Professional Documents
Culture Documents
For the average Indian, it could be just another holiday. But the average
Indian lives in a country where every town and city has at least one road, one
market, one statue and one park named after Gandhi. The average Indian
has written essays on the Mahatma in school, and pored over his contribution
to India’s independence in History classes. While most historical personalities
in India’s checkered history, no matter how dynamic, could inspire only a
fraction of the population, Gandhi connected with Indians at their own level,
their caste, creed, sex or status notwithstanding, and was aptly christened
bapu or father. To strike a cord in the heart of an average Indian, when the
average Indian is classified as a Brahmin, Kshatriya or Shudra, (levels of
castes in Hinduism established as early as the pre-Vedic era), or is a
Tamilian, Punjabi or Marathi, a speck in a nation that spouts at least 17
different languages, is no mean feat. Perhaps no other historical figure in
India has enjoyed such a rare distinction. This was Gandhi’s forte, alone.
The turning point in Gandhi's life begin in South Africa. He found himself in
the midst of an intimidated and oppressed Indian community that was the
butt of racial discrimination. Only too aware of his own shortcomings, Gandhi
struggled to overcome his personal inhibitions, and worked towards uniting
the South African Indians to protest against discrimination and racial bias.
After a few brief spells in prison, he succeeded in getting the local governance
to relax its laws for the first time in 1908, then again in 1914.
¤ A Great Philosopher
Perhaps the most profound of his philosophies was his quest for truth, an
untainted non-sectarian truth, universal in appeal. He found this aspect in
ahmisa, roughly translated as non-violence. He believed in and practised
ahimsa in thoughts, words, and actions that sprung from a love for mankind
that lay beyond the continent of calculations and rewards – a personal
philosophy inspired by the Bhagavad Gita considered as perhaps the most
lucid representation of Hinduism, and by many as the most sacred book of
the Hindus.
Gandhi led the Congress for a period of 25 years, and during this time the
party truly came to represent united India’s struggle for freedom. Gandhi’s
charisma caught the imagination of millions. Villagers and city dwellers, men,
women and children rallied behind the Congress as it led India’s march
towards freedom from the British. Freedom came, but at a price. A nation was
partitioned to yield a Hindu-dominated India and a Muslim-dominated
Pakistan. Gandhi opposed the partition that left millions dead, mutilated and
homeless, bitterly till the end. By upholding the cause of the Muslims and
Harijans, he alienated himself from the Hindu majority. and on January
30th 1948, in an India that was finally free, a Brahman named Nathuram
Godse walked right upto Gandhi and shot him at point-blank range.