A British reporter once mockingly asked Mahatma Gandhi: “Why are your train journeys in India in the third class? Surely, you could afford first-class”
Our Father of Nation politely responded: “I travel third class because there is no fourth class.” To understand the people, one has to travel with people or live with the people, by travelling with the people he effectively communicated with them, by understanding their need of freedom, he facilitated their freedom, which we are all freely enjoying today.
Mahatma Gandhi realised his need to become a journalist during his stay in South Africa, only to fight for the rights of the Indian community. And he brought the highest qualities, the profession could boast of - courage in the face of adversity, unswerving adherence to truth, pursuit of public causes, and objectivity in presentation.
His letters to the editors of South African dailies are a lesson to all journalists on how to fight injustice in a country where the laws are loaded against one section of the people, without giving offence to the rulers themselves.
A telling example of this was his letter dated October 25, 1894 to the Times of Natal, which carried a contemptuously worded editorial, 'Rammysammy'.
Mahatma Gandhi wrote:
"You would not allow the Indian or the native the precious privilege (of voting) under any circumstances, because they have a dark skin. You would look at the exterior only. So long as the skin is white it would not matter to you whether it conceals beneath it poison or nectar. To you the lip-prayer of the Pharisee, because he is one, is more acceptable than the sincere repentance of the publican, and this, I presume, you would call Christianity. You may; it is not Christ's. Sir, may I venture to offer a suggestion? Will you re-read your New Testament? Will you ponder over your attitude towards the coloured population of the Colony? Will you then say you can reconcile it with the Bible teachings or the best British traditions? If you have washed your hands clean of both Christ and the British tradition, I can have nothing to say; I gladly withdraw what I have written. Only it will then be a sad day for Britain and for India if you have many followers."
After 10 years of relentless crusade, Mahatma Gandhi realised that the twin tasks of mobilizing public opinion and influencing official decisions required a regular newspaper. Thus was born Indian Opinion in June 1903. Thus paved another milestone in Indian Independence History, hope rest of the history of events are known to all.
British Kna is a medium for all UK Knannaites to communicate freely without any barriers and only for the development of UK Knannaites. Let’s air our opinions and discuss constructively to develop meaningful decisions to develop our own community, thus contributing to our Global Community.
Leaders and elections :
In this democratic world, each and every one wishes to be recognised, which is quiet natural and an expected behaviour from any sensible person. After achieving their financial stability and new identity in this dreamland, the next step is to achieve this community recognition. For this the easiest available route is Malayalee Associations, and for our Knanaya brothers and sisters, an additional opportunity of 43 UKKCA units (ever increasing) in all corners of UK. Our community is highly gifted with numerous leaders or would be leaders, ready to sacrifice all their earning opportunities (weekly/monthly/yearly), for the sake of Knanaya community. 10 years of successful developments? restricted to annual conventions, either to let others know of our existence or to remind us who our spiritual leaders are.
A leader is necessary to represent (lead?) the group or community, and of course for that the mechanism is elections, to elect most popular as well as most capable person within the group/community, which is very fair and widely accepted. Like any other established group or community, UKKCA also have elected leaders from unit level to national level through fair means of elections. And all UKKCA elections are based on the widely approved and accepted rules and regulations. All these rules and regulations are made for the benefit of the association and its members, and if few members decide to bend or break these rules for their own benefit, the consequences are for them to face, impact will be limited to their own units, but unfortunately negative impacts travel faster, communicate wrong message and ultimately adversely affect the association and the community as a whole.
It appears this is what happened at the Manchester Unit elections, the largest unit of UKKCA and winner of majority annual procession prizes (Highly coveted and appreciated). If few of the members recommended temporary voting rights for any Knannaites above 18 years and the majority supported it, any responsible leader will have to abide by the majority decisions/suggestions. At the same time, the majority who proposed these temporary measures should be prepared to accept the wider implications or after-effects of that such decisions.
It’s a known fact for any common Knannaites that UKKCA voting rights are limited to UKKCA members (ideally married Knanaya Couples, which is the basis of our existence “Endogamy”), in the absence of clear guidelines, any unit can decide their course of action, whether the same is directed towards the common benefit of the majority, which is again highly debatable. From the face of it, this particular incident (may be many), there weren’t any true intentions to promote the young, but only to secure few member’s positions with a wider objective of reaching to UKKCA executive committee, and of course when it back-fired, they cry "foul play."
Even though UKKCA completed ten years of its existence, it’s still within the establishing stage or developing stage. It’s very important to address all these loopholes of our constitution and prepare clear election guidelines. Now for the time being, at least for the sake of electing another responsible (?) new executive committee, let’s use our existing rules.
UKKCA is not the only Knanaya association suffering from these issues, but there are many other Knanaya associations around the world, we will have sufficient opportunity to rectify our missing links and clarifications, but this could be done only if we could elect a responsible executive committee, ideal leaders ready to shoulder responsibility for the development of UKKCA and members of Knanaya Community in U.K.
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