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Truly patriotic
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A freedom fighter during the 1930s, character actor A. K. Hangal, who had taken on the British as a citizen of Peshawar, has carried on despite odds. He talks to V. GANGADHAR of the thin line between freedom fighters and terrorists.
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A. K. Hangal.
FOR SOMEONE who is 80 plus, the voice of veteran character actor A. K. Hangal sounded clear and strong on the telephone. ``Come over for a chat,'' he invited. ``I am rather disturbed at the thin line between terrorists and genuine freedom fighters. There is a lot of confusion on this issue''. When people like Hangal call me, I go. He is not only an outstanding character actor, but a true liberal, a genuine Marxist and a freedom fighter who had taken on the British while he was a citizen of Peshawar in the 1930s. A member of the `Red Shirt' movement launched by Khan Abdur Ghaffar Khan, Hangal had been jailed twice by the British before he came over to India after the partition.
In Mumbai, he had invited the wrath of Shiv Sena chief, Bal Thackeray by visiting the Pakistani deputy High Commissioner's office and was seen at their Independence Day celebrations. The Sena Chief ordered a boycott of Hangal's films, and producers were unwilling to sign him. An unfazed Hangal shrugged and carried on.
At his small, unpretentious Santacruz Home, the drawing room littered with the morning papers, we talked.
``I was quite disturbed when President Pervez Musharraf, during his visit to India, compared the Kashmir militants to freedom fighters,'' began Hangal. ``This was totally incorrect.''
``Most militants call themselves freedom fighters,'' I pointed out. ``Guess that provides them with some respectability,'' Hangal snorted. ``I know a thing or two about freedom fighters,'' he said. ``You see, a genuine freedom fighter will not harm innocent people. But these militants kill and maim as they please.'' He then went back in time and narrated his own experiences. As a member of the Red Shirt movement, Hangal was an activist during the 1930s. ``You see, we did attack British officers and soldiers who were our enemies. But we saw to it that innocent civilians, women and children were not touched. The fierce tribals of that region were also anti-British and fought them. But even they observed this code of conduct.''
``Isn't it hard to observe rules and follow a code of conduct amidst such violence?'' I asked. Hangal now went back in time. ``Read our `Ramayan' and `Mahabharat'. During the 18-day war, both the Kaurava and Pandava armies observed certain codes of conduct. The battle stopped at sunset, and both the sides cremated their dead. Warriors matched their wits against equals, not inferiors. In the `gada' battles, the opponents could not hit below the belt. Arjuna did not fight with ordinary archers. Of course, there were violations of the code, like the killing of Abhimanyu. The battle did not affect the civilians.''
To me, all this is wishful thinking. But Hangal went on. ``Even today, the code exists,'' he observed. ``Among members of the Armed Forces. During the Kargil skirmish, the Indian Armed Forces gave a decent burial to the Pakistanis killed by them. This is what genuine soldiers are supposed to do.''
What about the attitude of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation whose forces carried out attacks and inflicted civilian casualties among the Israelis? Was their attack justified? ``This is a tricky problem,'' pointed out Hangal. ``Now, no international problem can be solved unless we go to its root cause. Take the case of the West Asia crisis. Israel's supporters, particularly the U.S., refuse to consider the fact that Israel was an illegitimate creation, which came into existence without the consent of the Palestinians who were forced out of their own country. The U.S. and other Western powers are totally partisan on this issue. Unless the root cause of the problem is probed into, I am afraid, these attacks will continue. The PLO had denounced the terrorist attacks, but the average Palestinian cannot forget the bitter fact that an artificial State had been created out of his homeland.''
I asked him about the LTTE atrocities inflicted on the civilians in Sri Lanka. Hangal said he was totally opposed to the LTTE tactics but blamed the Sri Lankan governments for creating such an impasse. The earlier Sri Lankan Governments denied rights to the hard working Tamilian population and indulged in all forms of oppression. This led to the creation of the LTTE. If the earlier Sri Lankan governments had been reasonable towards their Tamil citizens who had done so much to build modern Sri Lanka, the current situation would not have arisen. We talked about the massive retaliation of the U.S. and allies against global terrorism and the bombing of Afghanistan. ``The terrorist attacks on the U.S. cannot be defended,'' said Hangal. ``Those who were responsible must be sought out and punished. Side by side, the U.S. should look inwards and find out why it was hated so much in certain parts of the world. The U.S. must act like a genuine super power and not a petty tyrant.'' Hangal sipped hot tea and continued. ``No one will object if the U.S. found out who were responsible for the bombings, and punished them, through the authority of the United Nations. But it must not go on a rampage and treat this as a kind of personal vendetta. Such an attitude would not help eliminating global terrorism.''
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