A series of revelations about the history of the Indian National Congress and our founding fathers by the twitter crusaders True Indology, Saswati Sarkar, Shanmukh, Dimple Kaul and The Indian Interest etc. shook the pillars of our modern history and the age old understanding of the Indian independence movement, specifically M.K. Gandhi. Decades of distorted concoctions by Marxist historians and politicised education covered up the farces of our founding fathers for the future generations, and that is a fact. However what I am more interested in is, how come people like Gandhi, Nehru, and others could able to influence millions of Indians in the early 20th Century? Did our ancestors possess less wisdom, or there was a technically uber PR machinery on the ground which propagated the ideology of Gandhi and Nehru above everyone else? These are the questions which really troubled me. I strongly believe that history repeats itself. The big advantage what the latter generation has, is that they can learn and see the mistakes committed by the former, in order to avert a tragedy. There are huge parallels between the Independence year of 1947 and the 2014 election year. Let's examine how did Gandhi's inner psychology transformed him into Mahatma and Nehru into the virtue of righteousness for a free India. Also, how someone tried to play the same old trick of the books and failed miserably.
I was listening to a powerful inspirational video of US Congressman Trey Gowdy, who was addressing the convocation of Liberty University, Virginia. In that speech, he touched upon a very subtle but extremely important topic - "The power to PERSUADE". He said, "Insulting people does not work, if your intention is to persuade. You know what happens when you're insulted, You become even more dogmatic in holding your incorrect beliefs than you were before you were insulted". He was spot on. His intentions are for the good of the American people and the society. But this same analogy will explain why the likes of Gandhi and Nehru were so successful.
During the start of the 20th century, freedom fighters like Shri. Rasbehari Bose, Shri. Veer Surendra Sai, Shri. Alluri Sitarama Raju, and others openly confronted British and insulted them for their oppression on our country. On the contrary, the likes of MKG and JLN persuaded the Brits with their talk of Swarajya, which had multiple definitions as exposed by our twitter crusaders. The first step of the Gandhian ideology is to persuade and conquer the enemy psychologically which they achieved during the first 15 or 20 years of 20th century. The next target is to conquer the minds of the Indian people. But the Jallianwallah bagh massacre of 1919 shook the very foundations which these folks have crafted and built carefully. Now the elephant in the room was not the British, but the revolutionary fervour which was instilled in youth like Shri. Bhagat Singh, Shri. Chandrasekhar Azad, Shri. Ram Prasad Bismil, Shri. Ashfaqullah Khan to name a few, which was spreading like wildfire across the sub continent. In addition to this, the peasant revolts under the leadership of Shri. Baba Ram Chandra really aggravated the mood of the country. This was a serious threat to the established pseudo monarchy which the likes of MKG, JLN, Motilal Nehru and others enjoyed. The card of persuasion has to be played again. This time, the people who need to conned are not the British Imperialists, who didn't have an iota of understanding of our Indian culture; but our fellow countrymen. A tag team was established where MKG invoked the ethos of Hinduism and Islam (the Satyagraha, ahimsa etc.) and persuaded the common masses. On the other hand, the elegant, extravagant, gentlemanly lifestyle of JLN persuaded the city dwellers and the upper classes who saw in him - "The Desi Dora". That's the reason why, even the fiercest critiques of MKG and JLN in the old era never confronted their ideas openly. Such was the power of their persuasion.
Fast forward it to 2014, the scene was an exact opposite much to the liking of the US Congressman who was quoted above. AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal tried to persuade people on the flank of Anti-Corruption, Holier than thou image. He insulted many in the due process. The latter generation, who learnt from the mistakes of their former in a very hard way; and the advent of technology in the form of social media averted the tragedy of paving him the pathway to the most powerful office of our nation.
I would leave it to the imagination of the viewer, what would have happened if history repeated itself!
Vande Mataram
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