There were many staunch followers of Gandhian ideology in my hometown. They were recognised, revered and honoured at every function organised in and around the place. We children in the early 1970s were fortunate to have had opportunities to see and interact with the followers of the Mahatma.
One of them had safely secured an urn containing Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes and built a small monument on our school premises. It was more like a temple of the Mahatma, inculcating patriotic feelings. I was witness to many farmers stopping their bullock carts at the monument for a minute as a mark of respect. It was a place I reckoned where one imbibed “values” naturally.
One of my sexagenarian tuition masters was a Gandhian. He was a bachelor who was highly disciplined and punctual, and spoke eloquent English.
While teaching, his narratives often revolved around the Independence struggle, the number of days he spent with his fellow freedom fighters in a dingy prison cell and also the days spent hiding from the colonial masters. We children heard him with rapt attention. He would tell us the importance of learning English. He called the English language a great tool of defence to take on the colonial masters, if they ever dared to colonise India again. This perspective was too intriguing for us pupils to comprehend at such a young age. He probably meant “pen is mightier than sword”.
A few of my classmates and I moved to a nearby town for high school and college. We were called “Gandhi kids” by some seniors for we were quite studious. As the years passed by, I got to sense the slow erosion of Gandhian principles. Those days, I also used to wonder about “Gandhi class” in cinema halls. It implied to me that followers of the Mahatma were all poor.
I strongly feel for the millennials for they hardly get to see or experience anything much of Gandhiji. Millennials get to read about Mahatma Gandhi and the freedom struggle, but have very little opportunity to interact with the true followers of Mahatma’s principles, for there are not many around. We have not lost the Gandhian legacy. But I feel sad to say that we are on our way to its end point. I strongly hope that “simple living and high thinking” does not come to be a joke.
sujith_sandur@yahoo.in
