Will Durant, in an article in The Manchester Guardian wrote, “Perhaps Gandhi failed as saints are likely to fail in this very hostile, selfish and Darwinian world. But these very failures are the eternal successes attained by saintly people as they can never stoop to the detestable levels of this materialistic world in which each one is running after god of Mammon.”
Maulana Azad often said that Gandhi was a man of family and was rooted to the family basics. How down to earth, Gandhi was and how duty to him was of paramount importance, is reflected in these words, “Duties to self, to the family, to the country and to the world are not independent of one another. One cannot do good to the country by injuring the world at large.”
Tagore had believed that Gandhi would fail—like all saints who had also failed. Wrote Tagore, “Perhaps he will not succeed. Perhaps he will fail as the Buddha failed, as Christ failed and as Lord Mahavira failed to wean men from their inequities, but he will be remembered as one who made his life an example for all ages to come.”
M K Gandhi, the Mahatama, was a global citizen though he worked for the freedom of the Indian nation from foreign yoke. Although a Brahmin by birth, humanity was his religion.
He believed that for victory, war was the most blunt weapon and the sharpest one was obviously non-violence. He abhorred the concept of might being the right.
The obiter dictum of Gandhi, “Most religious men I have met, are politicians in disguise. I, however, who wear the guise of a politician, am at heart, a religious man,” remains the key to the value system of the political philosophy that he adhered to.
What Gandhi, till he breathed his last, lamented, was that despite challenging irreligion, he found that irreligion cemented its greatest stronghold in politics.
In fact Gandhi entered politics to fight irreligion. He also accepted the fact that he might not be absolutely accurate as regards his words used—hallmark of a true great.
“My religion has no geographical boundaries,” he explained to Kakasaheb Kalekar once. “If I have a living faith in it, it will transcend my love for India herself,” said Gandhi. It was that brand of religion that taught to believe absolutely in the soul and rely solely on soul force for fighting all the ills in human hearts or in human society.
Truth for him was God. And non-violence or soul force, his only, means of fighting the ills of life. He was not a nationalist in the narrow parochial sense in which the word is used.
Gandhi was at pains to explain to the American writer Jeanette Eaton that his nationalism in reality intense internationalism. “Our nationalism can be no peril to other nations inasmuch as we will exploit none, just as we allow none to exploit us.”
In her Gandhi: Fighter Without A Sword, Eaton narrates that the greatest influence of Gandhi on her was Gandhi’s notions on oneness of the world.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad in his India Wins Freedom states that Gandhiji is universally acknowledged as the greatest man of his age simply for the reason that despite affecting the destiny of the whole sub-continent, he held no high office nor was he a statesman ruling the destinies of countries.
He supported the Muslims in the Khilafat campaign and agitated for the release from the prison of the Ali Brothers. It was at this time too that the Kahdi movement was inaugurated. Because he possessed such an enlightened and secular world-view, he unhesitatingly advocated the causes of Hindu-Muslim unity, social progress, religious tolerance, spread of modern knowledge, individual liberty and above all, educational reforms.
Duty to Gandhi was of paramount importance. He said, “Duties to self, to the family, to the country and to the world are not independent of one another. One cannot do good to the country by injuring the world at large.
Gandhiji and his companions like Pandit Nehru, Sardar Patel and Maulana Azad were truly simple and principled people as to them politics was a noble job. Compare it to the gorgeous and lavish lifestyles of our politicians today and the way they pile up assets and mint currency.
Decorating their walls with Gandhi portraits, they make readable scam stories with suit cases, uniforms, diaries, telephones, fodder for animals, gas agencies, petrol pumps, women journalists’ murders and the list is exhaustive including the Tehelka imbroglio a couple of years ago and the fiendish communal impasse in places like Godhra and later the whole of Gujarat. We just hope there won’t be many more in future.
The teachings of Gandhi still relevant today, will remain for posterity and his wider significance to a world torn with violence may yet await their fulfillment.
(The author is a commentator on social, educational and political issues, grandnephew of Maulana Azad and can be contacted at firozbakhtahmed08@gmail.com)
