Not too long ago, a friend of mine called Mahatma Gandhi a 'bastard who allowed partition to happen'. I was angry enough to consider giving her a black eye - I reasoned that being a tv news anchor, she should atleast know the truth (or what passes for the truth). But when I cooled down a bit, I realised that even I didn't know enough about the man. My subsequent attempts to win her over to my side of thinking used self-righteousness as the weapon of choice, rather than information and cool logic. Needless to say, I wasn't very successful.
Now living in these times, I'm sure you'll realise that Gandhi-bashing is fashionable. But I've never been part of that camp, except for a brief while when Outlook magazine ran a cover story on Gandhi's sexual experimentation or something like that.
I picked up a number of books on Gandhi including his Autobiography and a biography by Romain Rolland. None of these books however, talk about the era post-1940, when a number of incidents took place, including the partition, the subsequent riots, independence and of course, the assassination.
A history student once told me that it's up to us to make what we can of the past, and not believe any one source. I believe that as well, and so I suspended judgement on the tricky subject of Gandhi's influence in the shaping of India - after the civil disobedience movement. But this much I'm certain of - Gandhi makes for a great role model. His politicking was based on his convictions & his beliefs were based on a lifetime of experimentation. There wasn't a false bone in his body.
His autobiography in particular is inspiring - read it, and you'll know why.
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2 comments:
And advocating a secular state was a problem because...?
Gandhi has accepted all his mistakes in his autobiography which no other leader has done so far. He has not used his influence to benefit his family and children. Gandhi is really GREAT.
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