What do you like about Gandhi?

[Alceste]

I like that his example suggests that when enough people refuse to tolerate a government, that government can be driven out. It comforts my inner anarchist.

 

[3.14]

like the fact that he was acting all peacefull while knowing that his words would harm/kill other people.

 

[K.Venugopal]

What do you like about Gandhi? - he is the Father of India

Firstly i am proud to be an Indian like Ghandi. i am also proud that Ghandi managed to achieve the independance of India without any fighting. however i am disappointed with the formation of Pakistan and believe that this should never have happened and i am also disappointed with the British for tearing this beautiful country apart.
did you know that over 1000000 people died in the movement of muslims to Pakistan and Hindu's etc to India. that is a ridiculous amount of lives which should never have been taken. i hope and pray that one day India will be back as one and how it should be.
q

How could Gandhi have been the father of India? India has been in existence for thousands of years before Gandhi was born. It would be nearer the truth to say he was the father of Pakistan, because in the name of non-violence he condoned the violent Khilafat movement in India (a movement to reinstate the Caliph dethroned by the British in Turkey), which emboldened the Muslim leadership to seek partition.

 

[whereismynotecard]

Dr. Cox calls Turk Gandhi sometimes.

 

[Don Penguinoini]

Urmmm.... Ywah!!!

 

[Troublemane]

I admire his determination to stick to his principles, even in the face of overwhelming opposition. I think he proved the human spirit is stronger than force or threats of violence.

 

[Valjean]

Booko mentioned Gandhi's influence on Dr Martin Luther King Jr. in the US civil rights movement, but didn't convey its full extent.

King was a disciple of Gandhi. His whole struggle for civil rights was a deliberate translation of the Mahatma's principles and methods to the North American continent. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference openly aknowledged this. Look at the photos of King describing his dream from the steps of the Lincoln memorial -- those around him are openly wearing Gandhi caps.

 

[Father Heathen]

I like how he admired Hitler, disowned his own son for having sex, and denied his wife medical treatment which lead to her death.

 

[Don Penguinoini]

Seeing the positive in people, i see.

 

[Somkid]

Well, he had a few skeletons in the closet but who doesn't. Any way I admire him for being a man of peace.

 

[ThePainefulTruth]

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, what do you like about him. I admire he made the largest empire in the world leave, withought killing anyone.

Whaddya think:areyoucra

He beat me too it (by several decades), but we both arrived at the realization that God and Truth are equivalent.

Also, about GB leaving and how he did it--as in the US with the civil rights victories, it should be noted that peaceful non-violent protests will only work against an already somewhat civilized and amenable opponent. Imagine those tactics against Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Castro, or Genghis Khan. The Holocaust would have happened either way.

 

[metis]

I have long considered Gandhi to be my main mentor, but the doesn't mean that I believe in everything he taught, but neither would he expect me to do so. His stance on non-violence, although going in the right direction, imo, is not practical at times in terms of outcomes, and even he recognized that. I believe that both self-defense and defense of innocent people are mandatory if we can do it.

 

[Bunyip]

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, what do you like about him. I admire he made the largest empire in the world leave, withought killing anyone.

Whaddya think:areyoucra

Seriously? You actually believe that nobody died when the British Empire left India? The partition of Pakistan and India saw over a million casualties and precipitated a conflict that persists to this day.

 

[LuisDantas]

I am sad that Gandhi failed. Perhaps even sadder that his message is so misremembered.

Gandhi was hardly decisive in convincing the British to leave India. But he had the opportunity to make the process a lot more humane than it might otherwise have been. I see him as a generous, courageous man that chose to give the British an impressive gift of wisdom that they would have trouble learning in other ways.

But then everything basically fell apart. The internal conflicts proved basically insuperable, and even the great love and admiration that he earned among the people of India seemed not nearly powerful enough to motivate them towards achieving mutual respect, acceptance and peace. It is no wonder that he decided to fast to his likely death more than once. It must have been difficult to want to live among so much evidence that his efforts were for nothing.

Let's not forget his equally admirable allies, either. Let's not forget the great Abdul Gaffhar Khan - in many senses the Muslim counterpart of Gandhi - and the brave and heroic unarmed army of the Khudai Khidmatgar that voluntarily chose to be the target of the violence there so that others would not and their enemies would have the best of all possible reasons to reconsider their goals and their means. It is a great shame that so few people remember them all. They may well be the most heroic of all people in human history.

 

[Vinayaka]

I liked how (at least it was portrayed this way) he treated his fellow humans, no matter what their station, with dignity. I liked it when he asked servants to sit and be served, always sensitive to class structure in daily activities. That has influenced me a lot.

 

[Bunyip]

I am sad that Gandhi failed. Perhaps even sadder that his message is so misremembered.

Gandhi was hardly decisive in convincing the British to leave India. But he had the opportunity to make the process a lot more humane than it might otherwise have been. I see him as a generous, courageous man that chose to give the British an impressive gift of wisdom that they would have trouble learning in other ways.

But then everything basically fell apart. The internal conflicts proved basically insuperable, and even the great love and admiration that he earned among the people of India seemed not nearly powerful enough to motivate them towards achieving mutual respect, acceptance and peace. It is no wonder that he decided to fast to his likely death more than once. It must have been difficult to want to live among so much evidence that his efforts were for nothing.

Let's not forget his equally admirable allies, either. Let's not forget the great Abdul Gaffhar Khan - in many senses the Muslim counterpart of Gandhi - and the brave and heroic unarmed army of the Khudai Khidmatgar that voluntarily chose to be the target of the violence there so that others would not and their enemies would have the best of all possible reasons to reconsider their goals and their means. It is a great shame that so few people remember them all. They may well be the most heroic of all people in human history.

And lets not forget the wonderful Kemal Ataturk.

 

[metis]

I don't think Gandhi failed as much as too many people just can or will not live up to the ideal he taught. But his inspiration did take hold with people like MLK, Cesar Chavez, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Lech Walesa, etc.

Unfortunately, the world seems hell-bent on a path of destruction, and I picture the future as being far worse with increasing over-population and the spreading of nuclear and chemical and biological weapons. As the noted anthropologist Loren Eisely said, if humans have evolved to become so "advanced", then why haven't we yet learned to solve our problems by not using massive and deadly forms of violence?

 

[ThePainefulTruth]

“The word satya (Truth) is derived from Sat which means 'being'. Nothing is or exists in reality except Truth. That is why Sat or Truth is perhaps the most important name of God, In fact it is more correct to say that Truth is God than to say God is truth. But as we cannot do without a ruler or a general, such names of God as 'King' or 'Kings' or ' The Almighty' are and will remain generally current. On deeper thinking, however, it will be realized that Sat or Satya is the only correct and fully sign fact name for God.

Devotion to this Truth is the sole justification for our existence. All our activities should be centered in Truth. Truth should be the very breath of our life.”—Gandhi.



Amen. I think that God is Truth and Truth is God or god. The only question is whether that Truth is conscious and self-aware, but for us in this life, that's irrelevant.

 

[ThePainefulTruth]

.... if humans have evolved to become so "advanced", then why haven't we yet learned to solve our problems by not using massive and deadly forms of violence?

Technology is amoral. The problem is that humanity is divided into thirds, one is motivated by unrepentant, irreversible evil, one is good, and one is frozen in fear. The latter makes things much worse by restraining the good. There is not, and never will be, "Peace in our time"--but strife can be reduced.

 

[metis]

Technology is amoral. The problem is that humanity is divided into thirds, one is motivated by unrepentant, irreversible evil, one is good, and one is frozen in fear. The latter makes things much worse by restraining the good. There is not, and never will be, "Peace in our time"--but strife can be reduced.

Probably the vast majority of us humans are driven by what Dawkins calls "the selfish gene", namely that we tend to have our own self-interest mostly motivating our actions and even many of our beliefs. Even those heavily involved in their religions and philosophies are not immune to this basic drive.

This innate self-centeredness is very discouraging, and has prompted Hawking to be so pessimistic that he says we're probably going to have to inhabit another planet(s) because he foresees the probability of massive destruction here on Earth to the point whereas even the existence of humankind could be in jeopardy.

I certainly hope he's wrong.