Some mornings you wake up thinking what to do, and the picture for the day is quite hazy. Today was one such day, and so I decided to randomly talk about something which is relevant to the date.
October 2, a date which brings in the luxury of a holiday, thanks to the birth of that old, loin-cloth clad, goat-milk drinking man, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The unanimous leader of the much-famed movement which paved the way to India's independence. Our way of recognising his thirty three years of service to the nation, granting people an off on the day of his birth. He has been someone who has singnificantly influenced the idea of the country India, not just for people from outside looking at our country, but also for ourselves from within.
Gandhi is less a man, and more a symbol today, like Big Brother, who overlooks our actions from rupee notes to government offices, every transaction happens in his purview, only, he is powerless. But, nevertheless, I believe he is the greatest icon of the twentieth century. For one, India is a diverse country, various cultures, different points of view, ideas galore, and to have them united is a task in itself. Not only did Gandhi bring them under one roof, he made them root together, for the same thing. He was truly the first person to take the movement to a nationalist scale. Until then, no leader had the appeal to attract Indians as a group, but Gandhi was a mass leader, he was the true leader of the people, and his achievements lie testament to his greatness.
Though Gandhi is known widely most for ahimsa and satyagraha, at least that is what textbooks project his greatness to lie in, I would take a slightly different path to explain the same. I believed his greatness lay in the fact that he was able to set himself certain goals, and live up to them. Every man believes in a certan set of ethics, certain rights and wrongs, all in the mind. None of this is absolute, as there isn't any absolute right or wrong, but it is all custom-made. Gandhi believed in living his life for the nation, his family suffered big time. Families across the world might tell you that was wrong, but he ended up living the life which benefited million others. Gandhi's set of ethics included the principles of ahimsa and satyagraha, and he was true to them till the very end. His truth to the principle of ahimsa was evident when he ended up criticising Bhagat Singh's approach in a plunge towards ahimsa, a plunge, at this instance, which could have ended up being detrimental to the very movement he was striving for. His penchant for the truth, ended in him telling out stuff in his autobiography, "My Experiments with Truth", stuff which one wouldn't dare tell your closest friends. But he was sworn to truth, and everything was out on print, to the shock of the world.
Sometimes you feel he never should really have tried his hand at politics, especially when the critical issue of partition was at stake, but that is how leaders are, at some stage they cross the limits. Nevertheless, his adherence to priciples, and using them to drive to victory, is what he truly deserves to be remembered for, and someone of that intensity would be very hard to find in a million years hence. He was a great man, possibly the greatest India produced in the last 200 years, with truth in the mind and service at his core, someone we all could look up to and learn a million lessons from. The way he has been reduced to textbooks, a surname that has become synonymous with looting the country and a national holiday is utterly saddening, and we can only hope that the Gandhi revolution comes about all over again. Until then, we will try to uphold the flag of adherence to our set of ethics, and keep the spirit of Gandhi alive. Happy Gandhi Jayanthi! :-)
October 2, a date which brings in the luxury of a holiday, thanks to the birth of that old, loin-cloth clad, goat-milk drinking man, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The unanimous leader of the much-famed movement which paved the way to India's independence. Our way of recognising his thirty three years of service to the nation, granting people an off on the day of his birth. He has been someone who has singnificantly influenced the idea of the country India, not just for people from outside looking at our country, but also for ourselves from within.
Gandhi is less a man, and more a symbol today, like Big Brother, who overlooks our actions from rupee notes to government offices, every transaction happens in his purview, only, he is powerless. But, nevertheless, I believe he is the greatest icon of the twentieth century. For one, India is a diverse country, various cultures, different points of view, ideas galore, and to have them united is a task in itself. Not only did Gandhi bring them under one roof, he made them root together, for the same thing. He was truly the first person to take the movement to a nationalist scale. Until then, no leader had the appeal to attract Indians as a group, but Gandhi was a mass leader, he was the true leader of the people, and his achievements lie testament to his greatness.
Though Gandhi is known widely most for ahimsa and satyagraha, at least that is what textbooks project his greatness to lie in, I would take a slightly different path to explain the same. I believed his greatness lay in the fact that he was able to set himself certain goals, and live up to them. Every man believes in a certan set of ethics, certain rights and wrongs, all in the mind. None of this is absolute, as there isn't any absolute right or wrong, but it is all custom-made. Gandhi believed in living his life for the nation, his family suffered big time. Families across the world might tell you that was wrong, but he ended up living the life which benefited million others. Gandhi's set of ethics included the principles of ahimsa and satyagraha, and he was true to them till the very end. His truth to the principle of ahimsa was evident when he ended up criticising Bhagat Singh's approach in a plunge towards ahimsa, a plunge, at this instance, which could have ended up being detrimental to the very movement he was striving for. His penchant for the truth, ended in him telling out stuff in his autobiography, "My Experiments with Truth", stuff which one wouldn't dare tell your closest friends. But he was sworn to truth, and everything was out on print, to the shock of the world.
Sometimes you feel he never should really have tried his hand at politics, especially when the critical issue of partition was at stake, but that is how leaders are, at some stage they cross the limits. Nevertheless, his adherence to priciples, and using them to drive to victory, is what he truly deserves to be remembered for, and someone of that intensity would be very hard to find in a million years hence. He was a great man, possibly the greatest India produced in the last 200 years, with truth in the mind and service at his core, someone we all could look up to and learn a million lessons from. The way he has been reduced to textbooks, a surname that has become synonymous with looting the country and a national holiday is utterly saddening, and we can only hope that the Gandhi revolution comes about all over again. Until then, we will try to uphold the flag of adherence to our set of ethics, and keep the spirit of Gandhi alive. Happy Gandhi Jayanthi! :-)
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