Independence was not the greatest legacy of Gandhiji as many think. All the Asian and African nations gained independence in the second half of 20th century. Just that India’s methods might have been different without Gandhiji at the scene. And if one read through the writings of Gandhiji right from his Hind Swaraj it's not independence which had high priority. His priority was his vision towards how Indians should live. His two pillars were Ahimsa and Truth. Though the major part of his vision didn’t get the life, some of his legacies helped India to survive post-Independence.
So what's his legacy? [What if Mahatma Gandhi didn't exist?]
Lets compare with our peers[Asian and African nations] to know India’s success. Many political scientists ‘predicted’ that India as a country will not survive for long given its myriad problems and diversity & size. No other nation in the world has this much diversity[1000+ languages, religion, caste, ideologies… ]. Even China, which is large in size have less linguistic diversity as Mandarin is the language of the majority.
- India not just survived but also remained the DEMOCRATIC OASIS in the entire South Asia. Our twin brother Pakistan who believed in separate nation theory got divided by its own theory within 30 yrs[read 1974-Bangladesh liberation]. Democracy was scarcely seen in most nations[Myanmar, Afghan, Nepal etc]
- India was advised by many to not opt for democracy in those initial years, given the poor literacy rate. But India, surprising those advisers, went one step further, chose universal adult franchise. Even advanced democratic like Singapore, Switzerland gave voting rights to women after India did. How democracy survived in a nation with all its backwardness, illiteracy and conflicting interest?
- The abundance of conflicting interest of citizens, either among different sects or with the government needed democratic non-violent protest as the way of struggle.
Gandhiji’s real success was in instilling DEMOCRACY[non-violent ethos] among millions. Here one cannot say its just Gandhiji. But the collective leadership including stalwarts like C.R Das, Motilal Nehru, Nehru the junior, Patel, Kripalani and countless others.
How he did that?
Each movement of Gandhiji was managed in such a way. Like the timely withdrawal of Non-cooperation movement[NCM] at the violence of chauri-chaura incident. Three major movements occurred with approx 10 yrs spacing
- 1919-NCM
- 1929-Civil Disobedience movement
- 1942-Quit India movement
In the intervening times of above mentioned major protests, Gandhiji involved in his ‘constructive-program’. In fact, Gandhiji wrote to his friend and supporter, Jamnalal Bajaj, saying, "My real politics is constructive work." Constructive Program is a term coined by Mahatma Gandhi to describe one of the two branches of his satyagraha, the other being one like civil disobedience, sometimes referred to as "obstructive program". The constructive program is a way of carrying out a struggle through community and self-improvement by building structures, systems, processes, and resources that are alternatives to oppression and promote self-sufficiency and unity in the resisting community. Though not as well known as his nonviolent resistance programs, Gandhi recognized the value of the constructive program and used it successfully as early as the first year of his campaigns in South Africa, 1894. In fact, the value of CP in the struggle for the independence of India cannot be overemphasized, as he described civil disobedience as "an aid to constructive effort."
India proved the skeptic predictions of many naysayers wrong that India would disintegrate and had become one of the fastest growing democratic-superpower. Each major obstacle like Nehru’s death, emergency rule etc had been overcome with the inherent democratic ethos.
India’s Independence was inevitable with or without Gandhiji but India as a country wouldn't have survived thereafter without that man. After all, Nehru, the staunch believer of democracy and the glue that held India together post-independence was Gandhiji’s man.
