ASAF ALI

A Centenary Tribute

 

Prof. P. S. SUNDARAM

 

            Each year as it rolls along marks the birth centenary of one or other of our freedom Fighters. As most of these fighters were congressmen and our Government at the Centre is a Congress Government, an excellent opportunity is thus provided to project the image of the Congress. The Nasik Printing Press can be ordered to print stamps. For the V.V.I.P’s, especially if they belong to a minority community, lakhs of rupees can be spent in putting up statues and even buildings. Old road names can of course be replaced by new names; and the longer the latter the more likely, it is assumed, for the man commemorated to be remembered and not confused with somebody else whose name was similar to his but not identical. In actual practice even Mahatma Gandhi Road is abbreviated to M.G. Road, and we have already reached a stage when nobody knows or even wants to know what M. and G. stand for.

 

            Is it not worth while, when we indulge in all this propaganda and flattering unctions to our souls, that a few aspects of the men we commemorate are put down on record by those who actually came into contact with them, and had occasions to know them from the inside?

 

            After Orissa was constituted a separate province in 1936 as recommended by the Simon Commission, Asaf Ali became its fifth Governor. Sir John Hubback and Sir Hawthorne Lewis were two British, and Sir Chandu Lal Trivedi the first Indian, Governors of the province in British times. Kailas Nath Katju was the first Governor after India attained Independence in 1947, and Asaf Ali succeeded him soon after to be the first Governor of the State of Orissa in the Republic of India.

 

            The impression he made on some of us when he came was that he was “smart” and somewhat finicky. His Achkan and Churidar Pyjamas were Khaddar of course but we learnt that he was anxious to get his underwear from the United States where he had been Ambassador between 1947 and 1950. This was of course in the tradition of the pre-Gandhian Motilal Nehru whose clothes were said to be laundered regularly in Paris.

 

            Evelyn Peyton Gordon writing in the Washington Daily News on Wednesday, July 25, 1951, recalled –

 

            Many of you remember the very dapper envoy who arrived here several years ago to enchant the town with his wit, his brilliant mind, his great culture and his excellent Saville Row clothes.

 

            I came to the Governor’s notice when in August 1951 as Chancellor of Utkal University he convened a meeting at Government House to consider certain urgent educational problems. The meeting was attended among others by members of the Orissa Cabinet, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, the Director of Public Instruction, Principals of colleges and Inspectors of schools. The problems were falling standards in the universities and growing indiscipline among students.

 

            A committee was appointed to issue a questionnaire, consider the replies received and submit a report as to how things could be improved. The committee met for the first time on 12-9-51 and the report was passed on 31-12-51. We made certain simple suggestions based on facts and figures gathered through the questionnaire. As is the fate of all such reports and recommenda­tions I do not think that action on the part of Government kept pace with the report.

 

            Asaf Ali took his responsibilities seriously. There was an instance of the Syndicate of Utkal University interfering with the results as passed by the Board of Examiners in English in the year 1950, and this resulted in a candidate who In the con­sidered and unanimous opinion of the Board of Examiners deserved to get Honours in English being deprived of his due because of the erratic marking by an examiner. The University Regulations were quite clear that in this matter it was for the Board of Examiners to decide and not for the Syndicate. But the Syndicate being the effective and “final” authority, as they thought they were, acted ultra vires, and I had to fight this matter and referred it to the Chancellor for decision.

 

            The Chancellor sent for me as well as for someone to represent the Syndicate to argue our respective cases before him; listened to us patiently; saw for himself the script of the examinee concerned along with other scripts valued by the same examiner in the same paper–and gave his considered opinion that the recommendation of the Board of Examiners should be accepted, as there was no need whatever to suspect their bona­fides and they were acting strictly within the powers conferred on them. He did not order the Syndicate but merely put before them all aspects of the matter for their consideration and if they so desired appoint another board of experts to go into the question. They had published the results when passed by the Board but not as passed by the Board, and this they were not competent to do. The Syndicate’s representative was later elevated to the bench and became a High Court Judge. The candidate who deserved Honours but did not get it got it, as the result of the Chancellor taking his responsibility seriously, and a special notification was issued in the Gazette redressing the wrong done to him.

 

            Asaf Ali was not only a man of taste and an excellent speaker but also a poet in English, and had published a volume entitled “Gossamer and Twilight”. This he sent to me to look over and make any improvements that might be necessary for a second edition. I saw much to commend in the volume, but also some faults. He took my suggestions not only without rancour but genuine gratitude. I quote from his letter to me in this connec­tion, dated the 22nd of December, 1951:

 

            Once again I am ever so thankful to you for making your suggestions. No, not even a king, a real autocratic king, should be spared the expert’s lash. In matters in­tellectual kings are to be found only in the Republic of Letters, and not outside.

 

            In contrast with this I should narrate what happened when a man who was with me at Oxford doing the Honours School of English Language and Literature, taught English for some years, wrote a book on correct English, and later got into the I.A.S. He had been asked to proof-read a book by Jawaharlal Nehru and told me how in a few instances be found the English defective. “Did you make the necessary corrections?” I asked him. “Oh, don’t be silly. One doesn’t correct a Prime Minister”. I am perfectly certain that if he had made the corrections, even though Nehru might have flown into a temper, if my friend had argued his case with him, the P.M. would have accepted his service with thanks, or in case the corrections were merely pedantic and not according to the modern accepted idiom, my friend would have learnt something from Nehru. Dictators are not born but made.

 

            As Principal of Balasore College I had invited the Governor to preside over the annual College Day. He accepted my invita­tion. In the beginning I had waved away the loud speaker as a nuisance and not needed by me. When it was put before the Governor for his address, he too waved it away. Unfortuna­tely his voice did not carry so that there was some noise in the audience and I could see that he was not happy. In spite of this however he appreciated everything that had been done, gave a generous donation from his discretionary grant to an amateur magician – a lecturer of the college – for his performance and was generally satisfied.

 

            That however was not the end. As he was leaving for the Circuit House and after he had bid adieu to me, some of the students of the college presented him with a petition complaining against my tyranny as Superintendent of the university examina­tions, in not allowing the candidates to leave the examination hall as and when they pleased to attend to calls of nature. The University Regulations had laid it down that in urgent circum­stances the supervisor could allow a candidate to leave the examination hall provided he was properly attended. In practice a supervisor would ask one of his assistants, also a college lecturer, to accompany the candidate up to the urinal. But no lecturer of course could be expected to go with the candidate into the urinal.

 

            Reports had reached me that under pretence of answering calls of nature some of the candidates helped themselves to papers they carried in their pockets, had a quick look, and came back to the hall, now better equipped. My dictatorship consisted in asserting that the urgency was to be determined not by the candidate but by the supervisor. Five minutes before the papers were given out, the candidates were informed that if their urge to commune with Nature was as irresistible as Wordsworth’s, they should attend to her call forthwith and that, once the question paper had been given to them, they could leave the hall as per the rules after half an hour. But once out, they could not return, any more than a soul which had left its body could return to it. The kind of urgency contemplated by the rules, I maintained, was a sudden stroke, a cramp, a nasal bleeding, a physical pain requiring immediate attention all of which could be attended to under the eyes of someone deputed by the supervisor and without infringing on his dignity. College students were not nursery children with “Please, Sir or Please, Madam – number 1, number 2”!

 

            The Governor told about the University Rules, the general practice and my Draconian orders, sent a letter to me forthwith suggesting that I should give the examinees all those freedoms which the university rules permitted. The students were jubilant that they had won a great victory against the tyrannical Principal. I had no alternative except to proceed forthwith to the Circuit House to acquaint the Governor with the implications of the students’ victory. I was told that the Governor was having dinner. I said I would wait. After dinner I was called in. I explained the whole situation. He delighted my heart by saying, “Sundaram, I didn’t realise all this. I am glad you came and explained the position. You just ignore my letter and do as you have been doing.” The next morning I put up a notice saying that the Chancellor was satisfied after hearing me that I was acting strictly as per the rules and that there was no need to make any change.

 

            When Mr. Jaganath Das’s term as Chief Justice of Orissa was coming to an end and it was imperative that he should be appointed to the Supreme Court without a break in service, and the Central Government as usual took its own time, I know for a fact how Asaf Ali was constantly at the telephone trying to ensure that the necessary orders came without delay taking it all as a personal matter. He could talk to Nehru on a footing of equality having been in the same ward of the prison with him, and even otherwise as a result of his own eminence and integrity.

 

            Wavell who was a good man and meant well by our country had a curiously blind spot in him, which failed to recognise the greatness of Gandhi, and makes him in his diary less than just to two Muslim Congressmen, viz., Asaf Ali and Sir Mirza Ismail. I am inclined to think that this is only because these two, instead of being good Muslims, sided with the Hindu Gandhi, thereby adding to the Viceroy’s troubles. Wavell liked to say, to the annoyance once even of the ever patient Mahatma, that he was no politician, only a simple soldier. Alas, for the simplicity! To be a great administrator something more is required. Sir Mirza was a great admini­strator, so was Mountbatten. But not Wavell.

 

            Asaf Ali towards the end of his governorship was grossly misunderstood by the Chief Minister, Mr. Hare Krushna Mahtab. Misguided by the latter, Mr Chintamoni Acharya withdrew his name from the panel of three proposed for the Vice-Chan­cellorship when his first term as V. C. came to an end. The result was not that Asaf Ali had to eat humble pie but that Mr. Acharya was left in the lurch, and somebody else came in as Vice-Chancellor to his own great surprise.

 

            An English Governor, Hawthorne Lewis, confronted by a resolution of the University Senate which was clearly ultra vires rust bowed to it, saying that if he did not, there might be a long-drawn-out litigation and the university work might come to a standstill. Kailas Nath Katju in a similar circumstance gave his decision against the Senate, to the joy of those who do by the law and not by expediency. Asaf Ali too by his action in the matter of that candidate was instrumental in going justice, the most valuable of all values. We have had many Governors since but few of his calibre.

 

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