Once again the nation celebrates Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary today. Once again leaders all over the country will pay homage to his memory. This has become an annual ritual which must shock not only the few genuine Gandhians who are still around but all sensitive Indians. Lack of sincerity and genuine conviction does as much violence to the future of the country as to the memory of the man we rightly call the father of the nation. Gandhiji devoted his whole life to the search for truth. Truth and god were synonyms for him. We insult his herculean struggle when we utter insincere platitudes in his honour. That is not all. If Gandhiji, as Mr. Nehru said, made men out of clay, hypocrisy reduces us to clay again. And men of clay do not build great nations.
It is possible to take the view that Gandhiji is not relevant to modern India. Indeed, a number of western-educated Indians think so and say so. But while one can respect them for their honesty, it is no longer easy to agree with them. The western model of development with its emphasis on consumerism and large industry is in trouble in the lands of its birth. Discerning westerners are no longer convinced that they can go on using the earth’s non-renewable resources in their search for ever rising material standards without producing a catastrophe in the foreseeable future. But even if the West manages to discover a source of energy other than oil, gas and coal, it is out of the question that poor countries like India with enormous and growing populations, and extremely adverse land-man ratios can overcome abject poverty by following the western model. Industry is becoming more and more capital intensive and it is producing fewer and fewer jobs.
Gandhian economics is only one aspect of Gandhiji and perhaps not the central one. Central to his life and work was his insistence on adherence to moral values. Not only did he live by them himself, he spared little effort to persuade those close to him to live by them to some extent. He did not produce a new man. But the men he produced have seen the country through three turbulent decades. With their disappearance, the country faces a crisis of leadership. This is a complex phenomenon. Social change produces enormous stress and strain. For example, adherence to accepted values becomes difficult when millions of people are uprooted from the countryside and get crowded into slums and shanty towns.
Monetisation of the economy and an increase in opportunities for amassing large fortunes quickly cannot but disrupt old hierarchies and relationships. But while we can debate the contribution of these and other factors to the present crisis, there can be little doubt that we cannot master it without a new emphasis on moral values. Those who cannot rise above the social current are not entitled to be regarded as leaders. Only those who can swim against the current can lead the nation in the extraordinarily difficult period ahead. We cannot have another Gandhiji. But the country should be able to produce men and women imbued with his passion for moral values.