Are people like Gandhi and Shastri still relevant today?

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.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic. 

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Links:
1. Mahatma Gandhi...from my eyes
2. Lal Bahadur Shastri...a forgotten hero.
3. Reflections on Gandhi- Shoonya Magazine    

Lal Bahadur Shastri - a forgotten hero

2nd October was also the birth anniversary of another great Indian politician and freedom fighter Lal Bahadur Shastri. He was the second prime minister of India. Unfortunately, he was on that post only for a little more than a year because of his untimely death, but even that time was also enough for him to leave his permanent mark on Indian history. Coincidentally, his and Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversaries are on the same day. One can easily notice the huge popularity of Gandhi and other politicians (like Nehru, Sardar Patel, Bose, Ambedkar, etc.) but compared to most of them Shastri seems to have a limited following. It's not because of a lack of achievements or character, actually, he is one of the best ministers and politicians India ever had. He was a very honest person (a very rare quality in today's politicians), Gandhian by heart, he followed Gadhi's principles of nonviolence and literally lived a very simple life (another rare quality). He came from a very modest background and never forgot his roots and his people. For Shastri politics was not a profession, not a way to earn his livelihood and make arrangements for his future generations, to him politics was a way to serve people and his country and he did this with total conviction and honesty till his last breath.

Today we see many big political leaders in India, entering Indian politics, and surviving in that mess is not easy. Becoming a minister in the state cabinet is a very big deal, and if one can become a central govt minister, then nothing like that. People try whatever means they can to get these things. All these big leaders and ministers have very loyal fan followers, and they also have big muscle and money power that help them win elections and manage their political parties. They make special efforts to create this facade. In today's political world 'honesty' is not the quality that people associate with any political leader or party. It is assumed that all of them are engaged in some sort of corruption and only to what extent is the matter of question. These leaders also try to make sure that their children or relatives continue their so-called legacy in politics and do everything to make sure that they also get elected so that they can also have some power in their hands. If one takes a look at the life of Shastri then one can see a sharp contrast between his political and personal life and the life of today's politicians. I think maybe this is the reason why he is not that popular today. No one can understand him or relate to him, his values and lifestyle look so alien to most of us. Most of us believe that it's impossible to live like him and survive in today's world. When was the last time we heard that minister resigned immediately after something wrong happened within his ministry. On September 1956, he offered his resignation after a railway accident at Mahbubnagar but prime minister Nehru did not accept his resignation. Three months later, he resigned accepting moral and constitutional responsibility for a railway accident at Ariyalur that resulted in 144 deaths. In Parliament while speaking on the incident, Nehru stated that he was accepting the resignation because it would set an example in constitutional propriety and not because Shastri was in any way responsible for the accident.

Gandhi was a charismatic leader and considered as a huge brand even today. This is the situation with most of leaders and iconic figures which we see current politicians and political parties use for their benefit.  That's is why even though there are not many people and politicians who believe in their ideas and principles but still they keep that brand alive as they can exploit it for their own benefit. But even for them Shastri don't have any brand value. This is why history has forgotten this giant, it's really sad and unfortunate but that's what it is.

For me Lal Bahadur Shastri is symbol of person who served selflessly to his country and his people without expecting anything in return. He is an ideal example how a politicians should conduct themselves. He was a politician who never played dirty politics just to survive in political world. We need many more people like him in public life. To me he is a hero, source of inspiration and a giant personality, I salute him.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic. 

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)