Lately, it has been a fashion to curse Mahatma Gandhi in India by many people, most of them never cared to read what Gandhi had to say. While no one says that Gandhiji alone brought India independence, he was the only one who made the freedom struggle of India a truly Jan-Andolan (people’s movement). He was the only one who brought the freedom struggle to the ordinary Indian. With all their brilliance, neither Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose nor Veer Savarkar could do that. With all their bravery and sacrifice, neither Shaheed Bhagatsingh nor Chandrashekhar Azaad could do that. That was the genius of Gandhiji. We can’t even influence our family or friends, try influencing a mass of millions of people with so much diversity based on religion, region, language, and caste. Gandhiji wasn’t a brilliant orator like Churchill, he wasn’t a charismatic leader. His strength was his belief in the truth and simplicity of his message. That belief, that truth touched the hearts and souls of millions of Indians and inspired them to fight for their freedom. Albert Einstein once said: "I believe that Gandhi's views were the most enlightened of all the political men of our time." When Gandhiji died, he said 'Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth. ' Gandhiji was the inspiration of leaders like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King jr, who fought for equality in their respective homelands following Gandhi’s path of nonviolence. Gandhi’s influence has been once a generation and truly global. The spark he provided inspired the struggle for equal rights and justice from South Africa to the United States.
While for the whole world Gandhiji is a hero, in his own motherland there has been a trend of cursing him. No one is above criticism and Gandhiji was not perfect either. He made many mistakes in his life and publicly admitted them as well. In India, there are mainly three groups, one who curses Gandhiji, the second who worships Gandhi as a person and not his ideas and his philosophy, and the third, mainly politicians, who cash Gandhi’s name for their own self-interest and power grab. All these groups are misguided.
As India is celebrating 75th year of independence, it seems like a ripe time to reintroduce the Father of the nation to the youth of the nation and the world. This blog is my humble attempt to introduce today’s youth (youth of the world, not only Indian) to Gandhiji’s beliefs on various topics, ranging from truth to economics to social reforms to religion to Sarvoday (the progress of all). I will appreciate your feedback and comment.
Jai Hind!
It was always thus. Humanity keeps forgetting the seers who have led us towards light. The only hope for us is that these truths have been rediscovered over and over again for centuries.
ReplyDeleteI once saw in a shoe shop in New York City, shoes with the names Gautama, Jesus, Mohandas, Martin embedded in the soles in mirrored form so that when you walked on dirt these names would show up in the dirt. I was talking to the shop keeper and he explained that it was meant to represent "walking in the footsteps of ..." Cute idea as far as that goes, but I thought the choice of those names in particular was fantastic. I told him he should add Rabi for Rabindranath in that list. He did not know who that was. :-)
So true!
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