Who Is Gandhi Today?

by Tim Huang

[A touching description of “Gandhi in today’s world” from a Q&A with Rajmohan Gandhi –one of Gandhi’s grandsons– during a retreat. Originally posted Feb 18, 2020.]

Q: Who is Gandhi today?

A: I would say about today’s Gandhi, the Gandhi that I would want to present to the world today, that he would be a citizen of planet Earth. Yes, he would be very much an Indian, but he would also belong to the whole world. He would be an African, he would be a South American, he would be a Native American, he would be a Russian, he would be an Arab, he would be a Jew, he would be an Iranian, he would be Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Pakistani.

He would definitely be somebody utterly passionate about every single corner of this world. He would be very concerned about the environment.

But I think on some issues he would be unchanged. He would still remain totally opposed to hatred.

Sometimes I feel that when we are in wonderful circles of joy, radiance, love, and appreciation — when we dance together, cheerfully and spontaneously — we forget that there is a great deal of hate in the world. There is a lot of suffering in the world, sorrow in the world, and there is also hate in the world. And hate also of course causes fresh islands of sorrow and tears.

So Gandhi would today continue to say that hatred is wrong. He would foster love, but he would also speak truth to power and he would speak truth about hatred, malice and ill-will. As some of his thoughts that were displayed on the screen also disclosed, Gandhi absolutely was willing to be in a minority of one. He fearlessly opposed trends that he saw as unhealthy. He would certainly build bridges between everybody. He would recall, especially, our world’s disabled, handicapped, and vulnerable — its mentally and physically challenged, its unwell — and he would want all of us to work together to assist them.

He would want our world of talkers also to become a world of listeners. These are some thoughts I have about Gandhi 3.0.