Wisdom that is still relevant today

Jan 30, 2020 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

Today, January 30, marks the 72nd Anniversary of the assassination of Mohandas Karamchand Ghandi, the revered Mahatma and spiritual leader of India in its march to Independence which it achieved from the British earlier, on the 15th of August, 1947.
This letter, dear Editor, I hope will serve as a lesson and guide to all of our young people and even the older folks who may be young at heart.
The usefulness is significant because lessons to be drawn from Ghandi’s life and assassination are profound and relevant for us in Guyana today.
These lessons can help our young people to pick up the baton from the Mahatma, the likes of Rev. Martin Luther King (Jnr), Rev. Sung Yun Moon, Sister Theresa, Nelson Mandela and run with this baton to make them morally upright and spiritually pure so that they can be the leaders of a new and better world, having the tools to navigate through murky and turbulent global oceans.
As a youngster, the news of Ghandi’s assassination was conveyed to us by our then British School Teachers against the backdrop that the Great Prime Minister of United Kingdom, Sir Winston Churchill once described Ghandi as a half-naked chaffier.
Lesson: the need for compromise is always necessary.
Even as Great Britain granted Independence to India in order to placate the Muslim community, Independence was also granted to the predominantly Islamic part of then India, now Pakistan.
Ghandi’s preaching was to treat Hindus, Christians, Sheiks and Moslems alike. He prayed to overcome the divisive prejudices that one group nurtured against the other.
As always, everywhere you find the radical, the iconoclast and the extremist.
These people cannot appreciate that irrespective of the colour of skin, texture of hair, race, religion and beliefs, we are all of God’s children.
Lesson: beware of the extremist who everyday can daily tell us what is wrong and are unwilling to sit and talk things through.
Next lesson, throughout human history, mankind has had a constant search for a superior being and to explore the mysteries of the universe.
This search has led us down many roads and rivers. The result is the great diversity of religious experiences and expressions found in every corner of the globe.
Next lesson, learn of other religions so that we can be better citizens of Guyana and the world.
So, while Ghandi was walking through the garden on his way to prayer, the extremist, NathuranVinayakGodse, a 36-year-old Hindu of the Mahratta tribes in Poona shot him at point-blank range.
When news of his assassination spread, riots erupted in Bombay, and other Indian cities.
Unruly groups attacked offices of the Hindu Mahasabha, the extreme anti-Moslem organisations to which the assassin belonged.
When Prime Minister Nehru appealed to end the violence, it fell on deaf ears.
Lesson, avoid conditions where there are short fuses.
Next lesson, here and elsewhere, let us urge our young people to learn from the lessons of the past.
On Sunday, I was privileged to be present at the 73 anniversary of India becoming a Republic, but even while speeches were being made, there were disturbances in India because of the new recently introduced Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019, which was passed by the Parliament of India on December 11, 2019.
Under the 2019 Amendment, migrants who had entered India by 31st December 2014, and had suffered “religious persecution or fear of religious persecution” in their country were made eligible for citizenship.
In pockets of this vast sub-continent of India, University Students and Muslims contend that the application of these provisions discriminates against them and hence protest.
India’s Commissioner of Police, Mr. O.P. Singh has refuted allegations that unnecessary force is being used against the demonstrators, who are critical of this bid.
Lesson: a recurring feature in human history irrespective of the time and the place is the pursuit by leaders of policies, inconsistent with their own best interest.
History is full of examples. George III, handling of the American colonies, the Trojan Horse, Vietnam and Korean wars.
In spite of previous experiences, why did King Charles XII, Napoleon and Hitler invade Russia in deep winter? These were all disastrous despite the failures by each, knowing that only the Russians could function from birth in the harshness of their winter conditions.
In Guyana, we seem to put in place, a constant bashing and trumping by home-grown and external self-claimed experts about Oil and Gas. They know not, that they know not, that they know not…causing confusion among the masses.
Ghandi thought the world another lesson that once we identify and are aware of the righteousness of cause we must pursue it fearlessly in spite of the sooth-sayers and ultra-pessimist.
On the eve of his ‘Salt March,’ almost ninety years ago, Ghandi declared that “I have faith in the righteousness of our cause.”
Finally, I began that this letter is to be dedicated to our young people and so we remember his assassination. I end with these words of Ghandi “If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war, we shall have to begin with the children.” End of quote.
This wisdom is relevant today with the problems we face in some schools and communities.

Hamilton Green

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