To many of us, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is a largely distant and overawing figure who is embedded in our collective consciousness but in a non-relevant, non-immediate way. Yes, we know he is the father of the nation, we see his photographs on rupee notes and we all remember getting a holiday on his birthday, but what exactly did he say or do? His message, especially for the younger generation, is hazy and perhaps even irrelevant for today’s day and age. Non-violence, in these times? You must be joking.
But such is the power of the man and his ideas, that he keeps coming back, again and again, to remind us that his essential tenets are relevant for all time to come. And then, each generation ‘rediscovers’ the man and the message.
Two decades or so ago, it was Richard Attenborough, a Briton obsessed with the man who drove his fellow countrymen and women away from these shores, who brought Gandhi in a popular form to us. We saw, enthralled, that Gandhi was more than just a collection of sayings. He was a thinker and a doer, as much given to action as much to contemplation.
Since then, every aspect of Gandhi’s life has been explored in popular culture, including some controversial ones like his familial relationships. A grown up India has been able to deal with these re-examinations maturely, though there is no dearth of purist and puritan followers who want to keep his memory alive in aspic. That does him a disservice, because, wasn’t he the man who told us to keep all the windows of our heart open and let the breeze blow in without let or hindrance?
Now, a new generation, young, restless and eager to join the world on its own terms, is finding that Gandhi had some pretty smart ideas. The film Lage Raho Munnabhai shows a street smart don use “Gandhigiri” instead of violence to get his point across. Suddenly, this Gandhi dude is cool.
A 100 years ago this day, Gandhi deployed satyagraha, his policy of non-violence, to get his own point across to the white rulers of South Africa. It eventually became a potent force that shook an empire. That will be commemorated all over the world, from Mumbai to Washington. Will those non-violent tactics work today, say with terrorists?
We can’t say for sure. But knowing Gandhi, he certainly would have given it a shot.
But such is the power of the man and his ideas, that he keeps coming back, again and again, to remind us that his essential tenets are relevant for all time to come. And then, each generation ‘rediscovers’ the man and the message.
Two decades or so ago, it was Richard Attenborough, a Briton obsessed with the man who drove his fellow countrymen and women away from these shores, who brought Gandhi in a popular form to us. We saw, enthralled, that Gandhi was more than just a collection of sayings. He was a thinker and a doer, as much given to action as much to contemplation.
Since then, every aspect of Gandhi’s life has been explored in popular culture, including some controversial ones like his familial relationships. A grown up India has been able to deal with these re-examinations maturely, though there is no dearth of purist and puritan followers who want to keep his memory alive in aspic. That does him a disservice, because, wasn’t he the man who told us to keep all the windows of our heart open and let the breeze blow in without let or hindrance?
Now, a new generation, young, restless and eager to join the world on its own terms, is finding that Gandhi had some pretty smart ideas. The film Lage Raho Munnabhai shows a street smart don use “Gandhigiri” instead of violence to get his point across. Suddenly, this Gandhi dude is cool.
A 100 years ago this day, Gandhi deployed satyagraha, his policy of non-violence, to get his own point across to the white rulers of South Africa. It eventually became a potent force that shook an empire. That will be commemorated all over the world, from Mumbai to Washington. Will those non-violent tactics work today, say with terrorists?
We can’t say for sure. But knowing Gandhi, he certainly would have given it a shot.