FOURTH COLUMN Remember Master Kaakaa too
ANNIVERSARIES are important. If they do nothing but dent the massive historical amnesia we have about how we became what we are, they would have served their purpose.
This month I recall at least two centennial anniversaries that were observed. The Arya Yuvuk Sabha (AYS) launched its 100th anniversary celebrations at the headquarters of its offspring, the Aryan Benevolent Home and the Arya Samaj of SA in collaboration with the Sukhraj Chotai family followed by the commemoration of the 100th birth anniversary of its past President of the Samaj.
There was a touch of irony in the commemoration of the anniversary of Chotai (or “Master Kaakaa” as the late Pandit Nardev Vedalankar’s children affectionately knew him) held at the Arya Samaj headquarters in Durban.
In her tribute Professor Usha Desai, current president of the Samaj, said “Master Kaakaa” testified to his remarkable intellect and leadership.
“Master Kaakaa” indeed constantly reminded his members that out of hopelessly intricate mythology must come concrete moral forms; and out of bewildering rituals must come a meaningful life.
Yet Chotai, like so many figures of Indian history in South Africa, has now been made more into a myth than a moral form, more part of a forgotten past than a reminder of the contemporary social and political significance of the Arya Samaj.
Exploring why this happened may give insights into the predicament of the Samaj, more than celebrating the calendar event itself that most of our anniversaries have become.
Chotai's daughters Ashalata and Mrinalini – who now live abroad with their families – returned to Durban last week to attend the birth anniversary of their late father. With a modicum of reasonableness Ashalata appealed to the Samaj's leaderships of the recent past not to sell its headquarters in Carlisle Street, Durban. It would be recalled that a couple of years ago the leadership ventured to sell this landmark. All sorts of reasons were advanced.
Like the AYS, the Samaj gave voice and meaning to the hopes and prayers of those society sidestepped.
The ABH, the Samaj's temple and hall, the RK Khan Hospital, Fosa Settlement, St Aidan’s Hospital, et al stand as monuments to the collective achievements of their founders.
Men and women who stirred our conscience with their service and sacrifice and helped make life more hopeful and purposeful for the downtrodden. Through their wisdom and courage and by their example they helped lay the foundation for a community that could live up to its creed.
Ashalata after consulting a few sages was told “a temple should never be destroyed, demolished or sold. It would be a denial of the holiness of the place”.
“The intention for building this temple was to give access to anyone at any time to pray there. It was supposed to be a place for people wanting consolation, comfort and peace.”
The realisation that the APS must be governed by the belief that humanity needs wider circles of identification to transcend narrow identities was not lost to stalwarts like Koosiram Badal, the late Pandit Vedalankar, “Master Kaakaa”, Sishupal Rambharos and Pandita Prabha Nanackchand – the latter two were among the contingent of clerics invited by the ANC to meet its leadership in exile in Lusaka in the 1980s.
Badal was instrumental in making the APS Hall available to the Natal Indian Congress and the UDF to hold meetings during that period.
Lest we forget, in their own lifetime, these leaders emerged as the living personification of the secularist idea enunciated by organisations like the Arya Samaj and the Arya Yuvuk Sabha.