MAHATMA GANDHI 

As we all know that Mahatma Gandhi or we can say Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was an Indian freedom fighter and struggler who gave his life after providing independence to our nation and along with him there were many other anti – colonial nationalist who sacrificed their life in order to prevent the degradation or loss of our country and make it more furnished and prosperous . We all know that Mahatma Gandhi was also an Indian lawyer and non – violent nationalist who supports “ Ahimsa “ 

Or we can say the path of peacefulness , where he had introduced several non- violent civil movements and also published many books to spread his ideology and for increasing his followers across the country . 

And I think , his peaceful movements and protests were one of the major reasons in pursuit of getting freedom from the British ruled  ( colonialism ) . Mahatma Gandhi was born on 2 October 1869 in Porbandar , a city in Gujarat and died on 30 January , 1948 at Birla House , New Delhi . In his remembrance , his birthday is celebrated as Gandhi Jayanti every year on 2^nd October .  And as per the facts and records , TRUTH , NON – VIOLANCE , SARVODAYA AND SATYAGRAHA are the four pillars of the Gandhian thought and it constitute great significance in Gandhian philosophy . Gandhi always emphasized more on social , political and religious problems of the oppressed and down trodden lower castes in Hindu Society . His specific aim and agenda is to abolish poverty , caste system , untouchability from society . The present study reveals prominently the influence of Mahatma Gandhi on the village of Kanthapura . He listened to and was inspired by great mythological characters also he was strongly influenced by the character of Harishchandra, who was a king of truth. It is possible to get the idea of Satyagraha from him which is one of the Gandhian principles. It was not a day what made Gandhi famous it took lots of years to develop such personality. He is not known for his looks. He is known for his thoughts, principles, and his point of view to see the world and etc. He was a common man but things made him uncommon were his thoughts and ideologies . 

IDEALOGIES OF BAPU

TRUTH AND NON-VIOLANCE

Gandhi ji was born in a Hindu family “ Vaishnavas “ , which is the third caste in the Hindu Caste System , so being from a Hindu devotional family he was so religious and inspired by the Hindu Mythological Character Raja Harishchandra  that it made him greatly influenced and made him  learn the power of truth and non- violence . He belongs from a pure vegetarian family which keeps him motivated and away from all the kinds of violence done with the animals as he was so kind with all the animals and humans and slaughtering was not in his practical dictionary . Whereas , when he went to London University , he found it very difficult to survive there as there were only non- vegetarians around him but despite of this fact he did not loose his morals and was firm on his principles. Finally, he got a book in his support regarding vegetarianism, where he got certain logics which helped him. After this he started taking part in debates and also became a member of the Vegetarian Society, he encouraged others to opt vegetarianism. Being vegetarian also taught him non-violence. 

He strictly prohibited any type of violence, although it was the freedom struggle or something else. He strongly condemned deforestation, as cutting trees was a kind of violence for him and he was strictly against it. He developed his own principles and applied everywhere and lastly tasted victory. 

He was a common man but it was his will power that stuck him to his principles. It is easy to make rules but very tough to follow them. He himself made his rules, followed them and won millions of hearts. 

SATYAGRAHA 

Satyagraha is a Sanskrit word, where ‘satya’ means “truth” and ‘agrah’ means “to hold firmly” which overall tells us to hold to truth firmly at any cost and situation. It is also termed as a passive resistance. It was Mr. Maganlal Gandhi, a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, who suggested the name ‘Sadagraha’ which was further modified into Satyagraha. Satyagraha is termed as a weapon of weak. There is a slight difference between Satyagraha and Passive Resistance, as although they are synonyms but there are some quite differences among them . 

In Satyagraha , it is essential to always speak the truth and follow the path of non-violence as the person who does that called “ Satyagrahi “ in order to gain their rights and equality whereas in passive resistance , it is not essential to speak truth all the time , it means to fulfil their rights no matter there would be violence or not . Gandhiji believed that Satyagraha should not be used for political benefits but only for universal struggle or for any type of injustice. He made certain rules to follow Satyagraha, there are: 

• The very first weapon of Satyagraha is “ Ahimsa” which means non – violence or the path of peacefulness . 
• The second important weapon is truth , Gandhi ji believed that a person who always says truth can never be differed from the ideology of Satyagraha . 
• Secularism , i.e. to preach each and every religion equally was his third most important weapon to maintain brotherhood between all the citizens as he always believes every religion , caste and class as equal before the humanity. 
• Another important weapon is to introduce and promote “ Swadeshi “ products which will help to encourage the domestic weavers and spinners to involve in the Satyagraha movement to eradicate the westernized products and abolish them from our nation . 
• A person involved in Satyagraha must be away from alcohol and all the other intoxicants . 

ERADICATION OF UNTOUCHABILITY 

This involves that all men and women are equal irrespective of their caste , creed colour , race or sex and no one is allowed to humiliate any individual on the basis of these above factors as this act is punishable by law . Gandhi ji worked his best for the betterment and upliftment of the untouchables and this made him to gave them a particular and unique name which is “ Harijans” i.e. men of god . This one event had changed the perspective of many people who were ruining the life of the lower caste people . And things were changed in a more positive manner when this matter went under the leadership of Dr. B.R Ambedkar as he wrote several laws for the betterment of the lower caste people because he had himself faced these situations after all he also belonged to the same community . Therefore , Gandhi ji and B.R Ambedkar were two most important personalities who were involved in the eradication of untouchablity among the citizens of the country . 

SECULARIAM 

Secularism refers to all religions as equal and no religion or preaching are above or beyond in comparison to others . Gandhi ji truly believed in one religion and that is Humanity . He always taught that we all are the creation of one god and as he was a Hindu follower he read all the Hindu Mythological books along with all the sacred books of other religions like the Bible , Quran and the Korean books . But after reading all the holy books he find them all very similar to each other and he concluded his study with the fact that all the religions are equal and everyone should believe in one god . He never misbehaved or tried to impose his religion on others. We have read his childhood and never found him extraordinary; in fact, he was as simple and common as a child be but the concept and ideology, he developed were really admirable. 

In the pre-independent era, people were tightly bound up with their caste and religion and if they thought of anything like mingling up with other religion, they could also be thrown out of their village. But Gandhiji had the courage to bear all but to eradicate all types of taboos from society. 

The British were well aware of the conflict between Hindus and Muslims and made certain rules and laws to divide the nation and follow the divide and rule policy, but it was Gandhiji who never succeeded them in their plan and did not let this happen. 

ENCOURAGING SWADESHI 

As the citizens of India , it is the responsibility of its citizens to make its country wealthy and prosperous . Gandhiji had a great vision and understood the importance of homemade things (Made in the nation). As it was a new trick of Britishers to torture Indians. Gandhiji stated why we should rely on others to make our clothes or for other requirements and he encouraged khadi. As he stated: 

“The cleanest and the most popular form of Swadeshi are to stimulate hand-spinning and hand-weaving and to arrange for a judicious distribution of yarn and cloth so manufactured.” 

Gandhiji helped in making our country more economically independent and stable by encouraging our domestic weavers and spinners to make “ khadi “ products and  awaring more and more population to use these domestic products . His ideas made him The Father of the Nation. There were other freedom fighters also, but it was Gandhiji who gained so much importance because of the ideologies he developed and was successful in his plans.   

He was not born with a silver spoon in terms of beliefs and ideology. He was a common child with a shy nature, who developed himself to be great. Gandhiji had a reading habit and was good in Literature and writers like Plato, Ruskin, Thoreau, Mazzini, Tolstoy, Emerson, Dadabhai Naoroji and Romesh Chander Dut had great influence in his life and helped him to develop his own ideology. 

His ideologies of moderates, extremists, and the education system in India all are remarkable and he was a person who worked for the overall development of the nation. He will always be alive among us and will always be remembered as Bapu. 

So , we have discussed about the ideologies of Mahatma Gandhi and the significance of his thinking but now lets talk about the ideologies and its of Nathuram Godse , the person who killed or assassin the father of our nation Mahatma Gandhi . 

Also, read  Gandhi’s role in the Partition of India.

NATHURAM GODSE 

Nathuram Godse or Nathuram Vinayak Godse was born on 19 May 1910 and died on 15 November 1949 was a member of the political party i.e. the Hindu Mahasabha, he was also a former member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( RSS ) , a right wing Hindu paramilitary volunteer organization and a popularizer of the work of his mentor Vinayak Damodar Savarkar who had created the ideology of Hindutva and ridiculed the philosophy of non-violence more than two decades earlier. Godse believed Gandhi to have favoured the political demands of British India’s Muslims during the partition of India in 1947.

And as we know that Nathuram Godse is the very man who assassinated 'Mahatma' 

Gandhi, the 'Father of the Nation' on 30th January 1948 as he was walking towards his prayer ground at the Birla House, New Delhi. He was arrested at the scene of the crime and sentenced to death by hanging after a trial that lasted for over a year. But the question is why he killed Gandhi ? It had accused Gandhi of having betrayed Hindus by being too pro-Muslim and soft on Pakistan. They even blamed him for the bloodshed that marked Partition, which saw India and Pakistan created after independence from Britain in 1947. A trial court sentenced Godse to death a year after the assassination. 

He also wrote a book “ Why I Killed Gandhi “ , in which he wrote his ideologies his way of mind and what he thinks about Gandhi . It was indeed true that Nathuram Godse was not a criminal and he had killed only one man in his life and he also surrendered himself when he killed Gandhi . So , why did he killed Gandhi ? And can’t he just try to talk to Gandhi if he had any differences with him but why he had only the  option of killing Gandhi ? 

Actually , Nathuram Godse did not liked Gandhi’s ideologies and perspective as many of the Indians still did not like it . But the followers of Gandhi said that if Pakistan did not formed , we wouldn’t have got independence till now and Godse was totally against of this theory . He knew if he would kill Gandhi then what will be its after effects but still he did this sin and never regretted it . According to him, Gandhi and his followers always stand out to oppose the British Government policies but after sometime , they try to compensate with them and gradually accept the decisions of the colonial rule . If it wasn’t true , then the Pakistan would not have been formed several years back . Nathuram Godse had very strict rules and disciplines towards his ideology whereas Gandhi did not oppose any ideology rather he brought his own ideology and wanted everyone to choose between the right or wrong according to themselves . Gandhi never forced anyone to become his follower or to join him but all he wanted was just to spread peace and non – violence . 

On the other side Godse believed that at the time of partition , India was all set to negotiate and ready to sent its Muslims to Pakistan whereas many of our Hindu citizens were prosecuted on the other side which were not released by them . Thousands of Hindus were killed everyday, 15 Lakh sikhs were brutally murdered on the gunpoint. Hindu Women were taken out for processions, nude. They were sold just as Animals. Lakhs of Hindus had to save their Religion and run. If Indian Government pressurized Pakistan Government or warned them of a similar treatment to Muslims in India then I believe this situation would not have come. But they did nothing to save the Hindu community there.  

Nathuram did not agreed on the fact that Indian Government was fully under the control of Mahatma Gandhi and if the newspapers wrote about the conditions of our Hindus there , it was meant to spread hatred among the two groups . He knew that after Press Emergency Act , everything will be changed and Gandhi did not have any genuine answer for the general public about the reason for doing so . Nathuram argued , Gandhi never catered to the demands of his own citizens rather he always supported the partition and was one of the major reasons why our Bhagat Singh , Lal Bahadur Shastri  and several other freedom strugglers had to sacrificed their life . 

He also mentioned that Gandhi went on a hunger strike or “ Anshan “ for getting the Mosques in Delhi free from Hindus and it was totally obvious that Hindus were residing there because of their helplessness ; not for their enjoyment and comfort . Nathuram mentioned that he could have poisoned Gandhi or would killed him in any other way which could possibly look like a natural death but he did not do so , he chose to kill him with bullets so he could tell the world , the truth that would never came out otherwise .Lastly , Nathuram Godse hanged on 15^th November 1949 in Ambala jail for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi . So these were the consequences of his ideologies against Gandhi . 

Also, read  Ideological differences between Gandhi and Bose.