A Gentle Colossus!

There is no contradiction in terms in describing a gentleman as a gentle colossus. Colossus only indicates the stature. It does not refer to any quality of refinement or rudeness. Nikhil Chakravartty, who was born a year before World War I started, lived through the tumultous events of the twentieth century imbibing both its froth and the essence of its refinement. He was quintessentially a twentieth century intellectual.

Son of a well-off family of the then Calcutta, the second largest city of the British empire, he went to England to pursue higher education as was the custom among the upper classes. The intellectual life of universities of the United Kingdom was then in ferment. Left intellectualism was sweeping the educational campuses in the thirties of the last century. No one could remain neutral and unaffected if one wasn’t a moron. Almost all the Left leaders of India since independence were products of that all-embracing radical intellectual movement. Nikhil Chakravartty was no exception.

I was introduced to Shri Chakravartty in the early seventies of the last century by another giant of the Left movement, Dr Z.A. Ahmed. Coming as he did from a landowning family of UP, he could, like a true Communist, “declass” himself and could be one among the deprived whom he represented politically. There was no affectation in his bonhomie with the have-nots. Though he was not a “have-not” himself, he could effectively and genuinely erase his class character while he represented the poor. Sincerity and genuineness were the hallmarks of the Left leadership of those days. Nikhilda (as he was popularly called) was the embodiment of that genuinely declassed leadership group.

A characteristic of Nikhilda which charmed anyone who came in contact with him was the unaffected ease with which he could mix with the person concerned. When I was first introduced to him Dr Ahmed asked him very casually: how did his interview go? I had no idea what that was all about. With a twinkle in his eyes he said it went off very well “as both of us kept our ‘aces’ close to our chest”. Later on, I came to know that he had rushed back to his “Lal Kothi” (35 Kakanagar) to keep his appointment with me. He had gone to Mrs Gandhi and rushed back to keep his appointment with a non-entity (that is, me). High or low, mighty or powerless, rich or pauper—all were equal to him. He inhaled and absorbed the gentle wind of egalitarianism of the thirties in the campuses of higher learning in the United Kingdom. He was an unbranded genuine Communist—who believed that so long as there would be inequality there would be ceaseless struggle for equality and as a thinking person one would have no option but to join the conflict in favour of the have-nots. To him this option required no logic. It was exiomatic. It was natural.

There is no point in sighing about the century that has just gone by. Each century would have its own problems and each its own solutions. There had never been any golden age for the have-nots of the world. There may not be any such golden age for them in the future. But the effort for securing it should go on. Otherwise the world would lapse back into the mire of inequality, exploitation and oppression. Bengal of the last century produced, among others, a Nikhil Chakravartty. India of this century will surely produce its own variety of Nikhil Chakravartty to “redeem the pledge”.

Architect of ‘Operation Barga’ during the Left Front Government in West Bengal, the author was Secretary (Rural Development) and Secretary (Revenue) in the Union Government. Now retired, he is currently a Member of the Rajya Sabha representing the Trinamul Congress.