Its October 2nd today... The day in which nation celebrates the birthday of a father figure.... Of such a personality about whom much is told and written...
Last day I was chatting with a friend of mine when I casually remarked on Gandhiji... It seems he hates him, he told me Gandhi was responsible for deaths of thousands of Indians and for the partition of India into India and Pakistan. He told all he did was drive Indians towards the lathis and other weapons of soldiers and made them suffer torture... He himself never undergone any sufferings. And Gandhi was responsible for the hanging of Bhagat singh and his comrades. As per his opinion we gained independence due to the fear in the mind of Britishers of revolutionaries like Bose and Azad...
This I believe is the opinion of a whole generation. In Orkut and other forums there is lot of Gandhi bashing going on... making him responsible for all troubles India has now. Some even blames him for putting his family to suffer and not providing enough care for his children...
How much of this is tru
e? Of course every mortal in this world are bound to make mistakes, every one will be in some sort of cross roads or dilemma in some point of their life time, where they are forced to take a decision, which may be painful or proved wrong in future... We dont know at that point whether the step that we take are right or a blunder but the strength of a person, I believe is in taking the decision. And if you have a set of strong fundamental principles that are evolved and tested with time, which is always a reference point while deciding, the chance of a wrong decision is minimal. Still if you made a wrong choice, there is no way but to bear the responsibility for that, do every corrective actions possible and amend your principles in order to prevent any future mishaps....
This I believe was Gandhiji's modus operandi... It is a hard way to follow, and that is precisely the reason why we have very less people following the path.. we have one Buddha, one Asoka, one Gandhi or one Jesus at any point in history...
I would like to paint a picture of Gandhi if he was like you and me or like those numerous barristers trained in England at that period...
After completing his studies he reaches back to Gujarat and starts a practice there, in due course of time he will attend many cases make a huge bank balance, provide a princely life for his children who will attend colleges abroad. Ba lives the life of a queen. Then Gandhiji realizes that money is not every thing and slowly turns into politics. Moment is ripe, nationalism is spreading its roots. With his enterprising skills reaching the positions of Congress will be a cakewalk for him. By pulling threads inside some how he reaches the positions of Congress President... Second world war is going on... Britain is slowly turning poor due to all war expenditure and heavy losses. They are bent, some negotiation will surely make them to break. Nation gets its independence, Gandhi is the first President. All powers to President... an autocratic rule follows, where every one against the power is oppressed and silenced. Following years of tyranny some other leader or common people or military decides to put an end to it. He is assassinated and some other autocrat or oppressor takes the role.
Sounds familiar? This is the story similar to many other countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America that gained freedom along with India... Ever thought why this has not happened in India?.... Due to the rigourus training course through which Indian common man was put through in four or five decades before gaining freedom.. A course designed by Gandhi and put into practise by other eminent leaders of the time. Even at the verge of attaining freedom Gandhiji knew that freedom was not ripe enough and Indians are not still prepared for it. The course was still not over... But the pressure from other leaders where enormous. British offered freedom but kept a choice of partition along with it. Power hungry leaders struck to it. History says Gandhi consented with partition. And whole world blames him for it. But any layman who has some ability to read between lines can find what is the truth..... It is that he was sidelined. Dirty politics had entered the arena.... Our first Prime Minister and Home Minister had stitched their new coats ready and they were impatient to wear it... Along with them the new Wazir-i-azam of our new brother country Pakistan....
Do you know the real story during partition?
Lord Mount Batten was expecting troubles and riots during partition... two regions prone for violence were Bengal and Punjab.... As per Mount Batten's analysis hot headed Bengal was more explosive and Punjab he was confident that he could manage. He devised a plan to contain violence by sorting the help from Gandhiji. He request
ed the presence of Gandhiji at Bengal after partition. The presence of Gandhiji made sure that after partition the violence in Bengal was minimal. But Punjab proved to be a failure. All of Mount Batten's force couldn't stop the loss of lives of a million people...
Instead of resigning to a life of luxuary and content this guy abandoned every thing and clad only in a single cloth with the help of a staff toured the villages in India mobilising people and making each of them desire freedom just like if not more than the elite in cities... He lived the life of a sanyasi practicing any thing that he preached on himself first. Most of his time he spent in British Jails.... He served the poor like one among them. And he was not power crazy, other wise with his kind of public support none could stop him from reching the top power centres...
Ever read any part of his literature? In it contains every planning, that too from root level of building up a strong nation, not military strong but one that is strong fundamentaly, one laid on the strong foundations of truth.... You can call him unpractical, you can disagree with him, but I feel accusing him of all the above said crime is an injustice...
