A grateful nation will remember Mahatma Gandhi on his martyrdom day on 30th January, people will pay their homage and talk about his sacrifices and his greatness. Over the years, remembering Gandhi has become more of a ritual and a formal ceremony than actually following the path he had shown to the people.

In the modern era, Mahatma Gandhi is the single biggest gift from India to the world. His principals and his entire life are a parameter for any statesman or a leader of world stature to look up to lead the world. It is so amazing to know how futuristic and far thinking approach he had about common Indian and the whole world. Seventy-two years later, his principals and vision about India and the world are equally relevant as they were at that time, in fact his views about upliftment of the last man in the queue and social justice are the need of hour today. It is indeed sad that we today have made Gandhi and his teachings a subject of debate and discussion and it will be very difficult to find many people following the path shown by him.

Many political parties use the name Gandhi as a trademark that belongs to them. Gandhi can not belong to any party; he is a world treasure and a heritage which belongs to everyone. A true Gandhian is one who follows his principles and lives the life by his “sarvjan hitay sarvjan sukhay” motto, means think of others happiness and their well being before your own. In a world today, which is sitting almost at a brink of another world war, Gandhian way must be made mandatory to save this world from a horrific destruction of people and civilisation. Any form of violence is not the solution of a problem but unfortunately most people and countries around the world resort to fights and wars to prove their supremacy and their point of view. People are fighting for least insignificant issues like religion or having different opinions about a problem. While the common goal for all should be the welfare of their people. Gandhi would have been a very sad man if he was alive today, looking at the plight of the common man. All the governments talk about welfare of common man but how much good has been done in seventy-two years is anybody’s guess.

The year 2020 happens to be 150th year of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth also. I think it is high time that we all should now make efforts to bring name Gandhi out from the textbooks and discussions and start leading our lives on the principals and path shown by him. The world surely will be a better place if we all genuinely follow his teachings. This will be our best tribute to him and those several thousands of people who laid their live during the freedom struggle fighting against the British oppression. Religions, faiths and castes are all created by men and any individual’s inclination towards any faith should be that person’s private matter and not something of public show.

Mahatma Gandhi strongly believed that you can only be happy if your neighbour is happy which is so true. All good work starts from your own home so if we want to see peace, equality and harmony in the world, the first change we’ll need to make is in ourselves. To make the any change in the world we will have to lead it by our own example and then the change will surely happen.

-Yugal Parashar