Mohandas K Gandhi
……………………………………… Mahatma Gandhi- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , ‘Apostle of peace’ man of Gujarat. His thoughts, ideas, forms of struggle and communication, writings ,vision and mission are all finding a new resonance in a world where Marx has been buried and ‘market’ is the ruling mantra. The barrister’s encounter with racism in South Africa drove him to the barricades, where he mobilized the Indian people to overcome their caste, community, religion, and language barriers to rise as one against the might of the British empire for freedom in an non-violent revolution.
Be it wearing the loin cloth, fasting or picking up a fistful of salt in Dandi, behind these symbolic acts lay deep political craftiness calculated to agitate the people against the foreign rulers. Statutes abound in India in honour of the man deified as “ Father of the Nation”. But it is elsewhere in the world that Gandhi is being rediscovered for the virtues of Satyagraha, the efficacy of Non-violence in increasingly strife-torn societies and the relevance of his thought embracing human endeavor from economics to ecology.
Be it wearing the loin cloth, fasting or picking up a fistful of salt in Dandi, behind these symbolic acts lay deep political craftiness calculated to agitate the people against the foreign rulers. Statutes abound in India in honour of the man deified as “ Father of the Nation”. But it is elsewhere in the world that Gandhi is being rediscovered for the virtues of Satyagraha, the efficacy of Non-violence in increasingly strife-torn societies and the relevance of his thought embracing human endeavor from economics to ecology.
