Gandhiji’s leadership led to healthy and democratic relations between the leaders and the led and also between the different levels of leaders themselves. He never considered the British as the enemy, although he was opposed to colonial rule. He was in fact a true humanist. We cannot dispute many of Gandhiji’s ideas, such as the fight for peace, liberty and humanity, rural reconstruction, growth of indigenous techniques and manufacturing works, maintaining the traditional values and so on in this age of civil unrest, growing violence, and degrading sense of human values, immorality and corruption.
This is not to suggest that Gandhi should be worshipped and deified. But humanity can learn much from his ideas even today in his 150th birth anniversary. Gandhi also showed us how to accept an ideology different from his own for the cause of the motherland when he recognized the leftist and the socialist strands within the Congress. Being a rightist, he accepted the leftist ideology in the Congress. This proves his greatness that can hardly be found in today’s politicians. His socio-political ideology had an accommodative character combined with peace, harmony and plurality. Interest in Gandhi’s thought and action is on the increase and his message appears to be uniquely relevant not only in India but across the world. The point is how one understands Gandhiji. In many ways, he has turned out to be an enigma.
It is often argued that Gandhi’s days are over and Gandhism is now in a moribund condition. Even the Indian state has hardly supported seriously the Gandhian- style constructive programme from the 1950s. Yet his ideas and approaches have been repeatedly carried out in many of the movements launched in the years following India’s independence. They had strongly influenced the Sarvodaya, Bhoodan and Gramdan movements in the 1950s when Gandhian-style village council or panchayats were set up.
Vinobha Bhave and Jayaprakash Narayan steadfastly followed Gandhism in these movements, though their impact was found to be marginal. In response to the Congress’ rejection of Gandhi’s proposal for the replacement of the party by the Lok Sevak Sangh (Association for the Service of the People) in 1948, Bhave had set up the Sarvodaya Samaj as an alternative. Despite a declining phase in the 1960s, there was a resurgence of Gandhian- style activism with the’new social movements’, such as protest against corruption, demand for lower-class emancipation, women’s rights and environmental protection from the 1970s.
The new social movements criticized the administration for its failure to establish true democracy in India that could have led to real development of the people and to provide the poor and the destitute with the essential resources. The JP movement against the corruption of Indira Gandhi’s government (1973) and the women’s anti-liquor movement and the movement for land rights for women in the 1970s and 1980s used Gandhian techniques.
Gandhian constructive work was manifest both in rural and urban India. For instance, a successful struggle by self-employed women was organised in Ahmedabad in 1972 when Ela Bhatt founded the Self-Employed Women’s Association, extending its activities from building up cooperatives to the maintenance of communal harmony. Gandhi has been regarded as an inspiring figure in the Chipko movement that demonstrated moral courage against the corrupt administration, which was exploiting the people and the environment, and civil disobedience including physical prevention of treefelling.
The movement was successful because it forced the government to ban commercial forestry at a height above a thousand metres in the Himalayas for 15 years from 1980. Gandhism also had a bearing on the Narmada Bachao Andolan led by the Gandhians like Baba Amte and Medha Patkar. This was not only a movement for environmental protection but was also geared to protect the people’s right to livelihood, a question of civil rights for which Gandhi fought throughout his life. India’s’Iron Lady’, Irom Chanu Sharmila’s spirited resistance to the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act through the hunger strike from 2000 to 2016 mirrors the relevance of the Gandhian method of struggle even in the present century.
More importantly, Gandhian-style march (padayatra) has been demonstrated by many a political leader in the recent past, obviously to achieve their political objectives. Gandhi has become the symbol of the struggle for liberty and humanity in the world. We may refer to the struggle of the Sicilian aristocrat, Joseph Jean Lanza Del Vasto, a scholarly Christian idealist and a true follower of Gandhiji who christened him Shantidas (servant of peace). He was actively involved in French politics in 1957, fasting for twenty days in protest against the torture of Algerians by the French. Gandhi’s legacy was followed in many parts of Europe from the 1950s in the anti-nuclear movement.
He demanded an end to it and consolidation of peace and harmony in the world. Gandhi’s doctrine of non-violence was exemplified by many moral activists like Martin Luther King. One of the most illustrious examples of the use of the Gandhian technique is the movement of Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar. She had led a nonviolent movement from 1988 against the ruthless military junta. Gandhi’s relevance in today’s world ought to be considered on the basis of the nuances of his political methods and struggle for civil rights. The Mahatma provides an answer to global tension and conflict.
All of this proves that the Gandhian agenda had a strong appeal to the socio-political and moral activists in India and abroad. This is not to say that their movements were altogether successful. Many of them did not have any remarkable impact. But the relevance of Gandhian methods cannot be denied. There is strength yet in Gandhi’s ideology and it still inspires many. Recently, in a letter to the Editor of The Statesman in connection with an article titled’Not against Science’, the writer asserted that in today’s complex geopolitical scenario, Gandhiji’s ideology has little relevance.
Political, social and cultural changes have been taking place in human society for centuries, but still people read Plato, Shakespeare, and Rabindranath because they are relevant; many are still keen to know the ideas and thoughts of Rammohan, Vidyasagar and Vivekananda. If we don’t find relevance in their ideology and works, it is our deficiency. Many people still believe in Gandhiji for his spiritual influence, and they are still ready to carry out his legacy.
(Concluded)
(The writer is Professor of History, University of Burdwan)