{"id":33841,"date":"2020-10-02T12:58:28","date_gmt":"2020-10-02T07:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/?p=33841"},"modified":"2020-10-02T12:58:28","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T07:28:28","slug":"is-india-under-pm-modi-drifting-away-from-gandhis-non-violent-doctrine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=33841","title":{"rendered":"Is India Under PM Modi Drifting Away From Gandhi\u2019s Non-Violent Doctrine?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Coinciding the birth anniversary of India\u2019s freedom icon, Mahatma Gandhi on Friday, experts say his values of non-violent resistance have been facing stiff challenges in recent times.<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n\n

By:<\/strong> AP | Cheena Kapoor<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They point out that over the past few years, democratic movements in his own country, India have been met with a heavy hand by the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Gandhi, who began his tryst with political movements in South Africa, helped India gain freedom through his philosophy of non-violence and non-cooperation. But, despite being revered as \u201cthe Father of the Nation,\u201d at home and projected as a moral compass across the world by Indian diplomacy, the country has violently responded to peaceful protests in the past year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, the Indian capital New Delhi witnessed large scale violent incidents as people protesting \u201cpeacefully \u201cagainst the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) were beaten up and baton-charged by police. The capital also witnessed one of the worst ever communal riots, claiming over 50 lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, prominent Gandhian TRN Prabhu, president of Sevagram Ashram, a town dedicated to Gandhi, said the current political regime in India is based on communalism and thus does not allow agendas of non-violence to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

In April 1936, Gandhiji had established his residence and spiritual hermitage in the village of Sevagram in the western state of Maharashtra, where he also employed lower caste Hindus called Dalits to cook food, to break the caste barrier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

“The government today is quite similar to the British colonial regime, an autocracy. Any conflict of words and thoughts can land one into trouble. The dissenters, however, need to focus on the responsibility of awareness. They should keep the dialogue going,\u201d said Prabhu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

He added that it is because of this conflict of thoughts and pressure that a lot of suicides are happening in the country now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Akshat Seth, general secretary of the Students\u2019 Federation of India (SFI), said it is difficult for today\u2019s dissenters to follow the Gandhian approach of resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen students being incarcerated and beaten up for sitting in silent peaceful protests or for only being present at the protest sites. We moved our protests online after the pandemic started, but our account on Twitter was blocked, citing \u2018violation of Indian laws,’\u201d said Seth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Curbs forcing aggression<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

He added that the crackdown was forcing protestors to turn aggressive in their protests. The government\u2019s oppression and state machinery\u2019s utilization to curb dissent has led to resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

The theme of the protests was coined from young poet and activist Amir Aziz\u2019s poem Sab Yaad Rakha Jayega, which translates to everything that will be remembered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disregarding the term \u201cviolent\u201d for the resistance, the dissenters also believe that fighting for their rights is the right thing to do and it is thus not violence but the survival of the fittest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf I am stealing from a shop out of hunger, would you call me an agitator? Gandhi undertook mass mobilization, and thus his movements\/resistances were recognized. Peaceful agitations are not being recognized these days. The state is oppressing people fighting for their rights,\u201d said Mohammed Asif, an activist, and protestor against the citizenship law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

He added that the definition and interpretation of violence vary. An agitation for your rights is not violent; the whole point is that the concept behind it should be peaceful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asif had set up a library at the protest site in Delhi\u2019s Shaheen Bagh area, where he lent out books of Gandhi, Indian novelist and short story writer Ismat Chughtai and Lebanese-American writer and poet Khalil Gibran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cGandhi\u2019s ideology was freedom. This fight with the government is about ideology, and for this, we have to strengthen our ideas. To do that, we need to read more books,\u201d said Asif.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gandhi believed that self-rule should extend to all people, rich and poor, male and female, and thus he encouraged women to participate in his freedom movements and political discussions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Keeping this in mind, Asif named the Shaheen Bagh library The Fatima Sheikh-Savitribai Phule Library, after two women educators and social reformers who fought for women\u2019s rights and their access to education. The library, initially, lent out books only to women, but later opened up for men as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

With inputs from the EurAsian Times<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disclaimer:<\/strong> The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Kashmir Today and Kashmir Today does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

(This story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coinciding the birth anniversary of India\u2019s freedom icon, Mahatma Gandhi on Friday, experts say his values of non-violent resistance have been facing stiff challenges in recent times. By: AP | Cheena Kapoor They point out that over the past few years, democratic movements in his own country, India have been met with a heavy hand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28017,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}