Last
year when I was invited to preach on Remembrance Day at our University Quadrant
addressing the young cadets of our University, it wasn’t a comfortable experience
to prepare a sermon for such an occasion like this. My colleagues mentioned to
me that this is a Christian tradition in Britain, and it does have a pastoral
practice of preaching on such occasions remembering those died in the war. In
my cross-cultural ministerial engagements, here in UK this was one of the
difficult tasks for me to reflect on Remembrance Day. As a pastoral calling in
this context, pinning a poppy on to my stole, I (ad)ventured in making this
reflection, from an Indian subaltern perspective.
In my own personal reflection, I could only
think and remember those Dalit brothers and sisters who are killed brutally in
the name of caste by the dominant groups, for whom we never have any
Remembrance days. Therefore, Remembrance Day for me cannot go without
remembering several Dalits who sacrificed their lives at the altar of the inhuman
system of caste. On this day, I remember those innocent people in Kashmir &
North East India who are killed by the forces of State using AFSPA (Armed
Forces Special Protection Act), I remember several Palestinians who are killed
by the occupying forces, and I bring to my memory all those innocent people who
are killed across the globe in the name of religion, gender, region, class etc.
Personally,
I must but remember two people in my family on this Remembrance Day. One is my paternal
great grandfather Mr. Patta Jogiah, of whom our family tradition say that he
died in a war in Rangoon. The other was my maternal grandfather Mr. Palaparthi
Devaraju, who served the Royal Indian Navy during the early years of his life.
As
we gather here on this Remembrance Day, we are called to revisit our memory, to
re-member several people who lost their lives at a war, to resist the logic of
war, to remember the families, widows & children left behind and to renew
our commitment for global peace.
Coming
from India and reflecting on war memorials, I recollect my visit to the War
Memorial cemetery in Kohima, in the north-eastern State of Nagaland. It was a
commemorative memorial in the memory of soldiers died in Second World War. One epitaph
and the words inscribed on it caught my attention, and it was written, “When you go home, tell them of us and say,
for your tomorrow, we gave our today.”
This inscription made me to think, that several Indian soldiers who died along
with many others gave their “todays” for someone else’s “yesterdays.” They left
behind widows and orphans, but history too has orphaned them, with very little evidence
& record of their lives.
On
this Remembrance Day, we are called to remember several unsung heroes and sheroes
of wars, whose lives were lost, whose histories were lost and whose memories
are also lost. It was said that approximately 1.3 million Indian soldiers
served in World War I, not representing their country or their geography, but
risking their lives and ultimately paying their lives. Over 74,000 Indian
soldiers lost their lives, fighting on a distant foreign land for a foreign cause
& countries. Those Indian soldiers included Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs,
Christians, people of faith and no faith and had to sacrifice their lives.
On
this day, may we re-member those & several other people, whose names, lives
& histories have been erased & forgotten and whose lives & their
deaths were unrecognized, unnoticed and undocumented. It is time to dis-member
their lives, histories & local narratives of resilience as war soldiers,
sepoys, jawans & several others.
The
gospel of Jesus Christ and the values of Kingdom of God is built on small
mustard seeds; whose germination was unwarranted for, yet when bloomed could
nest several birds. Small narratives and little stories, do have such scope to
inspire many people. Jesus’ earthly life had to end with an unjust trial,
political crucifix and a premature death at the age of thirty-three, at the
hands of cruel Roman Empire. This reminds us to re-member several young people
who at the age of 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 etc. lost their lives prematurely at a war
for the sake of their people and nations. The memory of Jesus death was de-membered
with his new life experience in resurrection, which instills a new hope to
remembrance. The memory of Jesus’ premature death and his resurrection that
followed it, has sustained the Christian communities of all generations that
kept to live lives in a hope. It is a memory of grief, a memory of empathy, a memory
of consolation, a memory of hope, so it is with the memory of all those died at
war.
On this day, we are called
to join in the vision and prophecy of Micah as he says,
“God shall judge between many peoples,
and shall arbitrate between strong
nations far away;they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks;nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more”
Micah 4:3
When
the great British poet Wilfred Owen was to return to the front to give his life
in the futile first World War, he recited Indian Nobel laureate Rabindranath
Tagore’s parting words to his mother as his last good bye. When he was so
tragically & pointlessly killed, Owen’s mother found Tagore’s poem copied
out in her son’s hand in his diary:
When I go
from hence
let this be
my parting word,
that what I have
seen is unsurpassable.
I have tasted
of the hidden honey of this
lotus, that
expands on the ocean of light,
and thus am I
blessed
-let this be
my parting word.
In this play
house of infinite forms
I have had my
play
and here have
I caught sight of him that is formless.
My whole body
and my limbs
have thrilled
with his touch who is beyond touch;
And if the
end comes here, let it come
-let this be
my parting word.
Let
our memories not fail us and let us re-invoke that “for your tomorrow we gave
our today.”
Rajbharat
Patta,
11th
November 2016
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