This date will stay significant for generations to come. How much will it matter to our heart, is a completely different topic. I did, as I have been doing for the past 15 years on this day. Got up late, saw the flag hoisting, admired the red fort, stood up and respected the national anthem, had my breakfast and slept blissfully. Later I saw the film Gandhi, my 6th or 7th time. It amazes me every single time. I know I am no expert on the Mahatma and his values, but I do consider that I am a Gandhiji literate. I have read several books on and about him, including his autobiography. Greatest man I have ever known. Its sad that it took a Britisher to make a film about the greatest Indian. The first time I watched the film, I had goose bumps in the first 10 minutes. The funeral scene is to this day the greatest gathering of people in a single shot. A world record 300,000 extras appeared in the funeral sequence. About 200,000 were volunteers and 94,560 were paid a small fee (under contract). The sequence was filmed on 31st Jan 1981, the 33rd anniversary of Gandhi's funeral. 11 crews shot over 20,000 feet of film, which was pared down to 125 seconds in the final release.
Foreign commenter described the Mahatma on that day.
"Died as he had always lived, private man, without wealth, without property, without official title or office. Mahatma Gandhi is not a commander of armies nor a ruler of vast lands. He could not boast any scientific achievement, nor any artistic gift. Yet men, governments, dignitaries from all over the world have joined hands to pay homage to this little brown man in loin cloth who led his country to freedom. In the words of General Gorge C Marshall, American secretary of state, Mahatma Gandhi has become the spokesman for the conscience of all of mankind. He was a man who made humility and simple truth more powerful than empires. Albert Einstein added, generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth."
I have read books on why Nathuram Godse committed that heinous act. I am not only convinced that he was wrong, but also his accusations were baseless. It is ironic that Godse was given the first capital punishment in FREE India for killing the person who was a staunch opponent of capital punishment and promoted ahimsa. By doing what they did, India proved itself to be too immature to follow the great principles of the Mahatma. I still feel India has another 20 years to go before we can call it a mature democracy. Godse believed that Mahatma was solely responsible for partitioning of India and he thought that Mahatma was pro Muslim and in the long run would do more harm to the causes for Hindus. But how can anyone accuse Gandhiji for being not being a secularist when he was the only person at that time preaching equality of all religions. The desire for power between Jinnah and Nehru was the basic reason (among more complicated reasons) that split India. No other person was more saddened by this than Gandhiji. His views satya and ahimsa were revolutionary. From the time he started Satyagraha in South Africa to No co-operation movement to Quit India Movement and finally to Independence, everything was a ground breaking idea, reaching to the common man. By rejecting being part of either government, he displayed character which is alien to humans. The only other person who comes close to his greatness is Mother Teresa.
I started writing this post to keep my activities updated. But I have ended up getting emotional on the greatest man to live on Indian soil.
Long live his ideas...
PS : If anyone hasn't read his autobiography "My experiments with truth", I strongly suggest you to read it. Its amazing how you improve your personality with turning of each page. Truly inspiring.
Foreign commenter described the Mahatma on that day.
"Died as he had always lived, private man, without wealth, without property, without official title or office. Mahatma Gandhi is not a commander of armies nor a ruler of vast lands. He could not boast any scientific achievement, nor any artistic gift. Yet men, governments, dignitaries from all over the world have joined hands to pay homage to this little brown man in loin cloth who led his country to freedom. In the words of General Gorge C Marshall, American secretary of state, Mahatma Gandhi has become the spokesman for the conscience of all of mankind. He was a man who made humility and simple truth more powerful than empires. Albert Einstein added, generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth."
I have read books on why Nathuram Godse committed that heinous act. I am not only convinced that he was wrong, but also his accusations were baseless. It is ironic that Godse was given the first capital punishment in FREE India for killing the person who was a staunch opponent of capital punishment and promoted ahimsa. By doing what they did, India proved itself to be too immature to follow the great principles of the Mahatma. I still feel India has another 20 years to go before we can call it a mature democracy. Godse believed that Mahatma was solely responsible for partitioning of India and he thought that Mahatma was pro Muslim and in the long run would do more harm to the causes for Hindus. But how can anyone accuse Gandhiji for being not being a secularist when he was the only person at that time preaching equality of all religions. The desire for power between Jinnah and Nehru was the basic reason (among more complicated reasons) that split India. No other person was more saddened by this than Gandhiji. His views satya and ahimsa were revolutionary. From the time he started Satyagraha in South Africa to No co-operation movement to Quit India Movement and finally to Independence, everything was a ground breaking idea, reaching to the common man. By rejecting being part of either government, he displayed character which is alien to humans. The only other person who comes close to his greatness is Mother Teresa.
I started writing this post to keep my activities updated. But I have ended up getting emotional on the greatest man to live on Indian soil.
Long live his ideas...
PS : If anyone hasn't read his autobiography "My experiments with truth", I strongly suggest you to read it. Its amazing how you improve your personality with turning of each page. Truly inspiring.
1 comment:
hi, good that u r back blogging..
i haven't read too much of gandhi, although one has 2 admit his simplicity and humanitarian values..
but then there are quite a lot of instances where he put himself, or his supporters to the fora than taking the nations cause...
like the calling off Non Coop movement, ppl might support it because it turned violent that was against his values, but then he let up on that when Indian nationals where used during the WW I and II to fight for the british...
not able to acknowledge rise of other nationalist leaders,like Subash and Tilak...
and letting Nehru drive away with the partition saga... why couldn't india have a muslim prime minister..
and also Gandhi could command such a huge mass of people because there were many regional leaders some preachers of Gandhi others preaching nationalism to actually unite ppl to stand against the british, not many got that national recognition.
in spite of all the non-violence we lost millions of ppl into the freedom struggle and it almost lasted over a century...
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