Mahatma Gandhi is called “The Father of the Nation”. And still he is relevant to us.
His nonviolent approach to political change helped India gain independence after nearly a century of British colonial rule.
A frail man with a will of iron, he provided a blueprint for future social movements around the world. That’s why, he remains one of the most revered figures in modern history.
WHY HE IS FATHER OF NATION?
Mahandas Gandhi was born in Gujarat, India in 1869. He was part of an elite family. After a period of teenage rebellion, he left India to study law in London.
Before going, he promised his mother he’d again abstain from sex, meat, and alcohol in an attempt to re-adopt strict Hindu morals.
GANDHI JI IN AFRICA:
In 1893, at the age of 24, Gandhi became a new attorney and moved to the British colony of Natal in southeastern Africa to practice law.
Natal was home to thousands of Indians. Their labours had helped build its colony fostered both formal and informal discrimination against people of Indian descent.
AS A SOCIAL REFORMER:
Hence, Gandhi took this discrimination very seriously. Being thrown out of train cars, roughed up for using public walkways, and segregated from European passengers on a stagecoach, he decided to kick-off this bad practice.
In 1894, Natal stripped all Indians of their ability to vote. Gandhi organised Indian resistance. He fought anti-Indian legislation in the courts and led large protests against the colonial government.
Along the way, he developed a public persona and a philosophy of truth-focused, non-violent non-cooperation he called Satyagraha.
• SATYAGRAHA & THE FATHER OF NATION:
Gandhi brought Satyagraha to India in 1915, and was soon elected to the Indian National Congress political party.
He began to push for independence from the United Kingdom. He also organised resistance to a 1919 law. It gave British authorities carte blanche to imprison suspected revolutionaries without trial.
Britain responded brutally to the resistance, mowing down 400 unarmed protesters in the Amritsar Massacre.
HOME RULE AND GANDHI :
Now Gandhi pushed even harder for home rule, encouraging boycotts of British goods and organizing mass protests.
In 1930, he began a massive satyagraha campaign against a British law that forced Indians to purchase British salt instead of producing it locally.
Gandhi organised a 241-mile-long protest march to the west coast of Gujarat. He and his acolytes harvested salt on the shores of the Arabian Sea.
In response, Britain imprisoned over 60,000 peaceful protesters and inadvertently generated even more support for home rule.
THE FATHER OF NATION :
By then, Gandhi had become a national icon. Indians called him as Mahatma. In Sanskrit, Mahatma means for great soul or saint.
British Government Imprisoned him for a year because of the Salt March. Gandhi became more influential than ever. He protested discrimination against the “untouchables,” India’s lowest caste.
Besides, he negotiated unsuccessfully for Indian home rule.
Undeterred, he began the Quit India movement. This was a campaign against the British rule. He made pressure on Britain to voluntarily withdraw from India during World War II. Britain refused and arrested him yet again.
Huge demonstrations ensued, and despite the arrests of 100,000 home rule advocates by British authorities, the balance finally tipped towards Indian independence.
Gandhi was released from prison in 1944, and Britain at last began to make plans to withdraw from the Indian subcontinent.
It was bittersweet for Gandhi, who opposed the partition of India and attempted to quell Hindu-Muslim animosity and deadly riots in 1947.
INDIA GOT INDEPENDENCE :
India finally gained its independence in August 1947. But Gandhi only saw it for a few months. A Hindu extremist assassinated him on January 30, 1948. Over 1.5 million people marched in his massive funeral procession.
After Gandhi’s assassination in 1948, children climbed on cars and men scaled telephone poles to to get a better view of his funeral procession, which was attended by over 1.5 million people.
Gandhi changed the face of civil disobedience around the world. Martin Luther King, Jr. drew on his tactics during the Civil Rights Movement, and the Dalai Lama was inspired by his teachings.
Therefore, they are still heralded by those who seek to inspire change without inciting violence.
STILL IN DEBATE:
But though his legacy still resonates, others wonder whether Gandhi should be revered. Among some Indian Hindus, he remains controversial for his embrace of Muslims.
Others question whether he did enough to challenge the Indian caste system. He has also been criticised for supporting racial segregation between black and white South Africans and making derogatory remarks about black people.
Besides, though he supported women’s rights in some regards, he also opposed contraception and invited young women to sleep in his bed naked as a way of testing his sexual self-control.
MAHATMA OR A MAN:
Gandhi the man was complex and flawed. However, Mahatma Gandhi the public figure left an indelible mark on the history of India and on the exercise of civil disobedience worldwide.
“After I am gone, no single person will be able completely to represent me,” he said. “But a little bit of me will live in many of you. If each puts the cause first and himself last, the vacuum will to a large extent be filled.”
MISSION OF GANDHI :
It was in late October in 1931 when Mahatma Gandhi addressed an overflowing hall at Chatham House. Sitting next to Philip Kerr, the Marquess of Lothian, who would soon become the Under-Secretary of State for India, Gandhi pronounced:
‘I seize every opportunity I can of coming into touch with British public opinion and putting before them the purpose of my mission […] I hope the words I speak to you this evening will find a lodgement in your hearts.’ His mission? Obtaining Indian independence from the British Empire.
“. He is still the Father of nation” / image: http:www.kalpatarurudra.org/jpg
He is still the father of nation/image: http://kalpatarurudra.org/jpg
He is still “the Father of Nation “/image:www.kalpatarurudra.org/jpg
POVERTY ALLEVIATION :
In his address at Chatham House, Gandhi outlined the challenges he believed the Indian people faced in British India. Describing the state of poverty at the time, he explained:
‘Nearly one tenth of the population is living in a condition of semi-starvation. They have no more than one meal per day consisting of stale chapati and a pinch of dirty salt.’
But, if India were to govern itself, Gandhi believed poverty should be alleviated through ‘service to the villagers.’
For, ‘The cities do not make India,’ he said. ‘It is the villages […] Princes will come and princes will go, empires will come and empires will go, but this India living in her villages will remain just as it is.’
Mahatma Gandhi’s great grandson, Tushar Gandhi, explains how the Gandhian principle of Sarvodaya – the lifting up of all – guided how his great grandfather believed poverty should be addressed in a post-independent India:
‘Gandhi’s idea for poverty alleviation was beginning at the bottom of society instead of the top.’
Gareth Price, a South Asia specialist at Chatham House, sees Gandhi’s outlook as a response to the impact of British industrialisation had caused in India:
‘Gandhi saw how the UK textile industry, in particular, had increased poverty in India. So, the spinning wheel, and its focus on self-reliance rather than imports, was the way forward.’
PRESENT ECONOMIC SITUATION:
Today, India is the world’s fifth largest economy, and poverty reduction rates are among the highest in the world.
More than 270 million people lifted out of poverty in just a decade. But Tushar Gandhi does not think this is how his great grandfather would have envisaged India’s economic growth:
‘Millions of people lifted out of poverty is impressive, but when you compare it to the population of India, it’s of little consequence. That’s where we have failed.’
RELIGIOUS PLURALISM:
In the hall at Chatham House, Gandhi spoke of another challenge that continues to afflict modern India: ‘We have within our population […] the problem of minorities.’
SOCIAL REFORM :
Religious pluralism was central to Gandhi’s dream of an independent India, yet conflict along religious lines has been a continual problem in a multicultural population.
Almost 80 per cent of the population are Hindu and more than 14 per cent are Muslim. And the nation projected to have the world’s largest populations of both religions by 2050.
But we see some critics remarked about the broken heart of Gandhiji.
Kapil Komireddi, author of Malevolent Republic: A Short History of the New India, believes the partition of British India was the moment when Gandhi’s dream of religious harmony in India collapsed-
: ‘India declared itself a pluralistic country in 1947 in which all religions were equal, but in order for this vision to be realised, it had to overcome the memory of partition. Repeated wars with Pakistan, however, have not allowed India to overcome that memory.’
The partition of British India, 16 years after Gandhi’s speech in London, created Pakistan as a home for many of India’s Muslims but left up to one million people dead and more than 10 million displaced.
It’s true that Indian secularism has been under attack on two fronts since 1947: Pakistani separatism and Hindu nationalism.
The latter, being based on the reasoning that if Pakistan is the homeland of India’s Muslims then India should be the homeland of India’s Hindus.
Tushar Gandhi says :
‘In recent decades, the rhetoric of hate has been much more prevalent than the rhetoric of harmony,’ .
‘The result is what we see today. We have never been this divided before. This would have shattered Bapu if he were here with us.’
But all is not lost according to Komireddi:
‘We may belong to different religions but, ultimately, we pledge allegiance to one flag, one constitution and one country. That is the genius of the Indian experiment.
It is matter of great pleasure that the Indian Muslim women protested in Shaheen Bagh in New Delhi over that issues.
In addition, they were singing the Indian national anthem and waving the Indian national flag, demonstrates a war going on at the moment to reclaim India’s multicultural identity.
NON- VIOLENCE: HE IS STILL THE FATHER OF NATION:
In 1931, Gandhi also spoke of an India which modelled itself on the ideal of non-violence. If it did so: ‘…then no nation on earth can bend us to its will.’
Over the past 70 years, India has developed its defence and security capabilities significantly including becoming a nuclear power in 1998.
But what would Gandhi have thought about the growth of India’s hard power? His great-grandsonn believes he would have been disappointed but admits it has been justified to an extent:
‘Post-independence, we have been in continuous conflict with our neighbour, Pakistan, and so India’s ongoing military spending is somewhat justified.’
India has also pursued an active role in regional and international affairs, including contributing to UN peace keeping missions since 1948. And it has, to some degree, been in line with Gandhian principles.
‘India’s post-independence foreign policy owes much to Gandhi,’ says Gareth Price.
He again says :
‘The idea of non-alignment and non-interference in the affairs of other sovereign states, along with support for decolonization across Africa, match Gandhi’s ethos.’
However, India’s role has been changing in light of its growing strategic and economic importance to Western countries explains Price:
‘Over the past couple of decades, India has been seen as a counterweight to China and as a rising economic power with a growing market for goods and services.
However, it has retained its ability, outside of its neighbourhood at least, to balance its relationships.’
INDEPENDENCE:
Now we can discuss about the freedom of our people. In his closing statement at Chatham House, Gandhi declared:
‘The masses in India are awakening and it is too late to persuade them that good alien rule is better than bad indigenous rule.’
However, 1947, India would succeed in obtaining independence from the British Empire, but less than six months later, Gandhi would be assassinated.
His legacy, as a result, would inspire civil rights activists and freedom movements around the world. ‘Gandhi’s example has been fundamental on the global stage,’ says Komireddi.
‘Martin Luther King used Gandhi as his inspiration for leading the civil rights movement in the US and Nelson Mandela was inspired by Gandhi so much that South Africa counts Gandhi as one of its founders.’
Despite inspiring the likes of King and Mandela, does Gandhi continue to have the same appeal in modern India? Not according to his great grandson:
‘India has abandoned Gandhian ideology at a time when the survival of our human species is being threatened,’ says Tushar Gandhi.
However, for some, Gandhi’s principles are reawakening across the subcontinent in response to some of the challenges that Gandhi spoke of almost 90 years ago:
‘Gandhi’s legacy is becoming apparent once again in Indian civil society,’ says Price.
‘While politicians on different sides of the spectrum fight to be the guardians of Gandhi’s legacy, the idealism Gandhi espoused is resonating again in India, even if at times, it seems far from being so.’
( Chatham House is a world-leading policy institute with a mission to help governments and societies build a sustainably secure, prosperous and just world.)
VISION OF DISARMAMENT :
Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of India was of disarmament and he saw a future where it enjoys goodwill with the neighbouring countries, a Japanese author today said.
Gandhi’s view about future of India is reflected in one of his articles in 1940s. There he wrote that India should not be armed in future and it should rather depend on goodwill of the neighbouring countries, Yamaguchi Hiroichi said
He was speaking at the launch of his book ‘How relevant is Gandhi Today? A Japanese Perspective’ at a function organised by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) here.
Yamaguchi has been highlighting Gandhi’s views on peace and non-armament as one influencing the other.
“Almost the same thing has been written in the Preamble to the Japanese Constitution, after the end of the Second World War, in more detail,” he said.
Already in 1907, Gandhi had a very strong idea of how India should be developed. A large part of that idea came from the experiences of the Russo-Japanese war,” he said.
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Eminent personalities from the era of the freedom struggle – Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Maharshi Aurobindo, Swami Ranganathananda, Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Ananda Coomaraswamy said, wrote or did on August 14-15,1947.
The call for friendship and cooperation among India, Pakistan and Bangladesh Is leading to a three-nation considerationn. It embeds within the history of our freedom movement itself.
He also said, this confederation should be achieved before 2047 and it marks the centenary of the end of the British rule in the subcontinent.
According to many scholars, resolution of the Kashmir issue, India and Pakistan, together with Bangladesh should expand cooperation on all fronts and move, step by step, towards a three-nation confederation.
This will not only benefit the three countries but also revitalise the entire South Asia. it will make a region of peace, prosperity and shared progress for the largest section of the global population.
To achieve this goal, the ties between South Asian countries and China should be strengthened based on equality and respect for the legitimate core concerns of all.
Mahatma Gandhi had made an effort. that India and Pakistan, like Hindus and Muslims, should co-exist as brothers belonging to a single-family. This he insisted us on the issue of fraternity. It’s the need for the present situation.
We can remember, In 1964, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya and Rammanohar Lohia had called for an India-Pakistan confederation.
Senior BJP leader L K Advani has publicly endorsed the confederation idea on many occasions.
Therefore, my conviction is , India needs close Congress- BJP cooperation to tackle major national problems.
Mumbai-Karachi Friendship Forum’ was aimed at the normalization of India-Pakistan relations. It seeks to promote people-to-people contacts and cultural exchanges between India and Pakistan.
I think that India government will take initiatives in implementing this cultural exchanges with it’s neighbouring countries. It’s according to Gandhi’s path.
Simultaneously Bangladesh and Pakistan ought to come forward to sharing their positive understanding. They should come and negotiate with the erstwhile soil of motherland. Then we would be able to progress in all respects.
As we follow his path, so he is still the Father of Nation.
I'm Dr. Sushil Rudra, residing in Durgapur City West Bengal, India . Studied in The University of Calcutta and did M.A , Ph.D . Also another M.A from Sridhar University. Taught in College and University ( RTU) . Love to write, traveling, singing Rabindrasangeet and social work. Have some books authored by me. Vivekananda and Rabibdranath both are my favourite subject. I have written more than 150 articles in my wordpress.com blog( kalpataru.home.blog and now I'm writing in my new " http://www.kalpatarurudra.org blog.
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