Gandhi’s teachings live on
Monday marked the 69th anniversary of the “physical assassination” of Mahatma Gandhi, but his legacy will hopefully never be overshadowed by the pen of his many character assassins, writes his granddaughter, Ela Gandhi
LOUIS Fischer, one of thousands of biographers of Gandhiji, starts his book, The
Life of Mahatma Gandhi, with a poignant description of the moments before and after the assassin’s bullets struck Mahatma Gandhi on January, 30, 1948, as he was walking towards his seat for his regular evening prayers.
Usually punctual to the second, that day he was 10 minutes late. Engrossed in serious political discussions with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the deputy prime minister of the new government of independent India, he had neglected to keep an eye on the time. However, he quickly rose to go to prayers when his attention was drawn to the time by his granddaughter-in-law, Abha Gandhi.
Before he reached his seat, a man from the huge crowd pushed people aside and barged in front of Gandhiji as if to bow and touch his feet, while Gandhiji had his palms together in the traditional Hindu greeting.
At close range, the man pulled out a small pistol and fired three shots, fatally injuring Gandhiji, who before collapsing uttered the name of a Hindu deity, “He Ram”. Gandhiji was carried back to his room by those around him.
Thousands at the prayers were shocked, and both deeply saddened and puzzled at this cruel assassination. According to Hindu custom the funeral was set for the next day, and millions braved their way to the funeral.
Dignitaries from all over the world flew to Delhi. Fischer describes the people’s grief: “It was as though the three bullets that entered his body had pierced the flesh of 10 of millions… Never in history has any man been mourned more deeply and more widely.”
Fischer quotes Albert Einstein, who said: “Gandhi had demonstrated that a powerful human following can be assembled not only through the cunning game of the usual political manoeuvres and trickeries but through the cogent example of a morally superior conduct of life.
“In our time of utter moral decadence he was the only statesman to stand for a higher human relationship in the political sphere.”
Albert Deutsch, says Fischer, declared in the New York newspaper PM: “There is still some hope for the world which reacted as reverently as it did to the death of Gandhi… Gandhi made humility and simple truth more powerful than empires.”
Entering the spirit of that day and time makes one think what Gandhiji stood for and how it impacts on us today. How do we feel when we hear these words?
Of course, in recent times he is being assassinated again over and over. Yet there are millions around the world who still mourn his assassination and cannot comprehend why the need for the repeated character assassination.
They see the present decay in our society and know that if there is one thing that can save humankind from a path to annihilation, it is to follow the Gandhian teachings. As Gandhiji said, they are as old as the hills and he did not originate these values, but only placed them before us as tools for living towards a life of peace, justice, equity, compassion, conservation, living close to nature, simplicity, piety and non-violence among other things.
CONSTRUCTIVE PROGRAMME OR SARVODAYA
There were many turning points in Gandhiji’s life.
One was the incident in Pietermaritzburg when he took the decision to stay and fight discrimination and prejudice.
But Gandhiji’s legacy is beyond fighting against injustices. He began to see that each one of us needs to change our lives so that we can bring about real changes which would transform the lives of all people.
His emphasis was on all. At that time and even today many believe in the majoritarian philosophy of Bentham. According to this philosophy, some people on this Earth will remain poor and suffer and we cannot do anything about them.
We need to take care of the majority of people. Does this ring a bell today, when we look around the world and our own country?
In order to achieve this, Gandhiji advocated localised industrial development as well as a government where people can produce to meet their own needs and lead a simple but comfortable life.
In this way all can enjoy a higher level of life together and not by exploiting others.
Localised industrial development would also afford opportunities to everyone for employment as well as occupations.
ENVIRONMENTAL CARE AND CASTE
Gandhi’s propagation of Ruskin’s philosophy that all work must have the same value, whether sweeping the street or defending a person in court, would also lead to equity.
His assertion that everyone must work to the best of their abilities and take pride in their work no matter how menial, has been misinterpreted by his critics as being a statement applying to the lower caste, who in India perform menial jobs and are treated with contempt.
He resented this notion of people treating others with contempt. But at the same time he was meticulous about sanitary habits and cleanliness. The difference between his approach and that of his critics is that Gandhiji never prescribed to anyone.
At the first Congress meeting which he attended in India, he found the ablution facilities in a filthy state and he volunteered to keep them clean. Throughout the conference he personally cleaned these facilities.
He did not prescribe to the “lower castes” or feel that these jobs should not be performed by the “higher castes”. Is this not a clear testimony of his opposition to practices of caste discrimination? But his critics have interpreted this to mean that he was admonishing the “bhangis” for not doing their jobs properly and prescribing to them when he wrote about the ideal bhangi.
If one ventures beyond the title, one would find that he was talking about the job and not a cast.
About Tolstoy farm he wrote: “In spite of the large number of settlers, one could not find refuse or dirt anywhere on the Farm. All rubbish was buried in trenches sunk for the purpose. No water was permitted to be thrown on the roads. All waste water was collected in buckets and used to water the trees. Leavings of food and vegetable refuse were utilised as manure.
“A square pit one foot and a half deep was sunk near the house to receive the night soil, which was fully covered with the excavated earth and which therefore did not give out any smell.
“There were no flies, and no one would imagine that night soil had been buried there... If night soil was properly utilised, we would get manure worth lakhs of rupees and also secure immunity from a number of diseases.
“By our bad habits we spoil our sacred river banks and furnish excellent breeding ground for flies, with the result that the very flies which through criminal negligence settle upon uncovered night soil defile our bodies after we have bathed.”
He practised this in 1910. Today we speak about conservation and waste management to protect our environment, yet we daily see mismanagement of waste, filth being strewn and no community support or education on how we can keep our neighbourhoods clean and free of pollution.
Is this perhaps because we expect others to clean up behind us?
Gandhiji taught us to engage in these tasks ourselves and do them well. If we heeded his warning, we would not be worrying about environmental pollution today.
SELF-SUFFICIENCY
Like Dr John Dube and Rev Isiahia Shembe, Gandhiji was concerned about people not having work and advocated home industry.
The charkha (spinning wheel) symbolises his economic philosophy of creating mechanisms for people to be gainfully occupied all year round. Parts of India are so handicapped by the monsoon season that they are unable to farm during that time.
They should have other occupations and the spinning wheel represents that kind of economy, where people in their neighbourhoods are not only gainfully occupied, but these jobs are valued.
MEDIATION RATHER THAN ADVERSARIAL PRACTICE
About lawyers and other professionals, Gandhiji said: “I had learnt the true practice of law. I had learnt to find out the better side of human nature and to enter men’s hearts. I realised that the true function of a lawyer was to unite parties riven asunder.
“The lesson was so indelibly burnt into me, that a large part of my time during the 20 years of my practice as a lawyer was occupied in bringing about private compromises of hundreds of cases.”
About doctors, he advocated that we spend time to find healthy ways of living and create conditions of good health, rather than simply engage in finding cures for ill health.
Compassion and nonviolence are well-known facets of his life, which are of absolute importance in our cruel, violent, uncaring society where abuse of vulnerable people, animals and the environment has become commonplace.
Our humane instinct is fast being replaced by materialism and selfishness.
This year marks the 69th anniversary of his physical assassination. As Vasu Gounden said: “People die but ideas live on.”
We can only hope that the powerful gifts of the Gandhian legacy will never be overshadowed by the character assassin’s pen.
Perhaps it is my own despair at present trends, but I am reminded of the story that says when we lose faith in humanity, we lose faith in God and in ourselves.
Let us never lose hope.