Albert Einstein, the great scientist once wrote about Mahatma Gandhi, ‘Generations to come will scarcely believe that such a person in flesh and blood ever walked upon this earth’ (Sorkhabi, 2005). This statement in a nutshell describes about the unique character of Mahatma Gandhi. Coming from a middle class family in India, Mr. Mohandas Karam Chand went to South Africa for education and in search for a decent job. But when he saw the kind of discriminatory policies being inflicted upon the African people, he decided to put his career at stake and oppose this apartheid.
During those days, India was a colony of British Empire and Indian people had to suffer at the hands of British rulers. It was the same British Empire, which was resorting to apartheid in Africa. Gandhi decided to oppose this policy and called upon the South African counterparts to raise their voice against the racist policies of the ‘white’ rulers. But, Gandhi’s methods of opposition were unique in many ways. His contention was that ‘all of us are the children of the same god, then why should we resort to such divisive policies’.
Gandhi’s approach was quite innovative in the sense that he used to consider even the perpetrators of excesses as good human beings. His aim was not to hurt anybody, but arouse his inner conscience and make him feel the negativity of the acts. The aim of his opposition was not to let anybody down, blackmail people or punish someone, instead he was of the opinion that once the individuals committing the excesses realize the futility of their actions, they will not resort to such acts even in future. During all through the independence movement, Gandhi never picked up arms for struggle against the British rulers, but he resorted to means like ‘Satyagraha’ instead.
Gandhi’s approach was innovative and traditional in the sense because he believed in natural justice and did everything keeping in mind the inner self of human nature. Even on the political horizon he had no ambitions for taking on the reins of the government or becoming a rich person. His simple aim was the welfare of fellow human beings. This made him an acceptable leader across all political leanings. Three key components of Gandhi’s political philosophy are;
- Satyagraha (non-violence)
- Sawaraj (home rule)
- Sarvodaya (welfare of all)
Amongst these three the Satyagraha was the unique for the international community till that time. And even the British rulers were caught unawares on many occasions thinking how they can beat a person who doesn’t even have a stick in his hands. It was not as if there was no bloodshed during the independence movement of India, but Mahatma Gandhi surely played a great role in minimizing the bloodshed.
The International community was in fact quite awed by the resilience and determination of this simple human being, who had a great mass following not only in India but amongst the international community as well. For his services to the nation, Gandhi is revered in India as ‘Father of the Nation’. Recognizing his recognition to humanity and non-violence United Nations has started observing his birthday 2nd October as the ‘International Non-violence day’ since 2007″.