Gandhi in 2010? …………It’s Possible
Dr Indrani S. Bhaduri
NCERT, New Delhi
Gandhi as a personality is immense but far more gigantic is the philosophy that bears his name. ‘Gandhism’ is the essence of peace and non violence, goodness, creative thinking and efficient admin. Certain quarters may subscribe to the idea that ‘Gandhism’ is not practicable is today’s existence. But in reality, it espouses the very eternal whose relevance transcends the barriers of geography and time. This omnipresence in both temporal and spatial dimensions can be substantiated by the fact that it can be the ideal for movements in lands where human right were and is routinely abused. Its temporal relevance can be gauged on the basis of the immensely popular and successful movie, 60 years after the physical departure of Bapu. He rules in the inner consciousness of all conscientious people though most of us either are oblivious of this existence or simply choose to ignore him. So what is this Gandhism?. These are the ideas and practices which he believed as well as lived. He believed, and I quote, “……It is easy to be friendly to your friends but to one who considers you to be his enemy it is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.”
The world today is fragmented into hate zones where we refuse to see eye to eye on most matters. A small difference grows into tall walls impeding exchange of feelings. We turn our back to the other school of thought thereby shutting the vast expanse of existence from our senses. Nations-hate nation, regionalism, religions, caste, creed, language -all becomes building blocks of barriers which impedes the smoothness of the flow of brotherhood.
In such a clime Gandhism opens on window of fresh wisdom which has the power to resolve crisis, the ability to dissolve differences, capability to make you turn towards yours adversary and perhaps galvanize you to take a stride forward to embrace him. To like him in spite of the difference that exist, and perhaps slowly but surely get an equally heartening embrace in return.
Peace and Gandhi are spoken in the same breath, though unfortunately in many an occasion without the appropriate emotions or thought. Peace to Gandhi was not a destinations but the path itself. Your thought, your feeling, your deeds and your achievement are ‘peace’ itself. It is that provincial ‘Paros Pather’, the ‘Philosophers Stone’, which can turn the basal instincts in minds of men to the noble, shinning, and pure thought which exudes nothing but positivity. We all know that coherence, co-operation and collaborations brings better outcome for the larger populace and yet choose to confine ourselves to narrow mental ghetto-ism. Gandhi believed that changes we want to see can be ensured by being the change itself. The society cannot and will not change according to your liking but you can change yourself a little to what you want the society to be and perhaps that will cascade into a change that you wish to see.
He was never tired of saying that ‘the body should be controlled by the mind and the mind by the soul. But this control is not to be achieved by despising or neglecting either the body or the mind or in the mystic exaltation of the soul by itself’. He advocated and practiced the importance of physical health and well being in the same manner as he valued thinking and responsibility. He was one of the most powerful writers and yet shied away from any idle and purposeless playing with words and ideas. He was convinced that all thoughts and ideas must have a real-connect with all actions and deeds. It has been claimed that the greatest achievement of Gandhi was the spiritualization of politics. He conceived it as a kind of illumination or fragrance which should accompany every thought and action. It is difficult to define it, except, perhaps, through the verses of the Bhagawad Gita which constituted his daily prayer. Yet he was equally knowledgeable and respectful of all other scriptures which was routinely used by him as a source of inspiration.
His philosophy of non-violence was the avoidance to practice consciously and unconsciously violence in every activity of our day to day existence. Most violence are not apparent or have a physical form. Violence which includes rape, fighting, killing, murder, beating and war, which most of us do not indulge in and hence we don’t see ourselves as violent. But to Bapu violence can be both physical and passive. Passive violence includes anger, hate, bigotry, name calling, insults, rude teasing and all forms of oppression, discrimination and suppression. When someone has an act of passive violence committed against him or her, he or he responds with anger, which often leads to some form of physical violence. Thus physical violence is the outcome of or it is the overt manifestation of the acts of passive violence committed on the person. To decrease and ultimately eliminate physical violence, we need to stop passive violence. Given this framework, none of us can disassociate ourselves from violence.
Gandhi taught that all life is unified whole. Violence committed against another person is at the same time violence committed towards oneself. We more readily justify violence against others when we perceive them as separate and different from us, or judge them to be lower than we are. However, because we are unaware of our connection to others, we are also unaware that we are hurting ourselves at the same time. We have to break down the barriers of ignorance that keep us from knowing others. We have to get out of our class, gender, racial, religious and cultural comfort zones. This is the work of becoming who we need to be.
First, we must identify within ourselves our acts of passive violence as part of the problem as opposed to seeing the problem as outside ourselves or in “those people”, or “that country”, or “those beliefs”. We must take action to eradicate our negative tendencies even if no one else around us is doing so. Gandhi said, “nonviolence has to be pursued in the face of violence raging around you. Nonviolence with a nonviolent man is of no merit.” For example, how do you react when your boss, spouse or co-worker treats you unfairly and does not want to dialogue with you? As you express your reaction, you are either manifesting the change you wish to see in the world or not. Peace is not a passive state where there is no conflict. It is the dynamic manifestation of each person’s struggle between their negativity and their capacity and willingness to respond to evil behavior without engaging in passive or physical violence.In waging this intense, internal and external battle, we become the change we need to be.
The democratic process which is the cornerstone of any successful nation has its bedrock in equal and total participation of all the people. But the equality can only be true if there is improvement of the citizen. Where the fruits of success benefit a minuscule and evades the majority it cannot be called as ‘success of the nation’. Percolations of the progress to the grassroots are the only way to ensuring total development. Gandhi realized it and advised its practice but perhaps we have not really lived-up to his advices and practices.
Gandhi rejected colonial education and put forward an alternative to it. Gandhiji ideas on education were the introduction of education closer to life, with which one can relate it is not an abstraction in the school curriculum. The philosophy behind was not to burden the child with artificially crafted situations and at the same time it also contributed to restructuring of the schools as a social system. His social philosophy of ‘basic education’ thus helped to percolate a system of acceptance and inclusion. Gandhism galvanized many and helped to break the shackles of imperialism in the early half of the last century. It is needed today to shatter the shackles which impress us in our shallow chambers of hated and individualism and lead us to the chambers of fraternity and brotherhood. And in this regards the life and times and thoughts and deeds of Gandhi is relevant even today.
I am sure that the readers even today will be blessed by feeling the true Gandhism through his writings and will be able to discover Gandhi which resides within them. The readings will assist them in understanding love, realize god an goodliness and become brave towards the injustice and insult to humanity that exist around us. After all as Bapu had said, “…..the only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within,”
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