By Vivek Sugandh:
It has been years since the madman named Nathuram Godse shot our father of the nation and brutally ended his charismatic journey. Our Independence took its final redemption by ravaging his life and alas! the most loved protagonist departed from the stage and took all his wisdom along with him. The entire country was wrapped in a blanket of gloom and every soul was mourning owing to his demise. This poignant loss left a deep void which will never be filled.
Gandhiji has impressed humanity as an apostle of peace and as one who has been rightly hailed as the world’s Second Saviour. Mahatma had a monumental zeal despite his fragile body; he had an eternal hope despite the darkness all around and most importantly a belief that one day, he would be able to see a better India. He believed that the people of India are potent enough to live in brethernity and prosper. He nurtured a dream to see us on the pinnacle of success, glory and sophistication and for this he strived hard for our independence. This old knight never fought for himself, rather he fought for the millions of disillusioned Indians who were traumatized during the British reign.
As 64 years have passed since his death, India has completely changed and today, everything seems to be going against his principles. Gandhi believed that “The best way to find your self is to lose yourself in the service of others” but today, we have become so inflicted with the evil voracity. He bedazzled the entire world by making us achieve freedom through ahimsa and Satyagraha but today, we are so engulfed in violence and cheating. He propagated that we must be the change we wish to see in the world but now, nobody wants to be a change maker. Everyone will blame the society, the government and the others but no one would take the responsibility to make a difference. Our Bapu called for effective governance directed towards the growth of the people of India but the current prevailing political system has flouted every rule that he talked about. Evincing the very fact, India has been ranked 94th by the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index. He said that there is enough in this world to satisfy one’s need but not greed. But then, why just blame the government, even the common people have been deformed. All that love for the nation and a sense of concern is lost now. We have become so selfish that we don’t want to do something which could ameliorate the current aggravated position. Even the youth lacks that zeal and alacrity to work towards an improved India. We merely want to develop as individuals.
He made the impossible look possible by maintaining solidarity among every religion without any bias but today’s society is bifurcated into legions of sections based upon some gruesome methods of caste, creed etc. Today, every individual is so unsettled that he can’t make out what he is up to. Gandhi preached that “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” So basically no one is happy now, in fact we have based our happiness upon facile things. He demanded value based knowledge; the current education may give you a source of livelihood but cannot make you a reformed human being.
Our nation had a glorious past and the Indian people tend to take pride in it. But then, for how long will we stick ourselves to old triumphs? Do we have anything substantial to say to our grandsires when they ask, “What have you done to provide us a good tomorrow?” We are definitely growing with a good GDP rate but we seem to have lost our incredibility in the race of economic development; that incredibility which made us to win laurels all over the world. We feel boastful in calling him as our torchbearer and our guardian but are we even living up to his expectations? Mahatma Gandhi would be really mourning at this depraved India. Our degradation is really pellucid as he aptly said “The things that will destroy us are: politics without principle; pleasure without conscience; wealth without work; knowledge without character; business without morality; science without humanity; and worship without sacrifice.” Gandhi was sent as a watchman to serve the interest of humanity. He was sent as a guiding light to guide us towards spirituality and divine peace. Although we remember him on his birth anniversary, Mahatma Gandhi is probably a figure whose influence is not as it used to be. We are far from the principles and ethics which he wanted to inculcate in us. His absence has marked a deterioration in the world and Pandit Nehru truly emphasized after his death that “the light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere.”