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: Its quite absurd that everyone on this site is only concerned with projects!! Even if you are doing a project on Gandhi, don't you have anything to say about the issue yourselves? : I wrote this some months ago. Here goes. : The most striking and dominant feature of the Gandhian philosophy, was that of democracy. The meaning of this however, has always been misinterpreted. The irony of our situation today is that we are fighting wars for this very thing that we call freedom, by snatching it from somebody else. What Gandhi stood for, was this human right which he made attempts to incorporate through non-violence. We all know that physical violence is the biggest breach of an individual's rights, because you are snatching his very sense of security, in the crudest fashion. All around us, we are facing a struggle. Wars are nothing more than products of past wishes that have been unfulfilled, and rights that have not been delivered. And the complexities only begin here. On one hand, America claims to help Iraq to gain "freedom" from terrorism, fundamentalist groups among different religions are claiming to teach universal truths; and terrorists are claiming to bring justice to the ones who have been silent victims. In this case, what we need to really ask - is who this freedom is really trying to be fought for, and what is it that they REALLY want. : Gandhi refuted this false and ambiguous notion a century ago, with his idea of 'Ahimsa', the blend of truth and non-violence. He believed that violence could only be met by non - violence and this was the harder, but the more permanent route to peace. If violence was met by violence again, it would simply lead to a state of havoc and redundancy. And this is exactly what we have here today. We see it amongst the Hindus and the Muslims, and we see it in the fight for global power. There is simply no end to it, as we create one demolition over another, and end millions of lives over each other. Non-violence proclaims that there be no debate, and no space for a democratic exchange of ideas. This was the dominant philosophy behind Godse's assassination of Gandhi, political parties with vested interests today, as well as fundamentalist organizations among different religions across the world. And it was the belief in secularism that was eventually challenged, with Gandhi's death, as marking one of the most crucial developments of anti-tolerant philosophy. Gandhi's concept of ahimsa applies today in the sense that we need to respect the rights of our fellow men, with the test of truth and non-violence, and after innumerable experiments with war, if this can be the next try, maybe it’s worth it.

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