Mohan Kothekar
Be a game changer the world has
enough followers.
Those who swim against the
current, of which, very few turned into the game changers. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was tossed out of
the first class train compartment in South Africa; it was the pirouette point journey
of his career from man to mahatma. He
was in South Africa for 21 years and uninterruptedly confronted the severe racial
discrimination from whites. He tussled
for social injustice, the movement endured in India till the independence. It was the personal and intimate revenge
against the British government. The mass
movement was the brain child of Bapu; that was never been used forcefully and
energetically by the contemporaries; the instrument of human force – the mass
protest - was efficaciously utilized against the British government’s every
misdeed. The non-violent protest – the Satyagraha
- against the British raj in South Africa emanated in to harsh and rigid
punishment to the protesters that culminated into public outcry. Mohandas Gandhi learned from every mass
movement, how effectively the British government is to bring to the negotiation
table to fulfill the public demands. His
education in the field of law and jurisprudence, mastery and ascendancy over oratory,
negotiation skill, the so called simple leaving, relinquishment and sacrifice, staunch
leadership, public contact and many more personal qualities has rounded off
into a huge public strength. Mohandas
Gandhi was well equipped, experience and specialist in the field of mass
communication; after return from South Africa he judiciously used the
instruments of mass protest and become the messiah of undivided India.
In the year 1915, he was invited
by then the Congress party leaders to lead the independent movement; in the
year 1920, Gandhi became the unchallenged, undisputed and undoubted hero of the
congress party and Indian independence movement. His predominance, grip, supremacy and
pre-eminence over the non-violent movement were of great extent, he became an
unopposed and an unstoppable leader of the congress party till his
assassination. The critics within the
family and in the public life painted him as an adamant and arrogant,
charlatan, hypocrite, quarrelsome, clever politician, dictator, British agent, anti-Hindu,
villain of partition and aftermath massacre and many more adjectives were affixed
to describe him. His immense and
elephantine popularity in the uneducated rural masses to join the non-violent freedom
struggle was unthinkable and unquestionable though the historians have
criticized him for his supremacy over the stalwarts of equal repute such as
Subhash Chandra Bose, Vinayak Damodar Sawarkar and Vallabhbhai Patel etc. and
unremitting support to Jawaharlal Nehru.
Gandhi intentionally and vehemently opposed the freedom struggle of right
Hindu fundamentalist, aggressive youth force, freedom fighters and mutiny from
armed forces to maintain his command and dominance over the freedom struggle. Had he been in principle supported these fundamental
forces the nation would have been Independent in the third decade of the twentieth
century.
Mahatma Gandhi was an adroit,
parlous and shrewd politician; he did not allow and concede losing his grip
over common uneducated rural masses and congress party. Many instances from the history can be illustrated
to support the claim. On 13th
April 1919, Colonel Dyer massacred more than thousand non-violent protesters
and equal number of civilians was injured in Jallianwala Bagh case. Gandhi and his associates should have openly revolted
against the killing of Satyagrahis; Indian soldiers from British army were
eager to take the revenge; however, Gandhi has not supported the aftermath
violence in Punjab and other provinces.
Winston Churchill described the attack as ‘monstrous’ indicated the
impact of Colonel Dyer’s brutality; Gandhian symbolic protest was not at all the
answer, befitting reply was the expectation from general masses as did by Udham
Singh on 13th March 1940 who shot and killed Michael O’Dwyer who
endorsed Colonel Dyer’s outrageous and barbaric act.
Punjab Kesari - Lala Lajpat Rai
protested against the Simon Commission on 30th October 1928 at
Lahore, the peaceful and silent procession was mercilessly lathi (cane) charged by
James A. Scott, then Superintendent of Police in which Lalaji - the lion of
Punjab – was barbarously assaulted and injured.
On 17th November 1928 he died due to physical injuries and
mental agony apart from heart attack.
His noble quote was ‘elevation of the doctrine of ahimsa to the highest
position contributed to the downfall of India.’
He opposed the exaggerated practice of ahimsa synchronized with bereft
of many virtues; though he followed basic tenets of non-violence during the peaceful
procession. Mahatma Gandhi’s articles on
Lalaji after his death (Young India and Navajivan, November 1928) can be
summarized in two words as ‘crocodile tears,’ had the incidence could have
happened in western country it would have revolutionized the whole
scenario. Bhagat Singh, Shivaram
Rajguru, Sukhdeo Thapar and Chandra Shekhar Azad have shown courage by
mistakenly killing Saunders instead of James Scott, the act of reprisal and
vengeance.
The quadruple took the revenge of
death of Punjab Kesari – Lala Lajpat Rai by mistakenly killing Assistant
Superintendent of Police, Lahore - Mr John Saunders - and owned the
responsibility of the assassination. The
Congress party in general and Mahatma Gandhi in particular remained unresponsive
and aloof from the saving the life of the martyrdom. Cohesion and collaboration between
non-violent satyagrahis and staunch extremist would have been a better
combination or merger during independent movement; the noble concept was rooted
out from the bud by the leaders of the so called hypocrite organization. Mahatma Gandhi – a lawyer - has not intervened
or mediated or meddle to plead the case of the martyred to the Viceroy. The youths have shown black flags to Mahatma
Gandhi during Karachi convention of Congress party and shouted the slogans
‘Down with Gandhi.’ It is said that
Gandhi could have prevented the execution of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdeo
but he intentionally desisted from commutation of death sentence.
Despite the fact that Mahatma
Gandhi was the ardent supporter of non-violent civil disobedience movements
against British Raj and adversary, antagonist and opponent of armed rebellion
revolutionary movement, he was a charismatic and appealing captain of common
masses. His weapons were Satyagraha,
hunger strike, disobedience and non-violence that are easily, effortlessly,
painlessly and permissively accepted by one and all against British Raj. Thousands and lakhs of people joined his
mission for Dandi Salt, Quit India, Simon Commission, Champaran and Kheda
Satyagraha, Khilafat and other non-cooperation strikes. His popularity disintegrated and eroded to a
certain extent after independence due to his affinity and inclination towards
Pakistan, especially when Indian government refused to hand over the balance of
Rs 55 crore. However, he remained the game
changer throughout his life that was proved from the tides of more than two
million people attended his funeral.
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