On the 150th birth anniversary of the great leader, UK celebrated by promising to issue a coin commemorating him. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued a special coin celebrating the Mahatma. But if there is one question that should be put across the country to every single citizen, it should be this: Is Gandhi alive?
The usual run-of-the-mill public functions, display of white caps, khadi shirts and the ostentatious display of love and affection for Gandhi on television and social media with trending hashtag #Gandhi150 had us all mesmerised for a day. We were given to think all is well with the nation. Alas! the next day, things were back to normal. Corruption, bigotry, fake nationalism, scams, violence were making headlines in media space.
Bapu gave us non-violence, the principle of Satyagraha. Do we practice the same now? We turn violent at the slightest provocation. It has become a fad to brandish knives and swords in religious processions. A country that isn’t safe for its children, that unleashes violence on hapless women – that is what we are today. Be it the Kathua rape of an 8-year-old girl or the horrendous abuse, rape and muder of Nirbhaya , as a nation we keep our collective conscience packed somewhere in the by lanes of silence. We of course get down to the streetsto demand justice for the victims. As the prime time shifts to some other “breaking news”, our memory fades as we guzzle whatever is fed to us by the various television channels battling for TRPs. Every time we hear of injustice or oppression against the voiceless, the loop repeats. We choose silence over justice.
What about Gandhi’s prime virtue of ‘truth’ ? Does a day pass by without us mouthing a lie? How impossible it has become to remain truthful, the least to self? Our day starts with us wishing “Good Morning” to all and sundry in the 1000 odd WhatsApp groups where we are members. Do we really wish the 1000 people in the group a Good Morning? Is there a feeling of kinship when we wish them? We wish we could run over many of them with our bikes, a few with our cars and a couple of the – well yes, you guessed it right, we wish we could tie them to the tyres of aeroplanes and ferry them half way across the world. The virtues of forgetting and forgiving have become things of the past. All we want to have is now revenge, and we go easy with packs of lies hidden under our sleeves.
Lying under the teeth for nothing is what we do with aplomb. Can’t agree? Take a test and analyze! And oh, think of the tolerance that Gandhi preached…the word is extinct now in the dictionary. We have not heard about tolerance since the Nehru-Gandhian era. All we have now is hate politics and intolerance striking at the very root of our democracy. Gandhi drew Satyagraha as his weapon against oppression and showed supreme tolerance. We live in those times when we jump at every single occasion to wield the stick and the sword, more so when the reason is religion. One group wants to annihilate the other. Gone are the days when we used to celebrate Diwali with Christian and Muslim friends and Christmas with Hindu and Muslim friends. All that is left now, after 72 years of freedom is bitterness and hate.
If Gandhi was alive today, he would be overcome with remorse and sorrow to see the country at crossroads. Neither do we respect his principles of non-violence and non-cooperation, nor do we have the trust our forefathers had in our leaders. There was this collective consciousness we had as a nation which unfortunately has gone missing. What did the thin, fragile man do to hold such immense power over the people of the land? Only love and care.
All that Gandhi ever had for this nation was his unquestionable love and unflinching devotion to the country. It is imperative that we re-invent the Gandhi in each one of us. Gandhi was not just the man who had lofty principles and executed them to the dot. He lives in every one of us who stands up against oppression. He stokes the love for our nation, for peace and harmony in this divided nation now. If we are to survive the storm and tide over all the negativity surrounding us, all we need to have is little patience and lots of love, invoking the Gandhi within each one of us. We need to walk the path of truth. That is the best tribute we can offer to our Bapu.
[/column][column size=”4/5″]
Nivedita Louis
Nivedita Louis is a writer, blogger and social activist by choice. Bitten by the travel bug, and smitten by nature, she loves travelling and cooking. She blogs at www.cloudninetalks.blogspot.com.[/column]