From Asish Das Gupta
Dear Delia,
Heartiest congratulations of being conferred with the Vidhayak Karyakarti award. My sincere apologies for the inordinate delay in conveying my greetings. My wife and I became grandparents in September so its been quite a bit of commuting between Delhi and Pune. Our daughter and her husband live in Delhi. They had a son on September 14-our first grandchild.
Its unfortunate we still haven't been able to meet. I am not sure if you'd want to because I am not a great Gandhi fan. From my school days, I've always had the impression that we got our independence a little too easily, thanks partly to Gandhi's non-violence movement. I preferred Subhas Bose's formula of driving the British out and in the process there would have been bloodshed and some amount of devastation. The surviving Indians would have had to build their country with their own hands, much like Japan and Germany after WW II. Had this happened, we would have loved our country more and perhaps we wouldn't have been rated as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. I also have strong feelings about the division of the country to which Gandhi was a party. His legacy of non-cooperation had been followed by states like West Bengal, where I was born and brought up, and Kerala. You know how much these states suffered in the succeeding years. Being a Christian, I doubt if Christ's teaching of "turning the other cheek"-which is now credited to Gandhi's teachings-is relevant today. We live in a violent world and whilst I certainly don't preach "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth", I feel, we have to take firm stands on issues today which sadly right-thinking Indians don't. Gandhi's relevance is debated today's world, especially amongst the younger generation, some whom don't even know who he is. The "Gandhigiri", result of a recent Hindi film, is hardly likely to have a long-term impact.
Having said all that I have, I am willing to concede that some of my impressions are due to lack of in-depth knowledge of Gandhi's teachings. I confess that I haven't read much about him. My conjectures are based purely on the realities of post-independence growing up in this country. Please feel free to call me "an idiot" if you want!
I hope you are keeping good health now? You certainly seem to be back on track as would appear from the hectic activates-the likes of Yerawada Mohalla Committee-that you are involved in.
With all good wishes,
Ashish.
ashishdg@vsnl.net
Heartiest congratulations of being conferred with the Vidhayak Karyakarti award. My sincere apologies for the inordinate delay in conveying my greetings. My wife and I became grandparents in September so its been quite a bit of commuting between Delhi and Pune. Our daughter and her husband live in Delhi. They had a son on September 14-our first grandchild.
Its unfortunate we still haven't been able to meet. I am not sure if you'd want to because I am not a great Gandhi fan. From my school days, I've always had the impression that we got our independence a little too easily, thanks partly to Gandhi's non-violence movement. I preferred Subhas Bose's formula of driving the British out and in the process there would have been bloodshed and some amount of devastation. The surviving Indians would have had to build their country with their own hands, much like Japan and Germany after WW II. Had this happened, we would have loved our country more and perhaps we wouldn't have been rated as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. I also have strong feelings about the division of the country to which Gandhi was a party. His legacy of non-cooperation had been followed by states like West Bengal, where I was born and brought up, and Kerala. You know how much these states suffered in the succeeding years. Being a Christian, I doubt if Christ's teaching of "turning the other cheek"-which is now credited to Gandhi's teachings-is relevant today. We live in a violent world and whilst I certainly don't preach "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth", I feel, we have to take firm stands on issues today which sadly right-thinking Indians don't. Gandhi's relevance is debated today's world, especially amongst the younger generation, some whom don't even know who he is. The "Gandhigiri", result of a recent Hindi film, is hardly likely to have a long-term impact.
Having said all that I have, I am willing to concede that some of my impressions are due to lack of in-depth knowledge of Gandhi's teachings. I confess that I haven't read much about him. My conjectures are based purely on the realities of post-independence growing up in this country. Please feel free to call me "an idiot" if you want!
I hope you are keeping good health now? You certainly seem to be back on track as would appear from the hectic activates-the likes of Yerawada Mohalla Committee-that you are involved in.
With all good wishes,
Ashish.
ashishdg@vsnl.net
posted by deepamariam at 6:21 AM
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