguard group is ideologically more advanced than the
mass ; the latter understands the new values, but not sufficiently.
While among the former there has been a qualitative change which
enables them to make sacrifices to carry out their function as an
10
advance guard, the latter go only half way and must be subjected to
stimuli and pressures of a certain intensity. That is the dictator
ship of the proletariat operating not only on the defeated class but
also on individuals of the victorious class.
All of this means that for total success a series of mechanisms,
of revolutionary institutions, is needed. Fitted into the pattern of
the multitudes marching towards the future is the concept of a
harmonious aggregate of channels, steps, restraints, and smoothly
working mechanisms which would facilitate the advance by ensuring
the efficient selection of those destined to march in the vanguard
which, itself, bestows rewards on those-who fulfill their duties, and
punishments on those who attempt to obstruct the development of
the new society.
This institutionalization of the revolution has not yet been
achieved. We are looking for something which will permit a perfect
identification between the government and the community in its
entirety, something appropriate to the special conditions of the
building of socialism, while avoiding to the maximum degree a
mere transplanting of the commonplaces of bourgeois democracy—
like legislative chambers—into the society in formation.
Some experiments aimed at the gradual development of institu
tionalized forms of the revolution have been made, but without
undue haste. The greatest obstacle has been our fear lest any
appearance of formality might separate us from the masses and from
the individual, might make us lose sight of the ultimate and most
important revolutionary aspiration, which is to see man liberated
from his alienation.
Despite the lack of institutions, which must be corrected
gradually, the masses are now making history as a conscious aggre
gate of individuals-fighting for the same cause. Man under socialism,
despite his apparent standardization, is more complete ; despite the
lack of perfect machinery for it, his opportunities for expressing
himself and making himself felt in the social organism are infinitely
greater.
It is still necessary to strengthen his conscious participation,
individual and collective, in all the mechanisms of management and
production, and to link it to the idea of the need for technical and
11
ideological education, so that he sees how closely interdependent
these processes are and how their advancement is paralell. In this
way he will reach total consciousness of his social function, which is
equivalent to his full realization as a human being, once the chains
of alienation are broken.
This will be translated concretely into the reganing of his true
nature through liberated labor, and the expression of his proper
human condition through culture and art.
In order for hint to develop in the first of the above categories,
labor must acquire a new status. Man dominated by commodity
relationships will cease to exist, and a system will be created which
establishes a quota for the fulfillment of his social duty. The means
of production belong to society, and the machine will merely be the
trench where duty is fulfilled.
Man will begin to see himself mirrored in his work and to
realize his full stature as human being through the object created,
through the work accomplished. Work will no longer entail surren
dering a part of his being in the form of labor-power sold, which no
longer belongs to him, but will represent an emanation of himself
reflecting his contribution to the common life, the fulfillment of his
social duty.
We are doing everything possible to give labour this new status
of social duty and to link it on the one side with the development of
a technology which will create the conditions for geater freedom, and
on the other side with voluntary work based on a Marxist apprecia
tion of the fact that man truly reaches a full human condition when
he produces without being driven by the physical need to sell his
labour as a commodity.
0*^
Of course there are other factors involved even when labour is
voluntary : Man has not transformed all the coercive factors around
him into conditioned reflexes of a social character, and he still pro
duces under the pressures of his society. ( Fidel calls this moral
compulsion. )
Man still needs to undergo a complete spiritual rebirth in his
attitude towards his work, freed from the direct pressure of his social
environment, though linked to it by his new habits. That will be
communism.
12
All that he is doing, however, is attempting to escape. The
law of value is not simply a naked reflection of productive relations :
The monopoly capitalists—even while employing purely empirical
methods—weave around art a complicated web which converts it
into a willing tool. The superstructure of society ordains the type
of art in which the artist has to be educated. Rebels are subdued by
its mechinary and only rare talents may create their own work. The
rest become shameless hacks or are crushed.
A school of artistic “freedom” is created, but its values also
have limits even if they are imperceptible until we come into conflict
with them—that is to say, until the real problem of man and hi?
alienation arises. Meaningless anguish and vulgar amusement thus
become convenient safety valves for human anxiety. The idea of
using art as a weapon of protest is combated.
If one plays by the rules, he gets all the honors—such honors
as a monkey might get for performing pirouettes. The condition that
has been imposed is that one cannot try to escape' from the invisible
cage.
When the revolution took power there was an exodus of those
who had been completely house broken ; the rest—whether they were
revolutionaries or not—saw anew road open to them. Artistic
inquiry experienced a new impulse. The paths, however had already
been more or less laid out and the escapist concept hid itself behind
the word “freedom”. This attitude was often found even among the
revolutionaries themselves, reflecting the bourgeois idealism still in
their consciousness.
In those countries which had gone through a similar process
they tried to combat such tendensies by an exag gerated dogmatism.
General culture was virtually tabooed, and it was declared that the
acme of cultural aspiration was the formally exact representation of
nature. This was later transformed into a mechanical representa
tion of the social reality they wanted to show : the ideal society
almost without conflicts or contradictions which they sought to
create.
Socialism is young and has made errors. Many times revolu
tionaries lack the knowledge and intellectual courage needed to meet
the task of developing the new man with methods different from the
14
conventional ones—and the conventional methods suffer from the
influences of the society which created them.
( Again we raise the theme of the relationship between from and
content. )
Disorientation is widespread, and the problems of material
construction preoccupy us. There are no artists of great authority.
The men of the party must take this task to hand and seek attain
ment of the main goal, the education of the people.
But then they sought simplification. They sought an art that
would be understood by everyone—the kind of “art” functionaries
understand. True artistic values were disregarded, and the problem
of general culture was reduced to taking some things from the socia
list present and some from the dead past (since dead, not dangerous).
Thus Socialist Realism arose upon the foundations of the art of the
last century.
But the realistic art of the nineteenth century is also a class art,
more purely capitalist perhaps than this decadent art of the twentieth
century which reveals the anguish of alienated man. In the field of
culture capitalism has given all that it had to give, and nothing of it
remains but the offensive stench of a decaying corpse, today’s
decadence in art.
Why then should we try to find the only valid prescription for
art in the frozen forms of Socialist Realism ? We cannot counter
pose the concept of Socialist Realism to that of freedom because the
latter does not yet exist and will not exist until the complete develop
ment of the new society. Let us not attempt, from the pontifical
throne of realism-at-any-cost, to condemn all the art forms which
have evolved since the first half of the nineteenth century for we
1 9 would them fall into the Proudhonian mistake of returning to the
past, of putting a straitjacket on the artistic expression of the man
who is being born and is in the process of making himself.
What is needed is the development of an ideological-cultural
mechanism which permits both free inquiry and the uprooting of
the weeds which multiply so easily in the fertile soil of state
subsidies.
In our country we don’t find the error of mechanical realism,
but rather its opposite, and that is so because the need for the crea15
faults. The youth is treated in accordance .the revolution which
education steadily grows more full, and we are i.will sink into a
its integration into the labour force from the beginniirjenemy, will
ship students do physical work during their vacations or 'a.also a
their studying. Work is a reward in some cases, a mea^
education in others, but it is never a punishment. A new generation
is being born.
The party is a vanguard organization. The best workers are
proposed by their fellow workers for admission into it. It is a
minority, but it has great authority because of the quality of its
( } cadres. Our aspiration is that the party will become amass party
but only when the masses have reached the level of the vanguard,
that is, when they are educated for communism.
Our work constantly.aims at this education. The party is the
living example ; its cadres should be teachers of hard -work and
sacrifice. They should lead the masses by their deeds to the comple
tion of the revolutionary task which involves years of hard struggle
against the difficulties of construction, class enemies, the sicknesses
of the past, imperialism.-••
Now, I would like to explain the role played by personality, by
man as the individual leader of the masses which make history.
This has been our experience ; it is not a prescription.
fTk
Fidel gave the revolution its impulse in the first years, and also
its leadership, He always strengthened it ; but there is a good group'
who are developing in the same way as the outstanding leader, and
there is a great mass which follows its leaders because it has faith in
them, and it has faith in them because they have been able to interpret its desires.
This is not a matter of how many pounds of meat one might be
able to eat, nor of how many times a year someone can go to the
beach, nor how many ornaments from abroad you might be able to
buy with present salaries. What is really involved is that the indivi
dual feels more complete, with much more internal richness and nuch
more responsibility.
The individual in our country knows that the illustrious epoch
in which it was determined that he live • is one of sacrifice ; he is
familiar with sacrifice. The first came to know it in the Sierra
17
every one of us must pay his exact quota of sacrifice, conscious that
he will get his reward in the satisfaction of fulfilling a duty, cons
cious that he will advance with-all toward the image of the new man
dimly visible on the horizon. :
Let me attempt some conclusions :
We socialists are freer because we are more complete ; we.are
more complete because we are freer.
The skeleton of our complete freedom is already-formed. The
flesh and the clothing are lacking. We will create them.
Our freedom and its daily maintenance are paid for in blood
and sacrifice.
£
Our sacrifice is conscious : an installment payment on the
freedom that we are building.
The road is long and in part unknown. We understand our
limitations. We will create the man of the twenty-first century—we,
ourselves.
.We will forge ourselves in daily action, creating a new man
with a new technology.
Individual personality plays a role in mobilizing ajd leading
the masses insofar as it embodies the highest virtues and aspirations
of the people and does not wander from the path.
. It is the vanguard group which clears the way, the best among
the good, the party.
The basic clay of our work is the youth. We place our hope in
them and prepare them to take the banner from our hands.
«
»
•
If this inarticulate tetter clarifies anything it has accomplished the
objective which motivated it. I close with our greeting—which is aj^
much of a ritual as a handshake or an "Ave Maria Purissima"—Oir
Country or Death !
20
Th© Bombay
which the fascists
could mot bum?
Introduction
0 \j OW that the communal holocaust which engulfed Bombay
for ten days and nights has subsided, a large number of middle
class and upper class secularists have set out on a one point'
mission: To teach the common people communal peace and har
mony. Scores of meetings and peace marches are being or
ganised, human chains of brotherhood are being formed. Stick
ers, posters, advertisements and even programs on Doordarshan
preach with a sickening monotony the same old hackneyed mes
sages that “We are all brothers and sisters”, “Ram and Rahim
are one”, “We should spread love and not hatred”, “Religion does
not teach us to hate” etc, etc, etc. As far as the masses are
concerned, all this so-called anti-communal propaganda falls on
■ deaf ears. And rightly so. Most of our middle class and upper
class secularists are living in a make-believe world, totally cut
off and alienated from - the conditions of survival and struggle
in Bombay’s slums, chawls and pavements. Many of them cannot
pass a slum without holding their noses to keep off the stench.
Most of them believe that the slums are infested with criminals,
crooks, pickpockets, thieves and gangsters — the source of all
riots. With the same arrogance that characterised the colonial
white man who believed that he alone was civilized while the
Indian masses were savages, illiterate and uncultured, our
modern secularists believe that the masses have to be reformed
and taught the virtues of communal peace, brotherhood, compas
sion and yes - that all important word today SECULARISM.
We can understand and even appreciate the missionary zeal
of our modern secularists. The savagery of the communal
holocaust really shook them up. For the .first time, lumpen mobs
had invaded their exclusive housing colonies, ringing their door
bells, threatening them on their phones, extracting protection
^^money. Their teak doors, double doors and even triple doors
suddenly did not appear so strong. Name boards had to be
removed. They were paralysed in their homes with even their
cars offering no route of escape. All of them are desperate that
the nightmare which Bombay went through must not be
repeated. Preaching humanitarianism to the masses (who are
forced to live and toil in inhuman conditions) is one of the
tasks they have undertaken.
However as we said earlier, these modern secularists are
living in a make - believe world. If they are really interested
in fighting the fascist monster they should stop preaching their
honeyed sermons to the masses. If anybody requires preaching,
it is the big money bags who donate crores of rupees to the
Shiv Sena, VHP and the various Babri Masjid Action Fronts.
If anybody requires preaching, it is the Congress party and the
BJP who are competing with each other to use the Shiv Sena
for their own sordid political ends. Let our modern secularists
preach to all these ‘cultured folk.’ And for a change, let them
start- learning — learning from the very people whom they have
hitherto looked down upon - namely, the masses.
If they do so, they will discover the heroic collective acts
performed by common people when Bombay went berserk. They
will discover to their surprise that a spontaneous mass move
ment began in hundreds of slums and chawls when Bombay
was shattered and brutalised - A mass movement for active (
defence against the lumpen mobs from outside. A mass move
ment to defend communal harmony, not with sacharine words
but with simple weapons. A mass movement to enforce order,
security and sanity in a city that had gone insane. There were
no. netas or pudharis to lead this movement. It was led by
simple common people who are forced to live in overcrowded
slums and dingy homes. It was led by common people whose
sweat and toil have created this city and keep it going. It was
led by common people who have no claims to higher learning
or long degrees.
This booklet is about this silent mass movement which took
place in Bombay’s slums and chawls. It is about the living and
throbbing secular culture which the toiling masses created and
upheld during those traumatic days and nights. It is about a
culture which every patriot can be proud of, both here in India
and in the world at large. When the new custodians of Indian
culture, the RSS-BJP cheered as the lumpen mobs attacked,
killed, burnt and raped the innocent, millions of common Hindus i
and Muslims kept the conscience of our country still alive.
'
Activists of the Bharatiya Janwadi Aghadi not only actively
took part in this mass movement for defence but also met
hundreds of people who formed such defence committees in otherareas. Everywhere one striking lesson stared us in the face.
Wherever defence committees were formed the marauding mobs
did not dare to attack, or were successfully repelled In Hindu
majority areas Muslims were protected and vice versa In areas
that did not form defence committees, lumpen mobs ter-
2
revised not just Muslims but also Hindus, looting, killing.
and' burning.
Enough has been publicised about the bestiality of these fas
cist mobs. In this booklet, we give reports of how the people
organised for defence and resistance against the mobs. Of course
we can give reports of only a few cases. There were hundreds
of such cases throughout Bombay.
We consider it very important to .publicise as widely as pos
sible these mass actions against the fascist hordes. They are
important not just for the toiling masses, but especially for our
modern secularists. It is important for the masses because they
£>.tend to underestimate their great strength and power and beljt".Jtle their own heroic achievements. Obviously this suits very well
the exploiter ruling classes.
But these mass actions are especially important for our
modern secularists who are directionless and filled with despair
at the growing forces of fascism. All this, because most of them
are blind to the historic actions of the masses and refuse to
be in solidarity with them. Only if we understand, how the
toiling masses unconsciously provided a way forward in the
midst of anarchy and communal frenzy can we extract important
lessons for the future. But more important, we will be inspired
and strengthened by the real Sainiks of Bombay who defended
the defenceless, protected the honour of our mothers and sisters
and upheld the most glorious traditions of our people and
country.
Bombay
17 February 1993
BHARATIYA JANWADI AGHADI
©
3
A fortress against
fascism
THE sprawling Gilbert Hill - Gamdevi Dongri - Juhu Galli
region, a few kilometres from Andheri (West) station, houses
close to 2 lakh people, 85% of whom are Muslim and the rest
Hindu. As news filtered in on December 6 that the Babri Mas
jid had been destroyed, the senior citizens in the Muslim com
munity gathered together, and, in the words of 65-year-oldff 1
Ainullah Khan, vowed that the people of the area would “guard
human values at all cost and not become demons.”
Within days, as rioting broke out in all parts of the city, a
few enraged Muslim youth attacked a police patrol in the area
— the police firing that ensued took five lives. Immediately’
after this, some of the youth from this group tried to attack
two Hindu shops in Juhu Galli. Before the mob could reach the
shops, senior Muslim citizens like Juned Usman, Ainullah Khan,
Zaheer Hasan Anwar Azmi, Rashidbhai, Khalil Ahmed and
Ghafoorbhai were there to prevent them from doing any damage.
Said Zaheer Hasan, a CPI member who has been in Juhu Galli
since 1962, “We stood in front of the shops and told the boys,
if you must attack your Hindu neighbour’s then kill us first.”
The mob halted in its tracks.
That very day all these boys were banished from the mohalla
and told to return only when they were sure that they had
worked out all the hatred from their system. Then, around 150
people — Hindu and Muslim — formed a committee to co-or/j
dinate defence of the area from outside attack. Said Ainullalr
Khan, “We had determined that not a single Hindu will
be harmed here and no one from outside will be allowed
to attack our mohalla:’ The committee members went around
meeting people, assuring them that they were safe and groups
of 10-15 were formed to guard every corner of the sprawling
area. The men and youth kept awake, using their voices in the
still of the night to warn of any danger. The women kept up
an endless supply of tea to the vigil-keepers. Sabina Sheikh, a
Congress women universally known as Tai, described the situa
tion, ‘We blocked off all the gates, leading in — there are 6
4
such gates. People were all together, totally organised. Women
and elders were in the lead, going around together. None of us
had ever imagined that there could have been such a fantastic
response to a Crisis, in our area.”
Then one night, suddenly around 2.30 a.m. screams rent the
air, Ya Allah, Ya Ali bachao, bachao, maaro maaro The patroll
ing youth rushed to the exits sure that people had been at
tacked. But the elders were more cautious. Baid Rashidbhai, “We
stopped them and first and went out ourselves to check. There
was nothing — no mobs, no attack no people shouting. A cas
sette was being played from the nearby buildings. It was a ploy
to bring the youth out and then make them easy targets for
x-spolice bullets.” Once the people started ignoring the cassettes,
Vi.-they stopped automatically.
With this constant vigilance, the people of Gilbert Hill have
managed to keep the area completely peaceful. Our team spoke
to 'several Hindu families, shopkeepers, vegetable vendors and
business people in the area. All of them clearly said, "We have
no fears from our neighbours. We have lived together like
brothers and we continue to do so. We patrol the area together.
The only fear is from outsiders.”
The brotherhood of Hindus and Muslims in the area was
further exemplified in January, when close to a thousand
refugees from riot-hit areas in Andheri, Borivali and other parts
of Bombay flowed into Gilbert Hill-Juhu Galli for protection.
Hindus and Muslims alike pitched in with food, clothes, vessels,
money and space in their homes for the largely Muslim
refugees. Within three days a sum of Rs. 16,000 was raised by
the people, many of whom are daily-wage earners. Rashidbhai,
a ration and clothes shop owner said that the people of Gilbert
Hill have provided total support to the riot-hit, many of whom
(2)fetill continue to stay in its relief camps until early February.
Tai herself has also been involved in not only organising
relief work but has been taking claimants to the government
offices to demand their dues. Has any help come from officials?
Tai snorts in anger, “What official help ? Leaders come with
police escort in jeeps, roam the area and leave. Is that help ?
No help has come from elected representatives or government
officials. We expected them to be here, fighting shoulder to
shoulder with the people, finding out their troubles.”
Juned Usman, who was instrumental in controlling the mobs
in December and is the Congress taluka secretary, was himself
contemptuous of his party and the official machinery. He said,
“Babanrao Pachpute came here on December 9. But what’s the
use of his coming, because the Shiv Sena people cannot be ar
rested by the police. We have told our party leader Shivajirao
Deshmukh that now grassroots activists can’t go to the public
as Congressmen. They will throw shoes at us. The government
has no strategy or policy to provide relief or any security to
the people.”
In fact, the Shiv Sena continues to try and provoke trouble
in the area. On Tuesday, January 26, an SS MLC abused Mus
lims on the loudspeaker after the maha-aarti. The police gave,up in frustration. On the following day, Hindu women from1-.
Gamdevi Dongri took a morcha to the D. N. Nagar police sta
tion protesting against such abuses being given. Even a
prominent Shiv Sainik of the area, reportedly joined the protest.
Then where does the future lie ? Says Hasan, “Only with
the people. We will have to continue our, united vigil. No
amount of shanti yatras or police patrolling can save us. We
have to unite and fight together.”
[g]
"People kept party
politics aside.,.."
IIT was early January 1993.
The residents of Lahuji Salvi Nagar, a
sprawling slum
colony situated on a steep hillock near Andheri’s MIDC area
were petrified. A mosque had been destroyed that day at Upadhyaya Nagar, a stone’s throw away at the bottom of the hill
z^sand two outsiders who had come there to offer namaz, had been
-■'hacked to death by a group of lumpens. 5-7 Muslim families
from predominantly Hindu Upadhyaya Nagar had fled. Though
no one from Lahuji Salvi Nagar was involved even remotely in
this attack, the residents were petrified because rumours were
rife that a counter attack was in the offing. Towards sunset, a
grotip of goondas came to the slum and warned the people,
"Better keep awake at night, all of you - the Muslims are
going to attack.” After the goondas left, all the residents, in
cluding the 4-5 Muslim families of Lahuji Salvi Nagar met. Says
Rambhau (not real name), “We all felt that we must guard our
slum not because we feared Muslims would attack us, but be
cause we feared that the goons who came to ‘warn’ us, may
themselves attack us in the guise of Muslims.” How did the
people come to this conclusion? Replied Rambhau, “Well, this
area has an overwhelming Hindu population. Muslims coming
into this area to attack is veiy far-fetched. And then we are
mainly Dalits living here. You can understand from whom we
fear an attack!”
From that night, groups of 10-15 stood guard at strategic
^points in the slum. Says Radhabai, “No one slept. The men
were outside and the women were in readiness inside the
houses. Even children were awake.”
The night passed without incident, but the goons roaming the
areas and the palpable tension made the people continue to feel
insecure. So the next day, the Nagrik Kruti Samiti of the slum
gave a written request to the police station asking for security.
Says Jagannath, “We were told that it was not possible to pro
vide security and we should protect ourselves as best we could
and the police van would make a 'chakker from time to time.”
7
For the next three days, the residents patrolled the area as
usual. The Muslim families were reassured that they were safe
and would be protected by their Dalit neighbours. But the
events of the fourth day shattered this confidence. The police
came to the area, searched the houses and confiscated all the
‘weapons’— sticks, rods, bricks, stones — gathered by the people
for protection and rounded up over 250 men and youth, most
of whom were mainly responsible for the defence of the area.
Describing the situation, Ratnabai said, “Mostly women were left
behind and a few men who happened to be away when the
police came. We felt sure that there would be some incident
that night.” Sensing a crisis, all the people met and it was
decided that the Muslim families would have to be evacuated
from there. Rambhau who was one of the few men left behind Y
told us, “You see, we feared the worst, and when an armed
attack takes place and your own house is under threat, how
can you save others?” The Muslims in the area also felt that
the entire slum was being threatened because of them, and
wanted to leave. But the question was How? For, curfew had
been declared and the streets were unsafe.
It was the women who came out with a brilliant solution.
Says Radhabai, “We women decided to take a morcha to the
police station to demand that our men be released or we be
allowed to stay at the police station itself. In the middle of the
morcha, we hid the Muslim families. Some boys went ahead to
catch rickshaws so that at a mid-point, these families could be
bundled into the vehicles and taken away safely.” Akbarbhai,
whose family escaped in this manner and who has now returned
to Salvi Nagar, had tears in his eyes when he recounted, "We
came out in the morcha and the rickshaws were waiting. But
the rickshawalias refused to take ‘iniyabhais’. Then my neigh
bours fought with the rickshawallas and finally came all the
way to Nagpada to reach my family. I can never forget this. I!j
am alive today because of them.” Akbar also told us that while
shops were looted all over Bombay, not a single item was even
touched in his shop, even though some things were left lying
outside as they left in a hurry.
Rambhau attributes the achievements, in Salvi Nagar to the
fact that “people kept party politics aside and decided to protect
the area, probably because the burning down of a few houses
could mean entire areas getting destroyed.” In fact Rakesh a
local Shiv Sainik was one of the people who escorted Akbar’all
the way to Nagpada. The pressures such ‘Sainiks’ suffer from
8
can be seen from the fact that he did not feel bad about the
breaking of the masjid in the next area. “Something must take
place in our area. Otherwise we will be told we have no guts.”
However, this did not make him blind to his own self-interest.
As he emphatically said, “We will not allow anything to take
place in our Salvi Nagar.”
More consistent is Rambau who belongs to a Dalit party. He
is convinced that the defence committees of the area should not
be disbanded and in fact needs to be strengthened. Why? He
explains, “We feel that the Ayodhya and Hindutva issues have
been raised as' a counter to Mandal. We definitely feel that a
so-called Hindu Rashtra will treat Dalits as badly as they are
(//treating Muslims today. Perhaps a Punjab-like situation will be
created or gang wars will become rampant. In such a situation
organised committees are imperative to defend our lives, homes
and property.”
E
"We will teach these
leaders a lesson!"
CJhaRAVI, famous as the largest slum in' Asia, stretches between the central and the western railway lines, from the
Mahim creek in the north, to Matunga in the south. Over three
lakh people, from all over the country; all states and all
religions, make Dharavi nothing less than a mini-India. The nar0ow roads are lined with shops, schools, workshops, temples,
''mosques, dispensaries, restaurants, markets, nursing homes,
laundries, lodging houses. Tanneries, export-quality leather
workshops, metal workshops, garment manufacturing units, hum
24 hours of the day, as workers work 12-hour shifts and earn
foreign exchange for the country. A customer speaks to a shop
keeper in Tamil, boys playing on the road yell in Telegu, a
laundry signboard informs you in Marathi, burkha-clad women
walk by chatting in Urdu.
But the cheerful hustle and bustle is time and again rudely
interrupted by a burnt-down shop here, a gutted van there,
9
charred remains of a row of huts - stark reminders of the
violence that rocked Bombay in December-January.
Mahatma Gandhi Nagar is one slum within Dharavi, lying
on a narrow strip of land edging the Central Railway tracks.
The land is used by the Tata Electric Companies power lines,
and belongs to the Tatas, says a resident. As we make our
way down the hardly one-foot wide passages between houses,
the high-tension cables are constantly visible hardly 15 feet
above our heads. In such constant danger, always ‘at the
threshold of death’ as one resident put it, the people of M. G.
Nagar have had to live for the past 20 years.
M. G. Nagar was almost completely free of violence A
throughout December and January as it was jointly defended by
the people of the area against outside mobs. Other areas in •
Dharavi had seen attacks on Muslim houses and property by
local and outside Shiv Sainiks, and then reprisals, followed by
police firing and curfew. But here ‘nothing happened’, says a
man who is standing with others outside his house. Before ex
plaining further they lead us through the area to the house of
‘Appa’ (sister), as she - is known throughout the area. Appa is
a Muslim who has been living in the area for 20 years. Near
her house are the homes of four other Muslim families, and
together they make up the total of five Muslim families (all
from U.P.). The number of Hindu families' -dn the area
(Maharashtrians, Tamilians, and people from UP) is about
1000.
Did the Muslims not think of leaving this place when all
the trouble in Bombay began? "Why should we, when here we
have not just neighbours, but protectors” asks Appa “If- they
were not there, we would not be alive today.”
They tell us how, soon after all the trouble began in thJ
rest of the city, some anti-socials belonging to the Shiv Sena
had entered the area, armed with swords and choppers, and
shoutmg abuses against Muslims. They came straight to one of
*be JhfUSHm«,h°kT and began t0 break the door down. 1
thought death had come for all of us," says Shameem whose
house it was. But then the neighbouring MaharZS Hindu
women came out of their houses
« wianarasntnan n
goondas to stop. Before their shouts m m ted shouting at nIe
the goondas ’ran off. Shameem ^l^Uld at,tract, more pe°j£
on her door. "Such is the relating \
the choPPer malk
ationship between us here."
10
Following that incident, the people of the area decided to
prepare to defend themselves against attack. They or
ganised men and youth into groups, each with the responsibility
of patrolling one part of the boundary of the slum. No 'outsider
was allowed to enter. If any outsider appeared, the plan was
to start shouting, at which all the other residents would rush
to the place. “We had heard that in other places while mobs
were burning and looting, the police had just stood and watched.
So how could we expect them to protect us”, asks Jadhav. “In
stead of staying terrified ourselves, we decided to create terror
in the goondas, and by staying awake and alert, we were able
to”, says another.e“Our youth are quite capable of taking care •
of any goonda attack. The problem is that the police come in
between.”
The police had not shown their face in the area till then.
But now, on the second or third day after the defence commit
tee was organised, they arrived and arrested all the youth and
men who were standing watch around the slum. “We were
standing to protect ourselves against attack by goondas, and
they arrest us instead of the goondas who were still roaming
free”, says a youth. “Even children in the 6th and 7th stand
ards, who were standing at the door of their own houses were
picked up. Some of these children are orphans, some work
during the daytime to provide for their houses, and then study
at night. But the police arrested them on the charge of rioting!”
says Appa. ‘They do not offer protection themselves, and on top
of that, they take away those who are protecting us” her neigh
bour, an old Muslim woman, exclaims.
All the women of the area then took their children with
them and went in a morcha to the police station. Women from
nearby Social Nagar and other areas also joined the morcha.
‘The road was full of women. There must have been at least
—a thousand in the morcha,” says a youth. “We asked the police
LLvho was going to protect .us if they kept our men, and under
pressure from all of us, finally the men were released”. And
the vigil continued.
What did they feel about the Ayodhya issue. ‘This is all a
game, a chaal of the politicians. They will benefit from it, only
the poor will suffer," says Suresh vehemently. "There is no prob
lem between ordinary Hindus and Muslims," says another. “I
am a Hindu and I have a small shop in Madanpura, which is
a Muslim-majority area. But my shop was untouched.” Another
11
woman adds, “this is all the work of building-people They come
to our areas, throw bombs, start fires, instigate people, and then
go back to the safety of their buildings. And on top of death
and destruction, we jhopaclpatti-wallahs are le
wi
a a
name of fighting also.”
"That Delhi-walla" says Appa, "that Shahi Imam says put up
black flags on your houses. He is sitting safely in Delhi will
he come to protect us Muslims if we put up black flags?
Here we have been reduced to eating the walls of our houses
— without ever having put up black flags, we are seeing such
terrible days. And- he wants to worsen it ! All these so-called
leaders only appear at election time, to ask for votes. Then they
promise gutters, lights, jobs, everything. Once they get the votes
they disappear till the next election. Look at the gutter here..'
we had it built ourselves, but the netas promised to build it
hundreds of times !"
Many residents of M. G. Nagar have left and gone to their
villages. Both Hindus and Muslims left, we are told, and not
because of terror but because of hunger. “Many of us subsist
on daily earnings. How can we feed our children during unend
ing days of curfew ?” Many women of the area do jari-work,
attaching jari to saris, and earn about Rs. 6 to Rs. 8 per day.
“But in all this lafda, marriages are either being postponed o*
cancelled. So our work has almost stopped”. Other women sell
vegetables at the local market, yet others are domestic workers.
“Many people have still not been able to go back to work. But
the government is not bothered that we are jobless and hungry!”
“Every day these leaders make some announcement or the other.
Rs. 7 lakhs for the riot-affected, Rs. 70 lakhs for the riot-af
fected. Who is getting all this money? Nobody we know has got
any relief 1” One woman was told of a relief-distributing centre
that was distributing food. When she went there she discovered
that packets containing 2 kg of rice and 1 kg of dal were beinf }
sold for Rs. 45 each 1
Tension and hunger are taking a heavy toll. Appa tells us
of two old relatives of hers in Nagpada, who died of heart
failure within one week of each other, after witnessing barbaric
murders and destruction with their own eyes
She sums up the anger and the spirit of the people, “let the
elections come. We wdl teach these leaders a S. Not one
of them will get a single vote !”
|J
12
"Our main weapon
was our voices...."
T
u RIMBAK Estate is a group of chawls — Laxmi Nagar, Trimbak chawl, Gupta chawl, Sanjay Nagar and Subhash Nagar —
in the MIDC area, Andheri (E). It is surrounded on three sides
by posh multi-storeyed complexes of the Unit Trust of India,
Colgate Company and Meridian Company. On the fourth side is
an open hill with a track that leads to Jogeshwari.
V.J
“There is no feeling of, ‘I am a Hindu — You are a Muslim
in this area’. After all when we are in trouble, we depend not
on relatives who stay far off, but on our neighbours. Hindu or
Muslim, they come to our rescue.” These are the words of two
women, Mrs. Shantaben J. Yadav and Sarla Yadav who have
lived in Gupta Chawl for over 15 years. Their statements are
confirmed by Aziz Sheikh, a worker from Gupta chawl. “Ordi
nary Hindus and Muslims cannot fight each other over religion.
We are neighbours, we live together, do business together. We
are interdependent and that builds trust.”
About 1,500 families live in the area, of which about 500
are Muslims and the rest mainly Hindus. The Muslim families
are concentrated in the centrally-located Gupta Chawl, sur
rounded by the other areas. The people are mainly workers in
MIDC or outside. Many of the Muslim families work for a few
scrap dealers in Gupta Chawl, where huge piles of cardboard,
plastics and metal scrap are heaped in the open. There are also
some government employees, teachers, a few lawyers and a docfTS tor living in the area.
The news of events as elsewhere in Bombay, especially in
nearby Jogeshwari, on the 6th, 7th and 8th of January worried
the people. On the 9th a mosque in Upadhyaya Nagar in MIDC
was attacked and two Muslims were murdered. From that day
onwards there used to be regular shouts of aaya, aaya, aaya,
from the road, and the sound of running feet. Nobody knew
who was shouting and why. A feeling of terror began to spread
through Trimbak Estate.
‘We were all scared. Hindus were told by some people that
a Muslim mob was coming. Muslims were convinced that Hindu
13
mobs were coming. That is why we decided to prepare oursel
ves,” says Patil Tai in Laxmi Nagar. The people spontaneously
discussed the issue with each other and made a plan of action.
This was not the first time that they had prepared to defend
their area. “During the Bhiwandi riots in 1984 too, there were
rumours afloat about mob attacks, and all of us men of the
area had organised ourselves to keep watch throughout the day
and night,” says Sonawane of Laxmi Nagar. This time too the
aim was the same, tb prevent any outsider from entering the
area. “In each of the 5 chawls here, the people were responsible
for the defence of their boundaries. But all the groups were in
contact. The minute any noise broke out, we were to all rush
to the spot.” Floodlights were rented and set up all along the
boundaries of the chawl. “The men tried to insist that we
women stay indoors, but we refused,” says Patil Tai. “None of
us could sleep” recounts Shantaben. “Instead we organised tea
at regular intervals and also had joint meals.” “We armed our
selves with sticks and stones, but our main weapon was our
voices,” explains Tribhuvan Pandey, who has lived in Gupta
Chawl for 23 years. “We even rehearsed once to make sure that
everyone would come at once.”
“It is not as though we have no goondas or trouble makers
within our area,” he continues. “But we kept a special eye on
them, and ensured that they didn’t start anything.”
A few families in the area left for their villages during those
days. “We tried to persuade our Muslim neighbours not to
leave,” says Mrs. Sonawane. “But they felt more and more in
secure. They came and met us before leaving. The women were
weeping. Here I could not eat for 2 days after they left, we
were so close.”
In Gupta Chawl, the people tell us, both Hindu and Muslim
families have left, not because of fear, but because of hunger.
“People came close to starvation, for many live on daily wages
and could not earn for over a week,” explains Qadirbhai, who
runs a paan shop in the chawl.
The local M.I.D.C. police station had deputed 2 constables to
protect the Gupta Chawl Masjid after the Masjid at Deendayal
Upadhyaya Nagar was attacked. “But when the shouts of aaya,
aaya used to come, the police were the first to run,” says Mrs
Yadav. Responds Qadirbhai, “They can’t be blamed’. After all,
what can 2 danda-wallas do against a mob armed with swords’”
14
The general opinion in the area is that the Ayodhya issue
is not a Hindu v/s Muslim issue at all, but a game being
played by politicians with the lives of ordinary people. “All this
mandir - masjid, and these riots are the game of goondas for
loot and builders for land, with political support also provided”
says Avaiz categorically. They have no faith in the political par
ties or their leaders any more. “Throughout January not a
single so-called leader came here,” says Mrs. Joshi. ‘They only
come at election-time with their promises — that is the only
time they remember the people.” The men at Gupta Chawl scoff
at the very idea of netas coming to help. “All netas are crooks”
is the common opinion. “Not all netas..." begins Tribhuvan Pandey who was the SJP candidate for the 1992 Municipal elec.f*\tions. He is firmly interrupted by his neighbour “No, all netas.
With any neta, comes only trouble. Stop these netas and trouble
will also stop.”
"Our religion may be different,
but our pain is one"
ii
IN our area, there has been no trouble at all. The Hindus
and Muslims have lived together and protected the area. This
was possible only because there was no neta (leader) here. If
there had been any neta, there would certainly have been
trouble.” These are the words with which 55-year old Rajnarain
Singh greeted our team, at Shastry Nagar, Kalina. Housing
Ground 6,000 families, the area, situated behind Kalina Church,
"has a mixed population — 50% Muslims and 50% Dalits and
Hindus. As soon as trouble broke out in Bombay on December
7,
the respected, senior citizens of the area formed a committee
of 150 people and chalked out a plan- to protect the area. Says
Hasanbhai Cyclewala, ‘The committee members visited each and
every home in the mohalla, reassured people and explained that
even a single incident in the area would mean disaster. Not a
single house was left out. We formed squads to keep awake at
night and decided where each group would be located. Each and
every house also left a light burning through the night.” The
15
residents also kept in touch regularly with the Vakola police
station and were full of praise for senior inspector, Mazumdar
and the beat officer, Jagdale.
However, the residents also complain that while these two
police officials were very helpful, the police themselves tried to
create tension in the area one day with a false rumour that a
mob was coming to destroy a temple in Shastry Nagar.
An attempt to create tension was also made by some Muslim
boys from Shastry Nagar, who ran into the gullies of the area
one day in the second week of December, shouting loudly. (Some
Hindu residents claim the boys carried swords and some Hindu
residents deny it).
But the boys were immediately brought under control by the'
elders in their community. Said one of the senior Muslims of
the area who did not wish to be named, “We told the boys
that we have lived here for years together, known each other,
shared each other’s troubles. We have to reassure the non-Muslims here that we will die first before we allow them to be
harmed.”
A similar situation arose for the Hindus when news reached
the area that a maha-aarti was being planned by some leaders
of a political party, at the Radhakrishna Mandir in the heart
of Shastiy Nagar. An active member of the Radhakrishna Man
dir Samiti, who was part of the group which guided us through
the area, recounted the incident, “When we heard there was to
be a maha-aarti we were stunned. We thought perhaps there
was some mistake, since there is a Radhakrishna Mandir at
Santacruz (W) also. Our Samiti members and chief, Ramchandra
Pandey immediately went and met the local MLA. Abhiram
Singh (BJP) and told him that the Hindus of Shastiy Nagar
do not want a maha-aarti. We told him that in our area Hindus ,
and Muslims live in peace, there is a mandir here as well as’ -.'
a mosque, no one is troubled by either. Let us maintain the
peace.”
All the residents who spoke to us were unanimous on one
count - outsiders mean trouble. Said women from the
—
predominantly Dalit area, Mahatma Phule Nagar which is part
ci Shastry Nagar, “What is there to fear frmn M slin J We
have to fight the outsiders^ The Muslims are ourSghbours-
We have all together defended the area.”
16
That the people of the area are united, is evident. The group
that led us through the area had a Hindu, a Muslim and a
Dalit youth. Each of them was greeted by every family, irrespec
tive of religion. In fact, so unitedly have the people organised
themselves that when some Muslim families wanted to bring
refugees of their community to Shastry Nagar, they first asked
the permission of their Hindu neighbours — lest there be any
insecurity. Not only did the Hindus give permission, they even
gave generously from what little they had, to the refugees who
poured in from Govandi, Golibaar, Asalfa, Pratiksha Nagar and
Vikhroli.
The Hindus and Muslims of Shastry Nagar not only defended
the area together, but also shared the same sorrows. We experienced this when two women, one Hindu, one Muslim, living
0next to each other for 20 years spoke to- us together. Both had
tears in their eyes when they said, “The men cannot go to
work in both houses. No money has come in for a month. The
food in both houses is the same — dry roti and chatni. One
is Hindu, one is Muslim. What is the difference? Our religion
may be different, but our pain is one.”
0
In the spirit of
Babasaheb Ambedkar
^^MBEDKAR Nagar is a slum colony in the M.I.D.C. area of
Andheri East. Flanked by tall well-kept buildings housing the
Marol Telephone Exchange, the Indian Standards Institute and
major BSES blanch office, the slum consists of hundreds of
tiny houses, some with pucca (cement) walls and others with
just tin sheets and gunny bags stretched on a framework,
separated by narrow lanes, that can hold only one person at a
time. Its residents told us that about 600 families, i.e. about
3,000 to 3,500 people live here, the majority of whom are Hin
dus and neo-Buddhists, with about twenty Muslim families and
about ten Christian families. Most of them are construction
workers, factory workers and coolies.
17
We were told that the slum is 20 years old, but had got
electricity and other facilities only about two year's ago, and
that too after a long struggle. A resident told us that though
most of the people work in the MIDC units, yet there is no
provision for their housing in the MIDC area. To add insult to
injury, the houses built by the worker's are called “illegal
encroachments” by the government. Some years ago, the MIDC
authorities declared that an electricity connection would be
provided for the slum, if they signed a bond saying that their
houses were unauthorised and could be demolished at any time
by the MIDC The slumdwellers started an agitation against this
and refused to sign the bond. But some Congress worker's stay
ing in the area, who were trying to press the scheme, signed
the bond and got a connection. Some other families later took
lines from this connection and when no more such lines could
be tapped from the existing connections, others signed the bond
and took new connections. Some have refused to sign and still
have no electricity. Thus, most of the slum has now got
electricity, but at the cost of their security.
A group of youth gave us an account of what happened in
the area during the January riots. According to them, on 10th
January, in the evening, a man came running down the road
in front of the slum, screaming, “A mob has come with swords!
They are going to attack!” Terror spread immediately and the
people dashed wildly into their homes and bolted the doors.
Some even hid in the toilets in fear. Nothing happened. These
youth after a while went to the neighbouring slum colonies and
discovered that at the same
i man had run screaming
through their areas too. Clearly, there was a plan to spread
terror. A few days later, a mob of goons attacked the nearby
Deendayal Upadhyay Nagar, tortured and killed Muslims and
broke down a mosque.
Though there was tremendous fear in Ambedkar Nagar, ac
cording to the youth, the people also realised that they would
have to protect their area themselves. Not just Muslims, but
also Hindus feared an attack. They rapidly organised lighting
in every lane. Sticks, stones, kitchen knives, mirchi powder and
other implements that could be used as weapons were kept
ready. Some went around from house to house to build up the
courage of those who were very scared. They began staying
awake and guarding the slum all night long. We asked how
many people stayed awake like this. They replied that about
80% of the people stayed up all night long for about 15-20
18
days, with a few women undertaking the responsibility of
making tea for the watchers each night. Muslims and Hindus
were both involved in this and some Hindus especially visited
all the Muslim houses to assure them of their protection. Even
some Shiv Sainiks who live in the area took part in the
defense.
We asked them how their relationship was in normal times
— were there no fights? “Of course there. are”, the youth
replied. “Over what?” we asked. “Over so many things”, he said,
“almost every day people fight at the water tap over who is
ahead in line and who is behind. One day someone’s dirty water
might fall into someone else’s house, or the narrow lane might
be blocked by somebody’s goods fights are always there.” “Then
how come all this unity is possible now”? we asked. An older
man said, “See, the situation in which we live is such that
fights take place. But if we fight often, we help each other
also, we don’t become enemies. Now that the need has arisen,
we have pushed aside all our small differences and united.”
The youth told us that on 13th January, the SS councillor
brought a morcha from another area to the MIDC police station
to demand the release of some of their people. The police
refused. The next day when the morcha was brought again, it
was dispersed by the police.
A rumour was calculatedly spread, that ■ those in the morcha
had a list of all the Muslim families in Ambedkar Nagar and
were planning to attack them. Terrified, the Muslims talked it
over with their Hindu neighbours, who pressed them to stay
and promised to protect them. Some of them decided to stay.
But about fifteen families were so scared they left. Before going,
they assured their Hindu neighbours that it was not distrust
in them, but fear of outsiders that made them leave. They left
some of their possessions, like fans and TVs, with their Hindu
neighbours till they returned.
We spoke to other Hindu men and women, and some of the
remaining Muslim families and heard more or less the same
story. Some Hindus were hurt that the Muslims left, saying,
“Why did they have to leave? We would have definitely
protected them.” Others said, “How can you blame them.
Naturally they would get terrified in such a situation.” Some of
the Muslim families, who remained, were banana-sellers from
Gulbarga, Karnataka. They said that they were scared too, but
could not afford to go anywhere else. “What is there in our
19
village to return to? Whatever we have is in Bombay. We have
to stay.”
Another Muslim, a former welder, who was thrown out oi
his job, because • of his work in the trade union, said, “My family
stayed because we know that our neighbours will look after us.”
We asked whether there had ever been any conflict between
the Hindus and Muslims of the area. The welder said, “Never.
We always take part in each others’ festivals without bothering
about whether it is Hindu or Muslim. Every year I give Rs.101
as a donation for Ganeshotsav. I take part in it for all ten
days.” A Hindu paan-shop owner said, ‘You must have seen the
temple and dargah nearby on the road — both are decorated
and lighted up for all religious functions, Hindu or Muslim.”
We asked what they thought about the Ayodhya issue. The
Muslim said that all this is just the game-plan of leaders. “Only
poor people die, Hindus and Muslims. If the mosque is broken,
it is broken. We should keep our unity going”, he said and the
other nodded in agreement.
We asked what the role of the police had been. The welder
said, ‘We have seen what the police has done, we have no faith
in them. While keeping watch, we told the police to go away,
we can look after ourselves.” A Hindu worker said that while
patrolling, their group heard some SRP men saying, “Hack those
Muslims to pieces.” He also said that “some policemen are good,
but what can just a few do?”
“What do they think about what the government is doing”,
we asked. The welder said he does not know, because he has
not been able to read the paper for several days — his eyes
have been ruined by the welding work, though he is only 43
years old. Most of the other people we met said that the
government is useless, their faith lies only in their own collec
tive capacity to protect themselves.
We asked whether the organised defense was still functioning.
They said that now only a few people keep watch at night.
Besides, it was difficult to stay up after doing ten to twelve
hours of back-breaking work. But at the start of February when
a gangster was killed in Andheri, most people stayed up and
patrolled the area that night, afraid that something may happeri.
One thing is clear. In any emergency or breakdown of civil
order, the people have learnt how to protect themselves.
■
20
Where the police
helped the peace efforts
DuRING the 1984 and 1987 communal riots in Bombay,
Kamatipura was one of the most badly affected areas in the
city. However this time, the entire area was free of communal
violence as it was protected and defended by the people of all
communities.
Kamatipura is about 10 minutes walk from Bombay Central
1 on the Western line. Most of the buildings here are old,
dilapidated and rickety. Some of them are propped up by stilts.
The whole area is divided into gullies — from gully number
one to gully number sixteen. About 35,000 people live in this
area. Most of the residents are either Hindus or Muslims. A
sizable section have migrated from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil
Nadu.
In Kamatipura you will find masjids and temples. There are
even small dargahs. In the first gully we noticed a dargah
and next to it a temple. The entire area is infamous because
it houses the red light area. Hundreds of women from all parts
of the country who have been forced into prostitution eke out
a living here. Besides this, a big section of the people have
jobs or petty businesses.
Activists of the Bharatiya Janwadi Aghadi met a number of
residents to find out how they protected their area from com
munal violence.
Babubhai, a Bohra Muslim, who has a chemist shop in gully
number three explained that “after the Masjid was demolished
in Ayodhya on December 6, there was some tension in our area.
That is why some of us came together. The former shakha
pramukh of the Shiv Sena Prabhaker More, Sudhir Kolge, Narmadabai Pawar, Suneela Puppala, Ali Karimbai, myself and
other political workers of the area met together. We personally
visited the residents of every building. We appealed to them to
maintain communal peace. We received an enthusiastic response
from the people.”
21
However in a situation where armed fascist lumpen mobs
were moving from area to area, killing, looting and burning, the
resolution to maintain peace had to be actively defended As
Babubhai explained ‘We formed an Ekta Samiti. We decided
that if we were attacked from outside we would all come
together to repel the attack.”
The people informed us how they themselves organised all
night vigilance and patrolling of the area. Big lights were in
stalled. Groups of 8-10 volunteers patrolled the area. The volun
teers had devised their own system of signalling and warnings
in order to be alert to every danger. At different places a small
bonfire would be lit to keep off the cold. As Narmadabai con
fessed, ‘We were never afraid of the people of our area. The
fear always was the threat from outside. That is why we still f'
maintain vigilance.”
The people also told us
that while Kamatipura was
defended from within, the surrounding area was racked with
violence, looting and burning. The people alleged that the Nagpada Congrees (I) Youth Block Committee General Secretary,
Ravindra Kumar Pande was involved in these activities. One of
the important steps which the people of Kamatipura took to
maintain peace was to remove all sources of tension. Nar
madabai told us, “On two occasions Maha-aartis were held but
subsequently they were stopped. Similarly, loud speakers were
removed from the masjids.”
It is not that there were no attempts to create tension. Nar
madabai recalls that “During curfew one day, a milk man was
stopped by some trouble makers. At that moment an old Muslim
went forward and scolded the yOuth. ‘This milk man at great
risk to his life is coming to provide milk for our children and
here you are threatening him! Get lost from here’! At this the
youth fled and the old man reached the milk man safely out
of Kamatipura.”
J
I. .)
One of the important things that struck us was the impor
tant role played by some police officials in maintaining peace.
We were told. that senior police officials, Kamlakar Pawar and
Vdas Ga.kwad went out of their way to help the people. In
fact, Mr. Kamlakar Pawar was given the honour of hoistins the
national flag at the Republic Day programme in Kamatlua
organised by the residents belonging to both communities
22
The extent to which common people of both communities
went out of their way to help each other in this crisis period
can be seen from the following example. We were told that
during this period at least 20 pregnant women belonging to dif
ferent communities had safe deliveries. Hindu and Muslim youth
with the help of the police ensured that these women were
reached safely to the hospitals. Narmadabai summed up very
well the lack of communal animosities in the people. "We en
thusiastically participate in each others festivals. During the
Navratri festival, the Muslims participate with the Hindus.
During Id we visit the houses of the Muslims and relish the
kheer served to us.”
The people of Kamatipura have shown that they are not only
^determined to live in peace but also to defend this peace when
it is threatened from outside.
'There is no MLA, MP,
corporator in our committee...."
January 10, 1993 and the few days following it, arson,
burning down of entire bastis and killings turned large sections
of Worli into a zone of horror. The only reason why the
Jijamata Chawl at Worli’s E Moses Road escaped unscathed,
was because its organised and alert 200 strong defence commit
tee successfully beat back all goonda gangs which tried to enter
the area.
() Jijamata Nagar, which consists of a chawl and 5 neighbour
ing slums has a population of over 28,000. Roughly 60% of the
population is Hindu and 40%.Muslim. When riots broke out in
Bhiwandi-Malegaon in 1984, the people of the area had got
together to form a peace committee - with 150 Hindu and Mus
lim representatives being selected from all 6 areas that make
up Jijamata Nagar. Said the committee members, (none of them
wanted their names to be quoted, since they said that as all
had contributed equally to the task, either all 150 names should
be printed or none at all) “There is no MLA, MLC, MP, cor
porator in our committee - we don’t trust them and don’t need
F
23
them. We have only ordinary citizens in this comm ttee. Yes,
many of the members do belong to some party - e ther Con
gress, Shiv Sena, BJP, Janata Dal, RPI or BRP^ But we all
have to leave our party behind in this work because party
politics will destroy our unity.” Since it was formed in 1984
the committee has met regularly even though no foimal
programme was taken up by it. When the riots broke out in
December, the committee met, and work began. Said an active
member, ‘We held a meeting and decided that this was an
emergency situation. Everyone was unanimous that if even a
single person of either community was hurt here or a house
burnt, there would be catastrophe for the area. The first thing
we did was to form groups and go house to house telling
everyone that they had to come out and protect the mohalla. - x
Then we sealed off all the entry points — in some places with
barbed wire and in others with makeshift patra gates that
would at least delay attackers for some time. Groups were
formed to guard each gully and all houses had their lights on
throughout the night. The strategy was that as soon as danger
was sensed in one spot, the people there had to shout and all
the others would come running there.” The women not only
stayed up and provided tea through the night, but gave each
other much neede’d, valuable, moral support.
The eagle-eyed vigil of the defence committee saved Jijamata
Nagar on the night of Sunday, January 10. Said Laxmi, a resi
dent of. the area for over 6 years, “That was a very bad night.
We were all awake. Around 2.00 a.m., a gang of goondas tried
to enter the area. There was a loud shout and then our group
of 150-200 rushed towards that spot, shouting ek bhi goonde ko
mat chodo (don’t spare a single goonda). The mob fled in fear.
Within half an hour we saw a nearby area go up in flames.”
The mob had attacked a nearby area which was not defended.
The going was not all smooth for the defence committee of J
Jijamata Nagar. The mam problem was to ensure that elements
|
d^n/d^d
?° ?reatK tr°Uble in the area> specially when
drunk, did not get a chance to instigate trouble. “We found only
one way to check such drunkards and goondas We put them
methods worked.”
24
XT ln°f T
f01ly °f throwins'
£>ass houses. These
Howevei such communalised elements were present in both
the communities. We ourselves got a first hand experience of a
relatively well-off Muslim school teacher who virtually yelled at
our team. They can’t tolerate the prosperity of Muslims. They
are looting our videos, TVs, fridges. But however much they
loot, they will still remain beggars. We will get more. We have
13 countries in the world to go to. But they have only one.”
We had heard Hindutvawadis warning Hindus that they have
only one country as if Muslim Indians have many countries.
But here we were listening to a communalised Muslim parroting
the same poison spewed by the Hindutvawadis.
However, the most affected by this tirade was Salim the
Muslim youth who had guided us around the area. With literal
ly tears in his eyes, he said, “This is money talking. Such
people are the ones who defame and disgrace the entire com
munity."
H
"Our hearts are on fire...."
IBeTWEEN the intersection of two roads in the Marol MIDC
0
area lies Bhimnagar — a ragged-jagged slum of about 1000
houses. The zhopdas reflect abject poverty and pauperisation.
Made of gunny sacks, bamboos, plastic sheets and rusted patras,
the homes are stuffy, dingy, dark and tiny. A thick pall of
smoke hovers over the whole area.
The slum is a labyrinth of congested gullies about 2 1/2 feet
narrow We had to tread carefully because any loss of balance
would have hurtled us straight into a house as most of the
houses have no walls. What serves as walls are torn gunny
sacks stitched together. And yet the people survive in such con
ditions Most of them look emaciated and weak. But there is
fire in’ their eyes. They toil as contract workers, coolies, stone
breakers, construction workers, painters, rag pickers etc. Many
of them are Dalit neo-Buddhists. But there are also quite a
number of Hindus. About 15 Muslim families live here.
is
Suresh an activist who lives here informs us that the slum
8 years old. But it has been broken twice by the
25
1
Municipality. The people have paid sums ranging from Rs. 1,000
to Rs.10,000 to slumlords for a small piece of land.
Suresh collects a group of men and women and we eagerly
listen to their story of courage and solidarity.
“When we heard that violence had taken place in a neigh
bouring area, we all felt scared,” began Indubai vividly describ
ing how rumours and tension gripped the slum within minutes.
“Whom were you afraid of, Hindus or Muslims”? We asked
deliberately.
“No, no, we were neither afraid of Hindus nor of Muslims.
We were afraid of goondas.” To make herself more specific In
dubai stressed, “You know, goondas have no caste or religion.
They will do the dirty work of anybody who hires them. For one, our zhopadpatti was demolished twice. If any builder hires
these goons, they will not hesitate to set it on fire! Our whole
world can turn into ashes. That is why we were mortally afraid
of goondas.”
We asked whether they had complained to the police or
asked for protection?
“Police”! Chinnama asked with scorn. “We have no faith at
all in the police. After all the lives are lost, the police will
come to make the panchnama! What is the use of their coming
after our homes turn into ashes?”
‘Did you go to your corporator or MT,A for help?”
‘Don’t even utter her name,” Indubai fumed. “For two days
we waited for her. Then we went to meet her. She was in and
yet we were told that Sahebin had gone out. What do they
care about the poor? To ask for votes, they come with folded
hands. Then they come right up to our chulla. Now they have
no time to come to us. All of them are beads of the same
mala. Now if they ask us to follow them, we will thrash them
with our chappals,” Indubai gesticulated angrily
“Everybody”? we asked surprised.
“Yes, Everybody!”
“About how many kept awake at night”?
26
Evervbodvd°
mSan by b°W many> we told you, didn’t we?
Everybody - men, women> children. Everybody!”
penAmobs?°W
y°U intend defending yourselves from the lum-
Defend ourselves? Of course with stones and bricks! We had
collected stones, bricks, sticks, rods, axes and kept them ready!
Our women and children had collected a pile of stones and
bricks in every gully. We used to patrol the four corners of the
aiea. We had decided to whistle the moment we heard or saw
any sign of the goondas. Our womenfolk had even prepared chil
ly water to greet the goondas.”
3
We also learnt from the people that since Bhimnagar has no
electricity, the people got temporary connections from a nearby
shop and hotel. As many as 50 bulbs were installed in the
various gullies.
“We had to pay Rs.10 per bulb per night for the electricity”
said Laxman. “Now- where can we people afford to spend Rs.500
on electricity every day. But you know our homes had to be
protected! We further tightened our stomachs. How we managed
to do it, we only understand.”
“Each of us started contributing two-two rupees every day for
the expenses as well as for the tea which was prepared during
the night,” added Sangeeta.
We also learnt that during those traumatic days all the Mus
lim families were not only reassured and protected but they
also joined in the patrolling. However, after the 22nd January
when the situation became ‘normal’ some of the Muslims an
ticipating another bout of violence on January 26 sent their
x womenfolk to the villages. Some of the Muslim men stayed with
their relatives for a few days and have since returned. Every
' one of their homes were protected by neighbours.
0
When we asked the people what they would have done if
Hindu goons came looking out for Muslims, Laxmibai spoke with
a vehemence which even surprised us. "We would never have
allowed them to enter in the fust place. As long as we had
life in our bodies we would have let no goonda — Hindu or
Muslim to enter.”
“Did anv goondas try to enter”? “No. But twice we heard
uc are coming They
„ areJ coming’ Immediately
loud shouts, ‘They
^lown and about 1500-2000 people with stones,
whistles were u—27
bricks, iron rods collected on the road to defend the area. We
waited for a long time for them. But the goondas never dared
to come. If they had come, we would have made a chutney of
them,” said Muktabai.
At this, Suresh remembering the incident said that “when all
the people together with their weapons collected on the road to
confront the goondas, some of us activists were worried that the
police could use this as an excuse to arrest the people. We
therefore immediately ordered the people to stand at the
entrance of the gullies so that we would not be mistaken for
an aggressive mob.”
We were especially overwhelmed by the militancy of the
women. As Indubai expressed it, “Brother our hearts are on fire!
If our homes are destroyed, where can we take our children.
In the villages, we have no jobs. In the city, despite backbreak
ing work, this is our situation. That is why we decided that if
the goondas come for us, it would be do or die.”
The whole process of organising themselves for defence has
created a new spirit and unity among the people. As Suresh
explained, “Before, the people would fight like cats and dogs
every day. How can you blame them when we have only 4 taps
supplying water for 1000 families, and that too not all taps
work at one time. However the struggle has brought us closer.
There are now fewer fights at the water tap.”
However Siddappa best sums up the determination of the
people. ‘We have learnt a very important lesson. We are no
more afraid of any goonda or dada. We need no police or army.
Earlier we thought we were weak. But now we can defend our
selves and our homes”.
gj
In some reports, names of the people have been
changed in order to protect their identities and their
fledgling efforts.
28
The historic significance of
the defence committees!
^3oMBAY has a population of more than 10 million people.
The majority are Hindus, but a sizable section are Muslims and
other minorities. As many as 70% of the population live on the
pavements, in congested slums and chawls. If communal frenzy
and religions barbarism were really to grip the masses, it would
leave behind lakhs of people dead.
It is not that conditions were not created for such a
holocaust. The breaking of the Babri Masjid on December 6 and
it’s fallout in the country, especially Bombay had already raised
the communal temperature. Then began the political organisation
of maha-aartis by the BJP-SS which deliberately not only dis
rupted traffic but were used to mobilise and incite Hindus
against Namaz on the roads and the use of loudspeakers from
mosques. When the ‘riots’ actually broke out, there were atleast
30,000 lumpens and criminals who formed mobs in search of
easy targets to loot, kill, burn and even rape. The police force
was by and large paralysed, with a section even actively sup
porting the rioters. During all this, a criminal power struggle
was going on in the ruling Congress party between the Pawar
faction and the Sudhakarrao Naik faction with the latter turning
a blind eye to the mayhem of the S.S. A big section of the
middle class, ‘educated and cultured’ were emotionally with the
lumpen mobs, cheering them and defending their actions in
private and in public. Marathi papers like Samnaa were daily
inflaming the most dangerous communal passions and tensions.
1 Some of the Urdu papers were not lagging behind. Big builders
and big traders were dishing out huge sums to mob leaders to
burn down slums or to get rid of rival businesses. Thus we
see that all the objective conditions were created for a mass
slaughter to take place. Despite all this, the number of victims
were contained at 650 dead and about 1,700 injured. How come?
There were two main reasons for this. First of all the masses
are not communal and criminal, despite what our modern
secularists may think of them. Infact the educated middle class
babus proved to be more communal and fascist than the toiling
29
masses. Of course the masses have communal prejudices that
are constantly fed to them by ‘the educated. However to
prejudices do not turn them into savages and murderers. 1 he
second reason is that in Bombay, the working people quic y
organised themselves into armed defence committees to not
only maintain peace but also to repel any outside mob. Without
these defence committees, the communal and lumpen elements
within slums would have exploited the situation, creating a
spiral of violence that would have claimed thousands and
thousands of victims. Infact the defence committees which were
first formed in slums and chawls soon spread to some buildings
and housing colonies. Of course in many buildings their motive
was "to prevent those zhopadpattiwallalis from attacking” or "to
defend themselves from Muslims who are coming." However the
important thing is that huge masses of people organised
together and with the help of simple weapons kept off the fas
cist mobs. This is of historic significance and there are impor
tant lessons to be learnt from this.
No faith in political parties!
The first significance of the mass defence committees is that
they signalled the complete lack of faith of the masses in par
liamentary political parties. In eveiy shim and chawl, there was
a common refrain. "The mandir-masjid ■ dispute is only a struggle
for power and we common people have to suffer." "All these
leaders are only interested in our votes". "We have lost faith
in all political parties."
However this lack of faith in all political parties did not lead
to cynicism and paralysis. It led to mass action. This is im
portant because lack of faith in politicians and political parties
is dangerous if it does not give rise to alternative mass actions.
In Bombay, while faith in established political parties dipped to
zero, the masses discovered and asserted a new found faith in '
themselves, in their united- strength, in their collective
solidarity. Where millions of people kept awake at night patroll
ing their areas, reassuring minorities, foiling the attempts of
anti-socials to foment trouble, they began discovering their own
power — PEOPLE’S POWER!
g
Sinking their political differences!
The loss of mass faith in political nartieq
wrarkers belonging to different parties to sink their
n
>
ferences, forget their party' affiliations, ignore their past disputes
and to become ONE against the external aggressor. In the
defence committees, nobody was a Congressi or Shiv Sainik,
Communist or Republican party worker. All had to come
together. All came together. In the past, all these political af
filiations and political identities divided the toiling masses. If
one slum committee was patronised by a Congress neta, another
rival committee was in the pockets of an SS corporator. During
every election, each of these political leaderships would give a
bagful of notes to their yes-men to set up booths, organise
padyatras and even to- buy votes. All this led to splits and
fights in every slum. The masses were lined up like sheep be
hind these rival political leaderships who gave big promises and
then betrayed them. The defence committees saw the opposite
process taking place. Political loyalties dissolved under mass
pressure and the struggle against the outside mobs. Dependence
on political parties was drastically reduced. Self reliance, reliance
on each other, became keywords. This was the second sig
nificance of the defence committees.
It was because of this significance that no parliamentary
party even recognised the existence of these armed defence
committees nor attempted to give them direction. All the parties
from the ‘secular’ Congress party to the Hindutva BJP were
united on this one point. Ignore the defence committees. Pretend
as if they don’t exist. This was not surprising. If the defence
committees during crisis develop into peoples committees when
‘normalcy’ is restored, would anyone bother about these political
leaderships? That is why the defence committees were deliberate
ly ignored. That is why we say to the people. "Ignore such
political leaderships. But at no cost ignore your defence commit
tees. Understand their historic importance and develop them fur
ther."
0
Mass actions from below!
The third significance of the defence committees was that they
were truly the result of mass actions from below. They were
not formed in only a few slums and chawls but in hundreds
of slums and chawls. Millions of people were involved in allnight vigilance and patrolling. Thousands of women - some
even behind the ghunghai or burkha, mobilised themselves to
fight the outside mobs. Even children played an important role
in alerting the elders.
31
In the past, only a part of a chawl or slum could be
mobilised for any struggle. At very few times, the whole slum.
In the work of defence, everybody was mobilised. People of all
castes and creeds came together. In the defence committees,
there was no Hindu-Muslim divide. Infact the opposite took
place. A special bond developed between Hindu and Muslim
neighbours.
In areas, especially in middle class areas, where the HinduMuslim divide was not overcome, defence committees could not
be formed. Such areas were terrorised by lumpen mobs who
looted, killed, raped and burnt. There is a lesson in this for
all the people. Unite together or be terrorised separately!
Order — when civil order breaks down!
The fourth significance of the defence committees is that they
arose as a response to the impotency of the police or even
military to stop the fascist mobs. Everywhere the common com
plaint was "We have lost faith in the police. The police cannot
protect or defend us." But what was significant was that the
people did not stop there. They began collectively organising for
their own defense and protection. When the Sarkari police
turned impotent, the masses became their own police. The
defence committees were embryonic people’s militias.
Not only were the people armed with simple weapons but
they maintained their own order and discipline. The most.
elaborate tactics of defence were worked out. This development
is important for the future when the fascists are creating con
ditions of civil strife and civil war.
At the best of times, the toiling people could hardly rely on
the police for protection. Now even less. The reason is that the
fascists have won a sizable section of the police to their side, zf
This section not only did nothing while the rioteers went ber-'
serk but in many cases even encouraged them. In a number of
cases, they instead arrested the common people who were
defending their zhopadpattis. Of course there is a section of the
police that is secular and anti-fascist. It was this section that
understood how helpless they were and hence went out of their
way to help the defence committees. In future, this section can
only fulfil their responsibilities by building the closest of links
with the toiling people and the anti-fascist, anti-communal forces.
32
Rejecting mantras of peace!
The fifth significance of the defence committees is that they
decisively rejected the pseudo-Gandhian outlook of fighting fas
cism by merely mouthing mantras of peace and non-violence.
This pseudo-Gandhian outlook has especially been propagated by
the Congress party for the consumption of the masses, while
the fascists have been allowed to build all kinds of senas under
Congress patronage. Sermons have been preached to the toiling
masses to remain peaceful while the fascist lumpens perpetrate
violence and terror. "Law and order" is for the common man
who honestly slaves for a living, while the fascists are allowed
to break any law with impunity.
The defence committees broke through this web of deceit.
Peace was defended by the masses through simple weapons. The
terror of the fascist mobs was resisted through mass defence.
The instigation of the communalists was firmly put down
through vigilance and mass pressure. The role of the police to
maintain "law and order" was replaced by the people themselves
maintaining law and order.
Today a number of political parties are talking of fighting
communalism and fascism. How come, they refused to recognise
the historic significance of the defence committees? How come
they refused to support this process from above? How come they
refused to demand that the peoples defence committees be given
state recognition? Is it because they want to deceive the people
with pseudo-Gandhian peace? Or do they believe that the fas
cists who have built private senas can be stopped with the help
of the police and the military? What happens when the fascists
come to power in Delhi? It is time political activists belonging
to different political parties confront their leaderships on these
"X questions.
Two divergent outlooks!
The sixth significance of the defence committees was that they
brought to the fore two sharply divergent outlooks of dealing
with the monster of fascism. On the one hand was the outlook
of the liberal bourgeoisie and on the other hand was the outlook
of the toiling masses. A section of the bourgeoisie was shocked
with how the lumpen mobs ravaged their "beloved city". Bombay
was not only their financial capital but also the place where
they and their families lived and socialised. But what affected
them most was: "What would happen to their foreign collabora33
tions?" "What would happen to their export orders?" "What
would happen to all their corporate plans?"
Out of this "anguish of heart and soul", the bourgeoisie began
vociferously making the most ‘tough’ demands. "Clamp partial
emergency". "Hand over the city to the military!" "Modernise the
police force!" etc, etc, etc. In short, the only solution the bour
geoisie saw was to further strengthen the state machinery.
This was not surprising. The exploiter classes are not opposed
to the lumpens per se. Infact it is considered sound business
practice to use them from time to time to crush the workers.
As far as the bourgeoisie is concerned, the lumpens can ter
rorise the masses in the slums 24 hours of the day or night.
That is not his concern. They are only affected when the lum- <
pens start affecting business and profits; when the lumpens
bring even Malabar- Hill and Marine Drive to a halt!" Tomorrow
if the BJP can ‘control and contain’ the various senas, better
than the Congress, the bourgeoisie will not hesitate to support
the BJP — all this while they are singing the virtues of
secularism.
The toiling masses on the other hand have very little faith
in "administrative measures". All the modernisation of the police
will finally be used to crush their struggles — not. the lumpen
class. The goondas will be arrested from the front door and
released by the back door. Their political patrons will protect
them and get them released on bail. The toiling people on the
other hand, rot in lock-ups and jails. Therefore, this lack of
faith in "administrative measures" is born out of bitter ex
perience.
The toiling masses require measures which can help them to
rely on their own strength and power. The defence committees
were an attempt to build this strength and power. With this
strength and power they kept the lumpen mobs from tearing
apart the city. If this strength and power is consolidated, they
can get rid of not just the lumpen class' but the source of
lumpenisation itself.
The exploiter classes have always deliberately prevented this
strength and power of the masses from developing. That is why
today there is a near conspiracy of silence about these defence
committees. No exploiter class or parliamentary political party
can and will tolerate these defence committees being given a
permanent form. What would happen if these defence committees
34
set up in hundreds of areas, formed a huge federation? What
would happen if the tens of thousands of youth who patrolled
the areas and maintained communal peace began organising
themselves into people’s militias and conducted weekly drills and
parades just as the RSS does? What would happen if these
peoples defence committees used their power against corruption
in the ration system, against black marketeering and hoarding?
What would happen if these people’s defence committees used
their power against government corruption? What would happen
if the people’s defence committees used their power against boot
legging, slumlordism and other criminals, who are patronised by
the ruling party to keep the people under constant terror? What
would happen if the people’s defence committees used their
power against MP’s, MLA’s, corporators, who break their
--promises? Such a political system would strike terror in the
hearts of all exploiter political parties. Hence the conspiracy to
let the defence committees disintegrate and die. Hence the con
spiracy to ensure that this IDEA does not take root and grip
the masses. Hence the people’s defence committees were totally
ignored, as if they did not exist. With the exception of a few
journalists, the press did not cover this historic process. There
were hundreds of horrifying photographs of arson, lootings and
of the lumpen mobs. How many photographs appeared in the
newspapers of the people of Bombay protecting their homes by
night? There were photographs of Shiv Sainiks in all the dailies.
How many photographs did you see of the real sainiks who
defended the people of Bombay? Doordarshan beamed to us the
usual hypocritical messages of discredited politicians and mini
sters to maintain peace. How come no program showed how
simple women folk organised for peace with laatnis (rolling pins)
and chilly powder?
What was worse, was how some ‘leaders’ went out of their
way to disarm the defence committees. On the one hand SS
-"'leaders who themselves roamed with arms were demanding that
the homes of the common people be searched by the police,
under the guise that "the Muslims had stored arms". On the
other' hand, rival leaders were also demanding such a police
search "to prove how peaceful the people are.
The exploiter parties can be expected to disintegrate the
people’s defence committees and kill this important idea. But
will we the toiling people allow this to happen? Will we our
selves kill the defence committees by saying: "Bombay has come
35
back to normal". "It is the job of the police to maintain law
and order- now and not ours."
Every day we complain that sab party chor hai. We are all
pining for a real alternative. The people’s defence committees
can grow into a powerful alternative — if not today, then
tomorrow. It can grow into a powerful alternative which will
shake the foundations of this exploitative and oppressive system.
An alternative that can resist successfully the onslaught of the
fascist forces.
One thing is sure. The people’s defence committees could
arise spontaneously in a period of crisis. However they can
only grow into a mighty alternative with the conscious deter
mination and sacrifices of thousands of people who have ex
perienced the magic of this idea'!
gf
36
Mocking official dogma
questioning conventional wisdom
challenging irrelevant traditions
not just once
but month after month.
Giving new insights into old problems
exposing who the culprits are
illuminating the way forward
for all who seek to know
and also struggle to change.
The Voice of People Awakening
and
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Address:
THE VOICE OF PEOPLE
AWAKENING,
254, Ambedkar Nagar,
MIDC Road No. 8,
P.O. Box 19417,
Andheri (East),
Bombay 400 093.
JAGRUTI JWALA
254, Ambedkar Nagar,
MIDC Road No. 8,
P.O. Box 19417,
Andheri (East),
Bombay 400 093.
An Appeal!
OUR country is at the crossroads. It is being hacked into
pieces by not only communal riots but also casteist mas
sacres. It is being bled by not only secessionist forces but
also by the para military, who slaughter innocent people in
the name of fighting secessionism. To top it all is the total
sellout by our rulers to the IMF hounds who are extracting
their pound of flesh by dictating ‘radical changes’ which will
not only destroy our industries but which will create mass
unemployment and stifling inflation, agonising pauperisation
and intense misery. All democratic struggles of the people are
being crushed and fascism is being hatched because even par
liamentary democracy has become a burden for our exploiters.
While most political parties line up to either directly or
indirectly pave the way for fascism, the people of oui' country
are desperately searching for a POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE
which can lead them out of this nightmare. This ALTERNA
TIVE is being built unheard and unsung in different parts
of the country where the best sons and daughters of our
land are challenging the policies of the ruling classes.
The Bharatiya Janwadi Aghadi is an anti-fascist, anti
imperialist, political front which is committed to building and
strengthening such an ALTERNATIVE. We call upon you to
join us and support us in our endeavour. You can support
us by distributing this booklet, translating it, contributing
financially and participating in our struggles and programmes.
Most important, you can be an activist in the struggle
against fascism.
Contact or write to us today!
BHARATIYA JANWADI AGHADI
254, Ambedkar Nagar,
MIDC Road No. 8,
Andheri (East),
Bombay 400 093.
9, New Gurupanpalya Slum,
Behind Drive-in Theatre,
OffBannerghata Road.
Bangalore 560 081.
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E^TRE AF SCIENCE FAB VILLAGES
£
Megan 3ar'^^akalay'a,
Wa/dka - 44^
(India^
\., :<3 Aoa<?
560 001
To the Scientist of India
“I wbuld like'yau lo be men, who stand up before the world
firm in your convictions. Let your zealfor the dumb millions
be not stifled in the search for wealth. I tell you, you can
devise a far greater ivireless instrument which does not
require external research but internal—and all research will
be useless if it is not allied to internal research—which can
link your hearts with those of the millions. Unless allfhe
discoveries that you make have the welfare of the-foor as
■ the end in view, all your workshops will be really no better
than Satan’s workshops."
' ■\
Gandhi
13.7.27
“ What have we to do if toe , are to save India in this' scientific
age ?■ First, we have to resolve to decide all social problems
by non-violent means. Secondly, science should be utilised
for producing instruments that would serve man and; not ■
armaments that would kill, Thirdly, the prevailing sitution'
- alone 'should decide whether science should be ordered to
produce big machines or-small ones. If we keep these akioms
in mind, we can derive immense benefit from science. Let
the growth of science be slfady and unimpeded, this is my
desire:”
'
„ y ,
V’noba Bhave
Printed at Maharashtra Printers, V^ardha
>
o
STRATEGY:
In 1935, when Gandhi .started'the Ail India Village
Industries Association (AMAj, he had invited the top scien
tist of the day to be on its Advisory Committee, including
Or. Jagdish Chandra Bose,‘Sir C. V. Raman, - Acharya Prafulla
Chandra Ray and others. The experiments in village industries,
he got initiated, were meant ndt only to improve the existing
crafts in the rural areas, but also'tch introduce new techniques
on the’basis,of the latest scientific knowledge; which would
improve rural economy. True, efforts so far, fall far short of the
expectation's of Sandhi, of converting’ the rural habitat into
an ideal setting which could afford Kmah the fullest expre
ssion to his being in close communion with fellow human
beings on one hand and Mother Nature on the other. Yet as
we look to the results of rural developmental work done by
voluntary agencies under Gandhi's inspiration for the past 50
years we find that there is great impact leading to the forma
tion of 1500-2000 dedicated people in small groups working
independently and are covering a large number of villages.
The.field of their activities is varied e.g.
Kh^di and Village
industries ; welfare of tribals, removal of untouchablity, basic
education, agriculture and cow protection iGoseva), welfare
of woman and children etc. This is no mean achivement
in a ceuhtry where, the gulf dividing urban elite and the village
people is probably the widest, the communication between
the elite class and the masses is weak; and the understanding
of the realities of the villages 'by the decision makers
is poor. Through these institutions, the application of,science'"
and technology; has to be done to meet* the requirements of
the poorest and to pursue the unfulfilled dream of Gandhi. ...
The Line of Approach:
'
•
The procedure to be adopted for this endeavour, will.
have,to take the experience of the past into consideration
and lay down the future p.lan of' action', in which, ,a!l jthe
available resources are utilized in such way that the lower
.most will be benefited.
The following points could act as. guidelines in this:
a)
The kind of techiniques which we pick up for the
villages should be such as to touch the life of the poorer
sections of the people and bring hope to the oppressed.
b)
These techniques should increase the avenues in .
rural, employment, prevent the 'erosion of talents from the
villages and enrich the life of the total community.
c)
All institutions engaged in rural Vvork, along with
their usual activities, should . undertake the,^responsibility of
introducing some appropriate techniques in their field. This
activity of transfer of technology.jfor the beneifit of.the poor
will give ready results, and it wilt also bring confidence in the
fulfillment-of the long range plans that are being implemented
by the institutions
i.'
• d)
In introducing new methods, it is necessary that
the. technological institutions and the scientists assist the
voluntary organisations doing constructive work, adding to the
efficient functioning of the project, this will give'an opportunity
for interaction betvfcgen the scientists and the social
workers.
\
;
Mobilizing- the Three. Forces: /
The need of the day is to bring about a forceful
movement by establishing co-operation between the voluntary
•
”5 '•
organisatians, the scientific institutions and the industries, for
the benefit of^tte less fortunate section of the society. Inqlia.
possesses thejargest- group of technologically trained people
in)the world. -Thesresult of their scientific work, ""however, .is.
unable to bring ready benefits to'the large number of people
living in the villages, as it is mostly urban oriented leading
to greater economic stratification of the society.
' The 'other great force that, can bring about rural
development is that of ’the industries in the .country. The
industrial sector should not only look for increasing producttion, but also- be responsible for the welfare of the weakest,
and removal of disparity in the land. ;
1 •. •
q
The Next Step: '
All these three forces, the 'agehcies doing constructive
work, the .technological Institutions and the industries, require
the establishment of bilateral links and need a source from ■
where information about the applicable techniques can be
obtained. To facilitate such co-ordinatipn, the^following are
/ being undertaken by the CSV.
■ ’
a) Documentation and Dissemination:
To collect and disseminate all such information from
the technological institutions and other agencies in India and •
abroad which will fit in with the objective laid down above.
b) Demonstration and-Experimentation’.
Such of the experiments which have been tested ahd
found to be fruitful, should be demonstrate.d at the centre..
6
c) Field Application:
In this work, the various voluntary agencies working
in rural areas will be approached and through them the
techniques which need to be perfected at the field level i. e, in
the villages, will be tried before making them available to the
nation Each institution could choose a few'techniques and.
experiment-them in one or more key villages so that small
villages around, them can Observe a particular technique that
are being introduced, thereby motivate people to apply the
observed technique.
. '
’
d) Co-ordinationin this endeavour. '
.The three kinds of institutions mentioned earlier could
associate themselves in a - co-ordinated movement. This
general plan is expected to lead to a pdfiesion amongst various
agencies, involved in the constructive work, taking the new
technology, to villages. . This is no? doubt a very ^ambitious
scheme and requires a tremendous amount of labour. But, the
optimism is that if once the people concerned, cgtch’ the idea,
beneficial results will flow out of it in a short period of time
and. will spur the nation towards the required direction;
j
The Centre of Science for villages at Magan
Sangrahalaya, the museum for rural industries founded by
Mahatma Gandhi in 1937 at Maganwadi, Wardha, will work
for the fulfilment of the Sutra (Formula) of—
Science +' Spirituality = Sarvodaya (Welfare of all)
IMPLEMENTATION:
Centre of Science for villages (CSV)
on the basis of
the approach initiated above, which was approved and co
signed by. Acharya Vinobo Bhave, took its first,step in 1977.
CSV puts before you the work'it has done for the past one
year. Initially the centre started with the-collection ot. relavent
information regarding the application of'scientific techniques to
rural areas, from various sources, and published ifelri a
form of booklet.-Then to post all the new techniques to those
whb are interested in rural development, CSV brings out a
bulletin called "Science for Villages'’.
•
Along with gathering aod dissemination of information,
demonstration of the applicable techniques was taken up.. A
low cost house was’ constructed at the centre, with' the
technical know-how and assistance of the. Building Research
Institute, Roor^ee. This model house is designed to suit the
black cotton soils : found in Wardba. In '-collaboration'with
Appropriate Technological Development - Association, CSV.
.organised a workshop on Solar Energy and collected some
solar heaters and fabricated some cookers, which are being
tested and exhibited.
CSV took up a scheme,to improve sanitation and to
do away with manual scavenging of night soil in some areas
of Wardha,- where large ' humber of poor people live. The.
'scheme is tp'provide simple lavatories , and train masons jj-"
building-aerobic manure tanks.'The centre was instrumental in
getting Wardha selected as one of-th'e twenty districts in India,
for a project of Integrated Rural Development. CSV emphasized
the need for ' intrbductioh of new employment aventie^ for the
landless and planned two schemas, (i) hand made paper units
from the fibres of banana stems, which go awaste, and (ii)
improvement of work shops of the. village black.smiths, which
is going to; be taken up soon . In Varud tillage the mud walls
of some of the houses were coated with Bitumen spray to
gaurd them against drosion, ball bearing pulleys on wells were
introduced, sbakpits -and ' lavatories were put up’ tyor
■; CpX
.i.-ks Aoas?
(001
8
environmental cleanliness. A dozen villages were chosen around
Seldoh, where late J. C. Kumarappa had worked, for the
introduction of techniques with the association,, of Leprosy
Relief Institution, Dattapur. Here intensive work is proposed,
to be taken up. For this CSV is making a project report on a
prototype station for rural techniques and this will be
submitted to the Department of Science and Technology,
Government of India, for financial assistance.
Links have been established with the Central Research
Laboratory of Khadi and Village Industries Commission, which
is adjacent to CSy, since the director of the centre, hag been
asked to act as the Honorary Advisor of the^ laboratory, The
Centre has an’advisory board of eminent persons viz.—
M. S. Swaminathan, A. Ramachandran, Y. Nayudamma,
D. S.. Kothari, C.Gopalan, J. P, Naik,
Radhakrishna,
Ramlal Parikh, C. V. S. Ratnam, N. M. Swani, iVl. S. Sodha,
A. P. Verma and V. G. Shide.
Courtesy—Madhaya Pradesh Sevak ,Sangh'.
STATEMENT
Of the CRI National Assembly, Morning Star Regional
Seminary Barrackpore December 29, 1991 - January 3,
1992
"The cry of the children of Israel has come to me, and
I have witnessed the way in which the Egyptians
oppress them, so come, I send you to Pharaoh to
bring the children of Israel, MY PEOPLE, out of Egypt".
(Ex. 3:9 -10)
1.0 THE CALL
1.1
This same cry of the suffering and the oppressed has been
heard in our land. Like Moses of old we today, more than
ever, are urged by the Lord of history to listen to their cry
in the burning bush of their struggles.
1.2
In the Eucharist, Jesus calls us in a significant way to listen
to this cry and to renew our commitment fully to the liberation
of the oppressed. The bread we break and the cup we drink
nourishes and strengthens us.
1.3
Reflecting together on "The Indian Situation and the Church's
Social Teaching", we, the Major Superiors of the Conference
of Religious in India, gathered at Morning Star Seminary,
Calcutta, are spurred by the urgency of this call to struggle
in solidarity with OUR POOR in the pilgrim movement towards
the Promised Land of the Kingdom of justice, peace and
love.
2.0 THE CONCERNS
2.1
Q '
The dehumanised dalits, the dispossessed tribals, the
discriminated against women, the marginalised ethnic and
other minorities, the enslaved bonded and child labourers,
the degraded slum-dwellers, and the unorganised agricultural,
industrial and domestic workers, have begun to raise their
voice and assert their rights in many parts of our country.
As followers of Jesus we can no longer take a neutral or
political stand. Their demands for human dignity, equal
opportunities, a just distribution of resources, and a share
in political power cannot be dismissed, and require that we
support these through our solidarity with their struggles.
The alarming trend of religious fundamentalism and the
consequent minority insecurity, too, are a source of grave
concern to us.
2.3
Our response becomes all the more urgent as, with the
receding of the Cold war era, we already see dominant
powers in the unipolar world determining the economic and
political climate of our country, thus affecting the already
poor condition of the marginalised.
2.2
2.4
We are also deeply aware of the growing demand of the
peoples of Asia and Africa, Latin America and Oceania,
for a just share of the World's resources, and for equal
participation in global decisions. The struggles of the migrants
and refugees, racial and ethnic peoples in various parts of
the world draw our attention to their cry for human dignity
and freedom.
3.0 INSPIRATION
3.1
In the movement of oppressed peoples towards liberation
throughout the world, we see signs of great hope. These
signs of the times reveal to us afresh the God of history
who is drawing us together as children of one family. All
over the world, amidst mighty upheavals, political movements
and unforeseen changes, we hear prophetic voices witnessing
to the indomitable spirit of man and woman. In their voices
we hear again the voice of Jesus who was good news to
the poor, who proclaimed liberty to captives, new sight to
the blind, freedom to the downtrodden.
3.2
In our corporate, prayerful reflection, we now hear Jesus'
prophetic voice echoing in the Church's social teaching of
the past 100 years. Raised in defence of the industrial
workers' rights a century ago, the Church's voice was the
expression of "her desire that the poor should rise above
poverty and wretchedness and better their condition in life".
(RN 23). Proclaiming first the rights of the human person
made to the image of God, the Popes' encyclicals have in
recent year laid increasing stress on the struggle for the
rights of oppressed groups and nations in a spirit of solidarity.
3.3
We hear the call of Vatican II to see the unity of the material
and the spiritual, to save the body as well as the soul; and
the call of the more recent papal documents inseparably
linking evangelisation and human liberation, and making
social justice an integral dimension of all apostolates.
Recalling this rich heritage of the Church's social teaching
of the past hundred years in Centesimus Annus, the present
Holy Father invites us to raise our prophetic voices against
the evils of liberal capitalism and consumerism.
3.4
We humbly acknowledge that we have failed to respond
radically to this call. We confess our sin in contributing to
oppressive structures within the Church itself: the sin of factions
and division of caste and language; of mutual recrimination
and suspicion among rites; of giving a lower status to women;
of clerical and religious monopoly of power. We are aware
that this sin within the Church has impeded her mission in
India and prevented us from being instruments of liberation
and witnesses of justice in society. We profess our desire
for the grace of a corporate conversion of heart.
4.0 RESPONSE
4.1
Sent on a mission to evangelise the world, we now pledge
our-selves to a new thrust for social justice in all areas of
our apostolate. We experience the urgency of this task and
call all our religious men and women to study, reflect on
and respond enthusiastically in order to bring about the
needed transformation.
4.2
We appeal to all Congregations to evaluate, re-orient and
prioritise their ministries in consonance with their varied
charisms. This will demand re-deployment and training of
personnel and distribution of material resources accordingly.
4.3
We are convinced that solidarity with Peoples' Movement
is an effective method of working for justice with the poor
of our country. We want to study its requirements and equip
our religious suitably.
4.4
We realise the magnitude of the task and offer to collaborate
with all those who are involved in working for justice at
all levels. We welcome issue-based collaboration with all
agencies after sufficient discernment.
4.5
We shall approach this complex activity of involving ourselves
in the struggle for justice in a professional manner. In order
to realise this we shall provide suitable training and include
the social teachings of the Church in our Formation
Programmes for those religious who are specifically missioned
to this area of apostolate.
4.6
We recognise that the present set-up in the CRI is not
conducive to immediate action in response to justice issues.
We therefore see the need to reorganise the Body at all
levels to facilitate effective action.
4.7
We want to evolve a way of life that leads to a spirituality
that is nurturing and supportive of action for justice
programmes. We urge that Major Superiors of each
Congregation address themselves to this task from the early
stages of formation. We invite theologians and spiritual guides
to join us in this journey towards an integration of life of
faith and new forms of action for justice.
5.0 SPECIFIC RESPONSE FOR 1992
5.1
The Joint Executive will get in touch with the relevant CBCI
Commissions that are already working in this direction and
collaborate with them, co-opting new persdnnel wherever
necessary. The National Secretary will, through the help of
the local CRI, identify voluntary agencies with whom we can
collaborate on issues and publish these through the News
letters.
5.2
We shall organise training programmes for action for justice
with a thrust for peoples' Movements. The methodology will
include exposure experience programmes for those missioned
to the social apostolate, outreach programmes for those
engaged in the educational, medical, pastoral and
evangelical apostolates, and for Major Superiors who feel
the need for such exposure for their animation work.
5.3
We urge Major Superiors during the course of the year to
initiate a community study and reflection on the social
teachings of the Church using the input material provided
during this Assembly, and then to help the community to
formulate its own Action Plans. A synthesised report is to
be sent to the CRI Secretariate which will circulate it among
the member Congregations for mutual inspiration and
encouragement.
Into that Heaven of Freedom, my Father,
Let my Country awake I
*****
NOTE : EXPLANATION OF THE TERM 'PEOPLES' MOVEMENTS'
1.
'Peoples" refer primarily Io such marginalised groups as dalils, tribal
ethnic minorities, bonded and child labour, women, unorganised agricultural,
industrial and domestic workers, etc. Secondly, it refers to those sections
of society which are denied civil, economic, social, political, rights.
Environmental movements,, consumer societies, Peoples' Union for Civil
Liberties, etc. are some of the forms taken by these sections.
2.
3.
In brief, the first section concerns itself with the question of structural justice,
and the second with rights.
'Movements' refers Io the organisation of people by a process of
empowerment through critical awareness of the structural causes of injustice,
their mobilisafiop for political action on issues carried out in a democratic
manner, and their networking at the semi-macro and macro levels with
other movements.
Issue-based action will require legal, medio and other forms of support.
In this respect, any organisation, association, forum, etc., cannot be
considered as movements except insofar as they form part of the movement
we have described above. However, they can also function as supportive
of such movements.
The “Peoples' Movements' we have referred Io above are not Io be identified
with militant or terrorist groups or organisations which believe in the use
of armed force Io achieve their objectives.
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