The Enigma

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Monday, October 03, 2005

Truth and Prejudice

Another national holiday and the reason is Gandhi Jayanti. Another round of speeches by eminent personalities, project launches in the name of Gandhi, national anthem recitals and pack up. Back to the routine life without any values and morals.
I personally am not a Gandhi fanatic. I admire the man for unifying the country and for inspiring people to fight for a common cause. People tend to attribute the independence of India to Mahatma Gandhi. I agree he has played a pivotal role, but still it wasn't just him. Probably his role has been overhyped, as is the habit of Indians to overhype heroes. People want to attribute evrything to something, much better if this something is a person. So, probably when we became independent, we attributed it to Gandhi, the Father of the Nation. No offence to him or his believers, but still I feel he or for that matter any other leader of that stature deserve so much.
Actually, I would have vehemently supported Gandhi if he sacrificed his life like Nelson Mandela. Mandela stayed in prison for more than 20 years to fight against apartheid and he won. He worked within the law and fought lawfully, if thats the word, and showed his people that sustained efforts and perseverance can take them to their goals.
Gandhi, on the other hand, went to jail several times ofcourse but that isn't the metric here. He had exuberant relations with high profile English officers and most of the time need not go through all the toil that a common man went. Ok! that's for leading the team. But, as heavily touted, he hasn't done everything single handed and I would believe in the school of thinking that he is also one of the reasons why the cottage industry never grew. He gave the concept of charkha and it ate away the market in rural areas. He was against English mills, Swadeshi! But why was he against Mumbai and Ahmedabadi mills? Why did he so vehemently oppose industrialisation? Gandhi looked poor, followed the Jainism principles of non-attachmen and non-acquisition, but once Sarojini Naidu said," It takes a fortune to keep Gandhi in poverty."
I completely support SS Gill, once Secretary to Government, with respect to his views expressed in his book Gandhi: A sublime failure. Gill states even heavily hyped events led by Gandhi, like Civil Disobedience and Non-cooperation did not succeed to that levels which they were expected to. Freedom granted to India, was not due to all these, but due to losing sheen of territorial colonialism post World War II. If not Gandhi, we would have been free around the same time, through the completion of 'incremental constitution reform' which commenced in 1861. I had to use these excerpts from Gill's book to save myself from any criticism that I would have to face from the people who idolise Gandhi.
Not that I loathe the man, but my liking him is not due to his being Mahatma or Father of Nation or Messiah of Independence struggle, I like him truly for carrying around the torch of truth. I like the man for teaching people to stand by truth, honesty and non-violence, come what may! I admire him for helping people realise that strength is not physical, but mental and divine.
I know he is a great man, just liked for the wrong reasons. I am not a person who can judge someone like Gandhi, but to put my views straight, that's Gandhi for me. Just a symbol of truth, not the symbol of Independent India. The symbol of Independent India is legends like Potti Sri Ramulu, who fasted unto death for liberation of Madras state. Sacrifices like these are to be idolised!

5 Comments:

At October 02, 2005 7:50 PM, Blogger I Am Sam said...

well knitted opinion on gandhi, many times i have feel the same..gandhi no doubt was a superb leader, nationalist, individual but he failed on some fronts which he should not. There has been a mixed opinion on gandhi's being so great and they will remain in our minds.. i do feel that history books we have read are incapable of portraying true picture of gandhi. neway you have raised a good point of discussion

 
At October 04, 2005 1:57 AM, Blogger Rahul said...

Which Gandhi re ?
Sanjay, Rajiv, Gaurav, Priyank ?
I'm flummoxed :p

No comments on the issue. I was not present in 1947 and no reliable direct sources. But Gandhi made a fashion statement :p

 
At October 04, 2005 11:38 PM, Blogger Y.M. said...

umm...very good post!!!...
umm..see i dont like GAndhi for his association to freedon struggle...he was a very GOOD manager and a veRY GOOD politician...
he was always at right time at right place...n it was sheer politics dat lead to freedom , den nehru as PM , partition...every shit was a part of politics...
i hate it if ppl call him god's avatar...he was a very good politician and guess he deserves this much hype cuz of d way he handled his image and ppl...its an art and i really wish i cld learn from him to be a good manager...
n abt those movements!..well...wat gandhi did was to get ppl along..he bought evone together n told dem d way...(n that s a trait of good manager..to get evone along n show dem d way)...rest s done by ppl only....n hey Gandhi dint spend so many yrs in jail or suffered cuz he was a GOOD politician as i said before..

 
At October 05, 2005 8:33 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

naresh....

i was jus going thru ur blog - effort n ...

i have a small suggestion, it might have been to ur mind bfor...

how abt getting the bloggers f our college to send in their blog articles, 2 ictian.....there are many gud ones, as far as i have read.....though m nt gud @ judging.....

 
At October 18, 2005 5:35 PM, Blogger vinay said...

hi naresh
It's true that Gandhi was given much hype after the independence.
But you are admiring the persons who followed the foot steps of Mr.Gandhi like Mr.Nelsen Mandela and Sri Potti Sri Ramulu.
The above two persons just followed the way discovered(I may be wrong) by Mr.Gandhi. My point is ur are giving more credit to the sufferings undergone by the above two persons which I think is in apt as suffering alone cannot judge the greatness of the person.

 

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