FULFILLING GANDHIJI’S UNFULFILLED MISSION

FULFILLING GANDHIJI’S UNFULFILLED MISSION Every year, on October 2, India celebrates the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. This is an article by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan to mark this occasion. G ANDHI JAYANTI is celebrated annually on October 2 to commemorate the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. This year, contemplating on Gandhiji’s contribution to India, I remembered that historians concede: “the most massive and historically effective example of nonviolent activism was that of the movement organized by Mahatma Gandhi.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol. 13, page 850) It was under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi that for the first time in human history a non violent movement culminated in such resounding success. Gandhiji used the peaceful or non violent method to usher in a political change, resulting in India’s independence on August 15, 1947. Mahatma Gandhi also wanted to herald social change in India on the basis of non violence. But before he could achieve his second target, he was tragically removed from the scene of action. On this day, I feel that each and every Indian should take an oath to involve himself to fulfil Mahatma Gandhi’s unfulfilled mission of bringing about social change through the Gandhi Andolan. In my view, there is only one way of using the nonviolent method for the reform of a society, and that is, to bring about a change in the thinking of the individual, who is the basic unit of society and the nation. UNESCO’s preamble states that violence begins in the mind and that it can be ended in the mind itself. When there is violence, at whatever level and in whatever field, the basic question is of the individual. And an individual is always governed by his thinking. That is why, if we have to construct a nonviolent world, or a peaceful society, there is only one way, and that is by using educative method to convert people’s thinking from violence to non-violence, and to enable them to seek the solution to matters of controversy through peaceful means. I think that the Gandhi Andolan can be used in India to usher in nonviolent social change, by making individuals nonviolent at the level of their mind. It is from such intellectual awareness alone that a nonviolent world and a peaceful society can be constructed. The truth is that intellectual