I want to thank Supreme Court for not making it mandatory to respect Gandhi. It is not that I want to criticise him. But the more I read about him, the more I am befuddled by his principles, the more I feel confused as to why he was known as the 'Rashtrapita'.
The most confusing principle for me is of 'Non-violence'! Definitely, mother earth always needed non-violence more than violence. But one sided non-violence has always been disastrous. To constrain people from violence he used the weapon of 'Aamaran Uposhan'. But isn't that also a kind of violence? Does a man have the right to destroy himself, if cannot create himself? If Gandhivad was so strong, then why couldn't it stop the huge massacre of Hindustani people at the time of partition? It’s true that, an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. But can a person lovingly offer the remaining eye, when already one is lost, just to win the heart of enemy?
Bhagvad Gita is treated as a Mother in Hinduism. In that, when Arjun saw his Gurus and relatives on the opposing Army side, he lost his courage and decided not to fight. Then Bhagwan Krishna explained to him his duties as a Warrior. He said 'as a warrior he has a duty to uphold the path of dharma through warfare'.
On the contrary, during World War II, when invasion of the British Isles by Nazi Germany looked imminent, Gandhi offered the following advice to the British people "I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions...If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them."
Had they listened to Gandhi , UK UK and Germany Hindustan listened to him. Faced the partition. And the problems still exist!!!! For Dharma Arjun fought with his own people. Whereas as per Gandhivad, one should neither fight for Dharma nor for the one’s own people!
Post world war II, in an interview he expressed his view about the Jew massacre, ‘The Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher's knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs.' And why all this? To win the heart of enemy! Will a man in his normal senses do this?
I would like to respect him. But only when I get a justifiable answers to my questions. I cannot disrespect my Bhagvad Gita, for a so called Rashtrapita! Life is not some Munnabhai movie, where everything will fall in place miraculously. It has to be justified to be believed!
