Thepfulhouvi Solo
(This Article was intended for Gandhi’s Birth Anniversary on 2nd October but could not be completed because of Power Failure in our Colony and could see the day only today)
The 2nd October 2012 is the 143rd birth anniversary day of Mohondas Karamchan Gandhi, regarded by many as the Father of the Indian Nation. Was Gandhi a Great Man?
What makes a Great Man?
In my view, a Man with a consistent admirable uncommon ways of actions different from the great majority of us ordinary lots in many good and unusual ways of life, is a Great Man. In short, a Person with admirable qualities of Head and Heart is a Great Man.
Here, physical characteristics of the person do not come in much: The tallest man in the world, the heaviest man or the strongest man and the most beautiful woman in the world are very honorable qualities, but they do not affect the Greatness of the persons. It is the qualities of the Head and Heart that decides the greatness of a Man.
No person in the world today is as handicapped as Stephan Hawkins. He cannot feed himself, cannot look after himself. He is completely immobilized and need a Staff of trained Nurses to look after him. His mouth is opened involuntarily perpetually in the appearance of a slightly twisted grin but he cannot properly move his mouth and lips even for the barest of conversation. He is carried around in a special motorized Carriage and speaks only through a highly sophisticated machine which produces his words in a phony electronic tone.
Stephen Hawkin is a helpless hapless human Vegetable but his Mind is 21st Century’s most precious Material. It is qualities of Head and Heart that decides a Great Man from us the ordinary.
What are Gandhi’s qualities of head and heart?
He was trained in the Legal Profession from the UK but perhaps Ambedkar, the Author of the Indian Constitution and the man Mohondas competed for leadership of the low Castes, surpassed him in academic legal competence.
Gandhi did his legal Practice in South Africa for 21 years but was known to work only for the up-liftmen of his Indian emigrants there and not for the down trodden Black Africans who he regarded as lower.
He issued Quit India Movement to the British in India but supported the British Rule in South Africa. He sympathized with Hitler’s Germany and supported Christian, Sikh and Muslim Minorities but opposed the Low Castes given Minority the same Status for economic up-liftmen. He opposed the Salt Law in India as Immoral and Exploitative but he preventing the Low Castes from drinking water from the Public Well was not considered Immoral. He opposed Low Caste from entering Caste Hindu Temples.
These are not the qualities of a Great Man: his attitude towards quite a few of his colleagues was at best Mean. One of the most surprising thing about Gandhi is that he was a staunch supporter of Caste System and viewed the low Caste:
i. “Shudra only serves the higher castes as a matter of religious duty and who will never own any property. The gods will shower down flowers on him”.
ii. “if the Shudras leave their ancestral profession and take up others, ambition will rouse in them and their peace of mind will be spoiled. Even their family peace will be disturbed”.
iii. The Shudra “may not be called a Brahmin though he may have all the qualities of a Brahmin in this birth. And it is a good thing for him not to arrogate a Case to which he is not born. It is a sign of true humility”.
iv. “Why should my son not be a scavenger if I am one.”
What a stupid thing to hear from a great Mahatma?
In Gandhis time India’s population was overwhelmingly low middle class; and perhaps Gandhi’s change of Style from his typically dressed an English Gentleman of England to the surprisingly simple loin cloth attracted the people so much to him later during his political movement in India was not very consistent, so much so that Churchill called him a ‘Naked Fakir’. The most lasting legacy of Mohondas Karamchand Gandhi is the successes of his NONVIOLENT METHOD of Political Movement which found acceptance in many parts of the colonized World.
The Non-Violent Method of Political Movement Gandhi developed perhaps from the Beatitude of Mathew 5 of the New Testament as a Mechanism of Political Movement was very practical.
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However, what greater assessment of the Greatness of the Originator of NON-VIOLENCE can best be seen than from the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee turning down -Mohondas Karamchand Gandhi's Nomination for Nobel Peace Prize for Five (5) times -1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and 1948?
