And they said he was a ...

In my first blog, I had written that Gandhi was one of my inspirations and one of my friends happened to ridicule me for that. It made me wonder, whether the youth today really know Gandhi or do they just hate him for the heck of it.

In the opinion of the majority of today’s youth, Gandhi was a hypocrite. The problem is that most (not all) students who dislike Gandhi, do so without having any concrete reason and probably because it is somewhat fashionable. Peace after all is outdated and unexciting, so praising a person who devoted his life for the purpose of non-violence would make one less of a ‘stud’, while abusing someone comes easy and sounds fun too!!

Those who have read something about him shall raise issues such as the withdrawal of the Non-cooperation movement, his cornering Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, signing of the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, resorting to emotional blackmail such as fast unto death to have his way, his unwillingness to force the British out in the early 1940’s when they were caught in the turmoil of the Second World War, etc. Those who have read in greater detail about him may know about his unjust attitude towards his family members, especially his son, Manilal Gandhi. Others, who hardly know about him, but nonetheless love to utter crap will say that Gandhi was the cause of partition, he was power hungry, he was not man enough to face violence and so he chose the path of peace and a whole lot of bullshit. I do not have anything against the 1st category, who formed their opinions on the basis of some facts, but the latter category of people are the ones who really disappoint me.

This is what I have to say about Gandhi:

No man is perfect and he had his share of imperfections. Many of the decisions taken by him were wrong and unjustified. He was rigid, stubborn and an extremist of sorts. But greatness is synonymous with extremism. There have been very few great men who were not extremists.

To the people who say Gandhi was not man enough : Gandhi had all the three ingredients that make up a real man – courage, self confidence and determination.

His work at South Africa is ample proof to show the courage he possessed. To go against unjust Acts, in a foreign country, requires true courage. He had to face many hardships in South Africa, but he weathered them all to bring justice to a few thousand Indians there. How many of us have the guts to rise against the unjust in this way? And then ‘they’ say he wasn’t man enough.

All through our lives, we make hundreds of resolutions, but we do not carry out even one of them religiously. But here was a man whose determination was such that once he committed himself into a cause, he never deserted it. He resolved that he would spin the wheel for at least one hour daily and he did so, whether he was in jail, whether he was attending meetings, whether he was on fasts, and even when he went to England for the 2nd round table conference, he carried his wheel along with him and carried out his resolution. He believed that truth and non-violence were the ultimate virtues of mankind and he devoted his whole life practicing these virtues. Violence, according to him was the manifestation of hatred.
[Once (after Gandhi’s death) Churchill commented that it was surprising that Indians did not hate the English even after all the atrocities they had suffered. To this Nehru replied – “This is because a great man taught us never to hate.”]

Today every other person talks about world peace, but Gandhi was not man enough because he believed in non-violence and was totally committed to it… huh!!

And to those who believe that he was the root cause of the partition. Gandhi NEVER wanted a partition, but the communal tension had risen to such an alarming level that he realized that if the partition did not take place, then incessant disharmony would prevail in the nation. It had become necessary to separate the extremists otherwise worse riots would have followed, because both sides had become power hungry.

Even in the fierce riots that took place in Calcutta, he had the guts to go in a hardcore Muslim area and lie down in fast there and such was his awe that blood thirsty extremists were forced to lay their weapons just for his sake. Had it not been for him, thousands more would have been killed in the city.

Very few people know that after independence Gandhi had expressed his wish to spend the rest of his life in Pakistan, to bring about harmony between the two nations. Jinnah proclaimed that he would never allow him to enter his country. Gandhi said that he would walk into Pakistan and he would see who would stop him from doing it. He died soon after, but I am pretty confident that if he were alive, he would do so and no one would have it in him to stop him from doing it. After all could anyone stop him from walking to Dandi in his famous Dandi March ?

After reading this article, most of you will think that I am an ardent Gandhi fan. It is not so. I believe that he had certain qualities that were beyond ordinary, and it is these qualities in the man that I really like. There are many things that I don’t know about him and hence I cannot form an absolute opinion, but from whatever little I have heard and read, I can easily conclude that he had the attributes of a great man.

I know that this article is going to attract some critical comments (especially from a couple of very close friends), but I don’t think that they will change my views.

All I can say is that you may point fingers towards him, but remember that your fingers are insignificant when compared to the stature of this great man.