Gandhiji was fortunate to receive the title “Mahatma” in 1915, popularly associated with Rabindranath Tagore. He was also fortunate to receive generous donations that enabled him to establish his ashram on 66 acres of land in Ahmedabad in 1917. By then, Lokmanya Tilak remained a towering nationalist figure, though he passed away in 1920, while Jinnah had moved away from the Congress. Gandhi subsequently found around him devoted colleagues and followers such as Nehru, Patel and many others. Through his extraordinary simplicity and personal discipline, he attracted the common masses and transformed them from passive subjects into active participants—not merely in the struggle for freedom, but in the larger transformation of society.
For Gandhi, social transformation began with the inner transformation of the individual—a movement away from selfishness, fear and possessiveness towards compassion, self-restraint and the willingness to extend a helping hand to others. His programmes of Khadi and village industries were not merely economic schemes; they were intended as economic injections to revive village life and provide productive employment during the period of agricultural idleness after the farming season.
Gandhi himself also underwent a remarkable evolution. The Gandhi of 1909 could still defend aspects of varṇadharma, while the Gandhi of the 1930s had become increasingly sensitive to the question of social equality. From 1932 onwards, his engagement with Harijan welfare became a central part of his public life. His opposition to untouchability became so deep that he stopped visiting temples that denied entry to people regarded as untouchables. He advocated inter-caste marriages and would personally attend such marriage ceremonies.
This evolution is perhaps as important as his political achievements. Gandhi did not remain intellectually frozen in the positions he had held earlier in life; he allowed experience, conscience and engagement with human suffering to reshape his understanding.
He walked the life that he talked.
His was a life of physical simplicity, even poverty by conventional standards, but one marked by an extraordinary richness of heart. His experiment was therefore not merely with politics or economics; it was an experiment in transforming the human being—and through the transformed individual, transforming society.
India in the 21st century may not need another Gandhi to lead a freedom struggle, but it certainly needs another Gandhi-like spirit—someone who can inspire inner transformation, social responsibility and a richer sense of humanity.
Happy Gandhi Jayanti, the International Day of Non-Violence (designated by the United Nations in 2007).
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