MAHATMA GANDHI JI

MAHATMA GANDHI JI
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is widely recognized as one of the twentieth century’s greatest political
and spiritual leaders. Honoured as the father of the nation, he pioneered and practiced the principle of
Satyagraha—resistance to tyranny through mass nonviolent civil disobedience. While leading
nationwide campaigns to ease poverty, expand women’s rights, build religious and ethnic harmony and
eliminate the injustices of the caste system, Gandhi supremely applied the principles of nonviolent civil
disobedience, playing a key role in freeing India from foreign domination. World civil rights leaders—
from Martin Luther King, Jr. to Nelson Mandela—have credited Gandhi as a source of inspiration in
their struggles to achieve equal rights for their people.

Gandhiji’s Contributions
1) Ideologies
 Truth: For Gandhiji, truth is the relative truth of truthfulness in word and deed, and the
absolute truth - the ultimate reality. This ultimate truth is God and its basis.
 Nonviolence: Nonviolence is understood by Mahatma Gandhi to denote active love in every
sense. Nonviolence or love is regarded as the highest law of humankind
 Satyagraha: Gandhiji called his overall method of nonviolent action Satyagraha, which
means the exercise of the purest soul-force against all injustice, oppression and exploitation
and a method of securing rights by personal suffering and not inflicting injury on others.
 Swaraj: For Gandhiji, swaraj of people meant the sum total of self-rule of individuals and so
he clarified that for him swaraj meant freedom for the meanest of his countrymen. And in its
fullest sense, swaraj is much more than freedom from all restraints, it is self-rule, self-
restraint and could be equated with moksha or salvation
 Trusteeship: Trusteeship is a socio-economic philosophy that was propounded by Gandhiji
which provides a means by which the wealthy people would be the trustees of trusts that
looked after the welfare of the people in general.
 Swadeshi: Swadeshi is the focus on acting within and from one's own community, both
politically and economically.It is the interdependence of community and self-
sufficiency.Gandhiji believed this would lead to independence, as British control of India was
rooted in control of her indigenous industries
 Sarvodaya: Sarvodaya to Gandhiji meant 'Universal Uplift' or 'Progress of All'
 Belief in Masses: Gandhi ji used to believe in capacity of masses to drive any movement
2) Social: Dalit Empowerment
 Challenged the existing systems: Gandhi realized the issues of lower castes and worked for
the emancipation of the sameon social and moral front
 Temple entry: Gandhi asserted that it is the moral duty of the high-caste Hindus to allow the
untouchables to enter the Hindu temples
o Example: Gandhi’s role in Vaikom Satyagraha
 Untouchability: Gandhi considered untouchability as a mixture of social and moral problems
o Example: His campaign against untouchability which covered 12,500 miles and lasted for
nine months
 Approach: Gandhi sought to convince and convert the caste Hindus and mobilise their
energies by means of moral and religious appeals.
o Example: He encouraged them to undertake welfare activities among the untouchables in a
spirit of remorse and guilt.

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3) Social: Women Empowerment
 Helped women shed their sense of inferiority: Gandhiji was against evil socio-religious
practices like child marriage, purdah system, dowry system
 Promoted active participation in mass movements: Women played an active role in the
Non-Cooperation Movement and the Civil Disobedience Movement
o Example: Anusuya Ben actively participated in 1918 Ahmedabad Textile milk strikes
o Example: Sarojini Naidu led the raid on Dharasana salt works during the Civil Disobedience
Movement
 Special role in Gandhi’s constructive program: Such as the promotion of Khadi, ending
untouchability
 Popularisation of Gandhian tools: Women became aware of their inner strength, and the
process brought human and moral elements into politics
o Example: Fasting and praying were majorly popularised by women
4) Economic
 Gandhian philosophy of Socialism: It aspires for a classless society with no poverty, no
hunger, no unemployment and education and health for all
 Self-sufficiency: Gandhi sought to target European-made clothing and other products as not
only a symbol of British colonialism but also the source of mass unemployment and poverty
 Gandhiji transformed contemporary capitalists: It centred on the notion of trusteeship of
denying material pursuits and coveting of wealth, with practitioners acting as "trustees" of
other individuals and the community in their management of economic resources and
property
5) Political: South African Campaign
Many issues like Poll tax, Registration of marriages, localised settlement, entry before 9 pm and ban
on using footpaths were taken up by Gandhi ji in South Africa
 Organization of Indian workers: To fight for their rights against white racism and the
humiliation and contempt to which Asians, who had gone to South Africa as labourers, were
subjected
 Organized mass protest against South African policies: Against legislation that made it
compulsory for Indians there to carry certificates of registration, against restrictions on Indian
Migration, against Poll Tax and Invalidation of Indian Marriages and Transvaal Immigration
Act
 Unite Indians: Belonging to different religions and classes, and men and women alike under
his leadership
 Evolved his own style of leadership and politics:Via new techniques of struggle on a
limited scale, untrammelled by the opposition of contending political currents
 Evolved distinctive Gandhian methods of protests: Like truth, non-violence, civil
obedience, non-cooperationand persuading by attacking the conscience of oppressor.
6) Political: Towards political empowerment
 Strengthened the foundation of Indian National Congress: Under his foresightful
direction, it transformed from an elitist body of professionals into a mass political
organisation with a wide outreach in all states and districts
 Tried to bring Hindu Muslim Unity: Gandhiji used instances like bringing together issues
of Khilafat and Rowlatt together in order to foster Hindu muslim unity. Other instance to
foster Hindu-muslim unity was the Lucknow Pact, 1916

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  Fought for the rights of peasants and workers: Gandhi ji used to understand the nerves of
peasantry class very beautifully.
o Champaran Satyagraha: Gandhi, through a calculated non-violent protest, managed to
win concessions from the authority for the Indigo farmers
o Kheda Satyagraha: Gandhi started a signature campaign where peasants pledged non-
payment of taxes and arranged a social boycott of revenue officials which forced the
Government relaxed the conditions of payment of revenue tax until the famine ended
7) Political: Towards national freedom movement (Satyagrahas)
 Against Rowlatt Act: Gandhi pushed hard for home rule, encouraging boycotts of
British goods and organizing mass protests
 Khilafat Movement: Gandhi became a prominent spokesperson of the All India Muslim
Conference and brought the fractious religions together
 Non-cooperation Movement: Gandhi set the goal of Swaraj or self-governance, which
became the motto of Indian freedom movement.
 Salt Satyagraha/Civil Disobedience Movement: Gandhi organized a 241-mile-long
protest march to the west coast of Gujarat, where he and his acolytes harvested salt on the
shores of the Arabian Sea.
 Quit India movement: He started the campaign to get Britain to voluntarily withdraw
from India during World War II
8) Political: Towards democracy
 Contributed to political decentralization: Gandhi believed that decentralized
democratic political system is the only means to resolve the worldly problem by giving
citizens more power in public decision-making. He promoted Ahimsa, Satyagraha,
Swaraj, Swadeshi, Sarvodaya as instruments to achieve decentralized political structure

Significance in today’s world

1) Ethical
 Ideals of truth and nonviolence: Which underpin the whole philosophy, are relevant to all
humankind, when people are trying to find solutions to the rampant greed, widespread
violence, and runaway consumptive style of living.
 Peace and stability in the world: In a world that is moving through the phases of war
marred by violence and terrorism, there is a significant requirement of Gandhian idea of non-
violence
 Ethical importance: On the ethical and behavioural part, Gandhism has much significance
today because society is witnessing the degradation of values.
 Respect for women: It is one of the major ideas of Gandhian philosophy and the world is
witnessing the increased level of violence, subjugation women face nowadays in
society.Thus, Gandhian dream of a safe country necessitates social consciousness and women
emancipation
2) Environmental
 Sustainable Environment: Gandhiji held that “Earth has enough for human needs, but not
for human greed”.The world is whirling under the burden of global warming, climate change
and resource crunch and all environmental conservation treaties and sustainable development
efforts must implement this Gandhian philosophy.

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  Cleanliness: Gandhiji laid great emphasis upon cleanliness or Swacchta, as he used to say-
‘Swacchta Hi Seva’. Along with clean roads, toilets for a clean India we require a corruption
free society with greater levels of transparency and accountability too
3) Political
 Decentralization: Gandhian idea of decentralization of power can be implemented in
democracies through empowered local self-governments at grass root level
 Gandhian technique of mobilising people: It has been successfully employed by many
oppressed societies around the world under the leadership of people like Martin Luther King
in the United States, Nelson Mandela in South Africa, and Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar,
which is an eloquent testimony to the continuing relevance of Mahatma Gandhi
 Gandhian Socialism: Gandhian view of socialism is more social in its approach, as he
thought of a society with no poverty, no hunger, no unemployment and education and health
for all.These will continue to act as the lighthouse for Indian policy makers from poverty
alleviation to Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Ayushman Bharat to Skill India program
4) Social
 Creation of casteless society: As the Caste system is still prevalent in the Indian society, the
Gandhian philosophy is useful to create a casteless society where everyone is treated equally
irrespective of their caste
 Secularism: Gandhism was tolerant towards all religions and the world today needs more
and more religiously and faith-wise tolerant people in societies to help in neutralizing the
ethnocentric bias on the basis of religion, caste, ethnicity and region
 Civil services: Gandhian view of truth was irreversible in different contexts irrespective of
the urgency of the situation as evidenced by his cancellation of the Non-Cooperation
movement.This principle of truthfulness to self and to the public is essential for civil servants
in the current context to rampant corruption.

Critics of Gandhi
 Jawaharlal Nehru: Nehru criticized Gandhi’s vision of a free India which was rooted in a sense
of deep individualism and spiritualism rather than a more pragmatic modernity
 BR Ambedkar: Gandhi's views on the caste system have come under heavy criticism BR
Ambedkar who asserted that Gandhi's proposition to reform India's caste system by instigating a
change in the mindset of higher castes was unworkable
 Veer Savarkar: He was vehemently opposed to the alliance Gandhi made with Khilafat leaders.
The failure of the movement and the huge communal clashes that followed was unforgivable to
Savarkar, and it was against this backdrop that he wrote his treatise on Hindutva in 1923.

Gandhi’s position as a Mahatma and the Father of the Nation is secure because of his stupendous
leadership in achieving India’s independence through peaceful means. That is no mean
accomplishment and has few parallels in history. The universal adulation he so richly deserves
comes from his commitment to peace and truth at any cost. For him, these two are moral absolutes.
Gandhi’s sainthoodought to be treated as the recognition of services rendered, but not his relevance
into infinity.

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