Hazrat-e-buddhu
bhi Gandhi ke saath hain

Zarra-e-khaq hain magar aandhi ke saath hain

There is
little justice in translation. Akbar Allahabadi, the iconic 19th-20th century
satirist, would have been especially amused at any transition of his Urdu into
English. How do you convey to an alien culture that Hazrat, an honoured title
for a holy man, can also become an acerbic appendage for any holier-than-thou hypocrite?
I hope this transliteration will serve: Even the Honourable Ass is with Gandhi;
He may be a mere speck of ash, but he is with an aandhi (storm).

Allahabadi
wrote this during Gandhi's first great mass movement, for swaraj, between 1919
and 1922, the wonder of its age. An astonished British Raj watched the Muslim
clergy, led by Imam-e-Hind Maulana Azad and Maulana Abdul Bari, gladly cede
leadership of its Khilafat jihad to a frail Gujarati Bania. For a century the
British had played off Hindu against Muslim with the impunity of an umpire who
can change the rules to suit his decision. Communal violence lay at the deadly
edge of this game. As the perceptive Jinnah told the viceroy Lord Chelmsford in
1918, "I know very well that in the Indian states you hardly ever hear of
any Hindu-Muslim riots." (We should make a comparative study of riots
under British rule and Indian princely states part of our curriculum).

For those
three shining years, Gandhi inspired the magnificent power of Hindu-Muslim
unity. His call for swaraj rose from a welter of intermeshed whispers to a
storm that shook the impregnable oak of British rule till it trembled like a
leaf. But an aandhi does not pick and choose each speck of dust that
collectively turns it into a historic force. It diminishes differences of
character or ideology, and eases contradictions because it is propelled by a
single purpose that is far higher than individual or sectarian interest. And so
the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind mobilised Muslims for Gandhi while the Hindu Mahasabha
worked its field since both wanted India's liberation from colonial rule.

All mass
movements have this ability to step over internal hurdles. The CPI(M) was on
the left flank of the anti-Emergency upsurge between 1975 and 1977 and Jana
Sangh on the right, and neither saw the other as a problem for their larger
cause. In 1989, after at least two years of coordination in Parliament, the
CPI(M) and BJP not only supported the minority government of V.P. Singh but ate
weekly dinners with their Prime Minister while Singh said grace with as much
grace as he could muster. No one called Singh communal; at least no one in his
senses did. The Bofors bribery scandal had created space for competing
ideologies to cultivate common ground, and control an election that catapulted
V.P. Singh to the job he coveted: Prime Minister.

So did this
mean that everyone in Singh's Cabinet possessed a certificate of honesty from
Mother Teresa? I could name half a dozen ministers who took money with one hand
and another six who raked it in with both. Every campaign is a mix of the good,
the bad and the ugly; even Khilafat leaders like the famous Ali brothers,
Muhammad and Shaukat, were accused of putting their hands in the donation till
in the name of expenses. Did this matter to the people? If it did, then it
mattered far less than the common cause.

Those who
believe they can dilute Anna Hazare's impact through pinpricks at his
associates understand neither him nor India. He does not really have
associates; he has an issue, corruption. He would have remained a fringe figure
if this cancer had not aroused the doctor in him. He does not run a political
party. He does not aspire to become President or Prime Minister. It is
immaterial what stand he took on the Babri mosque, as some Urdu newspapers have
been inspired to write in the hope of deflecting Muslim sentiment away from
him. He is not the guardian of secularism, or whatever passes for it currently.
It makes absolutely no difference whether there is saffron in his audience or
green. It is immaterial whether there is a cat watching him or a queen; he
wants both to be honest with public money. The controversies over his core
team, or outer ring, or the net on his periphery are unimportant to the voter,
who is only interested in a cure that will keep this cancer in remission.

The
establishment believes that it can deflect Anna Hazare by generating contempt
for some Hazrate-Buddhu among the specks of dust. Waste of time. Anger against
corruption rages in bursts, and then falls silent. A tree will tell you that
the only way to survive a hurricane is to bend. We shall soon learn if Delhi
understands nature, and human nature.