Barrister Pandharinath Bapu Pai: Liberal, Democratic, visionary , leader of people and Pioneer of Konkan Railway

Barrister Pandharinath Bapu Pai: Liberal, Democratic, visionary , leader of people and Pioneer of Konkan Railway

“It is a lovely little town, what with its many temples, its blue sea, golden sand beach and its intelligent, friendly citizens. Blessed are those who live in that little town.  And you have visited the dreamy, poetic, enchanting little village nearby? I mean Dabholi, Aravli, Shiroda, Redi, Math, and Vetora. Their very names breathe music. Konkan is the land of beauty, land of poetry, land of great personalities. Now, you do not accuse me of parochialism. What I have written is an objective appreciation of the people and I had the good fortune of knowing intimately.  I am sure you must have built a fine cadre in Vengurla. Life on Thames is as usual, foggy, cloudy, bleak. The song of the sea, glorious sunset, the intoxicating moonlight, and the starry blue skies are calling me back, pulling me homeward. I cannot hold any longer”. These beautiful and poetic words had been taken from the letter written by such a visionary and gentle person Barrister Pandharinath Bapu Pai popularly known as Nath Pai. He had written this letter to his friend Vasu Deshpande when Nath Pai was in London to complete the education. From these words, one can make special affection for Konkan. He was adored by the people of Konkan and it is very difficult to express in words his relations with the people of Konkan.

From Yogesh Gogwekar

Barrister Pandharinath Bapu Pai was born on 25th September 1922 at Vengurla to Bapu Anant Pai and Tapibai Bapu Pai. He was the youngest amongst his three brothers and sister. His father was working as Post master and died when he was four years old. He completed his education in Vengurla, Belgaum, Pune and London. He did his primary education in Vengurla, matriculation in Belgaum, Graduation from Fergusson College in Pune and became barrister from Middle Temple, London. 

During the studying in Begaum and Pune, he developed his oratorical skill which helped him to win several prizes in inter-college debating competitions. He developed mastery over languages like Marathi, Hindi, English and Sanskrit. Later on in his life, he also learnt and became the master in French and German.  Very soon, he had started recognising as a persuasive speaker who can easily change one's emotion.  In 1961, he married an Austrian girl Christl Puchel.

During his school and college education, Nath Pai started taking interest in political debate and started taking an interest in the freedom movement.  On 9th August 1942, he participated in the Quit India movement and continued his revolutionary activities like disruption of communications for several months by remaining underground till he had been arrested and imprisoned. In prison, he faced police brutality with great courage.  One of the police officers kicked with boots on his chest due to this he suffered from severe blunt Trauma to the chest cage. During this movement, he was just 21 year old.

When Rammanohar Lohia had given the call for Goa freedom movement in 1946, he jumped in the movement and led a batch of Satyagrahis for liberating Goa from Portuguese rule. His participation was interrupted as he went to London to become Barrister; but continued after completion of his education in law and returning back from London. He defended India’s case regarding Goa’s freedom on international platform. He also participated in Samyukta Maharashtra movement which advocated the separate Marathi speaking state. He also fought to bring Marathi speaking places of North Karnataka like Belgaum, Karwar, Nipani, Bidar and Dharwad into Maharashtra state. He raised his voice in Parliament for such a border issue. Even he tried his best to bring Goa also in Maharashtra; but could not succeed as opinion polls rejected the merger with Maharashtra.

For his higher education, Nath Pai had gone to London in 1948. He was there till 1952 to complete his education and became Barrister. During his studies in London, he formed socialist group and was elected as the President of the London socialist group. In London, he got an opportunity to see the working style of the labour party and its welfare activities. He also saw the working style of Parliamentary democracy and he started believing very strongly and convinced that only parliamentary type of government could help India to become modern. 

His working ability as a socialist leader was so impressive that at that time English Prime Minister Clement Atlee of the Labour Party called Nath Pai under his wing and asked him to lead an international youth socialist organisation. In 1951, British Asian Socialist Fellowship was organised in London under Clement Atlee as a President and Nath Pai was its vice President. In 1954, he had been elected as first President of an international youth socialist organisation during their conference at Copenhagen and Nath Pai continued to be President of this organisation for four consecutive years. During his visit in Austria, he thought of doing a Ph.D. on “Impact of Upanishads on German Philosophy”. For that he had read a lot of books and materials but could not complete Ph.D.  After becoming Barrister, he returned back to India and started taking more interest in bringing development in Konkan,  Praja Samajwadi party and Indian Parliamentary affairs.

Barrister Nath Pai decided to contest the Parliamentary election from South Ratnagiri Constituency (later on named as Rajapur Constituency) in 1957. In the first Parliamentary election of 1952, Nanasaheb Gore had contested the election as a Socialist Party Candidate against Congress Candidate Moreshwar Joshi and Nanasaheb Gore lost the seat by 19200 votes.  Nath Paid took the challenge and with his supernatural ability, he won the election by 21590 votes against the Moreshwar Joshi of Congress. Impact of his work was so much that his constituency elected him as their candidate for 1962 and also for 1967. Even after his impact continued even after his death, this constituency sent Madhu Dandvate to Parliament as his successor for five times. Nath Pai worked for his people and development of Konkan in the Parliament and became the voice of his people. He was the first person to ask for the Konkan railway and laid down the plan accordingly.

Barrister Nath Pai had shown his talent as a parliamentarian. At the time of debating, Nath Pai used so many references to literature and philosophical quotes. His arguments were having a legal base. His ability of expressing the language in a poetic way was superb and literally clinical. One can refer to his speech in parliament regarding the Chinese aggression in which he said,” There was a thrombosis of the will on the part of some of our leaders. There was a thickening of the emotional arteries and that was the cause of all the mischief, all the misfortune and all the tragedy that befell our nation”. If one reads his speeches in Parliament, he or she would realise his ability to use languages in a beautiful way with such superb power of expression.  

As a Parliamentarian, he tabled a bill for setting up the commission to resolve the grievances in connection with then linguistic reorganization of states and also tabled the bill to set the guidelines for an appointment of Governors. In 1970, He also introduced bills for the right to work within the fundamental rights.  In the case of landowner Golak Nath challenged the law when the Punjab government took away the right to acquire and hold the property and the Supreme Court said that Parliament had no power to amend the Fundamental rights and thereby protected the right to property. In this case, Barrister Nath Pai introduced the Constitution Amendment Bill in Parliament on 7th April 1967 and restored the power of parliament. 

Nath Pai was a very much admirer of art, music and literature. He was much closer to the writers P L Deshpande, B. B. Borkar, Mangesh Padgaonkar, Prabhakar Padhye, V.V. Shirwakar (Kusumagraj) etc.  He had read many literatures of Sanskrit, English and Marathi. He used the stories and poems of these languages during his speech in Parliament and also in public meetings.   Aditi Pai in her book ”Nath Pai : Patriot, Visionary , Man of the People”  has devoted one chapter about his famous debate in Convocation Hall of Mumbai University where he defeated the famous Barrister Nani Palkhiwala and the way he kept the audience hooked through his oratory in English language.

He was very much an admirer of Senapati Bapat. When Senapati died on 27th November 1967, Nath Paid asked speaker Sanjiv Reddy to pay tribute to Bapat, but the Speaker refused by saying that he was a local leader and he was not even the Member of Parliament. Barrister Nath Pai immediately informed the house that the foundation of this Parliament has not been laid by Linton and Becker but by men like Senapati Bapat. What people like him suffered, what they struggle for, that is why we have a Parliament today.

Such a great parliamentarian died on 18th January 1971 at the age of 50 due to heart attack. Fifty years have been completed for his death. During the Parliamentary session, he had criticized the policies of the Nehru government but never disrespected Jawaharlal Nehru. Even after knowing that Nath Pai was the leader of opposition, Jawaharlal Nehru used to call him at his residence and used to discuss literature and India’s issues and policies to resolve it. Jawaharlal Nehru always referred Nath Pai as ‘A Gentleman Politician’

Thus, Nath Pai was highly respected and admired by the leaders of all parties. For his respects, many education institutions have been started in his name in Goa, Mumbai, Pune and his own constituency Rajapur, Vengurla, Malvan and Kudal. Barrister Nath Pai Sevangan has been built in Malvan region of Maharashtra. This organisation is rendering social service to the people of this region.

Nath Pai was a true lover of nature. He always loved the silvery sand of Malvan, Kolamb Shore, Palm trees and Sarjekot fort. He always enjoyed sitting at the seashore to see how the waves washed the shoreline and also liked to see the sunset.  At the end, I am mentioning the part of writing of journalist D B Karni about the Nath Pai. He said,” Once he had the floor to himself, he would not miss a single opportunity to put his opponents, particularly the ruling party, in the wrong box. Then quotations would flow, in English, Marathi and Sanskrit. There would be stories and anecdotes. There would be legal arguments and a flourish of emotional outbursts. Above all there would be the beauty of the language coming out with such superb power of expression”.

I am a very admirer of Barrister Nath Pai.

References

Lokshahicha Kaiwari: written by Vasu Deshpande in Marathi

Nath Pai: Patriot, Visionary, Man of the People: written by Aditi Pai in English

Maharashtrache Shilpakar:   written by Jayanand Mathkar in Marathi

Lokshahichi Aradhana: Speeches of Nath Pai.

Mumbai

13/02/2021