Gandhi - His relevancy in today's politics
Mahatma in today’s reference
Generations to come, it may well be, will scarce believe that such a man as this one ever in flesh and blood walked upon this Earth.” ― Albert Einstein
It was October 2 again, Mahatma Gandhi’s birth date. He is no more among us but he will always remain in our memory for his unabated journey to the path of peace and truth. The one, who was destined to be a lawyer, spent all his life in the service of poor, downtrodden, socially oppressed and people suffering from cast and creed differences. He fought against whatever was not right for people in almost every field of life. His contribution toward freedom of this country made him undisputed father of this nation. He was truly humble and dedicated to society who was committed to cause of society and wanted to work for poor to bring them at par at every stage of life. Whatever he thought for this country could have done wonders if were applied in their true sense but our leaders who took over as rulers molded them to suit their own plans which caused too dearly for this country especially to poor masses of this country. I agree, this part of his life was exemplary and made him a class apart.
Gandhi’s Path
Today we have entirely deviated from the path Mahatma Gandhi had chosen for us decades back for the welfare for our society with kind of population we have. However, we have decided to forget the human part of that and entered in to a machine age where physical values rein supreme. The physical needs and styles have deeply rooted in our system where human values have no place. Physical needs and values have discarded truth for false, physical values have replaced spiritualism, People have no more faith in love for each other for their own interests. If only we had stick to the ideas formulated by Gandhi for this country, probably we were not facing so many problems we are facing on different fronts related to poverty, unemployment, social and financial inequality and most of all dependence on other countries for items, which we could develop in our own country on indigenous technology. The irony is we are running a blind race to achieve which we are hard to reach destination for our kind of system and politicians at the helm. As far his ideas regarding Swadeshi was concerned, he was right. It could work wonders for this country.
Gandhi Ji and Industrialization
The other face of the coin of Gandhi’s opposition of big industry and favor of small-scale industry however is not suitable according to demand of modern age. To deny modernization is against the needs of the time and will not be suitable if our country has to stay in the race for developed countries. In fact, some critics have gone to the extent where they find Gandhi’s formula against the rules of creation that will take our country back to Stone Age. To provide enough to our fellow citizens we have no choice but to go for industrialization. There is no alternation but a fast-paced industrial development for a big country like ours, to provide enough daily need items for everyone.
Gandhi’s followers
There are different views on Gandhi’s philosophy, which does not appeal to many critics in its present form for they think that there was nothing new in his ideas. They thought all that what Gandhi wanted to implement for Indian society existed in our country for long time. True, it did exist but not implemented in an organized way. The need was to organize it in a planned manner and spread to it masses on official level to make it a practical way of life. Our leaders made it symbolic to use it on particular days like 2 October and 30 January to gain political weightage and show their affiliation toward Gandhi Ji. That was a clear case of opportunism and double standards on the part of our politicians who were traveling in the United States and other countries wearing suits made of imported fabrics and wearing Silk Khadi and Gandhi cap in public back in India. Meanwhile, the soul of Mahatma was going through unbearable pain seeing all this from up there, but who has the time to care for such small things. He knew that with so many people in our country, machines would only make things more complicated.
Ahinsa – fight against enemy
Gandhi’s ideas on Ahinsa, the non-violence, truth and love for all are so complex that an ordinary person finds himself unable to understand the finer points and I am one of those ordinary persons who do not, at least understand the concept of Ahimsa the non-violence, if not other points at all. George Bernard Shaw the famous playwright and cofounder of a London based economics school who was well known for his out and out criticism for New Testament when one of characters has to say ‘If you think that we should not resist evil but offer our other cheek in case one has hit on one. I beg to say that if you want to take all my money, you can take it but give me options to have weapons to fight against evil. That should be part of my religious’ I have not used the exact words but that is what the writer intended to say. He even wanted to own weapons to protect himself even if the weapons cost him all his worth. And rightly so, why one should be deprived of ‘right to resist’ aggressors? I agree one can avoid starting a fight but he must be empowered to end the fight thirsted upon him.
There is no doubt that an ordinary person finds Gandhi so complicated and unrealistic, which makes him unable to follow the path through his teachings. Besides the teachings of Gandhi are more bookish than practical therefore, not adaptable by masses in real life. A section of crowd in this country has no belief in so-called independence that came out through the weapon of Ahimsa, which was not able to throw Brits out of this country on its own. It was supported by international pressure that was the main reason for British exit from India and from many other countries at almost the same time. Moreover, British found India and its resistance too weak that could not stop them from dividing it into two countries. Ahimsa could not keep India united despite its best efforts to do so. The result is for everyone to see, we are among the weakest of countries in the world toady due to our impractical policies. We have no strength to resist, fight or claim our rightful share in any field of international arena.
Non-Cooperation a weapon to get your dues
Gandhi Ji was a firm believer of Non- cooperation, as a powerful tool against foreign rulers, industrialists; government machinery but again a big section of people does not find this method much effective in practicality. There are very little chances that a peaceful demand can change hearts of cruel rulers or big industrialists through peaceful requests. It is true for any kind of fasting including fasting unto death, which he tried many times and failed to achieve any results. The recent examples are Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwals’ hunger Strikes that brought no results. I don’t think any government ever bowed down to hunger strike, non-cooperation movements etc but came out more severely to suppress such attempts to keep such agitators under control.
There is another school of thought says that it is not possible to experiment use of weapon of non-cooperation successfully everywhere because it can only work in an educated and free society where people with respect for justice or justice toward humanity can consider your views sympathetically. But you cannot expect the same results against ruthless rulers, with a selfish mentality that stand there to take maximum advantages out of resources available at any cost. They know only the language, that most suits that to kill whatever resistance comes in their way. This same tactics is true for the same party which Gandhi Ji headed once who never fails to kill any peaceful movement with strong-handed ruthless action even against peaceful agitators. And this is true allover the Indian sub-continent including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Shri Lanka and neighboring countries like China, Myanmar and Nepal.
Agitations bring no results
The fact of governmental brutality on peaceful agitations is truer in today’s reference. You can see many such examples in last couple of years which ended many peaceful agitations forcefully with unlawful methods by government law enforcement agencies. Police force in such cases manhandles helpless agitators exercising Gandhian methods against government never succeed in their objects. They usually either end up in jail or sent away forcefully with strong-handed tactics. People following famous Gandhian methods of hunger strike never brought any positive results in independent India. They are left to die hungry by the government or fed forcefully by the help of police and medical department. No Gandhian method is successful in today’s reference except the ones started by government employees which almost every government honors seeing vote based possibilities in such agitators. There are number of such examples in recent past to prove this point. A section of critics believes that peaceful nonviolent method against brutal capitalist industrialism is nothing but a daydream that never would bring a positive result it will make them shameless instead.
Is Gandhi relevant today?
Most of his critics think that his ideology is no more relevant today. He is too far off from the ground realities and not realistic to be true in this age where we have to go through so many competitions on such a rapid rate of speed. We shall reach nowhere if we sit solving them by Gandhian ways for solution or adapt to his manual ways, we shall be left far behind compared to other countries. Capitalism is need of the day. People of our country need entrepreneurs who increase capital and while doing so they will help in increasing revenue for development purpose of this country.
Trust it or not but it is not possible to achieve success in business in our country if a businessman follows all the rules because these rules are made to benefit government employees which give them unlimited rights of interference. It is true for workers also, if they do not resist selfish/wrong rules set by business owners, they will never achieve their rightful wages. There is no denying that rules are must to run a country or business smoothly but the rules should be such which look realistic and practical and not one sided to benefit any one party. Therefore, we can safely say that trust is an integral part of life but a Gandhian way of blind trust will not help the cause.
The responsibility lies on leaders
If Gandhi and Gandhism have lost relevancy from Indian culture in present time, the responsibility lies squarely on leaders of his own party. The leaders of his party lost the way somewhere in the middle and accepted money and power as only reason to join party politics. The results are for everyone to see almost every political leader, belonging to any party is charged with financial misuse, especially the ones from ruling parties. An example would be sufficient at this point to give you an idea about how Gandhi is practically out from current state of affairs. Everyone in India knows that Gandhi was dead against alcoholic drinks but alcohol is one of the items that bring most revenue to the exchequer. We have limited Gandhi to October 2 and January 30, when we play a few pre recorded filmy songs, and that is all to show our gratitude.
End
Yes, end of my humble effort says that we have forgotten or not understood Gandhi properly, thanks to his own party leaders who did not go beyond delivering lectures about his teachings in public meetings but in practical life, they never followed him. Even after more than 65 long years our leaders leave no chance to talk about Gandhi clad in Khadi, wearing a Gandhi cap ready for such occasions but can any of his party leader answer it honestly- what have they done to bring any of his teaching to ground reality! The fact is all leaders of almost every party are running a blind race to capture power and the public has no meaning for them.
The politicians have not established their identity among the public but public is mere herd of sheep for them. They use public as sheep to cut its wool and let it graze on its own to use in future again. Here you can read it as to use during elections when you keep public in place of sheep. Now we cannot even imagine that once his philosophies were considered as meaningful and significant far beyond the boundaries of our country and relevant for millenniums to come have lost their relevancy in our own country. And who is responsible for such a situation, not we the people but respected leaders of his own party.
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