THE RELEVANCE OF GANDHI

Gandhi was a great spiritual soul.He delved deep into the ancient Hindu culture and civilization and from it brought forth and moulded the  weapon of non-violence ideology. A weapon more powerful than the nuclear bomb. This was unleashed on the Britishers and ultimately they were defeated. However this bomb was a one time bomb for the purpose of gaining freedom from Britishers. After India gained freedom it was evident that this bomb would explode in reverse and may harm the nation. A nation moves ,acts,reacts on the basis of day to day realities.It has to confront enemies,boost the economy and indulge into covert acts for the benefit of the nation. Obviously one cannot run a nation entirely on Gandhian principles.

The first incongruity emerged when the Mahatma demanded that the Govt should immediately return 55 crores to pakistan .This at the time when India was  under attack from Pakistan in Kashmir. It was a treacherous attack supposedly by Tribals but in reality was being conducted by the Pakistani army led by its own General. Any Govt under these war circumstances would never have acceded to this demand.But the Mahatma went on a fast and such was his power that the Govt had to pay back the amount to Pakistan.

There are two things I have to point out. One that Gandhi should have retired after freedom since his purpose was served.His ideology could have guided the broad policy of the nation and served as a role model in the upliftment of the poor and the abolition of the caste system. But in 1947-1948 two Govts were running.One by Gandhi and the other by the Congress.

Secondly during the last days, Gandhi became obsessed with his non-violence ideology and completely cut off with realities around him. It seemed that he was deliberately placing unreasonable demands just to aggressively market his branded ideology. He started demanding the repatriation of the Hindus to Pakistan,where their families were butchered.Send them back he said. He wanted only cottage industries in the country and so on. I have a feeling that he wanted to be martyred and therefore was deliberately on a path of provocation.

Today I see that there is lot to learn spiritually from his thoughts and from his ideology of non-violence. He showed us a path,a enlightened path. Mixture of religion and politics is explosive.Similiarly Mahatma spiritual teachings cannot become state policy to run the country. It can be a guiding force to move the world towards Utopia.