A Betrayal of the Very Idea of Mahatma
Context:
- This year marks the 75th anniversary of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, who was killed on January 30, 1948, by a Hindu zealot who thought the Mahatma had been too tolerant of Muslims. The momentous event takes place while the prevailing ideological currents contest Gandhi’s legacy and the mere idea of Gandhi.
Days of the Mahatma’s passing:
- Gandhiji has come under fire for being indecisive, for going too far to appease Muslim interests, and for his pacifism, which the jingoistic Hindutva movement views as unmanly. This criticism comes at a time when the reputation of his historical foes, whose offspring currently control the government of the nation, is at an all-time high.
- The Mahatma was murdered for openly supporting Islam; in actuality, he had just broken his fast to pressure his own supporters, the ministers of the newly formed Indian government, to grant Pakistan a larger portion of united India’s riches than they had anticipated.
- Gandhiji also expressed his desire to spend his final years in Pakistan rather than the country he had failed to keep united, which made the Pakistani leadership gag at the very idea.
- Gandhiji was an idealist, an oddball, and a steadfast individual who marched to no one else’s tune but was able to persuade everyone else to do the same.
Addressing a contradiction as soon as possible:
- The central government’s position, which is influenced by Hindutva, which despises Mahatma Gandhi, reflects the conflict. Gandhi’s message of tolerance and pluralism was flatly rejected by the Sangh Parivar as an effort to appease minorities, and his nonviolence, or ahimsa, was seen as a show of weakness unbecoming of macho Hindus.
- Hindutva scholar V.D. Savarkar claimed that Gandhiji’s “perverse doctrine of non-violence and truth” will “undermine the authority of the country.” Prime Minister Modi has embraced Gandhiji notwithstanding his tendencies toward Hindutva. He has lauded the Mahatma and even used his glasses to represent the Swachh Bharat campaign, linking it to a call to revive Gandhiji’s idea of service through the ongoing “Swachhata Hi Seva” campaign.
- However, several political personalities have been pushing in recent years for Nathuram Godse sculptures to be erected in place of Gandhiji’s all around the country. There is a clear contradiction between the public government’s admiration of Gandhiji and the clandestine ideological opposition to this hero that is privately promoted by members and supporters of the current ruling regime.
The mission statement of Mahatma:
- The two primary theorists of the Hindu Mahasabha and its more militarised offshoot in the post-Independence era, the RSS, Veer Savarkar and M.S. Golwalkar, significantly diverged from Gandhiji, an openly practising Hindu.
- Gandhiji personified the central tenet of Advaita Vedanta, which supported a universally accepting religion. According to Gandhiji, Hinduism is a faith that respects and accepts all other religions.
- traditional Hindu school Advaita Vedanta, a path of spiritual discipline and experience, is the oldest extant lineage of Vedanta. According to the Advaita philosophy, only Brahman is ultimately real and the transitory phenomenal world is only its fictitious incarnation.
All-religions-are-welcome tolerance and nonviolence:
- The ahimsa and satya ideas deeply inspired Gandhiji, and when he used them in the nationalist cause, he gave them both tremendous meaning.
- He added the phrase “Ishwara Allah Tero naam” to his well-known bhajan “Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram,” synthesising several cultural belief systems. This custom originated from his Vedantic belief that all humans are one and have the same soul, or atman, and should be treated similarly.
- His acts did not endear him to many Hindus. In his essay titled “Gandhi’s Hinduism and Savarkar’s Hindutva,” social scientist Rudolf C. Heredia situates his two protagonists within the ongoing debate over the heterogeneity versus homogeneity of the Hindu faith, noting that while Gandhi’s response is inclusive and moral, Savarkar politicises Hinduism as a majoritarian creed.
- However, according to Heredia, Gandhiji’s personal definition of religion “transcended religiosity, Hindu as well as that of any other tradition.” It is ultimately a spiritual quest for moksha, yet being grounded in the reality of service to the weakest and most vulnerable in the world.
- In contrast to Savarkar, who believed in uniformity, Gandhiji was a synthesiser like no other, taking care to include Indians of other religions in his wide and agglomerative vision of religion. He was influenced by Advaita Vedanta as well as the “Anekantavada” Jain philosophy, which maintains that no single vision can encompass the entirety of reality because truth and reality are perceived differently by many people from their varied points of view. As a result, he once declared, “I am a Hindu, a Muslim, a Christian, a Parsi, and a Jew.”
Conclusion:
- According to Shashi Tharoor, Hinduism and Hindutva are two very different and conflicting ideologies with very different ramifications for nationalism and the status of the Hindu faith. Admiring Gandhiji’s ideals and the way he presented them is easier than trying to live by them. However, they stood for a principle that is consistently violated by those who distort Hinduism in order to promote a narrow, prejudiced intolerance.