October 02 or Gandhi Jayanti celebrates the birth of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi or Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation. That day is celebrated globally as the International Day of Non-Violence as well. It stirs the question of the relevance of Gandhian ideas in a world beset by wars, authoritarianism, religious intolerance, pollution, climate change, and racism, all issues that plague our times. This is despite his devastatingly brutal demise on 30 January 1948, aged 78 at Birla House, New Delhi. Gandhi’s ideas are based on his vision of a just and equitable society and are worth a re-look.
NON-VIOLENCE. Many would consider the Gandhian idea of non-violence or Ahimsa as redundant in a world armed to the teeth with chemical, biological, nuclear, and conventional weapons. Ahimsa, first propounded by the 24th Jain Tirthankara and ascetic Mahavira in the 6th century BCE, was a method employed by Gandhi to achieve political and social change. Gandhi believed in peaceful means to change unjust laws.
To be non-violent in a violent world takes far more strength and courage. Non-violent movements are viewed favorably by the international community, particularly countries that uphold human rights and international law. Non-violent resistance can deescalate the level of violence, even if it can't eliminate it. Protests, boycotts, and strikes are a less lethal way of fighting back. In a war, today, it is the non-combatants - the women, children, and the elderly that suffer the most.
On 05 September 1920, at its meeting in Calcutta, the Indian National Congress authorized Gandhi to lead the Non-Cooperation Movement. It was a peaceful non-violent protest against British rule. Both Hindus and Muslims willingly participated in the boycott of British goods, relinquishing their British-given titles, and resigning from British employment, legislative assemblies, and the British-led Indian army. Despite the unprecedented support, Gandhi called off the movement. Why? At Chauri Chaura, in District Gorakhpur, on 05 February, the police resorted to firing on an agitating mob. The incensed crowd attacked the local police station, burnt it, and killed 22 policemen and 3 civilians. On learning this, an appalled Gandhi suspended the Non-Copoperation movement. He felt that India was not ready to accept restraint despite homicidal provocation by the British. The possibility of further violence was likely.
A non-violent movement in Palestine can galvanize international bodies and civil society to advocate strongly for Palestinian rights and Palestinian statehood. The conflict between Jewish settlers and the local Arab population, who were displaced, began in 1882, much before any of us were born! It is now 142 years old and has killed and traumatized millions of Arabs and Jews.
Violence has only resulted in more violence, and there is no resolution in sight. Would peaceful means have delivered a better and lasting solution?
It's assumed that non-violence is a weapon of the weak. In reality, using non-violence as a means to achieve a goal needs a level of courage that is far greater. Gandhi coupled Ahimsa with Satyagraha to achieve his goals.
SATYAGRAHA. In Sanskrit, Satya means truth and Agraha means insistence; the literal translation is using truth to achieve a goal. Salt, a common dietary article was taxed heavily by British colonial rulers, and as far back as 1891, Gandhi wrote asking that it be abolished. He drew attention to it again in 1909, asking that it be repealed. Once again in 1930, Gandhi wrote to the Viceroy. Lord Irwin, the salt tax should be abolished. This too was ignored. Gandhi decided that he would use Satyagraha to protest against this unjust tax. The Dandi March began from Sabarmati Ashram on 12 March 1930 to Dandi on the Arabian sea coast. There were 78 followers when the march began, and thousands joined him en route. He reached Dandi on 05 April 1930. The press was in full attendance and pictures of the march were transmitted worldwide. The next day, after his morning prayers, Gandhi waded into the seashore and collected a handful of salt. This was an act of defiance, and the police arrived and arrested him. The police brutally beat the protesters who offered no resistance and bore the beatings with stoical fortitude. The salt laws were broken by other Satyagrahi protestors in other parts of coastal India and were peaceful despite the beatings sustained.
THE DANDI MARCH (Source Wikipedia)
This act of Satyagraha drew the world’s attention to the brutal British colonial rule and an unjust tax. It forced them to invite Gandhi to England to participate in the Second Round Table Conference. The Dandi March on a personal note reinforced Gandi’s philosophy of countering force with the truth. As such it was a failure for the Salt Law was only repealed in 1947 when Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister of an interim government, and Liaqat Ali Khan his finance minister. The Goods and Services Tax of 2017 has no levy on salt.
Gandhi had said,’ I have nothing new to teach the world Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills, All I have done is to try to experiment in both on a scale as vast as I could.’
SARVODAYA. This was a word coined by Gandhi. Sarv means all and Uday means rising. What Gandhi meant by Sarvodaya was the welfare of all. The concept is truly noble but the reality is that it is impossible to implement as Gandhi conceptualised it. His idea was a village-based economy, with moral, spiritual overtures riding a socialist chassis. The rich were “trustees” rather than owners of their assets, and were to use their wealth to benefit the community. Every individual in society, especially the marginalized. and the poor had to be uplifted. He called this “Antodaya”. He proposed a voluntary method based on love, compassion, and cooperation. Violence was eschewed. There was no role for conflict or exploitation. The transformation of society was to lead villages functioning as Gram Swaraj. Capitalism and exploitation of peasants and workers were completely rejected. Fruits of labor were to be shared equally.
The concept of Sarvodaya is rich morally and spiritually but fares poorly in reality. Today's India aspires to be a trillion-dollar economy, and attract investments from abroad; it teems with youth armed with college degrees in search of a better existence. A huge population exists with aspirations for a better quality of life. People have flooded towns, live in slums and shanties, and have put creaky urban infrastructure in imminent danger of a complete collapse. A complete overhaul of Gandhi’s concept of Sarvodaya is needed. Our political scientists, planners, academicians, and interested parties can rework Sarvodaya into a modern framework to reduce the load on our urban centers. This is possible if villages become economic powerhouses.
SWADESHI. To Gandhi Swadeshi, meant self-reliance as the key principle of stopping poverty, and the uplift of the poor. When he returned to India from South Africa in 1915 widespread poverty, unemployment, and the devastation brought about by imports at the expense of Indian industry appalled him and led to the idea of Swadeshi.
This involved the rejection of British imperial exploitation of India. Indian raw material was exported to Britain in British ships, processed in factories in that country, and sent to India to be sold to Indians. Two products were particularly galling - salt that came from Liverpool and cloth that came from Manchester.
Swadeshi began as a political tool. In 1920 during the Non-Coperation Movement; he launched a direct challenge to British industry. He advised Indians to boycott British goods and textiles in particular in favor of Indian products. He urged Indians to wear khadi and he employed the charkha to spin khadi yarn. The larger objective behind Swadeshi was to make the village as the pivot of Indian industrial revival. He visualized the spinning and weaving of clothes, agricultural produce by the village, and handicrafts leading to a self-sufficient rural economy. This would resolve unemployment as well as empower the rural population.
Gandhi’s vision of village-based industry was against large-scale industrialization. He felt that this model was exploitative, and the profits generated were at the expense of human suffering and environmental degradation. Gandhi favored a decentralized economy wherein each village was a self-sufficient unit. He called this concept Gram Swaraj.
Gandhi’s view of Swadeshi was humanitarian enough to see the eradication of untouchability, female emancipation and empowerment, and uplift of the marginalized as economic prosperity changed their lives.
With post-independent India’s push towards centralized planning and massive industrialization the Gandhian ideal of Swadeshi as he visualized it was jettisoned. The migration of rural Indians to cities in search of a better life has converted our cities into urban nightmares. With this has come inequality, immoderate consumption by a few and in this digital age is splashed all over the media.
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GANDHI’S LIFE AND PRINCIPLES DEPICTED ON A SET OF POSTAGE STAMPS
HUMANISM. Does Gandhi have any meaning in today’s materialistic, agnostic, racist, and consumerist world? Gandhi summed it up in a sentence, ‘The earth has enough for everyone’s need but not enough for one man’s greed.’ Gandhi above all was a human being who rejected racism, advocated respect for human rights, respected the natural world, and stood for what was morally right. He worshipped a god through service to mankind. To him, all human beings were the first manifestation of God.
Some might see Gandhi as an idealistic person living in a fool’s world, seeking a utopia. In hindsight, he was a forerunner in the contemporary discourse on the global environment and climate change. His emphasis on procuring and consuming locally produced goods, fair trade practices that provided a reasonable remuneration for the grower, and a premium on sustainably produced goods are exactly what the present Indian government is targeting. Gandhi’s contribution to the uplift of women was remarkable. He drew women out of their homes to allow them to wade into the struggle for independence. He considered a woman to be the embodiment of sacrifice and ahimsa. His views on gender equality were ahead of their times. He insisted that the share of the daughter in her father’s property must be the same as the son. The husband’s earnings are a joint property with his wife because he made money with her assistance. Today when crime inflicted on women is on the rise, the views of Gandhi were indeed ahead of their time.
Gandhi was a human being like all of us. As with all mortals, he was a collection of good and bad points. It is out of reverence for his positives that he was called the Mahatma and to this day is held in high regard all over India. His principles mark him out as an exceptional human being, clearly overcoming his failings. It is to these that we need to look and emulate. Today, no nation strictly follows Gandhian principles in toto. This is despite his influence on non-violence, social justice, environmental protection, and civil rights. Rather there exists a selective application of thought.
Perhaps the world would be a better place if this was not the case.
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