I was reading this topic about Gandhi,…thought to share with you guyz and find out the truth,…
First some background. Gandhi was a practicing attorney in South Africa when racism led him to return to British India around 1915. He immersed himself in efforts to win India’s independence from Britain by non-violent methods. Along the way, he helped emancipate millions suffering under the caste system, and by his conduct exemplified promptness and austerity. **He also laid the foundations of socialism and indirectly contributed to the creation of Pakistan. **
Lets start with India’s freedom struggle. With terrorism and war on everyone’s minds, doubtlessly there are some who pine for non-violence. However, before we start adopting non-violence as course 101 in military school, we should examine its track record. Except for the civil rights movement in US, non-violence has never worked. **One of the biggest misconceptions is that India gained independence because of Mohandas Gandhi. Far from it – it was World War II’s violence that exhausted the British to the point that they could not sustain an empire anymore. India would have become independent, Gandhi or no Gandhi. **Even if one were to assume that India obtained independence courtesy Gandhi, consider that it took him 32 years. Contrast that with the five years it took America under Washington’s army to achieve the same goal. Another unappreciated facet is that for non-violence to work, the opponent has to respect it. The British, despite all their colonial faults, did that. Can you imagine how long Mohandas Gandhi would have lasted in front of Hitler, Mao, or Saddam Hussein?
So on Gandhi’s birthday, as we wage a war on terrorism, let us not forget that by and large, non-violence does not work and when it does, it is under special circumstances. The war on terrorism is not one of those special circumstances and we have to be resolute and determined.
Another aspect of Gandhi was his concept of self-sufficiency. His theory was that if Indians made everything themselves, they would not have to import anything from Britain, thus depriving the English of trade and tax revenue. The problem is that no country is completely proficient in goods and services. Free trade allows each country to excel in an aspect and to leverage its expertise. But Gandhi did not see it that way, and his vision was further propagated by his anointed successor, Nehru. India thus embarked on a socialist path after independence. To judge its effect, it would suffice to point out that South Korea, a country that took the capitalistic route, had a per capita income lower than India in 1947. It is eight times that of India today.
So on Gandhi’s birthday, as Americans loose jobs in this global economy and start considering erecting trade barriers, remember India’s failed experiment with economic populism and socialism. Free trade does not mean unequal trade, such as that we have with China that has artificially kept its currency low. Free trade does mean honest and fair trade and we have to enforce all aspects of it.
Finally, let us address the creation of Pakistan. **Despite Gandhi’s assertions that British India would be divided over his dead body, **the opposite took place. This at the behest of Mohammad Jinnah, the father of Pakistan, and Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. The former was also a lawyer in India who disagreed with **Gandhi’s method and detested the personality cult surrounding him. He was particularly infuriated with Gandhi’s blind affection for Nehru. Jinnah came to the conclusion that the partiality shown to Nehru was due to the fact that Gandhi and Nehru were both Hindus, whereas he, Jinnah, was Muslim. He decided that Muslims could not get fair and equal treatment in largely Hindu India, **and that a new Muslim country would have to be created. The rest, as they say, is history. The American reader should be well aware that India and Pakistan are belligerent nuclear neighbors quite capable of annihilating large portions of each other. With nuclear proliferation and nuclear winter important concepts, surely the reader will appreciate the importance of the dispute between the two countries.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1155084/posts#comment
