Cyprus: Narayan Desai

December 10, 2016

Thinking of Narayan Desai

One of the architects of the Cyprus Resettlement Project was Narayan Desai. There are several stories that come to mind as I reflect back on our time together in 1973-74 as part of the Cyprus Resettlement Project. 

Narayan and Bapu

One time Narayan, son of Mahadev Desai, who was Mahatma Gandhi’s personal secretary and biographer, was telling the story of talking with Gandhi and questioning the logic of non violent direct action in getting the British tom leave India. He referred to Gandhi as “Bapu”, which means father in Hindu. During this conversation, a car arrived to take Gandhi to a meeting with officials in the British colonial administration. The conversation continued on for quite some time and at some point Narayan reminded Gandhi of the waiting car. Gandhi’s response was, “Don’t worry, how will I ever be able to convince the British of the power of our methods, if I can’t convince my own family!”

Narayan saves the accord

On another occasion, after three months of working with officials in both the Greek Cypriot Government and the Turkish Administration, an agreement for resettling the 2,0000 internally displaced Turkish Cypriots was approved and ready for a formal signing. It was the first public gathering of politicians from both sides since the 1963 “Troubles” broke out. Narayan, Paul Hare and I were in attendance as representatives of the CRP. We sat around a large conference table as the Turkish and Greek Cypriots sat across from each other.

As the two sides started to review the terms of the agreement, someone voiced skepticism about the trustworthiness of the other side. This created a negative retort from the other side and soon the room filled with tension as negative comments referred back to historical misdeeds, etc. I sat, stunned by the deteriorating atmosphere, experiencing three months of extremely hard work quickly going down the drain. At that point Narayan rose and spoke to all assembled, His words were simple and powerful. He reminded all of the shared lives that they had during the British colonial rule, weddings, births, festivals and learning each other’s language in school. At the village level they were neighbors and friends. He spoke of the trust and love that they had experienced together in community. The negative air left the room. All sat quiet for a time, as they realized the truthfulness of his message. To deny it, I believe, would have meant the denial of their own humanity. Soon all parties signed the agreement to rebuild the homes for the 20,000 to return home. It was at this point, that I personally experienced the transformation of a group in conflict and also the power of a non violence based on love and mutuality. My journey as a “doubting Thomas,” about this notion of non violence, was quickly moving away from the “Real Politiker’, who had started the journey three months earlier.