Gandhi
Debates are always on whether Gandhi got us independence or someone else. I won’t get into this debate at all. While a leader is important for any struggle, the followers and co-leaders are also part of this joint effort. So Gandhi did get us our independence, so did all the leaders and fighters and common people. Their participation secured us the independence.
This post is triggered by India’s Freedom - thoughts on how we got it 60 years down the lane.
I’ll take up just 2 things in this post. These example are not conclusive, just a side which gets sidelined.
Firstly the Dandi march. One man and his supporters trying to prove a point. Joined by countless in his journey. The Dandi march is an example of non-cooperation. The British put high taxes on basic commodities for people here. The Dandi march signified the refusal to pay taxes on salt. Salt is a natural product obtained from the sea water. And a basic ingredient in cooking. So why should we pay high taxes on a basic thing as salt. The Dandi march gave the docile public hope that by refusal to pay taxes, they are asserting their independence. It was an idea which fired up the people, who had adjusted to the fact that the British are here to stay. You can’t blame people who had adjusted to it. That is part of the Indian thinking process. Co-Existence. Live and let live. That does harm us sometimes but that is a part of us.
Secondly the charkha. Again its an idea which fired up the people. Someone who has not been a part of village life, would not be able to completely understand the significance of charkha. And Gandhi was from the elite class. But he travelled India in trains to understand how people in villages live, how they think, their needs and wants. For lack of a better word, I’ll call that a simple life. Food, clothes and shelter. Village people grow their own food, get clothes made locally and build shelter locally. More independent than city people. Food grown in India was used to feed the public as well as exported. Apart from food, British exported the cotton and other raw materials to their factories in Britain and then exported the ready made cloth to India to sell at higher prices. The charkha broke the chain, we have the raw materials present in India, we will make our own cloth and then our own clothes. Again the idea is small but its a paradigm shift in the thoughts of the people. Especially the majority of the people, who lived in villages. Get the majority to non-cooperate, you have the basic struggle self-started.
He hoped the charkha would assist the peoples of India achieve self-sufficiency and independence
i”m sure conflicts between regions and religions must have happened from time immemorial….it must have recieved strength under the British divide and rule policy..
I think Gandhi had done a lot of things in his life to set an example for others..like a ”practice before you preach” thing. He defintiely thought and did things outside the box which were relevant and crucial for independence.
I think it is very likely we were always like this.
“doubt” :)…right now there is a big doubt on what does India mean? what does Indian mean? Not many have an answer to this….take the present generation, to them the struggle is as irrelevant as the people behind the struggle…why? the discontent because of high population, multiple conflicts between regions and religions and corruption, if this is the fruit of independence, then many doubt, did we become like this after independence or were we always like that?
Good post Candyman. What I don”t understand is after 60 yrs of independence, after having all the records of what Gandhiji did or how he worked why do we need to keep re-affirming what he did time and again!! Why there is so much ”doubt”? When do we start building ”confidence”? When do we stop doing post mortem of past leaders and start looking forward instead?
thought provoking post really
Along with a host of great personalities he could inculcate a self esteem in Indian mind at that age! But with the passage of time and want of even a single leader in the country we are about to lose our own identity! What is our next destination!
JAI HIND
There is no debate on whether Gandhi freed us from British rule. He played a key role as did a lot of others, as you mentioned. But my thoughts on this go in a completely different direction, probably very irrelevant here, but I”ll say it all the same. I met guys in my school as a kid from North-eastern states who said, “We hate India; we want to be independent”. It was strange hearing that for the first time. Independence is a strange concept. If somebody is skilled enough he can rouse people in say, Calcutta, and make them ask “Why should Delhi be our capital? Why should Hindi be our national language?”. I think the struggle should be towards the rights of an individual; the guys who make the rules can always be perceived by someone or the other as aliens. Even our neighbors
As I see it, India is on track for a few splits in time; unless nation states become irrelevant soon or we become a developed nation.
niceone….very informative….liked reading it…..
dont know when again we will b self-reliant….looking at the scene today wer elite class ppl go only abroad for shopping…the cant do with anything thts Indian…
really feeling sad wn i look at the scenario today…nothings changed post independence…..