Mahatma Gandhi, the great son of India

• In commemoration of the 152nd birth anniversary that falls on 2 October

Mahatma Gandhi was a gem of a human personality who was not confined to a single country or a single religion. He belongs to the whole universe. Mother India has produced a world-renowned genius calibre of personalities. The great Gautama Buddha, Emperor Dharmashoka, Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Nehru, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Dr. Vinoba Bhave and Sri Sathya Sai Baba are among them. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is a glittering pearl of that garland.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on 2 October 1869, that is 152 years ago. He was nicknamed as Mahatma Gandhi by Rabindranath Tagore. That means the person with a great soul. He was venerated as if he was a god and acclaimed for his remarkable philosophy and his committed dedication for its practice.

On one occasion, he was charged by the British government and the case was heard. The Attorney-General charged that Gandhi was responsible for all the killings that took place in India. Gandhi was unmoved and smiled at him.

Finally, the judge from the bench proclaimed as follows: “Sir, I recognise you as a great man in the world. You are beyond a man, a saint. However, my duty is to mete out justice. Therefore, I have to treat you as a common man.”

“I appear before your honour, as the weakest man in the world,” Gandhi began his statement. He never took the accolades of the world to appear a powerful man. He had always been a simple and humble personality. An elite once asked Gandhi as to why he moved about wearing a simple attire of a rustic man. Then, Gandhi had replied, “The villagers recognise me whatever my attire may be.” “No, I have seen you were in that simple attire even when you travel outside the village as well,” that person queried. “Oh! Is that so? They don’t know me and so there is no issue,” Gandhi said. 

He never travelled in the 1st class or the 2nd class compartments. He was used to travelling with the common people in the 3rd class. Gandhi was eligible to travel in the 1st class of the train. Once a friend of his enquired as to why he used to travel in the 3rd class compartment of the train. That friend got shocked with the reply. “Because, there is no 4th class in the train,” Gandhi replied.

Gandhi was that humble because he was a leader who had an awareness of the plight of the Indian society. The children were almost naked and people were half naked as they were very poor. Gandhi believed that it was a shame to go before such a poor majority of the masses in full attire. Most of the masses could not make ends meet. Children were starving and mal-nourished. Although they were starving and appeared as walking skeletons, they never slaughtered animals for their survival. They were so pious. Gandhi followed such virtues.

The diet of Gandhi was very light. He was a vegetarian. Date, a glass of goat milk, lemon or fruit juice were in it. He rejected cigarettes, alcohol and drugs. He was a pious Hindu. He also had a high faith in the Buddhist philosophy. He condemned Marxism. His opinion was that socialism would be achieved through violence.

Sentiments such as ‘break’, ‘kill’, ‘down with’, ‘fight for rights’ were not among his jargon. He strongly advocated non-violence. His philosophy was rooted in non-violence. He equally treated his friend as well as the enemy in non-violence. His idea was to teach that virtue to the Indians throughout the country. He requested Great Britain to be non-violent against the Germans during World War II. He thought that if not, thousands of lives would be lost.

It was non-violence, the most powerful weapon introduced by Gandhi to get independence from the British empire. India came under the rule of Queen Victoria in 1858. Gandhi was born 11 years after.

English rule was never welcome by the Indians. They ridiculed the dignity of India. The Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Harijan castes were desperate to get rid of the colonial rule.

It was Gandhi of the Vaishya caste that pioneered the freedom struggle by giving it the spiritual as well as philosophical leadership. Shri Jawaharlal Nehru of the Brahmin caste came forward to support Gandhi in his endeavour. Gandhi means India and India means Gandhi. Respecting Gandhi amounts to respecting India. Shri Nehru once told the Indians that paying tribute to India meant that they pay tribute to Gandhi. 

Gandhi and Nehru were like the parents of independent India. Gandhi was imprisoned during the freedom struggle. Prisoner Gandhi was more powerful than the Gandhi at large. The British called him the half-naked Sanyasi. All the Indian communities and their leaders rallied around Gandhi. His voice was the voice of the Indian nation. Yet, Gandhi never took up politics.

He said that politics was a battlefield that tried to win over against an enemy. Gandhi’s non-violent strategies were fasting, sitting down protest and protest march. The colonial masters could not crush those three powerful weapons.

Ceylon may also have felt the spirit of the heat of the Indian freedom struggle. The establishment of the Ceylon National Congress may be an Indian inspiration. Dr. N.M. Perera, Dr. Colvin R. De Silva, Philip Gunawardena, Lesly Gunawardena, and Celina Perera were the leftist leaders of Sri Lanka who supported the Indian freedom struggle.

J.R. Jayewardena, followed by Bernard Aluwihare, Mudiyanse Tennakoon and several other Sri Lankan political leaders inspired by the Indian national movement changed themselves into the national attire. They changed into Gandhi’s attire and his turban.

India became independent due to the patriotic, non-violent revolution launched by Mahatma Gandhi in August 1947. Gandhi was fortunate enough to live in independent India only for a few months. He was shot by a Hindu extremist while he was walking towards a sermon on 30 January 1948. The first bullet hit his leg and the next made him fall and the third shot ended his life.

This is the 73rd year since Gandhi’s demise. 152 years from his birth. Although he left us, Gandhi of India has always been a citizen of our universe. Even today he lives among the hearts of the people in every country as a gem of a human.

Gandhi visited Sri Lanka and motivated the freedom struggle here. The United National Party, the most powerful political organisation, was formed by the Gandhi followers one year prior to gaining independence in India. Former President J.R. Jayewardene who was a leader of the United National Party was a Gandhi follower. He had the ability to quote from India’s freedom struggle by his memory. He cited incidences of the freedom movement of India in his speeches impromptu. The ideology of President J.R. Jayewardene was inspired by the nationalistic ideology of Gandhi. As did Gandhi, the leaders of the United National Party had understood the fact that the motherland must prosper with rice, clothing, and in education. That was the line of politics they practice in their regimes here. Gandhi was treated and welcome as a local by our leaders. It is felt when studying the biography of Sir Anagarika Dharmapala who was in India those days from Sri Lanka that he too had patronaged the cause of Gandhi. On some occasions Dharmapala criticised the activities of Gandhi in bona fide. On such occasions Gandhi had nodded and accepted such guidance.

Gandhi never engaged in politics. He never wanted to be the leader of the independent India. He allowed Shri Jawaharlal Nehru to do so. Nehru treated Gandhi as the father of the nation. Shri Nehru had a strong respect towards Sri Lanka. Although he was a Hindu, he honoured the five precepts (Panchaseela) of Buddhism. History proves the fact that Mahatma Gandhi, Shri Nehru and Sri Lanka had a strong bond those days. 

We have a right to respect and to pay our homage to such a great leader of the calibre of Gandhi of such a great country. I hope the Sri Lankans will preserve that legacy of Gandhi in future.

It is said that Gandhi visited some important places and residences of some leaders who led the freedom struggle in Ceylon. I take pride in being a student of the Mahinda Vidyalaya of Galle, an important site that Gandhi visited and being a member of the United National Party, nourished by his political philosophy, to pay tribute to his valuable, commendable service.

The great philosophy pioneered by Mahatma Gandhi was adopted by many political parties and political groups in the world. The United National Party was the major political party that followed his philosophy. That is because of the influence of the Ceylon National Congress. J.R. Jayewardene followed the Gandhian principle to the letter. He organised the first-ever protest march from Colombo to Kandy against the policies of the Bandaranaike government in 1956. Again, he organised a Sathyagraha campaign advocated by Gandhi against the activities of the government formed in 1970 and that government was shocked by the success of that protest movement.

Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who became the leader of the United National Party in 1994 had also practiced that protest march in his political campaign. It was named the Jana Bala Meheyuma.

Other than the political parties and organisations in India, the United National Party in Sri Lanka has been following the footpath of the Gandhian political steps and it is noteworthy to mention that fact in respect of the great Mahatma Gandhi at this moment.

Mahatma Gandhi advocated the power sharing in governance. He believed in the Grama Rajya concept in which the country will be developed through awakening the village. While I was the Minister of Home Affairs in the previous government, I planned to introduce the Grama Rajya Sabha under the Grama Rajya concept as I have been inspired by Gandhi’s philosophy. I feel that must be noted here at this moment of appreciating the good deeds of Mahatma Gandhi and his renowned name. 

(The writer is the Chairman of the United National Party and a former Minister of Internal and Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Governments.)