Jacob Hembrom
Are the ‘Gandhian’ Principles outdated?
In this twenty- first century, where there is a cutthroat competition in every domain, the spirit of tit –for- tat prevails everywhere, where one tries to dominate the other, in a scenario such as this, has the ‘Gandhian’ principle got some significance? We may even ask ourselves, what may be the relevance of Gandhi in this all-pervading materialistic, agnostic and consumerist culture?
Mahatma Gandhi, known worldwide as a political leader, he was also a renowned theorist, philosopher and practitioner of truth, non-violence, tolerance and freedom. He was a spirit of profound wisdom with an iron will and inflexible resolve that shook the British’s strength to the core with the simplicity and humility of his life. Though he was considered a frail naked man, his principles and ideologies are revered worldwide and hold significance even to this date. However, today, Gandhi is mostly forgotten and his relevance questioned even by his ardent devotees. Today, Gandhi is remembered in India mostly on his birthday which is celebrated as a national holiday rather as a ritual.
As a matter of fact, we, the Indians, are not following any of Gandhi’s teaching which are mostly confined to text books. Sincerely speaking, since independence, the country has witnessed many violent communal riots in this communally diverse country. Gandhi’s message of ‘Swavalambi’, self –sufficiency with home spun ‘khadi’ cloth is not used nowadays even as a social slogan. We, the Indians, barely practice his most prominent value ‘ Sarvodaya’, a broad Gandhian term meaning ‘universal upliftment’ or ‘ progress of all’ reaching the masses and the downtrodden. On the contrary, India today has the unique distinction of being the only country in the world which has the richest man in the world while at the same time more than 3o percent of its population lives in dire poverty.
If we say that the twenty-first century is the century of the common man, then we see that ‘Gandhism’ has even more relevance in this age, and Gandhi will continue to inspire generations of individuals fighting for the good of the society. If today we find that ‘Gandhism’ is in severe test in a country like India, it is not because there is certain inherent weakness in ‘Gandhism’, but it is because we have not seen in India strong leaders with the required courage and conviction to fight the evils in society. In order to bring newness in our thoughts and actions, we need to put on the value based armours of Gandhi and then challenge our existing attitude of revenge, corruption and exploitation.