“And
Then Gandhi Came”
-
Jawaharlal Nehru
Summary
“And
Then Gandhi Came” is an excerpt which is taken from Jawaharlal
Nehru's "Discovery of India".
In the first section, Jawaharlal Nehru tells that even though World
War I was ended, there was no peace in India. Instead of peace, there
were “repressive legislation” and “martial law in the Punjab”.
Eventually, India was isolated by the rest of the countries. We are still
under the clutches of the British. Since Indians did not know technical
and physical works, India began to face poverty. No one gave solace
and hope to Indians.
But Jawaharlal Nehru says
that even though we were facing poverty, Indians did not step back.
They worked very hard. They toiled day and night for making a
prosperous country. Still there were so many areas where Indians
needed guidance because during that time there were so many
injustices happening in India.
With
the arrival of Gandhiji, there occurred tremendous changes in India. With his ideologies and knowledge, he changed the mind of
the Indians. Explicitly he removed veils from the eyes of Indians. He
even pointed out that Indians were exploited by the British in all
fields. So he declared them to strike back rather than becoming the
serfs of British. These great things came as secondary. According to
Jawaharlal Nehru, “The
essence of his teaching was fearlessness and truth”
which would help India to
achieve prosperity.
But
when Gandhiji came to India, Indians were scared by the British. Owing to
the fear, they did whatever the British asked them to do. Since Indians
have fear, they believe in wrong things. But with the arrival of
Gandhiji, the condition begins to change. Indians begin to uphold
truth which in turn helps them to evolve themselves into fearless
people.
Gandhiji
is a symbol of “uncompromising” truth. Truths are interrelated
and absolute truth is beyond the comprehension of the people. What
one person is thinking as truth will be false to another person.
Hence truth varies from person to person. But
Nehru firmly believed that the way Gandhiji upheld truth nobody else
ever did like that.
Gandhiji
influenced people in many ways. Some people were partially influenced
by Gandhiji's ideologies. Others just accepted his ideologies and
made changes in their lives. A few did not accept his ideologies.
Gandhiji
upheld two actions. One is that fighting back against British reign
and stopping social evils such as "sati", untouchability,
child marriage, etc. Nehru then mentions about the prime objective of
Congress which is the freedom of India. Another
one is the national unity which can be achieved by solving the
problems of minorities, depressed classes, and untouchability.
According
to Nehru, the main weapons of the British are propagating fear among
Indians, support from them and vested interests of certain classes.
Gandhiji attacks these. He asked title-holders to give up. Since he
starts to lead a simple life, many rich people start to imitate
him.
In order to spread the
ideologies of Gandhiji, his followers went to village. For the first
time, the villagers began to know about their rights, and they began
to revolt against the British.
Then
Nehru starts to tell about the India which Gandhiji has been dreamed.
In Gandhiji's India, people will live in harmony. There will be no
untouchability, no use of drugs and alcohol and have gender equality.
Though he accepts all culture, he is proud of Indian
culture and his lineage. He tells that one should accept good things
from other cultures. But at the same time, one should not abandon one's
culture.
In the end, Nehru tells that
no wonder why Gandhiji influenced the masses of Indians because he
targeted the psychology of Indians and did psychological reformation.
Nice one.....
ReplyDelete