Mahatma Gandhi : Relevant in Contemporary times.

NEWS HIGHLIGHT 

Theme : Important Personalities ; Modern India
Paper:GS-1

This year’s 30th January marks the 75th death anniversary of the Father of the Nation- MK Gandhi. Also, a movie named “Gandhi-Godse: Ek Yudh” was recently released highlighting the different aspects related to the assassination of Gandhi.

TABLE OF CONTENT

1. Context
2. About Mahatma Gandhi
3. Aftermath of Gandhi’s Assasination
4. Ideas of Gandhiji
5. Criticism of Gandhiji
6. Global Impact of Gandhi

Context : This year’s 30th January marks the 75th death anniversary of the Father of the Nation- MK Gandhi. Also, a movie named “Gandhi-Godse: Ek Yudh” was recently released highlighting the different aspects related to the assassination of Gandhi.

About Mahatma Gandhi : 

• Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, is regarded as the Father of the Nation. Gandhi was born on 2nd October,1869 in Gujarat and studied law at the Inner Temple, London.
• Gandhi was a social reformist and leader of the Indian Independence Movement who introduced the idea of nonviolent resistance called Satyagraha.
• After organizing a civil disobedience movement for Indians living in South Africa, he returned to India in 1915. In India, he set out on a train journey to different parts of the country trying to understand the problems of farmers, peasants and urban laborers and organizing protests for them.
• He assumed the leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921 and rose to become its most prominent leader and iconic figure in Indian politics.
• Gandhi also wrote extensively for various newspapers and his symbol of self-reliance – the spinning wheel – became a popular symbol of the Indian Independence Movement.
• Gandhi played a key role in pacifying people and averting the Hindu-Muslim riots as tensions rose before and during the partition of the country. He was shot dead by Nathuram Godse on January 31, 1948.

Aftermath of Gandhi’s Assasination : 

• Mahatma Gandhi was walking towards the prayer mandap at Birla House in Delhi when 35-year-old Nathuram Godse came before him and pulled out a pistol from his pocket. He fired three shots from point-blank range that hit Gandhi in the chest, stomach, and groin. Within 15 minutes, the Father of the Nation was dead.
• Godse was apprehended by military personnel who were at the spot, and his pistol was snatched away. The assassin was beaten by the crowd before police took him into custody. Subsequently, he was lodged at a police station on Tughlaq Road, where an FIR was registered. The trial began in May 1948 at a special court set up in Delhi’s Red Fort.
• The judgment was pronounced on February 10, 1949. Judge Atma Charan convicted Godse, Apte, and five others of the crime. Both Godse and Apte were sentenced to death. Savarkar was acquitted.
• The hanging of Godse and Apte became inevitable after the Governor-General of India rejected their mercy petitions. Godse’s mercy petition was filed by his parents, not him. Both men were hanged on November 15, 1949, in Ambala jail.

Ideas of Gandhiji : 

NON -VIOLENCE

• Gandhi adopted the word ‘non-violence’ which means refraining from the use of physical force capable of causing injury or death to the opponent. Even though Gandhi admits that he could not succeed in defining ahimsa fully, the meaning of this word developed further in the hands of Gandhi. Ahimsa means and includes non-violence in thoughts, words and deeds toward all sentient beings.

SATYAGRAHA

• The term satyagraha is derived from a compound word in Sanskrit, Satya and agraha. Satya means that which is in accordance with sat or being, that is, truth. Agraha means holding fast, adherence or insistence. Thus, the compound word satyagraha means clinging to truth, holding fast to truth, insistence on truth or firm adherence to truth. In the socio-political field satyagraha was a kind of resistance movement against unjust laws. He adopted the term satyagraha which would give almost the same meaning of ‘Passive Resistance.’

CONCEPT OF NAI TALIM

• The phrase Nai Talim is a combination of two words- Nai Means ‘New’ and Talim – an Urdu word-means ‘Education’. In 1937, Gandhiji introduced the concept of Nai Talim in India. It aimed to transform the Indian education system which was based on colonial education at that time. It is an approach to the total personality development of the body, mind and spirit of the students

TRUSTEESHIP

• Trusteeship is a socio-economic philosophy developed by Mahatma Gandhi as a part of his nonviolent revolution. It is a concept where a person voluntarily gives up or renounces his right to the money earned by him and dedicates it to the welfare of the poor section of society.

Criticism of Gandhiji : 

• In South Africa, academics Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed, in their book The South African Gandhi: Stretcher-Bearer Of Empire, have questioned Gandhi’s role in upholding the British empire and fighting only for the rights of Indians, and not of others, there.
• His statue in Johannesburg was once smeared with white paint (symbolically implying that Gandhi was an apologist of the country’s Whites). South African cities have debated whether or not to have more commemorations. A university in Ghana has removed a Gandhi statue because of his allegedly “racist” views on ethnic Africans. 
• Jawaharlal Nehru was a believer in the non-violent satyagraha politics that Mahatma Gandhi espoused during the freedom struggle. But on the finer points of politics, Nehru differed vastly from Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi believed in dharma-based politics while Nehru’s ideas of politics were deeply entrenched in democratic socialist principles. Mahatma Gandhi looked for continuity in India’s socio-political fabric by doing away with certain “impurities” that had crept in. Nehru advocated a reform towards modernity.
• Nehru did not approve of Gandhi’s economic ideas that called for the only limited adoption of modern technological progress. Nehru, on the other hand, rejected these ideas and favored big factories based on the latest technologies.
• BR Ambedkar also criticized Gandhi. Gandhi believed that the caste system was the basis of Indian society, particularly the majority Hindu community. Mahatma Gandhi opposed caste discrimination but he did not reject the social structure that bred bias against people based on their birth.

Global Impact of Gandhi : 

• Historians say Gandhi proved that one man has the power to take on an empire, using both ethics and intelligence. Other peaceful resistors such as Martin Luther King Jr. during the 1960s civil rights movement and Tibet’s Dalai Lama have emulated his methods in years since, shaking up the dynamic of world politics in the process.
• Martin Luther King Jr. is said to have been heavily influenced by Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence, believing it to be the only logical approach to the problem of race relations in America.
• Gandhi-King Initiative: The initiative is an exchange program between India and the U.S. to study the work and legacies of Gandhi and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. It will establish annual scholar and student exchange programs for Indians and Americans to study the leaders’ legacies and visit historic sites in India and the U.S. The visits will be relevant to India’s freedom struggle and the U.S.’s civil rights movement.
• Impacted the world leaders: He firmly believed that the spirit of genuine reciprocity and solidarity is not just a moral requirement, but also a geopolitical necessity. The Gandhian technique of mobilizing people has been successfully employed by many oppressed societies around the world under the leadership of people like Martin Luther King in the United States, Nelson Mandela in South Africa, Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar which is an eloquent testimony to the continuing relevance of Mahatma Gandhi.

FAQs : 

1. What is the Gandhi-King Initiative?

ANS. The initiative is an exchange program between India and the U.S. to study the work and legacies of Gandhi and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. It will establish annual scholar and student exchange programs for Indians and Americans to study the leaders’ legacies and visit historic sites in India and the U.S. The visits will be relevant to India’s freedom struggle and the U.S.’s civil rights movement.

2. What is the concept of Trusteeship?

ANS. Trusteeship is a socio-economic philosophy developed by Mahatma Gandhi as a part of his nonviolent revolution. It is a concept where a person voluntarily gives up or renounces his right to the money earned by him and dedicates it to the welfare of the poor section of society.