MESSIAH OF THE MASSES, SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD

MESSIAH OF THE MASSES, SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD

Gandhiji was the saviour of India. No wonder Netaji called him 'Father of the nation'. 'M' (Mahendranath Gupta, the chroncler of 'Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita') had said that Thakur's (Sri Ramakrishna's) spirit was working through Mahatmaji. Rabindranath was highly reverent towards Mahatmaji and wrote a lengthy essay on him in his collection of essays called 'Chaaritra Puja'. So were reverent Romain Rolland, Albert Einstein and Bernard Shaw, not to mention the Indian greats such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, Chakravarty Rajagopalachari, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and the whole galaxy of Congress leaders. Even communist leaders like Hiren Mukerjee were in awe of him. So did Rash Behari Bose hold Gandhiji in high regard as a saintly figure in the political world, although one who had lost relevance as a politician by the end of the fourth decade of the twentieth century. And what to speak of Netaji? He respected Gandhiji for his abiding love of India and for his discipline and dedication to the cause of India's political resurrection. But Netaji was highly critical of Gandhiji's utopian idealism and passive politics which to his mind would never bring India freedom. Personally, though, Netaji had the highest regard for Gandhiji who he considered to be the greatest living Indian at the time.

Now, what do I mean by 'saviour'? Was Gandhi a Christ-like figure who came as messiah to the masses? In some respects he indeed was so and delivered sleeping India unto the awakened state of mass movement against British imperialism. In some aspects he failed. In other aspects he succeeded. And that is bound to happen in the incongruous political world with all its cross-currents and contradictions, all its conflicting forces trying to resolve out things. Order out of chaos is not easily come by but to attempt it and set in motion a civilised movement for a nation's resurrection from its benighted state, and that too by non-injurious means in a world that had sunk into frenzied violence, is no mean achievement. That this was the achievement of Gandhiji itself places him on a peerless pedestal historically in world politics and duly accords him such epithets as 'Mahatma', 'Father of the nation', 'Messiah of the masses' and 'Saviour of India and the world'. When Arnold Toynbee mentioned Ashoka, Ramakrishna and Gandhi as being the potential saviours of our sinking world if we heeded their message and rectified our ways and means, he was stating nothing but the truth, for we are indeed headed towards destruction, the catastrophic annihilation of our species if we are to tread the reverse way.

This write-up is in response to the endless rant one encounters online that vilifies Gandhiji as British stooge and a betrayer of India's cause for freedom. It is not a serious work of scholarship for sure but is a reminder to all such ill-informed vilifiers of the Mahatma's status in contemporary minds, some of them belonging to the seers and savants of the Age.

Written by Sugata Bose