Everyone’s Gandhi
There is a great saying, “True colour of a person is known when he or she is dead.” When Gandhi was shot dead, parliaments and state assemblies of many Nations including the American Senate mourned his demise and observed silence. Some countries observed national mourning for one or more days with their National Flags half down in order to pay homage to Gandhi. The street light of Broadway, New work city was put off for a few minutes which had never happened before for any non- American. Many great persons from all over the world expressed their deepest condolences. Albert Einstein said, “Generations to come may not believe that such a man with flesh and blood was moving on this Earth.” The most touching statement came from a twelve years old peasant girl from Austria, “I have not seen Gandhi nor had gone to his land or met his people for whom he lived and died, but today I feel that somebody dearest to my heart is lost. It is an unbearable loss.”
No other Indian in the last 1000 years has received love and accolades from the world community as MK Gandhi. It is not surprising that leaders, revolutionaries, and writers from the world over admired Gandhi and learnt from him. Here are some glimpses….
“Christ gave us the goals and Mahatma Gandhi the tactics,” said Martin Luther King Jr., the beloved civil rights leader in the United States of America, who adopted non-violence as the weapon of choice to help millions of African Americans fight for their rights.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, monk and exiled leader of the Tibetan people, has always said he is a follower of Mahatma Gandhi. Both the leaders were representatives of the idea that political change must be secondary to spiritual evolution. “I have the greatest admiration for Mahatma Gandhi. He was a great human being with a deep understanding of human nature. His life has inspired me,” said the Dalai Lama.
Nelson Mandela, great leader of the South African people and another giant of the 20th century anti-colonial struggle, often cited Mahatma Gandhi as one of his greatest teachers: “Gandhi’s ideas have played a vital role in South Africa’s transformation and with the help of Gandhi’s teaching, apartheid has been overcome.”
Famous Jewish-American journalist Louis Fischer who penned The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, inspiration for Attenborough’s award-winning film Gandhi, said on Gandhi’s assassination: “Just an old man in a loin cloth in distant India. Yet when he died, humanity wept.”
Nobel-prize-winning Irish playwright and passionate socialist, George Bernard Shaw: “Impressions of Gandhi? You might well ask for someone’s impression of the Himalayas.”
‘Nonviolence’, he said, ‘is not to be used ever as the shield of the coward. It is the weapon of the brave.” – Lord Richard Attenborough
“Not since Buddha has India so revered any man. Not since St. Francis of Assissi has any life known to history been so marked by gentleness, disinterestedness, simplicity of soul and forgiveness of enemies. We have the astonishing phenomenon of a revolution led by a saint.” – Will Durant
“Mahatma Gandhi came and stood at the door of India’s destitute millions, clad as one of themselves, speaking to them in their own language… who else has so unreservedly accepted the vast masses of the Indian people as his flesh and blood…Truth awakened Truth.” – Rabindranath Tagore
“He is a man among men, a hero among heroes, a patriot among patriots and we may well say that in him Indian humanity at the present time has really reached its high water-mark.” – Gopal Krishna Gokhale
“Gandhi is not only for India a hero of national history, whose legendary memory will be enshrined in the millennial epoch. Gandhi has renewed, for all the peoples of the West, the message of their Christ, forgotten or betrayed.”
“For many, he was like a return of Christ. For others, for independent thinkers, Gandhi was a new incarnation of Jean-Jaques Rousseau and of Tolstoy, denouncing the illusions and the crimes of civilization, and preaching to men the return to nature, to the simple life, to health.”
“I have seen here, in Switzerland, the pious love that he [Gandhi] inspired in humble peasants of the countryside and the mountains.” – Romain Rolland
Mohan to Mahatma
Gandhi had gone to England to study Bar at Law only to save his erstwhile aristocratic family from financial crisis. He was an average student who lacked self-confidence. Shyness had made his life even worse. As a lawyer, in Mumbai or Rajkot, Ahmedabad or Surat, he was unsuccessful to practice or earn his livelihood. He chose the job in South Africa as all the doors in India were closed because of his naivety. As a father of two children, coupled with loan on the family, he had to chew the insult and accept the offer to assist an illiterate businessman. But the events one after another happened and he went on facing them honestly and pragmatically in his little capacity with no claims or assertions.
Gandhi, a simple boy of twenty three became the blue eyed boy of one million Indians in South Africa, irrespective of caste, creed, religion and regional discriminations. Most of the Indians were girmitiyas or bonded labourers. On the other side Gandhi turned out to be an uncontrollable obstinate, an upstart thorn for the British Empire. The principles he adhered to, the strategy he adopted made the administration a villain before the British parliament, and answerable to English citizens in England. His hand printed newspaper Indian Opinion became the mirror of the Indians situation. The newspaper meticulously yet decently exposed the tyranny (of the English administrators, and businessmen) in the guise of benevolence. Indians who were counted as subhumans ‘Coolies’ got a respectable place as citizens at the end of the nine year long movement. The world has never seen such an amazing movement before. More than ten thousand working people, without caring for what will happen to them and their families, crossed the border of Johannesburg walking hundred kilometers and courted arrest as a law breaker. Around eighty thousand people took part in that movement which brought the Union Government to its knees. The staunch enemy General Smuts, President of South Africa, who had made all harms to Gandhi to finish him, became an all time admirer at the end of the struggle. Gandhi’s weapons – truth and non-violence – and more than that his thoughts, speeches, writings and lifestyle had made him another Christ in the eyes of Europeans and Americans. His Tolstoy firm and Phoenix Ashram both are a global pilgrimage for millions of peace lovers today.
Maritzburg station was the turning point in Gandhi’s life. The turmoil in that cold sleepless night at an open platform awakened his spirit, germinating oneness with the suffering mass of South Africa. The struggle started the next day between a common feeble man, and a tyrant military Government of South Africa. The struggle was for Truth and Justice. The Indian community was divided manifold on the basis of caste, creed, colour, class, religion and profession. Each group defied the words and symbols which gave a superior edge to the other group. Such warring groups got united under the leadership of Gandhi to safeguard their rights as human beings. The world community witnessed a battle, first time in the history where weak and meek grew formidable and humbled the invincible Government of South Africa. Victory was not only on the opponent. Gandhi and his people won hearts.
Gandhi had a midas touch in South Africa. He turned Indian people’s struggles into gold! President of South Africa General Smuts, supported by Botha, was the man who hated and tortured Gandhi the most in jail or in public. But at the end of the struggle he was transformed. His expressions for Gandhi are historical. In 1914 before leaving South Africa, Gandhi gave a pair of sandals to General Smuts, made by him in the prison for the latter. By 1939 Smuts had become a famous statesman and a leader of the Second World War.
He gave a written lecture as chief guest on seventieth birthday of Gandhi ji. He wrote, “As an opponent of Gandhi a generation ago, I declare that men like the Mahatma redeem us from a sense of commonplace and futility and are an inspiration to us not to be weary in well- doing….. The story of our clash in the early days of the Union of South Africa has been told by Gandhi himself and is well known. It was my fate to be the antagonist of a man for whom even then I had the highest respect… He never forgot the human background of the situation, never lost his temper or succumbed to hate, and preserved his gentle humour even in the most trying situations. His manner and spirit even then, as well as later, contrasted markedly with the ruthless and brutal forcefulness which is vogue in our day. I must frankly admit that his activities at that time were very trying to me…Gandhi…showed a new technique…His method was deliberately to break the law and to organise his followers into a mass movement…In both provinces a wild and disconcerting commotion was created, large numbers of Indians had to be imprisoned for lawless behaviour and Gandhi himself received – what no doubt he desired – a period of rest and quiet in jail. For him everything went according to plan. For me – the defenders of law and order – there was the usual trying situation, the odium of carrying out a law which had not strong public support, and finally the discomfiture when the law was abolished.”
Speaking of Gandhi’s gift, Smuts remarked, “I have worn these sandals for many summers since then, even though I may feel that I am not worthy to stand in the shoes of such a great man.” I feel this is enough to prove the stature of that small man.
Gandhi led the Indian community in South Africa to a pleasing victory. Both the opponents, the Europeans and Indians, agreed to the following decision. Later this Legislation was passed in the parliament.
1. Hindu, Parsi and Muslim marriages will be hitherto valid with provision of legal certificate.
2. The three pound annual tax on indentured labourers who wish to remain in Natal State is abolished, arrears are cancelled.
3. Indentured labour will cease coming from India by 1920.
4. Indians cannot move from one province to another, but Indians born in South Africa may enter Cape Colony, the privileged state.
This law according to Gandhi was ‘Magna Carta’ of South African Indians. Gandhi wrote in Indian Opinion journal, “The victory, moreover, was a vindication of civil resistance. It is a force which, if it became universal, would revolutionize social ideals and do away with despotism and the ever-growing militarism under which the nations of the West are groaning and are almost crushed to death, and which fairly promises to overwhelm even the Nations of the East.” Some more grievances were left for the future to be addressed in a harmonious composition. General Smuts, President of South Africa committed to the public that the law will be ‘administered in a just manner with due regard to the vested rights of Indians. This in a way gave rightful citizenship to Indians in South Africa.
When Gandhi returned to India in 1914 after creating history in South Africa, he was a hero, who made every Indian feel proud. On his arrival at Bombay dock, a procession led by great Gopalkrishna Gokhale received him. Gokhle was a towering personality in National politics, and respected by the Viceroy too. When Gandhi was conferred a public honour in Bombay and Pune, two staunch opponent leaders (of Indian National Congress) the legendary Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Gokhale were present on the same dais to shower praise on Gandhi. This series of honour continued in Calcutta (Kolkata) too, chaired by the uncrowned King of Bengal Sri Chittaranjan Das, and by Sir Tagore in ShantiNiketan. Madras, Delhi, Benaras, and Punjab were no exception.
The Indian Independence Movement had come to a standstill by 1914. The Bengal Partition Movement of 1905 had died down. Lord Curzon was successful in dividing Bengal as well as the Indian National Congress. The first National leader of India, Sri Aurobindo Ghosh had already taken refuge in Pondicherry under French rule after being released from Alipur jail because of the historical advocacy by Sri Chittaranjan Das. Gandhi filled this vacuum through his ingenious ways.
Gandhi’s conceptual contributions towards a fair world
Six core and foundational concepts comprise Gandhiji’s contribution towards a just world: Ahinsa (non-violence); Satyagraha (truth force that guides nonviolent resistance); Sarvodaya (welfare of all); Swaraj (self-rule; freedom), Trusteeship (custodianship of the earth and sharing of wealth and resources) and Gram Sabha (Gaon Ganarajya / Gram Panchayti Raj, as the pivot of a sovereign nation).
Mahatma Gandhi issued a statement directed at the 1945 conference in San Francisco that produced the UN Charter. One section of his statement quoted from the All India Congress Committee (AICC) resolution of August 8, 1942, says: “The future peace, security and ordered progress of the world demand a world federation of free nations. An independent India would gladly join such a world federation and co-operate on an equal basis with other countries in the solution of international problems. Thus the demand for Indian independence is in no way selfish. Its nationalism spells internationalism.”
In the nascent years of the UN, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru instructed our representative at the UN General Assembly (UNGA), Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, to raise the issue of racial practices against the Indian minority in South Africa. In face of fierce opposition from the Allied countries, India succeeded in challenging the ‘domestic jurisdiction’ and ‘sovereignty’ clause (Article 2(7)) of the UN Charter by having a resolution passed that sought to censure South Africa for its racist treatment of Indians living in South Africa.
The victory India gained at the UNGA in 1946 opened up completely new horizons through which countries could no longer hide behind their nations boundaries and continue to violate human rights without facing a global challenge at the United Nations. The resolution that India succeeded in having adopted by the UNGA in 1945, paved the way for the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) that codified the principles of universality and equality of all nations – a foundational principle of multilateralism.
Mahatma Gandhi also had a strong influence on our representatives that took part in the drafting process of the UDHR (Hansa Mehta, Begum Hamid Ali, Lakshmi Menon, M.R. Masani). Guided by Gandhiji’s messages that infused India’s freedom struggle in which they had all taken part, these individuals’ influenced the content of seven articles of the UDHR:
1. Women’s rights (India insisted on the word ‘men’ be replaced with ‘human beings’);
2. Non-discrimination (India added the words ‘colour’ and ‘political opinion’ as criteria for non-discrimination);
3. Freedom of movement (India added the article calling for freedom of movement within a country);
4. The right to health (India suggested that health is much more than ‘the right to medical care’ and proposed the term ‘right to health);
5. The right to work (India added the principle of ‘just and favourable conditions of work’);
6. Rights and Duties (India insisted on the UDHR recognising the crucial role of duties done to rights attained) and
7. Secularism (India’s delegates made it clear that the UDHR applied to everyone in the world and that there were millions of people who did not believe in God. The UDHR, consequently states that ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed by nature with reason and conscience, and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood’).
Many of the ideas that informed the content of the UDHR came from the intense debates and articulated outcomes of India’s constitutional debates. There was a one-year overlap between the meetings of our Constitutional Assembly and the process at the UN that led to the adoption of the UDHR.
Hansa Mehta was a staunch follower, and associate of Gandhi ji. She was both a member of the Constituent Assembly and Eleanor Roosevelt’s team at the UN Commission on Human Rights that drafted the UDHR. In turn our Constitution was also inspired, as reflected in several articles, by the UDHR. It was in the years following the adoption of the UDHR that India, following lessons learnt from the conceptual thinking of Mahatma Gandhi, championed the cause of decolonisation. In ensuring that the UN had an influential inter-governmental body – the General Assembly – where all UN member states had an equal voice, India also made major contributions to the institutional architecture of the United Nations. The voice of Gandhi echoes in the statement, speech and Declaration of the UN today. Quotes are taken from him every now and then to establish the objectives and strategies of the UN.
Gandhi-an international stalwart
I must confess that neither I am a worshiper nor a follower of Gandhi. Rather I enjoyed my right to criticise him on many occasions from public dais for his himalayan blunders. He made those mistakes because he was a common man yet a great performer nay an extraordinary transformer of humanity. Long before Vishwakavi Rabindranath Tagore named him Mahatma or Respected Subhash Chandra Bose called him Father of the Nation, Great Visionary and philosopher Romain Rolland had said to the world in 1917 that Gandhi is another Jesus Christ.
“When asked what attribute he most admired in human nature, Mahatma Gandhi replied simply, and immediately, ‘Courage’. It is not surprising that courageous, truthful and compassionate Gandhi is respected worldwide, and looked up as a beacon of light. Some of the well known Gandhi Centres and Institutions in Foreign Countries are
1. Mahatma Gandhi Canadian Foundation for dc World Peace (Canada)
2. Gandhi Information Center (Germany)
3. UNC Mahatma Gandhi Fellowship (Univ. of North Carolina, USA)
4. Gandhi Memorial Centre (Washington, D.C., USA)
5. Foundation Mahatma Gandhi (Colombia)
6. Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence (Virginia, USA)
Interestingly Gandhiji’s strong opponent General Smuts, President of South Africa, had warned Sir Winston Churchill in his address to the Nation that Gandhi is a saint and not to be seen as an official politician. George Bernard Shaw or Charlie Chaplin or Fifth George, Masanobu Fukuoka or Khalil Gibran and the great hero of the Second World War and later president of America Sir Eisen Hower reciprocated the statements of Romain Rolland. Leo Tolstoy declared Gandhi as his successor. Gandhi is taught today in the course curriculum of schools in more than one fifty countries including Russia, China, Cuba and Iran etc. In India his world famous great contemporaries like H.H. Swami Shivanand Saraswati, H.H. Swami Yogananda Paramhansa and above all the greatest Raman Maharshi and Sri Aurobindo had declared him in public occasions as a great Rishi of all times.
Mahatma Gandhi was nominated five times for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947, and 1948. But the award was not conferred on him because he was presumed to be against hegemony of Europe, against the industrial revolution, and capitalism. After years of his assassination, Nobel committee gave a statement that it was a mistake on the part of their predecessors for being unable to judge correctly and confer Nobel Peace Prize on Mr. Gandhi.
I was instrumental in the publication of a book by Navjivan Trust in 1987 titled ‘Mind of Mahatma Gandhi’ compiled by R.S. Rao and U.R. Prabhu. It says that he strongly opposed to be called a Mahatma. Gandhi publicly declared many times that I am a common man with the weaknesses of a layman who is of course incessantly trying to rise above them. Any layman can live or do what I do or live. He says, “I have no claim on the newness or uniqueness of what I say or do. Truth and Non-violence are as old as Himalayas in this great land of seekers and seers.”
The International Day of Non-Violence is observed on 2 October, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. In January 2004, Iranian Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi initiated a proposal for an International Day of Non-Violence. On 15 June 2007 the United Nations General Assembly voted to establish 2 October as the International Day of Non-Violence. The resolution by the General Assembly asks all members of the UN system to commemorate 2 October in “an appropriate manner and disseminate the message of non-violence, including through education and public awareness”. Once while speaking at a forum of intellectuals in Kolkata, I stated that five geniuses were contemporaries of Gandhi, viz Swami Vivekanand, Viswakavi Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Chittaranjan Das, Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, and Sri Subhash Chandra Bose. Gandhi was a layman with no exceptional quality. But surprisingly, he surpassed these geniuses, and influenced the global community… became the man of the millennium… and the United Nations is giving him this honour even after twenty years of this declaration today. The U.N. declarations on Millenium Development Goal ( MDG) and later Sustainable Development Goal ( SDG) and some UN Charters reflect that.
Gandhi – Nitya Nutan
The Harijan of Young India who led the Indian Opinion to Freedom*
Swami Vivekananda, the spiritual leader, a short while before his death had painfully said, “Only another Vivekananda can understand what this Vivekananda has done”. This is true for Mahatma Gandhi as well. To understand him one must be like him, living the life from moment to moment in the trials, turmoil and turbulences yet ever new and lively- While making a solitary effort to live a healthy and fit life for one hundred and twenty years, he was ready to embrace death with joy at every moment, in other words Nitya Nutan!
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, with an extraordinary horizon of 360 degrees, came into the Indian ether like a fresh breeze. He was one of the greatest benefactors in human history; ever prepared to make the supreme sacrifice for small causes of the most neglected communities; ready to take to task anybody, be it relatives, fellow beings, common folk or leaders irrespective of their stature or even the most powerful British government. He did not achieve it through organizing events or sporadic outbursts, but his approach was to build a process for change against the centralized, hierarchical and exploitative system. He was conscious of the glorious past of India and its weaknesses; alert about the present dynamics; ready with a vision for the future civilization. Gandhi worked one step ahead with a substratum mission of emancipation; realizing the fourth dimension of causal world while being rigorously down to Earth, full of love for the entire world, yet alone from within.
Realistically speaking, he was a common man with third class marks in his academic career; ever struggling to rise above the weaknesses from within and without, having incessant impetus to weld his thought, speech and action into one with a childlike spontaneity. To him this was the essence of DHARMA – the Eternal Laws of Nature, of which these “isms” are byproducts, explained by preachers, scriptures and congregations. And perhaps therefore only he could say in such simple words that “The life I lived can be lived by any ordinary person. If there is a contradiction between my words and actions while constantly using the truth, then it is because of the imperfection in me which is poised to move towards perfection. I accept that there are many mistakes in my work. Some mistakes may even be as big as the Himalayas. Therefore, leaving my old expression, my new expression should be accepted. Because I am constantly working on improving myself, the latter is more authentic.” His statement is most poignant that “My life is my message” – so transparent, so democratic, so accountable, so collective and so mass based – which can be the life journey of any layman.
Gandhi arduously threw himself into an ocean of uncertainty & insecurity; treaded a new path strewed with thorns and few flowers. That chiseled his understanding of values of life like truth, non-violence, self -restraint and austerity; of living with the community; sensitizing them politically, spiritually and building their characters to be responsible and primary stakeholder in their own development. He delved into channelizing their deprivations into struggles for legitimate rights, equality, liberty, fraternity and justice. This proved to be a beacon to regenerate harmonious relationships amongst Nature, Society, Government and Market to save the human civilization from looming disaster.
It is not the Masters or Scriptures or Religions that qualified him to be an ardent seeker, but every event that happened and every person that he came across in his day to day life educated him; enabled him to face them more efficiently and effectively in his own way.
His sharp observations, loving behavior and humility helped him to imbibe these subtle principles in selfless and unassuming actions. Later he defined this as NAI TALIM – his last and the most valuable gift to humanity. Gandhiji’s search for creative approach to address the burning issues; his courage to confront the opponent with unparalleled love; his innovative experiments to practice the highest values in practical life as a collective path sometimes led him to commit Himalayan blunders. But he had the guts to admit them placidly as inexcusable faults in public and private life. His simplistic ways of perception about complex things, of course with scientific rigor and critical analysis, had left him with wrong conclusions or even actions, giving opportunities to opponents to criticize his persona. He was ever ready to find the mistake in himself with a sports man’s spirit… incessantly exploring the light amidst darkness… taking bold decisions when confusion prevailed.
The year 1921 onwards there was nothing like Gandhiji’s personal life. He was always surrounded by people 24×7. Gandhiji was affected every moment by their hopes, aspirations, greed, attachment, ego, suppressed desires, jealousy, hatred, duality, and apprehensions. Gandhiji used to strive to rise above his weaknesses. Simultaneously, he used to inspire and help those around him to rise above their weaknesses. There are much evidence that he was often in trouble due to the weakness of his companions and therefore, lived under mental pressure. As a result, he could never be free from blood pressure, dysentery, indigestion and fecal matter. Still, he used to say about his death, “If I die of diseases, then understand that my meditation was a hypocrisy”. He believed that the seeker should have complete control over his body. Despite being weak in body, he constantly traveled in the third class compartment of trains, to villages on cycles or bullock carts, and occasionally in motorcars. Cohabitation with other ashram inmates and co-workers, praying, and taking rest was a definite part of his daily life while working regularly for eighteen hours (physical labor was also included in it). Not only the fight against the British, the fight between different groups within the Congress, the fight between Dalit and Muslim leaders, the fight between the local kings and their states, and above all, the struggle between various religious leaders and idealists, such as socialists, communists, nationalists and Gandhians… everyone looked up to him for satisfactorily resolving the battle – he used to win their trust and respect. Gandhiji used to maintain his mental balance while facing external and internal pressures; Still, after drinking all the poison himself, he used to give peace to everyone; This is the matter of wonder. That’s why mankind considers him as their father.
Gandhiji was an embodiment of evolution in his thought, speech and action… far sighted yet living for the moment! His integrity and sincerity aided his inquisitiveness to understand every event and person that he came across. He always did what he believed to be true for him. This led him to dispassionately and minutely introspect every tiny thought and action. This has been the path of learning since ancient times in India. Classroom teachings and monologues never constituted the Indian education process. It was always the Guru and shishya living together, learning from each other through interactions, dialogues and exposures to the realities of life and above all, the quest for the unknown. This pursuit to know the inner purport of outer performances started alone in Gandhiji’s teenage but gradually it became a collective journey as he grew young.
This scientific temper on the foundation of spirituality enriched and introduced him to new horizons of innovations and realizations. In this process he earned the conceptual clarity … the vision of India in the global context in its totality- unity in diversity and commitment to the cause i.e., faith to transform the villages to self-governed republics on the basis of spontaneous voluntarism and mutual cooperation for the sustainable management of the resources available. Since this was a sincere search, his findings were original. This enabled his limited knowledge to expand and insight to mature. Regular practice enhanced his courage to confront the injustice, ensured his growth as a formidable warrior. The hard-earned wisdom and valour transformed a layman to a Mahatma or Atma of India.
The interesting thing is that like a seasoned veteran warrior, he followed four strategic steps in the battlefield.
1. Meeting the common people and assisting them to be face to face with the truth. People can get to the root of the problems as well as the solution; making them realize this belief, awakening and organizing them.
2. With immense love, facing the opposition with humility, discussing the problems of the public in minute detail, listening to the opinion and perception of the opposition with sensitivity, then proposing a solution, and wait with patience
3. If he didn’t get satisfactory results after repeated discussion and criticism, giving a direct war cry to the opposition while leading from the front in his battlefield with his invented strategy and tactics.
4. If he didn’t get success in this battle, then in the end, for the solution of the crisis, he would make self-sacrifice while requesting the almighty God for penance.
That’s why he named his strategy ‘Satyagraha’. He stated that a Satyagrahi never loses. This is the path of the mighty. A person who is afraid of death cannot be a traveler on this path. Gandhi’s path is the path of simple understanding, faith, unwavering determination, continuous meditation and complete dedication. Here the purity of the journey and means is more important than reaching the goal. No one loses in this fight and everyone wins.
This became his character…diving deep into the root cause of the problem around, imbibing the core values, brainstorm on it personally with whatever little wit he had and then collectively debating on the same issue with a humble learning mind, fathoming deep into the inner self to discover solutions and be ready with a roadmap. His sensitivity for the deprived, marginalized suffering mass provided him the inner strength to walk on that discovered path facing the hurdles with a detached and non-ambitious approach, until he was satisfied that the goal was reached ensuring sanctity of means.
One such most daring conclusion in Gandhiji’s life – unbelievable in those days and even today – was when he wrote his most famous book HIND SWARAJ (INDIAN HOME RULE) regarding the British Parliament in the year 1908. It was immediately banned, and all the prints were seized by the British Government. The reader will find its resonance with the Indian parliament today. The impact is clearly visible on the deteriorating national scenario; polarization of resources; degenerating human values; divisive politics; exploitative economics; hypocritical public life resulting in the collapse of democratic institutions, administrative and judiciary systems at the grass root level; massive marginalization, deprivation, discrimination in community and devastation of Nature. He wrote: “That (British Parliament) which is considered to be the Mother of Parliaments is sterile and prostitute. Both these are harsh terms, but exactly feed the case. That Parliament has not yet, of its own accord, done a single good thing. Hence, I have compared it to a sterile woman. The natural condition of that parliament is such that, without outside pressure, it can do nothing. It is like a prostitute because it is under the control of the ministers who change from time to time……”
“…..The best men are supposed to be elected by the people. The members serve without pay and therefore, it must be assumed, only for public welfare. The electors are considered to be educated and therefore we should assume that they would not generally make mistakes in their choice. Such a Parliament should not need the spur of petitions or any other pressure. Its work should be so smooth that its effects would be more apparent day by day. But as a matter of fact, it is generally acknowledged that the members are hypocritical and selfish. Each thinks of his own little interest. It is fear that is the guiding motive. What is done today may be undone tomorrow. It is not possible to recall a single instance in which finality can be predicted for its work. When the greatest questions are debated, its members have been seen to stretch themselves and to doze. Members vote for their party without a thought…. If any member, by way of exception, gives an independent vote, he is considered a renegade… And if it has remained a baby after an existence of seven hundred years, when will it outgrow its babyhood?
“…..Parliament is without a real master. Under the Prime Minister, its movement is not steady, but it is buffeted about like a prostitute. The Prime Minister is more concerned about his power than about the welfare of Parliament. His energy is concentrated upon securing the success of his party. His care is not always that parliament should do right. Prime Ministers are known to have made Parliament do things merely for party advantage….”
On 14 July 1938, in the preface of the English edition of Hind Swaraj, he writes, “… But after a stormy thirty years through which I have since passed, I have seen nothing to make me alter the views expounded in it…”
In another place he writes that the all-powerful State reduces the individuals to mere ciphers. Moreover, such totalitarian states, whether Fascist or Socialist, are ultimately controlled by one or a few ‘Supermen’ who rule over the destinies of millions. But man, in order to survive must get rid of such Supermen, however noble and high-intent they may be. “There is no hope for civilization in Government by idolized single individuals”. Gandhiji, therefore, was of the definite opinion that the Constitution of India should be based on the organization of well-knit and coordinated village communities with their positive and direct democracy, non-violent cottage economy and human contacts. “That State will be the best”, declares Gandhiji, “which is governed the least.”
He further wrote, “Every village will be a Republic or Panchayat having full powers. It follows, therefore, that every village has to be self – sustained and capable of managing its affairs even to the extent of defending itself against the whole world. It will be trained and prepared to perish in its attempt to defend itself against any onslaught from without. … Such a society is necessarily highly cultured, in which every man and woman knows what he or she wants and, what is more, knows that no one should want anything that others cannot have with equal labor… In this structure composed of innumerable villages there will be ever widening, never ascending circles. Life will not be a pyramid with the apex sustained by the bottom. But it will be the individual always ready to perish for the village, the latter ready to perish for the nation, sharing the majesty of the oceanic circle of which they are integral units. Therefore, the outermost circumference will not wield power to crush the inner circle but give strength to all within and derive its own from the center”.
Gandhiji worked massively to empower ordinary men and women for collective activity as responsible primary stakeholder for their own development and an understanding of public affairs through building social institutions upon little democracies of workers. He believed that centralization of power results in curtailment of individual liberties and progressive regimentation of the people. Democracy is made for man and not man, made for democracy. Democracy is only a means to an end; it must therefore be adapted and adjusted to the social and psychological conveniences of human beings.
In fact, the village in India has been looked upon as the basic unit of administration and as a corporate political unit since Vedic period. In his famous minutes of 1830, Sir Charles Metcalfe, the then acting Governor-General of India wrote, “The village communities are little republics, having nearly everything they can want within themselves, and almost independent of any foreign relations. They seem to last where nothing else lasts. Dynasty after dynasty tumbles down; revolution succeeds revolution…. but the village community remains the same. . . This union of the village communities, each one forming a separate little state in itself, has, I conceive, contributed more than any other cause to the preservation of the peoples of India, through all the revolutions and changes which they have suffered. It is in a high degree conducive to their happiness, and to the enjoyment of a great portion of freedom and independence. I wish, therefore, that the village constitutions may never be disturbed, and I dread everything that has a tendency to break them up.” The native politicians and religious leaders did not have the ability to understand the importance of village republic. All of them were quarreling with one another, not hesitating to betray to fulfill their own narrow interests.
The inordinate and unscrupulous greed of the East India Company caused gradual disintegration of these Gram Panchayats. The deliberate introduction of the Ryotwari system as against the village tenure system dealt a deathblow to the corporate life of the village republics. The centralization of all executive and judicial powers in the hands of the British bureaucrats also deprived the village functionaries of their age-old powers and influence. And it continues even after 70 years of Independence, writes Dr. Brahmadev Sharma in his book ’50 years of Anti Panchayati Raj’.
The Indian village communes, after serious experimentations had evolved a well-balanced economic system between capitalism and socialism. They had developed an ideal form of cooperative agriculture and industry, in which there was scarcely any scope for exploitation of the poor by the rich. As Gandhiji puts it, production was almost simultaneous with consumption and distribution. Commodities manufactured in cottages and domestic factories were for immediate use and not for distant markets. Such small scale and localized production on a self-sufficiency basis automatically eliminated capitalist exploitation. It virtually established economic equality without either ruthlessly curtailing individual liberty or allowing a few individuals to boss over others.
To Gandhiji, decentralization envisions and upholds the cultural and spiritual ideal of ‘simple living and high thinking’. “The mind is a restless bird,” says Gandhiji, “The more it gets, the more it wants, and still remains unsatisfied…. The more we indulge our passions, the more unbridled they become. Our ancestors, therefore, set a limit to our indulgences. They saw that happiness was largely a mental condition. They saw that our real happiness and health consisted in a proper use of our hands and feet.” Gandhiji, thus, regards simplicity as a cultural and moral necessity. The celebrated scientist Einstein holds the same view, “Possession, outward success, publicity, luxury—to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best for both the body and the mind.”
Gandhiji pleads for a civilization founded on ‘Villagism’ and says, “Rural Economy as I have conceived it eschews exploitation altogether, and exploitation is the essence of violence”. Villagism and Universalism go hand in hand. Gandhiji taught us that the basis of our material existence should be the village, while the Universe ought to be our cultural or spiritual abode. This is the essence of his doctrine of Swadeshi. He wants to serve humanity and the Universe, but through his immediate neighbours and the country. “My patriotism,” says Gandhiji, “is both exclusive and inclusive.” “It is exclusive in the sense that in all humility I confine my attention to the land of my birth. But it is inclusive in the sense that my service is not of a competitive or antagonistic nature. I want to identify myself with everything that lives.”
We can feel one not only with our fellow human beings in the village, province, country and the world, but also be in tune with the Infinite Universe. For practicing and realizing this ideal of Universalism, it is not at all necessary for us to fly ceaselessly to the ends of heaven and Earth; we can feel one with the Universe while living quietly in our small cottages. Internationalism and Universalism are states of mind and not creations of time and distance.
**The Harijan, Young India, and Indian opinion were three newspapers established by Mahatma Gandhi. He used to write columns in them frequently.