For most of us, by what we are taught in school, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was widely recognized as greatest political and social worker. Honored in India as the father of the nation, he pioneered and practiced the principle of Satyagraha—resistance to tyranny through mass nonviolent civil disobedience. While leading nationwide campaigns to ease poverty, expand women’s rights, build religious and ethnic harmony and eliminate the injustices of the caste system, Gandhi supremely applied the principles of nonviolent civil disobedience, playing a key role in freeing India from foreign domination. He was often imprisoned for his actions, sometimes for years, but he accomplished his aim in 1947, when India gained its independence from Britain. World civil rights leaders—from Martin Luther King, Jr. to Nelson Mandela—have credited Gandhi as a source of inspiration in their struggles to achieve equal rights for their people.
To be honest that's a great story to tell isn't it? Gandhi pretty much single handedly took all the credit for the independence of our nation, and others who sacrificed there life's, their family in those 200 years of British rule just got an honorable mention. Those ethics are a good teaching for small children to help them understand how to behave, non-violence, ultimate truth, Gandhi's 3 monkeys, If someone slaps you on one side of your face, turn the other one to him, but are they practical? Sooner or later everyone of us has realised it is not practical, violence is an answer to something evil, it will always be an eye for an eye.
Everyone Is Hated
Most of the Indians might loved Gandhi for what he did for the country and the rest would either hate him for reasons or be in no man's land. Which is fine to me and fine by intellectuals but some people can't stand a word said against him and this might be an eye opener to those.
- Gandhi was very unmindful to people of other ideologies who fought for freedom there own ways, especially to those who disagreed with non-violence. In the Round Table Conferences, Gandhi was asked for any terms and conditions in return for calling off his Satyagraha movement. Here he had a great chance to save the lives of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Jayguru, patriots who had taken part in an act of violent rebellion, where it involved bombing the legislative assembly in New Delhi and mistaken identification police superintendent James Scott and instead killed John Saunders in Lahore, because of which they were about to be hanged. The three of them were very popular and well know for their fight for the nation and if anything these were the man that would the difference when it came to giving it back to Britishers, the people unanimously demanded of Gandhi that he at least put forward the condition of sparing those 3 life's in return for calling off Satyagraha movement. Also, Bhagat Singh had deliberately fired the bombs in such a way as to avoid injuring or harming any human beings , along with the bombs, Bhagat Singh, also threw in copies of a leaflet in the assembly that quoted "It takes a loud noise to make the deaf hear", and signs off with the now epochal statement, 'Inquilab Zindabad! '. But Gandhi did not even mention it in the meeting, and later spread the word that he tried everything he could and there was no way that would be turned the other way around.
- In the year 1920-22 The Non-cooperation movement was carried our which involved, Hundreds of teachers and students who were asked leave government schools and colleges in favour of national institutes, boycotted good quality foreign products for the promise of homegrown materials, etc. However, nationally established schools were not high quality, they often lacked in resources. Homegrown products would have never really made it considering what machinery the Britishers used in comparison to what Gandhi suggested, neolithic tools. The Indian textiles industry was lacking behind by a lot, which could not meet the increased demand of so many people. In the end, the frustrated people started going back to British institutions, which were more efficient and better stocked with resources, and the movement that had great initial success was falling apart.
- In 1930 election for president of the Indian National Congress were held. Gandhi's non-violent candidate were opposed by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. Netaji had earlier supported a militaristic attitude towards colonial rule. Under his supervision, many youths had received military training which would be very important for the future. Netaji was a former Civil Servant, who had given up his prestigious post as an act of protest against British rule and its oppressive effects and everybody was well aware of the potential that Netaji had and what he had already done. As the election results were declared, it turned out that Netaji had won. Under such circumstances, where Gandhi was duty-bound to stand by the new president of the INC, declared by popular vote, instead of that he boycotted the party along with Sardar Patel, Pandit Nehru (jr.), and his candidate. This eventually led Netaji to leave the congress in favour of his own party.
- Gandhi said on 3 March, 1947, “If the Congress wishes to accept partition, it will be over my dead body. So long as I am alive, I will never agree to the partition”. Gandhi as we all know was famous for his Fast Unto Death (आमरण अनशन) until his demands were met. He did everything in his power to get things done, but he did not fast to stop partition. Everybody knows what happened during partition. He later on fasted to compel the government to release the 55 crore which were held behind for Pakistan's agressive act in Kashmir. It was a clear and absolute betrayal to all Indians.
Gandhi's Hipocricy
- In world war II, Gandhi agreed to recruit Indian soldiers to fight for Britishers. He agreed to let Indian army die for the greater good of Britishers by helping them win the war. The same Gandhi who believed in non-violence, well he also said the reason for this was the deal he made with the Britishers that he provides manpower to help them win the war in return they gave India independence. Killing people, violence to achieve what you want is wrong. Doing that for someone else is fine.
- He opposed untouchability but supported the caste system.
- In August 1942, Gandhi and his wife, Kasturba, among others, were imprisoned by the British in Aga Khan Palace, near Poona. Kasturba had poor circulation and she’d weathered several heart attacks. While detained in the palace, she developed bronchial pneumonia. One of her four sons, Devadas, wanted her to take penicillin. Gandhi refused. He was okay with her receiving traditional remedies, such as water from the Ganges, but he refused her any medicines, including this newfangled antibiotic, saying that the Almighty would have to heal her. “The Life and Death of Mahatma Gandhi” quotes him on February 19, 1944; “If God wills it, He will pull her through, She is in God’s hands now.” Three days later, Devadas was still pushing for the penicillin, but Gandhi shot back: “Why don’t you trust God?” Kasturba died that day. The next night, Gandhi cried out: “About how God tested my faith!” He told one of Kasturba’s doctors that the antibiotic wouldn’t have saved her and that allowing her to have it “would have meant the bankruptcy of my faith.” But Gandhi’s faith wasn’t much of an obstacle a some time later when it was his life on the line. A mere six weeks after Kasturba died, Gandhi was flattened by malaria. He stuck to an all-liquid diet as his doctors tried to convince him to take quinine. Now according to his faith and trust in God if the almighty wished he would pull him though. But No, actually, after three weeks of deterioration, he took the diabolical drug and quickly recovered. The stuff about trusting God’s will and testing faith only applied when his wife’s life hung in the balance.
- Gandhi believed Indian women who were raped lost their value as human beings. He argued that fathers could be justified in killing daughters who had been sexually assaulted for the sake of family and community honor.” There are many such examples of Gandhi ‘s statement which demonstrate a high level of misogyny and racism.
- Also different states like Gandhi to different extends. The people of Bengal, for instance like him a lot for his role in stopping communal violence there whereas, the people from Punjab like him to a lesser extend because of failing to do so in their state.
- One of the most shocking facts about Gandhi is that he had young women in his ashram, some of them still teenagers, one of them his own grand-niece [Manu Gandhi], slept naked with him in his bed at night. This was an aspect of Gandhi.
Pro-Muslim Gandhi
Gandhi was supporting unreasonable Muslims interests at the cost of the Hindus. First it was the demand for Pakistan as a country which he accepted. Second, the emptying mosques which were housing Hindu refugees in Delhi were vacated on Gandhi’s insistence, so that they could be occupied by Muslim refugees. In the cold winters, the Hindu refugees had no where to go and yet he did something like that. A request similar to that of mosques was not made for temples in Pakistan. On the other hand temples in Pakistan were defiled.
All the Muslims were granted full security in India and had the choice to stay back, if they wanted. As a result majority of Muslims never went to Pakistan and the very purpose of creating a new nation, for them was defeated. Unlike India, the Hindus in Pakistan were forced to leave the country. Men, women and children were murdered and raped. One million people died. Mahatama’s ideology of non violence, led to lots of violence.
Now partitions wasn't because of any individual's fault if anyone was to be accused for such disasters, it was the Britishers. The divided and rule policy was a key for such highly extremists groups of Hindus and Muslims and they did use it for one last time before they left. But not every Hindu was happy about Gandhi’s call for Hindu-Muslim unity and India-Pakistan amity. Militant Hindu groups had never accepted his philosophy of Satya (truth), Ahimsa (non-violence) and communal harmony, and had even accused him of being pro-Muslim and pro-Pakistan.
As the matter of fact Gandhi was also accused for reading The Quran in Hindu temples.
Nathuram Godse
We all know who, so called "Mahatma" Gandhi was but our text books barely mentioned who Godse was apart from the fact that he killed Gandhi.
Know by the world as the Assassinator of Gandhi, Nathuram Godse was a nationalist born in a Brahmin family in Poona. Interestingly enough Nathuram Godse was named Ramachandran at birth, before he was born his parents had 3 boys all of them died at infancy. His parents believed all their male children were cursed so they raised him as a girl and made him wear a Nath (Nose Ring). It was because of this he owned the name Nathuram which literally meant Ram with a Nath, after the birth of his younger brother Gopal his parents went back to treat him like a boy,and the name Nathuram followed by. After dropping out of high school Nathuram Godse became a part of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (R.S.S), which is a Hindu nationalist, paramilitary organization, and the political party Hindu Mahasabha. The Hindu Mahasabha had initially backed Gandhi's campaigns of civil disobedience against the British government. Godse himself had actively participated in the civil disobedience movement; he had been imprisoned by the government on charges of tree-felling.
Godse became Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’s secretary, working under him Godse learned how to read and write in English, he also learned how to deliver speeches. Unlike many other freedom fighters of the time, Nathuram Godse was a prominent name for his activities on the ground level and could be termed as a valuable freedom fighter of the country. Had he not killed Gandhi, he would have been named as one of the foremost freedom fighters of the time, undoubtedly…
No doubt, my own future would be totally ruined, but the nation would be saved from the inroads of Pakistan.
But eventually he did kill Gandhi and during his trial in the court and his life in jail he wrote the book "Why I Killed Gandhi" which is worth reading, initially the book was banned by the government because the things written in the book were very true and exposed Gandhi to a greater extent, and government knew that after reading this book all people will start hating Gandhi. So they released a disolved version of the book which was less straight forward.
In another book "Gandhiji's Murder & After" written by Gopal Godse one of Gandhi's son Devdas came to visit the killer of his father and the line read:
I am Nathuram Vinayak Godse, the editor of a daily, Hindu Rashtra. I, too, was present there [at Gandhi's murder]. Today, you have lost your father and I am the cause of that tragedy. I am very much grieved at the bereavement that has befallen you and the rest of your family. Kindly believe me, I was not prompted to do this with any personal hatred, or any grudge or any evil intention towards you.""Then why did you do it?" Devdas asked."The reason is purely political and political alone!" Nathuram replied. He asked for time to explain his case but the police did not allow this.
The reason being political and political alone is kind of argumentative because godse felt it was Gandhi who was keen for partition, while the history tells us it was otherwise. It is contrary to his statement to Devdas, it was not politics that shaped his actions. It was his hatred of the secular ideology of Gandhi, the true Hindu spirit of Godse, having been brainwashed thoroughly by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Nathuram took all the responsibility of the murder and was sentenced to death.
Which Gandhi's son( Manilal & Ramdas ) tried to overturn saying "such a punishment contradicted Gandhi's beliefs of non-violence, but either way Godse was executed in 1949 for the charges of murder.
Godse's Reasons for Assassination
He assassinated Gandhi so that his people, the Hindus did not suffer injustice, because he felt Gandhi was highly pro-Muslim and favored them against Hindus. He felt that Gandhi did not do enough to prevent the partition of India from happening. He stated that Gandhi would fast for issues related to Muslims but didn’t put so much effort when there were problems specific to Hindus. He also states that Gandhiji wanted the Indian Congress party to give huge sums of money to Pakistan for their welfare development.
It will always be a mystery of what triggered what and as the series of unfortunate event that led to the mishap of Hindu-Muslim riots, and slaughtering of people on both sides. Just like the mystery of how many shots were fired at Gandhi some claim it was 3 some say 4. Police say Godse had a automatic pistol of 9 rounds which was filled with only 7 bullets and he shot 3 of them at Gandhi. Out of the 3 bullets fired 2 came out clean on the others side whilst 1 was in the body and found in the ashes, and the total of 7 bullets were recovered. While some say 4 bullets were shot and the 4th bullet wasn't shot by Godse there might have been a second Assassin.
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| Source : Dawn & The Times Of India |
Just like the mystery of Gandhi whilst lying in pain at the dying moment uttered "Hey Ram/ Ram Ram" which nobody around him heard but all of us have been taught about it in schools.
Just like the mystery where people suggest it wasn't just Godse behind the Assassination, links of RSS and Swatantryaveer Savarkar ( Vinayak Damodar Savarkar ) were involved in the planning.
Was Gandhi's Killing Justified? Yes, in a way it was. The sole purpose of that being yes was because of his idealism, of non-violence. India as a country became free after 190 years and the only way it could have survived the brutal world was by showing the world how powerful it is and Gandhi would have never approved of such a thing, and if you see it is kind of true and the Indian Government knew that, after the Gandhi's death, the Indian government sent, armed forces to Hyderabad and defeated the Nizam. Hyderabad too became a part of Independent India. Before that, the men of the Nizam of Hyderabad, carried out excesses on the Hindu brethren. But all Gandhi did was appease the Nizam and requested him to give up his State and join the confederation of Independent states. The Nizam never gave up the ground,
Gandhi with his philosophy of non violence would have never allowed it.
If anything it was Godse at that moment and it could have been anyone in his place, many people say if he were killed a couple of years earlier partition would never have happened or it would have happened in a much peaceful manner avoiding killing of millions and loss of billions of worth property on both sides of border due to riots that followed partition of India on communal lines. Problems created in 1946 '47 '48 are still very much a fresh memories for both nations. I would say I respect GANDHIJI for being “one of the many participants “ in freedom struggle, and other good things he lelt behind for his fellow Indians he deserves every bit of respect and salute for just those things, but he should also be evaluated for his mistakes and he shouldn't have been more unfavourable to one particular community. His leadership failed at most crucial moment of history, when the whole country needed a savage he still was civilized bound by principles.
Gandhi was a great social worker. His work in South Africa, work for the Indian immigrants in South Africa, Few very successful movement like Salt March were for the greater good of humanity. The only thing he achieved as a politician was failure, and that too on a big scale. He should have give his full time to the protection of Harijan rights and on maintaining communal harmony in pre-partitioned India. He fought against the evils on untouchability, established secularism and united India under a single banner. Because of him, we are able to trade with the British without any hard feelings. I consider him a great social worker but an below average politician blinded by his idealism. He should have stopped there and had been a social worker and went down as a Mahatma. But he didn't.
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