"COMRADES" OUT OF FASHION ?

We are publishing Shri B. Ganga Raju's letter for 

Editor,too, no more comrade ?

academic interest.  He has written "LIC Pensioners Chronicle" Calicut Blog. Despite the fact that blog title is LIC Pensioners Chronicle, he prefers to call it as CALICUT BLOG. That may be his familiar way of referring to the blog.  There cannot be 

any quarrel why he calls the blog as Calicut blog.

Shri LSRK Rao always used to send mails to the Editor addressing him as "Comrade" while a formal expression "Sir" should have served the purpose.  Shri Rao happened to be the only person in India addressing the Editor as "Comrade".  Therefore here obviously the reference is to Shri LSRK Rao on whose letter to the Minister the remarks are given and he gets the message. 

We do not take exception to calling LIC Pensioners Chronicle as Calicut blog or the Editor as "Comrade". We enjoy both. -ed.

The Editor,

LIC Pensioners’ Chronicle, Calicut Blog.

Dear Comrade,

Pandit Nehru used to address the nation starting with “Comrades and friends". I do not remember any other Prime Minister commencing his speech with the word “Comrades.”

By the word “ Comrade “ I understand it to mean those who share a common ideal and work for realization of the ideal as dedicated members of an organization. The depth of meaning is one step more than what “ friends “ conveys. We come across several types of friends, both male and female. But in an organization with a social goal there are only one type of comrades. They are bound by a common goal and common discipline also.

The word came to be used rather in a loose way in meetings/conferences of trade unions. It has become just another way of addressing participants in any meeting. One can have any number of friends, colleagues but only a few qualify to be called Comrades.

• Depending on the political orientation each organization has its own manner of addressing its members. For example BMS never uses this word Comrades. Socialists (if they are still around) do use the word. Communists won’t begin a talk without first greeting the audience as “Comrades.” 

Why I am writing all this is because of a comment in the Chronicle by the Editor when a letter contained the words “ Bharath Matha.” Perhaps the correspondent did not like to scare the recipient by addressing with a word he is unfamiliar about. Or it was felt pragmatic “to be a Roman in Rome.”

Thinking of one’s country as “father land” or “ mother land” is an age old practice. Our country is “India that is Bharath.” In early 1950s upto 1960s, I remember communist/ working class meetings starting with the slogan “ Bolo Swathantra Bharath ki Jai.” Though we got independence in 1947 the usage of slogan continued for full 15 years. So also “ Jai Hind,” the battle cry of Nethaji Subhas Bose and I.N.A.

Some organizations/political parties strongly believe that patriotic persons belong to their party only and all other organizations are not patriotic or patriotic enough. It is as though they have a patent for “Patriotism.” I used to read graffiti on walls “Naxalites alone are Deshabhakthas.” Then the thinking of members of RSS/BJP is well known.

Similar is the hue and cry about usage of the word “Secular”. 

You must have noticed that the Nation is THE MOTHER. So also the rivers. But mountains are masculine.

In 1940s when Soviet Union was attacked by Nazi Hitler there were calls to rally round the FATHER LAND, the land where first socialist state came into existence. In 1960s there was initially confusion in USSR how to treat “Brother Chinese” and “Friend India.”

So let people address others the way they prefer. Bhayiyon aur Baheno, Comrades and friends, Brothers and Sisters, Saathiyon etc. etc. or the high sounding Mahasaya, Revered, Poojaneeya etc. etc. After finishing the speeches what they do is more important.

With Greetings, Yours sincerely, B. Ganga Raju Hyderabad