ARTICLES : About Maharma Gandhi

Read articles written by very well-known personalities and eminent authors about their views on Gandhi, Gandhi's works, Gandhian philosophy and it's relevance today.


Gandhi Meditating

ARTICLES


About Gandhi
(Dimension of Gandhi)

  1. Gandhi - An Example in Humility and Service
  2. Gandhi's Model of Masculinity in the Backdrop of Colonial India
  3. From Absolute to the Ordinary
  4. Gandhi and Communication: Respecting One's Feelings and Those of The Other
  5. The Journalist in Gandhi
  6. Gandhi's Last Painful Days
  7. The Mahatma As A Management Guru In The New Millennium
  8. What Champaran gave to Gandhi and India's freedom struggle
  9. MAHATMA GANDHI : A real friend
  10. Gandhi, Parchure and Stigma of leprosy
  11. The woman behind the Mahatma
  12. Reflections on Gandhi
  13. Inspired By Mahatma Gandhi's Autobiography
  14. Mahatma Gandhi
  15. In the Early Days with Gandhi
  16. Gandhi's Human Touch
  17. Using And Abusing Gandhi
  18. Gandhi: The Leader
  19. The Sacred Warrior
  20. Gandhi The Prisoner- A Comparison
  21. Are Gandhi And Ford On The Same Road?
  22. Attack on Gandhi
  23. The Essence of Gandhi
  24. Gandhi's Illustrious Antecedents
  25. Ink Notes
  26. Peerless Communicator
  27. Other Gandhis: Aung San Suu Kyi
  28. Gandhi Through The Eyes of The Gita
  29. Gandhi's Source of Inspiration
  30. Tarring The Mahatma
  31. Gandhi, Globalization, and Quality of Life
  32. Gandhi And Globalisation
  33. Gandhi's Revolutionary Genius
  34. Mahatma Gandhi
  35. Who Is Mahatma?
  36. What I Owe To Mahatma Gandhi
  37. The Gentle Revolutionary
  38. Gandhi: The Practical Idealist
  39. Gandhi & Lenin
  40. A Note on Marxist Interpretation of Gandhi
  41. Gandhiji & The World
  42. Gandhi's Legacy
  43. Gandhi's Epic Fast
  44. Gandhi : The Mahatma
  45. How Gandhi Came To Me?
  46. Gandhian Influence on Indian Writing in English
  47. Rural Myth, Urban Reality
  48. August 15, 1947 - From Bondage To Freedom
  49. Mahatma Gandhi and His Contemporary Artists
  50. Gandhi in The Global Village
  51. The Last Day of Mahatma Gandhi
  52. Gandhi: India and Universalism
  53. Gandhi in Sharper Focus
  54. Gandhi on Corresponding Duties/ Rights
  55. Love for Humanity : A Gandhian View
  56. Gandhiji and The Prophet
  57. Mahatma Gandhi - A Protagonist of Peace
  58. Last Words of Mahatma Gandhi
  59. Lessons for Social Work
  60. Rabindranath Tagore and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
  61. The Message of Gandhi
  62. Gandhiji's Weeklies : Indian Opinion, Young India, Harijan
  63. M. K. Gandhi- The Student
  64. What Mahatma Gandhi Did To Save Bhagat Singh
  65. How Mahatma Gandhi's martyrdom saved India

Mahatma Gandhi - A Protagonist of Peace

By Nirendra Dev*

The second day of the month of October presents yet another occasion to a grateful Nation to recall the teachings of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi. The advent of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on the Indian political horizon posed enough reasons to excite as well as attract hundreds of Indians towards him and – more towards his ideology, which later came to be called the Gandhian Philosophy. It is indeed amazing that the personality of Gandhiji gripped the imagination of millions of his countrymen and in later stage an overwhelming number the world over.
It was to his unique credit that in a world marred by violence and man-made hatred, Mahatma Gandhi stands firm as a man of universal goodwill and a protagonist of peace. What is more striking is that Gandhiji emerged during his life time as a torchbearer of peace, even today he continues to surprise mankind with his non-violent methods of resolving conflicts. To many, it is not merely a strange phenomenon that a Nation subjected to colonial rule put up a strong resistance against the British hegemony with non-violence as a principal tool under a frail looking leader like Gandhiji. What is stranger still is the magic spell of success his methodology continues to have.
Can there be any denying the fact that ‘non-violence’ and the message of peace is still a familiar catchword among the world leaders to settle any international or bilateral dispute? It goes without saying that it is never possible to evaluate how much India and the world owes to Mahatma Gandhi, the holy mascot of peace.
A peace – however with a difference! This is what the protagonist was himself to say: “I am a man of peace. But I do not want peace at any price. I do not want the peace that you find in grave”. This is precisely an element that gives a suitable clause about Gandhi as a ‘man of peace’. This is only to underline that despite being a crusader of peace, Mahatma Gandhi was not just cut out to be someone who would or could accept anything or everything in the name of a peace deal.
Gandhiji’s definition of peace was not without struggle. In fact, he had led brilliantly in fight against apartheid in white-ruled South Africa. Consequently on his return back home in 1915, Gandhiji took on the mantle as a social reformer with campaign against untouchability and other social vices. Later he extended this yardstick to political sphere and in the long run took his message of love, peace and mutual adjustment to the cause of Hindu-Muslim harmony.
His ‘Ram dhun’, the popular devotion number, ‘Ishwar Allah tera naam’ is still the nation’s best hymn for Hindu-Muslim peace. This brings us into debate what was then ‘peace’ to Gandhiji. Well, one can say that the highly upheld ‘Peace’ was not an end by itself to him. Rather it was only a sort of a means to ensure better welfare for the mankind.
Mahatma Gandhi in real sense was a harbinger of truth. In fact, he even had said that ‘Truthfulness is more important than peacefulness’. In this context, the following words of the Mahatma, as quoted from ‘Young India’ newspaper are quite relevant. Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “Though we sing – all glory to God on high and on the earth be peace — there seems to be today neither glory to God nor Peace on earth”. Mahatma Gandhi wrote these words in December 1931. He died 17 years later in January 1948 to an assassin’s bullets. It indeed was tragic that a saint of universal peace and non-violence fell a victim to violence and hatred. But even today in the circa 2010, Mahatma Gandhi’s words of 1931 holds true.
The world is today faced with plethora of conflicts – of all types. Therefore, we see Gandhi’s emphasis on universal brotherhood and peaceful co-existence has all time relevance. His teachings are therefore the most upheld principles of patriotism as also on ways and means to end various global conflicts. In fact, a true testimony of Gandhij’s teaching lies in the fact that mere “good ends” do not justify ‘bad’ means. The world over therefore, today the emphasis is on human dignity and upholding the values of natural justice.
It is obvious that in today’s world, nothing seems to be permanent except the ‘crisis of peace’ – and nothing would be a better tribute to this man than to re-dedicate ourselves towards the cause of ‘peace’ and mutual tolerance. Here lies the relevance of Gandhism.

Source:http://www.pib.nic.in/newsite/efeatures.aspx?relid=66068


* Special Representative with ‘The Statesman’ in New Delhi.