The wonder that was Mahatma

Today is Gandhi jayanthi. Father of the nation, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on the same day in 1869. It is just another day, with a tinge of sadness on missing on a public holiday, today being a Sunday. I'm sure many more Indians feel like me. Through out my schooling, we kids took this day just as another holiday. But for some miniscule changes in the routine (no liquor at shops, etc.), it's very tough to notice the difference. How many of us observe 2 minutes of silence at 11:00 AM?

For our generation, Gandhi was already mythologized. I was born after 35 years of Gandhi's assassination. Whatever I gathered about the legend was from legends only. Not having the fortune of having him in our times, our generation was fed on the pre-digested impressions about the Mahatma. Text books, Newspapers, Magazines, Films - all glorified him in the same way Gods and ancient mythological heroes are applauded. In facts, it amused me greatly to know for the first time that my grandfather and Gandhiji were present at the face of the Earth at the same time (I was very young then). So, this glamourizing distanced Gandhiji from me and immortalized him as a God, not a great man but God.

I myself didn't make many scholarly pursuits to know more about the man - Gandhi. Time and again, some movie, some play, some writings about Gandhi would stir "public emotions" and news channels would hold debates over them - I used to hit the button on them. Then, I stumbled upon a article written by Swagato Ganguly for TOI dated 01-OCT-2005. I tried finded it on their site and on http://epaperdaily.timesofindia.com , all in vain. Finally, I took a picture of it and uploaded it (available here). It presents some sound arguments against Gandhi's principles. Some excerpts:-

If one takes the principle weapons that could save Indian children - modern medicines, high incomes and education (particularly female literacy) - Gandhi was ambivalent about last two, and decidedly against the first. When Kasturba was dying, Gandhi would not allow doctors to administer penicillin to her. The incident is usually cast in a heroic mould by hagiographers, but it is reasonable whether this would have been Kasturba's uncoerced choice in the matter.

It carries on criticizing Gandhi's take on education, charkha & village economy model, Gandhi's thoughts about the textile industry. The article tries to find the root of every present day problem in a philosopher's idea who is dead half a century ago. Interesting! It ends with -

Six decades into Independence we should be able to look our national heroes in the eye, warts and all. The problem is not that we are irreverent towards our founding fathers; the problem is that we are not irreverent enough.

Update: Found the article on TOI website - The God That Failed. Another article appeared in today's TOI - Gandhian economics is relevant.