As we observe Human Rights day today, we are reminded of Mahatma Gandhi's historic struggle. He stood for the right to freedom, right to dignity and equality, and the right to freedom from bondage, poverty, untouchability and discrimination — the essence of human rights.
Two transformative incidents — both of which took place in South Africa in 1893 — moulded Gandhi's life and marked the beginning of his struggle against racial divisiveness, foreign rule, slavery and indentured labour. The first was his eviction from the first class railway compartment at Pietermaritzburg station by a white railway official who had nothing but deep hatred for "coolies" and "Samis" —- pejoratives used for Indian settlers. The second incident was a news item, in The Natal Mercury about a proposed bill to deprive Indians of their right to elect representatives to the Legislative Assembly. He firmly believed that all human beings are equal and he would wonder "how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings".
He was just 24 when he decided to stay on and fight. He thought, to use Louis Fischer's words, "To flee leaving his countrymen in their predicament would be cowardice. The frail lawyer began to see himself in the role of David assailing Goliath of social discrimination." His struggle — or the satyagraha — lasted 20 years. His victory came when the discriminatory bill which had become an Act had to be repealed.
On his return to India in 1901, young Gandhi proceeded to Calcutta to attend the annual session of the Indian National Congress. There he did something which nobody would have even thought of before. Some delegates had soiled the place. He picked up a broom, cleared the night soil from the venue of the session — a task which the high-born loathed as they believed it was reserved only for the untouchables. It was his first step towards social regeneration and ridding the untouchables of indignities they had suffered for ages. Their pain pierced his soul.
At the next session of Congress, Rajkumar Shukla — an emaciated peasant from Champaran approached Gandhiji and requested him to visit Champaran to see the how the Indigo growers were being reduced to serfdom by exploitative agrarian system.
Dandi March was Gandhi's first act of civil disobedience, a novel method — not known up to then to history — to fight injustice. Salt —the "condiment of the poor" — was so taxed to make it "burdensome" for them to buy it. At the end of the 24 days marathon marching on foot, he broke the salt laws by lifting a handful of salt from a beach in Gujarat. Expectedly, he was arrested and imprisoned but was saluted by the people. Sarojini Naidu, standing beside him, hailed him as a "deliverer". It was a historic triumph of the "battle for the right over might".
His ashram represented both the diversity and harmony of India — for its inmates were from all classes, castes, religion and provinces of India and even from overseas. There he served them with compassion and nursed the sick without hesitation. Even leprosy — a disease dreaded as a curse — did not deter him from nursing a patient and friend, Parchure Shastri. He was admitted to Sevagram on the condition that Gandhi would personally nurse his wounds and he will not be permitted to die!
Gandhi perceived that freedom could not be sustained without fighting against poverty — the biggest violator of human rights. He raised his voice against poverty and untouchability yet again in the Congress session at Nagpur and led the passage of a resolution for its complete abolition. In the 20th century annals of human rights, Gandhi was among the first — later, of course, followed by Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and others — who ushered in an era of human dignity and fundamental rights. Human rights became divine rights in reverse; no longer the rights of kings and emperors but of the faceless masses, and of the voiceless people.
An important question before us is: Are human rights safe today? There are dangerous portents to remind us that the rights that Gandhi fought for all his life are falling into jeopardy. The cult of violence he abhorred is raising its head. Poverty and its concomitant inequalities continue to persist. The divisive forces have become active again. The guardians of law have lowered their guard. A steep fall in the standards of governance is leading to erosion of faith in the rule of law. Gandhi did not fail to caution against all this. He had said that the quest for the protection of rights of every human being has to be pursued with full awareness of human duties. In his letter to Julian Huxley he wrote some of his most memorable lines: "I learned from my illiterate but wise mother that all rights (duties) to deserve and preserve come from duty well done. Thus, the very right to live accrues to us when we perform duty of citizenship of the world. From this fundamental statement, perhaps it is easy enough to define the duties of man and woman and co-relate every right to some corresponding duty to be first performed".
The human race is obliged to be worthy of the legacy of this unparalleled apostle of human rights.
