MAHATMA GANDHI’S 151ST BIRTH ANNIVERSARY

MAHATMA GANDHI’S 151ST BIRTH ANNIVERSARY 

• 2nd October 2020 was the 151st birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation – Mahatma Gandhi. The Swachh Bharat Diwas, 2020 was celebrated on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti with the distribution of Swachh Puraskar by the Ministry of Jal Shakti. 
• Gandhi was a social reformist and leader of Indian Independence Movement who introduced the idea of nonviolent resistance called Satyagraha. 

KEY POINTS 

• Birth: 2nd October 1869 in Porbandar (Gujarat) 
• Brief Profile: Lawyer, politician, social activist, and writer who became the leader of the nationalist movement against the British rule of India. 
• Satyagraha: In South Africa (1893-1915), he had successfully fought the racist regime with a novel method of mass agitation, which he called satyagraha. 
  • The idea of satyagraha emphasised the power of truth and the need to search for truth. 
  • It suggested that if the cause was true, if the struggle was against injustice, then physical force was not necessary to fight the oppressor. Without seeking vengeance or being aggressive, a satyagrahi could win the battle through nonviolence. This could be done by appealing to the conscience of the oppressor. 
  • People – including the oppressors – had to be persuaded to see the truth, instead of being forced to accept truth through the use of violence. By this struggle, truth was bound to ultimately triumph. 
  • The International Day of Non-Violence is observed on 2nd October, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. 
  • Gandhi Peace Prize is given for social, economic and political transformation through non-violence and other Gandhian methods. 
• Return to India: He returned to India from South Africa on 9th January 1915. 
  • Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) is celebrated on 9th January every year to mark the contribution of Overseas Indian community in the development of India. 
• Satyagraha Movements in India: Mahatma Gandhi believed that the dharma of non-violence could unite all Indians. 
  • In 1916 he travelled to Champaran in Bihar to inspire the peasants to struggle against the oppressive plantation system. 
  • In 1917, he organised a satyagraha to support the peasants of the Kheda district of Gujarat. Affected by crop failure and a plague epidemic, the peasants of Kheda could not pay the revenue, and were demanding that revenue collection be relaxed. 
  • In 1918, he went to Ahmedabad to organise a satyagraha movement amongst cotton mill workers. 
  • In 1919, he decided to launch a nationwide satyagraha against the proposed Rowlatt Act (1919). 
• The Act gave the government enormous powers to repress political activities and allowed detention of political prisoners without trial for two years. 
• On 13th April 1919 the infamous Jallianwalla Bagh incident took place. Seeing violence spread, Mahatma Gandhi called off the movement (18th April, 1919). 
• Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-22): At the Calcutta session of the Congress in September 1920, he convinced other leaders of the need to start a non-cooperation movement in support of Khilafat as well as for swaraj. 
  • At the Congress session at Nagpur in December 1920, the Non-Cooperation programme was adopted. 
  • In February 1922, Mahatma Gandhi decided to withdraw the Non-Cooperation Movement after the Chauri-Chaura incident. 
• The Salt March and the Civil Disobedience Movement: For several years after the Non-cooperation Movement ended, Mahatma Gandhi focused on his social reform work. 
  • In 1930, Gandhiji declared that he would lead a march to break the salt law. 
• According to this law, the state had a monopoly on the manufacture and sale of salt. 
  • The march was over 240 miles, from Gandhi’s ashram in Sabarmati to the Gujarati coastal town of Dandi, where they broke the government law by gathering natural salt found on the seashore, and boiling sea water to produce salt. 
  • This marked the beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement. 
• In 1931, Gandhi accepted a truce (the Gandhi-Irwin Pact), called off civil disobedience, and agreed to attend the Second Round Table Conference in London as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress. 
• After returning from London, Mahatma Gandhi relaunched the Civil Disobedience Movement. For over a year, the movement continued, but by 1934 it lost its momentum. 
• Quit India Movement: 
  • With the outbreak of World War II (1939-45), the nationalist struggle in India entered its last crucial phase. 
  • The failure of the mission of Sir Stafford Cripps, a British cabinet minister who went to India in March 1942 with an offer that Gandhi found unacceptable, the British equivocation on the transfer of power to Indian hands, and the encouragement given by high British officials to conservative and communal forces promoting discord between Muslims and Hindus impelled Gandhi to demand in the summer of 1942 an immediate British withdrawal from India—what became known as the Quit India Movement. 
• Social Work: 
  • He worked for the upliftment of untouchables and gave them a new name ‘Harijan’ meaning the children of God. 
• In September 1932, B.R. Ambedkar negotiated the Poona Pact with Mahatma Gandhi. 
  • His symbol of self-reliance – the spinning wheel – became a popular symbol of Indian Independence Movement. 
  • He played a key role in pacifying people and averting the Hindu-Muslim riots as tensions rose before and during the partition of the country. 
• He founded the Hindustani Prachar Sabha in 1942 at Wardha in Maharashtra. The aim of the organisation was to promote Hindustani, a link language between Hindi and Urdu. 
• Books Written: Hind Swaraj, My Experiments with Truth (Autobiography) 

MAJOR GANDHIAN IDEOLOGIES 

• Truth and Non-violence: They are the twin cardinal principles of Gandhian thoughts. 
  • For Gandhi ji, truth is the relative truth of truthfulness in word and deed, and the absolute truth – the ultimate reality. This ultimate truth is God (as God is also Truth) and morality – the moral laws and code – its basis. 
  • Nonviolence, far from meaning mere peacefulness or the absence of overt violence, is understood by Mahatma Gandhi to denote active love – the pole opposite of violence, in every sense. 
• Satyagraha: Gandhi ji called his overall method of nonviolent action Satyagraha. It means the exercise of the purest soul-force against all injustice, oppression and exploitation. 
  • It is a method of securing rights by personal suffering and not inflicting injury on others. 
• Sarvodaya: Sarvodaya is a term meaning ‘Universal Uplift’ or ‘Progress of All’. The term was first coined by Gandhi ji as the title of his translation of John Ruskin’s tract on political economy, “Unto This Last”. 
• Swaraj: Although the word swaraj means self-rule, Gandhi ji gave it the content of an integral revolution that encompasses all spheres of life. 
  • For Gandhi ji, swaraj of people meant the sum total of the swaraj (self-rule) of individuals and so he clarified that for him swaraj meant freedom for the meanest of his countrymen. And in its fullest sense, swaraj is much more than freedom from all restraints, it is self-rule, self-restraint and could be equated with moksha or salvation. 
• Trusteeship: Trusteeship is a socio-economic philosophy that was propounded by Gandhi ji. 
  • It provides a means by which the wealthy people would be the trustees of trusts that looked after the welfare of the people in general. 
• Swadeshi: The word swadeshi derives from Sanskrit and is a conjunction of two Sanskrit words. ‘Swa’ means self or own and ‘desh’ means country. So Swadesh means one’s own country. Swadeshi, the adjectival form, means of one’s own country, but can be loosely translated in most contexts as self-sufficiency. 
  • Swadeshi is the focus on acting within and from one’s own community, both politically and economically. 
  • It is the interdependence of community and self-sufficiency. 

APPLICATION OF VARIOUS FACETS OF GANDHIAN IDEOLOGY 

• Civil Services: Truth lies at the core of Gandhian philosophy as he himself has tried to remain truthful throughout his life. Gandhian view of truth was irreversible in different contexts irrespective of the urgency of the situation. 
  • This principle of truthfulness to self and to the public is essential for civil servants in the current context to rampant corruption. 
  • Gandhiji’s Talisman – to think how decision affects lowest strata of society is helpful in decision making 
• Peace And Stability in the World: Non-Violence is a key component of Gandhianism, which was the great weapon used by Gandhiji during the freedom movement of India against British Raj. 
  • Gandhiji believed non-violence and tolerance require a great level of courage and patience. 
• Secularism: Gandhianism was tolerant towards all religions and the world today needs more and more religiously and faith wise tolerant people in societies where violence is committed in the name of religion. 
  • Tolerance in the society will help in neutralizing the ethnocentric bias in the globe that is taking place day by day on the basis of religion, caste, ethnicity and region etc. 
• Creation of Casteless Society: Gandhiji was against the caste system and coined the term Harijan to pay respect to the lower caste people. 
  • As the Caste system is still prevalent in the Indian society, the Gandhian philosophy is useful to create a casteless society where everyone is treated equally irrespective of their caste. 
• Gandhian Socialism: Gandhian view of socialism is not political but more social in its approach, as gandhiji thought of a society with no poverty, no hunger, no unemployment and education and health for all. 
  • From poverty alleviation to Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and universal health care (Ayushman Bharat) to skill India programs everywhere the core inspiration comes from Gandhianism. 
• Decentralization: Gandhian idea of decentralization of power can be implemented in democracies through empowered local self-governments at grass root level. 
  • Indian government, for instance, has implemented local self-government by adopting the Panchayati Raj and Municipality system in rural and urban areas respectively. 
• Cleanliness: Gandhiji laid great emphasis upon cleanliness or Swacchta, as he used to say- ‘Swacchta Hi Seva’. 
  • The recent Swacchta Bharat Abhiyaan, the biggest cleanliness drive of India, is to fulfill the dream of Bapu by making India clean. 
  • However, this cleanliness drive is more than physical cleanliness and the need to lay more emphasis upon the internal cleanliness of the individual. 
  • Thus, along with clean roads, toilets for a clean India we require a corruption free society with greater levels of transparency and accountability too. 
• Sustainable Environment: Gandhiji held that “Earth has enough for Human needs, But not for Human greed.”. 
  • These lines of Mahatma Gandhi reflect upon how human behaviour destroys nature and how a sustainable way of living is the need of the hour. 
  • The world is whirling under the burden of global warming, climate change and resource crunch and all environmental conservation treaties and sustainable development efforts must implement this Gandhian philosophy. 
• Ethical Importance: On the ethical and behavioural part Gandhianism has much significance today because society is witnessing the degradation of values. 
  • Societal values have degraded to such an extent that people don’t hesitate to kill someone for the gratification of their own needs. 
  • Respect for women is one of the major ideas of Gandhian philosophy and the world is witnessing the increased level of violence, subjugation women face nowadays in society. 
  • Thus, Gandhian dream of a safe country necessitates social consciousness and women emancipation. 

CONCLUSION 

• Gandhiji’s political contributions offered us Independence but his ideologies has enlightened India as well as the world even today after so many years. Every individual, thus, should follow the key Gandhian ideologies in their day to day life for a happy, prosperous, healthy, harmonious and sustainable future.