Currently, India is divided.....which is nothing new. Being divided and still being strong is where we shine! Even Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, in his final speech to the Constituent Assembly on January 26, 1950, stated that the new nation was "going to enter into a life of contradictions," and the social inequality might "blow up the structure of political democracy". And, he was not wrong. Ever since independence, every couple of years new challenges would crop up which would threaten to crumble the republic. An amazing narration of these challenges since 1947 is the book India After Gandhi. Every Indian should read this book to feel immensely proud of we the people of India. There is no other decent-sized ex-colony which has had uninterrupted democracy since its independence from the colonial rulers. How did India achieve this? Let us pause this stream of thoughts and jump to another thing that is dividing Indians in the current times!
The issue is Gandhi! More and more Indians hate the Mahatma. A common argument is that the Mahatma did not give us independence. And, I totally agree with this. The Mahatma's role in India getting independence is minuscule. A range of factors caused the landslide of ex-colonies getting their freedom in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Mahatma had a very little role to play in this. What was his contribution then? He is the answer to the Indian enigma we discussed in the last paragraph. He made sure that once we got independence, we remain an independent democratic republic. With his innovative approaches he made the foundation of democracy deep and widespread in the nation.
Imagine a nation with 20 plus major languages, 100 plus castes, 5 plus religions and 1000 plus Gods with rampant mutual hatred and mutual suspicion. A nation where less than 10% people could read and write (in 1915-20). How do we make all these people mature enough to become aware of values like equality, democracy, justice etc.? Yes these lofty ideals have been in the scriptures of all major religions. But they have always been exactly that, lofty goals, far from the reach of ordinary humans.
And, yes, fight for freedom was not new. Since the Paika Rebellion in 1817 to the first war of independence in 1857 to the activities of veterans like Lokmanya Tilak, Indians have been striving for freedom from the British rule ever since the East India Company occupied Indian soil. However, it often was by a handful of people. The hoi polloi of the subcontinent were never collectively working towards a common goal. Gandhi, through his unique tactics, changed it all! He encapsulated the fight for freedom with the narrative of his self-coined modus operandi of Satyagrah. Literally, it meant the love for truth or righteousness. Humans are (loosely) genetically coded to be nice people. Gandhi wanted Indians to be nice people! This does not need education or high status. Everyone likes to be nice people. And with the karmic narrative hardcoded in most Indians, everyone could be convinced to strive to be nice people or Satyagrahis! Colonialism is not nice and morally wrong. Hence, it became the obvious choice for any Satyagrahi to oppose the British rule. If Indians were to pick up arms against the empire then they would always have been inferior in their forces. Gandhi flipped it. In the Satyagrah way of fighting, Indians immediately had a moral high ground! Secondly, once we accept the new narrative, the fight for freedom was not just about opposing the British. It was all about becoming better humans. This implied two amazing outcomes. First of all, a Satyagrahi would not hate the British as a community. They would only dislike the amoral aspects and actions of the British. This left Indians open minded to accept and respect western values of democracy and equality. Secondly, it implied that Indians needed to fix their own issues in parallel (starting from woman rights to the wretched caste system to religion-based mistrust). (And, of course, the only way to oppose at the disposal of a Satyagrahi was through non-violent means.)
Then, came the master stroke of Gandhi. What can a Satyagrahi do to oppose the British rule? If we expect everyone to risk their lives then it can never become a mass movement. It had to symbolic and involve other aspects of being a moral person as well. The Mahatma chose the act of spinning as the thread to bind the fragmented subcontinent. Since the Calico Act (early 1700s) Indian weaving industry had been systematically broken. Indian cotton would go to the mills in England and fabrics would be sold in India. It was fashionable to wear clothes made in Britain. What if every Indian spin their own threads and make their own cloths? The more I think about it the more I appreciate the master stroke. It will hurt the British economy directly (even if mildly), and anyone can spin with minimal training (making it an activity that potentially every Indian can do as a symbol of protest). By doing it for one hour everyday you would feel that you are doing some small thing to fight for freedom. (I have seen multiple spinning wheels used by my grandfather who was a normal householder.) It also fostered the habit of regular physical labour. As every Satyagrahi had to spin, it slightly broke the caste stereotypes. The concept of contributing to a cause to the best of your ability is deeply ingrained in Indian society. The absolute effect does not count. What counts is that you have given your best (e.g. this beautiful story).
The next big issue that the Mahatma tried to tackle was the mistrust between Hindus and Muslims in India. Communalism has been fostered by the British rule and was made legal and systematic when they adopted separate electorates for Muslims in 1909. An opportunity to break this barrier came when the Mahatma was musing on a major widespread protest based on the principles of Satyagraha. Dismantling of the Ottoman empire (after WW I) was a major assault on the religious sentiments of all Muslims. Ottoman emperor was the caliph and the protector of the Holy Mosques. The entire Islamic world was enraged. The protest in the subcontinent was the strongest. Led by the Ali brothers and the famous doctor Hamik Ajmal Khan, the Khilafat Movement was widespread and fierce. The Ali brothers and the Hakim were all for Hindu-Muslim unity and they trusted in the new ways of nonviolent protest initiated by the Mahatma. What resulted was truly a mass movement called the Non-cooperation Movement. The movement was ended prematurely by the Mahatma after a single incident of violence. Some may call the movement a failure. But, it was a massive success. It bridged the Hindu-Muslim divide to some extent. And it put the Satyagrahis at a even higher pedestal.
I shall not go through other such mass movements like the Salt Satyagraha or the Quit India Movement. And in between these major movements, the Mahatma was incessantly working on encouraging people to become better humans. He was instrumental in creating a huge cadre of highly educated and disciplined leaders. It was not a one-man show unlike many other freedom movements. His methods not only made common uneducated hard-working Indians to feel linked to the freedom movement, it also created a fertile-ground to create hundreds of highly dedicated leaders. This made sure that not only was India ready at the grass root level for democracy, it also had enough worthy and illustrious leaders to take the place when the few at the top cease to exist. I can easily count the names of ten leaders just from my state of Odisha each of who were as dedicated and as Godly as the Mahatma. I am sure this is the case for every corner of the country, be it Andhra or Assam.
So yes; the Mahatma did not give India freedom. His actions made sure that the ideas of democracy and equality got engrained deep enough at the grassroots level to foster long lasting democracy. In addition, he created a huge cadre of illustrious leaders that made sure that there is never a lack of worthy dedicated leader to lead the young republic.
Love him or hate him but do not doubt his methods and contributions.
No comments:
Post a Comment