It’s 2nd October here in India and it’s a well known national holiday. People like you and me are enjoying the extended sleep and a heavy brunch. The newspapers are of course carrying their due share of the Gandhi crap, just making sure we remember why college was off today. Gandhi is believed to be responsible for getting our nation firangi-free using his non-violent tactics. I think of my school days when we used to cram awful load of four-pages-Gandhi-text to gain a few extra points. Now I’ve started to feel that all that they teach at history classes during school is either a lie or incomplete truth.
Is it wasn’t so then how come they never taught us about the great brahamachari experiment Gandhi conducted on himself. To master celibacy he would sleep naked with young girls. In Ved Mehta’s Mahatma Gandhi and His Apostles, Mehta emphasizes on the fact that Gandhi’s experiment was an attempt to overpower Jinnah with his spiritual power. We call this dude the Father of the Nation?
Bhagat Singh was hanged by the British on March 23, 1931. Yes they made us learn this date in history but then again there were no connections with Gandhi and Bhagat Singh. We were made to believe Gandhi was on this road to non-violence and Bhagat Singh was on a whole different road to violence. Here’s an excerpt from Young India written by Gandhi;
Bhagat Singh and his two associates have been hanged. The Congress made many attempts to save their lives and the Government entertained many hopes of it, but all has been in a vain.
Bhagat Singh did not wish to live. He refused to apologize, or even file an appeal. Bhagat Singh was not a devotee of non-violence, but he did not subscribe to the religion of violence. He took to violence due to helplessness and to defend his homeland. In his last letter, Bhagat Singh wrote –” I have been arrested while waging a war. For me there can be no gallows. Put me into the mouth of a cannon and blow me off.” These heroes had conquered the fear of death. Let us bow to them a thousand times for their heroism.
But we should not imitate their act. In our land of millions of destitute and crippled people, if we take to the practice of seeking justice through murder, there will be a terrifying situation. Our poor people will become victims of our atrocities. By making a dharma of violence, we shall be reaping the fruit of our own actions.
Hence, though we praise the courage of these brave men, we should never countenance their activities. Our dharma is to swallow our anger, abide by the discipline of non-violence and carry out our duty.
March 29, 1931
Time and again this has been a hot topic for endless discussions. Could Gandhi have used his influences to save Bhagat Singh? The question here is not whether he should have saved Bhagat Singh or not, the question here is that whether he really wanted to save Bhagat Singh and his team of extremists? Now these young lads had surely started taking a toll on Gandhi’s popularity, not that he cared much but may be somewhere inside he felt if the nation really took to violence then his concept of independence would be lost. I’m not saying Gandhi should have stripped and got into jeans and t-shirt while carrying ammunition, joining Bhagat Singh’s league of extraordinary gentlemen, I’m saying Gandhi could have shown some balls there. Neither the Congress nor Gandhi were even interested in keeping Bhagat Singh and his aides alive let alone trying to save them. It was a clash of ideologies.
If most of you think non-violence was the way to go then you’re not completely correct. Satyaghraha and civil disobedience were cool ideas but they could have wiped off the British in another 200 years. This means I would have been writing this blog post on a piece of paper and submitting it to some British authority who would approve it before I post it online. But then would the British let us log into cyberspace, that’s a different question.
The whole balloon of non-violence ideology is filled with Gandhian farts. If that’s what we believe in then how come we’re spending millions on next generations arms and ammunition. Okay we’re not poking our enemies with nukes but still if you’ve got such stuff in your pocket you’re a part of the crime too. Non-violence isn’t relevant at all times. There are times when you need to tell an intruder that he needs to leave. Staying hungry and wearing a dhoti doesn’t always help.
To say Gandhi alone was responsible for our independence is wrong. To say his role was useless isn’t the truth. To call him the Father of the Nation isn’t justified. To have a holiday on 2nd October…well I’ll take it!
Article by Harry
Harry has written 461 awesome articles on HarryJerry.com.
About: ...an engineering student, a freelancer, a professional blogger, a loving lover, too shy, an Internet freak....and everything I shouldn't be.
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Tags: british, history, independence, India, rants
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