Relevance of Gandhian Values in Todays Times

The Relevance Of Gandhi For All Times
By Ravi Kumar (General Open Category)
MAHATMA GANDHI - the greatest of our leaders. He lit the imagination of the entire nation. There is a basic lesson of Indian History. Our people have always taken their moral standards from their rulers; the people have risen to great heights when they have basked in the glow of noble kings or leaders. The present generation is waiting for a leader who will make it relearn the moral values, and who will inculcate in the people, as Gandhi did, a sense of the responsibilities which fall on every citizen of a free society.
The waste of human ability energy and money on armament will continue unabated, and diversion of world resources to development will remain a pipe dream, so long as man does not learn the great lesson which Gandhi preached so convincingly in our own times-viz. non-violence is the law of our species. The diversion of world resources to development stands no practical chance of being heeded unless and until the balance of terror is replaced by the balance of terror is replaced, by the balance of reason.
Although it is true that India has been an integrated nation since olden times; it is also true that on the present context Gandhian values have special significance for national integration. Today communal amity has become essential for national integration and hence Gandhi gave it the highest priority. By communal unity Gandhiji did not mean merely paying lip service to 'bhaibhai-ism'. He meant it to be an unbreakable heart unity'. In the religious context Gandhi emphasized that communal unity has to be based on equal respect for all religions. Everyone, Gandhi said, must have the same regard for other faiths as he had for his own. Such respect would not only remove religious rifts but lead to a realization of the fact that religion was a stabilizing force, not a disturbing element. Gandhi's basic axiom was that religion since the scriptures of all religions point only in...