Gandhi is not just an individual he is an institution and a ‘way of life’ for us Indians and many others abroad and would remain so for the future generations.
He has gone beyond national boundaries; in fact it would be a travesty of facts if we ever think him interims of narrow nationalism or parochialism. He belongs to the entire humanity and in India we have benefited immensely by having his guidance when we were hopelessly crawling under the multiple tyranny of foreign rule, feudalistic oppression compounded by casteism, severe economic impasse and crippling religious obscurantism.
When it is a matter of principles, it requires constant vigil and for continuance – constant reminding and hence polishing those images at periodic intervals. And as we know, such acts as renewing a pledge for doing good and fostering values by being an agent and also an advocate is not fun.
To make it more intelligible let me give an example. If I were to offer a choice to my cousin/ nephew either to go to a theme park or join in a ceremonial ‘Gandhi katha’ on Gandhi jayanthi, unless I put some extra effort he may choose the softer alternative of having fun than going through a process of character building. But what if we completely forget the aspect of character building and even preclude the option of a ‘Gandhi katha’? have we fallen down to that level- nadir! Or else how come there is a talk of whether to make it a holiday or a working day!
Confused? Well let me give one more example. When my father was alive and we stayed together we observed the death tithi – date of the death on lunar calendar- of our grand father by holding “shradhdh’ ceremonies. We used to invite our near and dear ones and it had a touch of festivity and it was mostly work and work for my parents and we also contributed our lot by helping in serving the food, cleaning the rooms and attending the guests. From my point of view- despite subscribing to an agnostic phiulosophy- these ceremonies fostered some higher values in us; like remembering the departed relations with reverence, maintaining harmonious relations with neighbors and the extended family and learning to share the family burden.
Now let us take the hypothetical situation of oblivion setting in and we degenerated and stopped those noble practices yet by simply clinging on to tradition made our children simply stay put at home on those ‘Shradhdh days’ and then started offering alternatives like visiting a cinema or a park to the family members. Then there would come a time when some rational family members would question the merry making and demand the continuation of work/ school on that revered day also. What would be the right response to such demands?
If we think of the modern nation- that India is -then the three most enabling principles around which we’ve dreamt of rising together are:
1) Having a secular democratic state, where no longer the God’s representatives- Kings and Zamindars- would oppress the majority by resorting to the one convenient plea- God. Like people elsewhere, we understood we would be better off under our own representatives- elected leaders- than those of the Gods. Needless to mention a democracy without the foundation of secularism – as is practiced in some theocratic states- is a joke. Democracy made human beings central and that required dethroning of the ‘God idea’ which till such time was the corner stone and hence commanded allegiance and submission.
2) To strive to make it a socialistic country shorn of any privileges based on birth or titles and to raise the vast majority of our brethrens from the abyss of ignorance and ill health by making available education and healthcare to all. To reduce inequality and infuse respectability in each individual.
3) To achieve the minimum level of prosperity that would help us achieve the above aims of socialism and help eradicate hunger we put right emphasis on industrialization and material progress. This approach sharply challenges the retrograde values of looking down upon prosperity as a hindrance against the onward march of the soul and glorifying poverty. For ages the mystical seers and advocates of Gods claimed that this world is painful and without any factual basis about their claims they wanted us to simply believe in their nebulous ideas and wither away this life in meaningless chanting / Bhajan/ Kirtan so that we’d have a blissful and glorious after life.
Please do not mistake, how so ever we may preach the superiority of vedic or Puranic ages, the truth is that these are grandiose ideas and plain human imaginations- like Harry potter. The above three are western ideals and as such are absolutely foreign to us. Gandhi created the nation – that India is- and Nehru truly nursed this fledgling nation towards its adult hood. And we have to be very happy that despite loads of defects we are still secular, democratic and still our avowed aim is to achieve a socialistic society based on rule of law.
After 60 years we still have casteism and millions still suffer under its oppression. An average Brahmin still secretly prides upon his superiority over others and finds it hard to give up wearing of the so called sacred threads, which is an ugly reminder of the oppressive “Varna Vyavastha”. Stills hundreds and thousand of speech-less animals are sacrificed to placate an imaginary Goddess. Eclipse are considered by omen and multitudes or scientific workers give in to the religious diktats of quack gurus and have purificatory baths after the eclipse. Human sacrifice has almost stopped but has not vanished yet. Killing of women by branding them as witches is still common place in villages. As per a recent editorial in Economic Times, number of people drawing a salary of one crore rupees or above is more than 3,000. The Ambani brothers are drawing salaries in excess of 20 crores per annum. So by that token if we take the highest salary to be 1 crore the desirable minimum earning works out to be Rs 10 Lacs a year. We are far far away from that socialistic state. Crores of poor villagers (about 40% of our population) find it difficult to manage 2400 calorie of food a day- the minimum needed for human survival.
All four enabling principles: Democracy, secularism, socialism and the rule of law are under constant threat and so often we hear about their complete absence- in our country- from the critiques. With such kind of a back drop, do we need to renew our pledges for the above principles? If yes, then what better occasions than those of Gandhi & Nehru jayanthis?
On paper Gandhi Jayanthi is a dry day. We’ve made a mockery of that, how else one explains an above 20% CAGR – compounded annual growth rate- for IMFL- India made foreign liquor? What is more, not only the sales of hooch continues unabated, in the back door by bribing the police, the more disciplined ones procure their share well in advance and try to make the holiday a memorable one by having private parties. Do we need to teach temperance to our children, we enjoying a drink or two- now and then- notwithstanding?
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