Column

Yesterday I went to see a play. Sammy by Pratap Sharma, directed by Lilette Dubey, had its good moments, but what held me was the character of its protagonist.
I have seen Gandhi interpreted on screen and stage many times, and have always felt
a strong surge of emotion at the complexity and simple thinking of the person who was being characterised by proxy.

It made me think seriously of so many concepts that he, in today’s terminology, launched’, that have come to stay.

The satyagraha for one. Gandhi started it as a way of registering a silent protest. resenting a united front of a united people’s unequivocal opinion against something they found unacceptable. By doing nothing. By laying down tools, or just stopping participation in the process of active life for a certain time, to show solidarity.

It worked then. And we as a nation realised we had an indigenous tool that could be used at the right time to the right measure of advantage.

The bandh, as we know it, grew out of this.

Like a bird of paradise laying an egg, which cracks open to reveal a mutant dinosaur with fangs and claws, the satyagraha that Gandhi used so effectively and with no loss of faith in his principle of non violence, has turned into a monster.

Bandhs today are an easy weapon in the hands of the unscrupulous: be it a political party trying to state its power over a city, or a group wrecking its might over what it believes is detrimental to its good.

Violence comes into the picture when a bandh is not observed by some. Across India, bandhs are called for no real reason at all, and at the lift of a fist, an entire city comes to a halt.

I wonder what Gandhi would say of such satyagraha… where fear and not unity is the cause for its success.

That is only one example. If, today, most of the principles Gandhi practised are beingpaid lip service only, it is because the character of the Indian has changed.

I see us now completely devoid of the very qualities that set us apart as a people. The qualities that one man helped us rediscover, as he led us to unify as a nation. The qualities of introspection, of clear thinking and sacrifice for the good of all… the motto of service before self.

How hollow these ideas sound now, how naďve.

Today we pursue success, and higher pay checks and think giving a donation now and then (especially if it is tax deductible) is enough of doing our bit for society. We do not wish to think of taking the country along with ustowards sustainable, equitable development.

In fact, forgetting every tenet of good citizenship, we rob and pillage our motherland, as if the money we get from the looting, is going to help us when we run out of clean air and fresh water.

The Partition sickened the Mahatma, making him feel the entire fight for freedom had been for naught. What I wondered, as I watched the play, would he feel if he could see the nation he helped carve… fragmented and divided as it is now!