The name that is known by the entire nation and most of the world. One of the great souls who preached and followed the path of truth and nonviolence who also played a pivotal role in India's independence movement and most importantly upliftment of poor, socially backward and victim of India's age old cast system.
The name "Gandhi", being synonymous with truth and nonviolence, is also invoked during election campaigns to make rhetorical statements and show false allegiance to truth, non-violence etc. We as a school going kid always came across his philosophy and his trials and triumphs with the truth. On a personal note, I have always had a very unclear opinion about Gandhi. When someone is called "Mahatma" you expect them to be perfect in every way and assume their decisions are perfect. However, the word "Mahatma" takes away the objectivity and makes us either a blind follower or a sharp critique. Maybe I was disillusioned by the word "Mahatma" and stopped looking at him as a normal human being, hence lost objectivity. One of the statements we frequently come across is "is Gandhian values still relevant in today's world. And most common responses are either; it is relevant now more than ever or in today's globalized world, Gandhian values have no place. What exactly are Gandhian Values? Truth, non-violence, upliftment of poor, social inclusion, compassion? What is so new about it? What is so "Gandhian" about it? Have we not come across the importance of truth, non-violence, compassion through our age old scriptures of various religion? Is it not something taught to us when we were kids by our parents, our teachers? What did Gandhi teach us that was completely new? To quote Gandhi himself "I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and Non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could" Then how come we always associate truth and non-violence with Gandhi? Why is Gandhi considered to be the epitome of compassion, honesty, and simplicity? Maybe, during the course of our history, we forgot those value. We forgot we need to be compassionate towards fellow citizen irrespective of their cast and religion. And Gandhi through our freedom movement invoked these principles.
Why this blog? I have been thinking about "relevance" of Gandhian philosophy and I came across a very nice article in National Geographic Magazine. The authors of the article traveled across Gujarat (Gandhi's native state) to see where Gandhi resides in today's world. Though I have been reading about Gandhian philosophy, it has always been reflected as something, very naive, and one who follows it cannot survive in today's world. Of course, this a parochial way to look at something that has a far-reaching implication. The article also spoke about the people who are working towards the upliftment of lower caste, developing villages, educating and empowering women, building schools, lowering infant mortality rate and so on. And people who were working in these areas are mostly student from Gujarat Vidyapeeth, students who still use spin wheels to stitch their cloth. Who, still, believe in non-violence. How could they achieve so much in terms of rural development, women empowerment, and poverty eradication? These students, not only learned about Gandhian philosophy, they also practiced it, by being compassionate towards the fellow citizen, being truthful towards their objective. Over the course time, we forgot about being compassionate, the rat race created by capitalism has made us more selfish and less receptive towards social problems. I have always wondered, what is my role towards the society I live in? How can I contribute towards the betterment of less fortunate people? But this always has been a fleeting thought. I could never act upon it. With so many events happening around and with my own trials and triumphs, which is so overwhelming that these thoughts always takes the back seat. The article in NatGeo has at least forced me to introspect about Gandhian value and its relevance. Compassion is something, that is there in each of us. However, in the race for our own survival, we tend to forget about fellow human being. One of the students, who devoted his life to developing a village, made a parting statement "still so much has to be done". And that made me wonder, is one lifetime enough? But, with collective effort, nothing is impossible. Like, in the field of science, with the collective effort we have achieved so much in such short span of time if we could start a revolution for societal transformation that would be far more rewarding than any of the technological achievements.
The name "Gandhi", being synonymous with truth and nonviolence, is also invoked during election campaigns to make rhetorical statements and show false allegiance to truth, non-violence etc. We as a school going kid always came across his philosophy and his trials and triumphs with the truth. On a personal note, I have always had a very unclear opinion about Gandhi. When someone is called "Mahatma" you expect them to be perfect in every way and assume their decisions are perfect. However, the word "Mahatma" takes away the objectivity and makes us either a blind follower or a sharp critique. Maybe I was disillusioned by the word "Mahatma" and stopped looking at him as a normal human being, hence lost objectivity. One of the statements we frequently come across is "is Gandhian values still relevant in today's world. And most common responses are either; it is relevant now more than ever or in today's globalized world, Gandhian values have no place. What exactly are Gandhian Values? Truth, non-violence, upliftment of poor, social inclusion, compassion? What is so new about it? What is so "Gandhian" about it? Have we not come across the importance of truth, non-violence, compassion through our age old scriptures of various religion? Is it not something taught to us when we were kids by our parents, our teachers? What did Gandhi teach us that was completely new? To quote Gandhi himself "I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and Non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could" Then how come we always associate truth and non-violence with Gandhi? Why is Gandhi considered to be the epitome of compassion, honesty, and simplicity? Maybe, during the course of our history, we forgot those value. We forgot we need to be compassionate towards fellow citizen irrespective of their cast and religion. And Gandhi through our freedom movement invoked these principles.
Why this blog? I have been thinking about "relevance" of Gandhian philosophy and I came across a very nice article in National Geographic Magazine. The authors of the article traveled across Gujarat (Gandhi's native state) to see where Gandhi resides in today's world. Though I have been reading about Gandhian philosophy, it has always been reflected as something, very naive, and one who follows it cannot survive in today's world. Of course, this a parochial way to look at something that has a far-reaching implication. The article also spoke about the people who are working towards the upliftment of lower caste, developing villages, educating and empowering women, building schools, lowering infant mortality rate and so on. And people who were working in these areas are mostly student from Gujarat Vidyapeeth, students who still use spin wheels to stitch their cloth. Who, still, believe in non-violence. How could they achieve so much in terms of rural development, women empowerment, and poverty eradication? These students, not only learned about Gandhian philosophy, they also practiced it, by being compassionate towards the fellow citizen, being truthful towards their objective. Over the course time, we forgot about being compassionate, the rat race created by capitalism has made us more selfish and less receptive towards social problems. I have always wondered, what is my role towards the society I live in? How can I contribute towards the betterment of less fortunate people? But this always has been a fleeting thought. I could never act upon it. With so many events happening around and with my own trials and triumphs, which is so overwhelming that these thoughts always takes the back seat. The article in NatGeo has at least forced me to introspect about Gandhian value and its relevance. Compassion is something, that is there in each of us. However, in the race for our own survival, we tend to forget about fellow human being. One of the students, who devoted his life to developing a village, made a parting statement "still so much has to be done". And that made me wonder, is one lifetime enough? But, with collective effort, nothing is impossible. Like, in the field of science, with the collective effort we have achieved so much in such short span of time if we could start a revolution for societal transformation that would be far more rewarding than any of the technological achievements.
P.S. "If you're a Gandhian, you don't just preach, you do" ~ P.V Rajagopal
