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Analysis | Share This Page | |||
Mahatma Gandhi’s Forgotten Message! |
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by Dr. Rajinder Puri |
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I am not a Gandhian. I consider the rituals of protest he left behind irrelevant in the present context. I have been critical of his inconsistency, some of his flawed political judgments and his little book which he considered to be his most significant writing. I refer of course to Hind Swaraj which Gandhi thought so important that he had it reprinted and circulated just a few years before his death. Gopal Krishna Gokhale rubbished the book. I found it at places illogical and inconsistent. But nevertheless, although history proved Gandhi to be a failed politician, I consider him to be perhaps the greatest human personality in public life during the whole of last century. Although the Partition testified to Gandhi’s political failure in terms of achievement, his vision made him truly extraordinary. He prescribed policies that more than half a century after his death are proving to be imperatives if humankind is to survive. Beyond the moral justification of non-violence it has become in today’s world of nuclear weapons and terrorism a necessity for the very survival of the human race.
This suggests that Gandhi’s unique personality owed more to spiritualism than to intellectual attributes. In spiritual affairs logic and reason take back seats. That is why often inconsistency inspired by spiritual impulse is beyond rebuttal by reason and logic. Gandhi himself was mindful about his inconsistency. That is why he wrote:
Nothing can be more explicitly said. In the light of the above advice should not Congress leaders heed the very last suggestion tendered to them by the Mahatma and follow it? What was Gandhi’s last advice to the Congress which might have contradicted anything he might have said earlier? On January 30, 1948 the day he was assassinated he released for publication in The Harijan weekly edited by him his advice to the Congress party. This was just a fortnight before Gandhi's completed departure plans, after obtaining permission from Mohammed Ali Jinnah, to march by foot along with fifty Punjabi refugee families and settle down in Lahore to end the emotional division created by the Partition. On his behalf Dr. Sushila Nayar had already visited Lahore and set up the camp where Gandhi and the refugee families were to reside. Gandhi’s assassination aborted this mission. The unanswered questions related to his assassination will not be dealt with here except to recall that Jayaprakash Narain accused the government of criminal negligence for allowing the tragedy to occur. One week after Gandhi’s death his last advice to the Congress party was published in The Harijan. This is what he wrote:
This advice was in the form of a resolution. Was it planned to be introduced in the party forum? That had best be left to those who seek further probe and question the crucial timing of Gandhi’s assassination. What concerns us here is whether Congress leaders who swear by Mahatma Gandhi are prepared to seriously consider his last and arguably his most relevant advice to the Congress party? The decline of the nation and of Congress party should induce serious reflection. Congress leaders need not follow Gandhi’s advice in full. They need not join the Lok Sewak Sangh. They may continue to function in electoral politics. But should the Congress continue to function as a political party? Or should its leaders summon the courage to discard a stale culture, get liberated from shibboleths of the past, and evolve a new India by creating a new party? |
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01-Oct-2012 | ||||
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Parmar A 10/09/2012 09:05 AM |
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