REVISITING GANDHI REVISITING GANDHI (Essays in Honour of Sri Chand Rampuria) (Essays in Honour of Sri Chand Rampuria)

Editors Anil Dutta Mishra Tara Chand Rampuria

ABHIJEET PUBLICA TIONS DELHI 1 10094

ADMGandhi-1\ 131 8. Non-violence in Action in North-East 114 P.C. S HEKAR REDDY & J.A. R AMA MOORTY 9. Pacifism and Gandhi 161 ASHU PASRICHA 10. Culture of Peace 178 SEEMA PASRICHA 11. Building Cultur e of Peace: Role of Peace Education 187 Contents and Conflict Resolution D.N. P ATHAK X 12. Anuvrat and W orld Peace 211 ACHARYA MAHAPRAGY A 13. International Peace and Gandhian W orld Or der 217 R.S. Y ADAV Preface v 14. Culture of Peace: Mahatma Gandhi and Peaceful 236 Blessings of Acharya Mahapragya World Or der Blessings of Y uvacharya Muditkumar M.S. D ADGE Blessings of Mahasramani Kanakprabha 16. Gandhi as a Journalist 244 Life History of S.C. Rampuria MANOJ RAJAN About the Contributors 16. Gandhian and Pr ofessional Social W ork 256 K.D. G ANGRADE 1. Understanding Gandhi 1 J.N. S HARMA 17. Gandhian Perspective of Economic Development 305 2. Gandhi and Jainism 17 ASHUTOSH PANDEY ANIL ARORA 18. Individual and Society: The Gandhian Perspective 325 3. Gandhian Concept of Non-violence 28 SAROJ MALIK A.N. P ANDA 19. Gandhi's Ideas on Ideal Society and It's Law 336 4. Gandhi's theory and Practice of Ahimsa 45 BAKHYT KADYROVA R.P. MISRA 20. Purification of Politics: A Gandhian Alternative 360 5. Gandhian Philosophy of Non-violence: 76 RASHMI SHARMA An Essence of Human Existence 21. Democracy: The Gandhian Paradigm 368 NABANITA DAS SHEILA RAI 6. Gandhian Non-violence and W orld Peace 87 22. Gandhi on Communal Harmony 399 DEEPAK PRAKASH ANJU JHAMB 7. Contemporary Relevance of Gandhian 105 23. Paradigms of Development: Gandhian Alternative 417 Non-violence RAM BINOD SINGH PRASANTA KUMAR MOHANTY

ADMGandhi-1\ 128 8. Non-violence in Action in North-East 114 P.C. S HEKAR REDDY & J.A. R AMA MOORTY 9. Pacifism and Gandhi 161 ASHU PASRICHA 10. Culture of Peace 178 SEEMA PASRICHA 11. Building Cultur e of Peace: Role of Peace Education 187 Contents and Conflict Resolution D.N. P ATHAK X 12. Anuvrat and W orld Peace 211 ACHARYA MAHAPRAGY A 13. International Peace and Gandhian W orld Or der 217 R.S. Y ADAV Preface v 14. Culture of Peace: Mahatma Gandhi and Peaceful 236 Blessings of Acharya Mahapragya World Or der Blessings of Y uvacharya Muditkumar M.S. D ADGE Blessings of Mahasramani Kanakprabha 16. Gandhi as a Journalist 244 Life History of S.C. Rampuria MANOJ RAJAN About the Contributors 16. Gandhian and Pr ofessional Social W ork 256 K.D. G ANGRADE 1. Understanding Gandhi 1 J.N. S HARMA 17. Gandhian Perspective of Economic Development 305 2. Gandhi and Jainism 17 ASHUTOSH PANDEY ANIL ARORA 18. Individual and Society: The Gandhian Perspective 325 3. Gandhian Concept of Non-violence 28 SAROJ MALIK A.N. P ANDA 19. Gandhi's Ideas on Ideal Society and It's Law 336 4. Gandhi's theory and Practice of Ahimsa 45 BAKHYT KADYROVA R.P. MISRA 20. Purification of Politics: A Gandhian Alternative 360 5. Gandhian Philosophy of Non-violence: 76 RASHMI SHARMA An Essence of Human Existence 21. Democracy: The Gandhian Paradigm 368 NABANITA DAS SHEILA RAI 6. Gandhian Non-violence and W orld Peace 87 22. Gandhi on Communal Harmony 399 DEEPAK PRAKASH ANJU JHAMB 7. Contemporary Relevance of Gandhian 105 23. Paradigms of Development: Gandhian Alternative 417 Non-violence RAM BINOD SINGH PRASANTA KUMAR MOHANTY

ADMGandhi-1\ 128 24. Mahatma Gandhi and M.S. Golwalkar: A Study 447 on Contrast and Conver gence SANJEEV KUMAR SHARMA 25. Peace, Envir onment and Gandhi 458 RAMASHRA Y ROY 26. The Millennium Development Goals and 468 Education for Nonviolent Leadership N. R ADHAKRISHNAN About the Contributors 27. Peace-Building and the Concept of Non-violence 485 in Islam ZEENAT ARA X 28. Gandhi and the Congr ess' Involvement in the 498 Temple Entry Movement in Early Twentieth Century T amilnadu Acharya Mahapragya, Head of the T erapanth and Anushasta RAJSHEKHAR BASU of Jain V iswa Bharati Institute, Ladnun, Rajasthan. 29. Peace and Conflict Resolution: Indian Experience 523 Dr. Anil Arora, Charter ed Accountant and Faculty Member , of Non-violence Department of Gandhian Studies, Punjab University , RAMJEE SINGH Chandigar h. Dr. Anil Dutta Mishra, Deputy Dir ector, National Gandhi Museum, Rajghat, New Delhi. Dr. A.N. Panda, Reader, P.G. Department of Political Science, Panchayat (Govt. Lead) College, Bar garh, Orrisa. Dr. Anju Jhamb, Reader and Head, Department of Political Science, S.P .M. College, University of Delhi, Delhi. Dr. Ashutosh Pandey , Head, Department of Political Science, Amar Singh College, Lekhawati, Bulandshahar , Uttar Pradesh. Dr. Ashu Pasricha, Senior Associate Pr ofessor, Department of Gandhian Studies, Punjab University , Chandigar h. Ms. Bakhyt Kadyrova, Resear cher of the Kazakh Humanitarian and Law University , The Republic of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan. Dr. Deepak Prakash, Gandhian Scholar , Bokar o Steel City , Jharkhand.

ADMGandhi-1\ 129 24. Mahatma Gandhi and M.S. Golwalkar: A Study 447 on Contrast and Conver gence SANJEEV KUMAR SHARMA 25. Peace, Envir onment and Gandhi 458 RAMASHRA Y ROY 26. The Millennium Development Goals and 468 Education for Nonviolent Leadership N. R ADHAKRISHNAN About the Contributors 27. Peace-Building and the Concept of Non-violence 485 in Islam ZEENAT ARA X 28. Gandhi and the Congr ess' Involvement in the 498 Temple Entry Movement in Early Twentieth Century T amilnadu Acharya Mahapragya, Head of the T erapanth and Anushasta RAJSHEKHAR BASU of Jain V iswa Bharati Institute, Ladnun, Rajasthan. 29. Peace and Conflict Resolution: Indian Experience 523 Dr. Anil Arora, Charter ed Accountant and Faculty Member , of Non-violence Department of Gandhian Studies, Punjab University , RAMJEE SINGH Chandigar h. Dr. Anil Dutta Mishra, Deputy Dir ector, National Gandhi Museum, Rajghat, New Delhi. Dr. A.N. Panda, Reader, P.G. Department of Political Science, Panchayat (Govt. Lead) College, Bar garh, Orrisa. Dr. Anju Jhamb, Reader and Head, Department of Political Science, S.P .M. College, University of Delhi, Delhi. Dr. Ashutosh Pandey , Head, Department of Political Science, Amar Singh College, Lekhawati, Bulandshahar , Uttar Pradesh. Dr. Ashu Pasricha, Senior Associate Pr ofessor, Department of Gandhian Studies, Punjab University , Chandigar h. Ms. Bakhyt Kadyrova, Resear cher of the Kazakh Humanitarian and Law University , The Republic of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan. Dr. Deepak Prakash, Gandhian Scholar , Bokar o Steel City , Jharkhand.

ADMGandhi-1\ 129 Dr. D.N. Pathak, Former V ice-Chancellor , North Gujarat Dr. Rashmi Sharma, well-known author and Resear cher, University, Gujarat. Yamunanagar , Haryana. Mr. J.A. Rama Moorty , Peace Resear cher and Fr eelance Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Sharma, Lecturer in History , Government Journalist, New Delhi. College, Naraingar h, Haryana. Dr. J.N. Sharma, Professor and Chairman, Department of Dr. Saroj Malik, Professor and former Chairperson, Gandhian Studies, Punjab University , Chandigar h. Department of Political Science, Kurukshetra University , Dr. K.D. Gangrade, Former Pr o-Vice Chancellor , University Kurukshetra, Haryana. of Delhi and V ice Chairman, Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Dr. Seema Pasricha, Faculty Member , Department of Samiti, New Delhi. Gandhian Studies, Punjab University , Chandigar h. Dr. Manoj Ranjan, Resear ch Scholar , Himachal Pradesh. Dr. Shiela Rai, Associate Pr ofessor, Department of Political M.S. Dadge, Principal, Mahatma Basweshwar College, Latur , Science, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur , Rajasthan. Maharashtra. Tarachand Rampuria, Industrialist and Philanthr opist, Jain Dr. Nabanita Das, Balasor e, Orissa. Vishwa Bharati, Ladnun, Rajasthan. Dr. N. Radhakrishnan, Chairman Indian Council of Gandhian Dr. Zeenat Ara, Reader, Department of Political Science, S.P .M. Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. College, University of Delhi, Delhi. Mr. P.C. Shekar Reddy , Vice Chairman, Institute for Media Communication, New Delhi. Dr. Prasanta Kumar Mohanty , Head, Department of Political Science, Remuna College, Balasor e, Orissa. Dr. R.P. Misra, Former V ice-Chancellor , Allahabad University and National Fellow , Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti, New Delhi. Dr. R.S. Yadav, Professor, Department of Political Science, Kurukshetra University , Kurukshetra. Dr. Rajshekhar Basu, Reader, Department of History , Calcutta University, Kolkata. Dr. Ramashray Roy , Former Dir ector, Centr e for Developing Society and National Fellow , ICSSR, New Delhi. Dr. Ram Binod Singh, Former Pr oessor and Head, Department of Economics, L.N.M. University , Darbhanga, Bihar. Dr. Ramjee Singh, former V ice-chancellor , Jain Bharati Institute, Ladnun, Rajasthan.

ADMGandhi-1\ 130 Dr. D.N. Pathak, Former V ice-Chancellor , North Gujarat Dr. Rashmi Sharma, well-known author and Resear cher, University, Gujarat. Yamunanagar , Haryana. Mr. J.A. Rama Moorty , Peace Resear cher and Fr eelance Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Sharma, Lecturer in History , Government Journalist, New Delhi. College, Naraingar h, Haryana. Dr. J.N. Sharma, Professor and Chairman, Department of Dr. Saroj Malik, Professor and former Chairperson, Gandhian Studies, Punjab University , Chandigar h. Department of Political Science, Kurukshetra University , Dr. K.D. Gangrade, Former Pr o-Vice Chancellor , University Kurukshetra, Haryana. of Delhi and V ice Chairman, Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Dr. Seema Pasricha, Faculty Member , Department of Samiti, New Delhi. Gandhian Studies, Punjab University , Chandigar h. Dr. Manoj Ranjan, Resear ch Scholar , Himachal Pradesh. Dr. Shiela Rai, Associate Pr ofessor, Department of Political M.S. Dadge, Principal, Mahatma Basweshwar College, Latur , Science, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur , Rajasthan. Maharashtra. Tarachand Rampuria, Industrialist and Philanthr opist, Jain Dr. Nabanita Das, Balasor e, Orissa. Vishwa Bharati, Ladnun, Rajasthan. Dr. N. Radhakrishnan, Chairman Indian Council of Gandhian Dr. Zeenat Ara, Reader, Department of Political Science, S.P .M. Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. College, University of Delhi, Delhi. Mr. P.C. Shekar Reddy , Vice Chairman, Institute for Media Communication, New Delhi. Dr. Prasanta Kumar Mohanty , Head, Department of Political Science, Remuna College, Balasor e, Orissa. Dr. R.P. Misra, Former V ice-Chancellor , Allahabad University and National Fellow , Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti, New Delhi. Dr. R.S. Yadav, Professor, Department of Political Science, Kurukshetra University , Kurukshetra. Dr. Rajshekhar Basu, Reader, Department of History , Calcutta University, Kolkata. Dr. Ramashray Roy , Former Dir ector, Centr e for Developing Society and National Fellow , ICSSR, New Delhi. Dr. Ram Binod Singh, Former Pr oessor and Head, Department of Economics, L.N.M. University , Darbhanga, Bihar. Dr. Ramjee Singh, former V ice-chancellor , Jain Bharati Institute, Ladnun, Rajasthan.

ADMGandhi-1\ 130 2 Revisiting Gandhi

Gandhi was a many-sided personality . The outwar d simplicity of his life and his single-minded devotion to truth cloaked innumerable deep curr ents of ideas, disciplines, loyalties and aspirations. He was at once saint and revolutionary , politician and social r eformer, economist and 1 man of r eligion, educationist and satyagrahi ; devotee alike of faith and r eason, Hindu and inter -religious, nationalist and internationalist, man of action and dr eamer of dr eams. He Understanding Gandhi was a very gr eat reconciler of opposites and he was that without strain or artificiality . He loved gr eatly and accepted unreservedly that truth can r eside in opposites. No one has JAI NARAIN SHARMA yet understood objectively his complex and magnificent personality . We have all come too much under the spell of the astonishing integration and unity of the man within “Who indeed can claim to know and understand the mind himself. It was Rabindranath T agore who once wr ote that of the gr eat?” is a famous saying of the r enowned poet those disciplines ar e the most complex, which finally lead Bhavbhuti. Gandhi was a gr eat man; nevertheless, he had to the utter simplicity of a gr eat song. One has only to look laid bar e his mind in its fullness befor e the world. But to at those who learn music to see the daily grind of har d unravel its mystery and understand it objectively , as pointed discipline thr ough which they must pass befor e they bring out by Bhavbhuti, is certainly a dif ficult task. It is further out a soulful song. Gandhi’s life was one long and ceaseless compounded by the fact that Gandhi has become a part of saga of endeavour in which he added, bit-by-bit and piece our national being. W e respond to his name, achievements by piece, to his statur e culminating in the advancing fullness and memory rather emotionally . It may be explained in terms of his personality . There was nothing mystic or miraculous of his too closeness to us, both in r espect of time and space. about his development and gr owth, fr om a common man into Too much of pr oximity usually stands in the way of an objective the unsurpassed Mahatma of our history . It is open to each understanding. Emotion is not intelligence. Enthusiasm is not one of us to see how he advanced, step by step, gathering understanding. Emotion is helpful and good in its own spher e. innumerable fragments of truth one by one and piecing them But when it overpowers our intellect we lose our perspective together in the crucible of his life, r eady to look at facts, and fall victims to a sort of optical illusion. W e get ourselves understand their significance, face any consequence in the bogged in utter confusion. Emotion divor ced fr om and pursuit of a cause, suf fer any penalty for a mistake, r ecover unrestrained by intellect degenerates and issues in blind lost ground again, but always advancing, open-minded and adoration, dogmatism and fanaticism. without fear and dedicated selflessly to r each and hold the truth of a matter at any cost. He was, ther efore, not born a The utter cynical and contemptuous disr egard for Gandhi Mahatma. He gr ew into one. He was a common man who and his philosophy , on the other hand, is equally emotional. pulled himself up to most uncommon heights. He was no The fount is the same. It is not intellect but emotion that rules god, but became a god-man. Gandhi knew this about himself such a judgment or rather the lack of it. Both the extr eme and that was why he called his biography , “The Story of My points of view—gushing adoration and angry condemnation— 1 Experimentation was one of the Experiments with T ruth”. though appar ently opposed to each other have a common deepest passions of his life. He experimented with food, health bond of kinship in their allegiance to emotion as the and cur e, clothes and dr ess, politics and economics, education determinant in their evaluation.

ADMGandhi-1\ 1 2 Revisiting Gandhi

ADMGandhi-1\ 1 Understanding Gandhi 3 4 Revisiting Gandhi and reform, or ganization and r evolution, ethics and in his pragmatic appr oach. He had no inclination for spirituality , with almost everything that his life knew as part determining the distant goal by definitions in advance; rather of life. W ith relentless logic and courage he br oke new gr ound his prime concern was centr ed upon action in the immediate in every dir ection and yet had the depth and width of mind present. As he himself wr ote: “I have purposely r efrained to separate defeat fr om success, the false fr om the true, the from dealing with the natur e of Government in a society based unreal from the r eal and to integrate all his aims and on non-violence when society is deliberately constructed in achievements into the unity of his personality . accordance with the law of non-violence, its structur e will Gandhi did not systematize his thought. It was not in be different in material particulars fr om what it is today . But his natur e, too. He did not assign himself the task of setting I cannot say in advance what the Government based wholly up an intellectual and academic discipline. He was not a on non-violence will be like”. 5 The compulsion of practical theorist; he was primarily an actionist or a Karma-Y ogi. “I politics makes a mass leader pragmatic. For a mass leader am not built for academic writings. Action is my domain.” 2 has to move about in the essentially pragmatic world. Gandhi’s For him, the means to knowledge was not contemplation but credit was that his pragmatism did not degenerate into action. As he himself had said: “Ther e is no such thing as opportunism, as has been usually the case with other lesser ‘Gandhism’ and I do not want to leave any sect after me, I men. He was not that much of a pragmatist to deviate fr om do not claim to have originated any new principle or doctrine. his basic principle of T ruth. I have simply tried in my own way to apply the eternal truths The essential characteristic of Gandhi’s personality and to our daily life and pr oblems…. W ell, all my philosophy , if of his life was its continuous gr owth and evolution. He always it may be called by that pr etentious name, is contained in felt that he was experimenting with T ruth. The title of his what I have said. Y ou will not call it ‘Gandhism’: ther e is no autobiography is significant. Louis Fischer says of Gandhi: ‘ism’ about it.” 3 This natural disinclination or aversion for “He allowed truth to lead him without a map. If it took him founding any ‘ism’ and sect helped him to gr ow into a to an ar ea wher e he had to discar d some intellectual baggage continuously evolving personality . or walk alone without past associates, he went. He never 6 Gandhi concerned himself mainly with pr escribing impeded his mind with stop signs.” Acharya J.B. Kripalani practical cur es for the evils of the world and as such he had correctly notes that usually Gandhi tried to solves pr oblems necessarily to be pragmatic in his appr oach. Belonging to the as their ar ose, in consonance with his basic principles of most modern type of mass leader . Gandhi had to move morality, the genius of his people, their historical backgr ound millions of men. A practical idealist which he was, he and the existing cir cumstances of the country .7 His political undertook for himself the r esponsibility of translating his life- philosophy , being gr ounded on certain basic principles, philosophy into action. As a practical man, he was concerned evolved and gr ew out of practice. This gr owth and evolution with taking car e of the pr esent. One step was enough for of his dynamic personality has often been misunderstood. him. As he wr ote: “I know only the moment’s duty .”4 This It has been alleged that he was inconsistent. T rue, he did not pragmatic appr oach characterizes his political philosophy . But appear to be consistent. He wr ote: some commentators of Gandhi’s Philosophy , who find in him “I am not at all concerned with appearing to be a spiritual leader above everything else and who ignor e the consistent. In my pursuit after T ruth I have discar ded historical significance of Gandhi, do not shar e this view . But many ideas and learnt many new things. Old as I am any analysis which takes into account the r ole of Gandhi in in age, I have no feeling that I have ceased to gr ow its totality can never brush aside his incomparable political inwardly or that my gr owth will stop with the realistic acumen. This sense of native r ealism was r eflected dissolution of the flesh.” 8

ADMGandhi-1\ 2 Understanding Gandhi 3 4 Revisiting Gandhi and reform, or ganization and r evolution, ethics and in his pragmatic appr oach. He had no inclination for spirituality , with almost everything that his life knew as part determining the distant goal by definitions in advance; rather of life. W ith relentless logic and courage he br oke new gr ound his prime concern was centr ed upon action in the immediate in every dir ection and yet had the depth and width of mind present. As he himself wr ote: “I have purposely r efrained to separate defeat fr om success, the false fr om the true, the from dealing with the natur e of Government in a society based unreal from the r eal and to integrate all his aims and on non-violence when society is deliberately constructed in achievements into the unity of his personality . accordance with the law of non-violence, its structur e will Gandhi did not systematize his thought. It was not in be different in material particulars fr om what it is today . But his natur e, too. He did not assign himself the task of setting I cannot say in advance what the Government based wholly up an intellectual and academic discipline. He was not a on non-violence will be like”. 5 The compulsion of practical theorist; he was primarily an actionist or a Karma-Y ogi. “I politics makes a mass leader pragmatic. For a mass leader am not built for academic writings. Action is my domain.” 2 has to move about in the essentially pragmatic world. Gandhi’s For him, the means to knowledge was not contemplation but credit was that his pragmatism did not degenerate into action. As he himself had said: “Ther e is no such thing as opportunism, as has been usually the case with other lesser ‘Gandhism’ and I do not want to leave any sect after me, I men. He was not that much of a pragmatist to deviate fr om do not claim to have originated any new principle or doctrine. his basic principle of T ruth. I have simply tried in my own way to apply the eternal truths The essential characteristic of Gandhi’s personality and to our daily life and pr oblems…. W ell, all my philosophy , if of his life was its continuous gr owth and evolution. He always it may be called by that pr etentious name, is contained in felt that he was experimenting with T ruth. The title of his what I have said. Y ou will not call it ‘Gandhism’: ther e is no autobiography is significant. Louis Fischer says of Gandhi: ‘ism’ about it.” 3 This natural disinclination or aversion for “He allowed truth to lead him without a map. If it took him founding any ‘ism’ and sect helped him to gr ow into a to an ar ea wher e he had to discar d some intellectual baggage continuously evolving personality . or walk alone without past associates, he went. He never 6 Gandhi concerned himself mainly with pr escribing impeded his mind with stop signs.” Acharya J.B. Kripalani practical cur es for the evils of the world and as such he had correctly notes that usually Gandhi tried to solves pr oblems necessarily to be pragmatic in his appr oach. Belonging to the as their ar ose, in consonance with his basic principles of most modern type of mass leader . Gandhi had to move morality, the genius of his people, their historical backgr ound millions of men. A practical idealist which he was, he and the existing cir cumstances of the country .7 His political undertook for himself the r esponsibility of translating his life- philosophy , being gr ounded on certain basic principles, philosophy into action. As a practical man, he was concerned evolved and gr ew out of practice. This gr owth and evolution with taking car e of the pr esent. One step was enough for of his dynamic personality has often been misunderstood. him. As he wr ote: “I know only the moment’s duty .”4 This It has been alleged that he was inconsistent. T rue, he did not pragmatic appr oach characterizes his political philosophy . But appear to be consistent. He wr ote: some commentators of Gandhi’s Philosophy , who find in him “I am not at all concerned with appearing to be a spiritual leader above everything else and who ignor e the consistent. In my pursuit after T ruth I have discar ded historical significance of Gandhi, do not shar e this view . But many ideas and learnt many new things. Old as I am any analysis which takes into account the r ole of Gandhi in in age, I have no feeling that I have ceased to gr ow its totality can never brush aside his incomparable political inwardly or that my gr owth will stop with the realistic acumen. This sense of native r ealism was r eflected dissolution of the flesh.” 8

ADMGandhi-1\ 2 Understanding Gandhi 5 6 Revisiting Gandhi

“I have never made a fetish of consistency . I am a in the academic acceptance of Gandhi, especially in India, votary of T ruth and I must say what I feel and think is also due to another err or in understanding. This err or arises at a given moment on the question, without r egard primarily fr om the unscholarly dependence of Indian to what I may have said befor e on it. As my vision intellectuals on Gandhi anthologies—a species of popular gets clear er, my views must gr ow clear er with daily books which r etail the epigrammatic utterances of Gandhi practice. Wher e I have deliberately alter ed an opinion, without r ecourse to historical methods. Books and articles the change should be obvious. Only a car eful eye would have been, and ar e being, written on Gandhi without any notice a gradual and imper ceptible evolution.” 9 attempt to consult the sour ces from which the anthologies Speaking of his gr owing experience he wr ote: have ostensibly been compiled. The situation is made infinitely worse when one anthology draws on another anthology , often “At the time of writing I never think of what I have shortening and distorting the original text still further , so that said befor e. My aim is not to be consistent with my what we have is something like an oral tradition on Gandhi. previous statements on a given question, but to be Most of our pr esent knowledge of Gandhi is based almost consistent with truth as it may pr esent itself to me at entirely on this ‘oral tradition’, scr eened fr om the unsuspecting a given moment. The r esult has been that I have gr own reader ’s eyes by means of the scholarly subterfuge of footnotes from truth to truth; I have saved my memory an undue which make a pr etence of having consulted the original texts. strain; and what is mor e, whenever I have been obliged Gandhi often confessed that he gr ew ‘from truth to truth’; to compar e my writing even of fifty years ago with in other wor ds, his earlier utterances need to be understood the latest, I have discover ed no inconsistency between in the light of his later ones, not vice versa. Not having had the two. But friends who observe inconsistency will the time or the training for the systematic development of do well to take the meaning that my latest writing his thought, Gandhi’s ideas ar e in the main of an existential may yield unless, of course, they pr efer the old. But kind: they gr ew as he gr ew up. The anthologies do little to before making the choice they should try to see if ther e help understand this development or to trace the pr ogressive is not an underlying and abiding consistency between 10 nuances of his thinking. Indeed, the popular notion that the two seeming inconsistencies.” Gandhian Thought is holistic, rather than heuristic, is one Gandhi explained why he had to change his views. He of the tragic gifts of the passing anthological era in the study modified his views accor ding as the cir cumstances demanded. of Gandhi. To quote him: A third major fallacy in the study of Gandhi is the belief, “People say that I have changed my view , that I say shared by pundit and peasant alike, that he had pr opounded today something dif ferent from what I said years ago. a separate and distinct body of doctrine in the social, political The fact of the matter is that conditions have changed. and economic fields. It is thus that we fragment his teaching I am the same. My wor ds and deeds ar e dictated by and miss the wood for the tr ees. We may talk of a social, prevailing conditions. Ther e has been a gradual political or economic philosophy of Gandhi and pr oduce a evolution in my envir onment and I r eact to it as a surfeit of quotations, especially fr om the Gandhi anthologies, satyagrahi”. 11 to prove our case. But it would be mor e opposite to speak of the philosophy of Gandhi—in the mor e generalized sense— This evolutionary character comes in the way of an and to show how his social, political and economic ideas ar e objective understanding of him and his philosophy . derived fr om and ar e accidental to, the cor e of his teaching. Further, in a very lar ge sense, the rather rapid decline The cor e of the Gandhian teaching consists of one

ADMGandhi-1\ 3 Understanding Gandhi 5 6 Revisiting Gandhi

ADMGandhi-1\ 3 Understanding Gandhi 7 8 Revisiting Gandhi concept—and no other . It is truth. The whole structur e of nonviolence, a two-legged concept. Our tragedy lies in trying Gandhian thinking can be picturized in terms of an ancient to stand it on one leg and inviting the kind of disaster that Indian symbol—the urdhvamulam avakshakham vriksham first 12 betook Humpty Dumpty . mentioned in the Taittiriya Aranyaka and recurring in at least At the cultist level, the r ecession of Gandhi owes much three Upanishads, the Katha, Svetashvatara and Maitri . The to our inability to identify and isolate the ephemerae in his Katha Upanishad elaborates it as the eternal ashvattha, an idea teaching, to sift the grain fr om the chaf f. Probably the ‘inability’ which the Bhagavadgita later took over and popularized. The was deliberate and ar ose from the misguided notion that the root at the top is truth and the branches that pr oliferate below masses would understand only a Gandhi wrapped in tinfoil. are the social, political and economic ideas that Gandhi put But the r esult has been truly disastr ous and as the inexorable out in such pr ofusion during his nearly fifty years of public march of time has exposed the ephemerality of much of the life. Gandhi’s mind r oamed far and wide, but the meanest marginal Gandhi, along with it has gone a pr ogressive of his ideas can be traced back to the fount of truth. The depreciation of the essential Gandhi as well. In our attempt development of Gandhian ideas is achieved deductively . He to popularize Gandhi and to make him compr ehensible to begins with truth and everything else follows as a matter of the masses, all that we have done is to undermine the inner course. coherence and soundness of his central teaching of truth. Chief among the ideas that Gandhi derives deductively Partly the inability to distinguish between the timeless from truth is non-violence—a much abused wor d. For and the time-bound aspects of the Gandhian teaching arises impenetrable r easons, ever since the passing of Gandhi and from a common misconception about what constitutes the often during his lifetime as well, the concept of non-violence samagra -darsana of Gandhi. T aking Gandhi whole has its true has come to play a much mor e important part in the and false aspects. W e do not have to accept every fad and interpr etation of his teaching than the concept of truth. This foible of the man in or der to butters up our adher ence to is nothing short of tragic and it is this mis-emphasis which his total philosophy . Indeed the totality of the Gandhian has led to the pr esent er osion of Gandhi in the world market- philosophy r ests not on the details but on a certain sur eness place of ideas. T o add insult of injury , having distorted the and infallibility of appr oach. This infallibility comes fr om the seminal quality of Gandhi’s emphasis on truth, we then go primacy of truth in the Gandhian scheme of things. The on to question the rationality of his thinking and to dismiss peripheral details may change as often as they please, him as irr elevant and utopian. W e vivisect his ideas, dividing provided that the cor e remains untouched—the cor e of truth. them into conventional categories, and pr onounce their Gandhi believed in the unity of human life, which is a irrelevance to our time and, indeed, to the human condition synthetic whole. It cannot be divided into separate, watertight in general. compartments—r eligious, moral, political, economic, social, Bereft of truth, untether ed to truth, the Gandhian teaching individual and collective. All the seemingly separate segments is indeed a jumble of unr elated ideas, falling apart like a are but dif ferent facets of man’s life. They act and r eact upon necklace of pearls of which the thr ead has snapped. The sutra one another . In reality, there can be no pr oblems that ar e purely of truth is the thing. It is truth that holds the Gandhian moral, economic, political, social, individual or collective. They teaching together and gives meaning and significance to the are inextricably intertwined. meanest of his ideas. And yet, the interpr eters of Gandhi have Division of human life into dif ferent compartments is often carefully spirited away truth fr om his teaching and put in undertaken to facilitate analysis and study . The artificial its place a thing called ‘non-violence’. When Gandhi spoke individual thus cr eated has, however , no existence in r eal life. of non-violence, he spoke of it in tandem with truth and not Any knowledge derived fr om the study of such an individual as a separate entity . In fact, Gandhi spoke of truth-and- will be partial and lopsided. It will not be true to the integrated

ADMGandhi-1\ 4 Revisiting Gandhi

Publisher : Abhijeet Publications ISBN : 9789381136010 Author : Anil Dutta Mishra

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