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Gandhi has become outdated and his ideas cannot be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)
|