Our teachers and elders always preached about greatness of Gandhi as a leader. But may be sometimes it was difficult for us to truly appreciate Gandhi and his techniques. Reason being his non-violence approach seems idealistic and ultimately fruitless.
Well let me make you realize what was so great about Gandhi. Though all preach about his leadership, more remarkable were his genius ideas. And yet we rarely see Gandhi as a genius.
Nonviolence approach of Gandhi though was ideologically based, also had a alternate goal. Revolutionary extremism though may seem heroic is not capable of drawing out masses. You can't expect a common man to take up arms sacrificing his family for nations sake. Moreover extremism is easily disposed off by govt/state as terrorism and hence is justified to brutally repressing it. But non - violence approach of Gandhi - Yes ! appealed to all as it was simple enough for a common man to take up and was more deadly as state find it hard to find reasons to in-justify it. Result - huge mass participation for first time at a time when idea of India as nation not even structured fully.
Secondly he appealed to everyone whether poor or rich, muslim or hindu, illiterate or intellectuals. Each and everyone found something in Gandhi of their use. I know people don't appreciate this part of Gandhi which is most stunning. Let me put some irony statements for you to ponder about -
How was it possible that a man carrying Gita preaching Hinduism made president of Muslim association All India Khilafat Association ?
How was it a man invited by Queen of England, a man controlling Congress (a body of highly intellectual individuals) was seen by a common man as one among them ?
Why was it that Bose ardent critic of Gandhi in later years called Gandhi as father of the nation ?
Fast unto death technique of Gandhi - Worst headache of British. A riot you can repress, terrorist can be put behind by bars but this ! how do you tackle man's fast unto death ....... ya thats why British found it so hard to negotiate with Gandhi ! K.C.Rao's fast unto death for Telangana is a recent example.
There is also this conception of some of Gandhi as moderate. Gandhi had been a moderate , an extremist and an anarchist in his struggle for independence. His breaking of laws (salt), filling of prisons and arousing mass to do the same show his extremism. 'Do or Die' slogan of Gandhi is a fact proving anarchist Gandhi. Yes Gandhi ardent non violent preacher giving the slogan 'Do or Die'.
When Gandhi entered Indian struggle, Congress leaders were busy in intellectual legislative debates, convincing the middle class, following a top down approach and what did Gandhi do ! he went to Bihar to start Satyagraha for sake of indigo cultivators. Again his brilliance - grass root level approach as he knew only a mass struggle can attain India's freedom.
These are some to name his techinques and we haven't yet covered his ideology which influenced the whole world and his view on administration - Sarvodaya approach - claimed by international theorists as best approach for democracy.
So you see why Gandhi was such a brilliant genius !
if one was to summarize all the qualities of Gandhi in one phrase, the title of his autobiography would give us the key words. He calls his life "My EXPERIMENTS with Truth" and not "My IDEAS about truth". To say that Gandhi had an ideology would be undermine his methods. He was not an idealist but a methodist. The logic that his methods are no longer applicable is flawed in itself because he never gave an all pervasive method. He always did experiments with the situation at hand as he was not afraid of failure. We do not need to copy his ideas blindly but to imbibe the philosophy of identifying what is true and just at the moment and what is the most true path of achieving that truth.
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