As usual, Gandhi Jayanti is a day for revering the Mahatma. But in today's
India the Mahatma gets crucifixed every day in the name of religion and
non-secular ideals. It took Gandhi to cross the "kala pani" and put an end to
the Hindus' misconception that those Hindus who went abroad got "polluted. His
trip to England in 1888 to study law shattered the myth. Like many Indians,
Hindus have gone abroad in large numbers. The stigma no longer sticks. In fact,
Hindus, as many Indians, have made good their adoption of foreign lands.
Killed by the very people who are destroying India, the Mahatma's life remains
as a shinning example of what India should be for now and generations ot come.
It was sad that the Mahatma eventually agreed for the partition of India. His
heart was torn asunder with the ethnic strife that followed partition. It is
said that Gandhi could have saved the partition and he did not act. He could
have convinced Jinnah on the futility of the move to have a separate nation,
but Gandhi shirked. He himself said, "I ofen feel like writing to him but lose
courage when taking up my pen." No matter if Gandhi failed in the circumstances
of those days, but we cannot ignore that his legacy. The Oracle that Gandhi was
speaks to us today in many forms and in many forums. It is debatable if Gandhi
is still relevant today, and it is an eternal question that will every time the
nation gets in communal trouble or on the day of his birth or death. One of his
biographers, Judith
Brown, right called the Gandhi the "Prisoner of Hope" in the book by the same
name.
It is true in the modern India, Gandhi's solutions, be they political, social
or economic, would be impratical. India would have been left economicaly
backward if the nation had followed his voice not to march towards
industralization. India would have remained attached to his spinning wheel and
would have not moved forward on the wheels of progress. If his idealist
proposition that "means justify the end" was followed to the hilt, India would
not have come a long way in achieving its current global status.
Talking about Gandhi in the current context of the barbaric acts of Hindu
fundamentalists fringe groups against Christians, it is said that Gandhi was a
Christian trapped in a Hindu body. Perhaps, it was one way the Britishers
wanted to make Gandhi one of their own in India's bitter fight for
Independence. Swaying Gandhi on their side was one of their aims, as Gandhi was
the ideological force in the freedom movement. Notwithstanding, Gandhi's own
closeness to Christian ideals, Chrisian values and Christian teachings through
his close friends and association may have made the Britishers make Gandhi look
more of a Christian. He believed in Christian concepts such "charity" through
the use of ahimsa (non-violence). Gandhi believed that religion and politics
cannot be separated. The Revereand Charles F. Andrews and the Quakers yeiled
good influence on Gandhi during his days in South Africa, and later Rev.
Andrews' stay in India on Gandhi return to his
homeland. The missionaries that befriended Gandhi looked within Hinduism for a
"hidden Christ."
Gandhian nationalism was of a different variety than those of his fellow Indian
leaders in the freedom movement. In him, religion and nationalism combined to
form his soul-force (satyagraha) and that alone drove the Indian chariot of
freedom movement to a great degree of success. For Gandhi, "political hinduism"
was vastly different than that practiced today by the BJP and its extremist
factions, the Bajrang Dal and VHP. The fight for swaraj (national freedom) lay
in the layered version of his own nationalism and "political hinduism." Winston
Churchill's denouncement of Gandhi as a "half-naked fakir" was an exasperated
cry.
Gandhi hated communalism as much as he hated the caste system, though criticism
has been made that by calling the dalits (untouchables) harijans (children of
God) he has permanently casted them in a mould from which the continue to
struggle to break free till today. As the forces of communalism are on the
rampage in India, with Christians once again being their targets for conversion
activities, it should be remembered that Gandhi was only against conversion
without consent. The British rules portrayed Gandhi as a spokesperson for
Hindus, but Gandhi was an universalist. His message of universalism is urgently
needed for India's growth as a prime example of its secular image and as a
mosaic of its multi-religious and plurality of communities.
Eugene Correia
