श्रोता और पाठक की नजर से – गंगा पर नेहरू और लोहिया का अंग्रेजी लेखन

—गोविन्द  प्रसाद बहुगुणा
एक समय हम यह कहावत/गप बहुत सुना करते थे कि फिराक साहब बोलते थे बल कि ‘ हिंदुस्तान में अंग्रेजी सिर्फ फिराक जानते है , जवाहरलाल भी उनका मुकाबला नहीं कर सकते” लेकिन वहीं कुछ लोगों का यह भी कहना था कि फिराक साहब ऐसा नहीं कह सकते, में भी यही मानता हूं । फ़िराक साहब नेहरू जी और डा ० राममनोहर लोहिया कितना शानदार अंग्रेजी गद्य लिखते थे ,उतना ही सहज ढंग से आम हिन्दुस्तानी में भाषण भी देते थे उसका एक नमूना पेश है।

पहले नेहरू जी से शुरू करता हूँ  : –

GANGA-
“I have no religious sentiment in the matter. I have been attached to the Ganga and Jamuna(Yamuna) Rivers in Allahabad ever since my childhood and, as I have grown older, this attachment has also grown. I have watched their varying moods as the seasons changed, and have often thought of the history and myth and tradition and song and story that have become attached to them through the long ages and become part of their flowing waters. The Ganga, especially, is the river of India, beloved by her people, around which are intertwined with her racial memories, her hopes and fears, her songs of triumph, her victories, and her defeats. She has been a symbol of India’s age‐long culture and civilization, ever-changing, ever-flowing, and yet ever the same Ganga. She reminds me of the snow‐covered peaks and the deep valleys of the Himalayas, which I have loved so much, and of the rich and vast plains below, where my life and work have been cast ….” (Excerpts from the *Will of Pt Jawaharlal Nehru)*

अब गंगा पर डा ०लोहिया का लेख भी पढ़िए :”
Ganga is a river that meanders through hills and valleys, that ripples like the feathers of a peacock but is of unhurried gait like a heavy-hipped woman. She is of silken sound like the vibrations of the gamelan and her name is itself the compound of Gam, the one that goes making the music of Gam-Gam. To Indian sculpture, Ganga on her crocodile and her younger sister Jamuna on her tortoise are a perpetual double piece. They are certainly the most beautiful of India’s women in stone if those without a name are excluded. Between Ganga and Jamuna, one stands fascinated, so alike and yet that little difference, glued before them with the insoluble perplexity of choice. Such is the local through which the universe speaks.
(Excerpts from his essay on Ram, Krishna, and Siva published in *Mankind Quarterly *1955 )
GPB