Paalaguttapalle (Dalitwada) - A Village: Gandhi and his critics

Thursday, 14 June 2018

Gandhi and his critics

Aparna Krishnan

15 June 2017 at 09:49

Rubbishing Gandhi seems an intellectual fad these days. And fashion. And a path to Name and Fame. And to entry into a cosy circle.

Gandhi needs nobody's defence.

But the utter social irresponsibility therein is what baffles. To deny a generation a moral compass, a demand of integrity to integrate the personal and the political, facing the need for austerity, a self confidence in our traditions and our inheritances, a questioning of each wrong in ourselves as a community, understandings of the village, addressings the need to make the village economy central, incisive questionions of modernity and industrilization, the courage to look into the mirror.

Giants like Kumarappa, Khan Abdul Gaffer Khan, Vinoba, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Gora and many many more have drawn infinitely from him.

Some of the rest of us who have neither the courage or integrity to live by such sacrifice and honesty, who have lived protecting our personal space and comforts, choose to call him names today.

Pity.

(Gandhiji's possessions on the day of his death)

Comments

Saksham Singh It is especially saddening to see how many of my generation vilify him without making the effort to understand what he represents. However, his legacy remains strong with those who believe and more important than ever in our times of frail beliefs.

5

Aparna Krishnan Gandhi is timeless. There is no need to worry. These are times of degenerate intellectualism. This will pass.

6

Write a reply...

Maloshree Sarkar You write so well.

2

Aparna Krishnan It is the living that counts, not the writing.

4

Maloshree Sarkar Nonetheless. It's a gift. Anyone who can write ones feelings , thoughts. Often this opens up the mind for others.

4

Aparna Krishnan Unless one lives the words, the words lack soul. And if one lives, the roughest words convey the soul.

3

Usha Chinmay Yet...like Maloshree Sarkar i insist....u write so well.

3

Aparna Krishnan i lived a long life ...

2

Write a reply...

Dola Dasgupta True...anyone who stand naked in his or her experiments with truth shall be judged..But that is immaterial to the one who walks.

2

Usha Chinmay Where i work "no blame culture" is the word. We are to only talk problems and solutions. Blaming is not encouraged.

Sanjay Maharishi Arundhati comes to mind.

1

Aparna Krishnan I pity her.

Aparna Krishnan But its not just her. People who are nowhere near holding a candle to him in terms of integrity, brutal honesty, courage and sacrifice get intellectual thrills in ripping him apart. Which is so unnecessary, because he more than anyone else, tabled each of his failings in public space. And the saddest is that, they are denying the next generation a moral directions by dismissing him, and having little to offer in lieu. Let them to rise to greater sacrifice than him !

3

Aparna Krishnan Most of those who tear him apart, incidentally, have no issue with a glass of sherry, and the good life, so to say. I think the 'prersonal is the political' hits a raw nerve, and makes them lash out. That also.

1

Write a reply...

Amarjit Anand Envy engenders hostility.
Those without the power to rise above their own pettiness envied the Mahatma for his selflessness as they couldn't ever dare to tread his path even for the sake of getting glory, they wanted glory without the arduous commitment of a Gandhi, so they envied him and slandered him.

1

Aparna Krishnan I pity my country. The country which threw up giants, is now throwing up so called activists and intellectualts who are mired in pettiness.

1

Aparna Krishnan We are all compromised to greater or lesser extent. But the courage to even face that seems rare these days, as people expend all energies in throwing stones everywhere - including at Gandhiji. While personally living lives which engender the very exploitation they claim to fight. Gandhi drags that truth before then, and they hate him.

1

Write a reply...

Sowmya Kidambi Aparna, I have classmates who think that Gandhi wasn't perfect. Like he said he was. I just think that such arrogance from people who haven't moved their ass for any social cause but to better their lives is unbelievably shocking and also reflects how shallow our people have become!!!

1

Aparna Krishnan Even those who hold many flag marchpasts shouting against X, Y and Z, while living in reasonable comforts - why they need to expend energies in tearing Gandhi down baffles. It is one one hand a certian inner insecurity as they see their own limits and selfidhness, and on the other hand a wholesale sale to the west. At different levels these are agents of the west, bought over by various factors.

Write a reply...

Sowmya Kidambi And of course their role models are interested in bashing the neighbouring countries, banning food, considering Arnab Goswami the intellectual of the decade, crying foul for seeking answers from the armed forces and wanting autocratic leaders for a strong nation!

1

Aparna Krishnan Sad times. We need to work out of these times. As a friend said, A Gandhi happens once in many centuries, and now what we have is us, and we need to act with that.

Raghurama Rao Suswaram Gandhi and Buddha are Yuga-purushas. The world may not see such beings again any time soon.

1

Write a reply...

Prashant Dwivedi Gandhi is not only a name of two and half letters, rather is a thought, a revolution, a philosophy. He is a victory over beastliness, a sandal teeka of Khadi on foreheads of iron.

2

Vaibhav Kaley You need to compile these notes that you are writing. These are very very important reflections. They need to be collated at some point or the other

Aparna Krishnan random musings. we are living in complex times.

Aparna Krishnan When the intelligentia of India delights in destroying the powerful lived message of Gandhi, they have ceased to be to be the intelligentia. I am waiting for the true voice of india to rise. From the villages, from the rooted wisdom. Gandhis voice itself reflected this wisdom. His learnings were from the people of this land. As he said many times.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)