Gandhigiri…What a way to remember the old man!!!
Last week I saw Lageraho Munnabhai. As it is I am a great fan of comedy. And a comedy with a message?…The icing on the cake. The movie does an excellant job of portraying the relevance of Gandhian principles in contemproray world.
Lot of people may not agree with Gandhi on some of the issues. Some people agressively talk against him i.e. his personality and indulge in what I call Gandhi bashing. As I have noted in one of my earlier post, Gandhi too was a human and as such, prone to errors. But the issues that he made errors on cannot negate the positve impact that he has had on Indian society and polity. He laid down some important principles in life and following them is not always easy. That is why most people dismiss his principles as impractical and take the easy road.
One scene from the movie where Munna has to apologize to Circuit and you can see Munna’s inner struggle in doing that. It was indicative of the amount of courage needed to do that. As Gandhi rightly said, apologizing needs a lot more courage than offending!
Another scene where the old man goes to get his pension released, is a classic. The scene demonstrated how it is possible to “expose” a person without resorting to violence, threat, abusive language or anything of that sort. The clerk was so ashamed of his act that he had to immediately sign the papers.
But the Gandhi bashers will pick up only not so positive aspects of Gandhi’s life and highlight them. One example that I have seen quoted often is ,”If Gandhi wanted to clean his toilet then so be it but why does he have to FORCE his wife to do it?” Now this becomes such a big issue because it portrays Gandhi as forcing someone to do something against his own wishes. But if you look at this from a regular household perspective, My wife forces me to clean the toilet! If I say no, she whines and then eventually I get up clean it. Does this make my wife a bad person? Hell No!!! The point of quoting such example is that you should look at the familial matters as just that…familial matters.
Back to the movie…Gandhigiri, a new term from the movie is bound to be picked up by everyone. I hope that becomes the IN Thing! The director has done a wonderful job in promoting Gandhigiri.
On his birthday I urge everyone to take another look at Gandhian principles and try to employ them in their personal lives. Ignore what you don’t like about him and adopt what you like. It will be a great tribute to the old man, aptly called the Father of the nation!
October 1, 2006
Posted in: Gandhi, India
18 Responses
I wonder why people are so narrow minded in their perspectives..being choosy and thus selecting those which appeals to their senses and in the process they malign innocent people like the Gandhi..anyway i hope gandhigiri is the next buzz word
Sharique,
I hope so too… and also it is about time Gandhigiri became the mantra of the day!
Well, I think Gandhi’s ideals are very noble but impractical in a world where everyone’s looking for a reason to kill each other but I agree - “Ignore what you don’t like about him and adopt what you like. ” Brilliantly put! There are good things about Gandhi which people should like, for example, his phenomenal determination and stamina
I am not a Gandhian but am always amazed by the out of box thinking he employed while coming up with non-violance, civil dis-obediance, self rule …
About the movie, the movie is good. The best part about the movie was, its way to tell Gandhian values.. Funny, simple and understandable to most of the Indian audience. No strings attached … That was biggest strength of Gandhi himself. He always spoke in very simple language. Yet very effective !
The slap Munna hits to the watchman after taking two slaps from him… That did the trick for me! It meant show enough patience for the aggressor. Then bapu explains why he wants to take two slaps. Its a moral value and it needs to be applied with the context Gandhi had in mind. I also loved the girl dating a boy and leaves him as he shushs… the waiter. GRAND !
Lets keep in mind no value of principal has blanket applicability unless we use it be proper context. Gandhian values were eroding as people could not find them applicable in todays world. They back to this dude Munna. Gandhi redfined courage. Munna reminded me of it.
I am trying build courage myself ! I can tell you for self experience.. Its damn hard. Lot harder than abusing somebody or hitting him …. Damn you Munna!
Everyt time I fail I call Gandhian values old, usless and make peace with myself. I plan to keep trying.. You all should try and let me know.. could you do it?
atlantean:
I wouldn’t say impractical but very difficult indeed
Sandeep:
I guess we all must keep trying in their own way! One day we might succeed in doing just that!
Krishworld Politics » Blog Archive » Gandhi Jayanthi - October 2, 2006
[...] In a nutshell, Gandhigiri is Gandhism in the new economy. From a purist point of view, it is downright stupid. But in a pragmatic view, it is ok because these dumb fools get into the Gandhian path at least for fashion sake. Even though I would like to stand with Gaurav on this issue, I am standing on the side of Polite Indian and Rajesh for pragmatic reasons. Keeping up with Fashion, lemme end this post with the slogan for new economy. ie. [...]
hence i have not seen munna bhai yet and also im not follower of gandhian thought but when i was in school we had ncrt books in which on the very first page some lines from gandhi ji had written… those lines have a good impact on me
If you love Autobio’s - pick up - My Experiments With Truth - which is actually a very interesting book. Quite amusing and not-philosophical types.
Apun Ka Desh:
I have read My Experiments With Truth in bits and pieces. The book is available online at many websites. One such website is http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/An_Autobiography_or_The_Story_of_my_Experiments_with_Truth
Hi..
Re. that criticism that he used to force other people to do things.. how do you explain his insistence that Netaji Bose should not be the COngress president even though he was the elected winner?
Or the fact that though Patel had earned the right to be the first PM of India, nehru was made the first PM?
Or the fact that India was forced to pay 50 lakhs( a princely sum at the time) to pakistan, when all of us knew the money will be used to wage thewar in Kashmir?
These are not family matters. The man erred big time.
And he did not get us our independence alone. he just did one smart thing - he hit the British where it hurt the most - financially. He expunged their cloth market in India, got rid of the salt tax, and in other subtle ways, made it impossible for the British to run this colony profitably.
How do we know:
One can debate every point that you have raised and there can be arguments for both sides but that is not the point of this post.
Also no one is claiming that he alone was responsible for independence.
The point of the post is…You will find enough good things about this man to employ in your personal life. From a personal viewpoint you can chose what to follow and what not to ! That’s why I said in the post “Ignore what you don’t like about him and adopt what you like. â€
Hello “How Do We Know “-
First, don’t ignore what he did or teachs, just because he *may* have made some mistakes.
Having said that, I believe, Gandhiji was a brilliant strategist.
You should see the film on Bose to recognize what ablunder it was in trying to get Hitler/German to help to win war against India. We would have gone from being ruled by Britain to being ruled by Germany, had that worked. Think for a moment, if Hitler and India had won the war.
Let’s talk about giving 50 lacs to Pakistan. Just imagine, if we were friends with Pakistan. In fact when Gandhiji failed to convince Nehru/Patel to not accept freedom if divison was the pre-condition (he offered Jinnah as the first prime minister to British, which was unacceptable to Nehru/Patel), this was the next attempt. Again just imagine a friendly neighbor, no wars (three of them), a huge percentage of gdp spent on miltary and the list goes on.
I wouldn’t call these two a mistake.
Gandhigiri or what I call “bapugiri” (as opposed to dadagiri
Jindabad!
Ashok:
So finally you were able to find my blog
Good to see you post a comment here
How do we know?
All your points are valid and debatable. What is important at this stage is to remember what he left for us?
He left us country (only country) in the subcontinent which has remained democratic. He left for the world concept of non-violence which was used by Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela…. George W Bush Jr. He is the only world reknowned Indian leader.
Did he make mistakes? Of course he did. Did he play tricks? Of course he did.
He was a very shrude person. A very able leader. To make 10 people follow you is a very difficult task…. His hunger strikes made world to take notice.
We have option of using his teachings or criticise them. Criticism will not get anything , learning what you like may get add value to your life.
Think about that
Polite Indian- My pleasure
As a teenager, my father who is from Tamilnadu learned the urdu script in order to get a signed letter from Gandhi. Such was the power of Gandhi’s personality during his lifetime. He was able to unite and provide spiritual guidance to the whole India in a way no one else before him did. He had the courage to say “satyameva jayate” and maintain that ideal in his life! I have friends from South Africa who are mad that he didnt stay back there and fight for their cause. He could have changed Africa if he wanted- he chose India.
Revathi,
No doubt Gandhi has done what no other could do.
But the question is are his principles relevant today and I think some of them are very relevant and in fact necessary to be followed.
Readers of this post might find this interesting as well.
Gandhigiri in today’s day and age
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