First, the counter-question is whether India was ever a land of Ahimsa? I believe that India is never had been a land of Ahimsa nor there’s any other country ever. Veda says, ‘Ahimsa Paramo Dharma’, but that’s in the context of individual behaviour/duty. I will come to that later. Let us study our scriptures. It depicts many wars against the devil. Even God had to take incarnation to defeat the evil through war. Buddhism originated from this land based on Ahimsa and spread over Asia. Gradually Buddhist monks devised marshal acts to protect them. Marshal acts don’t speak the language of Ahimsa.
Many say that Gandhi and his Ahimsa brought independence for India. I don’t believe so. Gandhi led Congress alone hadn’t contributed to India’s independence. There are many others who gave their life for Indian independence. Also, then the British was under compulsion to free many colonies under its empire. That’s why many countries including India got independence post World War-II. Indian independence wasn’t an exception. Yes, Congress was a graceful way out for British as Congress was in power of dominion India. Gandhi tried to stop the partition of India but failed. Partition related riots killed millions of people. No presence of Ahimsa then.
Let’s explore our society from the beginning. It’s a feudal and chauvinistic society from ancient period. Thus, violence is always there. Thus, calling India is a land of non-violence is nothing but eyewash. Human by nature is violent and all the societies are full of violence.
However, many (including me) admire Gandhi for showing his commitment and examples of how to practice Ahimsa. He always said that Ahimsa only can be practised by strong people. Cowards, weaker and insecure people always use violence. Let us recall lynching cases. Who are they? Aren’t they just cowards who lynch an individual whatever may be the reason? The crowd doesn’t have a face. Cowards never show their faces.
Gandhi was not only a strong person but also taught us that non-violence many a time can achieve the desired results. The important lesson he taught us politically that the protest and agitations can be very effective through non-violence. The same thing learnt and practised by Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela to achieve their political goal.
But then after such great personalities, human again became violent during their demand, agitation and protest. Nowadays the agitations end up with arson, vandalism and killings. The only unfortunate thing is that we forgot the ways of our father of the nation. We claim pride for Mahatma Gandhi but forgotten his legacy of ahimsa.
‘Ahimsa Paramo Dharma’ is intended for practising nonviolence by strong against weak, by a crowd or group of people against an individual or smaller group (outnumbered group). On the Shaheed Divas 2020 (30th January) we must ask ourselves if we really inherit the true legacy of Gandhi, as a society or nation! Frankly, we have no right to claim that Gandhi belongs to us. We lost that right when we indulge in violence for everything.