Gandhi 150

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

The future historians of the world would be amazed that in the first half of the twentieth century there were two oxymoronic value systems dominating the story of man. In the European theatre and in Russia we saw the rise of a self-resurgence of human dignity that challenged the Czarist regime: The Bolshevic movement in Russia gave rise to the belief that man, whatever his hue, will not tolerate the unreasonable inhuman domination of brute force. This inspired poets like. H. Auden and others to assert the rights of man. But immediately after the Bolshevic  revolution and the First  World War, the world saw the rise of a more powerful fascist force, racially motivated and ruthless, in Hitler's Germany . At the same time in India we experienced another kind of elevation of the human spirit. After Gandhii-Mohandas Karamchand- returned from South Africa to his homeland, India, he started  a unique human movement which could be safely termed as a spiritual uprising. Gandhi started a Freedom Movement in a country dominated by the British powers that had almost destroyed the human spirit in India- not to speak of the decimation of India's identity as a ten thousand year old civilization. Gandhi united the hungry, unfed unclad millions with his call for Swaraj, self-rule. In other words the Gandhian Movement was for the rights of man to make his own destiny by utilizing the human resources of free quest for identity.

Before Gandhi the world had not seen any movement without arms - the arms to wield the sword or a gun- without violence and untruth. In one sense it was  not a war or insurgency : It was man's birth right to be free and to manage his and his country's affairs without fear or tyranny. Gandhi's weapons were truth and non violence which were the soulforce of this ancient land. Gandhi historically unites India's great past with the turbulence of the present and evolves a method -if method it was-of assertion of rights without resistance.

What Gandhi did was not an Indian exclusive . He was admired and followed by others in the world who found the human spirit  suppressed by inhuman authority. Martin Luther King(Junior)in America and Nelson Mandela in Africa were inspired by Gandhi's ideas. The American writer Thoroeau too was   edified by  Gandhian values . The world saw in Gandhi another Christ. Gandhi  made the Indian past his present by updating  the Buddha-Ashoka values. The sword was not the ornament of the brave. Human bravery is built in and  in born: It is the Soulforce. The first manifestation of the soulforce is courage, the courage to stand erect when the British lathis fell on the head. And to speak the truth without fear. And not to kill or retaliate, for revenge too is a violent answer to the oppressor. These values he tried to inculcate in the fellow Indians by demonstrating the unity of thought- speech  and action. What Gandhi thought, he spoke and what he spoke, he did.

When the post-Gandhi world, especially the younger generation in America, saw Attenborough's film Gandhi, it was stunned  into the realization that there was a lean, naked(half) man, not so handsome or powerful, who could subdue the power of the mighty British empire by his whispered values of love, truth, non-violence and above all by his soulforce. HIs presence was divine but he was human to the core.

Today while celebrating the 150th year of his birth we Indians have made him a brand. Remembering Gandhi and following his ideals are laudable but branding him is blasphemy. The political context and the life scenario is totally different. Let us celebrate Gandhi but let us also try to be a  Gandhi in our own arena of human activity. Gandhi is for mankind: Let us not monopolize him for our own ends.