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Vol 23/04 November 2019 Patriotism Redefined #Gandhi150 The icon who continues to inspire Was Gandhi patriarchal? In defence of the Mahatma Spinning a revolution The legendary weaves of Bengal Ananth Mahadevan Great Indians : Lt Gen Z C Bakshi PVSM, MVC, Vr C, VSM, Ram Jethmalani, Kiran Nagarkar MORPARIA’S PAGE Contents November 2019 VOL. 23/04 THEME: Morparia’s Page 02 #GANDHI150 The icon who continues to inspire 04 C.V. Aravind Managing Editor Mrs. Sucharita R. Hegde In defence of the Mahatma 06 Dr. Rina Mukherji Was Gandhi patriarchal? 08 Editor Shoma A. Chatterji Anuradha Dhareshwar Spinning a revolution 10 Dr. Rina Mukherji Life enriching workspaces through 13 Holacracy Design Shammi Nanda Resurgam Digital LLP Invoking the Gandhi within us 15 Nivedita Louis Subscription In-Charge Know India Better Nagesh Bangera 17 The legendary weaves of Bengal Manjira Majumdar Advisory Board Face to Face Sucharita Hegde Justice S. Radhakrishnan Ananth Mahadevan 28 Venkat R. Chary A. Radhakrishnan General Printed & Published by An iconic actor with an impeccable comic timing 30 A. Radhakrishnan Mrs. Sucharita R. Hegde for One India One People Foundation, A different “surgical strike” 31 Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi Mahalaxmi Chambers, 4th floor, 22, Bhulabhai Desai Road, Book Review – FACTFULNESS 33 G. Venkatesh Mumbai - 400 026 Tel: 022-2353 4400 A fitting tribute to Devika Rani 34 Fax: 022-2351 7544 Prof. Avinash Kohle e-mail: [email protected] Great Indians 36 [email protected] visit us at: LT GEN Z C BAKSHI PVSM, RAM JETHMALANI KIRAN NAGARKAR www.oneindiaonepeople.com MVC, VR C, VSM www.facebook.com/oneindiaonepeoplefoundation #GANDHI150 The icon who continues to inspire There is an overwhelming urge today among political parties, including the ones who are his bitter critics, to appropriate Gandhi and his legacy. Even if Gandhism is not preached or practiced in India, with the same fervour as it once was, Gandhian thoughts and ideologies will continue to shape the destiny of this great country, says C. V. Aravind. A file pic of Gandhi with Sarojini Naidu he hundred and fiftieth birth anniversary of the Father vis-a-vis the Mahatma and his ideologies? Are the Mahatma of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi was celebrated with Gandhi roads and streets, the postal stamps, the currency T great fanfare across the country on the 2nd October, notes, caricatures on government office walls and Gandhi this year. Reams have been written about the Mahat- Jayanti the only reminder of the apostle of violence who ma’s invaluable contribution to freedom struggle, the rich walked tall through his life? Has parochialism dented Gand- legacy that he has left behind for future generations and the hi’s cherished principles of harmony and humanism? These values that he cherished right though his life. Politicians are all posers that are valid in today’s India where Gand- holding office and those bereft of power have thundered hism is not preached or practiced with the same fervour as from the pulpits about the imperative need to revisit Bapu’s it once was. life, imbibe his ideologies and put into practice his doctrines. The cacophonous, monotonous and maudlin The relevance of Mahatma chant has always been an annual affair but this time around it reached a crescendo as the celebrations revolved around Seven decades after he fell to an assassin’s an important milestone in Gandhi’s life – his hundred and bullets, Mahatma Gandhi continues to be revered as an fiftieth birthday. icon, an inspiration not only to billions of Indians but to leaders and people in all parts of the world. Former US Is Gandhi as relevant today as he was when he President Barack Obama once opined that Gandhi was an resorted to satyagraha to free India from the British yoke? Is inspiration to him because he embodied the kind of trans- there an overwhelming urge among political parties to formational change that can be made when ordinary people appropriate Gandhi and his legacy and use it as cannon come together to do extraordinary things. World leaders like fodder to fuel their petty, political designs? Is there a rethink Martin Luther King Jr., who fought for civil rights and former on the part of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS) South African President Nelson Mandela who adopted 04 ONE INDIA ONE PEOPLE Nov 2019 Gandhi’s principle of non-violence and came out of jail after on record to remark that Gandhi was ambivalent about the serving a term of nearly three decades to head the first black RSS. Right from the pre-independence days, the Rashtriya majority government were all enamoured of Gandhi and his Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) distrusted Gandhi and the latter ideals. At a time when strife rules the world and its tremors too had his doubts about the Sangh’s bonafides. The found- are being increasingly felt in our country too, Gandhi’s policy er of the RSS, Dr Keshav Balram Hedgewar had always been of ahimsa is hugely relevant and his observation that an eye a bitter critic of Gandhi and had once stated that the path of for an eye would only leave the whole world blind is perhaps Gandhi and RSS appeared parallel and incongruent. Deen- the strongest indictment of violence in any form. Right dayal Upadhyaya, a leader revered by the BJP had even through his lifetime Gandhi laid great emphasis on ‘truth’ gone to the extent of advising his followers to cease calling and he practiced it with all Gandhi the ‘Father of the Nation’. sincerity. His book ‘Experiments However the Sangh had with Truth’ was an eye opener to cherished the visit of the Mahat- all. Duplicity in any form was The Mahatma is and will ma to an RSS shakha and has anathema to the Mahatma. His never fought shy of reiterating his focus on a clean environment always be a beacon light impressions. Obviously Gandhi remains highly relevant and the had been impressed by their ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ a to billions of Indians in rigorous discipline, the complete government initiative that aims to their unending quest for absence of untouchability and the create a clean open defecation simplicity. The main bone of India has met with a high degree a better India where contention between Gandhi and of success and continues to be a the RSS was the Sangh’s continu- flagship scheme of the Narendra peace and harmony will ous harping on the need to turn Modi led National Democratic India into a Hindu Rashtra which Alliance (NDA) now in its second reign supreme and Gandhi staunchly opposed at term in office. every opportunity. The Mahat- where all castes, creeds ma’s insistence on equal political The BJP’s mascot status to numerically smaller and religions will co-ex- Muslim and Christian communi- Although leaders ties was unacceptable to the occupying the highest echelons ist in a spirit of universal Sangh, and its espousal of of the BJP would like to place the Hindutva as its credo. However Iron Man of India, Sardar brotherhood. there is evidence that the RSS Vallabhai Patel a notch above had been blowing hot and cold in Gandhi, the realisation that as an icon Gandhi stands head its relationship with Gandhi and sarsangchalak M. S. and shoulders above all his contemporaries has compelled Golwalkar had once exhorted the cadres to imitate Gandhiji the BJP to appropriate him if not for any other reason but at and act on his thoughts as that would enable them to least to derive a tangible benefit on the electoral front. The reawaken the great Hindu dharma that imparts such BJP’s eagerness to be seen as a party that defines the idea lessons. of India too has prompted it to make Gandhi its own, and he has now become a mascot for the party and his image has The RSS mouthpiece ‘Organiser’ had carried a been utilised to the optimum in campaigns including the cover feature on the Mahatma to commemorate his 150th Swachh Bharat Abhiyan where the Mahatma’s spectacles birth anniversary but the present sarsangchalak of the are prominently featured. The ruling government at the Sangh, Mohan Bhagwat has once again reaffirmed the Centre has been keen to propagate Gandhi’s idea of non-vio- organisation’s commitment towards the ushering in of a lence, Swachh and Swadeshi, but it has been clearly been a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ which is clearly an antithesis of all that the bit deficient where the question of religious harmony is Mahatma stood for. There can however be no denying the concerned. In his recent address to the United Nations fact that Gandhian thoughts and ideologies will continue to General Assembly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi alluded to shape the destiny of this great country and that those who the Mahatma and observed that as long as the thoughts of lead the nation now and in future will toil hard to realise his Gandhiji continue to be a significant part of humanity, his unfulfilled dreams. The Mahatma is and will always be a inspiration and relevance will also remain among us. Howev- beacon light to billions of Indians in their unending quest for er the opposition parties have decried the attempts of the a better India where peace and harmony will reign supreme BJP to appropriate the Mahatma and the interim President and where all castes, creeds and religions will co-exist in a of the Congress party Sonia Gandhi has charged the party spirit of universal brotherhood. with attempting to sideline Gandhi and make the RSS the symbol of India as Gandhi had always been a tenacious C.V.