Every year 2nd October is celebrated as Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri Jayanti (birth anniversary). People remember them, and many Gandhi detractors consider this occasion as a golden opportunity to criticize him for whatever reason they can think of, starting from Muslim appeasement, Hindu hater, India's partition, his nonviolence theory, or anything else. Shastri almost goes unnoticed as people are either busy praising or bashing Gandhi so they don't have time for Shastri as there is nothing much to criticize about him and as he was a staunch Gandhian himself so there is nothing much to praise about him for Gandhi haters except for his simplicity and honesty, so he is not a very attractive target for many. Mahatma Gandhi, Pundit Nehru, Sardar Patel, Bhagat Singh, Shastri, Subhash Bose, Tilak, and Gokhale along with many others (the list is too long) are iconic figures from the freedom movement of India. All these people along with many others contributed tremendously towards India's freedom struggle, but no one receives praise and criticism as much as Gandhi. His name somehow generates extreme reactions, either people think of him as a god-like figure or they criticize him as if he is a monster. His critics call him names like a selfish manipulator, ruthless politician, Muslim sympathizer, Hindu hater, sex pervert, and whatnot. They blame him for India's partition, for the delay in achieving freedom, and for anything that they can think of. His critics try to put as much blame on him for everything wrong that happened during his politically active days in India (~1920-1948). Some of them even go to the extent of justifying his assassination and many of them are big fans of his murderer Nathuram Godse. Godse's court speech is very popular among them, this speech which is available on the internet is no different than any fanatic terrorist's speech. These people revere Godse's speech so much but surprisingly despise similar speeches by other terrorists who carry similar justifications. Some groups claim to follow Gandhi but actually, they use his image and name purely for selfish reasons, just as some marketing tool, they absolutely don't show any commitment towards his causes and principles. This behavior always raises a question in my mind, are people like Gandhi and Shastri still relevant in today's world? Are they mere marketing tools, just statues and posters that people visit once or twice a year and then forget until next year?
It's quite normal to have differences of opinion in politics and Gandhi, Nehru, Tilak, or any other leader of their stature were all politicians, they all believed in certain ideologies and tried to propagate them as much as possible. These leaders tried to direct the freedom movement based on the ideologies they believed in. Gandhi was the most popular leader of all. One can criticize their approach or question their methods, there is nothing wrong with it. Whatever these people did, right or wrong it can be debated, but they all meant good, intention was to take India forward, do something for its people, not to hurt anyone or neglect any community purposely. To hate any political leader just because of ideological differences to the extent to justify their assassination is insane. How can one justify the murder of an opponent just for ideological differences? No wonder that the same people then go on to justify other violent acts like communal riots also.
I was always fascinated by the lives of all these leaders. I read about them and get a lot of inspiration from their work but I don't associate myself with any particular camp or ideology. For me, Gandhi was a great human being with very honest intentions and a great leader who managed to involve common people in the freedom movement. At the same time, Gandhi was also a politician, very religious and fanatic about some of his personal beliefs, the same thing is true about many other great leaders. They all have certain great qualities and some not-so-great qualities, but in general, their greatness overshadows all other things that's why they are respected. I take whatever I find good from their teachings and leave the rest or question it, argue it, or criticize it, but I don't hate any person just because I don't agree with a few of their ideas and principles.
People like Gandhi or Nehru never ran away from criticism or troubles, they always faced it and tried to solve the problems or conflicts in politics via dialogues not by force or violence, at least this is one thing we all can learn from them. Their personal honesty and integrity were their strength, and they never forced their personal beliefs on anyone, they kept their personal faith separate from their politics. How many leaders do we have today who even know the meaning of honesty and integrity? For today's generation, many ideas and principles of these people look outdated and difficult to practice. For example, simplicity is no more a virtue, and nonviolence is mostly perceived as a weakness. Consumerism is a need of today's economy and there is a lot of pressure and encouragement to consume, and enjoy life without any social responsibilities. This all makes people like Gandhi and Shastri more relevant today. We need to follow at least some of their ideas to bring balance to our lives. We either like to go too much right (extreme capitalism) or too much left (communism), and no one likes to be in the center because then they feel like an orphan. People feel isolated if they don't belong to any group, they feel obliged to choose a camp. We admire these leaders but hesitate to pave our own way and prefer to choose some popular belief and try to become a part of an established group. We don't need to worship these people, that's a useless thing to do but we should discuss them, debate their ideas, offer constructive criticism, refine relevant ideas, and implement them. I hope people find their ideas more useful than their photos or statues.
It's quite normal to have differences of opinion in politics and Gandhi, Nehru, Tilak, or any other leader of their stature were all politicians, they all believed in certain ideologies and tried to propagate them as much as possible. These leaders tried to direct the freedom movement based on the ideologies they believed in. Gandhi was the most popular leader of all. One can criticize their approach or question their methods, there is nothing wrong with it. Whatever these people did, right or wrong it can be debated, but they all meant good, intention was to take India forward, do something for its people, not to hurt anyone or neglect any community purposely. To hate any political leader just because of ideological differences to the extent to justify their assassination is insane. How can one justify the murder of an opponent just for ideological differences? No wonder that the same people then go on to justify other violent acts like communal riots also.
I was always fascinated by the lives of all these leaders. I read about them and get a lot of inspiration from their work but I don't associate myself with any particular camp or ideology. For me, Gandhi was a great human being with very honest intentions and a great leader who managed to involve common people in the freedom movement. At the same time, Gandhi was also a politician, very religious and fanatic about some of his personal beliefs, the same thing is true about many other great leaders. They all have certain great qualities and some not-so-great qualities, but in general, their greatness overshadows all other things that's why they are respected. I take whatever I find good from their teachings and leave the rest or question it, argue it, or criticize it, but I don't hate any person just because I don't agree with a few of their ideas and principles.
People like Gandhi or Nehru never ran away from criticism or troubles, they always faced it and tried to solve the problems or conflicts in politics via dialogues not by force or violence, at least this is one thing we all can learn from them. Their personal honesty and integrity were their strength, and they never forced their personal beliefs on anyone, they kept their personal faith separate from their politics. How many leaders do we have today who even know the meaning of honesty and integrity? For today's generation, many ideas and principles of these people look outdated and difficult to practice. For example, simplicity is no more a virtue, and nonviolence is mostly perceived as a weakness. Consumerism is a need of today's economy and there is a lot of pressure and encouragement to consume, and enjoy life without any social responsibilities. This all makes people like Gandhi and Shastri more relevant today. We need to follow at least some of their ideas to bring balance to our lives. We either like to go too much right (extreme capitalism) or too much left (communism), and no one likes to be in the center because then they feel like an orphan. People feel isolated if they don't belong to any group, they feel obliged to choose a camp. We admire these leaders but hesitate to pave our own way and prefer to choose some popular belief and try to become a part of an established group. We don't need to worship these people, that's a useless thing to do but we should discuss them, debate their ideas, offer constructive criticism, refine relevant ideas, and implement them. I hope people find their ideas more useful than their photos or statues.
Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.
[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]
[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]
in that case why are u talking about gandhi and generating criticism? u are also one of those who seek occasion of 2nd oct to go blah blah on gandhi. it is simple if u neither hate him or like him then keep quiet. why even bother o talk of him? it will do more justice.
ReplyDeleteI don't say or believe that talking about any of these people is bad or even criticizing them is bad, I was wondering about feeling of hatred and ridicule some people have about them. There is no question of justice or injustice here, these people don't need our judgement, the whole purpose here is to take good things from their work and progress our civilization, not to propagate any particular school of thought.
Deleteyour point understood sir. but my point is why only talk of gandhi in october? you could have talked about him in march or august or january. gives me a feeling that even you sleep over gandhi for 11 months and remember him only on 2nd oct. jai hind.
ReplyDeleteYour point is well taken, I agree that if I write about Gandhi only during this month then it seems exactly what you wrote in your comment, will keep this in mind next time when I decide to write something about him. I have no issues with people celebrating Gandhi's or Shastri's or anyone's birth anniversary, but feel bad when they don't care about their teachings and just do these things mechanically, as some ritual with no intention of learning anything from these people. I also write posts about nonviolence, futility of wars, etc. these things are related with philosophy of nonviolence but are not about Gandhi, the person, I think we should be more interested in ideas not only in personalities. Thanks again for your comment.
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