"You have thrown me out of this compartment, one day, I will throw you out of my country" - yelled Gandhi when he was humiliated and thrown out of the compartment despite having a first class ticket with him.
There was no personal fight with anyone, he had tickets, he did not break any rule, he had not done any mistake - then, why was he thrown out of the compartment? His mistake was - he was an Indian, and the color of his skin was black. He became the victim of racial discrimination.
That happened when he was in Durban, South Africa in 1893. He was there to fight a case of his client Dada Abdulla, one of the wealthiest Indian merchants in Natal. He took him to the Durban court. There, a European magistrate ordered Gandhi to take off his turban. He refused to do so and left the court. That was nothing. It was just a beginning of the humiliation and injustice.
One day, he was traveling from Durban to Pretoria. When his train reached Maritzburg station late in the evening, he was ordered to shift from the first class compartment to a van compartment. He had a first class ticket, so he refused. On this, he was thrown out of the compartment with sort of abuses and humiliation.
His color, appearance and origin were mocked. Without any alternative, he had to spend the whole terribly cold night in the dark waiting room without enough cloth with him. That was a horrible experience of humiliation for him. That behavior of white people angered him. He brooded over the situation throughout the night.
We are taught that any sort of anger is dangerous. But, this is not always true. Anger is nothing but a different form of energy. No energy is good or bad, but its utilization. The presence of anger in you is an indication of the presence of energy in you. And that energy always looks a way out. If it is suppressed, it causes various physical and mental ailments, if it is released abruptly, it causes the social disturbances.
But, when this energy is channelized, an amazing work can be taken from it. Gandhi used that energy for a great reform. He changed his anger into resolution. He chose to fight against the racial discrimination, which was taking place in South Africa on Indians. He found the channel to release his anger which was justifiable in the eyes of human rights.
In 1896, he came to India for a short time and gathered 800 people to help him in South Africa. He left for South Africa with those people. When he reached South Africa, the white people attacked him with bricks, eggs, and slogans. He was bitten with sticks. He was injured. Despite that, he did not break his resolution; rather that incident intensified his determination.
After fighting for 21 years for the racial discrimination and injustice in South Africa, he sailed back India in 1915. To understand the situation of India, he took a tour of India. When he had returned from South Africa, he was in a well-sewed suit. By observing the situation of Indian during his tour, he decided to use the clothing and lifestyle of the average people. Since then he started wearing a loincloth (Dhoti) and sandals.
He simplified his life in all means. He regulated his food habits. He started observing Brahmacharya, the celibacy. Even he had distant himself from his wife. He did not have any greed for name, fame, post, position, money. He had uplifted himself from all these mean things. His only goal was to make India free from the atrocity and injustice of the British rule. He feared nothing except God.
Due to his selfless service towards the humanity, simple life, and high thought, he was given an honorary title of Mahatma, the great soul, by Rabindra Nath Tagore, the first winner of the 1913 noble prize of literature. For millions of the people, Gandhi was a holy man. However, he did not like the title as it was sounding something special for him while he had viewed himself as an ordinary.
He was humiliated. That angered him. He recognized the energy in him in the form of anger. He mulled over it and converted the energy of his anger into the resolution. With determination and non-violence, he fulfilled his resolution by making India free from the atrocity of the British rule. That makes a shy Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi to Mahatma Gandhi, one of the greatest influential leaders in the history of the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment