There is enough manmade sorrow in the world today for us to say that if only Gandhi were alive, he would have given us solace. He would have done things very differently from the mores of the present day, he would have found a way through his “visceral” truthfulness, “ahimsa” or unrelenting use of non-violence, with “satyagraha” as his chosen instrument.
Mahatma Gandhi would be 150 today. He belonged to everyone. His thoughts and actions stirred the world and do so even now, 71 years after he was assassinated by a fanatic who was a votary of Hindu power and was agitated by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s flowing humanity and largeness of spirit that made no distinction between people and communities of different faiths.
Gandhiji’s moral force could stop communal riots, as it did in Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Noakhali around the time of Independence. In our times, it’s not unthinkable that the world’s great refugee crisis, caused by war and famine, may have been stemmed by the Mahatma’s satyagraha. Lord Mountbatten called Gandhi “a one man boundary force” as his very presence could lead hate-peddlers and warmongers to unsheathe their swords.
Gandhi addressed himself to human suffering. His wariness of the machine-age could have contributed to mitigate the environmental disaster the world faces. The Mahatma was a great Hindu and a great nationalist who gave heart to colonially-oppressed peoples everywhere, but he wasn’t a Hindu nationalist.
His Ram gave him solace and lay in his heart and guided his conscience. Gandhi saw no need to visit temples. He was unconnected with institutionalised religion, unlike the pygmies of today who strike up postures as heroes of their faith and the slayer of men, women and children of other religious beliefs.
We need Gandhi’s thoughts and his mode of action more than ever today, as hearts are being torn asunder in Kashmir on the vile basis of religion alone, whatever the official catechism about development and security.
We need him because our leaders with joy and abandon profess religion-based citizenship and seem intent on keeping out people of a certain faith from the roll book of India, through the dubious communal project that goes by the name of the National Register of Citizens.
The extreme image-consciousness of our present rulers has converted Gandhi to being a mere tagline in advertisements for policies like “Swachchh Bharat”, to promote which the big daddies of politics turn up and routinely pick up brooms, to be photographed in each other’s company and as an act of obeisance to the wielders of power.
They are unaware that this dead symbolism demeans the class of people who, for their living, actually clean streets and toilets. Gandhi, in a real sense, lived and died to uphold their dignity and labour, and the dignity of the existence of all marginalised people.
Let us today honour Gandhi in our hearts and minds, and cut out the ritualism the state apparatus may mount to seek hypocritical endorsement for itself in his name.
