The title of this article is inspired from the book of the same name written by S. S. Gill. I have yet to read the book but what attracts me to it is the title, which so succinctly packs the contradiction that Gandhi’s life was.
Not many Indian leaders have done as much for the Muslims as the Mahatma did through the Khilafat movement and during the post-independence riots; yet not many Muslims rate him highly as their leader.
Not many Indian ‘upper caste’ leaders have done so much for eradicating untouchability and fought so diligently for the upliftment of lower-castes; yet the so called ‘lower-caste’ communities have completely ignored Gandhi as someone who contributed to their wellbeing.
As a saint who loved humanity beyond the divisions of religion, caste or race, he did so much for entire humanity – which benefited the Hindus as well – but the current Hindu youth hardly consider Gandhi their benefactor. In fact, they consider Gandhi almost the sole reason for India’s partition and the strife that followed.
What could be the gap that explains his lack of credit-worthiness in the minds of those he fought for? Why doesn’t a single community, caste or religion accept that Gandhi was with them?
The answer to this is two-fold. Firstly, the humanity as we know it has deep rooted insecurity and secondly because Gandhi – the Mahatma – was spiritually way ahead of the times we still live in.
The insecurity has evolved from a deep rooted fear called ‘survival of the fittest.’ Man has always been fighting a battle for supremacy because of his inherent fears that he will be killed if he doesn’t kill, and trampled if he doesn’t trample. He wiped out forests and built civilizations to lessen his fear of animals. Concomitantly, his thoughts and concepts developed into religions and castes and various other forms that divided man from his fellow-men. As he outgrew the fears of basic security from animals, his mind started feeling the threat of a different race, religion and so on. And hence the religions and castes started the battle for survival. Some of the biggest conflicts in the world have been fought for such supremacies. The human mind is so insecure that anything good you do to a man’s adversary is not good for the man himself. There lies the inherent contradiction of Gandhi’s life.
Everytime he helped a Muslim, the insecure Hindu felt the pinch. Everytime he toiled for an untouchable, the upper class Hindu became circumspect. Not to mention that the Muslims could never accept Gandhi over someone from their own religion (Jinnah) and so did the lower-castes that gave him the boot in favour of Ambedkar; Gandhi, to them, was still the significant ‘other.’ The fact that none of these communities could make Gandhi their hero due to the limitations of their own insecurity remains irrelevant.
Secondly, not many true saints have made politics their bastion. In a field where ‘winning’ is the only thing that matters at any cost, it ran in a direct conflict with a man to whom the means mattered as much as the end.
To him, Independence as an end had no value if it was attained through blood-shed. Independence with partition was like freeing a person from jail after amputating his limbs. To us, no price was big enough to achieve independence. So what if we had to stain hands with the blood of the perpetrators if that ensured a quick freedom?
He was against the British rule but had the capacity to love the British. To most of us, the British deserve as much hatred as their tyrannical government. He was capable of separating the real bad from the real good and was not scared of praising the good in the aggressor while denouncing the bad.
We have always believed in ‘tooth for a tooth.’ It is anybody’s guess what a common man would advise a Hindu father whose child gets killed by Muslims in riots? When approached by one such man, Gandhi asked him to find and ‘adopt a Muslim boy orphaned by Hindus in the same riots’ so one Muslim’s faith in the goodness of Hindus and vice versa remains intact – and love gets a chance to bloom again.
He was the messenger of unconditional love – we are very far from there yet. Hence Gandhi can never be our hero. Inspite of his subliminal love, he will remain a failure for all of us.
It wasn’t Gandhi that failed us, but mankind that failed this Mahatma.
Not many Indian leaders have done as much for the Muslims as the Mahatma did through the Khilafat movement and during the post-independence riots; yet not many Muslims rate him highly as their leader.
Not many Indian ‘upper caste’ leaders have done so much for eradicating untouchability and fought so diligently for the upliftment of lower-castes; yet the so called ‘lower-caste’ communities have completely ignored Gandhi as someone who contributed to their wellbeing.
As a saint who loved humanity beyond the divisions of religion, caste or race, he did so much for entire humanity – which benefited the Hindus as well – but the current Hindu youth hardly consider Gandhi their benefactor. In fact, they consider Gandhi almost the sole reason for India’s partition and the strife that followed.
What could be the gap that explains his lack of credit-worthiness in the minds of those he fought for? Why doesn’t a single community, caste or religion accept that Gandhi was with them?
The answer to this is two-fold. Firstly, the humanity as we know it has deep rooted insecurity and secondly because Gandhi – the Mahatma – was spiritually way ahead of the times we still live in.
The insecurity has evolved from a deep rooted fear called ‘survival of the fittest.’ Man has always been fighting a battle for supremacy because of his inherent fears that he will be killed if he doesn’t kill, and trampled if he doesn’t trample. He wiped out forests and built civilizations to lessen his fear of animals. Concomitantly, his thoughts and concepts developed into religions and castes and various other forms that divided man from his fellow-men. As he outgrew the fears of basic security from animals, his mind started feeling the threat of a different race, religion and so on. And hence the religions and castes started the battle for survival. Some of the biggest conflicts in the world have been fought for such supremacies. The human mind is so insecure that anything good you do to a man’s adversary is not good for the man himself. There lies the inherent contradiction of Gandhi’s life.
Everytime he helped a Muslim, the insecure Hindu felt the pinch. Everytime he toiled for an untouchable, the upper class Hindu became circumspect. Not to mention that the Muslims could never accept Gandhi over someone from their own religion (Jinnah) and so did the lower-castes that gave him the boot in favour of Ambedkar; Gandhi, to them, was still the significant ‘other.’ The fact that none of these communities could make Gandhi their hero due to the limitations of their own insecurity remains irrelevant.
Secondly, not many true saints have made politics their bastion. In a field where ‘winning’ is the only thing that matters at any cost, it ran in a direct conflict with a man to whom the means mattered as much as the end.
To him, Independence as an end had no value if it was attained through blood-shed. Independence with partition was like freeing a person from jail after amputating his limbs. To us, no price was big enough to achieve independence. So what if we had to stain hands with the blood of the perpetrators if that ensured a quick freedom?
He was against the British rule but had the capacity to love the British. To most of us, the British deserve as much hatred as their tyrannical government. He was capable of separating the real bad from the real good and was not scared of praising the good in the aggressor while denouncing the bad.
We have always believed in ‘tooth for a tooth.’ It is anybody’s guess what a common man would advise a Hindu father whose child gets killed by Muslims in riots? When approached by one such man, Gandhi asked him to find and ‘adopt a Muslim boy orphaned by Hindus in the same riots’ so one Muslim’s faith in the goodness of Hindus and vice versa remains intact – and love gets a chance to bloom again.
He was the messenger of unconditional love – we are very far from there yet. Hence Gandhi can never be our hero. Inspite of his subliminal love, he will remain a failure for all of us.
It wasn’t Gandhi that failed us, but mankind that failed this Mahatma.
17 comments:
Nicely painted portrait of this "cursed" saint. Many people who say a word about (read as against) Gandhi, Ambedkar or Shivaji etc, don't know these great personalities and time in which they carved the future of society out from nothing...
The only issue with the great personalities is they were not aggressive towards their critics. They continued their good work without being bothered by "undeveloped" society. As you mentioned they are and will be ahead of times...as ordinary people are going back-wards under hyped phenomenons of religion, race, cast etc...
Pretty interesting analysis. Well, there'e been number of critical analysis of Gandhi, from "sublime failure' to 'miserable failure', mostly in political sense, and in some sense even Jesus, Buddha and Mohammed failed. Partition of India was a failure in the decades long political career of Gandhi. Some columnists like Rajinder Puri makes stupid statements that Gandhi's words did not match with his action, since he didn't kill himself after the partition after having declared that the proposed partition of India can only take place over his dead body. Many Bengalees especially erstwhile refugees from East Bengal are staunch critics of Gandhi, because they relied on his words that the partition would never happen. Nathuram Godse may be portrayed as a right wing lunatic, but in the context of the communal tension and turbulent times following the Partition, Gandhi as a champion of Indo-Pak unity post-partition may have attracted all the frustrations of the assassin caused by the Partition. But, the words of Einstein (quoted in the other article) about Gandhi really sums up his character, which we need to cherish.
so true!.. asking me? I wish I was just even a percentage as good!
nice article...i m impressed by the way you wirte such a heavy and thought provoking articles in a simple and easy language.
I understand that you have become a matured writer by the way you keep in mind your audience while writing. I would have considered "the human insecurity" as an animal instinct.. all animals feel insecurity and few who are confident in their thoughts and deeds are humans. In a nicely written piece, as yours is, its "All are humans and few are Saints".
My personal experience says that most of the americans know Gandhi and most chinese respect him. There is greater mass than we think, who understands the importance of Gandhian principles and makes an effort to follow it - if not 100% and blindly.
Gandhi is still alive in our hearts and articles such as yours tells us, how we upgrade our standards just by following his steps.
very well written.
Brilliant
awesome buddy!! great thoughts
Wonderful, made me consider him in a new perspective (though I have always considered him as a great leader)
brilliantly written!
the truth in every word. will inspire believers and non-believers. bapu is the biggest inspiration in my life.
My take is that he seems unreal In a sense his deeds make me feel small He proved that one man can create a movement It seems so difficult to live by his principles that I choose not to talk of him as a Hero
So straight talk. I do not have more thoughts like all of u. But I belive in gandhi. His power. Still v r not knowing such types of so many points,because our leaders r not ready to act like gandhi.so they r including media, educational institutes... etc...not promoting Gandhis way,(like Narendra modi promotion) his thoughts..etc...If they can do it, I think v indians proudly talk for our Gandhi.....
Your article on Gandhi was spot on. Brilliant...
Kamlesh hats off ...excellent article about gandhi ji....truely it wasnt that gandhi ji failed us ...but mankind who failed this mahatma.
Kamlesh truly great insight on our Mahatma!!
Wonderful tribute to the Mahatma on his birthday, through your article. Kamlesh
Kamlesh. Very perfect analysis
Brilliant Kamlesh ! Your article and the comments are supurb. We were not and still are not ready to understand and accept the concept of Unconditional Love. May Babaji empower us and guide us
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