By Krishna Jha
January 30 was the day in 1948 we lost the father of our nation Mahatma Gandhi. It is to remind us again that truth is not absolute. It also has its own motion that keeps moving in stages. Bapu had told us decades back that he can guide us to knowing the truth, but he cannot take us to truth, as it always keeps changing.
Ever since the evolution of society was identified, it was also realised that it has always been injustice that has kept driving it further. The welfare state has always remained a dream and it has been the struggle to achieve it that has always driven it further ahead. There are always the chilling facts of life that have led us closer to this truth, but never allowed us to realise it. There was the Constitution, framed by those who believed and struggled to achieve the ideals spelt in it, every year celebrating them on January 26, yet we have achieved a level where amendments to the basics of it have become a new normal. We have been witness to even the challenges to our preamble, the fundamentals of our democracy. Not to mention even socialism, with which it meant equality for all the citizens, but even secularism, injured and split, with a blood soaked dividing line, has been facing threats.
The pillars are crumbling, cracks are widening, though not without a purpose. The truth, emerging now, carries with it agraveyard clarity, soaked in tears and moulded in flames, it again points towards a shift beyond the limits. Masses are assembling at the borders of the capital, braving the rains and cold, tear gas and lathi charge. Dying and also committing suicides, mothers carrying months old babies in arms, on foot, also driving tractors, they are coming.
They are coming, like our national anthem says, from Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Andhra, Telangana, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, from everywhere, they are pouring in, men, women, seniors and the juniors.
Gandhi was assassinated. Will that tradition continue? How many pall bearers shall we need? Is that the truth where we have arrived?
History does not allow us to be pessimistic. There is the historicity with its dialectics. It is the darkest hours that carry the finality of silver lines. Are we there yet? Perhaps not.
But before that, we have to know why Mahatma Gandhi was killed. Was it because he was loved deeply by each and all. Except those who carried the burden of vested interest, and hated unity, a unity that bridged all gaps, and left no one as other. Mahatma Gandhi had entered the political sphere of the country, which was divided between two communities, Hindus and Muslims. It was resented deeply by the right reaction. Gandhiji was also against the abyss that stood between the feudal lord and the peasant, between the worker and the master. Lords and masters flourished on the unpaid labour while those who slogged got pittance in return. To get rid of the abyss, he committed the sin for which he was given the capital punishment. He had wanted peace and for that, unity was the only way out. But with peace, injustice cannot be committed, democratic rights cannot be denied. The ire was because of their insecurity against his ability to reach the roots.
Once when Gandhiji was asked why most of the time his call for non violent protest ended in violence, his reply was it was the ‘holy anger’ that engulfed and turned violent, to destroy the darkness of untruth. He had resisted this violence, because the outcome was to be cruel repression. State had to protect its interest, which it always did, at the cost of its own people, and their lives. The brutality of this response from the state power would destroy the fabric of society. In fact, he said state and politics had to be people oriented. Hence the entire national movement was based on anti- colonialism, on building up democratic ethos, and its basic fabric was based on secularism.
And yet, immediately after we attained our independence, the rightist forces succeeded to eliminate himbutonly at their own peril. The vast masses of the country burst in rage and attacked all their offices. Even the leaders and cadres were not spared.
They waited decades to make a comeback. (IPA Service)