Gandhian Values and its Relevance to me as a Future Leader
Amidst the atmosphere of tension, violence, differences of opinion, unemployment and inflation globally, today the question is being raised again and again about the relevance of Gandhian philosophy which is based on truth and non-violence. Anyhow, most of the people who oppose Gandhi’s thoughts, unfortunately, are Indians and not foreigners. These people did not feel the relevance of Gandhian thoughts even when he was alive. This feeling of disagreement with Gandhian philosophy resulted in his assassination.
Society is going through a degraded phase which should be revoked so that humanity sustains in this world for centuries. Today when we are surrounded by the forces of darkness, we need a leader like Gandhi, a man of rare courage, character, and charisma, who dares to tell the truth, who can overcome violence with nonviolence, and who shows us the way to light. Gandhi and his twin principles of satya (truth) and ahimsa (nonviolence) are more relevant today than any other time in human history, and the Gandhian style of satyagraha seems to be the only potent and pragmatic, moral equivalent of war in these troubled times.
Gandhi not only said but showed us the way that, “nonviolence is infinitely superior to violence,” and the soul-force is far more potent than the brute-force. Gandhi was in favour of using the thoughts against the arms and not the arms against the arms, to fight injustice and inequality. He gave an armament to the humanity in which there was no need to raise arms or make enemies. He believed in changing the society with his thoughts and not with the power or force.
After the heavy destruction of property and lives in the World War II, when there was no good in the war, at last in 1945, the United Nations Organisation made declaration according to the thoughts of Gandhi. That was, ‘ to any problem so all problems should be solved through mutual discussions’. All the members of the UNO signed this peace proposal. President of United States, Obama, has been inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. Obama has fixed a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi in his office, where he is seen conveying the message of peace.
Obama is impressed with those great philosophies of Gandhi in which Gandhi inspired the world society to face the crushing policies with peaceful ones. Obama accepts Gandhi as his idol and took inspiration from the picture of Gandhi in his office. He says that this picture of Gandhi always reminds him that true results don’t come from Washington but from the public. Obama says that Gandhi was to select an alternative while getting India free from the British rule, & he selected courage in place of fear.
Obama, who talks of the Great change in the world & finds solution of the problems while following the path of nonviolence, is feeling the relevance of Gandhian ideals in this age of violence & terrorism. Gandhi being a worshipper of non-violence clearly understood that violence is no solution for any problem. As the terrorism and violence are widespread in the world today, there seems relevance of Gandhian principles everywhere. Almost all the countries of the world including America are facing the severest economic recession since World War II. Gandhiji was against the big industries and was worried about the increasing industrialization.
He used to call the set up of industrialization as ‘satanic set up’. Gandhi was of the opinion that the industrialization set up was based on the exploitation of man by man. The inequality will increase in the industrialization set up and there cannot be justice. Today the increasing unemployment in India and more industrialization has reminded the relevance of Gandhian thoughts. Including India in so many countries today, small scale industries, cottage industries and industries run by the workers are lying shut and the persons involved in such industries have been badly affected.
Where ever such industries are running; the poor labourers, common man and the worker groups are hardly able to make both ends meet. Gandhiji always considered the welfare of the poor as the centre of the war of independence. I think the best way to educate our children on Gandhian methods would be to explain the reasons for violence in the world, which is intolerance of people that look/speak/behave differently from us.
Educating them about the oneness of all humans, regardless of race and religious diversity. Also, we should educate our children about the real message of world religions, and explain how religion has een historically (and is currently being) exploited for selfish political and terrorist agendas. Today, people who are active in politics, mainly have the motive of gains by getting political power.
The so said political leader should have got power for social service or issues for development & progress or for eradication of illiteracy & unemployment, for providing health services or for giving basic amenities like roads, electricity and water. For these, they should go among the voters & get support for the works done by them. Exactly opposite, now there are attempts to get the power as ‘fruit’ without doing any labour.
The result of this shortcut adoption is that communalism and corruption is flourishing throughout India. Many other countries of the world are also feeling the heat of communalism & casteism. At some places, communal riots are instigated just for communal polarisation and thus to make easy & early way to power. At some places, differences of language, caste & creed are spread. At present, some narrow minded leaders of a particular state who are also heading regional political parties in India are using narrow thoughts to spread hatred against North Indians.
It is not a type of work, labour or action but a simple trial to get the result or ‘fruit’ of power. Such people leave policies, principles & even humanity. They don’t hesitate to take decisions of the lowest level just to get the wicked motives. Gandhi never took decisions on the basis of majority. He looked all the communities equally may be the Hindus, the Muslims, the Sikhs or the Christians or any other. His valuable wealth was his thoughts of peace, love, harmony, truth & non-violence.
But the people, whose politics was based on communalism, perhaps didn’t like his policy of communal harmony. In the end, a fundamentalist Hindu shot him. But after his sacrifice, his thoughts became more popular. May be that, critics of that great soul are more in number in India but every visitor to India from a foreign country who may be a head of the country, pay a visit to Rajghat & pay obituary. Today, all over the world, where there are peace marches, all remember Gandhi. So there is no gainsaying that the thoughts of Gandhi are relevant even at present & would remain forever.
