Gandhiji the failure

I was reading another biography of Gandhi for the last week. Two things really stood out - Gandhi's ethics were malleable. You could, actually, change his mind with a decent argument. Whilst on the one hand he would do almost anything to defend the Truth (as he saw it), he was not too proud to admit he'd got some stuff wrong and to publicly change his mind. Whilst at times he had become almost a dictator to whom every other Congress leader deferred to, he would go with the consensus, even if he totally disagreed with it. When the Congress leaders (whom he knew extremely well, had been imprisoned with, etc) eventually took power, he criticised the governments inactions.

Secondly, Gandhi seemed to transcend politics. At times, he held the population in the palm of his hand and managed to influence millions with little more than the threat to stop eating. At others, particularly at the end of his life when the partition of British India into India and Pakistan led to horrific violence, he felt that all he had worked for was lost and that he was a complete failure. He was never quite able to persuade enough people to live up to the ideals he believed they were capable of.

satyagraha

Nelson Mandela:

"In a world driven by violence and strife, Gandhi's message of peace and non-violence holds the key to human survival in the 21st century. He rightly believed in the efficacy of pitting the sole force of the satyagraha against the brute force of the oppressor and in effect converting the oppressor to the right and moral point."

I once read a very interested interview with Mandela - by Bill Clinton of all people. Clinton asked Mandela if he had feelings of anger on release from prison. Take a moment to wipe from your memory all that you know of Mandela, his presidency of South Africa and all that has happened since.

Nelson Mandela:

"Yes, I was angry. And I was a little afraid. After all I've not been free in so long. But, when I felt that anger well up inside of me I realised that if I hated them after I got outside that gate then they would still have me. I wanted to be free so I let it go."

That was the measure of the man - he felt angry, and yet however much he was justified in his anger, he realised that freedom was worth more than retribution. An eye for an eye would have just made the whole of South Africa blind. And in that moment, Mandela moved from a cultural icon and freedom fighter to someone who lived the essence of Gandhiism - that whilst there is legally and morally nothing wrong with seeking justice when wrongfully accused, it is a far far greater thing to offer the hand of friendship and the gift of grace. That while violence may be the most natural tool to use to oppose tyranny, almost always the power of the tool of soul-force is far greater.

Oh for more like these. With a hundred, the world wouldn't stand a chance.