Sanjose A Thomas

Whenever I think of Mahatma his frail old figure comes to my mind which truly depicts his personality which was true, realistic and strong inspiring millions across the globe even today and giving comfort and joy to many more irrespective of their caste, race, creed and region. Is Gandhi relevant today in the 21st century when we seriously ponder on how we can live the Gandhian way of life in a different world far different from how it was way back in 1950’s?

Gandhiji always cherished an alternate vision of life which was epitomised in his conception of ‘Swaraj’, ‘Swadeshi’, ‘Ramrajya’ and other similar concepts. He through these ideas envisioned a society where people are limiting their wants, leading a life of self – reliance, doing minimum physical labour a day, restricting oneself from over- indulgence in all forms and following a simple and austere lifestyle without engaging in conspicuous consumption. Mahatma was very well aware of the perils of modern civilization which promotes uncontrolled wants and fuels unlimited desire which act as the basis of consumerism and unending commodity production. Here production never happen for fulfilling a basic need or requirement but mere ‘consumption’ for the sake of consumption. Many of our online shopping applications like flipkart, e- bay and amazon does the same and our ‘mall culture’ also thrives on the same idea that promotes buying and consuming irrespective of whether the individual needs it or not. Gandhi was always concerned about the problem of unequal access to resources that exist in the society and for him ‘Swaraj’ ushers in only when the citizen is entitled to his due in terms of food, shelter and clothing and is not deprived from gaining access to the resources available within the society in various forms. Gandhi tried to teach Indians the need to develop a strong and resilient bond with the rural life, nature cure or ‘prakritichikitsa’, minimum physical activity a day, agrarian self sufficiency, khadi, emphasis on moral uprightness and the notion of giving equal priority to end as well as means to achieve it. Indians were offered by him an alternate way of life that emphasizes on simple living and high thinking and in shunning all practices which is based on ‘conspicuous consumption’ that promote uncontrolled use and exploitation of nature and natural resources.

Gandhian thought always gave to priority to the deprived as well as to the marginalized sections of the society and his conception of ‘Ramrajya’ was truly a welfare state based on equitable distribution of all resources in a peaceful manner and not the deep right wing conception of a ‘hindu’ India. Gandhi always considered secularism a value close to his heart and never ever tolerated any form of discrimination based on caste or religion and stood for a composite culture which includes everyone unlike the uniformity imposed from above or the domination on one culture by the other. Gandhian thought beyond academic pedagogy seems to become less influential these days especially when the importance of values like truth and justice are often questioned and our public morality is marred by quest for money or power. But at the same time Gandhian prophecy on the disastrous effects of modernity especially that of uncontrolled and unregulated needs of an individual had come true and played a vital role in weakening our moral consciousness. The real challenge lies in whether we could sense the need to alter our lives so as to incorporate his thought and precept into practice.