Walk into any govt. office and look around on the walls. You are sure to find a picture of Gandhi.
But that’s it. It’s just a picture, no more. Gandhi is dead. A well known accepted fact. And I do not say it with remorse, though I myself am a believer of his…or say, most of his ideas...
None of my friends think (and I’m talking about friends who actually think) that Gandhism is highly impractical in today’s world. Very true. If you turn the other cheek, you’ll get a smack, not a kiss. Competition prevails like nothing Gandhi would have ever imagined. Today money rules, nothing else.
I genuinely do not mean to convert ANY one reading this into a Gandhist, so please read on.
What I think is that his ideas are still very much valid. We just don’t understand it fully. When he talks of turning the other cheek, he does not mean giving up, rather he means sticking to your guns. He has just interpreted it in a different way. Tried a different method.
Another reason for which he seems impractical is that most of us have that faultless image of Gandhi set in our minds. What I say is this—Gandhi was not God.
He was human, and had his closet of faults. He was easily influenced, was a die-hard Hindu, and his liquor ban, no-cow slaughter and no-meat eating ideas are truly annoying.
But if you look on the other side, he was incredible. He could actually connect to the people , a task in which only a few succeeded. What’s more he could shove his unconventional ideas into their heads (non-violence wasn’t really India’s legacy, till Gandhi) and then get freedom for India. Most importantly, he dared to try more.
I do not ask you to worship Gandhi. Don’t ask you to agree with ANY idea of his. But really, there was a man who had guts in him, and dared to do something. No need to even respect him for that. Just emulate him. Let his josh and confidence come into you.
You will find he was just like us. Another human. He faced what we do today. In the beginning, people tagged him as a big failure. But then he decided to spell failure differently as- S-U-C-C-E-S-S.
2 comments:
Well expressed !
Even I had some misconception about the role of Gandhiji in our freedom struggle.
In school while reading history text books I could not accept the way he called off Non Cooperation movement of 1919. The way he opposed S.C. bose in congress.
But when i read Freedom at Midnight I could understand his policies much better.
no doubt he was politician to the core but as u have pointed out he was the only mass leader of his time who could connect to the common people.
Hi...i really like the way u write and the theme u've chosen...cool,,,keep it up!
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