Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia: Liberalism and Politics

 


By Prem Nath Kirpal

DYAL SINGH was not a politician. Parliaments, Councils, Ministers, electorates, parties, majorities - such words were not in common use during his lifetime. The times during which he lived were non-political, generally in India and particularly in the Punjab. The country was experiencing a quiet and slow renaissance in all the spheres of life. Men had begun to question things and to apply reason to old customs and conventions of society. The modern man was becoming conspicuous. All over India, great leaders arose whom themselves appreciated and asked their countrymen to adopt some of the most commendable features of western civilization. People were deeply interested in education, reform of social customs and material prosperity. Men were too busy to think of political rights. Interest in politics was only confined to a very small fraction of upper classes, the almost negligible minority of graduates of the universities. Even their attitude towards the Government was more of admiration than criticism. The admiration of that generation was inevitable. The university graduate received his education in English, studied the literature and institutions of the English people and acquired great interest in them. The Government in England was strong and benevolent and the masses had not risen to the standard of enlightenment and prosperity necessary for the birth of political consciousness. Parliamentary Government in England was at the height of its success and utility. Issues were simple; a small electorate took active interest in political questions; and the leadership of an enlightened and liberal upper class never failed to produce great statesmen of the caliber of Gladstone and Disraeli, men who worked Parliamentary democracy almost to perfection. The Government of England stood to the whole world as a model of what a government ought to be. The Indian graduate in the last seventies read the impassioned utterances of Gladstone reported by the newspapers; he had already studied the orations of Burke in his textbooks. Out of these arose an academic interest in liberty.

The men of the last eighties who founded the Indian National Congress were utopians; the few of them who had practical programs were not democrats. In fact, politics only formed an aspect of the Liberal Movement, which was gradually transforming society, and in the second half of the nineteenth century this aspect was not prominent though it was coming increasingly into the limelight. Sardar Dyal Singh evinced much interest in politics but he realized that his countrymen must deserve political rights before they could be enjoyed. To deserve political rights it was necessary to liberalize social customs and remove social shackles by the spread of liberal education. To this end his countrymen were to devote their energies. The public must be educated and the duty of an enlightened leader like him was to articulate public opinion and to keep the Government in touch with it. For this end he started The Tribune newspaper and managed educational institutions. The Tribune, under his wise direction and tactful management, began to exercise an influence in the Punjab. Under the Lieutenant-Governorship of Sir Dennis Fitzpatrick, a Punjab civilian once wrote to the "Pioneer" newspaper at Allahabad that the Punjab was being ruled by the Governor and The Tribune and that the Secretaries and district officers were nowhere. The Sardar was very well informed about current politics and sometimes wrote very able editorial notes for The Tribune. He loved the spirit of British institutions; he adored parliamentary government of England and he was loyal to British rule. But he did not like the bureaucracy and never went to humor the much-humored executive officers. With his education, his position, his family and wealth he could have easily won official honors and favors; but he never cared for them and hated the highbrow attitude of the bureaucrat. He was independent and did not care to please even the highest officers. Dyal Singh associated himself intimately with the Indian National Congress from its foundation. In 1888 he went to attend the Congress session at Allahabad. The Congress of that year met under the open disapproval of the Governor of the United Provinces and only bolder spirits joined the ranks. Dyal Singh had no mind to go to Allahabad but the official attitude made him firm in his decision to stand by the Congress at that juncture. In 1893 the Congress was held at Lahore under the presidency of Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji, M.P. Sardar Dyal Singh was elected as the Chairman of the Reception Committee and delivered a remarkable address which deserves to be quoted at length. The address illustrates the politics of the times, with which the Sardar was in full accord. At the outset the Sardar praised the advantages of British rule, which were gratefully acknowledged by even the most patriotic Indians of those days. "It is our peculiar good fortune to live under a Government which, by the spread of liberal education and the annihilation of distances, has made it practicable for us - the inhabitants of the remote parts of this vast empire - to meet every year at different centers to discuss those great problems so intimately connected with the advancement and prosperity of our Fatherland. We have a glorious past, of course, of which we need not be proud, and clearly see the both the rulers and the subjects.... And let us trust that our rulers will not misunderstand our utterances, nor misjudge our actions but will be considerate and charitable towards us. Give us our just rights, concede our reasonable demands, govern us on principles of equity and good conscience and strengthen the foundations of the Empire by broad basing it upon the people's will." At the end of the session the President, Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji, the Grand Old Man of India, praised Dyal Singh for his great work in the Congress. Indeed the session of 1893 at Lahore, had taken place largely through the interest and patronage of the Sardar. The address from which we have quoted above was widely reported and favorably commented upon by the newspapers all over India and even in some of the English papers. The session of 1893 did immense good to the younger generation in the Punjab. Liberal politics permeated all over the province and the feeling of nationalism gained ground. Dyal Singh continued to work actively for the Congress by propagating liberal views through the agency of The Tribune, which had become a very influential paper shortly after it came into existence in 1881.

Soon after the Lahore Congress session of 1893, the Sardar gave his attention increasingly to political questions which were beginning to assume importance. It is quite likely that if his life had been spared for a few years more, Dyal Singh would have played a prominent role in the political times, which came soon after his death. It was inevitable that a man like him who was devoted to the cause of Reform and whose very breath was progress, should identify himself with the new thought and new movements of times. Men, who, in the restlessness of youth, start with a radical outlook on social and political questions, gradually settle down to a conservative attitude. In most case hopes and aspirations, political programs and social utopias, once burning with human energy and zest, cool down in the course of time. Dyal Singh, however, was cast in a different mould. With a generally poor health and a suffering body, he had an active and growing mind which always leapt forward to embrace new ideas. It was due to this unceasing intellectual zest and a continuous broadening of outlook that the Sardar anticipated forces which had to mature into movements in later ages. Though he serious attention to political problems, which were about to burst after his death, during the last few years of his life. In 1895 Dyal Singh wrote a small booklet in English on Nationalism. In the pamphlet the Sardar discussed, at llength, national feeling with special reference to India's needs.

The book was registered under Act XXV of 1867, and copies were circulated among the members of the Congress, the members of the Indian Association and the friends and admirers of the Sardar. The booklet was widely appreciated. The Sardar continued to be the President of the Standing Committee of the Indian National Congress. Lala Harkishen Lal gives a wonderful testimony to the Sardar's grasp of public affairs in the following words:" For a short time once I was asked to hold the charge of The Tribune as Editor. I had written to newspapers before but I had not tackled everyday incidents from the editorial chair before. When the Manager of the Tribune brought me a note to this effect from the Sardar, I had much hesitation but I was assured that the Sardar was willing to help me if I undertook the task. I agreed. I wrote some notes the following morning, took them to him and read out the same to him. His criticism and remarks showed me that he had followed the trend of public affairs more closely than an ordinary educated man does and especially, a Sardar; but I was surprised to find that he had also written for me or for the Tribune a few notes himself which he had handed over to me to be printed if I liked. I did let them go in the paper. They were much appreciated and I got the credit for them." Dyal Singh was also the first Chairman of the Indian Association, a liberal body of young and educated Punjabis, which came into existence in the eighties of the last century. The Sardar continued to guide the activities of this body till his death and his advice was generally useful to the Association. In 1897 Dyal Singh led a deputation of the Indian Association to present an address to His Honor Sir William Mackworth Young, the Lieutenant Governor of the Province.

It is very difficult to define Dyal Singh's political opinions because he was not a politician in the modern sense of the term. There is no party label, no dogmatic political creed, and no catchword, for which the Sardar stood. To him politics were something subsidiary to reform and liberalism, the main interest of his life. Liberal aspirations, political or social, always thrilled him. But liberalism in his time was more needed in social fields than in the reconstruction of political systems. To Dyal Singh liberalism was the principle, reform was the program; but the field was much vaster then and something transcending the petty political issues. He breathed the Reformers' optimism, characteristic of the Victorian Age; he fought for justice through his newspaper whenever any wrongs came to light; he was intensely patriotic. But beyond that, his political thought did not go. In his politics Dyal Singh was the child of his age. This article has been made up of exttracts from the unforgettable book, "Dyal Singh Majithia - A Short Biographical Sketch," written individually by two distinguished scholars, educationists and administrators in 1935.