Mahatma Gandhi
sketch by Mali
Links:
www.mahatma.org
this is the "official" site. It is dedicated to Gandhiji by his grandson Tushar
Gandhi. The site has excellent information on Gandhiji.
Other sites of note are:
There are men that others hold up as role models or paragons, to draw inspiration from, but to me Gandhiji transcends all that. He was a man who united India for the first time for one cause. But to do that he did not stand on the podium and give speeches, he did not rile up the masses or play on their sentiments to rally support for what he believed in. He did not lead people to use them for his glory. He inspired people to follow him. He went into towns and villages and entered people's homes and found a place in their hearts. He led them by inspiring their love for him, like love for a father. He was not called Bapu because of a clever PR campaign. He was called that because of the love that people of India felt for him. He became to be called 'Father of the Nation' not because he led us to independence. He was called that even before we won independence from the British.
He was a wiry old man and wore just one piece of cloth. He was often stubborn and headstrong, but he was compassionate and loving. He loved all people and his love was inclusive. He loved the rich, the poor, the lepers, the untouchables, the Hindus, the Muslims, the criminal and the righteous. Once he said, "Whenever I see an erring man, I say to myself I have also erred; when I see a lustful man I say to myself, so was I once; and in this way I feel kinship with everyone in the world and feel that I cannot be happy without the humblest of us being happy." His struggles to uphold what he believed in, his values, are well known. He constantly strove to improve himself and tried to make people around him better. He inspired people to be better than they were. Be kinder, be stronger, be strong willed and believe in the good and the God. He wept at the state of India and Indians under the British and fought. He started on the path of resistance, people joined him and it became a movement.
At the time when the independence movement was foundering and did not have the support of the people of India, Gandhiji came. He went to the people of India, 85% of whom lived in villages and small towns and he was able to inspire them to follow him. Gandhiji became the essence of the movement which was identified through him. He held sway over the hearts of 350 million Indians who willingly bore British bullets and lathi-charge, bled and died for one cause. For those of you who are not from India and even ones who are from India can scarcely imagine the divisions that existed in Indian society, politics and economy in early 1900s. You think things are bad now with communalism and regionalism? Try and imagine 100 years ago without the means of travel and communication that exist today and bring Indians together and keep Indians in one part of the country informed about countrymen in other parts. Gandhiji united us all for one cause and under one flag. He included everyone because he loved everyone. He made people in Mysore care about the plight of the Indigo farmers in Bengal. He made people sit up and notice that we are one nation with similar problems and similar aspirations. He was able to inspire Indian nationalism in the hearts of a people that had never before, ever, been one nation. The idea that it was the British that made the subcontinent one country is laughable. The British did put the land mass under one yoke, but that didn't give the people one identity. India was never one country under the British. There were numerous principalities and kingdoms under the British and they never lost a chance to exploit the regional and religious differences among us. Gandhiji united India as one country, people felt in their hearts that we are one and no religion, caste, language or regional barrier can stand among us.
The greatness of Gandhiji was his simplicity. He gave the country his all. We are forever indebted to this great man and thankful that he lived among us. Not meaning to say that Bapu was an avtar I quote verse 7 and 8 from the 4th chapter in Bhagvad Gita because they seem to fit.
"Whenever & wherever a
decline of righteousness and a dominence of unrighteousness prevails,
at that time I manifest myself, O' descendent of Bharat.
For the protection of the devotees and the annihilation of the miscreants ,
and to re-establish righteousness, I appear millennium after millennium."
Gandhiji - 7 years old
Gandhiji - a barrister in South Africa
Gandhiji with Kasturba
Gandhiji at a spinning wheel
created by Hemu