Albert Einstein once said about Mahatma Gandhi:
"Future generations will hardly believe that one as he is in flesh and blood walked upon this earth."
In the last two weeks I traveled through the western Indian state of Gujarat, Gandhi's home country. Here he was born, where he spent his childhood. From there he left for South Africa and here he has set for his return in 1915 Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad. There, Gandhi developed many of his ideas and spiritual and political concepts that made him famous.
If we even have a picture of a look out "half naked fakir" (as Winston Churchill has called him to start), you realize how timeless his ideals and ideas. I read Gandhi's autobiography at the moment "A Story of My Experiments with Truth". In Gandhi's youth and formative years, he is a fallible average person has weaknesses and is shy. He developed and is in constant communion with the conscience, it can also call God. The fact that an individual has inspired with his methods and values of a mass movement that ultimately forced the British Empire to its knees and made the Indians have become masters of themselves is amazing.
One can of course ask, under what circumstances violence and civil disobedience (Gandhi's maxim) are really effective and how you can compare the situation in India under the British colonial power with that of global crises and conflicts. Or another way: Is violence a la Gandhi a panacea? "If (...) surround 800 policemen in the night, a forest village begin to burn down the houses and shoot people help, then a hunger strike?" Writes as a sharp critic of the Indian government known scripture clean Arundhati Roy in an editorial a " Outlook "issue in September 2010. It brings it a reality for the Indian language. But
show us the wars of this world, most notably the Middle East conflict, again and again that violence and counter violence lead to a spiral of violence that are no longer or very difficult to break? The Iranian intellectuals Ramin Jahanbegloo, one of the main heads of the Iranian democracy movement says rightly: "Violence does not always work, but violence never works." In December, I visited Delhi in his fascinating presentation. It is interesting that the "green movement" on non-violence as an important value appeals. Gandhi is on the Iranian election protests by the summer of 2009 was an inspiring figure, so that the government has banned a book fair on books on Gandhi from the shelves. The Gandhi and his nonviolent Ideal obviously from those the power in the hand is perceived as a threat, says, yes for the power of its ideas.
But I will not walk back to Iran, but remain with India.
The Sabarmati Ashram established by Gandhi is now a museum. You can visit the house where Gandhi lived ascetic. I feel inspired after visiting this place. A quote that I got there in the show read, has led me to some reflections on the country in which I drove in my childhood and which occupies most of this trip: "My notion of democracy is that under it the weakest should have the same opportunities as the strongest ... True democracy can not be worked by twenty men sitting at the center. It has to be worked from below by the people of every village. "
(I summarize democracy so that under it the weakest should have the same opportunities as the strongest ... True democracy can not be twenty people in the center Sitting run. You must come from below, of the people from each village.)
Perhaps remind some readers of this blog or on the image that I had right after my arrival in India shot across the Pakistani border. I stand there in front of a sign reading "India - the largest democracy in the world - welcomes you". It is understandable that India promotes happy with this title is not without justification. India is a viable counter-proposal to the authoritarian and undemocratic neighbors China. At the same time in the media in recent years been the "emerging India" is mentioned, a super power in the fast lane, economically and politically. The battle for a seat on the Security Council, the software boom, outsourcing, growing middle class, Indian engineers, Indian billionaires.
It is easy to see how many people remain in all of this on the track. A few facts from Arundathi Roy's Article: A small group of one hundred millionaires in India holds 25 percent of gross domestic product in the hands of - 830 million Indians live of less than 20 rupees (0.35 euros) a day. Although India has the second highest Economic Growth in the world, where more people live together in poverty than in the 26 poorest African countries. poverty is of course a matter of definition and does not necessarily mean suffering and misery. The largest slum in Asia in Mumbai, Dharavi, for example, is a fascinating microcosm of its cultural diversity, with its own rules and structures, high creativity and economic performance. Anyone who has seen "Slumdog Millionaire," knows the corresponding images. The people of Dharavi do not leave their slum and the government, which is after the precious land of the slums, in flats be resettled.
are many such examples: In many parts of India are suitable for large industrial corporations in the land of villagers and indigenous people. Whole communities are made equal by mines and dams to the ground, Coca-Cola has dug countless people through his great factories in drinking water. Arundathi Roy says: "The real power is in the hands of a handful of oligarchs - and we did judges, bureaucrats and politicians. They in turn are of the few companies that own everything in the country, as prices kept race horses. "
beggars and homeless people are regularly forced from the streets of metropolitan cities in trucks and transported away - last Delhi in the major event of the "Commonwealth Games" in October last year (the Olympics of the former British colonies). The dwellings of not less than 400,000 people have been virtually destroyed it overnight. They wanted to spare the visitors from all over the world the sight of poverty. Or, as Arundhati Roy writes cynically: "Maybe it fits all too well that what is left of our democracy will be flogged off for an event that was created to celebrate the British Empire." The British Empire, whose imperialist fetters Gandhi tried to break through his struggle for independence. But it seems as if today a relatively small group of Indians a large number of compatriots just caught in this bondage holds. Since
dominate the games huge corruption scandals and dirty headlines, Indian newspapers. The sums were spent on the Commonwealth Games are staggering, the amount of the originally planned budget is twenty times: nine billion dollars for a two-week sporting event! It is idle to imagine themselves, for what would have been useful purposes of this mountain of money can be used.
I have been in India all walks of life to know: Because of my weeks in the projects of the "Human Welfare Association, I was often in villages have, as last walked through slums in Ahmedabad. On the other hand, I have several days at a super rich family used to having a huge apartment with several servants. It must be said that many middle and upper classes can Indian domestic workers work for you, which is not to condemn so per se (it is then always surprised that we have something not in Germany). But the manner in which these two servants were treated in that household, seemed degrading. The two always kept her head lowered. They have been sitting on the floor and eat without ever hearing a word of thanks or recognition. In the morning, the father (a real estate tycoon) massage the feet of a servant, the suit jacket install and tighten the shoes can be. I married while my eyes and found that we left in Europe such feudal attitudes to happiness for some time behind us.
tens of millions of Indians to work as servants, chauffeurs or the lackeys of the new rich and middle classes. They toil on construction sites of the "emerging India" in shocking conditions and starvation wages. They build the shopping malls, skyscrapers, and mansions Apparmentsblocks they will never set foot in their lives.
In the socially critical international bestseller "The White Tiger" is used Arvand Adiga, who was praised by critics for its precise observation, the following drastisches Bild:
"Go to Old Delhi, behind the Jama Masjid, and look at the way they keep chickens there in the market. Hundreds of pale hens and brightly coloured roosters, stuffed tightly into wire-mesh cages, packed as tightly as worms in a belly, pecking each other and shitting on each other, jostling just for breathing space; the whole cage giving off a horrible stench - the stench of terrified, feathered flesh. On the wooden desk above this coop sits a grinning young butcher, showing off the flesh and organs of a recently chopped-up chicken, still oleaginous with a coating of dark blood. The roosters in the coop smell the blood from above. They see the organs of their brothers lying around them. They know they're next. They do not try to get out of the coop. The very same thing is done with human beings in this country. "
My free translation: " Go on to Old Delhi, Jama Masjid behind, and look at how they keep the chickens in the market there. Hundreds of colorful roosters and hens pale, tightly packed into wire cages (...), as they hack at each other and each other beckacken, they gasp for breathing room, the whole cage smells awful - the smell of frightened, sprung on the meat. wooden bar to the cage sits a grinning young butcher and keeps the meat and the organs of a dissected chicken just (...). The cocks smell in the cage the blood from above. You see the bodies of their brothers lying around them. They know that they are next to it. Do not try to break out of the cage. Exactly the same is done in this country with people. "
are particularly strong this time I noticed the hierarchies in society. They are cemented by generations-old traditions of exclusion and Diskriminerung, just by a misinterpretation of religion and caste.
It is enough in the "general class" (the easiest class) of the Indian trains and you meet the people who do not benefit from India's economic boom in the least. They are dirty and unhygienic, mostly dark-skinned; they are loud, they chew tobacco, spit and urinate in the street. I too am sometimes disgusted, and keep my distance as a foreigner, I prefer from bulkheads. Anyone who has traveled several times to India knows this: To a certain extent blunts one against the ever-present misery.
On other days, there are also wonderful experiences: a family that invites you to tea, you asked for a photo and all the shit, in which she lives (because otherwise you can not call it), but brings a smile. I do not romanticize, but it is also this page. Many people have made life for survivalists who defy their way to their life circumstances. People who are familiar with India, know that one of this country, in many ways to extremes - very nice and do extremely horrible. The middle thing does not exist.
politicians and Indians who have brought money to assure to you that profitable economic growth reach all people and all. But the facts say otherwise. Nowhere in the world there is such a gaping difference between rich and poor as in India.
Sometimes it is also helpful and appropriate, not to focus on the negative, everything to look at the positives. India's philosophical and religious tolerance is impressive, as is the incredible cultural richness; also There are many NGOs and grassroots organizations that do great work - it's all I've also already written.
But what Gandhi would do at the sight of present conditions, is another question. His likeness adorns every dirty and torn rupee. His picture hangs in the offices of corrupt public officials and politicians, and anniversaries of Mahatma is often cited. "I conceive of democracy in a way that should have the same opportunities as the strongest among its most vulnerable," Gandhi said. The protagonist and leader of "emerging India" would do well to reflect on these words. _____________________________________________
My recently published article on Pakistan-Zenith Online: http://www.zenithonline.de/778.html
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