LVMR Reflections - Gandhi

It is embarrassing to observe how many Indians misunderstand, despise and hate Gandhi. It is more embarrassing to note how this proportion increases as we move into elitist society. Most of the young Turks of the country blame Gandhi for everything this country has become, and the relatively older generation has apathy sort of for Gandhian principles and philosophies. How relevant are those? Does younger Indian generation need them, or do these people need any principles or philosophies at all?
Volumes have been written about all these, scores of people have gone deep into these matters. And I am certainly not an expert on this, so this is kind of disclaimer that these are all my amateur views.
The basic issues of the country are more or less same; the complexity has increased many folds. A large part of population is still reeling under poverty, corruption, lack of education and religious fanaticism. Oppression is still there and with Maoist violence and terrorism becoming bigger by the day in trying to consume the identity of India, we are in dire need of another revolution to bind us together to take us through this tumultuous phase. Any long-term solution, if there is any, will be based upon some basic principles, be it naked capitalism where money will be the cure of all diseases, or sort of dictatorship where the mighty and powerful take the decision as and when their time will come, or, anarchy, where everyone will go on the course they want to pursue. But it can be Gandhian principles as well, which still echoes through entire nation. It can still be based upon truth and non-violence, and tolerance and upliftment of lowest stratum of the society.
The issue with following Gandian principle is that though they are so simple, yet so deep in meaning that it cannot become a way of life unless completely understood and engrained. Following without understanding it completely will be like worshipping God, because we worship God, because we do not know enough about Him, and so we just follow verbatim what Holy Scriptures and sages tell us. But we have to understand Gandhi, because he was not a God, he was a human, a person with principles and conviction.
Unfortunately, with time, this level of understanding towards Gandhi and his principles has deteriorated. The new generation is trying to know Gandhi through bits and pieces of drama and fiction, with distorted facts and vested interests. They do not have time to go through volumes of Gandhi literature or to think and connect whatever little information they have.
However, one thing we all have to understand. Those Gandhian principles will be valid for all ages, like the Noble Eightfold Path of Buddha. They are not some obscure philosophical thesis, but core human values. The right way in this country is to spread that wisdom.
In many of the countries, military training is compulsory, every young has to go through it for certain period of time. In this country of non-violence, we should make Gandhi Shivir Compulsory. Everyone should spend some time each year; either in classroom, or some camp, or in some activity, to make him or her understand Gandhi and his ideals better. The results may not come instantly, but after some time we will have a force of Gandhi soldiers, making India become a nation the way Gandhi imagined.

food for thought

Ours is a poor country, this is a fact and those who do not accept it and are spellbound by the glittering success parts of our economy has achieved in last two decades are just myopic. But in many parts of this country, or at least in most of the visible parts of this country, this poverty is scattered. You have slums, plenty of them, but between those, you will always find skyscrapers. These two are so mixed now that it has become sort of Indian identity. And this is where Bihar is different from the rest of the country. It has mass poverty, wealth is very hard to find, it is either with old landlords, or with corrupt politicians and their beneficiaries, who seldom flaunt it. So wherever you will stand, you will find ugly poverty, like a black reptile, encircling everything.
Standing on the railway platform of Darbhanga, I was aghast to see the story, faces of hundreds of people were describing. Those open mouths, with flies all around, and over to that, the deep slumber, it has became the way of life for them. A whole generation has undergone in this kind of lifestyle, where there is no style, but a belief that things now cannot be better. The place was so different that it takes an effort to not let depression set inside. The whole environment was gloomy, where you have to scour amongst scores of people to find a happy face. In a country of festivals, all the colors of their lives have merged together to become black, and it must have been ages when their ears have enjoyed a piece of music, because those ears have become deaf now, shocked from the deafening voice poverty is generating, day in and day out, like a scene from the bomb-blast.
There are two parts of the country, one which is competing with the best of the world, and getting all the attention; other which is also competing, albeit with Africa, to go so downhill from where it will be impossible to drag it up. I am both fortunate and unfortunate to witness both parts so closely.