സുജനപാല്‍

സുജനപാല്‍ , 

അങ്ങയെ ആദരപൂര്‍വ്വം ഓര്‍ക്കുന്നു!

താങ്കളെപോലൊരു  മാന്യനായ രാഷ്ട്രീയക്കാരന്‍ കേരളത്തിന്‌ അഭിമാനമായിരുന്നു.

ഒരു സുനാമി എന്ന് വരും?

  ബാബാ രാംദേവ് നടത്തിയ സമരത്തിന്‌ ആധാരമാക്കിയ ആവശ്യങ്ങള്‍ ശ്രദ്ധേയമാണ്. നാടിന്റെ മാനവും സമ്പത്തും കര കടത്തിയവരെ പിടി കൂടണം.  എന്നാല്‍ രാംദേവിന്റെ സമരപന്തല്‍ ഉള്‍പ്പടെ ഉള്ള ഒരുക്കങ്ങള്‍ കാണുമ്പോള്‍ ഇതൊന്നും ആത്മാര്‍ഥതയോടെ ചെയ്യുന്നതാണെന്ന്  വിശ്വസിക്കാന്‍ വയ്യ.  പൊതുവേ രാംദേവ് വിശ്വാസ്യത തീരെ കുറഞ്ഞ  ഒരാളെന്നതും  ആശങ്കകള്‍ വര്‍ധിപ്പിക്കുന്നു. മറ്റൊരു പൊറാട്ട് നാടകം കൂടി കാണാന്‍ നാം വിധിക്കപ്പെട്ടിരിക്കുന്നു.

    വിദേശ ബാങ്കുകളിലുള്ള പണമിടപാടുകളും, സന്യാസിമാരുടെയും അതുപോലെ എല്ലാ മത സംഘടനകളുടെയും സാമ്പത്തിക ഇടപാടുകളും സുതാര്യമായ അന്വേഷണത്തിന് വിധേയമാക്കേണ്ടതാണ്. രാഷ്ട്രീയ പാര്‍ടികളും മത സംഘടനകളും എല്ലാം പാവം ജനങ്ങളെ വഞ്ചിക്കുകയാണ്. കാപട്യം കൊടി കുത്തി വാഴുന്നു. ഇവരെയെല്ലാം വിഴുങ്ങാന്‍ ശക്തിയുള്ള ഒരു സുനാമി എന്ന് വരും?

BERTRAND RUSSELL

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, popularly known as Russell, was one of the most famous philosophers and mathematicians of our age.  He is generally recognized as one of the founders of analytical philosophy.  Apart from his contributions to logic and philosophy he dealt upon various range of subjects like education, history, Politics, literature, religion and social evils.  Many of his writings on a variety of topics in both sciences and humanities have influenced generations of readers.

Bertrand Russell was born on the 18^th May 1872 in Wales into an aristocratic British Family.  Though he was born in the aristocratic family, following the death of his father, mother and sister, he became an orphan at the tender age of three.  He was brought up by his grand parents along with his only brother.  He did not have initial schooling and was taught at home by governesses and tutors.  Later he went to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1890 and came out with flying colours obtaining distinction in philosophy.

Russell’s adolescence was very lonely and he often contemplated suicide.  He remarked in his autobiography that his keenest interests were religion and mathematics and that only the wish to know and study more about those kept him from suicide.

Bertrand, the Philosopher:  Along with G.E Moore, Russell is generally recognized as one of the founders of analytical philosophy.  His most influential contribution includes his Defense of Logicism – the view that in some important sense mathematics is reducible to logic – and his theories of definite description and logical atomism.  In 1903, he wrote ‘the Principles of Mathematics’.  The ‘Problems of Philosophy’ gives Russell’s views on philosophical subjects and the value of philosophical knowledge.  The History of Western Philosophy written in 1945 gives a general history of history.

The introduction of mathematical philosophy was written when Russell was in Prison.  Then comes “the Analysis of Mind in 1921 – the outcome of some lectures he gave in London which pictures the complexity of mind and thoughts.  Russell’s Paradox is the most famous of the logical paradoxes.  The paradox arises by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves.  Such a set appears to be a member of itself, if any only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox. 

Russell, the Activist:  Political and social activism occupied most of his time.  This resulted in his prodigious and seminal writings on various subjects all the more remarkable.  His views on religion were notoriously blasphemous.  He implied that religion is a comfort; we seek to excuse our terrible acts.  His message was that we should take responsibility for our own deeds and that “so far as I can remember there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence”.

Russell was a prominent anti war activist.  He was imprisoned for his anti war policies.  He campaigned against Adolf Hitler and was a staunch critic of Stalin totalitarianism.  Russell was a strong critic of the involvement of America in the Vietnam War.  On November 1969 he appealed to the Secretary General U Thant of the UN to support an international war crimes commission to investigate the alleged torture and genocide by the USA in South Vietnam.

Russell always stood for nuclear disarmament.  He played a public role in the Cuban Missile crisis and got in touch with Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev who assured him that his Government would give due respect to his sentiments.

In 1955, the Russell – Einstein manifesto was released which was a document calling for nuclear disarmament signed by 11 of the most prominent nuclear physiscts and intellectuals of the time.  In 1957, the first Pugwash conference was released by him.  He became the President of the campaign for nuclear disarmament in the year 1958.  His contact with Lionel Rogosin while the latter was filming his antiwar films Good Times, Wonderful Times in 1960 is a clear testimony to his yearning for a peaceful, war free world.

On 23 November 1969, he wrote to the Times Newspaper that the preparation for Show Trials in Czechoslovakia was highly alarming.  The following month he protested to Alexi Kosygin over the expulsion of Alexander Solzhenitsyn from the writers union which clearly portrays his commitment to social and literary injustices.

On 31^st January 1970 Russell issued a statement which condemned Israeli aggression in the Middle East and called for Israeli withdrawal from the territory occupied in 1967.  This was the final political statement or act of the activist.  It was read out at the international conference of parliamentarians in Cairo on 3 February 1970 the day after his death on 2^nd February.

Russell was a true lover of humanity.  His humane approach was evident in his famous quoting “No one can sit at the bedside of a dying child and still believe in God”.  According to him “ in the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice and often the good suffer and often the wicked prosper and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying”.  He believed education was the key in conveying his social beliefs.  He, along with his wife Dora Black had opened an experimental school.

Recognitions:  In recognition of his all round services to the society he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1908 and reelected a Fellow of the Trinity College in 1944.  He was awarded the Sylvester medal of the Royal Society in the year 1934 and the de Morgan medal of the London Mathematical Society in the same year.  In 1963 he became the inaugural recipient of the Jerusalem Prize, an award for writers concerned with freedom of thoughts.

In 1949, he was awarded the order of merit.  Above all, in 1950, Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian and freedom of thought”.

He practiced what he preached.  He said that, “it is said that man is a rational animal.  All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this”.

On 2 February 1970, at the age of 97, death took away this humanitarian genius.  In accordance with his wish, there were no religious ceremonies.  His ashes were scattered over the Welsh Mountains.

Russell was indeed an extraordinary genius whom mankind witness once in generations.  His life was fruitful and wondrous.  His farsighted views on nuclear disarmament are very much relevant in the present national and international scenario. 

[ AIR, Kannur 5th June 2011]