GANDHI: FATHER OF THE NATION!

 

For more than 200 Years, the Britishers ruled India. The Country finally got the independence on the August 15, 1947. It was the yield of the efforts put in by the freedom fighters that the Independence came.      

In the early 20^th Century, the British exploitation was at its peak. Whether it is the Jallianwala Bagh massacre (1919) or the Partition of Bengal (1905), the Country needed a leader that can lead the Country, of billions, from the front. And the leader was just about to get in action.      

A man with astonishing capabilities, having an incredible weapon of Non-Violence that led a Country of more than 4 Billion from the front, a man that gave the idea of ‘Offering the other cheek if one slaps on the one’, none other than he is the BAPU GANDHI, to whom history says ‘Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’. Born on the October 2, 1869 at Porbandar in Gujarat, after his primary education he went to England for Higher Education (Law). He married to Kasturbai at the age of thirteen. He returned back to India in 1891 and started practicing (as a lawyer). He got the offer to work in South Africa for a year and he left for the same in 1893.  And it was South Africa itself where he led the first blood by raising voice against the racist culture there. The ill-treatments with Indians there, especially the one in which he was thrown out of the First Class Coach just because he was an Indian despite of having the ticket for the same, led him to raise voice against it there. This led to a large scale protest there and resulted in the relief for the people there. He returned to India in 1915 considering the fact that he went there for just a year.     

He never favoured the violence and believed in peace. His simplicity, his Khadi clothes, his gentleness were as divine as they can be. As a leader he led the country to the right way: away from the violence and destruction. Gandhi dressed to be accepted by the poorest person in India, advocating the use of homespun cloth (khadi). He and his followers adopted the practice of weaving their own clothes from thread they themselves spun on a charkha, and encouraged others to do so.  

Indeed, Bapu was not the first to discover non-violence strategy, but he was  the first to implement it. The early effects of the strategy were before all in 1918 with the Champaran agitation and Kheda Satyagraha. It was during this agitation, that Gandhi was addressed by the people as Bapu and Mahatma (Great Soul). As a result, Gandhi's fame spread all over the nation and because of this, he is now called "Father of the nation" in Indian. He became known to the common man after that. From then onwards came a series of movements namely Non-cooperation (1921), Salt Satyagraha (Salt March) (1930) Civil Disobedience (1930–31), Quit India (1942), which threatened the British Rule. And India got its Independence in 1947.        

The Independence struggle was the 200 Year long Event. Thousands of Freedom Fighters lost their lives in the struggle. The Golden Sparrow which the Country called earlier, after 1947, was just a graveyard of the Hindu-Muslim relationships, of the union of the Hindustan (that included India and Pakistan). The riots and the widespread violence that happened at the time of partition hurted Gandhi badly. He had been an advocate for a united India where Hindus and Muslims lived together in peace. On January 13, 1948, at the age of 78, he began a fast with the purpose of stopping the bloodshed. After 5 days, the opposing leaders pledged to stop the fighting and Gandhi broke his fast. Twelve days later, he was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic who opposed his program of tolerance for all creeds and religion. The last words on the lips of Gandhiji were ‘HEY RAM!’       

Gandhi’s thoughts are the historical achievements that the world has gained. That is why; it is rightly said as a quote in Hindi: 

GANDHI, GANDHITVAA, GANDHIYAAN! 

VISHVA KI SAMASYAONN KA EKMATRR SAMADHAAN!!      

This means the Gandhi’s non-violence strategy and his thoughts are the only  way in which the Global Problems can be solved, whether it is the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan or the North Korea’s Nuclear Program, which is a threat to the world.      

Among the tributes to Gandhi upon his death were these words by the great physicist, Albert Einstein: “Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood.”     

There are a few who criticise his thoughts on the ground that the Non-Violence attitude drew India’s Independence a bit far off to 1947, but there are the Movies like ‘LAGE RAHO MUNNA BHAI’ and the fact that October 2 being celebrated as the ‘INTERNATIONAL NON-VIOLENCE DAY’, supporting him on this ground.     

Really, Mahatma Gandhi will be known as the Great Leader among the races to come.