"If I have made you poignant, if I have made you distressed, I owe you no apology. My purpose is to wake you up. Would you like to continue to sleep in the waking posture? That is left to you"

T. N. Seshan’s A Heart Full of Burden

An MCC-ian’s Burden for his Motherland | A Memoir

Reading books written by Officers in the Civil Services, can offer reams of valuable on-the-ground, real-world perspectives to pressing issues of civil society, to the layperson in general, and for those interested in public service, governance, and the workings of the Indian administrative system, in particular.

Honest Officers in the Civil Services are a rare breed. They offer such valuable real-world perspectives in dealing with complex administrative challenges, policy implementation, and the realities of governance at the grassroots level.

One reason why, reading their books can offer profound reflections on these challenges and provide valuable lessons on integrity, accountability, and public service.

This book by Shri T. N. Seshan, IAS, is one such book, that provides real-world perspectives that go beyond theoretical knowledge. It not only offers a unique insider’s view of the Indian bureaucracy - its strengths, weaknesses, and the challenges – but also presents the plethora of ethical and moral dilemmas that many of the honest Officers in the Civil Servies have had to face in their careers, in their tryst with truth and honesty.

So yes! continuing our dream run on yet another Chief Election Commissioner Shri T. N. Seshan, who’s written such a profound book on his motherland – A Heart Full of Burden.

Well, as this illustrious alumnus of MCC says, on the purpose behind writing this book –

If I have made you poignant, if I have made you distressed, I owe you no apology. My purpose is to wake you up. Would you like to continue to sleep in the waking posture? That is left to you.

On an aside, the book is no longer available for buying in the public domain. Although there were three reprints in 1995, due to public demand, the book has had no reprints from then on!

Added reason why me thought of presenting a few perceptive insights from the book for the future pillars of our Nation – especially our budding Civil Services Aspirants – who might find a noble purpose behind their call – through the words of T. N. Seshan.

So yes... what makes this book unique?

The entire book of 155 pages feels like he is in a candid, heart-to-heart conversation with his reader. Such is his spontaneity, his command over his language, and his appeal to the conscientious soul!

Feels so heart-warming to even know that we’ve had IAS Officers of his rank and file who have transformed society for the better in their own unique ways. And how!!!

Presenting a few lovely excerpts from his Introduction to A Heart Full of Burden –

If a statement of truth gets a man dubbed a cynic, call me so. I am not a cynic. I am not an escapist either. Nor do I deny the astronomical leaps taken by the country, particularly in comparison with those who gained freedom at the same time in history as India.

We were at a starvation corner in 1947. Today we are not only self-sufficient in food but are among its exporters. We had a wretched skeleton of an industrial base, mainly composed of agro-products, and a small number of textile mills, coalfields and ore mines.

Today we are the tenth largest industrialised nation of the world, manufacturing or at least assembling almost everything from a safety pin to a supersonic aircraft.

From a nation which produced only office clerks, we have now become a nation whose prowess as the third largest bank of techno-economic power is unquestioned. All this cannot be denied.

But the dignity of the individual, the inner strength of human character, and the courage to accept and do only that which a man in his conscience believes to be correct, that self-respecting mettle which is nurtured only by true education and persistent exercise, and ‘maketh a nation great and strong’, in the true sense is as deplorable today in the age of supersonic aircraft as it was in the age of bullock-cart.

The India of my dreams is not an India of high-tech economic advancement. It is a vision which perhaps died with the freedom fighters – “where the mind is without fear and the head is held high” – it is that haven of freedom into which we still have to lead our ancient nation.

The dignity of the individual which is at the heart of the cosmic concept of fraternity and national pride is inalienable to my dream of a strong and free India. Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity – the hallmarks of a living democracy – are elusive ideals unless the individual gets his due.

A democracy is one in which the rule of law prevails. People are ruled by consent enshrined in the laws made by their chosen representatives, and have a right to dissent and challenge that which is illegal and underhand.

Coercion of any kind, mental, economic, political or intellectual, is a form of violence and should not find no place in any democracy. 

From a statistical point of view, we have the largest number of laws, covering and uncovering almost every aspect of human life. But the inside out of democracy today is that law is obeyed more in circumvention and defiance than in effect.

Consider the case of two women who were raped in the Arabian deserts in 1991. The guilty were brought to book and executed in a record time of six months; and compare it with the thousands of rapes which were committed in 1991 in India, and even if, out of some of these cases, charges are framed, they are still under a review. Justice in such circumstances can only be called a joke.

A democracy is one in which the true choice of the people gets reflected in the public representatives. We have yet to make a beginning in that direction. Elections in India continue to make a beginning in that direction.

Elections in India continue to yield to the manipulative tactics of the privileged few whether privileged by sheer dint of, being in power at the sacred time of the poll or being privileged to be able to commandeer enough financial resources to influence and purchase the people’s choice.

A third category of the privileged professionals who are swarming the holy precincts of our legislatures are the musclemen who first worked for those who began to depend on them to browbeat the voters and then preferred to displace their erstwhile masters.

Absence of purity in our election process is at the root of corruption in India. I dream of an India in which the voter shall be able to assert his true choice and will be free and aware enough to identity the appropriate man for the helm of affairs.

Public awareness is the key to a vibrant and living democracy — awareness of what ails the nation, what are our ills and what remedies are best under the prevailing environment, awareness of what are the rights and obligations of the citizens and what a faithful exercise of these rights will contribute towards the general good and well-being of all.

And this awareness which has always been the proud possession of the vibrant Indian psyche has played a second fiddle all through our recent post-Independence period. Our system of education is still limited in its approach.

“Education” said Hazlitt, “is that which remains in us after we have forgotten what we learnt in books.”

Education in India is still bookish and merely career-oriented. It does not train fully grown, aware and self-assured young men and women to swim confidently in the tumultuous ocean of the competitive and conflict-ridden society. Women who constitute half the mass of people are still by and large deprived.

The India of my dreams, though technologically keeping pace with the world and economically sound and self-sustaining, will be only an India of clay and mud if the foundations are not built on human character and honesty sustained by education which nurtures the human personality in its true sense.

- T. N. Seshan

In short, T. N. Seshan’s A Heart Full of Burden (a collection of his addresses) is more of a personal reflection that delves into the heart of the Indian democratic electoral process and politics.

And as the title itself suggests, “A Heart Full of Burden,” hints at Seshan’s personal sense of “agony at the nation’s present condition” at that point of time, presenting on a platter, his views on the Indian democratic electoral process and the state of Indian politics.  

Seshan not only expresses his noble aspirations and concerns about public life, but also uses his inimitable “no holds barred” and “no-punches-pulled” style to critique politicians, bureaucrats and goonda elements who infest and infect the land, reflecting his deep sense of respect for democratic values and the Indian constitution.  

PS: You may want to read our past post on Shri T. N. Seshan’s visit to his alma mater MCC on 6th March 2013, where he was honoured with the Distinguished Alumni Award, HERE.

Shri T. N. Seshan at MCC, 15 years ago - 6th March 2013