Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi - The most stamped person in the Universe who is celebrated as the leader of Non-violence across all borders is facing many denunciations from diverse disciplines. His influence on World politics and his efforts to nurture the brotherhood among Indians is intangible. The way he had dedicated his public life for the upliftment of the Indian community and creating harmony between Hindus and Muslims will remain as his greatest enlightenment.
Gandhi tirelessly worked to remove untouchability from our society, and his advocacy for alcohol prohibition is still the sought-after topic for political debate in our country. But still, criticizing Gandhi is taking a new shape.
In Schools and homes, the history teachers and elders are teaching kids about Gandhi from a very vague perspective. I could remember my school days where I won many prizes for writing essays about Gandhi's achievements and his life. Every year on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanthi, trust in the name of Gandhi "Gandhi Mandram" in y district will organize various events for school kids to encourage kids in understanding the life and times of MK Gandhi. Because of all such events, I will always prefer to support Gandhian Philosophy rather than Netaji's Philosophy at any cause whenever a debate arises. Though I was born to a family that had a strong belief in Dravidian ideology, Gandhi had a special place in my heart.
Though I won various prizes on many occasions for writing essays about Gandhi's life and giving a 10-minute long speech on topics like Nam Gandhi Thatha(Our Grandfather Gandhi), Gandhi - The father of our nation, I never knew Gandhi was killed by a Hindu-extremist Nathuram Godse, a follower of the RSS thesis for many years. I seriously believed that Gandhi was killed by some Muslims for some political reasons. Later, this one incident opened up much of my political wisdom.
Being a half baked school kid, my thoughts on Gandhi at the age of ten were,
Father of the nation.
A simple Man.
Half naked Intellectual.
A congressman.
One who worked with Jinnah for the partition of India.
And the most important one, Mahatma.
To be honest, I thought that Mahatma Gandhi is his real name. Later I realized my stupidity and found that the world is celebrating him as a Mahatma and his real name is MK Gandhi.
Also, while studying in school, there will be a group who will troll Gandhi just to support Netaji. Their blame is on Gandhi because Gandhi took Non-violence as his political weapon. But Netaji will always be portrayed in history as the brave fighter for India's freedom. But the story of Gandhi constructed by the Indian society is completely the other extreme of what happened with Netaji.
Later, while joining the college, I had a chance to spend with some friends who were followers of Ambedkar. They opened up with the struggles and times of the oppressed class in this casteist Hindu dominated Indian society. And to my surprise, the followers of Ambedkar were also against the Gandhian traits. From winning prizes on every occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, my life got shifted to debating Gandhi vs Ambedkar on each birth anniversary of Gandhi and finally, the winner will be Modi from nowhere for using both Gandhi and Ambedkar for his campaign posters. This will not help anyone though.
Adding to the list of Netaji and Ambedkar, there is another leader of social justice whose followers battled against Gandhi and his thoughts. He is Periyar and as I said earlier, my grandfather is a strong follower of Periyar who questioned the existence of God and Brahminical patriarchy had a dilemma like many other Justice Party people to accept Gandhi as his leader or not. When I started to be cognizant of the Dravidian politics and its visions. to my surprise, I found many Dravidian analysts who showcased their hatred towards Gandhi through many social media sites and conferences.
Along with Periyar's followers, some Tamil nationalists also disputed the qualities of Gandhi and refused to accept him as 'Mahatma'.
So, right from my childhood, I ended up in a situation quite often wherein Gandhi will be blamed for his 'Mahatma' title and many more traits. If I write about the traits that is been debated by Ambedkarites or Hindu extremists or Tamil nationalists for its purity, then I need to end up publishing that article as a book.
But rather, I wanted to highlight the most important trait which I admire from the man of this Millenium. He always wanted to be the simplest man ever lived who gave scope for all sorts of criticisms at all phases of his life.
He never hesitated to face someone who criticized him politically or ideologically. Be it Ambedkar or Jinnah or Nehru or Periyar, he learned from each and every personality and he was on the process of self-realization.
Self-realization is something that I learned from this simplest man and no one is noble in this world. A human will enter this world as most ignorant and will end up in Nirvana.
Instead of glorifying his thoughts and actions, Gandhi's true essence lies in realizing our thoughts and actions at various times. He is a person of criticisms and contradictions for various reasons and through numerous debates, we can slowly understand him. He can be a part of our debate either as a support or contradiction. But he can never be ignored at any cost from the stage of Social Reform and International Politics.
That's Gandhi.
-To be continued.
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