For development: Mahatma Gandhi for compulsion or Mahatma Gandhi for strength?

Hasmukh Patel

I have often heard this phrase 'Jaboori Ka Naam Mahatma Gandhi'. I have often given the answer 'Majboori ko moke mein Palte wo Mahatma Gandhi'. It was my reasoning that Gandhiji adopted the path of non-violence as the powerful British Raj could not be fought with violence. I read Gandhiji's 'autobiography' in my college days. Non-violent and peaceful child-rearing through education campaign towards world peace through prevention of child violence252 As I began to emphasize, my attention turned to the events of Gandhiji's childhood. What a child sees and feels during childhood is permanently imprinted in the child's mind. Watching the film of the truthful 'Raja Harishchandra' in his childhood instilled the virtues of truth in Gandhiji. After eating meat, Ma did not like having to lie when refusing to eat; Thus the rites of truth freed him from non-vegetarianism. In order to meet the expenses of eating meat, smoking etc., he had to cut the gold chain of the house and steal the gold. No one becomes truthful by stealing. But the sense of truth from the film of the truthful Raja Harishchandra made him confess to the theft. He wrote a confession note and gave it to his father. Father read the note and did not say a word. Pearls dripped from his eyes. Gandhi writes in 'Autobiography', those tears soaked me. For me, the object of non-violence was a lesson. I advance this argument in support of nonviolent child rearing. In the Chorichaura incident during the Non-Cooperation Movement, the agitators set fire to the police station and Gandhi withdrew the movement which had reached its climax. Many of his colleagues did not find his move appropriate. In support of my opinion I say: 'This decision was taken at the time of the teardrop incident, because childhood experiences become permanent, it is not possible for a person to get out of them. The decision of non-violent movement was taken during the tearful incident.' I have effectively used these incidents from Gandhiji's life in the non-violent child-rearing campaign. But as I read and think about Gandhiji, my thoughts about him change. As I come to know Gandhi more as a valuable politician than as a valuable person, my respect for him increases. The insistence on truth and non-violence in a field like politics seems impossible to us even today. He used it against the British rulers a hundred and twenty years ago today. This person fought against the British rulers who were exploiting our country and ruling here to increase the prosperity of their country on the path of values ​​and taught us the same. This is not a small thing. He had no means of good non-violence coercion. He himself made it clear in a speech during the South African movement. Introducing the movement to a gathering of whites who wanted to know about their movement, a white speaker said, 'The Indians of the Transvaal have resorted to 'passive resistance' when other good means of getting justice have failed. They don't have the right to vote, their numbers are small, they are weak, they don't have weapons, so they have adopted 'passive resistance' which is the weapon of the weak. Hearing this, Gandhiji beamed. He soon explained in detail in his lecture that the main difference between passive resistance and satyagraha is that the former is the weapon of the weak while the latter is not. In Britain, who gave details of two movements that adopted the strategy of 'passive resistance', he explained that in both these movements, the use of armed force would not have benefited him. So he did not use the weapon. When he said about the South African movement: 'The question of the possibility or impossibility of armed force did not arise in my mind. I can definitely say that. Despite constant suffering, the Satyagrahis did not use physical force and that too when it was possible to use it effectively.' Thus passive resistance is a weapon of the weak while Satyagraha is not a weapon of the weak, he has said with an example argument in that public meeting of the whites. (History of South African Satyagraha, Chapter 13) Majboori Ka Naam Mahatma Gandhi or Strength Ka Naam Mahatma Gandhi?}