Gandhi is a revered figure worldwide. Mandela, Martin Luther King, and Obama are among those who count him as their inspiration. The story in India is a little different though. There are M.G. roads (Mahatma Gandhi Road) in most cities, and he stares out from currency notes and Government publications but social media is full of ugly comments about him. His assassin Godse is now quite visible too in movies and birthday celebrations.
It is difficult to kill Gandhi however. Lincoln played his part in trying to end slavery and Gandhi was the man who ended the other ill that afflicted the world - colonialism. If slavery was justified by assuming blacks to be inferior, colonialism rationalised the white man's superiority over natives. Power, money, and technology from the ebbs and flows of history are used as proxies for superior natural ability. Silly it may be, but this is what was the intellectual bulwark for all the principal social ills in history like slavery, colonialism, and caste.
To mobilise masses in a country with multiple languages, religions and a burden of feudalism was an enormous achievement by itself. To use that force in a non-violent way to drive out the British without too much rancour with both the victims (Indians) or the vanquished like the British is unprecedented.
Add to that his incredible personal simplicity, transparency in relationships, adherence to principles despite any obstacle, use of truth and love for all bar none yet remaining primarily a political leader is impossible to replicate.
He was also a deeply original thinker, fearless, and never afraid to take risks. He did not follow any defined path and built his own ideology and modus operandi for the freedom struggle.
There is nothing more noble on Indian Independence Day than to remember this great man, a frail-looking lawyer infused with the highest ideals of humanity.
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