Although it was the movie Lage Raho Munnabhai that inspired me towards this phrase, its origin and meaning is before that. The term Gandhigiri refers to following the ideals of Gandhi as a role model. Some of the most common values that spring to mind are non-violence, kindness and taking responsibility and ownership.
There are numerous blog posts and articles talking about these facets of Gandhi and I will refrain from the details of it. This website and its articles are only about quotes and their meaning. The reason why this term stayed with me was because of the niceness of the values established. These are the same values that come through some of the Gandhi Quotes.
The things that make us happy – Gandhigiri
It gets me thinking, most times we look at a few things as idealistic situations, some of which our brain says can never happen. But my question is, why do we smile? It was not a smile of contempt, it was a smile of respect. I consider myself a realist (Although I keep writing about ideals quite a bit :D.. Irony right? ;) ).. But I guess, I wouldn’t have given that innocent smile if I found the idea ludicrous. A part of me wanted to believe that it was true.
Then I thought lets look at it logically, all ideas in the movie are pretty simple. It is about the beauty of love and affection, even to the person hurting us and even if it is not the easiest thing to do. The easiest way is to curse and fight. Going a level up – Non Violence is a beautiful philosophy, Maybe it solves the problem, maybe it doesn’t. I wouldn’t want to debate that. But it is something I would love to do, not cos I want to make the world a better place or teach someone a lesson. It is just that the moment I imagine doing these, I imagine the set of emotions that I would go through and that makes me smile.
Bottom line – You and I may consider Gandhi as an idealist or anything we want but I guess truth is a lot simpler. I am a simple selfish girl and all I am looking at is a little happiness and in the process if I have an opportunity to be the bigger person and create a difference, WHY NOT?! ;)
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Another irony is that , to appeal to the people of India and to make a commercial box office success , even a towering personality like Gandhiji should walk throughout as a fictional , dreamy character. That may be due to the reason that “gandhism ” is so simple that we , the complex creatures take a life time to understand even a bit of it , even then it is a great service to the humanity…
That’s so true Phani, like it is said- Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Perhaps Gandhi understood that very well and took it in his stride while he advocated the efficacy of the thought. I think it is probably the multiple interpretations where people have held it in different dimensions and painted it with different colors confusing the ideal all the same..
Like you said, the beauty is in its simplicity. And unfortunately most people have made it appear like a fiction, maybe harder for us to try sort out the meaning for them. Well, I guess its their loss :)
I loved the precision in all of your points. Keep up the good work :)
Thank you Indrani for the kind words :).. Would love to keep writing more and more.
Thank you for stopping by and the lovely words, keeps us inspired :)