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Gandhi: Difference between revisions
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He soon gained some degree of success and the reputation as the most honest lawyer in town. But that was far from satisfying him. "The problem of further simplifying my life and of doing some concrete act of service to my fellow-men [was] constantly agitating me.”<ref>Ibid., p. 97.</ref> | He soon gained some degree of success and the reputation as the most honest lawyer in town. But that was far from satisfying him. "The problem of further simplifying my life and of doing some concrete act of service to my fellow-men [was] constantly agitating me.”<ref>Ibid., p. 97.</ref> | ||
Soon Gandhi’s religious striving reached its peak. Sampling creeds and doctrines of both East and West, he read avidly: the Koran, ''The New Interpretation of the Bible,'' and was “overwhelmed” by Tolstoy’s ''The Kingdom of God is Within You''. Still, he wrote, “I could not accept Christianity either as a perfect, or the greatest religion, neither was I then convinced of Hinduism being such.”<ref>'Experiments with Truth'', p. 119.</ref> | Soon Gandhi’s religious striving reached its peak. Sampling creeds and doctrines of both East and West, he read avidly: the Koran, ''The New Interpretation of the Bible,'' and was “overwhelmed” by Tolstoy’s ''The Kingdom of God is Within You''. Still, he wrote, “I could not accept Christianity either as a perfect, or the greatest religion, neither was I then convinced of Hinduism being such.”<ref>''Experiments with Truth'', p. 119.</ref> | ||
In 1896, Gandhi returned to India for six months to fetch his wife and family. Once settled in South Africa, “I found myself entirely absorbed in the service of the community. The reason behind it was my desire for self-realization. I had made the religion of service my own.”<ref>Ibid., p. 139.</ref> He even nursed a leper with his own hands. | In 1896, Gandhi returned to India for six months to fetch his wife and family. Once settled in South Africa, “I found myself entirely absorbed in the service of the community. The reason behind it was my desire for self-realization. I had made the religion of service my own.”<ref>Ibid., p. 139.</ref> He even nursed a leper with his own hands. | ||
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[[File:Gandhi Salt March.jpg|thumb|Gandhi during the Salt March (1930)]] | [[File:Gandhi Salt March.jpg|thumb|Gandhi during the Salt March (1930)]] | ||
After 1927, he again began campaigning for ''Swaraj''—alternating between jail, political activity, protest through fasting, and ashram life. If Gandhi campaigned wholeheartedly for ''Swaraj'', then he campaigned “wholesouledly” for the eradication of untouchability. “Swaraj is a meaningless term, if we desire to keep a fifth of India under perpetual subjugation and deliberately deny to them the fruits of national culture.” | After 1927, he again began campaigning for ''Swaraj''—alternating between jail, political activity, protest through fasting, and ashram life. If Gandhi campaigned wholeheartedly for ''Swaraj'', then he campaigned “wholesouledly” for the eradication of untouchability. “Swaraj is a meaningless term, if we desire to keep a fifth of India under perpetual subjugation and deliberately deny to them the fruits of national culture.”<ref>''Young India'', May 25, 1921.</ref> | ||
People of all castes flocked to him, worshiping their Mahatma—yet Gandhi had a horror of idolatry. Once he received a report that a temple had been constructed in his honor. He became incensed and demanded that the idol be removed and the building converted to a spinning center. | People of all castes flocked to him, worshiping their Mahatma—yet Gandhi had a horror of idolatry. Once he received a report that a temple had been constructed in his honor. He became incensed and demanded that the idol be removed and the building converted to a spinning center. | ||
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The subsequent mass riots between Hindu and Muslim, interrupted momentarily by Gandhi’s last fast, were among the most sanguinary in history and seemed to be the ultimate defeat of ''Satyagraha'' and thus of Gandhi. So when, on January 30, 1948, Gandhi was struck down by a Hindu assassin’s bullet, it was seen as the culmination of his failure. | The subsequent mass riots between Hindu and Muslim, interrupted momentarily by Gandhi’s last fast, were among the most sanguinary in history and seemed to be the ultimate defeat of ''Satyagraha'' and thus of Gandhi. So when, on January 30, 1948, Gandhi was struck down by a Hindu assassin’s bullet, it was seen as the culmination of his failure. | ||
Perhaps some would cite as his greatest fault his inability to reconcile himself to the belief that anyone could be the relentless embodiment of evil—even to the death of his dreams and his dharma in that frail form. Thus he did not take strong measures against Jinnah. His system had no immediate answer for such a confrontation with the enemy of his life’s mission—except a recess until the next round in the next life when karma as the Law of Love—outplayed in the effects set in motion by his cause—would afford him another opportunity—this time to love and win. | Perhaps some would cite as his greatest fault his inability to reconcile himself to the belief that anyone could be the relentless embodiment of evil—even to the death of his dreams and his dharma in that frail form. Thus he did not take strong measures against Jinnah. His system had no immediate answer for such a confrontation with the enemy of his life’s mission—except a recess until the next round in the next life when karma as the Law of Love—outplayed in the effects set in motion by his cause—would afford him another opportunity—this time to love and win. | ||
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This revelation did not prompt Gandhi to withdraw from a corrupt civilization to a Himalayan cave. On the contrary, it catapulted him into the very midst of his people. In fact, his career as a politician was born out of a love of God—the God who walked and worked the earth in the hearts of His people. Gandhi wrote: | This revelation did not prompt Gandhi to withdraw from a corrupt civilization to a Himalayan cave. On the contrary, it catapulted him into the very midst of his people. In fact, his career as a politician was born out of a love of God—the God who walked and worked the earth in the hearts of His people. Gandhi wrote: | ||
<blockquote>Man’s ultimate aim is the realization of God, and all his activities, social, political, religious, have to be guided by the ultimate aim of the vision of God. The immediate service of all human beings becomes a necessary part of the endeavour simply because the only way to find God is to see Him in His creation and be one with it. This can only be done by service of all.</blockquote> | <blockquote>Man’s ultimate aim is the realization of God, and all his activities, social, political, religious, have to be guided by the ultimate aim of the vision of God. The immediate service of all human beings becomes a necessary part of the endeavour simply because the only way to find God is to see Him in His creation and be one with it. This can only be done by service of all.<ref>''Young India'', May 25, 1921.</ref></blockquote> | ||
The people, as he found them, were much in need of service. In 1910, it was not in vogue to condemn modern industrial civilization. Yet Gandhi’s critique was scathing—a “soulless system” which was violent, full of inequities, narcissistic and which made “bodily welfare the object of life.” | The people, as he found them, were much in need of service. In 1910, it was not in vogue to condemn modern industrial civilization. Yet Gandhi’s critique was scathing—a “soulless system” which was violent, full of inequities, narcissistic and which made “bodily welfare the object of life.”<ref>Mahatma Gandhi, Louis Fischer, ed., ''The Essential Gandhi: His Life, Work, and Ideas: An Anthology'' (Vintage Books, 1962), p. 121.</ref> | ||
Gandhi was equally thorough in his indictment of the sinister materialism of both capitalism and communism. “Gandhi was the first thinker to see clearly what was common to European capitalism and Communist Russia,” observed Dr. Raghavan Iyer, a political scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “He easily extended his attack on modern civilization, the gospel of material progress, and the glorification of violence, to cover Soviet civilization as well as the capitalist countries.” | Gandhi was equally thorough in his indictment of the sinister materialism of both capitalism and communism. “Gandhi was the first thinker to see clearly what was common to European capitalism and Communist Russia,” observed Dr. Raghavan Iyer, a political scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “He easily extended his attack on modern civilization, the gospel of material progress, and the glorification of violence, to cover Soviet civilization as well as the capitalist countries.”<ref>Raghavan N. Iyer, ''The Moral and Political Thought of Mahatma Gandhi'' (Oxford University Press, 1973), p. 34.</ref> | ||
However, on close examination, it is apparent that Gandhi was not opposed to machines, technology, wealth, or any other single component of “civilization | However, on close examination, it is apparent that Gandhi was not opposed to machines, technology, wealth, or any other single component of “civilization,” or even all of these factors taken together. What he opposed, as Dr. Iyer points out, was “ruthless mechanization, the Midas-complex and power-mania.”<ref>Ibid., p. 36.</ref> Gandhi feared India would become seduced by transplanted economic exploitation, or worse, debilitating material comforts. He wrote in ''Hind Swaraj'': | ||
<blockquote>It would be folly to assume that an Indian Rockefeller would be better than the American Rockefeller. Impoverished India can become free, but it will be hard for any India made rich through immorality to regain its freedom.</blockquote> | <blockquote>It would be folly to assume that an Indian Rockefeller would be better than the American Rockefeller. Impoverished India can become free, but it will be hard for any India made rich through immorality to regain its freedom.<ref>Mahatma Gandhi, ''Hind Swaraj'' (Delhi: Rajpal & Sons, 2010), p. 76.</ref></blockquote> | ||
He would have to find new rules and discover a new social order to prevent India from “being ground down, not under the English heel, but under that of modern civilization” which was causing India to turn “away from God.” In both the capitalist and communist worlds, power and wealth—and hence the tendency to exploit—gravitated to the top and concentrated in a few hands in urban centers. | He would have to find new rules and discover a new social order to prevent India from “being ground down, not under the English heel, but under that of modern civilization” which was causing India to turn “away from God.”<ref>Iibid., p. 33.</ref> In both the capitalist and communist worlds, power and wealth—and hence the tendency to exploit—gravitated to the top and concentrated in a few hands in urban centers. | ||
Gandhi’s solution was an obvious one. Turn the whole structure on its head. “Independence must begin at the bottom,” he declared. He would start with the individual as the hub of the village and the village as the hub of society, and build from there. | Gandhi’s solution was an obvious one. Turn the whole structure on its head. “Independence must begin at the bottom,”<ref>Mahatma Gandhi, ''India of My Dreams'' (Delhi: Rajpal & Sons, 2008), p. 99.</ref> he declared. He would start with the individual as the hub of the village and the village as the hub of society, and build from there. | ||
The spinning wheel permeated one of his few sketches of the future “Gandhian” society in which he described a highly decentralized government of limited powers, where “every village will be a republic or ''panchayat'' having full powers.” | The spinning wheel permeated one of his few sketches of the future “Gandhian” society in which he described a highly decentralized government of limited powers, where “every village will be a republic or ''panchayat'' having full powers.”<ref>Ibid.</ref> | ||
[[File:Gandhi spinning.jpg|thumb|Gandhi with his spinning wheel (late 1940s)]] | [[File:Gandhi spinning.jpg|thumb|Gandhi with his spinning wheel (late 1940s)]] | ||
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<blockquote>It follows, therefore, that every village has to be self-sustained and capable of managing its affairs even to the extent of defending itself against the whole world. It will be trained and prepared to perish in the attempt to defend itself against any onslaught from without. Thus, ultimately, it is the individual who is the unit....</blockquote> | <blockquote>It follows, therefore, that every village has to be self-sustained and capable of managing its affairs even to the extent of defending itself against the whole world. It will be trained and prepared to perish in the attempt to defend itself against any onslaught from without. Thus, ultimately, it is the individual who is the unit....</blockquote> | ||
<blockquote>In this structure composed of innumerable villages, there will be ever-widening, never-ascending circles. Life will not be a pyramid with the apex sustained by the bottom. But it will be an oceanic circle whose centre will be the individual always ready to perish for the village, the latter ready to perish for the circle of villages, till at last the whole becomes one life composed of individuals, never aggressive in their arrogance but ever humble, sharing the majesty of the oceanic circle of which they are integral units.</blockquote> | <blockquote>In this structure composed of innumerable villages, there will be ever-widening, never-ascending circles. Life will not be a pyramid with the apex sustained by the bottom. But it will be an oceanic circle whose centre will be the individual always ready to perish for the village, the latter ready to perish for the circle of villages, till at last the whole becomes one life composed of individuals, never aggressive in their arrogance but ever humble, sharing the majesty of the oceanic circle of which they are integral units.<ref>Ibid., pp. 99–100.</ref></blockquote> | ||
Some rejected the metaphysical nature of his scheme. Gandhi anticipated his critics: “I may be taunted,” he wrote, “that this is all Utopian and, therefore, not worth a single thought.” | Some rejected the metaphysical nature of his scheme. Gandhi anticipated his critics: “I may be taunted,” he wrote, “that this is all Utopian and, therefore, not worth a single thought.”<ref>Ibid., p. 100.</ref> | ||
But he believed that it was necessary for the goal of the political order to be lofty, even unreachable, for progress to occur, and countered, “If Euclid’s point, though incapable of being drawn by human agency, has an imperishable value, my picture has its own for mankind to live.” | But he believed that it was necessary for the goal of the political order to be lofty, even unreachable, for progress to occur, and countered, “If Euclid’s point, though incapable of being drawn by human agency, has an imperishable value, my picture has its own for mankind to live.”<ref>Ibid.</ref> | ||
But if the goal is unreachable in the short run, it lays out a framework for developing nations that when adhered to will enfranchise the people, yield political stability, and produce long-term economic growth without forcing the government to seek outside aid from East or West. In short, with this plan a nation can retain control of its own destiny. | But if the goal is unreachable in the short run, it lays out a framework for developing nations that when adhered to will enfranchise the people, yield political stability, and produce long-term economic growth without forcing the government to seek outside aid from East or West. In short, with this plan a nation can retain control of its own destiny. | ||