Thursday, March 31, 2011

We Need Iconoclasts!!

The recent controversy in India related to the publication of 'Great Soul - Mahatma Gandhi and his Struggles with India', penned by Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Joseph Lelyveld, invited huge criticism by politicians and the so-called Gandhians.

The book alleged that Gandhi was a bisexual and claims that the arguments are really based on a diary written by Gandhi himself. The Maharashtra govt requested the central govt to ban the book. All the intellectuals in the country started great cry over the issue as if they really care about Gandhi. The Gandhians and the Gandhi Party [Congress] should make it clear that whether they really follow his footsteps. If not, which very clear, why do they create such dramas in front of the people. It is their necessity to maintain the sacred image of Gandhi, to sell his image and acquire maximum vote from the people.


No party in India really believed in the ideas of Gandhi. Actually most of his arguments in Hind Swaraj seem very childish. The arguments might be relevant but who wants to follow those? Even if we believe in Gandhi and are Gandhians ourselves do we need to criticise a book, and ban it merely because the author did not agree with us. We actually want some iconoclasts. We always go for ready -made icons and worship them. But very rarely we dare to question our core values. Let us come out from the comfort-zones and start question everything. Believe me it is not against Gandhi; he was the greatest iconoclast the world has ever seen.

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