RELEVANCE OF GANDHI

Sixty two years have elapsed since the Mahatma was assassinated by a foolish fanatic. People claiming to be intellectuals, thinkers and modernists say openly or secretly that Gandhi has become outdated and his ideas cannot be applied to present day problems. Even during his lifetime his ideas and actions were criticized and even ridiculed by his foes and friends. Yet Gandhi proved his ideas by his actions that led to great success. Hundred arguments cannot alter the fact that it was the Mahatma who secured independence of India from British imperialism. He got freedom without violence and bloodshed. He got freedom through nonviolence. The idea of nonviolence is his great contribution to the humanity not only to India. He redeemed politics from untruth and violence by his adoption of Truth and Nonviolence.

Mahatma Gandhi entered politics only to attain the feet of God through serving man. For him politics was religion. He did not make politics out of religion as many are doing now. He made religion out of politics. His means to attain bliss was to serve man and so his politics was only to do service to mankind and not to rule them. Since his goal was to attain the feet of God he adopted holy means. He firmly advocated that the means should be as noble as the end. He said if we took care of the means we would reach our noble goal. If we adopt evil means the end will be tainted with evil. He rejected the age old idea that end justifies the means. Since he considered politics to be a holy service he chose the path of nonviolence. For him Truth was God and the means to attain Truth was nonviolence.

His nonviolence, Ahimsa, is not a negative idea as opposed to violence. His nonviolence was positive one. It signifies not abstinence from violence but signifies positive love. Non violence was not a tactic with him. It was his creed. Nonviolence was a way of life for him. So all his actions and his words were only in accordance with nonviolence. His nonviolence pervaded all his actions either private or public. He practiced all his ideas. He was not an empty preacher. He was convinced that all human problems could be solved only through nonviolence. His nonviolence is based on his faith in the innate goodness in every man. He believed that every man was basically good and that he does evil deed due to many causes. It one could touch his heart and evoke his natural goodness every man will do good. He firmly believed that even the stoniest heart could be melted by nonviolent approach. Because of this conviction he used to meet and speak to his political opponents like Jinna and many viceroys. Now his idea of nonviolence is more relevant than ever. Every where we meet only with violence. Violence is rampart everywhere in our country and the world. The greatest problem today is terrorism. Terrorism is practiced in the names of religion, political ideology, economic theories, nationalism and so on. Every state is now worried about the ways to end terrorism. Special task forces with modern weapons are formed day in and day out to put down terrorism. Terrorists kill men in thousands in the name of some ideal or other. The Governments kill terrorists and some times innocent people also in the process.

Inspite of all the efforts of governments terrorism is only increasing. Gandhiji repeatedly warned that violence cannot end violence. Fire cannot put down fire. Violence can be put down only by nonviolence and love. Men who claim to fight for human rights resort to violence. If they are convinced of justice in their claims they can follow the Gandhian way of nonviolence and achieve their ends by convincing the society of justice in their claim. Resort to terrorist activities only shows that they do not have enough conviction in their ideals. Once violence is resorted to the truth in the cause becomes irrelevant. Success depends only on the amount and efficiency of violence. Mostly evil causes would succeed through violence. If only nonviolence is adopted only truth would triumph.

Wide spread violence in our country is only due to the fact that we have strayed away from Gandhian path. During our struggle for freedom under Gandhi’s leadership the freedom fighters were prevented from doing any harm to Englishman. Whenever people indulged in violence Mahatma ended his agitation in the teeth of opposition from his colleagues. Mahatma warned that if we adopted violence against Englishmen we would use violence against our own men after independence. Now we suffer from violence since we ignore Gandhi and denigrate his ideas. The only way to save ourselves from violence, from terrorism is to follow the Mahatma and adopt his nonviolence. Otherwise we are doomed Martin Luther King had warned thus

“It is not question of nonviolence or violence but it is nonviolence or nonexistence”. This shows that Gandhian nonviolence is absolutely relevant not only today but also tomorrow.

Gandhian nonviolence is part of his philosophy of life. For Gandhiji life is an indivisible whole. A man’s life cannot be divided into compartments. You cannot divide a man’s life into private and public, individual and political and professional. The same man lives all these lives. So one cannot be loving and affectionate towards his family and relatives and be harsh to other members of society One cannot be virtuous in his private life and be vicious in public life. Gandhiji insisted on ethical living for all especially for people in political life.

If such view of life is insisted by the people we would not have so much corruption and immorality in out political atmosphere. Now it has become a fashion to say that one should not discuss the private life of a political personality in public. Such an approach is an Gandhian and is the cause for all political evils of today. If we approach life holistically as Gandhiji did we can get rid of all evils in political life.

Mahatma Gandhi had a very unique notion about civilization. We hold that civilization consists in luxury, accumulation of wealth and goods, urbanization and living a life of leisure without physical work. This approach has led us to accumulate money more and more.

This mad pursuit of wealth and fleeting physical pleasures is the cause for much of violence and human misery. People are not worried about the means in accumulation of wealth. This accumulation is based on exploitation of the weak and helpless. All our media make people greedy and avaricious. This greed and avarice has spoiled human relations and has killed love and affection among men. This madness is growing day by day. But Mahatma Gandhi pointed out the fallacy in this notion of civilization. He said “Civilization does not consist in satisfaction of wants but consists in the restriction of wants”. Civilization consists in simple living and high thinking. Since we do not follow Gandhiji we are exploiting natural resources.

Our exploitation of natural resources have serious consequences. This would lead future generations to a life of savagery. Mahatma said that nature has enough to satisfy our need but not our greed. Our greed and pursuit of luxury had spoiled our villages. Many cultivable lands are converted into building sites to build palacial houses for two or three persons. Are not the Mahatma’s notions of civilization and life relevant today?

Mahatma said that India lived in villages. He wanted to strengthen the villages removing all its backwardness and making them self sufficient. He wanted a decentralized village based economy. Instead of following his advice we destroy our villages and try to urbanize aping western countries. The result is Squalour and Swine Flue.

Mahatma rejected the Darwinian notion of the survival of the fittest and advocated Sarvodaya. Welfare of all, uplift of all. ie strong, weak, illiterate and dumb. Our present system is meant for the survival of the fittest leading to strife and war, annihilating finer human emotions and feelings. But Mahatma’s Sarvodaya is based on love and care for other’s welfare. Under Sarvodaya society there would be no strife and war but there will be only peace, Love, understanding all-round happiness. Under Sarvodayha every man will care for society and society will care for every member. This idea is not utopian.

It is very much practical if only we sincerely educate ourselves on Gandhian thought and his life. He built such a society in his Tolstoy Farm and phoenix settlement in South Africa. Mahatma taught us the dignity of labour. He demonstrated the dignity of labour by his own life. Though he was a Barrister at law he lived the life of a poor farmer in dignity. Whenever he stayed at Delhi he stayed in sweeper’s colony thereby making the sweepers feel proud of their job. He declared that if he should be born again he would like to be born a “bungi”. In his conception of life the work of a vedic scholar and that of a bungi, a sweeper are equal. Is this scheme of life not relevant today? It is relevant more now when all despise physical work.

Mahatma Gandhi had thought of every aspect of human life and also of nature. Though he had been inspired by many sages many of his ideas were original. As I already said Mahatma was not a mere preacher. He practiced what he preached. In fact he formulated many of his ideas only through his actions. Really he was a karmayogi. That was why he could boldly say “My life is my message”

The future of not only our country but the whole world, the humanity depends on our following Mahatma. We can ignore Mahatma only at our peril. Let me remind you of the speech of Nehru on 30th January 1948 “The light that has illumined this country for these many years will illumine the country for many more years and a thousand years later that light will still be seen in this country and the world will see it and it will give solace to innumerable hearts. For that light represented the living truth the eternal truth, reminding us of the right path, drawing us from error”

Let us understand Gandhiji and follow him.

(Broadcasted on 02.10.2010 at 9.16 PM by AIR Thiruchi Station)