Today we celebrate the Birthday of a man- a common man who established his own empire agianst the british empire and defeated them. But more importantly, today there will be a national holiday!!
And if you have some extra time in your hands you can even go to your local Khadi stores and get 25% discount on this special occasion. And if you are lucky they will even throw in a pair of goodies with foreign labels which Gandhi would have burned in streets.
Today, politicians will garland Gandhi’s ubiquitous golden framed photos and will give speeches on non-violence to the contract audience , but more importantly , will distribute sweets !!... and if we are lucky we might even get specials in our lunch !
So, Gandhi was a good man…fine. Gandhism established itself as a form of revolt…fine. Gandhism is one of the most ethical and strong form of non-violent protests…very fine. Will you practice it..? Ahem…
Or the question is …Will anyone listen to you if you adopt Gandhian methods?
So the question is -Is Gandhism relevant today? …or even if feasible?
I don’t want to discuss much….i just want everyone to make their own view…I just want to give some food for thought-
Narmada Aandolan protesters adopted the non-violent route and they haven’t got a success yet after 2 decades.
AIIMS doctors and thousands of students adopted a non-violent route to protest against the reservation regime proposed by Arjun Singh. Protests went for weeks including hunger strikes and included lathi-charge and use of water cannon against the students. Final Result?- OBC reservation was implemented.
Gujjars turned violent asking for OBC status. They went on rampage damaging railway tracks and nearly isolated a whole state from rest of the country. Final Result? Within few days Indian Government bowed to Gujjars and gave them the backward status.
My questions to the elite think-tank (or so they say abt IIT-IIM guys) are:
Is Gandhism (or Gandhigiri for romantics) irrelevant today? Would Gandhi himself succeeded in the current world? Gandhi’s principles assume that oppressor will feel guilty at some point of time…is this assumption valid in today’s world?
Go Ahead...your views will be published as a post in my blog for discussion.
