Chander is A History Buff Episode 2

 

Chander is a History Buff – Episode 2 – An Antique Weekly Newspaper published by Mahatma Gandhi.

In my last episode I shared about an antique booklet on America and American in wartime, a series of pocket books published by U.S.A.Publishing company during second world war.

In this episode let me share a most precious bound book containing the 52 volumes of the original Weekly Newspaper “Harijan”, received every week by post at THE HINDUSTAN SCOUT ASSOCIATION, MADRAS PRESIDENCY, which was functioning in Mylapore, Madras. This information is based on the rubber stamp of the association and postal rubber stamp dated 5 Feb 1947. How this has comes to me is an interesting news. I got this book from a close friend, who knows about my antique book collection hobby as well my interest on Indian political history.

About the bound book:

HARIJAN - Vol:XI No.1 dated February 2, 1947 to Vol.XI No.52 dated January 25, 1948.

Printed and published by Jivanji Dahyabhai Desai, Navjivan Press, Kalupur, Ahmedabad.Editor – Pyarelal.

Sub.rates: Inland: One Year Rs.6; Six months Rs.3, Foreign: One Year Rs.8 or 14 Sh or $3.

In 1933 Gandhiji started publishing a weekly newspaper, Harijan, in English. Harijan, which means "People of God", and was also Gandhi's term for the untouchable caste - lasted until 1948.

The first issue appeared on the 11th of February 1933 from Poona with R. V. Shastri as the editor. ‘Harijan’  dealt with questions regarding untouchability and was carried out in the socio-religious approach.

The Harijan was later edited by Mahadev Desai in 1935 and had its headquarters in Poona and then later in Madras. In 1940, it was suspended during the Indian Satyagraha movement. It was later revived by the Navajivan Press in January 1942 but was banned later that year by the British Government in India. It was revived once again in February 1946. The editor at the time was Pyarelal and he continued till 1948. 

The main contributor for this HARIJAN weekly is M.K.Gandhi  and there were so many contributors. I wish to list out some popular persons who were with Gandhiji in the freedom struggle and compiled Gandhiji’s various letters and  reported on many live issues of that time connected to our freedom fight, lives of people, economic condition and other important subjects.

Few names are listed here: Pyarelal, J.C.Kumarappa, Vinoba, Sushila Nayyar, Maharaj of Ratlam, T.N.Bang, Valji Govindji Desai, Gulzarilal Nanda, Devendra Kumar Gupta, Radha Kumud,Mookerji, T.N.Vagadisan, Dev Prakash Nayyar, Dilip Kumar Roy, S.N.Agarval, Sarojini Naidu, Acharya Kripalani, N.K.Bose, Horace Alexander, Giriraj Kishore and so many others.

One of the issue contains a Map of Noakhali District of East Bengal, Gandhiji walked on foot , first walk ended on 4.2.1947 and second one ended on 25.2.1947.

Another special feature noticed in this weekly was,  a dictionary of English words with its translation into Hindustani ( Hindi and Urudu ), lastly published September 28, 1947 (Instalment XXIX).

A few important news captions, I wish to share here, from the collection of 52 editions. The topics are: Communal Murders ( Vol.XI No.1), A Woman’s Dilemma (27.1.47), Gandhiji on Trusteeship (2.2.47), Socialism (20.7.47), Who and Where is God? (22.6.47), Ahimsa Never Fails (1.1.48), Learn from the experience of others (6.4.47), The ‘CUE’ method for ‘Grow more food” (22.6.47), Give and Take (6.12.47), Cow Slaughter (7.10.47). There were so many letters written by M.K.Gandhi and from others to him. Gandhji’s walking tour was also covered in many issues.

The last edition dated 25.1.48 contains Gandhiji’s Post-Prayer Speeches on 15.1.48. Gandhiji spoke about ‘Death a Deliverance” – “All must die someday. No one could escape death. Then why be afraid of it? In fact death was a friend which brought deliverance from sufferings.”  It also contains Gandhiji’s breaking of the fast on 25.1.48 at Birla House at 12.45pm.Last Danger Signals by Dev Prakash Nayyar was the last news in the last edition.

What to say more about this rarest of the rare collection? Wish to read all the 52 issues, but I wonder whether I can do justice to my wish!

But for sure we learn many lessons from history through autobiographies of famous leaders around the world and from historians who brings life to them in their words. Let me share few pages of the weekly “Harijan” of 1947-1948.

I will bring more interesting episodes on history in antique books.

CHANDER IS A HISTORY BUFF!!!

 

Chander is a History Buff!

Why I call myself a history buff?

I have a strong and special interest in Family History, My birthplace History, Pre-independence Indian History, World History and in particular World War History!  I was a poor student in the subject of history in my school days and scored lowest marks in the school final! But how the interest in history came to me is not known. I am an ardent reader of books of all subjects and collect old books from pavement second-hand book shops for my personal library! This pandemic period gave me a big opportunity to dwell into my treasure of books, and I started to give a second reading of world war books, initially for the original wartime photos and later the complete stories!   I have a good collection of coffee table books on the same subject with real time photos, maps etc. The modern internet technology is a gateway to go back to the future and view many original footages of wartime.

In this first episode, I would like to share one of a rare book from my collections of World War Books!

First and foremost I wish to speak about a series of pocket books – “ U.S.A. A Portrait in Miniature of America and Americans in Wartime”, published by ”The U.S.A.Publishing Company” and printed in The U.S.A., during the First World War, in the time span of 1943 and 1944.

This collection of series contains 10 books , in a single bound, speaks a lot of America and Americans in Wartime. The cost of each poket series was Rs.3 Anna and sold by Higginbothams ( A stamp of ‘HIGGINBOTHAMS’ is found in a page). Some unknown history buff like me bought the series during the wartime, bounded it and after many years this book came to the pavement! I bought this for a small amount of rupees! ( you may guess!).

Let me share on various topics covered in each small booklet of about 65 pages. The front cover  looks great and the back cover has a message – ‘pass this on to a friend’.

In the one of the booklet opening page contains A Message from The President of The United States – Franklin D.Roosevelt and General D.Eisenhower, Commander in chief of Allied Forces in North Africa issued an Order of the Day, May 8,1943. The other interesting topics found are : Why Americans Fight, An Art Boom in Wartime, Music in America, Education in Overalls, Seeds for a Better World, Border without Boyonets ( U.S.A. and Canada), Brothers in Arms, Bomber Team –Story in photography, One World – as reported by a noted American, Wendell L.Willkie, on his trip by air around a world at war. He was a Republican presidential candidate in 1940, contested against President Roosevelt!

There are so many articles and stories of interest collected from various magazines of that time like: NY Times, Collier’s, Newsweek, Christian Science Monitor, Scientific American, Fortune, Saturday Evening Post, Science News Letters, Reader’s Digest, Coronet, Sea Power, This Week, Life, Science Digest, Survey Graphic, Common Ground, The Saturday Review of Literature and so many other magazines and journals. The Editors page appears in all the series. Most interesting pages for me is the Picture Essay covering about 25 plus photographs of the war in action, cities and towns during that period, lifestyles of people and many. About the invention of Penicillin, developed in 1929,an article says, it is an unparalleled weapon against death, historically one of the greatest accomplishments of scientific and medical research of 1940s. 

The photo gallery may inspire you to search for a copy, if at all available anywhere in the world, to own this antique rarest of the rare pocket books of American wartime history! History buffs may agree with me!

Before closing I wish to share that we all learn many lessons from the war. " A war hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself" - Joseph Campbell. War teaches us the value of the human spirit. We must try to avoid war by peaceful talks with the countries where conflicts  induces war. Our country is an example to win over foreign occupation by nonviolent methods advocated by Mahatma Gandhi and followed by the entire leaders of freedom and the countrymen. Life is so precious and the greed on other country's land, wealth, minerals and natural resources should be avoided and sharing of love between the people of countries at war will surely bring only peace and not war. 

Next episode of Chander is a History Buff  will be published soon…..

Love towards western music !

Love towards western music – a journey from 1960s’  

I could recall , when I started liking  western music !. In the year 1965 , when I was studying 9^th standard , we had a “ BUSH Baron “ transistor radio bought by my father.

In those time we used to pay license at Post offices  for this and also for a valve set radio “ GE “ make of 1950s’.  It  was a thrilling experience to listen western music in the early mornings at our Mylapore house terrace ; the radio Ceylon used to transmit half an hour instrumentals of good western music . In those days  “ Come September “ , “Shadows”  & “ Ventures “  and other instrumentals were so good to listen. I go to terrace for studies and by my side I used to keep the Transistor  in full volume. At that time an uncle , Mr.C.Ramanathan , Staff reporter of Indian express , lived in our house as a tenant . He is from Ceylon and talk on Jim Reeves songs . So the passion  on liking , loving and listening Western music inspired by him  started  and it never stopped till today… !!!!

I would like to share the great singers and musicians of my times in 1960s’ , 1970s’ , 1980s’ & 1990s’.  I am not much familiar with the later singers but keep listening the old timers for ever. Another information to share is I love opera and western classical and also eastern music. When my brother Ramesh gave me a good collections of his music cassettes of western & eastern when he came from USA for the first time. Beethoven’s symphony , Bach , Henry Mancini , Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake  albums were in the collection presented to me.

Off late when my friend Suresh Kuppuswamy and my brother joined with me in college days and they too love western and Hindi film songs . Another friend Gopal and Jaggu  (both are brothers ) who live in neighborhood were good friends of ours and  they had a good collection of LPs’ and EPs’ ( long Play and extended play records ) . Gopal was Suresh’s junior in School of Architecture and Jaggu is a furniture & interior designer. Some times we all go to their home and enjoy listening in their turntable cum amplifier. Then I started buying few LPs and later Jaggu gave some LPs’ which he cannot play in his new player. So I have decided to buy a record player and whenever I window shop at Music shops and see the price tags I simply walk out! It’s a matter of huge sum in those days to invest or spend for pleasure .

At last I bought a seconds , HMV1010 ( 10+10 watts  stereo speakers ) Record Player , in a discount offer @ Rs.1050 in a shop near Ajantha Hotel. Before that Suresh , whose father had a radio repair shop “ Maxwell Radio “ near Sri Karaneeswarar temple in Bazaar road, brought  a GRUNDIG Record Changer player to our terrace DEN to enjoy listening music and do a social service to the neighbours by blasting the Hindi pops of that time, at midnight !!! Some loved  it and some cursed us ! The famous filmy songs we played are – Kati Patang , Mili , Hum Kissi Se …, Yadon Ki Barat , Juli , Bobby , Jawani Diwani and others. Abba , Dona Summer , Samantha Fox , Neil Diamond , Bony M . Shadows  and many other western pops were in  our list.

When I started recalling the names of the singers and musicians , the list extended  to beyond 50 to my memory of today and may be many more , if I squeeze my mind. I wish to bringout the pics of the album covers of the famous singers here for our viewing pleasure and enjoy the richness of western music even today through youtube and other media ( as we are blessed with internet , a modern electronic media .

And on and on and on… the list goes ….

Try to listen of your favorite old songs and cherish the past music lives as immortal songs forever !

Now I listen Bhajan’s and chant Hare Krishna Maha Mantra daily. But  the liking of listening western music is still there for soft songs and not rocks !!!

I wish to talk on books in my next  blog !.