This writeup shares my humble thoughts on this great nations, India. Not many might object me calling it Gandhi’s nation, since it was through his principles of nonviolence that we got our independence. On this nation isn’t it a responsibility of every one to rethink about his philosophies and atleast understand it completely? What exactly is non violence? Many think it is just not using arms. Yes indeed it is about not using arms, gun and bloody wars. But it is also more about nonviolence in thoughts and optimism. Non violence indeed is an outcome of non violence in the heart and mind.
At this point in time, I think, there is a great need for people to rethink seriously the Mahatma’s ideas and try and identify whether we are following his principles. I think there are many areas where we may not be. Nonviolence and optimism are extremely essential for a healthy democracy. Many even may not believe in democracy, but democracy and non violence in thoughts are closely interrelated. One very important requirement for any democracy to be successful is people. After-all, democracy is for the people, by the people and of the people. If it fails it’s the people who are to be blamed and not a particular individual. It’s a responsibility on all of us to ensure success of democracy. People’s participation is extremely crucial for a successful democracy. Many who are pessimistic about the democracy in India and the politics in India would have never even tried to complain to a concerned authority about their problem. Be it bad road, bad drainage, leaking water pipes or whatever, we loose the right to crib, if we have not taken the responsibility to contact the authorities and make a positive complain. When some one hasn’t tried contacting an authority to try and get a problem rectified, he naturally looses the right to be crib it and also in-turn the right to crib about India and its future. Many claim that, anyway they know it will not work. And that’s where the problem is. The problem is not with the particular department or the authority. It is with you who have stayed oblivious to a problem. Not only have you stayed oblivious, but have also spread pessimism on sight of something wrong. Pessimism and negative attitudes are a much worse negative factor to India’s progress than corrupt practices or inefficiency of a department or an authority.
Some very few, who might actually have contacted a local authority or the concerned department about a problem and did not get it resolved has the right to crib about it. But this is where the Mahatmas philosophy needs to be reminded. We need to still keep optimism and hope and recognize that the authority who we are dealing with is also human and he has his own problems for not being able to help. It might just be out of hundreds of years of habit and culture, or a genuine inability to tackle a particular problem, for various reasons whatsoever. Mahatma Gandhi and his followers were successful in kicking the racist looters back only because of continuous optimism and effort.
The Mahatma never felt India will never get independence, if he had, then he would have stopped his struggle, just like the thousands of Indians at this point in time who have. The Mahatma never thought Hindu Muslim unity was not possible, if he had, he would not have gone fasting when violence broke out just after partition of India. One core value behind the Mahatma’s non violence is optimism. There can be no non violence with out optimism. Let us not crib, let us not loose respect of the Mahatma and his philosophies. Every time we get frustrated and shout at a fellow traveler on the road who doesn’t know road rules, we are going against the Mahatma’s principles. He indeed was a Mahatma, he positively confronted with British Empire and persisted in his efforts, kept India from breaking into violence and chaos and there by securing a safe freedom and establishment of democracy.
It’s a responsibility on all of us to ensure that we remember the Mahatma and try to be inline with his philosophies. Independence and democracy may not have been possible, if he had a single violent pessimistic thought, which broke into frustration. So, it’s a plea to every one, lets be optimistic, and lets be non violent in thoughts and that is the first step and the most important step in accelerating this countries growth. Mahatma’s philosophy was that if we are optimistic and protest in a non violent way success is indeed not too far away. Although he did his education in UK and worked in South Africa for some time, he was empathetic and understanding with local people of India. He took people to his satyagraha ashrams and taught them a simple way of life, self help and hygiene. Instead of getting frustrated at the sight of unhygienic practices and running away.
It is the same non violent philosophy that can been seen in the song by Subramanya Bharathiyar when he composed and sung a poem much before independence with the theme “ Lets Dance, Lets sing, Lets celebrate that we have already achieved happy freedom”. We did indeed achieve, thanks to the optimistic freedom fighters of this nation. So dear fellow citizen, lets sing, lets dance and lets be optimistic that India is a great developed nation, where there is no poverty, where there is a great civic structure, where all people are happy, all people are hardworking towards a common goal. Lets sing and dance in celebration of a developed India. Lets feel happy that India has already reached number one in all aspects of life. Lets celebrate and think India is already a technology leader and drives future technology directions. Lets celebrate and dance and sing India’s success and be optimistic about it. We sure will reach there and its not too far away, only if we are non violent in thoughts and optimistic and follow the Mahatma’s principles.