What Would Gandhi Do?
I'm sure everyone has thought the following thought, "Where is Gandhi of our generation?" Or maybe you substituted Gandhi with Martin Luther King, Jr. Regardless of who you chose to fill in the Gandhi (but s/he must be a non-violent preacher), it is now more than ever I feel the need to find him/her. I am so disappointed at people with power hurting innocent people. I am so disenchanted with the world as of late, that it makes me want to give up everything and just become a traveler. I am trying to find justice in a world filled with injustice. And these thoughts question my morals- what are they? why do I want peace? is peace something of an optical illusion?I went to the DC public library few weeks back and found the book India: From Midnight to the Millennium by Shashi Tharoor. I've only finished chapter one and so far he has dazzled me. Tharoor speaks my mind, but in a much more intellectual way. He writes things I have thought about it and I love people who make me feel sane. He writes the following about Gandhian philosophy:
Internationally, Gandhi expressed ideals few can reject: he could virtually written the United Nations Charter. But the decades after his death have confirmed that there is no escape from the conflicting sovereignties of states. Some 20 million more lives have been lost in wars and insurrections since his passing. In a dismaying number of countries, governments spend more for military purposes than for education and health combined. The current stockpile of nuclear weapons represents over a million times the explosive power of the atom bomb whose destruction of Hiroshima so grieved him. Universal peace, which Gandhi considered so central to Truth, seems as illusionary as ever.How true is the last statement in today's world? I know that Gandhi today would not be upheld as this revolutionary man. His ideals, his way of life, doesn't fit into today's society of need/power/destruction. Instead, he would be cast away as a "loner" or something far more insulting. He would probably be ignored. Much like how we deal with peace today.
posted by Chai at
7:29 PM
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