Why The Mahatma Still Matters?

There was no aspect of life Gandhian thought didn’t touch. We should embrace those that are most relevant to us

- Bhikhu Parekh

As we celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, it is worth recalling the frequently ignored scale of his achievements. He was the first Indian to put India on a global map and the only one to be known throughout the world. He was the first Indian to make his political mark outside the country before doing so in India. He has been the greatest mass mobiliser in Indian history, having brought millions of men, and especially women, into public life. He so dominated Indian politics for a quarter of a century that anyone incurring his wrath invited political suicide. He is the only Indian, indeed world, leader to touch life at many different levels and have something to say about each of them, whether it was hygiene, sanitation, bringing up children, morality, sexuality, religion, the economy or high politics.

At India’s independence, for which he had striven so hard, Gandhi felt so tormented by the pervasive violence that he declined to unfurl the national flag and even to send a message. He refused to accept a political position for himself, and devoted the final two years of his life to healing the wounds of intercommunal violence. He undertook fasts even when his body could no longer tolerate them, walked alone through the thorny streets of Noakhali villages, and urged the victims to show forgiveness. Although repeatedly threatened with violence, he dismissed all offers of security, and dared, even invited, his detractors to do their worst, which one of them did.