Throw light on the significance of the thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi in the present times. (150words)
Ans. Mahatma Gandhi is the most researched and talked about personality in the modern world. He was a prolific writer, philosopher, freedom fighter, an advocate by profession and a social activist by nature. He was a visionary and possessed a very powerful mind and hence thought deeply and wrote on basic human issues and problems facing India in those times.
Those Principles are as relevant today as they were in his time.
Non-Violence : Non-violence or ‘Ahimsa’ is the fundamental principle of Gandhism. Ahimsa is not just avoid violence but it is much deeper in sense. It is based on the feeling of love sacrifice and fraternity.
Truth: The pivotal and defining element of Gandhism is truth or ‘Satya’. The principle of Satya as espoused by Gandhi needed that truth must pervade all considerations of politics, ego, society and convention. Satyagraha According to him Satyagraha is the battle between ‘Good and evil’. It is much advance to passive resistance and demand no enimity against enemy. Satyagraha is against evil not evil doer.
Nai Taalim : Gandhian thought on education are manifested in Nai Taalim. According to Gandhiji, education should be a life long process. He favoured earning while learning and asked to introduce vocational training in curriculum.
Relevance in the present time:
Social Issues
• One of the visible adversaries of the present world is intolerance among societies, countries and cultures. In our own country India, the danger of intolerance can divide our society and tear our social fabric.
• Fear and insecurity is the root cause of intolerance as per Gandhi. So he advocated throughout his life the principle of being truthful and fearless. His idea of fearlessness allowed him to be tolerant to varied thoughts and perceptions accommodating diverse sections of the society and at same time come up with a compromise.
• His ideas of tolerance, compromise and non-violence can serve as an antidote to the present social crises of hatred, terrorism, and racial and religious conflicts across the world.
. Political Issues
• At the global level, many places in the world have been drastically changed through the use of brute force, by the power of guns such as in the erstwhile Soviet Union, China, Tibet, Burma, and many communist countries in Africa and South America. • The Israel-Palestinian war, the Korea war, the rise of ISIS and the ethnic cleansing of minorities in Middle-East and the armed race among the countries are all symptoms failures of the leadership to guide for the goodness of all humanity. • The idea of inter-dependence at the international level propounded by Gandhi holds relevance of immense importance today.
No country in the world is efficient enough to tackle the global challenges of environmental degradation, poverty, terrorism, etc. single headedly. Collaboration and cooperation among the nations can be only means to move ahead and made some progress in these matters.
• At domestic level, the idea of gram swaraj propounded by Gandhi has found resonance through constitutional validity of panchayats and municipalities. Gandhi believed that villages are the real India and if India is to move forward and make impressions on world, villages would have to be made as fundamental units for development. The policy changes since last three decades to decentralise governance and politics are resonating the idea of Gandhi on Gram Swaraj.
• Moreover Gandhi’s Idea of politics without principle is a sin should be a lesson to the political class to up hold their integrity and work for the progress of all ‘Sarvodaya’ the term used by him.
Economic Issues:-
• Statistics show that the country is definitely not following ‘Sarvodaya’ a broad Gandhian term meaning ‘universal upliftment’ or ‘progress of all’ reaching the masses and the downtrodden. • Gandhi’s idea of uplifting and empowering poor is first key towards realising the inclusive and sustainable development.
• The Sustainable Development Goals of eradicating poverty, hunger free world, eliminating illiteracy, gender equality, dignity of labour, employment opportunity and better healthcare are goals resonating the ideas and goals of Gandhi which he cherished throughout his life.
Gandhiji is one of the tallest figures of the Modern World about whom the page of any answer will become short in explaining about his ideas and thoughts.