BE YOUR OWN LIGHT ! 381
BRA : Of course, we must protect the individual from invasion of his rights from other individuals. Liberty of the person must always be a primary concern. That was in my mind when I urged for fundamental rights.
MRA : If that was in your mind then you might urge Parliament to revise fundamental rights. We must fight against both State capitalism and Private capitalism. You know how the vast majority of people everywhere are subject to the will of the employers.
BRA : Indeed, liberty so far seems to be the liberty of the landlord to increase rent. The capitalist always wants to reduce wages and increase hours of work. Capitalism is a dictatorship of private employer.
MRA : The fundamental rights—right to life, liberty and happiness—remain a dream .......
BRA : The new young must go on fighting. They can change the Constitution.
MRA : This may not be possible without upturnings like the 1789 revolution in France.
BRA : Strange to hear this from you ! I thought that by making Gandhi the liberator of Untouchables in your novel, you have been converted to non-violence.
MRA : I could not live up to the Mahatma’s ideal. We had to face Hitler and Mussolini. I went to Spain and joined the International Brigade. Though I fainted at the sight of blood in a clinic and was asked to opt out.... But one had to take sides in the second world war. A poet called the so-called war for freedom of the democracies against fascism, the fight for a “half lie” against a “big lie.”
BRA: You know, though the Mahatma was all for the Harijans, he did not get up his beliefs in the Varnashram dictated by the Bhagwad Gita ..... By calling them sons of Hari, the supreme God, he thought he was exalting them. In fact they were left at the lowest levels.