Keeping a Nation; The Values and Principles of the Mahatma

Most of us know Mahatma Gandhi from our very childhood through our school texts and family upbringings. That is the general idea of the Mahatma in an average Indian mind. Some of us know Gandhi even closer by reading many texts and scriptures written on his life journey. And a few of us know him as his family and post generations. Hence besides the image of Gandhi in general through history textbooks, there are vivid impressions of Mahatma Gandhi on people variedly. Some adore him and his lifestyles, some are critical about it. Some are still in puzzle about what he was thinking, doing and why. But moreover whatever Gandhi was, whatever he had thought and done remarkably got Indians their independence from a long ruling British raj. We got ourselves free from an alien force and we got to rule ourselves with the leadership of Gandhi. Well, afterwards how did we successfully pursue that freedom which Gandhi brought us all, it is a critical query. Did we follow what Gandhi had taught us and was it even important once we got free from the British rule?

Here comes the question of the principles and values that Gandhi had followed and taught to his fellow countrymen. Important among them were some basic values like love to and for everyone, truth, non-violence, non-cooperation to the unjust, simple living, swadesi and self-discipline. Principles like non-cooperation and non-violence seemed much useful particularly to that period when Gandhi was trying to get us free from a powerful alien force as we all knew we could not have succeeded that fight with voice or violence. But after independence these values were not much in implementation. We had people’s representatives and a well-balanced democracy in our country that took care of citizen rights and needs. Moreover, there were communal unrests, caste unrests but ironically Gandhi’s principle of non-violence did not appear to be very useful among ourselves as a larger, multicultural nation. It could not unite religions. Gandhi became the charismatic leader for us who could organize and teach people how to face a complex situation when the nation was under threat. This instance interestingly points out how we could unite and fight as ‘India’ in spite of being so culturally varied.  But then Gandhi’s way of nation building could work only when we were under threat from an external force?

Every religion promotes universal love and non-violence but sadly religions and the concept of one’s God is so rigidly misinterpreted in people’s minds that to say the question on one’s religion and the attribute of non-violence going hand in hand seems so difficult. What Gandhi wanted to teach is to go beyond religions and being spiritually connected to each other through love and peace. Unfortunately people could not understand that. It was only Gandhi’s charisma that worked at that point of time and not his teachings. Also, did the other values like love, truth, self-discipline, simple living/vegetarianism, swadesi he had taught work? If we reflect from independence till date what we are doing is moving rapidly towards westernization, globalization have brought us more of material, cultural intermingling than holding on to the swadesi culture and activities. For instance production of Khadi is now mechanized and marketed globally but what it is not anymore is that old locally produced fabric that made the village people self-employed. Although Gandhi was never really very critical of industrialization, he always wished for a harmonious balance between modern ways of economic development as well as growth of individual and communities. Charkha has now become a show piece, and is used as nothing more but a symbol of Mahatma Gandhi. We have rather moved from Gandhi to Gandhigiri and that is well interpreted in the brains of the Indians in the present time through the new age entertainment by the pan Indian Hindi cinemas that portray principles of Gandhi in the life of a common Indian goon. The popular media has now brought Gandhi’s values to a new way of interpretation and application some of which even work and that is where we have reached today with Mahatma Gandhi and his values. This is the best we have understood and interpreted until now, even in the 72^nd independence year of India regarding the values that Gandhi had given us.

So, was Gandhi a sage who had fallen into politics or was he a politician who masqueraded as a saint? Or was he both? Well according to consensus, Gandhi is best understood as a multi-dimensional man. He was ‘a many-sided personality to an unusual degree,’ as an expert put it. Gandhi was always an ethical and religious man respecting every faith. The important elements that Gandhi had always adored were inclusive development, respect to pluralism and promotion of tolerance.

From the perspective of Globalization, it is about profit making mass production while Gandhi always voiced for production through the mass.[1] While Gandhi’s idea was to develop village economy, globalization has brought the concept of merging the entire globe into one global village. ‘India is to be found not in its citizens but its 7,00,000 villages (Gandhi;91, ibid). Gandhi would never oppose globalization only if it had an all-inclusive equitable scope for development which it doesn’t possess. In religion we find, Gandhi was always more of a spiritual soul than being religious in his beliefs. He never thought individuals as different according to their religions but he looked at it in a way where human beings integrate through love and God.

Voluntary organizations in every settled villages were advocating non-violence and cooperation for peaceful coexistence instead of state control (Gandhi,1940,Jan 13,ibid), the concept and formation of gram swaraj, grass root political self-control in each village and abolition of separation by caste, untouchability, promotion of communal harmony and moral principles were crucial according to him. To Gandhi, through love, self-discipline and devotion we will be able to control ourselves and no external force like state has to interrupt to govern us. He always insisted on morality and conscience and his ground for morality and conscience had come from the sacred, religious texts, epic stories and scriptures. What we could not understand and properly demark was the difference in moral and spiritual values versus the rules in religions and what to do when they happen to differ. In addition, Gandhi’s idea of India as one nation became even tougher to internalize and implement given the coexistence amongst incidences like partitions from countries on grounds of religious, linguistic, castes’ and other possible nationalisms. This always kept fragmenting people in groups and promoted hostilities and turbulences.

Well, Mahatma Gandhi’s values were after all there in order to achieve a good society.[2] The good society has to be informed by the spirit of cosmic piety. The good society must discourage all forms of dominance, injustice, exploitation that promote false human existence and rather work to achieve and institutionalize the spirit of love, compassion and solidarity among people. The moral and spiritual strength must create the conditions for swaraj, a free and auto-ruled society. Further he wished for an epistemological pluralism where there is collective wisdom, emotion and knowledge and hence peaceful coexistence of multiple cultures. What Gandhi must not have thought is celebrating him as a historic idol and preserving none of what he invested his whole life on. Understanding all his spiritual and humanitarian ideals and correctly implementing them in every situation is what we still truly need to learn. Let us hope we respect and follow the positive teachings of the Mahatma and could really make our nation a better place to reside.

Reference

Andrews, Charles F. Mahatma Gandhi; His Life and Ideas. 2005. JaicoPublishing House.

Chakrabarty, Pandey. Modern Indian Political Thought. 2009. Sage.

Devika, V.R. The Mahatma and Music. The Hindu.  4^th October, 2018, 16.14 IST.

Khambata, Danesh. Mahatma and the Music. The Indian Express. 18^th April, 2019.

Mahakul, B.K. Contemporary Relevance of Gandhism. 2009. Indian Journal of Political Science.

Parekh Bhikhu. Gandhi, A Very Short Introduction.1997, Oxford.