Brand Mahatma
Mahatma Gandhi is a great person. It is no mean task to unify a country with so many diversities, introduce several new concepts like Non-Violence, Untouchability to them and yet be accepted as a leader. He achieved this, and probably much more. But, somewhere down the line, we mapped the person on to wrong things. Rather, appreciation and recognition are due to him not exactly for what he stood for India as, but for things which we attribute to him.
Somewhere down the journey in the past 60 years, we forgot that Gandhi means a foreign returned law student who gave up his studies for the love of the country, and followed his ideals of Swaraj. We forgot he was the one who delayed several things on the course of our independence. We forgot he was the one who got into deliberations at every drop of a hat and made Independence a long awaited moment for us! No offence to him for that. In fact, it was no mean task to sustain the enthusiasm and patriotism of a million or more Indians for so long and also after that, what with India going for a partition and indulging in riots after that. Had it been a revolutionary, he would have made sure it didn't get partitioned. That is because he would have not been a mute witness to blood of his brethren going under the sword of geographical boundaries so soon. He would have made sure every drop of blood that his brothers and sisters gave for the Independence of their motherland was accounted for and the returns recorded in the form of a Unified India. That would have meant, no T20 Final between India-Pak :P Jokes apart, it would have meant a different world today!
Though that is the grudge, rather dissatisfaction, of a youth who would have wanted 100 years of Independence today than this 60 yrs we are enjoying, it is nothing against Gandhi. Obviously, I and you weren't around then to judge things and try and do things. He did, so give him that merit!
The sanctity of a Brand lies in the outrage it garners at being questioned. The mirror of the success of a Brand lies in how sacrilegious its followers deem questioning or maligning it. By these terms, Gandhi is by far the Biggest Brand in India. All dailies of today are full of Gandhian news. We are so blind in his worship, we do not even want to look at 'what if not Gandhi' scenario. I do not mean he is not worth worshipping in any sense, but I do strongly feel that he doesn't need so much of adulation today, or even that day for that matter.
The success of a man, according to me, in this society is best reflected by how religiously his children pray him. To me, my dad is a super hero. But, Gandhi wasn't to his sons, at least not to all of them. Right from the likes of Chanakya, every teacher has taught this society to take care of home first and then get on to the world. Did Gandhi do that effectively? I am no one to question this vigorously, though!
To me, something I cannot reconcile to, is the fact that we want the youth of today to follow Gandhiji. With due respects to that man, I don't think that should be the case. If he was right, he was the best, probably that was in his times. Today, I do not find him fitting in the role of a contemporary Unifier of the Country. We all have read our share of Gandhian literature. How many of us think if the same words were told today, same philosophies were reiterated today, they would unify a nation? Times have changed. I do not advocate dishonesty or violence. In fact, I feel they were never exactly Gandhian virtues. Every mother in this country has taught her child not to lie, and not to indulge in fights. It wasn't something Gandhi gave us, what he had to give us was ideas of Swaraj, Non-co operation etc...
I earnestly feel we pray this man for the wrong reasons. If you do want to pray him, pray him for the right reason. That will help people learn better from him, and for god's sake, don't demean or look down upon people who don't pray him as religiously as you do. Let people evolve...
All said and done, Happy Birthday Gandhi!
To cut down on pleonasm, here's a link to my post on the same topic, same day two years ago: http://knownaresh.blogspot.com/2005/10/truth-and-prejudice.html
Somewhere down the journey in the past 60 years, we forgot that Gandhi means a foreign returned law student who gave up his studies for the love of the country, and followed his ideals of Swaraj. We forgot he was the one who delayed several things on the course of our independence. We forgot he was the one who got into deliberations at every drop of a hat and made Independence a long awaited moment for us! No offence to him for that. In fact, it was no mean task to sustain the enthusiasm and patriotism of a million or more Indians for so long and also after that, what with India going for a partition and indulging in riots after that. Had it been a revolutionary, he would have made sure it didn't get partitioned. That is because he would have not been a mute witness to blood of his brethren going under the sword of geographical boundaries so soon. He would have made sure every drop of blood that his brothers and sisters gave for the Independence of their motherland was accounted for and the returns recorded in the form of a Unified India. That would have meant, no T20 Final between India-Pak :P Jokes apart, it would have meant a different world today!
Though that is the grudge, rather dissatisfaction, of a youth who would have wanted 100 years of Independence today than this 60 yrs we are enjoying, it is nothing against Gandhi. Obviously, I and you weren't around then to judge things and try and do things. He did, so give him that merit!
The sanctity of a Brand lies in the outrage it garners at being questioned. The mirror of the success of a Brand lies in how sacrilegious its followers deem questioning or maligning it. By these terms, Gandhi is by far the Biggest Brand in India. All dailies of today are full of Gandhian news. We are so blind in his worship, we do not even want to look at 'what if not Gandhi' scenario. I do not mean he is not worth worshipping in any sense, but I do strongly feel that he doesn't need so much of adulation today, or even that day for that matter.
The success of a man, according to me, in this society is best reflected by how religiously his children pray him. To me, my dad is a super hero. But, Gandhi wasn't to his sons, at least not to all of them. Right from the likes of Chanakya, every teacher has taught this society to take care of home first and then get on to the world. Did Gandhi do that effectively? I am no one to question this vigorously, though!
To me, something I cannot reconcile to, is the fact that we want the youth of today to follow Gandhiji. With due respects to that man, I don't think that should be the case. If he was right, he was the best, probably that was in his times. Today, I do not find him fitting in the role of a contemporary Unifier of the Country. We all have read our share of Gandhian literature. How many of us think if the same words were told today, same philosophies were reiterated today, they would unify a nation? Times have changed. I do not advocate dishonesty or violence. In fact, I feel they were never exactly Gandhian virtues. Every mother in this country has taught her child not to lie, and not to indulge in fights. It wasn't something Gandhi gave us, what he had to give us was ideas of Swaraj, Non-co operation etc...
I earnestly feel we pray this man for the wrong reasons. If you do want to pray him, pray him for the right reason. That will help people learn better from him, and for god's sake, don't demean or look down upon people who don't pray him as religiously as you do. Let people evolve...
All said and done, Happy Birthday Gandhi!
To cut down on pleonasm, here's a link to my post on the same topic, same day two years ago: http://knownaresh.blogspot.com/2005/10/truth-and-prejudice.html
Labels: brand, Brand Mahatma, Gandhi, Gandhi Jayanti, Indian Independence, Mahatma Gandhi, Swaraj
posted by Naresh @ 2:16 PM
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