GANDHI THE MARTYR
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, called the
Father of the Nation, was assassinated on 30th January 1948 barely
eight months after India had won Independence on 15th August 1947.
Gandhiji was a unique leader. He fought with
the indomitable British empire with his noble weapon of non-violence and to the
amazement of the whole world led India to the dawn of freedom.
Here are some opinions about this immortal
political-cum-spiritual leader of India.
***A poem entitled “Mahatma” penned by
Hamayun Kabir on 2nd October 1942:
Across vast spaces and vast times he strode
buoyed upon the hopes of an ancient race achieving courage out of dark
despair. Like a huge serpent resting
coil on coil slept the vast country in involuted sloth, but a breath of life
stirs every vein----for Gandhi breaks the charm of magic sleep, brings back
life till age-long lassitude drops like old dead skin from frozen limbs.
A puny figure strides upon the scene of
vast and elemental suffering: Strides against a background where sloth death
paints in dull phantasmagoral grey the end of all endeavour, hope and
faith. What secret magic transforms the
scene? Whence springs forth a deep
abiding force that thrills the landscape with abundant life, till the puny
figure dominates the scene, over vast and elemental suffering triumphs, and
with new birth’s pang and radiance shoots the landscape’s dull phantasmagoral
grey?
The static, dead and slothful continent
thrills to a new song of hope, of forward move. The momentum gathers, the
masses shake and strain and quiver for the onward march from slow decaying
death to resplendent life.
A lone figure stands upon the sands of
time, stands upon the shores of India’s timeless space, draws upon its vast
primeval wells of granite suffering and immemorial hopes: Launches India’s
resistless caravan into adventures new, a perilous path where out of Life’s
substance must be carved new values, new direction, order new ---Gandhi,
Mahatma, India’s leader, India’s soul.
---
Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru in his Autobiography
first published in 1936: “Gandhiji had pleaded for the adoption of the way of
non-violence, of peaceful non-co-operation, with all the eloquence and
persuasive power which he so abundantly possessed. His language had been simple and unadorned,
his voice and appearance cool and clear and devoid of all emotion, but behind
that outward covering of ice there was the heat of a blazing that concentrated
passion, and the words he uttered winged their way to the innermost recesses of
our minds and hearts, and created a strange ferment there. The way he pointed
out was hard and difficult, but it was a brave path, and it seemed to lead to
the promised land of freedom. Because of
that promise we pledged our faith and marched ahead. In a famous article---“The Doctrine of the
Sword”--- he had written in 1920:
“I do believe that when there is only a
choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence…I would rather
have India resort to arms in order to defend her honour than that she should in
a cowardly manner become or remain a helpless victim to her own dishonour. But I believe that non-violence is infinitely
superior to violence, forgiveness is more manly than punishment.
“Forgiveness adorns a soldier. But abstinence is forgiveness only when there
is power to punish; it is meaningless when it pretends to proceed from a
helpless creature. A mouse hardly
forgives a cat when it allows itself to be torn to pieces by her….But I do not
believe India to be helpless. I do not
believe myself to be a helpless creature….
“Let me not be misunderstood. Strength does not come from physical
capacity. It comes from an indomitable
will….
“I am not a visionary. I claim to be a practical idealist. The religion of non-violence is not meant
merely for the Rishis and saints. It is
meant for the common people as well.
Nonviolence is the law of our species as violence is the law of the brute. The spirit lies dormant in the brute and he
knows no law but that of physical might.
The dignity of man requires obedience to a higher law----to strength of
the spirit.
“I have therefore ventured to place before
Indian the ancient law of self-sacrifice.
For Satyagrah and its off-shoots, non-co-operation and civil resistance,
are nothing but new names for the law of suffering. The Rishis who discovered the law of
non-violence in the midst of violence, were greater geniuses than Newton. They were themselves greater warriors than
Wellington. Having themselves known the
use of arms, they realized their uselessness and taught a weary world that its
salvation lay not through violence but through non-violence.
“Non-violence in its dynamic condition
means conscious suffering. It does not
mean meek submission to the will of the evil-doer, but it means the putting of
one’s whole soul against the will of the tyrant. Working under this law of our being, it is
possible for a single individual to defy the whole might of an unjust empire to
save his honour, his religion, his soul and lay the foundation for that
empire’s fall or regeneration.”
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