It's the 2nd of October..
2nd of October always takes me back to the school days, when we were made to carry our 'Shramdan', a sort of community service where we had to clean our dormitories and do all the household tasks by ourselves. It was to celebrate the birthday of our big man, our father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi. Being school kids then, we did not think too much about the significance of the event, all we thought about was keeping our beds and lockers clean enough to pass the inspection check that our wardens and house-mistresses carried out at end of the morning.
I guess, I did not think about it even more because I was never a big fan of Gandhi. Being a passionate History student, I idolized the likes of Subhas Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh, and the history lessons back then made me feel as if Gandhi was somehow responsible for their downfalls and deaths. Also, I felt that his idea of Ahimsa (Non-violence) and Satyagraha (path of truth) were almost hypocritical and costing Indian lives by the dozen.
Ironically, it was only after I got here to England that I have started feeling almost a sense of awe at the Great man and the brave path that he took. He did not resort to the easy ways of violence, nor did he stand up just for the minority royalties, or just for one selfish cause, he fought for the masses. For real independence. And I now believe there are great reasons to give this one man credit- for he brought together the nation as whole, finding common grounds for unity. And he not only commands respect in India, but in all parts of the world.
In the massive debates that my friends and I have about a range of topics including India, I now find myself defending his cause, proving to them through the lessons of History that I learned back in school about the greatness and ingenuity of this great man who brought almost an entire nation together against a foreign enemy, and delivered them what they had been seeking for 2 centuries..
Today's blog post is dedicated to this Great man..
I guess, I did not think about it even more because I was never a big fan of Gandhi. Being a passionate History student, I idolized the likes of Subhas Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh, and the history lessons back then made me feel as if Gandhi was somehow responsible for their downfalls and deaths. Also, I felt that his idea of Ahimsa (Non-violence) and Satyagraha (path of truth) were almost hypocritical and costing Indian lives by the dozen.
Ironically, it was only after I got here to England that I have started feeling almost a sense of awe at the Great man and the brave path that he took. He did not resort to the easy ways of violence, nor did he stand up just for the minority royalties, or just for one selfish cause, he fought for the masses. For real independence. And I now believe there are great reasons to give this one man credit- for he brought together the nation as whole, finding common grounds for unity. And he not only commands respect in India, but in all parts of the world.
In the massive debates that my friends and I have about a range of topics including India, I now find myself defending his cause, proving to them through the lessons of History that I learned back in school about the greatness and ingenuity of this great man who brought almost an entire nation together against a foreign enemy, and delivered them what they had been seeking for 2 centuries..
Today's blog post is dedicated to this Great man..
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