Governor R.N. Ravi on Sunday said India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was ‘confounded’ and ‘unaware’ when last viceroy of British India, Lord Mountbatten, asked if India had a ‘ritual’ to signify the transfer of power in 1947. He was of the view that India got its moorings and bearings right by placing the ‘Dharma Dhand’ (spectre) on May 28 in the new Parliament building.
Speaking at a celebration in Raj Bhavan to mark the inauguration of the new Parliament building and installation of the Sengol, Mr. Ravi said, “Centuries and centuries of colonisation and invasion had actually disturbed and destroyed much of the country, but Tamil Nadu had retained those institutions and values. There were people who carried on those traditions and will remember all that happened in the past. It wasn’t so in the rest of the country. For centuries, people will not only recall May 28 as the day India got its new Parliament building, but the day it got its moorings and bearings right by placing the Dharma Dhand there.”
According to him, when asked by the British if there was a transfer of power ritual during independence, ‘it didn’t occur to our national leadership how that could be accomplished’. “Legally, transfer of power was realised through British Parliament. They had made two laws – the Indian Independence Act 1947 and the Government of India Act as amended in 1947. Under these Acts, the British paramountcy over India was to lapse on the midnight of August 15, 1947 and the princely states, nearly 600 of them, became independent countries with an option to remain with India or join Pakistan. Thanks to Patel, we got this united India,” Mr. Ravi said.
“When Mountbatten asked the ritual, the then Prime Minister (Pandit Nehru) was not aware of it and got confounded and approached the great statesman Rajaji who said, ‘Yes, we have a ritual’. He approached Thiruvavaduthurai Adheenam and requested the Adheenam to conduct the ritual. Sengol is not just ‘Raj Dhand’ but ‘Dharma Dhand’. In Indian civilisation, sovereignty lies not just with the ruler, but with Dharma. The supremacy and sovereignty of Dharma is the tradition of Indian civilisation,” he said.
The Governor said though India continued to govern and progress, the last several decades saw infighting and divisions based in the name of race, castes, tribes, religion, ethnicity and subdivisions. “As a result, we became a divided society. We have started finding the answer to it in the Indian civilisational values – Dharma. India got a new Parliament building – it carries the past, reflects the present and also carries the vision of the future. In that magnificent building, we have placed the Sengol.”
