Why Mahathma Gandhi deserves to be 'the Mahatma' despite some bloopers !!

Well this has been one of the most discussed/debated issues, right up there with say the 'Indo-pak' debate or 'Sachin Tendulkar being the best batsman, debate. I am sure what I am going to say here today has been said hundred times before, but I do need to say this, as I just cannot digest the way a lot of Indian people treat 'The Mahatma' - MohanDas K. Gandhi, without the slightest of the tiniest ounce of respect. Don't already conclude where this post is heading, please read it till the end, before you conclude.

Time and time again, many Indian people have insulted and abused the Mahatma. Biggest of their concerns was his soft-corner to Pakistanis and Muslims and the 55 crore bounty he wanted to give Pakistan despite the lack of interest in doing so by the Indian Government, among other things. For an intense discussion on this and much more please follow this blogpost by my friend 'Anand' which contains a 'nice discussion among various friends about the Mahatma.'

Another major concern was this excerpt taken from the 'Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol.LXXXVII, p.394-5'

"I would tell the Hindus to face death cheerfully if the Muslims are out to kill them. I would be a real sinner if after being stabbed I wished in my last moment that my son should seek revenge. I must die without rancor. You may turn round and ask whether all Hindus and all Sikhs should die. Yes, I would say. Such martyrdom will not be in vain."

Now here is my response to it. I urge everyone to read this with a clear mind, please.

Firstly, agreed he was cynical in asking Hindus to put down their lives for Muslims, but hey, why do we get so emotional about it, isn't that the exact same thing ' the great mahatma' said 30 years before to make the Britishers leave our country. Did he not ask all the people to put down their lives for the freedom of the country ? When it worked then, why didn't it work now ? That is because of the sparks put in by the Muslim leaders and misinformed people like Nathuram Godse, who had only half-knowledge about things beneficial for the country in the longer run. Someone great truly said, 'half-knowledge is dangerous'. It indeed costed us the 'Great Mahatma'.

Mahatma has achieved so many things which we couldn't have achieved by going through violent means. He is known the world over, for this unique method he employed - Nonviolence. He was just being true to his ideals of nonviolence and urging the folk of his own country- India to follow the path of nonviolence. Be it for achieving freedom or when Muslims were going to attack India, for a separate country. He tried his best not to separate the two nations, but after he realized it was not in his control anymore, he just urged his countrymen to follow the path they have been following successfully, that of nonviolence. In line with that, I believe he said the above statement, if at all he did.

Secondly, just because he asked us to put down our lives to Muslims, didn't mean that was going to happen. Take the case of the Britishers before, everyone agreed to put down their lives for the freedom of the country. Did all the leaders die ? Did all the people die ? NO. True few of them died, but most of the people who died were because of the violent routes they took, how many people who took nonviolent ways got killed? Not many, but ironically the Mahatma was one of them, thanks to the misinformed people. Also, the final choice was with the people, he did not force anyone to do anything, he had his own teachings. Did anyone have a better plan, if they did why weren't any of those plans successful ? I believe the tension between India and Pakistan presently could have largely been avoided if 'Mahatma' was indeed not killed at that time.

And lastly, Gandhi is after all human and mistakes do happen, but he deserves the tag of Mahatma, more than any other person would have deserved. If anyone, it had to be him .....For all the great things he has achieved through nonviolence, he definitely deserves the respect and the title of mahatma, true he did some blunders, but hey he is human !! When sachin can make mistakes, Mahatma Gandhi also can ;).. they are both human, after-all..... but they are 'Maha-Purush' or 'Mahathma' meaning a 'Superlative Human', but still human.....RESPECTTTT !!!! :D

A little background about me. I am Indian :).... I don't like the aftermaths of the Indo-pak separation and wish it never happened and also hate what Pakistan do to India, every day.... Also I totally am a violent person ;), but I just respect what Mahatma Gandhi has achieved through nonviolence. It makes me question my own violent ways, but I have enough reasons to justify my violent actions and will take another post to explain those. Also I hate being humble and modest, which is the 'international identity' of Indians. I would like to change that, but what to do, being humble is in our blood :P :)...

But all said and done, Gandhi is indeed a Mahatma ! :D .. but then people can have different opinions, ... but I would just hope that people have a little more tolerance towards Mahatma, look at the 1000 good things he has done for India, instead of focusing on few blunders.. and if you actually read what I said above those blunders ain't that bad either, just a mis-interpretation!!

To a more tolerant Indian attitude to 'The Great Mahatma Gandhi' on his 140th Birthday celebrations.
Oct 2nd 2009.

Jai Hind !

Does 'Slumdog Millionaire' deserve all this hype ?

What's all this hype about the movie 'Slumdog Millionaire' ? The IMDb site shows that the movie has been voted as top#34 in the all time list at a rating of 8.7/10. Quite Interesting. You believe that ?

I am an Indian, so I see the hype more pronounced all around me. I have heard a varied number of people talk varied things about it, both people from USA and India. The attitude with Indians, mostly has been a feeling of pride about the movie and the attitude among the Americans also has been on similar lines, in fact they like the movie better. With Indians, the feeling is understandable, rarely does an Indian movie get nominated for Oscars these days ( that says nothing about the movies that get made in India). Surely, having made by an American, this movie did enjoy that 'luck' which other great Indian movies made by Indian directors, lacked. That's a good starting point to be noted.

Coming from an American's point of view, they had a shot at seeing more about India, and what do they see? India in bad light, as usual !!! For most Americans, even in this 21st century India is still all about Snakes (cobras), Elephants, Cows, Taj Mahal, AIDS, 2nd most populous country, Kama Sutra, Gandhi, cheap labour and of course the land of beggars and slums, the latter shown in particular by the movie 'Slumdog Millionaire'. So for once the world got a chance to look at India, much deeper than the surface and again the director portrays the same old bad things about India.

There are people who tell me, isn't that true ? I agree partly though. The way the movie has been picturized is bad. Sure, there have been beautiful movies in the past which threw some light on aspects like these. India is the country which makes the most number of movies in the world. All Indian languages put together, India makes more movies than the movies of all countries put together. Have any of these movies ever made it to Oscars ? Well, apart from "Mother India", "Salaam Bombay", "Gandhi"( not totally Indian) and "Lagaan", none of the other movies ever made it to the world stage. Does it mean those were the 4 best movies ever made in India ? NO. So when Slumdog gets nominated for Oscars ( mind you, it's not even in the best foreign film category, but in the 'Best Film'), is it as good as the 4 movies mentioned above ? NO. Not even close. It is not even close to any of these movies, a list of all Indian movies sent to the Oscars. What happened to movies like 'Roja' or 'Bombay' or 'Yuva' or the recent 'Rang De Basanthi' or 'Taare Zameen Par', does anyone outside India know about these movies ? NO. They were made with much better intentions, they and many others do show India in bad light, because that is the truth, but the way you show it, matters. Of course as a director, you try to cash in on the bad things of a society and in the process pass a message to the movie viewers. What was the message passed in this movie, other than the obvious bad things in India, known to everyone. Every country has its own unique bad points, but how many movies made in India, make fun of America? Hardly any and how many of those movies made it to Oscars ? NONE. So, I personally feel, this is where 'Slumdog' lost in comparison to other Indian movies.

It depicts how, many kids in Mumbai (India) are exploited in their infancy, the poverty in Mumbai (India), a glimpse of the Communal riots, the economic problems, the gangsters, the bad people, etc. That is all true, but the way it has been shown, never in the movie, I felt the movie made emotions flow out of me. Any of the other great Indian movies would do that to you. But I never felt that at any point in this picture ( except maybe a couple of scenes, but that was due to the merit of the scenes, not because of the attitude of the movie). It lacked compassion to all these problems, I felt.

I feel the movie's main theme was 'Entertainment' and if not for the horrors shown in the movie, it did achieve that. The sad thing is, the movie used the 'Indian common man's sorrows and tragedies' as its USP. It has cashed in on the sorrows of these Indian people to entertain the movie viewers the world over, as an entertainment. It doesn't have any message, doesn't have a stand on the bad things depicted in the movie, like say a Bombay or a Roja or a Yuva does. Neither does it provide any solutions to the horrific horrendous horrors that it has portrayed India to be, in the movie. It was an out and out, pure entertainment movie sold with India's sorrows as its USP and lo, it is in the nominations for the 'Best Film 2008' in the Oscars. Rest is for you to decide.

Also some scenes portrayed in the movie I feel, left a lot to be desired. What are we supposed to make out of the scene in which a Kid gets beaten up a taxi driver for stealing his passengers(Americans) luggage and the kid tells them, ' Here is a taste of Real India for you, madam'. To which the lady says,' here is a taste of Real America for you and hands him a $100 bill'. Also quite nonsensical has been the way ' the SLUMDOGS' aka the 'The kids/gangsters/ illiterate people', converse with each other in English. If the director, was so hell bent on showing the true colors of India, where did this trick come from ? Also the concept of the 'Kid' having come across each of the questions at some point in his ' slum life' was quite unrealistic to believe. But isn't that entertainment!!! These are few points, I noticed when I scratched more on the surface.

Also as a closing statement, I want to just mention about the music director, A. R . Rahman. Many consider him to be India's finest music director and it is sad that one of his worst works ever gets nominated for Oscars. It just gets to show us, how bad the other nominated movies music was and how lucky it is to have an American director, direct the movie for you and show bad things about your own country. Well as you see, it counts:). Btw I would suggest the interested readers to listen to his other works. ( people who do not know about A.R. Rahman's works I mean).

Well, I dissected it for you. There are many out there who totally disagree with me, here is an example, but this is what I personally felt after seeing the movie. As they say , to each one, his own, so it's upto you to decide now !!!!