---Abandoning the Father---

If you've observed closely, you'll see that Mahatma Gandhi's craze has taken a beating in the past few years. Infact, on the popularity charts, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose is scores above any other national leader.. There are 2 primary connotation to it.. But right now let me talk about one of them.. Gandhiji talked about peace, and Netaji talked about war.. There is no denying the fact that Gandhiji did a lot more than Netaji in terms of winning India Independence. Then why is this shift?? The reason lies again in History. Let's take the example from China. A (not so) gentleman named "Mao Tse Tung" got China it's communist system, liberating millions from poverty. He remained a national hero for more than 5 decades inspite of the fact that his policies bombed badly leading to unpresedented death and killing of lakhs. Till his death, the Chinese literally worshiped him. But something radical has happened since his death in the mid-90s. The Chinese have (almost abruptly) forgotten him. Proof!! Even the revised history books donot have any mention of this person.. Well.. it's not even a decade since his death and such a treatment? Now here is the catch.. The Chinese government have been very quick to realize the fact that a national hero who was a vetran in Gurilla warfare and rude dictator holds NO relevence in today's market-driven economy.The text books that now gets published are more of economic history rather than political history. There is hardly few mention of this leader in the textbooks The idea is to groom the future generations with heavy doses of economic jargons and financial condition of China's economic rather than who ruled when and who fought whome.. Ruthless right?? Absolutely, But then it's very very futuristic. NOW let's get back to India. We in India can have a bloodbath if someone talks any shit about Gandhi(ji). Yet we all bitch about him on every 15th August, 2nd October and 26th January..(noone remembers him the rest of the year anyway). So What EXACTLY is the problem.. Well, Simple. Gandhian principles holds no relevence to us atall.. We've fought so many wars and pseodo-wars with Pakistan and couldn't do anything about Kashmir. We keep talking about peaceful talks and some smart terrorists keep fu***ng up our happiness with bigger and bigger blasts. Deep within, we all know that Indian government ought to be agressive in matter of such grave concern. This is the reason, This is were Netaji's popularity comes into picture.. We Indians are craving for that kind of a mindset and that kind of a national hero.. In this era of globalization where wars are fought for controlling oil prices and where American Dream opens up divisions in former USSR, Gandhian fundas of PEACE hold no relevence. Now the hard question? Is it right to abondon traditional national heros just the way China did to Mao Tse Tung? I think "Yes" Is it the right time to abondon "The Father of Nation" along with his peace message? I think "No" Not that I'm a die-hard fan of Gandhiji or anything.. Infact I don't even believe foolish peace process... The problem is that over the last 60 years historians have over-emphasised on "PEACE-PHYLOSOPHY", over-shadowing all the economic arm-twisting and marketing strategies he adopted to get India it's priced freedom. Now let me tell you, if you think that Britishers got IMPRESSED by Gandhiji's PEACE LESSONS, and left India, you are sadly mistaken. Very few of us really understand how come in 1947, we got free. It's a very contemporary anti-marketing strategy he followed back then in early 20th century. The Britishers were here to make money. Most of the money came from selling goods in India at high price.. Gandhiji understood this too well. He boycotted any use of foreign good (including cloth and salt.. Remember!!) thus impacting their revenue streams. Such acts made India a non-lucrative place to rule. Parallely, he kept propogating the fact that Indians were exploited in their own motherland, thus raising international opinion against Britain and giving it a bad name... .. and many more...There can be volumes of books that can be written on Gandhiji's strategies against the British. It's time we teach our children the economic perspective of what Gandhiji did forour country. This will make a lot more sense...It makes more sense to teach the net loss the Britishers had to bear to Dandi March rather than telling them that he walked 100Km...! I guess it's still now time we abondon Gandhiji, but it's time we change what we tell about Gandhiji of what he did for us.. And as for Netaji's popularity, well I'm yet to figure out how exactly Netaji contributed in winning us freedom.. (Did, INA fight any war against the British??) We do want an agressive leader as on date... Someone we really don't have.... Netaji maynot be the right choice as he never got a chance to lead the whole nation... IF any of my opinion offended you then I cannot help it.. That's the way I am...