India 360: Does Gandhi matter?

Nathuram Godse assassinated the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948. And the year 2007 on the same date marks his 59th death anniversary.

Recently there has been a Renaissance of Gandhism. Gandhigiri is everywhere. A popular Bollywood film Lage Raho Munna Bhai has popularised it, and Gandhigiri is in everyone’s lips. New books of Gandhi have been written and plays have been enacted.

The Congress party also organised an international conference on Gandhian philosophy. And it was also to commemorate 100 years of Satyagraha or non-violent protest. The year 2007 marks the 100th year of Satyagraha.

The question that was brought up by Sagarika Ghose on the show India 360 was: Is non-violent protest relevant in the 21st century?

On the panel to share their views were experts comprising senior leader, Congress, Devendra Dwivedi human rights activist and chairperson, Asma Jahangir and author, and great-grand son of Mahatma Gandhi, Tushar Gandhi.

With the Congress party has just concluding a national conference on Gandhi, is it trying to monopolise Gandhi towards its own political cause?

Dwivedi said that the Congress party commemorated Gandhi in an act of faith and the purpose of the conference was to recall the core beliefs that had gone into the making of Satyagraha that was not a one-time event but one that evolved with time. “Gandhi was the leader of the Congress for 30 years. He shaped the destiny of the Congress party and defined the contours of ideology. Congress party was the laboratory that enabled him to do his experiments with truth. So when Sonia Gandhi decided to commemorate that, it was with a lot of feelings that the members attended the Conference. It was a very moving experience,” he said.

But aren’t there differences between the Gandhian philosophy and what the Congress stands for?

“Gandhi has to be understood in the context of his own times and he has to be understood in the context of all times, which includes today, and for that matter the challenges that the country and the world is posed with today should be considered. The film that was made on Gandhi is a result of the yearning for a way out from the darkness. The film has created interest in Gandhi,” Dwivedi said.

Bollywood has created what the Congress party has failed to do. It has popularised Gnandhigiri much more than what the Congress party has been able to do.

“The Congress party has been practising conflict resolution. It has been working for disarmament, building consensus, emphasising the commonality and secularism,” said Dwivedi.

Can Satyagraha or non-violent protest in an age dominated by violence, mass terror and Osama bin Laden spectre, be a powerful weapon against these forces?

“It is not just Osama bin Laden but we see violence on TV everyday for many years now. People are tired of violence and they want to find a more creative ways. They whole philosophy behind Satyagraha was to fight a very oppressive opponent through the tools of strategically placing peaceful movements at strategic times. There was a political movement behind Satyagraha. It is a big challenge for politicians all over the world to try and find other ways apart from this form. There are going to be times when force will have to be used but is shall be rare cases, but you don’t simply begin to use it at the start. If things had been taken care of earlier and if violence had not been urged earlier then we would not have had the 9/11 attacks,” Jahangir opined.

So what would have Mahatma Gandhi done if confronted with the 9/11 attacks? Would he have set Satyagraha against terrorists?

Tushar Gandhi felt that Gandhiji would have addressed the cause much earlier and would have prevented 9/11.

But the contours of Satyagraha during those days was a saint at the head of a mass movement leading non-violence, is that really a possibility in today’s times where we do not have saints like Mahatma Gandhi and this a century defined by violence?

“The saintly mascots was one of the charismatic leadership of Satyagraha during that time. But now if noone can become a mascot like that, there can be a collective leadership that can guide a movement and enthuse a movement, Satyagraha was a moral symbol,” Tushar Gandhi said.

“Satyagraha is a shorthand expression that usurps a whole set up of ideals and values. As a mode of protest Satyagraha had a meaning. However, Gandhiji said that it went to construct all things new,” said Dwivedi.

“Satyagraha is how you run politics in the world. I would like to think of Mahatma Gandhi not as a saint but as a politician,” said Jahangir.

Gandhiji had said that India’s salvation lies in everything that she has learnt. Railways, telegraphs, hospitals, lawyers and doctors all have to go and the so-called upper class has to live life as a simple peasant. But does the Congress party live by any of these dictums?

“Gandhiji didn’t expect that everything that he said would be adhered to. Gandhiji has to be seen in totality. There are several ideas of Gandhi that is applied by the Congress. Gandhi respected criticism therefore it is perfectly Gandhian to say that this aspect of Gandhi is not valid in the present context,”

Gandhiji had a strong anti-pathy to the idea of Pakistan. He was very upset with the partition of India. In that context how would someone from Pakistan view Gandhi?

A Pakistani herself, Jahangir said that that a lot of people admired Gandhiji despite the fact that he opposed the partition and lot of people think that even if partition was inevitable, the bloodshed was however, unnecessary.

How far are people engaging with the ‘complex’ Gandhi? How far are they making him into a popular guru?

“The greatest thing that could ever have happened to him was to be branded as The Mahatma and be put into a pedestal. The success of Munna Bhai was because they were able to peel away the Mahatmaship and expose the simple person who was within Bapu. We need to understand the simple man. We need to understand all that he said in Swaraj,” said Tushar Gandhi.

So what does Satyagraha really mean in the 21st century?

“Satyagraha means truth force and in today’s context it means as Gandhji wanted-make man the centre of political cosmos, respect his rights and respect his freedoms to get the operational meaning with the context of human kind,” said Dwivedi.

“Satyagraha means creative ways to deal with conflict, with controversies and with arrogance. It is an encouragement to the sluggish politicians of today that they can invent another wheel truthfully, straightforwardly and yet respect people’s dignity,” said Jahangir.

“Satyagraha to me is the battle for rights. Satyagraha will be relevant as long as the people fight for their rights,” said Tushar Gandhi.

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