Mahatma Gandhi:Saluting the Rajya Guru

The Dandi March is a great life lesson for all of us – not because of its phenomenal success in the long term but because it teaches the way to truth. When Gandhiji undertook the Salt Satyagraha, he expected prison or death but that did not deter him. He saw it as his dharma.

July 12^th is Guru Purnima. Who, in your opinion is a true guru? Do you see Gandhiji only as a political leader?  Do you regard him as a moral and spiritual guru? Are his values relevant to us today?

(Pic is re shared courtesy: www.artween.com)

Mahatma Gandhi: Are you Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi?

The manner in which Gandhiji was arrested is a testimony to the power of the man and his mission. The District Magistrate along with 30 policemen with rifles and two policemen with pistols broke into the Mahatma’s room like thieves. They woke up the sleeping Mahatma at the dead of night – 12.45a.m - at Karadi, three miles from Dandi. They did not dare to switch on the light in the room of the frail, unarmed, sixty one year old Mahatma.  The magistrate flashed torchlight into his face and asked: “Are you Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi?’ and arrested him. Gandhiji was allowed to say his prayers and pick up a few personal items. He was whisked off in a van to Yerwada jail by 1:10a.m. The government was afraid of a backlash from the thousands who supported Gandhiji.  

(Still from the film ‘Gandhi’ is re shared courtesy: www.youtube.com)

Mahatma Gandhi:With this (salt) I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire

At 6:30a.m on April 6, 1930 after prayers and a sea bath, Gandhiji defied the salt law by bending down and picking up a lump of natural salt from the Dandi beach.  He said: “With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire.” The salt in Gandhiji’s palm became a statement of India’s determination to win freedom. Talking to the thousands who poured out to support him, Gandhiji said: “Now that the technical or ceremonial breach of the Salt Law has been committed, it is open to anyone who would risk prosecution under the Salt Law to manufacture salt, wherever he wishes and wherever it is convenient.” Millions broke the Salt Law. People lined the streets with small packets of salt and sold them to anyone willing to buy for a few coins.  At least 95,000 people were arrested. Nehru was thrown in jail on April 14^th.

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Mahatmas Gndhi:We have looked upon Dandi as Hardwar

At 6:30a.m on March 12, Gandhiji and his band started the march after prayers followed by a huge crowd. Gandhiji used religious symbolism to convey the importance of the Dandi March: “My feeling is like that of the pilgrim to Amarnath or Badri-Kedar. For me this is nothing less than a holy pilgrimage.” Again on March 28 he said: “We have looked upon Dandi as Hardwar. Let us become worthy of entering a place as holy as Hardwar.” Gandhiji was prepared for the inevitable government backlash.  In a speech on March 29 he said: “For me there is no turning back whether I am alone or joined by thousands. I would rather die a dog’s death and have my bones licked by dogs then that I should return to the ashram a broken man.”

Ref: www.mkgandhi.org

Pic is re shared courtesy: www.graphicleftovers.com

Mahatma Gandhi:On bended knees I asked for bread and I have got stones instead

Lord Irwin’s reply was predictable. He spoke of the disturbance to law and order. Gandhiji remarked: “On bended knees I asked for bread and I have received stones instead.”  True to his word, he set about the practical task of organizing a pada yatra to protest the salt tax. Gandhiji, together with his team of satyagrahis, congress workers and supporters drew up a concrete action plan for the protest march. On March 12, 1930, Gandhiji, with 78 supporters, would march from Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmadabad to Dandi, a sea side village in Gujarat (a distance of 241 miles) and break the salt law. On March 11, Gandhiji addressed a group of about 10,000 people and said: “In all probability, this will be my last speech to you. Even if the government allows me to march tomorrow morning, this will be my last speech on the sacred banks of the Sabarmati. Possibly, these may be the last words of my life here.” Gandhiji had no illusions about what the government could do. He was determined to go through with the march even if it cost him his life. It was this kind of grit and sacrifice that mesmerized the ordinary Indian. As he spoke, so he acted.

Ref: www.mkgandhi.org

Pic: Still from the film ‘Gandhi is shared courtesy: www.staticmass.net

Mahatma Gandhi: Gandhiji meets the King Emperor on equal terms…

In his letter, Gandhiji addresses Lord Irwin as ‘Dear friend’.  This is an assertion of equality – which - given the context is nothing short of sedition –and he extends a hand in friendship hoping to bridge the divide between the two camps. Gandhiji separates an oppressive regime from the decent, ordinary individuals who serve it. Lord Irwin made very few concessions but one of the outcomes of the Salt Satyagraha was a conference in London which Gandhiji attended – in his dhoti- as the sole representative of the Congress. Churchill’s reaction is a measure of Gandhiji’s stature and achievements: “It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr. Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well known in the East, striding half naked up the steps of the vice regal palace while he is still organizing and conducting a defiant campaign of civil disobedience, to parley on equal terms with the King-Emperor’   
              

 Ref:        www.theguardian.com, November 27, 2002

Pic  is re shared courtesy: hi.bharatdiscovery.org

Mahatma Gandhi: Dear Friend….I intend to break the Salt Law

On March 2, 1930 Gandhiji wrote a letter to the Viceroy, Lord Irwin. Apart from being  a testament to his moral stature, it  is absolutely brilliant in terms  of both communications and strategy: “ Dear Friend; I cannot intentionally hurt anything that lives, much less fellow human beings, even though they may do the greatest wrong to me and mine. Whilst, therefore, I hold the British rule to be a curse, I do not intend harm to a single Englishman or to any legitimate interest he may have in India.” He goes on to compare the income of the average Indian – two annas per day to the Viceroy’s daily take of Rs. 700/- i.e. “ much over 5,000 times India’s average income.”  Gandhiji then apologizes for using “a personal illustration to drive home a painful truth.”I beg you on bended knees to ponder over this phenomenon.”  A clear statement of intent follows: If the British are not willing to eradicate ‘evils,’ “I will undertake fresh civil disobedience and intend to break the Salt Law because it is the most iniquitous of all from the poor man’s standpoint.” Gandhiji   got the letter delivered by a young English friend who believed in non violence and the Indian cause.

Ref: www.mkgandhi.org

Pic : Still from the film ‘Gandhi,’ re shared courtesy: www.wordpress.com

Mahatma Gandhi:The salt Satyagraha

On January 26, 1930, the Indian National Congress celebrated January 26 as ‘Independence Day’ and called for ‘purna swaraj.’  The first step towards achieving this goal was civil disobedience. Gandhiji chose the infamous salt tax as the issue they would focus on. He said: “Next to air and water, salt is perhaps the greatest necessity of life. It is the only condiment of the poor. There is no article like salt outside water by taxing which the state can reach even the starving millions, the sick, the maimed and the utterly helpless. The tax constitutes, therefore, the most inhuman poll tax that the ingenuity of man can devise.” Indian intellectuals made fun of Gandhiji.  They thought that he was misguided enough to think that the “King Emperor can be unseated by boiling salt water in a kettle!” Gandhiji ignored the barbs and set about making plans for the march to Dandi.

His mission statement is clear, concise, complete, transparent and radiant with truth. Gandhiji did not believe in secrecy. Since there was never any gap between his words and actions, what followed was a foregone conclusion. No one completely understood the revolutionary impact it would have.  Very few foresaw that it would go down as one of the greatest marches in world history.

Ref: www.mkgandhi.org

Pic re shared courtesy: www.nripulse.com

Mahatma Gandhi: Speaking from the heart

July 12^th is Guru Purnima and I want to pay a tribute to a ‘maha’ ‘atma,’ a name given to Gandhiji by the 

people of India. Tagore said of him: ‘Here was living truth at last… (Because) ‘Who else has felt like him that all Indians are his own flesh and blood?’ Gandhiji’s life is a series of life lessons in practical spirituality.

Gandhiji was the guru of gurus. He was, as we know,   a man of extraordinary intelligence and moral integrity. A man made of something tougher than steel.   A master strategist.  His use of words and symbols makes him one of the greatest communicators the world has seen. It is my humble opinion that Gandhiji’s work should be required reading for all students of mass communications.

Ref: www.goodreads.com

Pic re shared courtesy: www.geocities.jp