मत भेद होने पर भी मन भेद हो ना पाए…
Mat Bhed hone par bhi mann bhed ho na paye.
“Even if differences of opinion arise, let there not be differences of heart (ie. hatred & enmity).”
This is a thought that originated between Mahatma Gandhi and the followers of his philosophy, including Jayprakash Narayan and Vinoba Bhave. Gandhi and other leaders of this period nurtured a certain mental and political culture — a system of discourse, debate, introspection, thought and action – that is broadly known as Gandhiism. The underpinning principles of this system / doctrine / philosophy / worldview are Sattya and Ahimsa – Truth and Non Violence.
I am not a follower of Gandhiism or of Ahimsa. I am a critic of this school of thought, but I am grudgingly coming to appreciate its value. I am a student, and I remain sceptical of many aspects of Gandhiism.
My upbringing in a Congress-supporting family involved in politics, voluntary social service and journalism, only deepened my scepticism. My childhood exposure to the genteel hypocrisy of most Gandhians — their tendency to grab plum political positions and the high moral ground with practised ease — made me regard them, and also Gandhi, with a jaundiced eye.
For six months, I lived in an Ashram in South Gujarat that owed its parentage to both Gandhi and Jayprakash. I lived in an environment where khadi Gandhiism, and not Hindi, was the spoken language. We breathed, ate and sat Gandhiism. When I left the place after six months, it was with the feeling that this was a place for cronies who did not use their own minds, and preferred to live in a hallowed past, or an imagined utopian future.
I felt I had spent some months studying the rotting corpse of Gandhiism. While Gandhiism per se may have been wholesome and useful when alive and kicking, it stank because it was now a corpse only awaiting its formal burial. I hated the emasculated circuitous all-too-reverential logic that the people there exuded.
Cowardice on Hiroshima Day
I saw real cowardice in action, at first hand. When I returned as a freelance journalist to the Ashram a year later, I got unwittingly caught up in some local disturbances at the nearby Kakrapar Atomic Power Station on Hiroshima Day. It was a disturbance that these Gandhinans themselves had fomented in earlier years, through sloganeering and pamphleteering. (I know because I too was there as a sceptical participant.)
But when the movement got out-of-hand and turned political, ugly, riotous and chaotic, these Gandhian ‘leaders’ did not want to be in the picture. They chose to safely stay home and let events take their own course, leaderless.
I was a naive, hotblooded, stupid freelance journalist who believed he could transform the world with his writings and expose’s. The Ashram people gently told me that they would prefer to stay away from Kakrapar this year, and none of them would accompany me to the hot-spot.
I walked into this trouble spot that morning, to find myself in the midst of a pitched battle. A dozen policemen had fallen to the tribals’ amazing prowess with cloth slingshots to hurl stones 500 metres or more. A dozen tribals had fallen to retaliatory firing by policemen; a dozen more had been arrested. The village leaders had gone into hiding, and refused to come out and quieten the people whose leaders they claimed to be.
By virtue of having participated in the sloganeering the year before, I felt somehow responsible for this situation. And so, after making unsuccessful attempts to call the village mukhia from his hidey-hole, I made an effort to act as a go-between and broker a ceasefire. Only to be swiftly rounded up by the police as a prime suspect, and hustled into a police van. There, on the way to the lock-up, I was kicked and bashed up with rifle butts by half a dozen constables who wanted to avenge their injured colleagues.
I was denied even a phone call to the Ashram or my parents, and after spent a couple of days in a tiny 10ft x 12ft police lockup with a dozen tribals, including a looney and a drunken murderer who raved and ranted all night.
After a couple of days, I was produced before a magistrate who would not listen to me at all, and then remanded to judicial custody (a larger, darker cell which I shared with a truck driver). I was charged under TADA, and considered as a naxalite-type, inciting violence against the state.
Four or five days later, one guy from the Ashram visited me for a few minutes and later phoned my parents in Mumbai. After this, the Ashram washed its hands off me, and never contacted me again.
Fortunately for me, my parents were extremely influential with the Gujarat government at that point of time. And so, thanks to their efforts and an enormous amount of good luck, the charges against me were completely dropped.
I have never ceased to hold in contempt this bunch of sheltered posturing doctrinaires who showed no mind of their own, no conscience, and no willingness to walk the talk.
George Bernard Shaw quipped that Islam was the world's best religion, and the Muslims were the worst adherents of Islam. In a similar spirit, I feel that Gandhiism is undoubtedly one of the world’s best guideline for individual and collective action, but it is sad how Gandhians interpret it and turn it into a dogma that makes them truly a bunch of ‘followers’ in the worst possible sense of the word.
I value Gandhiism as a school of thought. I came to appreciate it and value it even more after I spent those memorable six months in the company of Gandhians. It is a fine distillate of Indian religious and philosophical thinking, and a repository of values. And the fine distinction that I learned at the Ashram between Mat Bhed and Mann Bhed continues to influence my actions in some degree.
Footnote & disclaimer: I do not claim to know Gandhi, the man. I can never presume to judge him, because, for all his faults and failings, he must have been an extremely tall man whose mental processes I may not easily comprehend. I also cannot judge him because he lived at a different point of history, whose demands I cannot even begin to understand. I am denied of any possibility of understanding the context that he lived in.
That said, I also feel that he was just another man, and therefore must not be lionized and worshipped. In all correctness, one must try to understand his philosophy, but putting Gandhi on a pedestal means doing him and oneself a grave inhustice.
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Posted in Personal.
– September 26, 2007
The difference between Gandhi and Gandhians is the same as between lightning and lightning bug. Often the bugs turn out to be real buggers as experienced by you. I know a guy who admired Vivekanada and joined Vivekanada center at Kanyakumari . He left it after an year fed up with corruption. Your experience offers a good lesson and moral for youngsters who have not yet jumped into the lure of ‘isms’. Regarding Gandhi, I think he was the center and extreme at the same time. He offers a fine example for service leadership though he showed many contradictions (He disliked Telegraph and Railway and yet used it profusely. He asked to burn foreign clothes though I would have preferred it to be given to those who didn’t have clothes). He wanted to build an Indian Arcadia of pastoral life after independence. He simply didn’t realize that Poverty is not a solution to problems. Despite all these oddities, he fought against the indolence of Indians with incredible selflessness …..PGR
FG - I did not comment earlier because I wanted to digest what you have said here that took time. Hypocrisy is one human quality in abundance. The young in their sheer stupidity fall into traps set by these politically motivated bigots. I can tell you about a hundred instances where policital and non political influenced youths to take up an issue and then backed off into a “settlement” leaving the young ppl in a lurch. It was good that your family has its influence otherwise one shudders to think what the consequences would have been. You on your part had a wise head on your shoulder and so quickly learnt your lessons. Warm Rgds - Sunshine
The opening verse is beautiful. And your account made an interesting read. There is a lot of diference in the written word and what the practised one.
So I guess, Gandhians today are not what gandhism is about. Sad.
This is true for all followers of mass movements. Buddhism today might be a pale shadow of what it was in Buddha’’s times. Christians hardly ever follow Christ in spirit. Etc, etc. But you must blog your proson experiences. Sounds interesting !!!
* prison experiences. I for one am dying to know.
Just thought a thought…Geeta Came out of Conflict so did gandhi and gandhism. U have to be turmoil and in state of utter despondecy to understand Gandihiiji . Nobel laureattes - Gandhians and ithey all found understood Mahatma.
1. Dalai Lama -Great soul without a country
2. Nelson Mandela- Alien and discrimnated in his own country
3. Aung Sang Su Ki- Incacerated but yet Fighting for what we have - Democracy
May be Gandhi Ji “Sangarsh Granth ” like Gita - Voice of sanity , path for victory when all is lost…and nothing there to win and amidst violence….
the ideology which originates from one person is bound to be modified and distorted according to the convenience..with time if it is successful..i personally dont believe in gandhiism.nowdays it creates meek followers, not leaders.
Hi Me too an ardent an of gandhi.I have read about 4000 pages on and by gandhi. He was a great soul. The current genre of the so called gandhias are the actual murders of Gandhi. nathuram Godse was a pigmy to Kill Gandhi.( I have written a poem about Gandhi and an article on Gandhi in by blog)
loved the starting verse….it was fab…. n as for Gandhiji… i appreciate the things he did,but at the same time how can i forget the sacrifce of our freedom fighters…they were also right in doing wut they liked ..Gandhiji choose the path of Ahinsa,its was his personal choice he belived in tht…but 2day few people(Gandhians) belive in Gandhi coz they think he is FON..n if follow him they will considered like him..but when u dont belive or hv faith in urself n ur abilities how can u be a gud human leave alone to be considered like him …….. can u imagine Gandhiji making speeches to Azad hind fauj…he cant coz he belive in Ahinsa…n if u do the things for which u r not meant for u end up being a selfish/gud for nothing person…..btw very informative post….n the TADA scene was really shocking…thx for sharing..
One has to scour the pages of history to find a comparable event with the dandi march. I can suggest (surely there are others) the Boston Tea Party - who would have believed that the simple act of throwing boxes of tea overboard would lead ultimately to the British Empire losing what until then was the Jewel in its Crown. The symbolic act of scooping up a handful of dirty salt from the seaside also punched the daylights out the Raj, though it took a while to play out.
Separate Gandhi the politician from Gandhi the sadhu. Two completely different personas. Gandhi was a lawyer and a chatur political player, who had both Jinnah and Mountbatten climbing walls. In fact, it wasn”t until the Dandi March that people, from Nehru to the daily labourer, really started taking notice. It’’s because this Chanakya has been conflated with the ”experimenter with Truth” that so much confusion reigns.
On Prudent Indian’’s alternative candidates for father of the nation, what a good idea…why restrict to one father, though…surely a billion people can do with a few more fathers…
How about remembering Peace & Nonviolence at this moment? :O)
It is a fact that it was not just Gandhi’’s efforts that brought us Freedom. India was no more a profittable colony for the post WWII Britain…. we need to judge Gandhi with the proper data and need to have a proper perspective… He was, after all, an ordinary mortal and there is no need to get carried away while remembering him. He was a mixture of good and bad… ( remember what he did to his family…) We tend to become emotional… tend to lose the perspective… when it comes to judging the Gandhi (real and pseudo!)-Nehru clan…
well written and well debated
TO PRUDENT INDIAN …. greatness is something difficult to appreciate . And most of us born / living in “free India ” may not be / are not able to, understand the greatness of people who struggled for Independence. Most of us ( including me ) dont even know the value of “independence ” to India. Bhagat Singh gave up his life… ok ; but there are others also who lost their lives. We do not remember them either . Before under rating Ghandhiji …. first we have to understand him: what / how / why he did …. . For that, the only thing we can do , at the present point of time is , read what he himself has said . Instead what most of us do is listen to other people talking about him. Even FG has said about / criticised only Gandhians, not Ghandhiji. To deny greatness to someone already attributed greatness, the reasons must be specific; & to the point; Even why he should be taken off the pedestal where he is placed…. Sheila
Wow, that’’s some brush with the law you had, caught in the heat of the moment, thats where a “press” card really shows its power, but then you had much more power than that. Our judicial system is highly flawed, the big and powerful get away scot free while the petty thief is tortured. Such incidents do change one’’s personal view on life, 6 months in a Gandhi ashram is in itself life-changing, the complete Gandhi experience, he is truly fit to be “father of our nation.” and he is still very much relevant in our fast changing consumeristic lifestyle, apt person to grace our currency.
aaila…aaila…aaila
Gandhiji & Gandhiisum is like….you can agree or disagree with him/it but you may never ignore it. I too read “Satya na Prayogo” in Gujju…many thing i never able to understand may be coz of my limitation to understand such a level person but many thing i was not agree with……..still it said u never igonore him!!
As today on 27th of September we sit typing comments on some ”fake heroes”,I stand up and salute the ”Real heroes” who sacrificed their lives for this ”thank less” nation.Tomorrow 28th.September is the day of Birth Centenary of Shaheed Bhagat Singh…how many remember this? One last point may i ask why do we call Gandhi as FON? Why? Have we not read that it was Chankaya the great who had laid the foundation for the first ever ”REPUBLIC” challenging the ”might” of Alexandra the warrior? Or we, as a Nation,believe that ”Chankaya the great” too was just a ”literary character” as sec- soc (Secular - socialist) gang believe RAM was!?
Warm Regards…PI. PS: well sorry for the tone FG,but i hope many of you would agree with me.
The most ”overrated” person of this age.But,then it is ”blasphemous” to question Gandhi! In this age and times we are living in,it is alright to question - nay - simply deny the time tested icons…but ”blasphemous” to question him! I simply ”baffle” to understand one simple fact…post WW II ,Britishers vacated many countries including India.Which other country had Gandhi or Nehru so they too got freedom! If the credit is ”appropriated” to only these two for standing against the ”Might” of Britishers and that too ”Non Violently” (!) then how did the ”other” countries got their freedom? and yes why these two ”Giants” could not secure freedom for Pondicharry and Goa along with the rest of India in 1947?? I admire Gandhi only for the reason that he could manipulate the mass movement,he was really an ”astute” leader. Partitions,Fake Secularism are still ”thrones” in the collective ”psyche” of this Nation. cotd….
I think we tend to idolise non idols. A ”right” man in the ”right” times does not necessarily mean that another demo god is born. Gandhi was gandhi and just that! he is viewed in so many differentways! ..thi spost was different…. i liked the change in style! aaila! now dont ask me to pinpoint it..
Before my marriage i had been in a …… ashram for 6 months. Then i “ran away” from there for the same reasons as u felt about the Ghandhi ashram. I ve heard that J. Krishna moorthy had resigned from the Krishna Moorthy foundation .. Someone told me that if Jesus christ had been alive , he would have resigned from the Church ….. for the same reasons……… Sheila
somehow i always wished that gandhi should have been a little more aggressive , that he should have been a better negotiatior and a more practical person. I feel that his principle do not stand the test of time and it was applicable only to that particular period and never before or after that. But then , it is all the way in which one interprets anything. I have not had much chance to read or know, but from within my limited understanding , he had his own weaknesses , just as any others had , but he was a great organiser and charmer. I always wonder the defenition of “personality” when i think of ghandhiji and his image . But Ghandhiji is somehow attached to our (and mine )indian sentiments as rastrapita just as bharat mata is . He was definetly a selfless person and incomparable to our latest politicians.
Isn”t it strange that every new way of life or thought is usually almost always wrongly misinterpreted by the very followers who got initiated in the first place? Take anything religion, or movement its usually twisted and maligned when the founder is no more. Maybe this grounds us all in some ways and reminds us not to deify any man and who knows he maybe wrong in other aspects to his life and unable to apply his philosophy effectively there. keeps us humble or else we will all be forming cults! Yikes!!!
I feel pity for the incident that happen. It looked straight from your heart and must be effortless, considering it carried some emotion too. I am not sure if I am hurt, for I do not have any opinion on Gandhi ji, but I do find practical flaws in Gandhism…may be Gandhism is something that was lost or should I say: just like a pillow would subdue your voice, these hypocrites might have put that pillow on that could be vibrant theory and not just that they sat on it with their assess on it completely shut it off! Nice that you brought this!
As you pointed out, one may not grasp the entirety of his personality and to our ordinary thinking , some aspects may even leave us a little befuddled. I saw “Gandhi , my father ” recently and couldn”t help feeling that he could have paid more heed to the aspirations of his son. But then , Gandhi’’s vision was not ordinary and it will be a long time before someone like him comes by again. The success of Lage Raho Munnabhai, is some respects, is an indicator that his philosophy can still touch a chord , in spite of the gross materialism and self centredness of our times. If Gandhigiri could become”cool”, at least some honesty and steadfastness of purpose( for the right cause )would have come to be. Alas! don”t see that happening.
Arre baap re! Itna bada comment. Sachmuch, kaafi bada hai. I quite before it becomes a post…
(3) Some of his concepts were very relevant at that point in History and may not be literally relevant today, e.g. Khadi as a symbol of self reliance, to promote rural industry and self reliance. This may not be relevant in today’s globalized economy and we need not take Khadi ‘literally’. Similarly, the spinning wheel was a symbol too, a symbol of empowerment and sent respect. In today’s world, probably that symbol could well be a power tiller, a PC or even a tractor! (3) Of course he had the most flamboyant Leadership qualities, charisma and wit which are so rare among leaders.
Quite a personal experience you narrate here! I mean the TADA stuff was a killer, what better way to illustrate how Gandians have killed Gandhism. Well, it is perhaps true that the ‘Most Famous Indian’ is also the least understood- that is the problem. It is this thing about the Word and the Spirit, u know. We tend to focus too much on the words and miss the spirit… e.g. the least important facets of Gandhism- khadi, spinning-wheel etc are all taken literally and made to seem like the most important ones, and no one understand their relevance as symbols. Purely in that regard I think the Munna Bhai version of Gandhigiri was closer to the Ideal than most of the khaddardaris who have got fat headed katoing Charkha.
The relevance of Mahatma comes from the fact that (1) He was perhaps the first person who showed that liberation/freedom/political solutions were possible through negotiations, talks, cooperation and non-cooperation. Without resorting to John Rambo style violence. That is unique because majority of those fighting for liberation (even in today’s World) are resorting to violence. Showing the path to negotiative settlement has been perhaps the single most contribution of Gandhi (one can go on quoting Martin Luther King, Nelson Madela etc who tried to replicate that model). (2) The way of handling the Indian psyche was best understood by Gandhi (using dollops of religion etc). That was a masterstroke. A religious man who did secular politics (a sharp contrast to Jinnah – a non-religious man who did religious politics)
loved the starting verse n i believe in it…but we fail to practice it so many times….anyways an intersting share….have stayed in sewagram (M.S) for the most of my life so am pretty attuned to the gandhian ways n i find not all but many of them right in a way…….and u have given an apt footnote…..
FG, i had read somewhere that all great souls have to face the death at least twice… once when they leave their mortal bodily existence & secondly.. when their philosophy or ideology gets defeated / killed by their own followers… :O) & yet, one does get a wide room to believe that most of the times, it is the follower of the principle who is fallible & not the principle itself… & hence there always remains a reason for us to believe in that principle & say - Mat Bhed hone par bhi mann bhed ho na paye…. :O) Cheers… Pra~!
“Even if differences of opinion arise, let there not be differences of heart ” …. Yes, i agree ”i” :))
yes there should be dif of opinion but not diff in heart.but i agree with meenu ,me to ahinsa depends on situation.gosh .but u hv written very well friend,and everyword has reached til heart
hmm…. no comments…first i dont know wht to comment… if u ask me,do i believe in ahimsa…then i have to say this, it depends upon the situation and place.