Perhaps this post will make this discussion controversial and I apologise for that.
I do not have very high regards for Gandhi.
Before anyone questions my credentials, I myself surrender on that count. I am just an ordinary citizen of India, with no special credentials, albeit someone who likes to read a lot, has varied interests and does not take things at face value. My comments here may not be shared by many, but please do give me the right to form my own opinions.
So why not?
Many historians credit Gandhi with winning the freedom for India.
I am no expert again on history but here is my take.
After WW II, the British Empire was in shambles. It found it very difficult to keep so many countries in slavery. Sri Lanka did not have a prominent freedom fighter but it also gained freedom from Britain in 1947.
On the contrary, it was on his insistence that most Indian soldiers did not pick up a fight with British during WW II. Had Subhas Chandra Bose, got that support, India would have truly "won" independence. Perhaps a whole lot earlier, but that can be debated.
The next bit is what is makes my case stronger. Gandhi had obviously not learnt his lesson from World War I. In World War I, he actually made a call to the Indians to get recruited in the British Army. His belief was that by agreeing to fight the war for Britain, he could win India's freedom. So much for non-violence!!!
And despite that lesson, when India did not win the freedom after WW I, he insisted Indians to not fight against the British during WW II.
I hate the label father of nation. It is something imposed upon me by some politicians who considered him father figure. I would much rather follow Subhas Chandra Bose and his ways during India's true struggle for freedom.
Frankly I do not much care about partition of India into India and Pakistan and his role in it. I don't think anyone else in his place could have avoided it. In fact before British Rule, India was never a well defined country. There were too many princely states. And so a division of India to me is not illogical. Whether or not it was something induced by British is something I wouldn't care.
So if you are discussing these topics please keep India and Pakistan out of it.
Regards,
Anoop.
P.S.: When I say I do not have high regards for Gandhi, I obviously have no means to judge him as a person, on a personal level. I merely mean, I do not have as high a regard for him which would befit a person of "Father of nation" stature. On his own, he may just have been a fine man.
And I never took it that way, so cheers.
