One man standing…..

Disclaimer: These thoughts are my personal thoughts of which I feel very strongly about. These are not meant to preach or demean anybody’s feelings. This was there in my system for quite some time. I had to take it out.

It set me thinking. One man returning is going to change nothing. Is it really so?Is it really stupid to think otherwise?

If observed carefully the story of Mohan Bhargava in Swades spun by Ashutosh Gowariker will remind us about the life of a person we know. The situations may differ. The predicaments may have a different background. The disparity in the outcome might not be the same. But one thing ties both stories - The Reaction.

I am speaking about the story of none other than Mr.Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Call it coincidence or deliberation that both are Mohan.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. A barrister from England. Starts a legal career in Bombay. Doesn’t make much of headway. Goes back to Rajkot. While living modestly in Rajkot takes up this contract to go to South Africa. The contract is for a year; the remuneration is £ 105, a first class return fare, and actual expenses. The fee is modest, and it is not quite clear whether he is being engaged as counsel or a clerk, but Gandhi wants to get away from Rajkot and accepts the offer with alacrity.
But fate has something else in stored for him. In a Durban court he is ordered by the European magistrate to take off his turban. He is unceremoniously thrown out of the first-class carriage at Maritzburg station.

The other Indians there pocket these humiliations as they pocketed their earnings.But not Mr.Gandhi. He initiates a protest. He initiates a protest against racial discrimination. Against using Identity cards by Indians to set them apart from the Goras and refuses them basic human rights. And the protest is not a, ”Inquilab Zindabaad” or a “Vande Mataram”. The protest is just burning of these identity cards in the town square. A gathering of around 20-25 odd people. Most of who had just come curiously to witness the histrionics of this over smart man called Gandhi. Buss. That’s it. With this modest beginning he gives shape to a philosophy. A philosophy, which had to be endorsed by the west for us to take cognizance. The philosophy of Satyagraha and Ahimsa. After having tasted blood by this humble beginning this man went on to make the South African government bow down to him and sign the Gandhi – Smuts agreement.

There Gandhi realized that one passionate man can make an impact. So he returned. Not with the intention of freeing India from the clutches of the British but to just go back and do something for the motherland. What happened in South Africa for this callow, diffident young man was inner transformation.

An intelligent Indian NASA scientist. A brilliant future ahead of him. Comes to India to meet his nanny. Takes notice of an India that he had just read and heard about but never seen and felt. The experience tugs his heart. He tries to do make a difference. He gets them out of darkness although in a literal sense. He goes back to his bright future. But the lure of the brightness doesn’t seem to entice him anymore. He returns. He returns to make a difference. He returns above all for himself. He wouldn’t have been able to live with it otherwise.

For those who think that Mohan Bhargava came back to India for the people in the village, then my dear friends you are sadly mistaken. He comes back for himself. That’s because there still exists the phenomenon called conscience in him, which compels him to come back. You know why? Because he realizes the difference that he can make in those villagers life. By bringing electricity to the village, he has tasted blood. Unless one actually does it, one would never know the difference that can be created. That’s exactly what happened with Mohan Bhargava. If he would have returned in a couple of days without doing anything much apart from jumping like a jack on 'yeh tara woh tara' he wouldn’t have come back. He would have cried for the country and its sorry state of affairs for a couple of months and then moved on with his bright future. That’s exactly why his Indian colleague can’t relate to him and advises him to stay back. Because he hasn’t seen and done something himself he can make a statement like, ”You think just by lighting a bulb you are going to change the system in India?” He can’t. Mohan knows it. So do we.

And realistically speaking he comes back not to become a schoolteacher or a social reformer. He toys with the idea of joining the Sarabhai Research center, which is enough to describe the profound maturity of the director.

I think there is enough merit in drawing a parallel of the reactions of Mohandas Gandhi and Mohan Bhargava. Injustice, poverty,disparity in lifestyles; all of it we see everyday. But what sets some people apart is their reaction to it. If politics and bureaucracy control the country now, it was far worse then, when Gandhi came into the picture.


And yes my friend if this would have been a Hollywood movie it definitely would have ended at the caravan driving out of the village. You know why? Because they are still new to this concept of conscience and its pangs. That’s exactly the reason we have a Gandhi and they don’t.

Its time we realized the power of ONE.