When I entered from my middle school
to the high school,
the first day...
In the high school they used to have a
prayer in the beginning.
It was a very famous song
of Mirza Iqbal,
who was one of the greatest Urdu poets of this age.
As far as the language
is concerned, it is certainly
a great piece of art
but the philosophy behind it
is ugly.
The song says
"My country, my nation,
is the best of all the nations.
My country
is a beautiful garden
and we are nightingales in this garden...
And that way it goes on.
I said to the principal who was standing
in front of the two thousand students and fifty teachers,
that I will not participate in this prayer,
because to me this is absolute rubbish.
Every country thinks of itself in the same way
and every country has its ego in it.
You ask the Chinese,
you ask the Japanese, you ask the German,
you ask the English, you ask anybody
-- they all think
So what Iqbal has written is simply rubbish as far as
the philosophical background is concerned.
And I am against
the very concept of "nation".
The world is one;
I cannot say this, that my country
is the best of all the countries.
And I don't see even the reason,
It is not
only that I am against nationalism,
it is untrue too,
because what do you
have?
-- poverty,
slavery,
starvation,
sicknesses,
increasing population and increasing problems.
And you call this is our garden and we are its nightingales!
I don't see a single nightingale anywhere!
These fifty teachers are here; can anybody raise his hand and say, that
I am a nightingale?
Let him sing, and let us see!
These two thousand students are here; can anyone say?
Look at these poor students.
And they used to come from faraway villages,
miles every day,
because there was no other high school except this,
for at least a twenty miles radius around the city,
they walk,
they come utterly tired,
they are hungry
and I have seen what they bring with them, just
dry bread,
not even buttered
and a little pieces of salt.
That's all that they bring every day and every day they eat.
"These are your trees, this is your garden?
So factually also it is not right.
And I don't care, whether
Iqbal is a Nobel prize-winning poet, I don't care.
That does not
make me feel like singing this song;
every way uttering a lie.
The principal was
so annoyed and so irritated
that he could not speak in anger; he became almost red.
Trembling, he went into his office and brought his cane which was very famous
but he rarely used it.
And he told me to put both my hands in front of him,
and he said, this is my answer
and remember it.
I said, these are my hands.
You
can beat
my hands or my whole body, if you want
but before you start,
remember,
that from here, I am going directly to the police station,
because it is legally prohibited.
You and your cane, both will be behind bars.
It was
illegal to beat any student,
but nobody cared.
Still today, in India, students are beaten.
And the law has existed for at least fifty years,
that students should not be physically beaten.
So I said, you decide,
here are my hands, this is your cane; you are here.
And remember, these two thousand students are eyewitnesses,
fifty teachers are eyewitnesses
and you will leave your signature on my hands.
you leave,
if you have any guts,
you beat me.
I could remember even today,
that he remained almost like a statue.
The cane fell from his hand.
He just turned back, went into his office.
And I told all the students, that now,
you need not be worried;
we are finished with this song.
Unless they find something reasonable,
we will simply be standing here for ten minutes in silence.
Now, do you call that mischief?
It can be called mischief,
it was mischief
in the eyes of
my principal.
He reported to my father,
that I had misbehaved.
I told my father that,
you have
to come with me.
He has misbehaved.
He should have answered me,
that I was wrong.
He should have convinced me, that the song is right.
Instead of that,
he brought his cane to beat me.
Is that an argument?
Is that the right behavior?
Who has done the mischief, he or me?
And then, he had no guts even to beat.
I had given him the challenge; my hands were before him.
I was ready to take as many
beatings as he wanted
but I told him that I will go directly
to the police station, which is not far away from the high school
and soon you would be behind the bars,
because this is illegal.
Now who has misbehaved?"
My father said, forget about it.
I said, I cannot forget about it.
You have to come with me.
It has to be decided – because the man has some nerve to tell you,
that I was mischievous, that I was misbehaving,
that I insulted him, before the whole school,
all the teachers and all the students.
You have to come with me.
Now, my father said, You forgive me –
perhaps you are right....
I said, no perhaps.
If you don't come with me, I will drag that principal here.
So I had to take my father, and he had to follow, persuading me all the way:
that, leave it.
It is not such a big thing;
he simply mentioned by the way that you misbehaved.
I said, That is not the question.
He has to say it before me.
This is backbiting.
he is mischievous.
And when the principal saw I'm coming with my father,
he became again, afraid that,
some more trouble, it seems is there.
And I said to him, Now you tell my father what I have done, and what you have done,
saying behind my back to my father that I have been misbehaving,
doing mischief, insulting you before the whole school.
Repeat it!
Because I don't agree with anything.
You have insulted me,
by not answering my argument.
Not only that, you wanted to beat me.
Not only that, you are a coward,
you could not even beat me.
Now, this is very
slimy,
that you go around and tell to my father.
You prove it -- that was a mischief.
In fact, all the nations who have been proclaiming themselves the best nation in the world
are mischievous.
Their mischief
has counted for millions of lives; the whole history is full of that
and still we go on doing the same thing.
And small children are being told to repeat every day
something, which is
absolutely nonsense
and,
unrealistic too. There is no fact supporting it.
A country which has been for two thousand years a slave
cannot say,
that in the whole world we are the best;
best slaves, or what?
A country which is ninety percent poor,
one meal is difficult....
There are days, millions of people in India sleep only by drinking water,
just to keep the feeling that the stomach is full.
This is the best country in the world! –
Whom you are trying to befool?
These children will become conditioned to the idea.
This is a strategy of the politicians,
that tomorrow these children will become soldiers,
and they will die for the 'best country of the world',
not even knowing that this is not true.
"And even if it is factual,
then too, it is egoistic and it should not be a prayer.
Accepting, just for the sake of argument, that it is true,
that one country is the best in the world, richest,
well-educated, well-cultured,
has everything that is needed
so all the facts support it – still I say such a prayer
is wrong,
because a prayer not be ego-fulfilling,
a prayer should be ego-destroying.