Fifteen blasts in 48 hours. Seventy-five dead. Over 300 injured. When the rest of India was celebrating Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday on October 2, 2004, insane elements were wreaking havoc in Nagaland and Assam. For the next 48 hours, these prophets of doom went on a rampage unprecedented even in the region’s blood-soaked recent history. Another place another time the specter of violence continues to haunt mankind. Police firing kills 11 protestors in the Garo Hills we are told even as news filter in that in yet another eve of Gandhi Jayanti, bombs explode in two tourist areas of the Indonesian resort island of Bali, killing at least 22 people. Gandhi, the prophet of non-violence must surely stand defeated.
Remembering Gandhi on his birthday is one thing but today India and the world must reflect on his teachings. Gandhi was a philosopher of the politics of peaceful protest. His basic aim was to find out how a law abiding citizen or group should resist constitutional authority and provided a definite guide for peaceful conflict resolution. Gandhi was aware about history where fighting evil with evil only accentuated evil and violence. If ever our purpose is to put an end to violence then it surely cannot be done through the use of violent methods or can it?
Another powerful message of Gandhi was his notion of satyagraha that no one is wholly right or wrong. Such an attitude leads to the conversion of enemies into friends and resolution of points of conflict into points of agreement acceptable to both. How many of us in the State, Society and Church can relate (in practice) to this profound message?
Gandhi is more relevant today. It is a kind of resurrection. It would not be wrong to say that he is the most remembered thinker today in view of the world crisis which is also the crisis of western civilization. Gandhi had forewarned about this crisis in the beginning of the 20th century in his most controversial work, the ‘Hind Swaraj’. For Gandhi, materialistic values was represented by industrialism and idealization of the machine and the dominance of force; consumerism ie maximization of consumption to sustain maximum production; survival of the fittest ie acquisition of more powers, developing dangerous weapons and cut throat competition.
The spiritual values of freedom, equality and fraternity as practiced today have been distorted to a large extent by these material values. Freedom has come to symbolize the freedom of the few while equality has been tarnished by discrimination and as for fraternity, the less we talk about, the better. Gandhi during his lifetime demonstrated the correct meaning of these values. He was the finest opponent of the concept of freedom, the inalienable right of all human beings.
The crisis of today is mainly due to the fact that it has failed to resolve the conflicting claims of freedom, equality and fraternity. Arms and violence cannot ensure freedom and peace. Similarly consumerism cannot eliminate poverty. Corrupt money certainly cannot bring prosperity and happiness to society. Hegemony cannot foster fraternity nor the equal respect for one’s rights. In the new world ridden by the politics of hate and violence, slowly and silently Gandhi’s politics of peace finds greater meaning.
