E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi’s Pancha Mahavrat… 77firm faith in the unity of all beings. And it is such individualswho would be the real fulcrum of inter-connection betweenindividuals, civil society and state. Thus, he avoids as much thechances of hypocrisy and double speaks on the part of theindividuals as that of raising a collective Leviathan in the nameof the commonweal of the collectivity. Thus he rules out anychance of snatching or suppressing other’s freedom in the nameof commonweal. As he puts it:‘Individual freedom alone can make a man voluntarilysurrender himself completely to the service of the society. If itis wrested from him, he becomes an automation and society isruined’.Another strength of the Gandhian concept of Swarajlies in the fact that it successfully avoids both the extreme oflocalism on the one hand and complete homogenisation in thename of liberalisation and globalisation. Such balanced andnuanced view may pave the way for a genuine universal culturewithout making individuals, groups, regions and nations losingtheir inner and local cultural moorings. This in itself is a majortheoretical contribution. Gandhi’s insistence on the ‘self-ruling’individuals presents a practical problem, how to judge whetherany individual is ‘self-ruling’ or not. This being a part of one’sinner-experience, no effective and objective touchstone couldbe evolved to measure it. This leaves a large scope forhypocrisy, double speak – a big gap between the precept andpractice.VGandhi’s Theory and Practice of MokshaMoksha was another key idea which transformedGandhi’s entire life, thought process and the work. In fact, itwas the raison d’être of his entire being. What was more, hehad his own distinct view on the theory and practice of moksha.As such, it deserves a detailed investigation and analysis.