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Forgotten, in deed!

Archna Sachdeva in New Delhi

Half a century after his assassination, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is remembered only in name.

His face adorns currency notes. Every city has a Mahatma Gandhi road. His statue overlooks many a town square. All school children are taught about him. And politicians routinely mention the name of the Father of the Nation.

Yet, the nation bears little resemblance to his vision of it.

As social conflicts erupt with greater sharpness, the rural-urban divide is skewed further and a handful of elite takes decisions for everyone. The swadeshi mantra, which inspired the freedom struggle, has been all but dumped, the nation-state born out of non-violence now boasts of weapons of mass destruction, and politics is more a means for self-service than for the nation.

Yes, all of Gandhi's ideas seem to have been lost in a maze.

''Only a fool would say that today's India corresponds even slightly to what Gandhi envisioned. His struggle was not for political freedom alone. It was for social change and individual transformation. The British left, but the colonial structure remains,'' says Dr N Radhakrishnan, director of the Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti in Delhi.

He feels the nation never took Gandhi seriously. After Independence, none of his primary postulates -- basic education, social justice through decentralisation and empowerment of the peasantry with gram swarajya -- were taken up wholeheartedly.

While the Congress under Jawaharlal Nehru took a different path from what Gandhi advocated, Gandhian institutions and thinkers were also to blame for the loss of his legacy, the Gandhi Smriti director adds.

By ''deifying'' Gandhi and putting him on a pedestal, such institutions blocked off all objective assessment of his ideas. ''A kind of Gandhian fundamentalism has been promoted which frowns upon any objective assessment of his ideas as heresy,'' Dr Radhakrishnan explains.

While Gandhi was deified and only his puritanical views stressed, his revolutionary ideas which the youth could have identified with were never emphasised. As a result, Gandhi was increasingly seen as a school teacher who prescribed a rigid code of dos & donts, which were not in tune with changing times.

Gandhi was a human being and he wanted to be treated like one. He was not infallible. He would often say, ''I am earthly and of the earth.'' While Gandhi was constantly evolving, his followers failed to do so, Dr Radhakrishanan elaborates.

''It is for this reason that that the Gandhian movement after Acharya Vinobha Bhave failed to influence national opinion or create an impact,'' he adds.

Identifying sharper social conflicts, lop-sided economic development and the growing culture of acquisition as the ''areas of concern'' facing the nation today, eminent historian and former director of Nehru Memorial and Museum Professor Ravinder Kumar says that Gandhi, along with Gautam Buddha, was the tallest Indian for his role as a ''social healer.''

Gandhi understood the divisive nature of the Indian society and devised a notion of composite identity, which could be transferred to modern political structures. ''He was the prophet of modernity,'' Professor Kumar says.

Unfortunately, though social conflicts are sharper today, no political party or leader has that sense of social healing, he adds.

Stating the ''totality of society'' was Gandhi's main concern, the Nehruvian says that as the country moved ahead with economic reforms and technology, it was important to carry along the vast hinterland of agriculture, artisans and inter-mediate technology.

Nehru's economic vision was different from that of Gandhi, the professor agrees - but it is not fair to compare the two as the former held executive power, which brings its own compulsions.

Dr Mahesh Sharma, chairman of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission, however, feels that the starting point of Indian economic planning was wrong. ''Unfortunately, the process of industrialisation was not rooted in Indian conditions. A large part of the modern industry, which left millions untouched, came up based on western parameters,'' says Dr Sharma.

There is no doubt about the relevance of Gandhian thought today, holds Dr Radhakrishnan. Not completely disheartened, he sees great potential in the evolving panchayati raj system, the work done by non-governmental organisations and the opportunities given to women.

Dr Sharma, whose KVIC succeeds the All India Village Industries Association founded by Gandhi in the 1920s, also sees hope in the increasing concern for combining growth with equity.

Stressing that Gandhian economic planning was even more relevant today, he says the employment potential of the organised sector was almost saturated while the unorganised one had great untapped potential.

The cottage industry, which at present employs some six million people, could absorb as many as 25 million more people provided the credit flow was increased, rural development programmes co-ordinated at the district level and science and technology inputs given in non-traditional areas.

''Gandhi can never be irrelevant. So long as freedom of the individual, gender equality, social justice, tolerance towards all and clean politics are the goals of any society, Gandhi would continue to be relevant,'' concludes Dr Radhakrishnan.

UNI

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