Binoy kampmark biography of mahatma gandhi

Monday, 17 September 2007, 8:33 pm
Column: Dr. Ravindra Kumar

Speaking in a conference at Allahabad on April 5, 1936, Mahatma Gandhi said about India Culture, “Many of us are striving to produce a blend of all the cultures which seems today to be in clash with one another. No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive. There is no such thing as pure Aryan Culture in existence in India Today. Whether the Aryans were indigenous to India or were unwelcome intruders, does not interest me much. What does interest me is the fact that my remote ancestors blended with one another with the utmost freedom and we of the present generation are result of that blend.”

Gandhi’s above statement with special reference to the Indian Culture is extraordinary and factual, though at the first glance, it may appear general and ordinary. Extraordinary it is for the reason that Gandhi has said a lot in brief for the simple reason that this statement would be of great help, to some extent if we intend to explore the main features of the Indian Culture.

The first most important point about the culture that Gandhi has brought out in this statement is that any culture that tries to remain exclusive cannot survive. It means that for the long life of a culture, it has to remove rigidity and avoid parochialism. The rigidity and parochialism are in fact two demerits which keep one isolated from others and ultimately prove they self-defeating or in other words result in self-destruction. As opposed to it, flexibility and liberality are the two attributes that bring on synthesis and continuity in life. They function as a force of unification and not of segregation. It is necessary here to clarify while talking about flexibility; I do not mean that we have to break loose from all constraints and to refrain from being firm. Though the Indian Culture is know

Subscription Home ⁞ ⁞ News Letter World ⁞ ⁞ ⁞ Fair Use India Disclaimer ⁞ Submission Policy Climate Change ⁞ ⁞ ⁞ ⁞ Contact Globalisation ⁞ About ⁞ Patriarchy  ⁞ Human Rights ⁞   Life/Philosophy  ⁞ There are no breaking news at the moment Gandhi: The Great Dissenter in Life/Philosophy — by Parvez Alam — Custom Sear October 16, 2018 Annual Subscription Join Our Newsletter Name: E-mail: Subscribe India is losing the great tradition of ‘spirit of inquiry and dissent’ which we cherished in the past as the progressive history of cultural tolerance and harmony. In today’s India, the political parties in power and opposition are eyeing Latest Unsubscribe Popular human individuals as potential voters and trying to woo them by spreading untruths and rumors. Indian society by Comments Afghanistan war veteran kills 12 and large needs introspection and learn from an icon of 20th century who shown us the path of wisdom, non-violence at a southern California dance and peace. Gandhi cherished the heterodoxy and learned from the great tradition of dissent. club - David Walsh “In yet another instance of alleged cow vigilantism, a 28-year-old Muslim man was beaten to death Pakistan alarmed at Indian in Rajasthan’s (one of the states of India) Alwar district”, reported a national daily,The Hindu in July, nuclear submarine patrol - 2018. India is now not only the land of Gandhi but it is also the place of mob killers and cow Abdus Sattar Ghazali vigilantes. The regime in power is fueling these mobs by justifying untruth and spreading prejudices Working Class: Achievements and stereotype about minorities. The culture of harmony, tolerance and peace which India has been and the un nished war for preaching to the world is succumbing to the contrarian conceptions such as lynching, intolerance and rumor mongering. The traditions of critical inquiry, doubt and argumentation is degrading from the map of India’s cultural history. emancipation -

No rivals left in the race. This was the effect of Donald Trump’s victory in the GOP primary in Indiana, which netted him 57 delegates and sunk the aspirations of two near irrelevant contenders. It had been one of the most savagely negative campaigns, characterised by tens of thousands of “attack ads” directed against a person who has effectively become the presumptive Republican nominee for President.

After huffing about country and drawing God out more than He would ever care for, the vampiric Ted Cruz conceded that he would be suspending his campaign. Not even his courting of the evangelical vote had worked.

A glimpse of his mind, if ever such speeches can yield any insight, would have suggested God and cruise missiles, the continued nonsense about the US as an exceptional power that needs to rub noses in the dirt of history and bully its way to glory. When having to inflict indecencies on the international stage, always call yourself indispensable.

Ohio governor John Kasich joined Cruz in the exit ceremony, and being similarly short of ideas about why he had reached such an impasse, called on that good figure in the sky. “As I suspend my campaign today I have renewed faith, deeper faith that the Lord will show me the way forward.”

This repeated insistence on drawing out the services of a divine absentee land lord over the tenancy of life has been a striking feature of the Republican contenders, an aspect of which has been side-stepped by the Trump show. Earthly realities, even if they seem to be mediated through the fogged up lenses of television and re-runs of The Apprentice, seem to be of greater interest there.

In New York, Trump appeared at the podium, flanked by the usual female bodyguard of model wife and model progeny, and stuck to the formula that sees him as the likely main candidate for the GOP.

The mixture of populist aspiration and gibberish followed, though what is always refreshing about Trump is a near de-secularised notion of American fa

In a voice choked with sadness and emotion, two hours after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi on 30 January 1948, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, first Prime Minister of India, while announcing the dastardly act to the nation through All India Radio, inter alia said: “…The light that has illumined this country for these many years will illumine this country for many more years, and a thousand years later, that light will be seen in this country and the world will see it and it will give solace to innumerable hearts…”

Seventy-six years ago, Mahatma Gandhi’s life was abruptly terminated.  Surely, he would have never thought that his end would be so unexpected, less than six months after he and the whole band of freedom fighters, many of whom had suffered greatly and sacrificed their lives, for India’s freedom from the colonial yoke.

Those who sacrifice their life and endure persecution for the benefit of humankind have a very high station in the sight of God. While none of us can fully fathom the mysteries of martyrdom and why so much innocent blood is shed, the history of humankind is replete with soul-stirring episodes of supreme sacrifice, such as that of Jesus Christ and his apostles; Imam Husayn and his entire family, massacred on the plain of Karbila; Guru Tegh Bahadur, who at the urging of his minor son, later Guru Gobind Singh, willingly offered his life, refusing to yield to the diktat of a tyrant; the assassination of Gandhiji, Father of the Nation, are just a few examples.

Today let’s reflect on the life of Gandhiji. What was the message of his death? What does he have to teach the world? With so much violence everywhere today, what is so significant about Bapu’s killing?  We can answer these questions with the word “yagna”. Yagna was the spirit of his life and the message of his death. Every breath of his life, including the last, was an oblation to his country, his principles