Gandhi may have died but Gandhism will live forever
By Naresh Dadhich
Every new year we talk about what will survive this year. Leaders, Celebrities, inventions, nations, jobs, businesses, ideas and legacies. Some survive for a few years and gradually diminish while others continue with their utility.
Mahatma Gandhi will survive in this new year as he has survived for so many years. Rather, he is becoming more relevant today than he was during his time. In his lifetime he struggled to make India politically free.
After his assassination Gandhi’s contribution was evaluated not only in the context of Indian freedom struggle but also in the wider context of humanity. The Indian government launched a project in the 1950s to collect Gandhi’s writings and that was officially completed in 1969 in his centenary year. The collected works contain around 15 million words and that shows the range of subjects on which Gandhi has his opinion, suggestions and analysis.
He was a multidimensional person. And, many books are still being written on his deeds, personality and ideas. But, what is that of Mahatma Gandhi that will survive or rather be celebrated in the new year.Is it personality, his deeds, his ideas, his legacy or his doctrine – Gandhism. His personality is a curious mixture of social reformer, political agitator, a saintly behavior and a preacher of truth and nonviolence.
Gandhi inspired many including political leaders, celebrities and others. His experiments with truth and his metamorphosis from a timid boy to a world leader was amazing and inspirational. He worked tirelessly against injustice of any kind. He fought on two continents and two different countries fighting against racialism and colonialism.
He applied unique techniques: application of nonviolence on a large scale movement against the state, to fight against injustice. His deeds were commendable. Although he was a trained lawyer who studied in England, and started earning a good amount as a practitioner lawyer in South Africa. When he returned to India in 1915, and plunged into active politics, he started living a life of a poor peasant and gradually gave up all dresses and adopted loin cloth as the only dress.
Gandhi’s simplicity, determination, affectionate personality bereft of any trace of malice against anyone, attracted many followers and he is still revered and will continue to be revered for ever.
The legacy of Gandhian ideas is priceless and will continue to torch the light of truth, morality, peace and simplicity in the life of thousands all around the world. Gandhi was not a trained philosopher and was not an academician. He has said, “I am not built for academic writings, action is my domain.” His ideas were not consistent. Gandhi opined that “consistency is a hobgoblin.” He claimed that he was consistent with the truth and did not bother whether his opinion matched with the opinion he expressed on the same subject sometimes back. He grew with truth and voiced what is revealed by the truth.
The use of the term “Gandhism” for Gandhian ideas started when Gandhi is reported to have declared that “Gandhi may die but Gandhism may live forever.” He said this soon after the conclusion of Gandhi- Irwin Pact and before the.
Gandhism, if we use this term, stands for truth and nonviolence and there was no rigidity for him in their application. Even his closest associates could not make any forecast of how Gandhi would act under a particular set of circumstances. Gandhi himself has insisted that Ahimsa might be applied differently in differing circumstances and situations.
One can very well agree with Acharya J.B Kripalani when he says, “ -isms come into existence, not at the initiative of those in whose names they are preached and promulgated, but as the result of limitations imposed upon the original ideas by the followers. Lacking the creative genius, the followers systematize and organize. In so doing they make the original doctrines rigid, inelastic, one-sided and fanatical depriving them of their original freshness and flexibility, which are the signs of youth.”
So instead of Gandhism, we can say that it is only a “Gandhian way and outlook”. When his staunch followers interpret his ideas they make his ideas and technique rigid, and it becomes “Gandhism”. There is, therefore, no such thing as Gandhism. It is only the Gandhian way that is neither rigid nor formal nor final.
Gandhi’s originality lies in the application of principles of truth and nonviolence on a mass scale covering the whole of life, individual and social, moral and material. The principles of truth and nonviolence were primarily part of spiritual and religious life and had been previously applied on an individual scale to mould personal life and acts. So Gandhi is relevant in his ideas in the new year.
Every year, we hope that the world will become a more peaceful and happier place to live but as the year comes to an end, we realize that the world has not moved an inch towards peace, rather it has become a place full of strife and violence.
The war between Ukraine and Russia has proved again that nations are not yet ready to solve their differences in peaceful ways and are still barbarian enough to indulge into violence and war. It is widely believed that climate change is mostly the result of human violence against nature. The growing consumerism resulting in inequality, depression, resource crunch and unhealthy competition to earn more has made human life difficult.
More such problems we face, the more Gandhian ideas become relevant.
In the new year, we will have to resolve that we will try to follow the advice of Mahatma Gandhi as far as possible to avert disaster looming large in the future on account of unbridled consumerism. What is needed is, not to straitjacket Gandhi in some rigid thinking but to choose a “Gandhian” approach towards life.
The approach is simple. Try to solve problems between nations or groups or individuals or individuals against the state in a nonviolent way as far as possible.Try to minimize needs, and live a life of a minimalist. Be self sufficient in economic affairs at the village level itself. Make equality and freedom as the basis of any political system. Gandhi’s legacy is not confined to politics only, he is relevant in other fields also.
Prof. Naresh Dadhich is former Vice-Chancellor, Vardhaman Mahaveer Open University, Kota, India. He retired as a professor from the Department of Political Science, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur.
Disclaimer: The views expressed are not necessarily those of The South Asian Times