Remembering Gandhi

Sketch by Guramrit Pal Singh

Today, we're talking about 'Aatm Nirbhar Bharat' and 'Make in India', but more than a hundred years ago, Mahatma Gandhi came up with the concepts of Swaraj and Swadeshi. The great visionary stressed on the need for self-reliance, and his economic thought idealised villages running as self-reliant economic units, in which an inter-dependent system of farmers, artisans, and traders ensured general prosperity of the residents.

Had Gandhi not been assassinated, he may lived for several more years guiding our nation. He tried to uplift the the poorest of the poor, and worked towards eradicating illiteracy, superstitions, corruption and discrimination, especially caste and gender-based discrimination. He promoted simple living and high thinking. Gandhi's primary weapons were meditation and fasting.

This is an appropriate time to remember his teachings, and to introspect about our thought and behaviour in relation to the world.

An anecdote: One day, a woman approached Gandhi, asking him to advise her child against eating too much jaggery. Gandhi asked them to come back a week later, and then administered the advice. Surprised, the woman asked him the reason for a week's delay, and Gandhi replied that during her earlier visit, he himself ate jaggery, and therefore, could not have ask her child to cut it down.

Narender Kumar Sharma

The writer is a school-teacher based in Joginder Nagar. Views are personal.