Saturday, May 24, 2008

Can't be a Gandhi...

"A century from now..and Mr. M.K. Gandhi would be fiction." - said Einstein, not verbatim, somewhere in the mid 1930s...

And along with his other inventions and discoveries goes one of his predictions towards achieving universal acceptance.!

Come to think of it; would it even be a century before this happens...if we are to go by the present rate, i doubt it.! Yeah... this blog is a result of my reading his autobiography and then having a long-ish serious discussion with a few of my friends. This blog was originally written a long time before, around 2 years ago! Anyway...

Its really amusing how people form impressions about one Mr. Gandhi who apart from giving us a National holiday seems to be remembered only as a cause for the partition. To speak against Mr. Gandhi seems to be totally in fad and fashion. Or worse still, people fear being mocked if they believed in Gandhi. Some think he was no more than a traitor, some think he was a fool who got his ways, some feel he was right for most part of his 'political career' and then later faltered, some think he was a selfish goose, some think he 'hypnotized' lakhs of Indians to adhering to his ways, and I for one believe that he did the best anyone could have done.!

I believe in him. I did before I read his book, I do even more now. I mean... that guy was just too much stuffed in one. He is an idol, at least to me, in all aspects. The thought of living a life as he did, is a challenge so great in itself that one would shudder if he were to give it a serious thought. To gauge him on his personal life becomes too much to digest. He has stretched determination to the extent of being called stubborn. Stretched faith to the extent of being called ridiculous. Stretched love for human life to the extent of being called a 'traitor'!!!

I mean look at this guy. Started off as a young, married at 13, responsible(?) bloke, who did all the miscreants that we would; smoked cigarettes, took alcohol (both w/o parents knowledge and consent) and further still, indulged himself in carnal pleasures even before he was a major.! With a background as his, he starts off to England, all alone, not even able to speak their tongue wholly and then 40 years later, more than 75% of a nation that is struggling under a foreign rule follows his word in letter and spirit. Such was his command on human feelings. If experience were a teacher, Mr. Gandhi would undoubtedly be its favourite student. So great were his abilities to learn; not only that but to enrich his own experiments with all the lessons learnt.

India would have achieved Independence without Gandhi, no doubt, but then he aimed to do it without shedding a single drop of blood.! And it is also true that we would have got ndependence even by his ways, with no disrespect, without Bhagat Singh and Subhash Chandra Bose. The argument that seems to dominate, though, is that the way this nation has shaped, "because of Mr. Gandhi". "If he had not called of the Civil Disobedience movement...", "If he hadnt called off the Non-Co-operation movement...", "If he had not agreed to the partition..." ... and so on... but then ... if he hadnt called it off... would we ever had a bhagat Singh in the first place..??!! Well...it is another issue to ponder upon..!! Coming back...if we hadnt stuck to his ways of ahimsa...we might have got Independence at least a decade earlier, but at what cost? The lives of thousands? (Arguments regarding 1000s died anyways are duly, and in my opinion rightly deferred to another space.!)

All easier said than done! Just as everything in this world is... easier said than done.

This is getting too assorted, and lacks focus ... but basically ... a discussion the other night warranted this blog..!!!

If you were to look at his picture now, with the current definitions of success and failure, Mr. Gandhi, was one heck of a failure. I mean what did he achieve...he was a failure as a husband, as a child, as a father, and as far as being the bearer of a title of Father of The Nation is concerned, thats about what he is achieved, a title.

And yet... he was the gutsiest soul this world has ever seen ... by far.! As people say, his ways aren't feasible today, I couldn't agree more, for, people today are too feeble for it. Men of great strength and enormous stature are a thing of past; fiction.

In the end, people and young kids still believe that Lord Krishna lifted an entire hill by His li'l finger, but laugh when told a Man once tried winning independence by loving his enemy...

2 comments:

K said...

hmmm.....

A thought - i think children love/ will always love Gandhi ... if presented to them in a interesting manner...

Abinav Kumar said...

Interesting. Of course, it depends on the one who introduces Gandhi to them. And, more importantly if the child's grandfather/ father likes Gandhi or not...