VALLEY OF ELYSIUM
(One Act Play)
Prof. Hazara Singh
Tolstoy Farm .... A place in the valley named by Mahatma Gandhi associating it with the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy.
Day .... April 4, 1968
Characters
Abraham Lincoln .... A former President of USA, assassinated on April 14, 1865.
Mahatma Gandhi .... Popularly called ‘Father of Indian Nation’, assassinated on January 30, 1948
Martin Luther King .... American Negro, assassinated on April 4, 1968
Scene (i)
Tolstoy Farm in the valley of Elysium. Mahatma Gandhi wrapped in a sno sheet, spinning and humming the hymn: ‘Lead kindly light, lead’.
Abraham Lincoln enters the stage from the right side.
M. Gandhi: Hail, brother Lincoln, hail. It is so rarely that we meet even in the Valley of Elysium where no wordly problems jolt our minds.
A. Lincoln: I am beholden to you brother Gandhi, for the gracious welcome, I find waiting for me always here. Great events are taking place on the earth. The dream that inspired both of us is marching towards reality.
M. Gandhi: What event has thrilled you so deeply?
A. Lincoln: I heard that wonder-machine of Marconi announcing from the earth below that Martin Luther King was to lead the great march for liberty to secure racial equality for all Americans.
M. Gandhi: How I wish that this voice before resounding in the Planets and the space may reach first the hearts of people living on earth itself!
A. Lincoln: I was touched when I heard Martin Luther King impressing on his followers that for all the social reforms, he contemplated to bring about, he would adopt the path of love and non-violence as practised by you in India.
M. Gandhi: Hatred and force are not going to solve any of the problems. Rather, the resort to them aggravates the existing tensions and prejudices.
A. Lincoln: God having created man in His Own image, the hatred excited by extraneous considerations of colour and race amounts to an act of sacrilege.
M. Gandhi: When in my childhood I discovered that many people in my country were despised as untouchables, I felt shocked. I argued with my mother as to how the scavenger, who kept our house clean, could be not worthy of touch. I asked her whether he had not been created like all of us by God.
A. Lincoln: I too could not bear the scene, when I found in my country helpless black people chained, flogged and auctioned like cattle. My conscience revolted and I protested how a country assuring liberty to all of its citizens could have masters and slaves side by side.
M. Gandhi: I told my countrymen, if India was to become free, a part of her population could not be condemned as untouchable. Position of a person should be judged from his worth and not assigned according to his birth.
A. Lincoln: I too felt that the colour of skin was not real test of the worth of a citizen. The Lord having sermonized ‘Love thy neighbour’, it is duty of the whites to extend fraternal feelings to the blacks.
M. Gandhi: When I had been in South Africa I myself experienced the indignities, a coloured person was made to suffer.
A. Lincoln: How did you feel about that?
M. Gandhi: That put me to a serious heart-searching. I argued with myself as to how, far I would be justified in protesting against such outrages committed by whites, when in my own country millions of people were treated in the same contemptuous manner by their own countrymen.
A. Lincoln: In what way did it influence your political thinking?
M. Gandhi: I got convinced that mere political freedom would be no solution of the ills, my country had been suffering from. It would simply mean change of masters; the dark apathetic Indians in the chairs of authority in place of the supercilious while Britishers.
A. Lincoln: What did you suggest instead?
M. Gandhi: I enlightened my countrymen that freedom should mean a change for the better in the lot of the humblest and the weakest sections of society. They should have a social quality and economic justice to feel the thrill of political freedom.
A. Lincoln: How did you strive for that?
M. Gandhi: I named the untouchables as Harijans, children of God, thereby implying that any scorn hurled at them, would be scoffing at God Himself. Harijan uplift became a part and parcel of my crusade for liberty: political social and economic. Thereafter I always stayed in the Harijan localities to make them feel that I was one of them.
A. Lincoln: Was that all?
M. Gandhi: No. No. The women folk in India got, if not greater, at least the same consideration from me for their uplift. It had been my conviction that for transforming a society, heed was to be focussed at the homes, where life revolved around women. If they were neglected, posterity would be doomed.
A. Lincoln: What a great truth you practised! It is only the properly groomed women who, as mothers, can bring up a generation free from hatred, fearless in action, and rational in thinking.
M. Gandhi: While working for the realisation of the end, I had in mind, I never overlooked the means, I practised. I always insisted that the means should be as noble as the end itself.
A. Lincoln: This had been my own profession and practice too when I staked my all to keep America united.
M. Gandhi: Cheap politicians proclaim that truth is something entirely inconsistent with political pursuits. They feel so because they care only for the next election and not for the coming generation.
A. Lincoln: When I contested the election for presidency of the United States for the first time, I was advised by many of my supporters to keep silent on the issue of slavery.
M. Gandhi: How could an upright person like you accept that counsel?
A. Lincoln: For most of my party men the winning of election was an end in itself. For me it was a way to achieve the end; that in America all citizens would enjoy liberty irrespective, of their colour creed and place of birth.
M. Gandhi: Politics based on truth ushers in the rule of God Himself.
A. Lincoln: My rivals tried to trick me in by asking me in a public meeting, as to what would be my attitude towards slavery, if I happened to win the election.
M. Gandhi: Why were they in doubt about that?
A. Lincoln: They were crafty and had posed a question, reply to which in either way would pay them temporarily. If I said that I would abolish slavery, most of the whites in southern states would be enraged with me and if I replied otherwise, my manifesto would be belied. But I cared more for truth and thereby lost the first presidential election, I contested.
M. Gandhi: But in fact you won. Your opponents lost miserably a few years thereafter.
When I started the first civil disobedience movement in India, I made it clear to my workers that none of them would resort to violence. Of course, I was convinced that imperialism was the worst crime against humanity, being perpetuated through the use of brutal force. But to meet force with force would have been the negation of truth itself.
When I learnt that some workers at Champaran had resorted to violence, I at once called off the movement. I was not prepared to sacrifice the principle of truth and non-violence for the sake of temporary popularity and gain.
A. Lincoln: I too had been convinced that the use of force did not solve a problem, but made it more complicated. When I put down the Civil War effectively in my country, I thought that I was successful in abolishing slavery and segregation. I little realised that a law failed to bring about a Change as long as there was no change in hearts.
(A sudden bang of
pistol firing is heard)
A. Lincoln: (As if experiencing an excruciating pain) This is a similar bang which put an end to my life on earth.
M. Gandhi: I am also reminded of a similar pistol fire, when on my way to prayer meeting, I was shot thrice at my chest.
A. Lincoln: I had to lay down my life because I stood by the truth that all citizens of America, whether black or white, have a right to equality, fraternity and liberty.
M. Gandhi: I was assassinated by a co-religionist, because he was not prepared to accept that India was a secular state where people of all religions and faiths have a right to live.
A. Lincoln: I fear that some other upright man has laid down his life today at the hands of a frenzied assassin, blinded either by racial hatred or religious bigotry.
M. Gandhi: People of God will continue to embrace martyrdom smilingly and fearlessly in order to secure for everybody and anybody the right to live and let live.
A. Lincoln: It will not be long when the great soul who has paid the price for truth will be joining us. Let us prepare ourselves to receive him.
M. Gandhi: Yes. Let us move to outskirts of the valley to welcome that distinguished martyr.
(Both Lincoln and
Gandhi move away)
A. Lincoln and M. Gandhi looking towards the earth
expectantly. Soon after Martin Luther King bleeding in the chest enters the
stage.
M.L. King: Brothers I did my humble best to push your dream towards reality.
A. Lincoln: Tell us how it happened on the earth today. We heard that you were to lead the great march for liberty a few days hereafter.
M.L. King: I cherished your dream that the day was not far off when our nation would understand in full the truth that all human beings are created equal. I longed to see the day when sons of the former slaves and those of the former slave owners would regard themselves as brothers. The hope inspired me that my nation would soon begin to judge her people not from the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.
A. Lincoln: Segregation is the most horrible crime as well as a sacrilege.
M.L. King: Most of my countrymen shared my view that the practice of social segregation would mar the greatness of America in technical and scientific field reducing it to a morally weak nation not living upto its own professions.
A. Lincoln: What methods did you adopt to secure justice for the oppressed?
M.L. King: The sheer utilitarian approach of John Stuart Mill did not impress me as it might meet the aspirations of an egalitarian society but failed to inspire the downtrodden sections.
The revolutionary campaigns by Marxists, though appeared to be stirring at first sight, yet destination kept deluding them, because suppression and exploitation assumed new forms.
It was in the Gandhian emphasis on truth, love and tolerance through non-violence that I discovered the clue to social change.
(Turning to M.
Gandhi)
I became deeply fascinated by your campaign of non-violent resistance. As I delved deeper into your philosophy, my faith in the power of love increased and I had been convinced about its potency in the area of social reform.
M. Gandhi: Love is the manifestation of God Himself. This supreme unifying principle of life has been preached by all religions. In love there is the key, which unlocks the door leading to ultimate truth.
If my countrymen had resorted exclusively to force and hatred to get rid of the British rule, they would have lost as much as they were likely to gain. The British were made to realise through non-violent campaigns the gravity of their crime against humanity being perpetuated through imperialistic rule.
Non-violence is not weapon of the weak, but is a peaceful protest by those who are morally strong! My countrymen heeded my advice that true democracy could not come through untruthful and violent means for the simple reason that the natural corollary to their use would be to remove all opposition through suppression or extermination of antagonists. We had a double win-we achieved freedom and the Britishers packed from India not as enemies but as friends.
M.L. King: I pursued your methods in letter and spirit. Resort to violence does not solve any problem effectively. It may weaken the opponent but does not reform him. I got convinced that if the downtrodden black American succumbed to the temptation of using violence, he would be exposing his posterity to seething hatred in that plural society.
M. Gandhi: This very advice was accepted by my countrymen when we were campaigning to get emancipation from the British rule. This restraint yielded fruitful gains. There are more Indians now living in U.K. than there were Britishers in India, when they ruled over us. Co-operation between the two peoples is waging a successful war against the real enemies of mankind; unemployment and ignorance.
M.L. King: What else could I have done to make my campaign more effective?
M. Gandhi: Love and truth are two pillars of non-violent resistance. The sympathy of American women as a whole should be aroused to put an end to the oppression against the Negro.
Women are the fountain-head of love. If they instil into their young ones that racial hatred is unnatural and the resort to violence is a horrible falsehood, the posterity will forget all prejudices. Salvation of humanity as a whole depends on the spirit of sacrifice and the enlightenment of women, because they are natural messengers of the gospel of non-voilence.
M.L. King: How I wish that women realise as much their obligation as they are conscious of their rights!
M. Gandhi: Your martyrdom has gone a long way to win the peaceful struggle you had been waging. The assassin lost, because he was a coward. He was afraid of your mounting moral power. The Negroes by not giving vent to the feelings of revenge have won. They have shown that they are free from hatred which blinded the reasoning capacity of the assassin. The restraint shown by the oppressed has aroused the moral conscience of the world at large. Imperialism and racialism, two great enemies of the mankind, are finding disfavour with every right-thinking person.
M.L. King: Yes. Yes. Most of the Americans now not only feel but also practise that we are all God’s children. Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, whether black or white are joining hands and singing:
Free at last, free at last
Thank God Almighty
We are free at last
M. Gandhi: Why Americans only, people all over the world should join this chorus. The world is a place to live and let live and not to slap and stab.
A. Lincoln: Fearless death for a noble cause is the noblest legacy for posterity. Socrates waged a crusade against sham, barren tradition and oppressive authority with his unwavering voice of truth. He had to drink a cup of poison, but his martyrdom ushered in an, era of reason and truth.
M. Gandhi: Reason reveals truth and truth imparts fearlessness to human soul. Socrates gave this message through his words and deeds.
(Turning to King).
Your noble death is also a challenge to the goodness in man. I am sure that universities all over the world will create chairs to popularise your philosophy to make man, as presaged by P.B. Shelley:
Equal, unclassed, tribeless and nationless
Exempt from awe, worship, degree; the lord
Over himself, just, gentle, wise, yet man
A. Lincoln: Yes. Yes. The posterity can be saved from the scourge of hatred and war only through such precepts and practices.
M. Gandhi: Brother King, death for a noble cause is the highest reward that life can give. It’ll teach people how to live to usher in that era, which Rabindra Nath Tagore foresaw:
Where the mind is without fear
And the head is held high.
(Both Lincoln and
Gandhi clasp King and lead him to the valley of Elysium)