During this republic day of 2010, I saw the movie "Gandhi" that was released in 1982. Ben Kingsley played the role of Gandhi. I was more inclined towards the historical truths than the characterization. And from the film, I had two surprises:
- A 1982 movie is able to give me explanations for events happening today. 22 years had not at all made any difference.
- A new answer to "Who got the independence for India?"
Let’s talk about the second point first. Not sure what you guessed; but the answer i am looking for is "British ". Yes it was British who got the independence for India than Gandhi or any other Indian freedom fighters. British government had strong belief on their rules and regulations that the framework they had developed accommodated rules for every living in their republic. If British government want to kill a dog, they will do it only after proper investigations and ensure rules been followed in the activity. And how does this helped in achieving independence?
Though Gandhi and others made a lot of attempts for getting independence, it could not have been an uphill task for British to kill all those main stream leaders and say “No” to independence and deny all basic rights to Indians (as happening in Sri Lanka). But British, as a rule follower, put them in jail just for the reason that they were causing nuisance to the government functioning. British wanted to fight or use arms against only persons who involved in terrorism. And so, they invited all moderate freedom fighters for talks and explained them the reason for why India cannot be given independence. In the movie Gandhi, British explain the Indian freedom fighters, “Ok, you are asking for independence, but for which community? Independence for Poor India or Rich India or Muslim India or Hindu India or Brahmin India or lower caste India? Your country is split in multiple dimensions and you will not be able to govern yourselves”. If you see the explanation, you will not be able to deny it bluntly out of patriotism. We had our weaknesses and that’s why we were under foreign kingdom for more than 200 years.
And then Gandhi was a thinking person. He understood that the hurdle for getting independence was not British themselves but it was the mentality of Indians. He chose a different path which can be followed by every Indian irrespective of their body strength / talents. “Don’t do anything against British, just stay calm when they hit you or abuse you”. This was very easy to do when compared to learning military skills, handling arms and fighting against British in war. Also, by going the way of Ahimsa, Gandhi ensured that no single person can claim the credit and it was a collective effort and showed the British we are united. And British, seeing the unity and prolonged struggle, thought it is better to give independence rather than wasting their time to control the processions / freedom struggles when they had bigger things (world wars etc.,) to deal with.
But even in the Gandhian community, there were some people who were not for this unity. Not sure of the reason, but the reason may be personal gain also. No offence met, as nobody can clearly say a reason for an event which happened 80 years ago. Mohamed Ali Jinnah was asking for a separate country for Muslim community to the British when Indian freedom fighters were called for talks. That time, Gandhi says to Jinnah, “Hey Jinnah, you are asking for a country of Muslims. But how will you collect all Muslims in India and take them to Pakistan? Muslims are not just present in the north western India? They are also present in East, South Indian parts.” Jinnah says, “You take care of your muslims, I will take care of my Muslims”. I really do not understand Why Jinnah did this partition? He was saying all these things when there were lot of Muslims ready to follow Gandhi, like Frontier Gandhi Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan etc., (It was not shown in the movie. But it seems later Jinnah admitted he erred by dividing India and Pakistan)
Then again, Gandhi offers a deal to Jinnah. “Ok Jinnah, you are worried about the security of Muslims in India. I accept your arguments. I wanted Nehru to become the Prime minister of free India. You can take that position as well. Also, you appoint all Muslims as ministers and head of all departments. But don’t go for this partition.” Even then Jinnah did not accept it and Nehru was also not speaking at this occasion. That’s how the movie shows. Not sure what Nehru thought in his mind during this conversation. But what I feel is, had Nehru was not inclined in becoming the first Prime minister of India, he would have joined Gandhi in offering the post to Jinnah. But he had been quiet and heads down when Gandhi offered this to Jinnah. Not sure of the reason again, probably Nehru wanted to hold that position.
Though we got independence, it was not attained like how Gandhi expected. It was independence with partition and Gandhi was not for it. As he predicted, there were lot of communal riots between Muslims and Hindus after independence. Then he starts fasting and just because of the revere people had for him, the riots come to an end. And Nehru comes to say Gandhi that riots have come to an end. And Gandhi says, “If it has stopped for the sake of not allowing an old man to die, then it is not over yet. I want Hindus and Muslims to live together as brothers and sisters and for that there should be in change in the minds of the people”. But that change has not happened until today and every year we get some proof for this (Babri Masjid, Best bakery, Sabarmathi train, 26/11 etc.,). :(
From all these incidents seen in the movie Gandhi, Indians had always wanted to live divided, be selfish, and claim credit for what they have done, register the activity in the world and hence attain fame. In the earlier periods, they wanted to do this with a lot of honesty and claim credit only for what they have done. But now, it is no more like that. And this does not mean we lack in skills. We have one of the best resource set of the world but the thing is everyone is selfish here and wishes to win by any means. Earlier it was honest and now it is no more that way and the mantra is “Win at any cost”. That’s why only Indian born people can win Nobel’s but not Indian residents.
Exploitation has become a habit of everyday life and you know why? The same reason of selfishness in claiming credit and attain fame. Now that the competition is more, the honesty has disappeared which means, they are ready to claim credit for what others have done also. Especially after corporate culture has come into India through the globalization concepts, every corporate is using the same policy. “Divide and rule” and Indians will start fighting for themselves for claiming credit and attaining fame. This is the reason if you go and ask any of the IT guy, he / she does not want to stay for long in the IT field. They just want to get out after earning for settlement in a calm place. And for earning soon, they want to stay at onsite for long and for that they invent new ways of exploitation. So, the exploitation methods are getting created exponentially and beheading the nation’s talent pool. And poor countries like India is the best place for exploitation as salaries in thousands are very bigger. Neither the government nor the corporate want to address this exploitation problem as they themselves know this is the nature of corporate.
And the saddest part is, the leaders are no more exception to exploitation. Difference between earlier era and now is, there had been “Not sure of the reasons” earlier but now it is “Explicit”. Everything is for personal gains and leaders themselves want to exploit people to win the elections. Earlier, the people were exploited by British just because they were selfish and divided. So leaders like Gandhi preached them unity and tried to eradicate exploitation. But today, leaders encourage exploitation by providing everything for free and try to capture the vote banks. Again people are exploited. Lazy and people who don’t want to work are the ones who are benefited out of these sops and money given during elections. Working and honest people are deprived because of the inflation rate and higher costs for education. But again, who will not accept something if it is given for free? For lazy and non working people, food is the primary thing and hence they will welcome sop. And so they will vote the government which provides them. And the government will continue providing free sop and spoil the growth as it will increase the count of lazy and non-working people. It is a catch-22 and unless government stops it, it cannot come to an end. Why will government stop it as it is very easy this way to attain power rather than helping the people get education, become independent, vote with their own analysis? People welfare is secondary for politics now and primary is to attain power and this phenomenon of going behind power started when Jinnah initiated partition and Nehru did not offer his words supporting Gandhi. Good or bad, it has happened and now it is very difficult to revert back and come out of exploitation.
So, Independence has just resulted in shift of exploitation responsibility. It has been shifted from British to in-house. As Gandhi said, unless people’s minds change and wish to come out of exploitation, it is never possible. And this cannot be achieved by rules and regulations. Not sure how else we can achieve it. Again a Not sure :) and probably we are going back.
