ANNA's ANNA KARENINA:
ANNA HAZARE's cause is praiseworthy. The followership is great. The expectations huge, omnibus. The battle lines are drawn with both sides trying to raise their decibel levels with the sole intention of being understood first rather than trying to understand the other side first. But in the meanwhile I am getting confused with the meaning of "Satyagrah", as holding on to Truth, "Fasting" as a weapon to reform the will of the powerful, "Ahimsa" as non-harming & peaceful approach to disarm the mighty, mortal enemy, "Service to the People" and "Service to the Nation" as the ultimate self-sacrifice. With GANDHI's larger than life size portraits on both sides of the frontier, and GANDHI seemingly the eternal guide and beneficiary of this movement, it's time we understood Gandhi & his approach towards ending corruption. So, I referred to the "Encyclopaedia of Gandhian Thoughts", by Anand T. Hingorani & Ganga T. Hingorani copy of which I procured during my visit to the Sabarmati Ashram in March, 1991. For the benefit of readers here are some of the quotes on these terminologies often very less understood:
"Satyagraha" : "The doctrine of Satyagraha ... is merely an extension of the rule of domestic life to the political. Family disputes and differences are generally settled according to the Law of Love. The injured member has so much regard for the other that he suffers injury for the sake of his principles withour being angry with those who differ from him" (Young India: May 11, 1919). "Satyagraha is a method of carrying conviction and of converting by an appeal to reason and to the sympathetic chord in human beings. It relies upon the ultimate good in every human being" (Incidents of Gandhiji's Life, P 282). "It is a breach of Satyagraha to wish ill to an opponent or to say a harsh word to him or of him with the intention of harming him. And often the evil thought or the evil word may be more dangerous than actual violence used in the heat of the moment and perhaps repeated and forgotten the next moment (Harijan, Apr. 15, 1933). Satyagraha is gentle, it never wounds. It must not be the result of anger or malice. It is never impatient, never vociferous. It is the direct opposite of compulsion (Harijan Apr.. 15 1933). Satyagraha is never vindictive. It believes not in destruction, but in conversion (Harijan, Sept. 15, 1946).
Fasting: "Fasting of the body has to be accompanied by fasting of all senses" (Harijan, Jan. 26, 1933).
Fasting in Satyagraha: "Fasting is a potent weapon in the Satyagraha armoury" (Harijan, March 18, 1939). Fasting in Satyagraha has well defined limits. You cannot fast against a tyrant for it will be a species of violence done to him. Fasting can only be resorted to against a lover, not to extort rights but to reform him, as even a son fasts for a father who drinks" (Young India, May 1, 1924). "A Satyagrahi must fast only as a last resort when all other avenues of redress have been explored and have failed. There is no room for imitation in fasts. He who has no inner strength should not dream of it, and never with attachment to success" (Harijan, April 21, 1946). "If people fasted against wrongs, fancied or real, and there was yielding on account of the fast, society would be disrupted" (Harijan, May 21, 1938).
Ahimsa: Ahimsa is not merely a negative state of harmlessness, but it is a positive state of love, of doing good even to the evil doer" (Young India, August 25, 1920). "Ahimsa really means that you may not offend anybody you may not harbour an uncharitable thought even in connection with one who may consider himself to be your enemy. If you express your love -Ahimsa- in such a manner that it impresses itself indelibly upon your so called enemy, he must return that love" (Speeches & Writings of Mahatma Gandhi, P. 346). "Ahimsa is my God, and Truth is my God. When I look for Ahimsa, Truth says: Find it through me". When I look for Truth, Ahimsa says: "Find it through me." (Young India, June 4, 1925).
Corruption: "Corruption will be out one day, however much one may try to conceal it and the public can, as it is its right and duty, in every case of justifiable suspiscion, call its servants to strict account, dismiss them, sue them in a law court, or appoint an arbitrator or inspector to scrutinize their conduct, as it likes" (Young India, Dec. 6, 1928). "Instead of sueing one's calumniator in a law court for false allegations of corruption, the best and the only right course would be for the public to prevent actual corruption from taking place by maintaining a sleepless vigilance, and for the servant to keep the public on the qui vive" (Young India, Dec. 6, 1928). "Corruption will go when the large number of persons given to the unworthy practice realize that the nation does not exist for them, but that they do for the nation. It requires a high code of morals, extreme vigilance on the part of those who are free from the corrupt practice and also have influence over corrupt servants. Indifference in such matters is criminal" (Harijan, Feb. 1, 1948).
So, have we understood Gandhi? Nevertheless, try we must...
