Saturday, 30 January 2010
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi 1869-1948
TODAY, 62 years ago, GHANDI took his last steps in the night air before being assassinated. Searching for the truth his whole life, Gandhi declared that his most important battle was overcoming his own demons, fears and insecurities. Gandhi dressed to be accepted by the poorest person in India, advocating the use of homespun cloth (khadi). He and his followers adopted the practice of weaving their own clothes from thread they themselves spun, and encouraged others to do so. While Indian workers were often idle due to unemployment, they had often bought their clothing from industrial manufacturers owned by British interests. It was Gandhi's view that if Indians made their own clothes, it would deal an economic blow to the British establishment in India. Consequently, the spinning wheel was later incorporated into the flag of the Indian National Congress. He subsequently wore a dhoti for the rest of his life to express the simplicity of his life. By "reducing himself to zero" he refused to be enslaved by the systems around him and indeed questioned them. Gandhi spent one day of each week in silence. He once said ""the ideally nonviolent state would be an ordered anarchy." Gandhi, a 'philosophical anarchist'.
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