Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Farce called Gandhianism

Gandhianism is one of those flawed ideologies that is so abstract, utopian and impractical that even the person who conceived it agreed it was not practical at all times. However it has become a mantle piece for any diplomat, bureaucrat who wants to carp on issues using moral grand standing. Case in point MK Bhadra Kumar commenting on the recent riots in Libya and comparing the violence there to Afghanistan.
Somehow he tries to inject Gandhianism into the whole discussion as some sort of moral higher ground.
The irony is that non-violence in Libya becomes the rubric for militarisation of foreign policy. After referring Mr. Qadhafi to the ICC, shouldn't India sign the Rome Statute and become an ICC member-country? Ideally, we should also persuade Mr. Obama, who admires Gandhiji, to revoke his predecessor's decision to pull the U.S. out of the ICC.

When are we going to get rid of the nonsense carpet that Gandhianism means something in today's world?

4 comments:

seadog4227 said...

This is one of the hardest tasks yet.
Indians haven't read the truth, they don't want harsh critics to tell them like it really is and, worst of all, many sants and mahatmas have praised various aspects/traits of MKG. All sorts of stories abound from diehard supporters to bitter opponents. The Jana Sangh website records ever so many details about MKG.
The dilemma is: how do you convince people who have read nothing or something here and there or have entrenched generational opinions?
I think that the movie on MKG got made by Attenborough because England had a vested interest and/ or a guilty conscience(again!). Today, MKG material is conspicuously absent from UK textbooks. Also, much greater giants like Ramana Maharishi and Paramahamsa Yogananda were his contemporaries. Ahimsa as a NATIONAL movement is a fraud. Some of his followers use the term "Satya, Ahimsa" as if they are of the same value. The vedic truth is "Satyam vada, dharmam chara".
One man's ideology and its' propagation by sundry followers and family pales before the vastness of Indian philosophical thought.
Their idiot factor is this: support all hideous ideologies at any cost, concentrate on memorabilia as if they were holy relics, denigrate Hinduism to accord status to idiot desert faiths.
Alas, whatever one says, the majority of the Indian public stays aloof.

Dhananjaya said...

Carpet? Word used wrongly at end.

Dirt Digger said...

seadog,
Thanks for the note. If you could detail it out that would be quite helpful. You can email me at dirtt.digger at gmail dot com.

Dirt Digger said...

Dhananjaya
Due to the principles of not using expletives (which I break once a while) the word carpet is used there.
Keen eye indeed !!