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Gandhi was a profound political leader and thinker who constantly experimented with truth and therefore changed and developed his understanding of society and social change. As a great political strategist he evolved and practised politics of Satyagraha to capture the state power through a prolonged mass movement. He was also an orthodox religious believer who stood for the social liberation of women, the end of caste discrimination, and application of reason to all aspects of social life. He had the vision of a world where all conflicts would be resolved through use of non-violent means. Despite being called a philosophical anarchist for his defiance of constituted authority, and his methods of struggle dubbed as a form of blackmail, Gandhi remained committed to truth and kept the purity of means in the achievement of his objectives.
Gandhi’s mystique consisted of a union of original ideas with a remarkable flair for tactics and an uncanny insight into the mind of the masses especially peasants and workers. Being deeply entrenched in Hindu religious traditions and being sensitive to the writings of Tolstoy, Ruskin and Thoreau, his philosophy was a viable equation between the traditional and modern. At the heart of his ideas lay the doctrine of ahimsa or non-violence, along with which went severe self-discipline that included vows and fasts of purification and penance. At the centre of non-violence lay the concept of satya or truth. Gandhi united various elements of Hinduism and other religious thoughts in a highly original manner. They were not Brahmanical, priestly ways, but ways which made an immediate appeal to the ordinary men, displaying his genius as a popular psychologist.
He could dramatise himself as well as an issue with an unerring instinct. According to Percival Spear Gandhi had the unique capacity to mobilizing almost all sections of the Indian society. As a political leader his greatness lay in his work to unite the masses with the classes in the national movement. The industrialists, the politicians, the common people all supported his methods and followed him because they knew that when it came to dealing with British, Gandhi could surpass them all in arguments, in tactics and above all in making the British feel uncomfortable in their cherished field of moral rectitude.
If Gokhale, Tilak and Banerjee gave nationalism to the classes, Gandhi gave the Indians a nation. Gandhi was influenced and inspired by both Gokhale and Tilak. Like them, he owed a close allegiance to the Indian National Congress. He borrowed from each, yet his own programme was by no means a mere mixture of Tilak’s and Gokhale’s programs. He developed the theory and practice of Satyagraha wholly on his own. Again, where Gokhale and Tilak were essentially urban leaders from western India, Gandhi’s appeal cut across boundaries of caste, class, region and language. He did far more than his predecessors to deepen the organizational base of the Congress. He reorganized the Congress and converted it into a full-fledged political party that reached virtually all parts of the country. He opened its membership to all for a nominal fee. The Congress was democratized by Gandhi by encouraging regional committees to conduct their proceedings in vernacular languages.
Whatever Gandhi did, he not only brought the issue in question vividly before his people, but also contrived to make them morally superior to their physically stronger opponents. In 1917 and 1918 he led localized protests against specific grievances of peasants and workers; in1919 he organized satyagrahas in the major cities of British India against a restrictive new legislation known as the Rowlatt Act. In 1920s, 1930s and 1940s he spearheaded countrywide campaigns like Non-Cooperation, Civil Disobedience and Quit India against British colonial rule. The movements were important, but not necessarily more so than Gandhi’s programmes of social reform and economic renewal, abolition of untouchability, promotion of Hindu-Muslim harmony, upliftment of women, revival of the village and artisanal economy.
In essence, Gandhi was a modern thinker who desired to unite the national movement with social and economic struggles. With Gandhi the national movement entered into a crucial phase when masses were also mobilized for the rectification of economic grievances. It was an extremely important achievement as earlier demands behind such mobilizations were highly moderate. He immediately identified with the peasantry which participated in a large number during the Civil Disobedience Movement. The communal divide which got intensified in 1930s and 1940s, Gandhi always sided with moderation and tried hard to maintain unity of the country. His ‘finest hours’ were the last months of his life when communal massacres broke out upon partition. Gandhi stood by his principles which gives a message for all serious political movements that there is a point at which to compromise with the principle is fatal. One must take a position that is right!!
By: Raghwendra Chauhan ProfileResourcesReport error
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