Ghandigiri

I had to get my driving license made from Chandigarh. On our way, I asked my husband what his opinion was regarding the relevance of gandhism in today’s world.
“I don’t deny that if we all follow Gandhian values, the world would be a better place”, he said. “But it makes more economic sense in today’s world to not follow them”.
“Economic sense?” I was curious to know what he meant.
“Yes, economic sense. Let’s take the example of your driving license. You have two options. First, you can spend days or even weeks standing in queues and getting your license made in the so called correct way. For that you will not only invest a lot of time and energy but also will be asked to go to n number of government offices. The second method is to bribe the person responsible for the entire process. In fact, even if you don’t want to bribe him, he would expect it from you.”
I asked myself inwardly about what I would do. Did I have so much time to invest in merely toggling from one queue to another? More importantly, did I have that much patience? Sadly, my answer was no. He was right. I would not think twice in shelling out a few bucks to get my work done in lesser amount of time if I could.
“Corruption has seeped into every system to such an extent that even if you try to bypass it, it won’t let you do that. Time is money today and no one has so much patience or time to follow the rules.”
“But aren’t we responsible for this corruption. Had we all followed Gandhian values right from the beginning, this situation would not have emerged?” I asked.
“No. Think of a house where there are three people and there is a basket which has three apples. Earlier, each person could get one apple each and the thought of stealing never came to anyone’s mind because each person was content. Now the number of people in the house increased to 6 but the number of apples remained the same. Though, the 6 people tried to be content with half an apple each but how long would that be with the number of people increasing more rapidly than the amount of resources to fulfill their needs.”
I could not question his analogy. Can you give an answer to this?
Finally, we came to Chandigarh and after eating food I asked the maid of the house if she knew who Gandhi ji was. “Bade neta the na (he was a great leader)?” she said. I nodded. “Do you know what values he taught us?” I asked her. “Padai kahan se Karen bhabhi (how can I study)?” She said. She told me that she had 6 sisters and 2 brothers. Her father had died long back. Her mother and all the sisters were working in order to run the house and support the education of their brothers. “pad likh lenge to naukri mil jayegi. Phir shayad aise kaam na karna pade (if my brothers study, they will get jobs. Maybe, then we won’t have to work like this)”. Gandhi ji was just a big leader for her and nothing else. I’m sure it is the same for her other sisters also.
I went to the license office the next day. I didn’t have to stand in the queue because the person in charge knew my father-in-law very well. I was asked to go to another room. But I was not alone there. There were 5 more people like me in the room.
“You all have to take an online test. “
A girl was made to login first. She scored 4 out of ten and was declared fail by the computer. The officer wrote “pass” on her file and told her to go to the next room. “Do I have to give the driving test also?” she asked the officer. He just smiled and told her that she had cleared all formalities necessary and she didn’t need to worry.
The same process continued for all the other. Some people passed the online test and some didn’t. But that made no difference. They all had passed the test of being affiliated to someone who knew the officer or had bribed him enough to overlook the results of the test.
“If this test result means nothing then why are you making us take it?” I finally asked him. “Madam, formality to poori karni padti hai (we have to do this formality).”
I asked him what Gandhi ji meant to him. Is he respected merely because of his status as 'Father of the Nation'? Do people say Gandhi ji and Mahatma as a mark of respect or they simply do to appear politically correct? Or is it because of indoctrination by the educational system?
He smiled and said that if he were to follow gandhism, we all would have been waiting in a long queue without the certainty of our license being made today. He was candid enough to accept that Gandhi ji and his values sounded good only in books and lectures. He added that gandhism didn’t hold true in real world.
I stepped out of the office, onto the road. I asked the same questions to a rickshaw walla on the road. He gave me a confused look and asked me, “bethna hai ya mein jaaon (do you want to go somewhere in my rickshaw or should I leave)?” It was not his fault. It was his poverty and illiteracy which made him react like that.
After interviewing people from different spheres of life I realized that it is not Gandhi ji’s principles that have become irrelevant today; it is the impatience of modern times that has lead to the growth of corruption. The root cause of existing disharmony is the egoistic attitude and mutual distrust amongst people and nations.
Gandhi’s ideology about patience, persuasion and perseverance being the three crucial elements for attainment of peace and harmony, have become the need of the hour. Truth and non-violence alone can fight the existing global intolerance and hatred.