Opinion The Gita and the Manifesto
How the Bhagavad Gita got banned in Turkey in 1975
-
Share -
-
-
The Bhagavad Gita has always commanded respect Sir Edwin Arnold translated it to English and Mahatma Gandhi was irresistibly drawn to it. Warren Hastings,governor-general,famously said that the British empire might or might not be there,but the message of the Gita would endure. Robert Oppenheimer,the director of the secret Manhattan Project,which researched on and produced the first atom bomb,was found reading the Gita when the first atomic device was tested in 1945. He quoted the words of Krishna,that if the radiance of a thousand suns burst forth in the sky,it would be like His light. Professor Oppenheimer said that such energy would be obtained from the splitting of the atom. More recently,even E. Sreedharan of the Delhi Metro described Gita as a scripture that calls for action and said a copy was given to every worker in the Metro Railway for discharging their duties well.
The members of both Houses of Parliament are outraged at the possibility that a translation of the Gita would be banned by a court in Tomsk in Siberia. When a member of Rajya Sabha raised the issue during Zero Hour,the deputy chairman,K. Rahman Khan,said the entire House associated itself with the concerns expressed by the member. Another MP wanted the Russian authorities sensitised about the sacredness of the Gita and the reverence it commanded not only from Hindus but also from those practising other faiths.
However,this is not the first time that the Gita is facing a ban in a foreign country. It was banned in Turkey in 1975. When K.R. Narayanan,who later became the president of India,was appointed as the ambassador to Turkey that year,many people apprised him of the ban on the Gita and urged him to take necessary steps to lift it.
Narayanan,who had a deep commitment to Indian values and heritage,was disturbed by the proscription of the Gita in a country to which he was appointed ambassador. He was determined to take up the issue. An ambassador does not perform ones responsibilities before presenting the credentials to the head of the state. The first task is to call on the foreign minister of the concerned country. Narayanan decided that he would take up the matter in the very first meeting with the foreign minister of Turkey. He did so and the minister concerned assured him that he would examine it.
Narayanan pursued the matter vigorously with the foreign office and the government of Turkey after submitting his credentials. He explained with conviction that the Gita was a religious text which was never banned in any other country. To his query as to why such a religious text was banned in a predominantly Muslim country,he was told that the Turkish authorities,while raiding the office of the Communist Party of Turkey,found the text of the Gita along with the Communist Manifesto and they thought that,like the Communist Manifesto,the Bhagavad Gita exhorted a revolution to overthrow the state. They,therefore,decided to ban both the Communist Party of Turkey and the Bhagavad Gita.
Narayanan took great pains to remove the misgivings of the Turkish authorities about the Gita and explained that it preached harmony and tolerance and taught mankind that divinity could be realised by pursuing a variety of paths prescribed by saints and seers. He also stated that the communists who considered religion as the opium of the people would not have a charitable view of the Gita. He was relentless in persuading Turkish authorities that the Gita would pose no danger to any society and was,on the other hand,a source of spirituality. Eventually,the ban was lifted. It was a resounding success for Narayanan.
When Mustafa Bulent Ecevit,who was the prime minister of Turkey,visited India when Narayanan was the president,he said that he drew inspiration from the Gita whenever he faced a dilemma in political life.
The writer,joint secretary in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat,was OSD and press secretary to president K.R. Narayanan,express@expressindia.com
-
Share
-
-
-
Share
