Lessons from Gandhiji's death

On Gandhiji's death anniversary, are there lessons that we can learn? Using the lens of Viveka (discrimination) & a Hamsa (taking only the good & leaving the bad), looking at the good lessons that we can learn from Gandhiji.

Debate vs killing:
If we disagree with someone, the first step that we can do is indulge in debate. If a society doesn't allow debate (eg: blasphemy/heresy laws), it would be an oppressive society that will need tremendous efforts to allow free speech. Debate the person in the realm of ideas & defeat them.

Samskritam doesn't even have a word for blasphemy: all ideas are open to discussion. Use SamVAda, the good debate, as a guideline, as defined by the ancients in the NyAya Sutra. In Samskritam, there are words for Vadha (killing in battle) vs Hatya (murder). Murdering one (Hatya) indicates that the battle is lost in the realm of ideas.

Sadly, in today's world, bloggers, cartoonists & journalists are still targeted. Gulags & enslavement still exist.

Paraphrasing Gandhiji, when truth is by one's side: "First, they ignore you. Then, they laugh at you. Then, they fight you. Then you win." Speak out & debate on issues that matter to you. If there are issues that are deliberately hidden by those in power, bring them out.

Congress restructuring:
Gandhiji, two days before his death, called for the Congress to be disbanded & converted to a charitable organization, called Lok Sevak Sangh, with a GoSeva Sangh (cow protection), teetotalism, Harijan Seva Sangh & local economy ventures. Would someone with power willingly give it up?

Gandhiji's ideal: It is best to have someone in power, who is not power hungry, and who will give it up willingly to someone more worthy.

Targeted mob violence:
Gandhiji was an Ahimsavadi, a proponent of non-violence & non-cruelty. He was against revenge: "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

The Nazi Jewish/Roma holocaust remembrance day also just passed. The New Testament has four gospels by Mark, Matthew, Luke & John. Mark records Christ's story as an intra-Jewish feud. Matthew (27.25) starts blaming Jews. John starts calling the Jews derogatory names (8.44). This origin of a simple anti-Jewish thought has resulted in Jewish persecution over millenia & a plethora of anti-Jewish literature (eg: Shakesphere's Merchant of Venice).

Such simple 'othering' such as non-believers & reactionaries (enemy of the people) have resulted in genocides of millions.

Once Nathuram Godse murdered Gandhiji, Congress workers & sectarian groups called for violence in Maharashtra. In just a matter of hours, 15-50 Brahmins were killed. The killing continued & the unofficial estimates are in 1000s. Narayan Savarkar, the brother of Veer Savarkar, was one of the victims: stoned to death. Thousands of Brahmana houses were burnt.

This pattern would be repeated in the 1984 anti-Sikh Delhi violence by the Congress workers, condoned by the would-be Prime Minister. Repeated yet again in the Mulayam Singh Yadav Kar Sevak massacre in 1990, Ayodhya. Totalitarian ideologies have time & again wiped out diversity. They can be spotted in regions with mono-cultures.

Any ideology that has a history of genocide & 'othering' needs to be looked at with a critical lens & then combated in the realm of ideas.

Freedom:
Gandhiji posed a brilliant question in his iconic: "Hind Swaraj". If you're being oppressed, let's say you got rid of the oppressors. But you brought in your own ethnic people, who are now oppressing you. Is that really freedom?

First, freedom has to be in one's own mind & spirit. That is true freedom. External freedom would follow.