The whole world is but one family - Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Australia

Legacy of
the Mahatma
26 | Bhavan Australia | February 2012
Mahatma stood for causes for which he struggled
throughout his working life. They were—Freedom,
Unity, Equality, Self-Reliance and Decentralisation.
They were related to each other. Though these
causes were ‘ends’, he was equally concerned with
‘means’ to achieve those ends. Means based on the
principles of ‘Truth’ and ‘Non-Violence’.
Such was the magnetic influence of his personality,
his thoughts and actions that he was able to
attract the support and cooperation of a galaxy of
towering personalities of his time. Equally he was
able to inspire masses of Indians to participate in
his struggles.
Freedom meant firstly political freedom,
emancipation of India from the British colonial rule.
His struggle for freedom stemmed from his sense
of self-respect and dignity not only of himself but
of every individual. This assertion of self respect
began in South Africa where as a young lawyer he
was thrown out of the train on a cold platform of
Citz Mortiz Burg station, despite a valid first class
ticket on the grounds that first class was reserved
only for the Whites.
Gandhi would not accept this tyranny and injustice
even though Indians in South Africa had meekly
succumbed, since they did not have the courage to
oppose the powerful racist government. But young
Gandhi mobilised the Indian people, gave them
courage and determination to assert their selfrespect
and join his struggle against the racist rule
over the next twenty years.
He was not able to see the end of the racist rule but
a beginning was made which ultimately culminated
in the end of ‘apartheid’.
Gandhi assumed the leadership of the Congress
Party after the demise of Lokmanya Tilak. He
launched three mass-movements—the noncooperation
movement in the twenties, the civil
disobedience movement of the thirties and the Quit
India Movement of the forties which culminated
in India’s freedom, accompanied by the tragic
partition of the country.
Lord Meghnad Desai in his book ‘Rediscovery
of India’ has criticised Mahatma Gandhi for his
agitationist approach, for launching his noncooperation
movement spurning the offer of
Morley Minto reforms aimed at “progressive
realisation of self government.”
He feels that cooperation with the first government
led by Ramsey Macdonald of the Labour Party
of England would have been to the advantage of
the Indian people. Gandhiji and Nehru wanted
‘Sampoorna Swaraj’ which, as declared by Tilak,
was ‘the birth right of the Indian people”.
Gandhi used the techniques of non-cooperation,
non-obedience and ‘Satyagrah’ and mass movement
to fight the colonial rule.