Let ‘Nil Desperandum’ Be India’s Motto During COVID Second Wave

 

 

 

As reported by Tara Chettur, an Independent Journalist and the views expressed here are based on the inputs from historians and researchers.

 

India is undergoing an unimaginable health crisis at present to cope with COVID -19 outbreak. From time immemorial this country has faced extreme situations including health emergencies like this and has come up with strategy to overcome crises by facing the challenges without giving up. So what is a forte India has to get along with calamity like this.

This is time to revisit the ideologies of our great leaders who have contributed to strengthening the social-economical and political development of the country. One such great leader whose contribution is little known at the national level is Chettur Sankaran Nair . His love for the phrase ‘Nil Desperandum’is mentioned in many articles. This phrase was used by Chettur Sankaran Nair in his concluding portion of his speech as president of the Indian National Congress in 1897. Sankaran Nair’s biographer, K.P.S. Menon writes that it was while reading Ivanhoe in school days he came with this phrase ‘Nil Desperandum’ which he used quite often on various platforms. ‘Nil desperandum’ means  Never Despair.  He believed that should be the motto for everyone. All are not dead; and where there is a spark of patriotic fire, we will rekindle it during any crisis.

He has mentioned, “Let nothing deter us from following the straight path of duty and with the welfare and progress of our land as our end and aim, let us endeavor under a solemn sense of responsibility as well to loyalty to our country”.

When he was elected as president of the Indian National Congress in 1897, it was the time when India was witnessing famine at certain intervals. Giving this information Rajshekaran Nair historian and secretary to Chettur Sankaran Nair Foundation says when the famine of 1876 started taking its toll on the people of the Madras Presidency, a few stray voices could be heard within the colonial administration that maintained that the British must shoulder responsibility for the deaths and he supported this wholeheartedly. Decades later when another famine visited India he was in the position to do the changes in the system and out forwards a solution in 1896, a permanent settlement of the government revenue of the land instead of periodical and ever-increasing assessment of land tax. Sankaran Nair’s experience as a social reformer was that he believed that education and health must be given priority in order to make way to any real progress and a responsible government was the sole sovereign remedy.

K P Ravi Shankar who has done research at a voluntary level with his team and is producing the movie on Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair claims that there is a need to tell about the story of unsung freedom struggle heroes contributions to the development of the country, especially at this hour. Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair (1857-1934)   was the sole Indian representative at that time in the Viceroy’s Executive Council the equivalent of today’s Union Cabinet of Ministers. Chettur Sankaran Nair resigned from his post in protest against at Jallianwalla Bagh incident at Amritsar in 1919. The effects of his resignation were immediate. Censorship of the press was immediately abolished and martial law in Punjab was terminated.

But there is little known to the fact he contributed towards the social development of the country giving emphasis to resurrecting the health and education sector. It was during his younger days he came across witnessed mass death of people due to famine. One of the most Chettur Sankaran Nair’s most gruesome memories of his days in Madras was the great famine of 1876. He was then living in Mylapore. He was shattered to witness horrid sight in Mylapore where men, women, and children who had flocked to Madras from outside dying and dead. All of them were only skin and bones and this horrid sight to see mass deaths had a long-lasting effect on him.

 

Chettur Sankaran Nair was straight straightforward, strategic planner, and highly educated. His role as a social reformer is the main focus of the movie which will be released year-end, he added.

Among the leaders, at that time he had great regards for Ashutosh Mukherjee.  Mukherjee was a prolific educator, jurist and had a vision of the kind of education he wanted young people to have and this was the most striking feature that attracted Chettur Sankaran Nair.

Likewise, Chettur Sankaran Nair wanted to imbibe education for all Indians and inoculate the need to strengthen the social-economical development of the country. It won’t be incorrect to say that he was one of the first leaders of modern India who focused on the need that a good health care system contributes to national growth immensely. There is a strong association between health infrastructure and economic development in India. India has achieved considerable progress in providing health infrastructure after Independence and its access to health care services to the mass population but it’s high time to ensure consistent effort in this direction to overcome any health emergency.