The person who will head the list of people for their contribution to
India it will be none other than Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Not just
because he is the Father of the Nation but his immense contribution to
the country not just in terms of struggle for freedom but his ideologies
and thoughts which changed the map of our country. When he took the
charge of Indian National Congress it was a turning point in its history
due to his enormous following, his spiritual powers and his non-violent
means of fighting. Gandhi introduced the concept of Satyagraha. Which
appealed to the common masses who were largely pious and religious.
Gandhi adhered to a strictly non-violent protest. No matter what
happened he never diverted from his ideologies and every time he was
successful. Gandhiji always followed the path of non-violence or Ahimsa.
His tactic of passive resistance or Satyagraha was his weapon to fight
against the British rule. Swaraj for Gandhi meant self-rule, as much a
moral and personal ethic, the self-rule of an individual over his own
impulses and weaknesses, as the political objective of a people
struggling rightfully to be free - an ambiguity which Gandhi was
repeatedly to exploit during his Non-cooperation and Civil Disobedience
Movements.
Gandhiji and his ideologies were quite successful among the common
masses. He planned to win leadership of those organizations, which
fitted his grand purpose, the achievement of Swaraj. Gandhiji made very
valuable contribution, firstly, to frame the secular agenda within the
parameters of the Indian cultural tradition, and subscribed to the
dictum of Sarva dharma sambhava i.e. equal respect for all religions.
Secondly, he gave an indigenous content to the concept of nationhood,
arguing that it was the common heritage of a highly pluralistic,
multicultural civilisation, which provided the necessary clue to hold
the Indian people together, as against the Western concept of 'nations'
being one race, one religion and one language. He always believed in the
idea of 'unity' in diversity. All his life he battled against the cult
of violence and war; against cruelty of man to man; against
industrialism and domination of man by machine; inequality and
discrimination. His fight to give equal rights to each and every person
of the society irrespective of which strata they belong made him
immortal among us. He tried to attained moksha by service to mankind.
Gandhiji portrays a multi-faceted moral and spiritual messiah. His
tireless endeavor to make people understand the basic happiness of life
is to be happy with whatever you have, thus showing the only way to save
the world.
