Gandhi – Why India's Youth Should Know Him Better

Gandhi – Why India's Youth Should Know Him BetterGandhiji too would have been proud of the four qualities in our youth

Today is one more October 2^nd – the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi – and one more time politicians will offer their respects at Rajghat, and channels are likely to air the film `Gandhi` and other movies on the Mahatma through the day. For a vast majority, today is not about remembering Gandhi or what he stood for, but simply enjoying a break from work and relaxing on a national holiday. Being a long weekend, many of them may have even planned an extended holiday outside their respective cities starting last Friday or Saturday, ending today.

No grudges about all this of course, but there is no doubt that with every passing year, Gandhi and his methods are getting more and more relevant. As the world finds itself engulfed by Earth threatening problems like global warming, leadership concerns, terrorism, economic divide, etc, Gandhi the thinker raises his head from time to time in various ways, if only to remind people that his physical body died decades ago, but he lives on, causing enormous `chemical locha` (made famous by Rajkumar Hirani's film `Lage Raho Munnabhai, released in 2006) in the minds of people even today.

Gandhi is not just an institution, he is India's consciousness and somewhere a conscience keeper of our culture and moral/ethical values. The youth of our country, typically the post economic liberalisation generation, must study Gandhi beyond their academic text books, simply because that will help them establish a sounder intellectual/spiritual basis for existence than merely money. It will also make them realise just how much Gandhi contributed for India's sake at huge personal cost so that his countrymen could lead a life of dignity and freedom.

India and its people may not have panned out as per Gandhiji's vision, but I feel in some ways he would have been proud of today's generation for their following qualities:
-- A go getter attitude: Gandhiji was a go getter. He withstood enormous suffering to achieve independence for India.
-- A vibrancy unseen in any other generation collectively before: Gandhiji never grew old. He was the very epitome of energy.
-- A sharing attitude: To my mind, this is India's best post-independence generation when it comes to sharing. Be it through thoughts on facebook or through daily communication, they are quite forthcoming in their attitude of sharing, and Gandhiji would have been proud of this.

-- An aversion to corruption: The youth came out in large numbers to support Anna Hazare in his fight against corruption, and Gandhiji would have been proud of this too. The youth also perhaps have a decent ability to imbibe Gandhigiri (again, thank you Lage Raho Munnabhai).

But if Gandhiji were alive today, he would have given the youth a huge thumbs down for their attitude towards money and sex. Gandhiji was the very symbol of discipline and self control. He would probably have done his bit to educate the youth on this.

The youth of our country should know Gandhi better, for there is so much to derive from what he stood for. Post liberalisation India, dominated by money-oriented discussions, presents a very simplistic view of life, whereas seen from Gandhiji's perspective, they will find many answers to the various complications a money-driven society throws up, and thereby discover a far higher level of intellectual/spiritual enrichment.