The convocations of Delhi University (whose establishment had been advocated by Lord Reading) and its affiliates used to have some of the best intellectuals delivering the convocation address. That was when newspapers would devote a column or more for it. Now it’s matter-of-fact politicians who deliver it like a political speech that lacks the academic touch.
The mind goes back over 60 years when leaders like C. Rajagopalachari, Prof Mahalnobis, Dr. Radhakrishnan and C.D. Deshmukh were invited to deliver convocation addresses, not forgetting Jawaharlal Nehru whose resonant voice and deep knowledge made history and tradition come alive. Incidentally, in Zakir Husain Delhi College convocations were introduced as late as 2006-07 by its then principal, Dr. Aslam Parvaiz, now Vice-Chancellor of Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad. A university, now named after Dr. Ambedkar courtesy Mayawati, had a beautiful exhortation for those being awarded degrees.
It is probably still followed by the Vice-Chancellor and went like this: “I exhort you as follows: Speak the truth/Walk in the way of duty/Neglect not the study of higher knowledge/Treat thy teacher with respect and gratitude/And fail not in taking upon thyself the burden of life. Thou shalt not be negligent of truth/Thou shalt not be negligent of thy duty/Thou shalt not be negligent of social welfare/Thou shalt not be negligent of thy good/Thou shalt not be negligent of the study and teaching of higher knowledge. Thou shalt not be negligent of thy duties unto God or unto the heritage which our forefathers have left behind/Let thy mother be an object of reverence whom thou adorest/Let thy father be unto thee as thy object of reverence/Let thy teacher be unto thee as thy object of reverence/And thou shalt serve thy guest with humility and reverence”….
To each of these the student answered “I promise”. There were other exhortations too concluding with: This is the teaching; this the exhortation; this the doctrine of high knowledge; this is the instruction. This thou shalt practice; yea, thou shalt act likewise. May thy path be blest.” The beautiful exhortation was framed at the time of the first VC of the varsity, Canon A. W. Davies, in the mid-1920s. Few indeed could go astray after such a vow. But not anymore, seeing many graduates ending up in jail.
It was Sir Maurice Gwyer, as first Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University, who invited the best scholars and statesmen to deliver convocation addresses. Himself a man deeply immersed in literature (his daughter was named after the heroine of the play of his best-loved Shakespearean drama character Miranda and Miranda House came to be known after her too). C. Rajagopalachari while delivering a convocation address a few years before his death alluded to the rich Greek mythology and compared it with the equally rich and older Indian one. While talking of the god Pan, he said though his pipes are not heard now in Grecian fields and valleys those in India still ring with the songs that eulogise the lore of Krishna in Madhuban when Radha danced and the incarnation of Vishnu played the flute.
It was on this theme that Sarojini Naidu wrote one of her best poems, “The Flute Player of Vrindavan”. But that was after the poetess was advised by William Butler Yates that she should stick to native lore and scenery and not try to write in the style of Keats and Shelley who were trying to draw inspiration from their own milieu. Dr. Radhakrishnan brought to his convocation addresses the impact of philosophy and its deep roots in India. No wonder it was a pleasure to listen to him. Jawaharlal Nehru spoke as though he was still continuing with the same thought process as the one that made him write his masterpiece, “The Discovery of India”. In it he saw the country drawing inspiration from Wisdom’s Well “into which her eyes had looked down” through “trackless centuries”. No politics intruded into his addresses for the graduates of the year.
C.D. Deshmukh had his own style of delivery, with economics being his main concern but peppered with the insight of a statesman. When Dr. Ramsay, Archbishop of Canterbury in the 1960s addressed a convocation of St John’s College, Agra he spoke not on religion but on everyday life of the layman, asking the new graduates to imbibe the spirit of wonder without which life became savour less, just a mechanical existence. Every tree, bush, glen, hill and dale and every bird that alighted in the garden and every flower drenched in dew from which the humming bees drank pollen were the harbingers of knowledge and the mysteries of nature, he emphasized.
Dr. Ishwari Prasad was also a very effective speaker. It was on hearing him address a history class that Rushbrook Williams, the eminent historian, picked him to head the Department of History in Allahabad University, where his peers were Firaq Gorkahpuri and Harvanshrai Bachchan of the English faculty. Ishwari Prasad, while addressing a convocation, spoke of Catherine of Aragon, who is said to have had 300 suitors “but history no doubt confirms 30”, he said. Some went so far as to think that it was a dig at Sarojini Naidu with whom Dr. Prasad had had a tiff but the historian denied it outright and said he was only trying to emphasize that beauty alone was not the hallmark of women but what made them more attractive than even Catherine was love, compassion and the milk of human kindness. Where does one hear such convocation addresses now?
