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extracted text: quotable quotes

Rammanohar
Lohia

BIO GRAPHICAL SKETCH
March 23.1910 : Bom at Akbarpur in
Faizabad district fU.P.)
Father - Hiraial, Mother
- Chandri.
1928
: Came in ciosc contact
with Jawaharlal Nehru
and Subhas Chandra Bose
and participated in the
boycott of Simon Com
mission.
1929
: Graduated from Vidyasagar College, Calcutta.
1932
: Took Ph.D. in Econom
ics from University of
Berlin.
1934
: Actively participated in
the formation of the
Congress Socialist Party.
May 24, 1939 : Arrested for the first time
for his anti-war views in
Calcutta.
July 1, 1940
: Sentenced to twta ycar£
rigorous imprisonment
for delivering a fiery

QUOTABLE

QUOTES

Rammanohar Lohia

Compiled by
K.C. Seth
Publications Division)
Ministry of Information
And Broadcasting
Government of India

COMMUNITY health celu
326. V Main. I Elock
Koramongsla
Ben ' .-.-v3..',.C4

India
December 1990 (Pausa 1912)

p/zjzro
©Publications Division
Price: Rs. 1.00

Published by the Director, Publications
Division, Ministry of Information and Broad
casting, Government of India, Patiala House,
New Delhi - 110001.
Printed at:
Seema Offset Press, Delhi-6

Publisher's Note
We are happy to introduce
the new series 'Quotable Quotes'
from great men and women of In
dia. It is said that a good saying is
like fragrance which lingers on en
thusing our lives and deeds. If we
start our day with a good thought
perhaps that may give us necessary
fillip which is much needed to face
tension-ridden modem day life. We
hope the readers will welcome the
series of these mini-anthologies
which are handy and can easily fit
into a pocket or a purse.

Dr. S.S. Shashi
Director'

O India, Mother! Give us
the mind of Shiva,
the heart of Krishna,
and the word and deed
of Ram. Create us with
a non-dimensional mind
and an exuberant heart,
but a life of limits.
-Rammanohar Lohia

SOCIALISM
Socialism should cease to live on bor
rowed breath.

More than three fourths of the Indian
peopieare outside the main current of
politics; those who are expected to make
history are out of it. To bring them into
the great halls of collective life, as
creators and not as objects, should be
the supreme aim....

Anger towards those above and aloof
ness to those below is not socialism;
the oneness of sympathy and the
anger against exploitation can alone
combine to produce right socialism.
Let it be realised that socialism has
tended to over-emphasise the envi-

5

COMMUNITY HEALTH celu
328, V Main. I Block
Korar.'.ongala
Ben >!o:c-5G0034
lacia

■

December 1990 (Pausa 1912)

©Publications Division

Price: Rs. 1.00

Published by the Director, Publications
Division, Ministry of Information and Broad
casting, Government of India, Patiala House,
New Delhi - 110001.
Printed at:
Secma Offset Press, Delhi-6

Publisher’s Note
We are happy to introduce
the new series ’Quotable Quotes'
from great men and women of In
dia. It is said that a good saying is
like fragrance which lingers on en
thusing our lives and deeds. If we
start our day with a good thought
perhaps that may give us necessary
fillip which is much needed to face
tension-ridden modem day life. We
hope the readers will welcome the
series of these mini-anthologies
which are handy and can easily fit
into a pocket or a purse.

Dr. S.S. Shashi
Director

SOCIALISM
O India, Mother! Give us
the mind of Shiva,
the heart of Krishna,
and the word and deed
of Ram. Create us with
a non-dimensional mind
and an exuberant heart,
but a life of limits.
-Rammanohar Lohia

Socialism should cease to live on bor
rowed breath.

More than three fourths of the Indian
people are outside the main current of
politics; those who are expected to make
history are out of it. To bring them into
the great halls of collective life, as
creators and not as objects, should be
the supreme aim....
Anger towards those above and aloof
ness to those below is not socialism;
the oneness of sympathy and the
anger against exploitation can alone
combine to produce right socialism.

Let it be realised that socialism has
tended to over-emphasise the envi-

5

roninent and under-emphasise the

individual.

Socialism stands for equali ty and pros
perity.

The destiny of the world hangs on the
question whether socialism would be
able to acquire a world face. A first step
towards that is to cleanse the socialist
doctrine of the multiple layers of dust
that many decades of ideological schisms
have accumulated and to enrich it
with the truths that have been discov
ered but are lying unused. Mutuality
between theory and facts must be
established so that, while theory must
ever seek to mould facts, it must also
be willing to be moulded by them.
6

Socialism is already on the world stage
and if some of the ideas of Gandhiji
can be woven into a consistent cloth of
socialism, the new civilization may
emerge and mankind may hope for an
age of peace and decent living.
PERCEPTION & PRACTICE

Truth is either whole or not at all.
What is perhaps loosely meant by
idiom 'partial truth' is not the denial of
whole truth but assertion of aspectual
truth or truth from an angle. All truth
is discovered from the aspect or the
angle which the seeker* orjowner adopts.
Error may lie in not taking up the
angle properly, or, even if a proper
aspect or stance were adopted, error
may arise from hurried, blocked or
careless view.
7

Working on aspects in a knowingly
aspectual manner, one does not have
to tutor facts to fit them into a theory
nor to torture theory in order to in
clude all the facts.
A necessary work of mind is to under
stand what exists, and at the same time
to form a picture of wha t ought to exist
and then to weave a relationship
between the two. In brief the function
of the mind- is to understand 'is' and
'ought7 or 'actual' and 'ideal'. But if
'ought' becomes 'is', all hope for the
future and for enlightenment is lost.
The ideal in its abstract form motivates
thought and in concrete form moti
vates action. The one cannot live with
out the other and if it does it stinks. In

8

order to link the general ideal to the
current reality it must have a concrete
image. The abstract must first be trans
lated into the concrete in order to be
standard for measuring the current
realities.

When, therefore, I have cautioned
against the danger of actualizing the
ideal in the shape of a person I am
perfectly well aware of the fact that we
cannot do without teachers, wecannot
do without leaders, we cannot do
without loyalty, we cannot do without
imitation.
Abstract equality, for instance, must
continually be brought into relation
ship with concrete equality and other
generalization must be treated simi

9

larly. Otherwise, the tongue will con
tinually spin the charkha and hands
will as continually set up textile
machines. The tongue will sing of non
violence and equality and hand will
practise inequality and use the gun.

clarity of policy if in its process unity of
endeavour is destroyed? What worth is
unity if clarity is not there? I hope that
it will be possible to adjust both claims,
without having to sacrifice one to the
other.

The abstract must be clothed in such a
way as corresponds to the age and the
clime and the concrete should never be
thought to be basically similar to the
status quo.

Means are ends in the short run and
ends are means in the long run.
Whatever method one employs in
order to achieve one's desired aim
tends to become the end in the long run
and whatever aim one desires to
achieve, if one goes about the process
intelligently, the means are piecemeal
achievements to that end.

The Indian mind has acquired a re
markable capacity for divorcing the
abstract from the concrete and that is
the root 6f”our all evils.

DISCIPLINE & EFFICIENCY
Let us not forget that clarity is as
essential as unity. What worth is
10

t

Discipline does not concern itself with

•

11

what should not be done but more
with what should be done.

To bow down before an act of indisci
pline on the plea that everyone is
guilty of indiscipline spells the end to
all principles, policies and rules, and a
concept like indiscipline in action be
comes meaningless.
To frame rules is a big thing, but
equally important is their observance.

Stagnation or relegation of a civiliza
tion so matured becomes inevitable
until such time that it seeks a new
direction of efficiency and its creative
energies are re-awakened.

there is health, vigour and general
movement and, internally, different
sections of the population engage in a
class struggle to improve their various
lots and, externally, they withstand
pressures from outside and even draw
sustenance from other societies.

The root cause of all the factors in the
fall of civilization lies in the character
of internal as well as external motions
of a society that has reached maxi
mum efficiency and can go no further
and must like the monstrous reptiles
of nature, fall under its own weight or
outside pressure.

What is relevant is correct thinking and
an integrated approach. Our mind must
ever be on a quest....

As long as efficiency con tinues to grow,
12

13

Where there is no division of work and
only one or two persons take all the
responsibility on their shoulders, there
cannot be an efficient organisation.
A people or a political party is strong
only when its constituents learn to
work within the circles of limited
authority, subject themselves to pub
licly known principles of action, do
not allow their energies to run waste
because of wayward or arbitrary
behaviour and are joined together in
progress through the bond of free mind.
EQUALITY & JUSTICE

Actually weapons mean injustice.
Weapons are either meant to elimi
nate injustice or to reduce its intensity
and that is why if injustice is totally
eliminated there will be no need for
armaments.

Freedom can exist only when there is
equali ty in all the walks of life. Wi thout
equality, to talk about freedom is to
deny freedom to many in the interest
of a few.
Poverty and inequality march together
for they are both derived from a rele
gated civilization and a hardened con
science.

The eye must redden at an act of injus
tice, even while it sheds a tear....

The concept of equality should not rest
on abstract but on the practical one
that all men must be equal not within a
nation but also among nations.

14

15

No nation can for long remain equal
within its frontiers if it is unequal against
those outside. As water finds its level,
so human society tends to approxi
mate to its lowest levels, unless these
levels are otherwise raised.
As an abstract concept and generaliza
tion, equality can only mean an
atmosphere, an emotion and perhaps
also a wish that all arrangements,
political, social or economic snail be
equal between one individual and
another.
The desire for equality in the modem
world has become the desire for being
similar and not equal. The effort to be
equal both in collective and individual
sphere will be corrupted if it simply
becomes the desire to be alike.

Economic inequality leads to social
injustice and it also hampers produc
tion.
If a society ever reaches the stage of
possible equality, if not total equality,
a stage might be reached for doing
away with the weapons.

Equality must be grasped in all its
four meanings. Materialequality must
mean the outward approximation
among nations as well as the inward
approximation within the
nation.
Spiritual equality must mean outward
kinship as much as it means inward
equanimity. Only an integrated con
cept of these four meanings ot equa
nimity, kinship, material equality within
the nation and among nations is

16

17

worthy to become a supreme aim of life
and its purpose.
Real unity could be brought about by
removing all the distinctions of high
and low, rich and poor, and touchables
and untouchables.

Man must strive to feel an inward
equality between contrary conditions
of pleasure and pain, heat and cold,
victory and defeat.

Liberty is inseparable from equality.
LIBERTY & DEMOCRACY
A people that tolerates internal tyr
anny is, in course of time, acclimatized

18

to it and is prepared to tolerate the
subjugation by a foreign power. A
country becomes slave to a foreign
power if its inhabitants are not con
scious and vigilant.
The freedom of the individual would
seem to depend as much on external
as on internal conditions of equality,
also the mental or the material.

The concept of salvation after death
has given birth to complementary
notion of salvation in life.
The people become makersof theirown
destiny only if they enjoy adequate
power in the direct democracy of a
small community and also in the belief
that an old civilization cannot be other
wise revived into fresh forms of life
and hope.
19

The Government of the people, by the
people, for the people may be achieved
through the government of commu
nity on the one hand, and the govern
ment of mankind for mankind on the
other.

Mari's right to travel, work and die
anywhere in the world should be rec
ognized and laws ol restrictions on
travel and stay on grounds of indi
gene or undesirability should be
abolished. Citizenship should as much
be a matter of intention and cultural
loyalty as of birth or residence.
Freedom of speech includes the right
to speak things not necessarily right.
What is right or wrong must be al
lowed to be judged by the people.
Restrictions should be imposed only

20

when it can be established that the
security of the country is in danger.

The individual's welfare and happi
ness, education and health, also his
leisure and much of his life and thoughts
are subject to planning of various kinds.
In India people working in the public
sector are deprived of their rights.
They become Govt, servants. Laws have
been made prohibiting them from
taking membership of any political
party. This is wrong. This will mean
socialist slavery as in a socialist system
the public sector will go on increas
ing. Therefore, political rights of all
the government servants must be
protected.

If one cannot give life, one has no right
to take it. COMMUNITY HEALTH Cclk

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India

National freedom is on the way to
becoming men's irremovable prop
erty.

Violation of human rights no matter
where they take place should arouse
warm sympathy with the victims and
indignation against the tyrant.
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
Civil disobedience is assured reason.

A day may come later when the whole
nation is summoned to organise resis
tance against injustice and for the
achievement of a new order.

When thousands suffer, millions are
awakened. When thousands pass
through the fire of sufferings, their
purity and strength increase. Indian
history has always placed on its agenda
the question as to whether the spirit of
killing or the spirit of suffering shall
seize the land.
When disobedience is open and un
armed, it strengthens the state and
encourages active obedience to just and
proper laws.

Only a moron will assert that civil
disobedience of the law spreads anar
chy and destroys the state.

When we have recourse to weapon we
become weak of heart. Those who rely
on weapons do not rely on their hearts.
They turn into slaves of their own
weapon. They have no strength left in
themselves.

22

23

Satyagraha or class struggle must pass
the test of immediacy and it must not
make use of lies, deceit or violence.
Crude practices should be eliminated.
In the modem world where two third
of the world is so steeped in misery and
poverty, parliamentary means will of
ten be found to be inadeouate.
For the first time in the world the weapon
of civil disobedience which had been
in use by great men from Socrates to
Thoreau was put into the hands of
whole masses of men by Mahatma
Gandhi.
As collective resistance involves not
alone the fate of an individual but of
many, it must be resorted to only
after collective decisions and sanc
24

tions have been taken at all appropri
ate levels.

While a revolution may regrettably
erupt into violence in its last stages,
particularly when a decaying govern
ment seeks to dispense with demo
cratic forms, participants in a revolu
tion must definitely resolve to organise
on the continuing base of peaceful
methods. Mankind will ever hurtle
from the hands of one tyranny and
irresponsibility into another if it con
tinues to seek and organise its revolu
tions through violence.
I am being accused of propagating
violence these days. No, I should like
to maintain non-violence. But if the
only way to save ourselves from this
cruel, inhuman, barbaric violence is that
25

we take to organise violence, then, 1
would be willing to use organised
violence.
I can at least understand mass violence
at the last moment when the capture of
power is on the agenda. But killing
otherwise is revolting me, or any form
of beating or indignity to human body
or mind.
In fact, civil disobedience has a spe
cific purpose alone in a free and
democratic country. Under other con
ditions the use of violent methods
may not be altogether unavoidable and,
in any case, its condemnation is not
above debate.

outside the prison breeds hypocrisy,
untruth and individualism.

That is the kind of revolution that I
have in mind, where things will hap
pen, where efforts will be made to end
existing tyranny, where laws will be
violated, where people will suffer,
where beatings and dea ths will abound
evenby thousandand more, but where
revolutionaries will not employ agen
cies of fear and hate in order to achieve
their purpose.

SOCIAL EVILS

A hunger strike for any public reason,
and which is publicly undertaken

The entire scale of values has been
upset.... To beg is believed to be less
shameful than to do manual work....
A general atmosphere of fraud pre
vails, for to protect caste-men and

26

27

relations becomes an aim rather than
to protect justice and national well
being.
National character cannot be built on
the shaky foundations of untruth,
hypocrisy, ostentatious and conspicu
ous consumption.

Greatest danger to character comes
from greed and big money, wasteful
expenditure and the social prestige
that is falsely associated with it.
On the one side, we come across
national language, national dress,
national food and national architecture.
Arrayed against these stand feudal
language, feudal dress, feudal food and
fedual architecture.
28

An awareness of nation's history
moulds the Nation's present. This
awareness must be objective and
truthful and should correspond to
events as they actually took place.
Due to caste system Indian character
has become the most split in all the
world.

Many socialists honestly but wrongly
think it is sufficient to strive for eco
nomic equality and caste inequality will
banish of itself as a consequence.
They fail to comprehend economic
inequality and caste inequality as twin
demons, which have both to be killed.

With caste develops disinterest and
disinterest of the people leads to de
fact in war.

29

Life moves within the frontiers of caste
and cultured men speak in soft tones
against the system of caste, while its
rejection in action must not occur to
them.
On no account do the high-castes com
prise more than one fifth of India's
population. But they keep to themselves
almost four-fifth of the nation's leader
ship.
Caste restricts opportunity. Restricted
opportunity constricts ability. Con
stricted ability further restricts oppor
tunity. Where caste prevails, opportu
nity and ability are restricted to ever
narrowing circles of the people.

Of all injustices plaguing the earth,
arising out of the inequality between
sexes are perhaps the bed rock....
30

Two segregation of caste and women
are primarily responsible for the de
cline of spirit in India.
Certain disadvantages of earlier aging
and bodily strength apply to woman
and the crust of customs centuries old
reduces her to the second sex. Giving
her equal opportunity would not solve
the problem of inequality between the
sexes. When a group of people is held
down by debility, physical or cultural,
the only way to bring it up to equality
with others is through conferment of
preferential opportunities.
LANGUAGE

How can there be democracy when the
work of the Govt, is not done in the
people's language? It is slavery which

.. 31
X^-50
bvErv i ere

functions through an alien language.
Jesus Christ spoke in Aramaic. It has
nothing to do with English. It is closer
to Hindustani than to English.

I am no enemy of English language, but
I have also no doubt that as long as
English rules the public life of this
country, minority rule and corruption
will also stay.

RELIGION
Religion must shed its querulousness
and its defence of the existing order.
We are living today in an unfortunate
situation when religion has almost
nothing to do with struggle against evil
and has become lifeless while politics
has become far too querulous and use
less.
32

Hinduism has given its votaries, the
commonest among them, the faith of
metaphysical equality or oneness be
tween man and man and things, such
as has never fallen to the lot of man
elsewhere. Alongside of this faith in
metaphysical equality goes the most
heinous conduct of social inequality.
It is true that Rama of Hindu will
never get respect equal to Rahim in
the heart of Islam, and similarly Rahim
of Islam will never get respect equal to
Rama in the Hindu's heart, but both
should respect each other's gods.
There would be no Hindu-Muslim
problem today or when partition was
accepted if Hindus and Muslims had
been able to interpret their history
unitedly and learnt to live in peace.

33

ECONOMIC FOUNDATION
Regional inequality in production is
the world's most dangerous and obsti
nate disease.
There is need not alone to secure full
employment but also such employ
ment as producescomparatively equal
wealth in all the regions of the world.

Small-unit technique, power driven of
course as distinct from large-scale
technique, can be a better road to
engineering to achieve new formation
of capital on a world scale.

Socialist distribution is not the
immanent law of post-capitalist
development, it is the resul t of an effort
of will acting in uni ty wi th an appropri
ate economy.
34

The poverty oflndiais vast and for its
removal not only the imperialist sys
tem must be destroyed but the entire
population should engage in a mighty
and cooperative economic endeavour.

The co-existence of public and private
sectors in our caste-ridden society has
brought corruption and is responsible
for an unholy alliance between the
capitalist and the bureaucracy.
The mind must no longer be clogged by
an tiqua ted notions of large scale indus
try or of cottage industry. A rigorous
search must be made to see how far
power, whether in the form of oil or
electricity or coal, can be used for the
propelling machines that do not need
heavy capitalization.
35

In a civilized society, incomes and prices
must keep in step, but in India, prices
gallop at horse speed, while incomes
lag behind at donkey pace.... I want
strike not for raising D.A. but forprice
control.

Those who get incentive only from fat
money and luxurious living are not
needed by thiscountry,andit is better
if their existence is obliterated from
the face of the earth. Only that political
party has future now in the country
which would make itself the spear
head of the social revolution and by
its organisation herald a new dawn.
Hunger can be removed only by those
who are truthful and who forgo their
desire for increasing poverty.
36

: Again arrested in Bom
bay and sent to Lahore
Fort Prison.
April II, 1946 : Released alongwilh Jaya
Prakash Narayan.
: Became first President
1949
of the Hind Kisan Panchayat
May 25, 1949 : Sentenced to two months
imprisonment for lead
ing a procession towards
Nepal Embassy.
: Took part in International
July 3, 1951
Socialist Conference in
Frankfurt (Germany).
: Elected General Secre
1953
tary of the P.S.P.
: Became Chairman of the
1955
Newly formed Socialist
Parly of India.
: Advocated a new form of
1958
civil disobedience, i.c.
GHERA DALO move
ment which has now
become famous as
G HER AO.
: Entered the Lok Sabha.
1963
Oct. 12, 1967 : Death finally cut the
journey of his life.
May 20,1944

! have nothing of my own except the
fact that the poor and the common
people of India believe that perhaps 1
belong to them.
The people will listen to me, perhaps
after I am dead, but listen they must
some day. What is wanted is a new type
of leadership and a new quality among
the people.
-Rammanohar Lohia

PUBLICATIONS DIVISION
MINISTRY OF INFORMATION 6 BROADCASTING
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

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