Unpacking Gandhi’s seven social sins
The philosophy of a government, incumbent president, individual minister, parliamentary portfolio committee, lecturer, parliamentarian or great personality like Gandhi can produce a significant impact on how a nation’s knowledge base and governance milieu
WE OFTEN hear that “interest is the mother of attention and attention is the mother of memory”. I have this extraordinary tendency of paying attention to new things. I love to institutionalise memory. I am privileged to be one of those who enjoy the worlds of politics, philosophy and law.
I have chosen Mahatma Gandhi because he was a great philosopher, politician and lawyer. I am writing about the impact of his seven deadly social sins on the law and politics. Of course some argue that Gandhi simply developed the sermon of Lewis Donaldson which was preached around 1925. At least Gandhi was not like those who treat other faiths as fantasy and reduce religion to meaningless rituals practised mindlessly.
Mohandas Gandhi’s admonition, or borrowed warning if you want, was written to the world in the form of seven social sins. Chief among them is “politics without principle”. We have seen the Mnangagwa administration through the new principle that no one is above the political party. The primary elections have done away with the Orwellian democratic principle of “some animals are more equal than others”.
Politicians in any political party or those who want to participate under the tag of independent candidates must always demonstrate their principles which unite them to the local and national electorate. One such principle is the need to show that they won’t be violent before and when elected.
We have recently learnt through social media that Jessie Majome is pulling out of her party’s primary elections because of certain personal principles. If that is true, we wait to see how long-serving politicians across the political divide can continue to transform the face of politics in this country and beyond. Alternatively, did she read into the results of the ZANU-PF primaries where long-serving members were elbowed out?
Elsewhere, we have witnessed factions and factional wars within political parties. We have witnessed resignations by politicians only for them to resurface under new political leadership. We have witnessed governments of national unity; splits of political parties; marriages of inconvenience between or among political parties; and so forth. In all this, we demand ”politics with principle”.
Gandhi also warned us of the existence of “wealth without work”. We have heard of lifestyle audits that never were. We have established corruption courts, one, two or three, and that’s fine. We have at least shown that we are committed to ending impunity in political and administrative corruption. I once asked whether these courts are some kind of new wine. How are they different from our ordinary courts? We still wait to evaluate the efficacy of these courts but strongly hope that they will not be politicised. Those who man them must not be at dressing training.
Gandhi also warns against”‘commerce without morality”. The problems associated with cash shortages are biting the common man: everywhere it’s about 20 percent additional rate for those paying through swipe or EcoCash, Telecash or Nettcash. Those who saved their salaries in United States dollars before the cash crisis cannot access their cash in that currency.
Where is Gandhi’s warning about “pleasure without conscience” or “education without character”. We read and hear that congregants are being fleeced of their hard-earned monies. Pastor, priest, prophet, teacher, evangelist, bishop and so forth are maligned. Who gives heed to Gandhi’s “worship without sacrifice”?
But Gandhi’s warning against “science without humanity” must be taken seriously. When I was growing up, I would just see medical personnel and school authorities harming us under the guise of compulsory immunisation. In this country where we haven’t entrenched a right to health, the Ministry of Heath must warn parents and advise them and own up when children die or are hospitalised during mass immunisation programmes.
It must work with faculties of law in Zimbabwe to teach medical law. Medical personnel, school authorities, parents, church institutions and schoolchildren must be warned beforehand on immunisation programmes.
We have recently heard about cultivation of cannabis for medicinal purposes. Zimbabwe is writhing in agony because of parental and juvenile delinquency related to the use of dagga (also known as weed, Nigerian grass, hem, mbanje, dhobho, muzii, mashizha, and so forth depending on the community using it).
The statutory instrument on the legalisation of a special species of cannabis must be revisited in line with the national laws on health. It is regrettable that this instrument was passed before the completion of the reform of laws on public health. The minister and parliamentarians may have debated and provided explanations through radio platforms but they must do more as contemplated by the Constitution.
Our Constitution ends on the right to basic health care and not right to health. Basic health care doesn’t need an explanation - it’s basic. What will be the economic and health implications of those who grow and smoke it simultaneously? What does it mean to say “medicinal purposes”?
Who is qualified to administer such medicine; the farmer or the medical personnel? Well, the licensing authority perhaps canvassed this in its licences for growers and researchers. We wait to scrutinise the licences. What we know at the moment is that the recent statutory instrument speaks highly to growers and researchers but does not do so highly on why smokers, religious groups like Rastafarians, and traditionalists can be protected.
We must not forget that each instrument must not be ultra vires the enabling legislation and the Constitution. We hope to see researches and expert presentations on how the new science on dagga, for instance, will improve humanity in Zimbabwe and beyond our borders. We also wait to see writings on the extent to which the cannabis instrument fits into national health laws and the Constitution.
Those who want to understand Gandhi’s philosophy in detail can also read the explanations by Gandhi’s grandson, Arun. I have learnt that Arun was given the notes on the seven sins about three months before his grandfather was shot by a Hindu extremist, Nathuram Godse. This is how the world lost a non-violent politician and Indian nationalist.
Essentially, the philosophical work of Gandhi basically enables social groups to see the relationship between disciplines such as law and politics in a grand way. Free choices and methods of understanding or standing under different ways of doing politics or the law are made in marathon or some other ways. The philosophy of a government, incumbent president, individual minister, parliamentary portfolio committee, lecturer, parliamentarian or great personality like Gandhi can produce a significant impact on how a nation’s knowledge base and governance milieu are organised. Read the full article on www. herald.co.zw