The Hindu Business Line : Between Gandhi and globalisation

"ON bended knees I asked for bread and I have received stone instead," Gandhi exclaimed when the Viceroy regretted that he should be "contemplating a course of action which is clearly bound to involve violation of the law and danger to the public peace." Gandhiji had decided on the 385-km Dandi March from Sabarmati Ashram to break the Salt Act, and he hoped "that there will be tens of thousands ready, in a disciplined manner, to take up the work after me, and, in the act of disobeying the Salt Act, to lay themselves open to the penalties of a law that should never have disfigured the statute book."

Sometime in March 1930 he had told a journalist in Lahore that he saw nothing on the horizon to warrant civil resistance. "But suddenly, as in a flash, I saw the light. Self-confidence returned. The voice within is clear. I must put forth all my effort or retire altogether and for all time from public life. I feel now is the time or it will be never. And so I am out for battle," Gandhiji said.

Seventy-five years later, one thought of going back to the third volume of Mahatma, Life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, by D.G. Tendulkar, to relive a glistening moment of Indian history. For a few of one's friends belonging to the Left, the Long March of Mao in China is worthier, having listed Gandhiji a reactionary, whatever that means.

On March 12, 1930, at 6.30 a.m. with the whole world watching on, Gandhi started with 78 followers on the march of Dandi, writes Tendulkar. "Today, the pilgrim marches onward on his long trek," Jawaharlal Nehru observed.

Describing the scene as only he could, Nehru wrote: "Staff in hand he goes along the dusty roads of Gujarat, clear-eyed and firm of step, with his faithful band trudging along behind him. Many a journey he has undertaken in the past, many a weary road traversed. But longer than any that have gone before is this last journey of his, and many are the obstacles in his way. But the fire of a great resolve is in him and surpassing love of his miserable countrymen. And love of truth that scorches and love of freedom that inspires. And none that passes him can escape the spell, and men of common clay feel the spark of life. It is a long journey for the goal is the independence of India and the ending of the exploitation of her millions."

Gandhi and his team touched Dandi on April 5, and at 8.30 a.m. the Old Man bent down and picked up a lump of salt. On May 4, Gandhi was arrested and taken to Yeravda Central Jail. Before handing himself to the police, Gandhiji requested Pandit Khare to sing his favourite hymn, Vaishnavajan. "At the dead of night, like thieves they came to steal him away. For when they sought to lay hand on him, they feared the multitudes, because they took him for a prophet," Mirabehn remarked.

Circa 2005, thousands of Indians are desperately trying to fly out of Independent India where the poor live independently: Dubai, America, Canada, Australia, the UK or any other place but not India.

A majority of them are children belonging to the ruling class of bureaucrats and bankers and fly west never to return. One has been checking out on this trend. Sometimes when the business of looking for information gets boring (it was always so), bankers and government servants (or is it masters?) turn a touch personal. Most of them have packed off their sons and daughters to the US (first priority) and drop in on holidays. Surprisingly, the progeny of the powerful seem to be always brilliant enough to snap up prized overseas scholarships or jobs while others remain as waste at the bottom of the pile.

It is perfectly in order as market economy or globalisation is only for the well-to-do, a point Gandhiji might have overlooked. Having assured a cosy future for their nearest, can (or will) the ruling class have any stake in making India better for the leftovers? They will make for the exit doors at the first hint of trouble and to avoid it have put in place "a forest of laws," as Gandhiji termed it, to encase the ordinary Indian.

The Old Man realised it in 1930 when he said: "Even free India will not be able to accommodate a greater number of public servants. A collector then will not need the number of servants he has got today. He will be his own servant. Our starving millions can by no means afford this enormous expenditure."

There is a bonus for those having served terms in international financial entities as dollar pensions and other benefits are tax-exempt.

A sharp banker reminded me of Gandhiji's college stint in England. But one did not tell him the Mahatma had the conviction to sail back to India and get shot for his convictions.

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