P. A. Chacko
Today, on October 02, The Indian Nation celebrates the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. And, the world over, people honour him as a great world leader.
Mahatma Gandhi was the most towering figure of India’s in dependence. He led the masses against the British rule. He inspired them with the ideals of truth, freedom and equality.
He envisioned the Kingdom of God on earth as an ideal situation for all to live in peace, fellowship and harmony. He called it Ram Rajya. By Ram what he meant was the ideal God who may have any name. ‘For me Ram and Rahim are one and the same.’
The God of truth was his God. Hence God’s kingdom on earth should be suffused with love, fellowship, peace, truthful living, and hurting no one (ahimsa).
Hence, He did not envision a Hindu Kingdom in India. By In 1929, in Young India, he wrote: “By Ram Rajya I do not mean Hindu Raj. I mean Ram Raj, the kingdom of God. For me, Ram and Rahim are one and the same; I acknowledge no other God than the one God of Truth and righteousness.” (Young India, Sep.19, 1929).
Had it not been for Gandhi India would not have won its independence in 1947. He won the hearts of the masses by his simple and humble life. Hence, they believed in what he said because he did what he preached. And they followed him to cry freedom.
‘In a gentle way, you can shake the world,’ was a great dictum of Gandhi. And he did shake the mighty British Raj when Briton wanted the world to think that the sun would not set on the British Kingdom. And Gandhi proved it otherwise as he led a non-violent movement to send the British packing form India. Gandhi said: ‘Permanent good can never be the outcome of untruth and violence.’ His non-violence and belief in truth made it possible.
On winning India’s independence, he was averse to skewed nationalism or a nation founded on a particular religion. He advocated an undivided India where Hindus, Muslims and all other minority communities would live in fellowship and harmony. But, some politicians detested his idea and had India divided on religious lines. Muslims to Pakistan and Hindus to India!
The Mahatma’s ideal of truth is aberration to those, including the nation’s political windbags, who indulge in hoodwinking the people of the land with perpetrated lies, concocted falsehood, and window-dressing promises.
If Gandhi’s humble clothing was ‘non-violent defiance’ of the mighty British Raj, his noble principles are a threat to the terror-provoking fundamentalist forces backed by the political dispensation.
Gandhi’s God was Truth. No wonder if some politicians and narrow-minded people marginalise Gandhi and his principles, it is because they want to cover up their misdeeds of corrupt governance and bureaucratic rigmarole.
Today, the redemption of India lies in the hands of a humble but tall person like the Mahatma who, winning the confidence of the masses, can stand up, speak up and is courageous enough to bite the bullet of the naysayers of our secular, socialist, and democratic nation.