Gandhi’s idea of Indian Civilisation

 Gandhi’s idea of Indian Civilisation

Though a Hindu, Gandhi was deeply attached to miscellaneous values and deified all faiths as representing comprehensions of the supreme verity. He was proud of India’s ancient heritage and, as similar, he was acutely conscious of the striking discrepancy presented by contemporary society.

 He was induced that India’s present decline was the result of her people’s love for copying the west and attention on adding fleshly comforts as opposed to spiritual uplift. Gandhi’s idea of Indian Civilisation His perception, in other words, was that Indian society had acquired a defective value system and abandoned its own pure roots.

Gandhi bemoaned the fact that India, which was formerly famed for its godly knowledge and was the cradle of persuasions, was “ getting nonreligious”. Gandhi’s idea of Indian Civilisation He wasn't pointing at any particular religion, but at the abecedarian morality that underlay all persuasions. Religious superstition had taken the place of this abecedarian morality and led to a lot of atrocity and contest among different sections of the people.

 The so- called clerisy of the country wasn't completely committed to public development, according to Gandhi. He rued the fact that exercising attorneys, who had some influence on public opinion in India, confined their political exertion to the many rest hours they got from their tennis and billiards.

“ I don't anticipate … attorneys will bring us mainly near swaraj,” he wrote, and further, “ I want at least the public workers among them to be whole- timekeepers and when that happy day comes, I promise a different outlook before the country.” Gandhi’s idea of Indian Civilisation In other words, one could say that Gandhi didn't find the rudiments of ultramodern civilization and social groups as advancing cohesion or strength to the Indian social terrain.

 Gandhi noted the “ general degeneration” in the value system of Indian society with anxiety and concern. He wrote considerably about the fraud, insincerity and injuries he noted everyplace. The yawning gulf between the rich and poor came out indeed at social functions, where he saw the extravagant waste indulged in by the rich at the cost of the poor. “ We make too important flashiness,” he wrote, “ rather than really enjoy ourselves, we make a show of enjoyment, rather of unfeignedly mourning we make a show of mourning.”

Another effect of similar lavish spending by the rich was that the poorer sections tried to emulate them to gain social recog­nition and ended up incurring ruinous debts. Gandhi noted that the poor contributed whatever they could spare for the public cause, whereas the rich “ anticipate to gain everything by speeches and judgments. They're keeping back a nation ready for immolation.” Gandhi’s idea of Indian Civilisation The elite in society are generally conceded to be the leaders of social conduct, which is emulated by the rest. But Gandhi saw the nobility as poor inaugurators of social or political reform.

 The religious leaders, he plant, were no different from the social elites. They were sunk in ignorance and superstition. Of them, he wrote, “ Gandhi’s idea of Indian Civilisation Our religious heads are always one sided in their thinking. There's no harmony between their words and deeds. Ournon-violence is an unworthy thing.

The south of India, formerly famed for its culture and tradition, hadn't escaped the prevailing process of social degeneration. In Madras ( now Chennai), he noted, in numerous places, the outside form of religion remained and the inner spirit had dissolved. Gandhi’s idea of Indian Civilisation The Harijans in that region suffered more dises than they did in nearly any part of the country.

 He noted too that the Brahmins there were more sprucely separated from thenon-Brahmins than anywhere differently. “ And yet,” he writes sarcas­tically, “ no other region makes similar abundant use of sacred ash, sandalwood paste and vermillion greasepaint. Gandhi’s idea of Indian Civilisation No other part of the country has relatively so numerous tabernacles and is so generous in furnishing for their conservation.”

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