Monday 31 March 2014

Gandhi and villagers and religion

All the wisdom i read in Gandhi, I see in Eashwaramma (dalit, landless, very poor, undernourished). 

I see in the villages a living faith in god. They are able to share their last meal with a poorer person, and say that god will show the way to their own next meal.

I see in the villages respect for all religions. The villagers, Hindu and devout, say of Jesus, 'He is also a good god'.

Gandhi had learnt his wisdom from Eashwaramma. The indentured workers Gandhi had spent twenty years with in S.Africa, were all Eashwarammas, and there he had grown to see, understand and revere the knowledge of the unlettered Indians and to make it his own. 
Gandhi has always said that his wisdom is that of the ordinary Indians, and that he is only speaking for them.

Eashwaramma's own wisdom is of the soil. The village people are rooted in their Bharatam (the 18 day harikatha and drama of the Mahabharata), the Vinayaka temple, the Gangamma and Yerpachchamma worships and rituals, their Brahmayya garu ... and it is a common pan Indian wisdom.

... non-violent, non-virulent, all-encompassing, highly moral and in the deepest sense as of Gandhi's.



A discussion …

Aparna Krishnan - Gandhiji read the Koran in depth, the Bible in depth and bowed his head to both.

X -  i am not sure if he read them in depth. He was essentially cherry picking

Aparna Krishnan - Gandhiji was a deeply devout Hindu, like our village people (all dalits, avarnas !) are. In Eashwaramma, poor and landless, I hear all that Gandhi said. and realize that Gandhi's philosophy was based on, and learnt from, the ordinary of the country like Eashwaramma. My village people hang of their necks the lockets of tirupathi Balaji, Vinayaka and Jesus. they are not cherry picking. they are deeply religious people. Amen.

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