Tulsi Prajna 1997 07

SR No.: 524592
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Parmeshwar Solanki
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 166
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Tulsi Prajna, & India
File Size: 7 MB

Page 116

Vol. XXIII, No. 2
In this respect the long and determined struggle under Manatma Gandhi's leadership was unique. The instrument of civil disobedience and of non-cooperation by openly breaking the law but accepting punishment without being provoked to anger or retaliation was in essence the reflection of the faith in moral persuasion and asking for a change of heart of the oppressor and the adversary. Gandhiji's whole life's message shows the influence of Jain philosophy of disciplined and selfless courage of persuasion by individual in his example, of appeal to the conscience. There is no parallel of hostility turning into friendship as between the Indian people and British rulers. It was only because Gandhiji had the unique emphasis on ends and means The parade scheduled at India Gate on 15th August 1947 was the greatest even of the British Empire. I was there. It was great because the parade could not take place as the people overran the grounds around Rajpath near India Gate shouting, "Gandhiji Ki Jai", "Mountbatten Ki Jai". The old hostility against British rule had evaporated over-night and transformed the complexion of the relations between India and U.K. into equality and friendship.
I remember also going to Dublin with Shrimati Vijay Lakshmi Pandit in 1956. The president of Ireland said to her that they admired everything about polices of India and specially the leadership of her brother, Jawaharlal Nehru, but they could not understand how he and India could stop hating the British! Ireland had suffered like India but the Jain and Hindu philosophy was not part of Ireland's heritage.
45
Today we do not see the moral values which characterised our freedom struggle. Terrorism, killing, hijacking, hate and hostility are seen as instruments of national and sub national protest and advancement of political goals. We are witnessing political militancy in the Punjab, in Kashmir, in Bodoland, in Telengana and in the Hindu-Muslim tensions. What a contrast to hundreds and thousands who sought to go to jail under the civil disobedience movement with no word of reproach against the Indian Sub-Inspector who arrested them. Gandhiji's example directly inspired Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. It is exemplified today in the determined uncompromising defiance of Aung San Sue Kyi in Myanmar. In a lesser way many in the Human Rights movement are examples of principle and conscience as the defiant instrument of persuasion. This kind of political activism shows the abiding vitality and inspiration of Gandhiji.