Skip to main content

Why Gandhi is relevant today



When asked whether he was a Hindu, Mahatma Gandhi’s answer was, “I am a Hindu, a Christian, a Muslim, a Jew.”  Gandhi’s vision transcended the narrow boundaries defined by religions though he was deeply religious.  One of the primary functions of religion is to make one a better human being.  A genuinely religious person cannot see other human beings as enemies whatever religion they may belong to, whatever language they may speak, and whatever ideology they may believe in.  Religion is pointless if it does not make the believer compassionate towards his fellow beings.

The greatness of Gandhi lies in the inclusiveness of his vision.  He could not hate anyone, not even the British whom he fought until his country won independence from them.  “It is my constant prayer,” Gandhi said, “that I may never have a feeling of anger against my traducers…”  His religion enabled him to overcome such vices as anger and hatred.

Religion has a very pragmatic duty to fulfil in Gandhi’s vision,” as I wrote seven years ago on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti. Religion should help people to see the divinity within each human being.  It should help us to foster that divinity.  It should make each person a god, in short.   Gandhi used scriptures, religious practices, prayers and self-disciplinary measures for that very purpose: to become a god.  That is why he could confidently say, “My life is my message.”  His life was indeed as divine as it could be for a human being.

We live in a time when religion has been converted by the political system into a highly divisive force.  Indians have become acutely conscious of their religious identity.  Too many people are using that identity and the political situation in the country to create hatred within human hearts in the name of religion.  I’m quite optimistic that the situation will change with the next general election.  There is so much discontent among the people that the present situation cannot go on for long.  Even religious sentiments won’t work beyond a limit.

But the ideal solution is not reaching the breaking point of the limits of patience.  The ideal solution is what Gandhi taught long ago: compassion, tolerance, understanding, and so on.  Gandhi will remain relevant at any time because of the profundity of his vision.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
47 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
18 comments
Read more

The Vegetarian

Book Review Title: The Vegetarian Author: Han Kang Translator: Deborah Smith [from Korean] Publisher: Granta, London, 2018 Pages: 183 Insanity can provide infinite opportunities to a novelist. The protagonist of Nobel laureate Han Kang’s Booker-winner novel, The Vegetarian , thinks of herself as a tree. One can argue with ample logic and conviction that trees are far better than humans. “Trees are like brothers and sisters,” Yeong-hye, the protagonist, says. She identifies herself with the trees and turns vegetarian one day. Worse, she gives up all food eventually. Of course, she ends up in a mental hospital. The Vegetarian tells Yeong-hye’s tragic story on the surface. Below that surface, it raises too many questions that leave us pondering deeply. What does it mean to be human? Must humanity always entail violence? Is madness a form of truth, a more profound truth than sanity’s wisdom? In the disturbing world of this novel, trees represent peace, stillness, and nonviol...
6 comments
Read more

The RSS does not exist

An organisation that has 80,000 branches in India does not exist legally in any document. This is the cover story of The Caravan this month. By the way, The Caravan is one of the very few publications that still continues to exist in spite of being overtly critical of Narendra Modi and his Sangh Parivar. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is not registered as an organisation under any of the usual Indian registration laws such as the Societies Registration Act or as a trust or company. It functions as an unregistered voluntary organisation, though it is arguably the largest public organisation in the country. This situation makes the organisation absolutely unaccountable to anyone, argues The Caravan . The RSS is not legally required to file annual returns to the Tax department or disclose its financial details publicly though it deals with thousands of crores of rupees every year especially after Modi became the Prime Minister of the country. The membership of the organisat...
12 comments
Read more

No Problems Only Opportunities

You’ve probably heard this joke. A young man walked into his office one morning and found a beautiful young lady sitting in his chair. He called the MD and said, “Sir, I have a problem.” The MD replied, “Don’t you know our company’s motto, young man? No Problems, Only Opportunities .” When Suchita of The Blogchatter sent me a mail with the topic of this week’s blog hop –  - the first thing that came to my mind was the above joke. I know many people – too many, in fact – who went through terrible problems. My own life was a series of problems in none of which was there the consolation of any beautiful woman. One essential lesson I learnt from life is that life is a series of problems. You solve one and then arises the next one. Now I have reached an age when problems are no more problems: they are life itself. If you ask me what was the biggest problem I ever dealt with, it was my last years in Shillong. I was a lecturer in a college drawing a fat salary stipulated by the U...
13 comments
Read more