Hard choices made M.K. Gandhi a Mahatma

The Mahatma, as I prefer to call Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, born 1869 and immortalised in 1948, is the most misunderstood Indian today. There was a time soon after independence when the nation adulated him and granted him a demi-god status. And then there's today when most feel he's not relevant. Some others also feel his role in the freedom struggle was nothing great. Well he doesn't appear the Mel Gibson of Patriot definitely, but he certainly fought although many might find it difficult to comprehend the invisible yet extremely powerful force in his actions.

"Gandhi.....powerful? Nah!"
What many of us don't realise is that power isn't tested by its ability to render the opponent hurt but by the ability to make him concede or accept to what is right. In my opinion, the Mahatma may not have fought for India's independence had he not felt it was right. It was never his aim to harm the British because to him it was as wrong as it was for the British to rule us. Non-cooperation stifled the British, eroded their support base and damaged their image of a powerful force. Having ruled half the world, it was rather astounding that a man with hardly a dagger could bring an empire to its knees. Embarassment, Helplessness and Isolation were feelings in the enemy that his weapons gave rise to and not pain, death or destruction. The latter would have led to the former, but he was brilliant and noble enough to achieve the former without the latter. Thats all that mattered anyways.

The choice of penury over wealth
The Mahatma was no pauper; nor was he a direct victim of the British rule. In fact, he had everything to benefit from it before he took the plunge. A salary of 5000 pounds annually as a Bar-et-Law in Britain in the days when a pound could buy 3 grams of gold! Thats 1.5 crore rupees per annum today as per gold inflation!

Have we ever thought that in this situation of extreme advantage, how big a personal sacrifice it was to leave it all for the sake of the nation; to take up cudgels against the very master he served and would have benefitted from immensely? To lower himself to the status of the millions of poor and homeless and empathise with them....Gandhi's strength came from the extreme and powerful conviction that good must be done at any cost, even personal...This was his rationale behind non-violence, his fight against every evil - social, political, economic and religious. He was not bound to a philosophy but sought to take what was good from each.

Hard choices at a big personal cost but of great value to the nation is what today's patriots need to make. Regionalism, populism, fanaticism - these are extreme, narrow-minded interpretations of patriotism that many find it easy to follow because they satisfy some of the raw human instincts that are not governed by choice of right over wrong but by that of profit over loss. The Mahatma, and rightly called so, could rise above these petty impulses because he was willing to sacrifice personal profit for the larger good and justice.