Hindustan Times
Should we stop celebrating Gandhi Jayanti?
Perhaps for the first time, a Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh stayed away from the tradition of garlanding the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the heart of UP’s capital Lucknow on October 2 last.
Though she did grace the other customary function held at Tilak Hall in the UP Vidhan Bhawan where both the Governor and the Chief Minister offered floral tributes, Mayawati did not utter a word. The Governor too preferred silence, as the programme sent to him had not mentioned any speeches.
But worse perhaps came from a senior police official, who while defending Mayawati for her courage to walk a different path, quipped, “I don’t understand why should we deify Gandhi?” It did not stop here. He added, ‘Why should we have Ramlila year after year, what did Ram conquer, Lanka - a tiny dot on the landscape? Also who doesn’t know Rama is just a myth.”
It simply saddened me as I think all functions and festivals keep us connected to our historical and religious roots. There may be many who may not have agreed with Gandhi and his policies in contemporary India where Jinnah’s fan following is increasing by the day, but why should we stop celebrating Gandhi Jayanti? We don’t demean BR Ambedkar by garlanding Gandhi. Similarly, Rama may be a myth but then there are people who worship him.
Somehow I feel that those who believe that Gandhi, Nehru, Rama are increasing becoming irrelevant are actually living in a fool’s paradise. The country’s youth still read Gandhi. They continue to throng Ramlilas. (After all this country is not restricted to its urban areas alone)
I recently saw Ramnagar Ramlila held in petromax lights. No mikes, no music. Why? Thousands want to save its religiosity and purity. But then there are Ramlilas where bar girls are invited to celebrate the marriage of Ram and Sita.
I think we must celebrate all our festivals and functions. It not only reminds us of our glorious history, it also gives us some lessons. Those who want to imbibe them, let them do so. Others can debate their relevance in schools, colleges and conferences.
Moreover, if we don’t celebrate occasions like Gandhi Jayanti, Republic Day, Independence Day, Diwali and Holi, what are going to celebrate - Valentine’s Day, Friendship Day.
I want to celebrate all- the old calendar and the new one. How about you!
(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
Loading ...Posted by Sunita Aron on Tuesday, October 6, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Filed under India · Tagged celebrating festivals, contemporary India, Gandhi Jayanti, Independence day, occasions, Ramlila, Republic Day
I don’t condone the politics of Mayawati. She has no ideology to speak of.
BUT I beleive that we must not force Gandhi and his philosophy on every Indian. Let every citizen choose his path Netaji’s, Bhagat Singh’s, Gandhi’s, Amdedkar etc. I think it is time this decision is left to the individual including people sitting on high posts such as President and PM. Why should PM be forced to put up potrait of Gandhi in his office?
This is not the freedom that our nation wanted.
Isn’t is very similar to non-violent fascism where you are forcing people to admire Gandhi?
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sunita Reply:
October 8th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
I don’t agree with u Rajeev
We remember all our national heroes– its upto you whom you want to emulatewe wanted freedom. You must cherish it as its only because of this freedom that you can raise such questions
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Rajeev Reply:
October 8th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
I definetely admire Gandhi but only for some qualities but no one can force anyone to adore gandhi unconditionally.
We Indians tend to lionise our leaders forgetting that they were also humans who also made all kinds of mistake just like us.
If we can criticise Lord Rama/Krishna and Buddha then why not Gandhi?
I remember congressis used violence to stop the play “Mi Nathuram Godse Boltoy” in maharashtra to protect their non-violent prophet Gandhi.
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Kesava Reply:
October 21st, 2009 at 5:43 pm
No one is forcing anyone to admire anybody. India, if you have not noticed is the most democratic country on earth.
Here you do not need to sing vande mataram if you don’t want to.
Here you can openly call Lord Rama a “drunkard” (courtesy of Mr Karunanidhi)
Here you can openly say you will cut off heads of Muslims and yet gettaway with it
And oh yes, you can discard Gandhi (because who wants non-violence, love and tolerance nowadays anyway??) and admire Jinnah (because he HAS to be right: Hindus and Muslims can NEVER live together! we ve proved it with Babri and Gujarat..)
And pls, RESPECT Mr Godse, if not the RSS goons will certainly come break your neck.
Like Tharoor said. We should “celebrate” Gandhi Jayanti by working on that day. Not many in his party and absolutely no one from the beaurocracy will agree to it !
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Rajeev Reply:
October 7th, 2009 at 1:17 am
Whenever we do anything in the name of GREAT PERSON, we should always ask what that person would have wanted us to do. We will get all our answers if we think this way.
I think it is an insult to Gandhi if we don’t work on that day..but who cares. Ours is a country of holidays. I am pretty sure in next 100 years we will not have a single working day in whole year. We may have Rahul Gandhi padyatra day, Rahul gandhi coronation day etc. after 100 years or so.
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sunita Reply:
October 8th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Yes ,
Holiday is soemthing that we can dump
but how many would want that?
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Rajeev Reply:
October 8th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
This holiday is an urban phenomenon. Most of the people in rural area continue to work in the fields.
I remember once a DD reporter asked a poor girl in Delhi “Aap 15 august ko kya karti hai”.
The girl answered “kuch nahi saab, sirf daal roto khatein hein”.
What is the use of celebrating 15th Aug, 26th jan if we can not bring smiles on the face of downtrodden?
I may sound cynical but according to me all these holidays are nothing but an excuse for middle class to party.
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India has too many jayantis and anniversaries which often appear in the middle of the week. Indians are laid back people and in the name of jayanti we cherish the prospect of holiday rather than upholding the principles espoused by the dead. Now that we have come out clean why not configure the jayantis and anniversaries around weekends? This will give us an opportunity to enjoy more long weekends during the year.
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sunita Reply:
October 8th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Nikhil ,
that’s a great idea, but who would do this
the governments, caught between Gandhi and Ambedkar, would not take a call
may be it should start from the private sector
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I hope she must be counting the number of her own statues she wanted to garland,
I hope it must be fun doing that….
Garlanding your own statues!
I agree we have too m,any holidays, we should do away with holidays on b’days of national leaders,
as far as holidays for releigious leaders b’days should be optional, people who want to take them should be allowed to do so.
Police Cheif must be thinking of garlanding his own statue next year, besides Mayawati…
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sunita Reply:
October 8th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Reena,
You raise a pertinent point. If people don’t want to garland Gandhi, who got them freedom, would they ever garland Mayawati’s statue? And why Mayawati, is there any politician worth his salt to be garlanded.
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Dear Sunita Ji,
I agree with you view 108%. In fact all major festivals religious/secular in North/South/East/West India must be celebrated by all Indians together especially in Metros like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai etc as they represent Indians from all walks of life and all regions . What is a better way to celebrate India’s unity and integrity and wonderful mosaic of many cultures than this?
Warm Regards
Ram
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Rajeev Reply:
October 7th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
So you are saying that we should keep celebrating whole year just for the sake of fake sense of unity. Who will work then? Politicians???
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sunita Reply:
October 8th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Ram,
I couldnpt have agreed with u more
today’s generation don’t even know the relevance of Republic day
Once we stop celebrating these days I am sure some of them would know
Rajeev,
What fake sense of unity you are talking about. And celebrations don’t necessarily mean holidays.
Rajeev this is the only we the country can remain connected with its roots, culture, history
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Rajeev Reply:
October 8th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
We can stay connected with eachother by working together rather than sitting at home on holidays.
How many muslims celebrate Diwali with Hindus or Hindus Eid with muslims?
Let us not delude ourselves. The most important thing is productivity and a society that is well fed, well dressed will automatically stay away from riots, terrorism etc.
I’d like our govt. people to work overtime to provide water an electricity on Diwali and Eid rather than sitting at home.
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Kesava Reply:
October 21st, 2009 at 5:46 pm
dude Rajeev, i dunno about you, but I look forward to my weekends, and to me an extra holiday doesnt hurt! but yeah by all means, you go work!
I am really interested in knowing what Gandhi would have done about the naxal violence E States… specially after the police official was beheaded?
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sunita Reply:
October 8th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Kinshuk,
I really hope the Gandhis of today would have found the answer. But the little that I have read of Gandhi, the grams ( villages) that he developed would not have pushed people to naxalism. sadly the indian government has now realised that poverty is the cause.
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Kesava Reply:
October 21st, 2009 at 5:48 pm
I think Gandhi would have figured out a way of improving the lives of the poor there, coz unless you are living in a cave, you should know that Chattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand are home to the poorest and the most downtrodden. Thats the reason why naxalism has taken root. As sunita said, poverty is the main cause.
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i agree with you completely, we shud celebrate our festivals other wise the generation next who are still toddler will forget what is “holi”, “diwali, or dushera.instead the will celebrate valentines day,father’s day, freindsship day,and rose day. ones the cretaor of amar chitra says that why he started this comics,ones he watch quiz show on doordarshan where school children were participant they no about more on roman history than ramayan and mahabhart. todays younger lots know about more harry potter than say prem chand or panch tantra, but that is small lot coz 80% of india stil lives in small town
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sunita Reply:
October 8th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Anurag,
why talk about toddlers, even the teenagers don;t know about them. They know friendship day and valentines day, but not the republic day
As I said where is the harm in celebrating all days - lets do all– and not necessarily with a holiday or by bunking schools
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Yes i truly agree with your views regarding the significance of celebrating Gandhi Jayanti. After all he was the ‘Bapu’ of our Nation and laid his life for Hindu-Muslim unity and eradication of caste system. Of course we are not going to celebrate occasions like Valentine’s Day, Friendship Day inspite of Gandhi Jayanti, Republic Day, Independence Day, Diwali and Holi. But we feel proud by celebrating our sixty years of Independence, Republic day and Birthday of the ‘Father of nation’ by hoisting flags, uttering untrustworthy speeches, distributing sweets, publishing full page adds in national dailies and last but not the least enjoying public holidays. We are well aware of the fact that in this generation people mind their own businesses. They dont give a damn that who was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, why is he known as the ‘Bapu’ of the nation and similar other things. I have came across many such people who think Gandhi ji was responsible for India-Pakistan partition which is just ****. Now its the time to introspect ourselves and just see that do we really respect Gandhi, Nehru, Patel and their beliefs. If we do then inspite of just limiting it up to few rituals and formalities we should try implementing these values in our lives. It is a well known fact that we never ever remember our freedom fighters. But the ‘Jayantis and Divas’ can be the real occassions to rejuvenate our ageing souls if celebrated with a true spirit.
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sunita Reply:
October 8th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Yes Salman
your last line says it all
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As the status message of one of my friends read on 2nd october:
“Why only father of nation? Lets have a mother, a brother, a sister, some uncles, aunts and cousins & grandparents of the nation as well. I can do with as many holidays.”
Does this tell us something about the “importance” of such events?
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sunita Reply:
October 8th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
It only tells us how Indians can make mockery of their historians
and it also endorses the need to have such days
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Lucknow University used to conduct a course named” PG Diploma in Gandhian Principle and Philosophy”( guess this was the name, don’t remember exactly). i don’t know what was the motive behind running this course, it was off course not job oriented. No wonder it got shut down.
But how can we Indian ignore the significance of 2 October ?
So what if Gandhi Jayanti only means break from work?
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reena Reply:
October 8th, 2009 at 6:40 am
The days on which whole country should celebrate are 15th August and 26th January, holiday is acceptable.Same goes for HOLI, DEEPAWALU, DUSSHERA. EID AND CHRISTMAS.
There should not be a holiday on 2nd october, 14th november , tulsi jayanti, and other such dates either of relegious or national importance. We should actually work on these days, none of these people preached against working.
Now someone let me know, how this can be done….or undone.
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sunita Reply:
October 8th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Manjari,
A day will come when world will celebrate Oct 2 and India will not
that’s what I can gauge from the prevailing cynicism
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Sorry, just to add, there can be some reigonal holidays, like Guruparab, pongal and onam, ganesh chaturthi…
Oh, I am loosing it seems
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Reena,
too many holidays will mean no work
for me issue is not holiday but remembering people
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Why holiday on Kanshi ram death anniversary ?? 30 th jan ( Gandhi ji ” death anniversary ) k din to chuuti nahi hoti
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sunita Reply:
October 10th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Manjari,
I think one can pay tributes while working also. Otherwise also when people don’t go to Rajghat, will they go anywhere else.
So why a holiday?
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