The significance of October 2nd

Gandhi  Day – That is how we remember October 2,  the birth date of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who led perhaps the biggest mass movement of the world so far. The hallmark of this movement was non violence. It is this that made the United Nations declare October 2 as The International Day Of Nonviolence – a tribute to Gandhi’s unique approach to revolution. But there is more to October 2 than the Gandhian movement. It was Gandhi’s enigmatic personality that made Einstein comment, “Generations to come, it may well be, will scarce believe that such a man as this one ever in flesh and blood walked upon this Earth.”  For the post independence generation, however, most of the knowledge about Gandhi comes from the Ben Kingsley’s classic Gandhi, a film that reached Gandhi to the classes. For the masses, however, it was Rajkumar Hirani’s Lage Raho Munna Bhai that introduced Gandhi. But neither Gandhi nor the significance of October 2 ends here. Gandhi’s strength came from his spirituality, his principled living, his honesty and simplicity and yes, his courage of conviction. He would not have been the first man to be thrown out of the first class compartment despite holding a proper ticket in South Africa. But he perhaps, was the first man to ask why. And the rest is history.

But October 2 is significant for  yet another reason. Our second Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, whom many would like to call a Gandhian to the hilt. Shastri resembled Gandhi in many ways ranging from simplicity, honesty to conviction and courage. Many would like to raise the issue of non violence of which Gandhi was an epitome. But Shastri was a Gandhian in this respect also. For Gandhi non violence was never a sign of weakness or cowardice. It was his strength emanating from a moral courage and Gandhi was very clear that when it comes to a choice between violence and non violence, non violence should prevail.  However, when there is only a choice between cowardice and violence Gandhi would prefer violence. He wanted India to resort to arms if the question of honor arose. For Gandhi  forgiveness was more manly than punishment but he believed  that abstinence  is forgiveness only when there is power to punish. It is meaningless when it pretends to proceed from a helpless creature. And Gandhi was firm that strength did not come from physical capacity. It came from an indomitable will. For him the world was not entirely governed by logic and when life itself involved some kind of violence prudence was in choosing the path of least violence. These words describe Lal Bahadur Shastri, too. It is in this light that we have to understand the significance of October 2. The auspicious date that gave us two of our greatest heroes. Shastri charged the entire nation with the same  enthusiasm during the 1965 Indo Pak war like Gandhi had done during National Movement. Shastri’s famous prescription was a simple appeal to the people to skip Monday night dinner to battle food scarcity. And people practiced it. If Gandhi’s Swadeshi symbolized Indian pride, Shastri’s appeal was morale booster.

The popular Hindi film, Guide, presented Shastri’s philosophy dramatically. The protagonist, a fasting Dev Anand is being interviewed by a foreign journalist who asks what use this fasting would be. The reply is ” If 40 crore (the then population of India) people skip one meal, 40 crore people can have one meal”. While Gandhi’s slogan was Do or Die; Shastri proclaimed Jai Jawan Jai Kisan. Their philosophy was rooted in spirituality. They practiced what they preached. That is October 2nd.