The IDEA of Gandhi

It was Gandhi Jayanti last Sunday. I certainly wished to write ‘celebrated’ instead of ‘was’ ,but then I didn’t celebrate and frankly speaking nobody did!! When I track down the national festivals that I have witnessed through my age, I can relate 15th August to ‘boondi k laddoo’, 26th Jan to a disciplined parade in my school, but did 2nd October achieve anything more than a holiday with Attenborough’s Gandhi being telecasted on DD1 ??. I doubt.







A thought ,thereby arises in my mind that we never celebrate the existence of personalities like Nehru, Patel, or Bhagat Singh,like we celebrate the aura and magic of our Bollywood superstars, with media channels dedicating hour long public discussions for those tinsel towners. It will be tough to digest and intense to retrospect when said that the freedom fighters have lost much of their sheen. We gained independence in ’47, and much water has flown in and out of the Ganges since that ‘At the stroke of midnight’ speech of Nehru. We’ve seen IITs ,Emergency, near bankruptcy ,Rushdie’s Midnights Children ,Economic liberalization , 2G scam, and so, reviewing this long list there is no surprise that Nehru ,each year asks for a children’s day ,Patel is somewhere in the primary level GK books as “Iron Man” and confusion prevails over the identity of Azad.







But Gandhi cannot be attributed to such a treatment . he is there, in fact he is bound to be there, in our currency, in govt buildings , parks. In films Gandhi has, a sort of an oxymoronic role to play, because in any sequence where there is intense corruption or injustice being shown , we can see one of his portraits or hear one of his insignia tunes in the background. His gift to the common man ‘Khadi’ is still favored albeit among politicians who are all the more far away from the common man.







But in spite of all this, the birthday of the ‘Big Daddy’ goes dull, Gandhi Ashrams are in desperate need of customers. Gandhi in all its glory is as outside our lives and culture as he is inside







So we can come to a conclusion that Gandhi, not at all a stranger to our lives , has got a sort of an estranged relationship with us, In India we cannot condemn Gandhi ,but we cant embrace him either, He is a puzzle that we have to solve to clear the examination, so we leave it halfway ,to just pass the test.







There are many reasons as to why the old man, clad in a loin cloth half his life, an epitome of simplicity has become such a complex conundrum. A major misconception is portrayal of Gandhi as a person who brought freedom to India. It was never in his agenda to ‘free’ India. He wanted to lift this nation, make its people a constructive part of its edifice. He never opposed the British in general, but he vehemently oppressed those policies of theirs which downgraded the prestige of Indians, he worked towards a comprehensive building of India , where India was to be a constituted and served by Indians, he didn’t want India to be a private property of Indians.







So did Gandhi brought freedom to India, may be not, but yes he helped India to survive through that freedom process, as one single entity. Gaining freedom was a political process, and looking at the issues from a political point of view - boycott of the Non-co-operation movement and ouster of Bose from the INC ,may not be very much politically correct decisions, and India would have achieved independence quite early had these decisions not acted upon, but would India, a country with multitude of cultures and languages, had survived and avoided Balkanization., that is the main question. If we look at the political scenario of ’45, freedom to India was inevitable, what was more important was how India embraced that freedom. Gandhi thus, strived all is life to prepare India for that freedom. This preparation consisted of taking strict stands, standing by the spoken words, and setting examples by following them. Gandhi was an intellectual for whom nothing was negotiable, thus making him a bad politician.



Another allegation that the poor man faces is that his policies and philosophies are impractical. This is a misconceived allegation. The question should be, “Are Gandhi’s policies realistic in 21st century??” Any thought process, any philosophy is timeless, and ageless. But its implementation changes from time to time and is divided into phases. Any particular phase can be divided into the prevailing conditions, economic activities , and technological advancements of a particular time-frame. The mere thought of practicing the policies in 2011 which Gandhi practiced in 1920-45 is foolhardy in nature. Having said that, the ideals must remain same as India is still suffering from the same problems of poverty illiteracy and socio- economic inequalities as in ’47,but an India which has got a McDonald’s McVeggie as its normal Sunday meal, Gandhi would certainly have had different practices for it to perform



And then fasts. Did Gandhi fasted to make people meet his demands??. And I can bet you that this statement stands completely null and void. unless the demand was to stop Hindus and Muslims to stop killing each other. Otherwise the fasts of Gandhi were to purify himself., to rejuvenate the energy he wanted to use in the service of the nation. It was Gandhi who understood the real meaning of fasts. He used them for introspection, for self analysis. Under the silence and quietness of fasts, he found his God who kindles in him the determination to face all the hurdles.



One question that I often ask myself is that what would have happened had Gandhi not existed?......................Perhaps India would have gained freedom but I doubt if we had the same India as we have it today. There would have been no Luther Kings, Mandelas and Hazares, as there would have been nobody to look up to self -belief like Gandhi.



Self-belief ,yes, belief in oneself is what he gave us as a gift. Gandhi as a human being did things that were right and wrong, but through is self-belief he achieved some above-average things and an above-average status…thereby becoming the father of the nation.