'Gandhigiri'

As we continue to battle poverty, illiteracy, corruption, and general absence of planning faculty - we do stop and pay our homage to our erstwhile leaders. Every second day of October, we celebrate a dry-day, dress our kids in Khadi, sing ‘Raghupati’ songs, put garland on bespectacled statues, and debate on their relevance in the current age.

Was Gandhi - A political hero - or a real hero - or just a HR guru ?

Before you take a leap of faith to fight current problems with the new found reverence for ‘Gandhigiri’ - check your vital stats. If the 'Gandhigiri' has to last beyond the current movie fad we will have to go beyond the popular political rhetoric and try to understand Gandhi in his true essence. If you were born in the late seventies or early eighties as I was, you will realize how little was said about how Gandhi felt about the Indian independence struggle, the satyagrah, the britishers, secularism, economy and the congress. All we were made to believe is that Gandhi is our father of the nation, who got independence through nonviolence and civil-disobedience (and it took him 30 long years !!). The questions which nobody wants to answer, which if asked at all can shake the foundation of your beliefs about Gandhi –

1. Did Gandhi get us our independence – or the English just got bored of this irritating country after sucking the life out of it?
2. Was Gandhi really popular amongst the Indians in the late thirties and early forties – when a certain S C Bose won the congress election over a candidate Gandhi had so vociferously advocated, but still decided to leave Congress due to internal politics?
3. How many Gandhi-wadis were there in India on August 15 1947 – How many of them were ministers in the first Indian government?
4. Was Gandhi really secular – if yes, why would he disown a son because he converted to Islam?
5. If Gandhi is renowned world over for peace and nonviolence, why was he not given a Noble Peace prize - after having led a country of 600 million to independence through peaceful civil-disobedience - despite being nominated thrice? (OK... this is just a rhetoric argument, it dosen’t make him any lesser a mortal, but it is a fact, and it points to certain other questions !!)

And then, how is ‘Gandhigiri’ applicable today. Can we embrace –

1. Non-Cooperation: Against a corrupt administration that refuses to recognize its own responsibilities
2. Civil disobedience: Against politicians who have the guts to stand up in elections every five years even if they realize they have done nothing to move the country forward.
3. Self discipline: In our own self to place our country/society first and self/personal-gain later, to respect country’s law, to respect fellow citizens, to try not to break traffic rules, to keep our cities clean – to help create a new India which can be respected by the rest of the world.

Gandhi was a great man, a great guru, and a great leader. He may have been used by certain politicians for there own benefits. But saying that – we need to separate what politicians tell us about Gandhi from the facts and try to embrace what Gandhi would really want us to embrace.