First things first..I will straight away clarify that I am not a moron. Am not writing something on Gandhi just because its a 2nd Oct. Cmon I also remember him on 15th August and on 26th January. And even if I don't the news channels are always there to brush up my memory or better one of the movie channels showing Sir Ben Kingsley as Gandhi.
But then why am I writing on Gandhian principles? I guess much has already been written on it for ages isntit? I guess there was nothing else coming in my mind and had this bad urge of writing something and the first thing which struck me was 2nd Oct.
So here I am writing on Gandhiji. Actually not on Gandhiji but his principles. Let me be very clear when I say that I don't follow all Gandhian principles. I will set things in the correct perspective by mentioning that I am no world thinker.I am not planning to go to Pak Afghan border and start a "Taliban-hamara peecha chhodo aandolan". Closer home I am in no mood to visit the Naxal affected areas and start a non violent movement asking every naxalite to drop weapons. And I guess so are the other 110 crore of my fellow countrymen. Well obviously there are the hartals nowadays but then those are basically raasta roko andolans to start with, which lead to few vehicles being gutted down, few glasses shattered and the finale being a lathi charge by the police. Not even a speck of non violence there.
Well I on my part believe that individuals take care of the society.So if we take care of ourselves things will set up automatically.
Ah, let me talk about Bapu first. He was born rich, educated abroad, was a qualified lawyer and had a dutiful wife. But he admonished all that and instead practised simple living-high thinking, non violence, celibacy, vegetarianism, abolishing all phoren stuff.BOY..thats tall order I must say..!!
Times have changed since then. Bapu did not have a web identity nor did he possess the latest nokia handset.Speaking of the relevance of his principles today is like comparing chalk and cheese.
Today the world has shrunk and has become more materialistic.It has metamorphosed into a small village,globalization is on. We are living in a 24x7 world agile,awake and aware. In such circumstances it will be detrimental for our own well being if we deprive ourselves of choices.
I have serious doubts about whether Gandhi's idea of non violence would hold water today. I have an explanation. We all know that gandhi preached non violence as he realized that it would be impossible to fight an organized battle with the limited resources at disposal. What makes a man follow a doctrine is dependent on his immediate social and economic conditions. Would Gandhi have preached the same if he had the backing of the worlds largest trained army at that time? Or the wherewithal to get access to the latest military warfare? I doubt.
And history would be a bad reference here as we have innumerable instances of violence/non violence attaining/not attaining the desired results.
All in all I believe gandhian principles are relevant in parts and would do so till time ,morality and truth remain relevant to us.
And all you hardcore gandhi fans,hope my post will not recieve violent criticism from you guys.
