Mahatma Gandhi

[Bubbles]

No one is perfect...we all know that. But claiming that anyone of us can calmly stand up to charging horses or that anyone of us can pick up lepers from the streets and care for them personally.....is a little too much!!

There are truly great men and women in this world ...and always have been.  Recognizing their greatness inspires us also to great thoughts and deeds. It is not hero worship.

If every time some such great person is mentioned, someone starts listing out their imperfections, it shows a habitual tendency towards cynicism.  That is not healthy.

I admire some of the things he did.

It's the "recognising their greatness" I take issue with.

What they did was great, but making them into " great people" kind of implies they are beyond criticism.

Being cynical is healthy, in as much as you can recognise a great deed or deeds without getting sucked into the surrounding cult around the persons " Greatness".

Any one of us could pick up lepers from the streets, if we chose too.
We don't on the whole, which is what makes someone else's act great.

Is there something special in calmly standing in front of charging horses? Sounds suicidal to me.

People are always doing things like lying down in the road to stop shootings and protest, or save trees.
Which I imagine is the modern version of calmly standing in front of charging horses.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/05/black-lives-matter-protest-blocks-heathrow-airport-traffic/

https://weresist.org/2016/08/27/activists-lying-down-in-road-to-protest-poor-treatment-of-trans-prisoners/

http://www.thenational.scot/news/glasgow-pensioner-brian-quail-stops-nuclear-warhead-convoy-by-lying-down-in-the-road.14935


Are they all " great" ?

[Sriram]

Well....never mind!! 

[Gonnagle]

Dear Rose,

Three interesting links, I wonder where they all learned the power of peaceful protest, I wonder where Brian got the idea to stop that convoy.

MEET Brian, the 77-year-old Glasgow pensioner who can stop powerful 100 kiloton nuclear warheads using nothing but a pedestrian crossing.

I wonder if you will admit that Gandhi's place in India's history is justified, I wonder if you will admit that Gandhi's place in British, nay World history is justified, I wonder if you will admit that teaching about Gandhi's life in schools is vitally important, given the world they are inheriting is full of terrorism acts and fake heroes that the X factor churn out.

I wonder ( my mind is full of wonder ) if you will admit that you are wrong.

Gonnagle.

[Hope]

Hi Sriram,  I'm with you on most of your post, except for the 'millions of Indian soldiers died' bit.

I would have thought that tens of thousands would have been more accurate?

Where did you get your figures from?

According to wikipedia, 87000 Indian soldiers died in the 2nd World War, but between 1.5 and 2.5 million Indians died from war-related causes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties  So whilst Sri does exaggerate the military death-toll, he isn't too far off the overall death-toll.

[Hope]

Have watched the flm several times, including in a cinema in South India in 1983 or 4.  Possibly the most powerful viewing, but also the most frightening.  Not sure where the break between reels was here in  the UK - but over there it came *immediately* after the Amritsar massacre.  My wife and I were sitting in one of the front-est rows, and were the only white folk in the auditorium at the time as far as we could tell.  As everything paused, we slowly slid down our chairs.  If we hadn't been known in the place - my wife was the nurse of the school we were working in and was therefore responsible for the health not only of the ex-pats, but all the local staff and their families - I'm not sure what would have happened.

[Jack Knave]

If you think globalisation is a bad thing Jack, you definitely backed the wrong side in the referendum. Brexit is likely to result in a great many British jobs being exported, while those 'evil capitalist' that you despise so much will be having a good laugh at all the silly sods who voted for Leave!

The EU are pro-globalization and big players in it. We freed ourselves from the 'Devil'!!!

[Brownie]

   Well I don't follow that, Hope, but hope you enjoyed the film regardless of being a famous person locally  .  I certainly did, went to see it with a friend as soon as it was released.  Quite locally too but I am not well known though doubtless there were others in the audience who knew me and I them.  The film had an impact on me and I've seen it since on small screen.

It's good to have positive role models, historically and now, as long as we recognise they were/are are human beings.  Thank God there are people in the world who are prepared to stick their necks out for a good cause, if they propelled onto the world stage it must be terribly difficult, for them and their families.

[Jack Knave]

I am of course not talking about politics, Govt structures and a federal arrangement or anything of that sort. I am just referring to communication and a sense of mutual respect.

Even the fact that some of us here are talking to each other from different continents is an example of the benefits and positive aspects of this common language and culture. 100 years ago it was unthinkable.

Two sides to every penny.

[Bubbles]

Dear Rose,

Three interesting links, I wonder where they all learned the power of peaceful protest, I wonder where Brian got the idea to stop that convoy.

I wonder if you will admit that Gandhi's place in India's history is justified, I wonder if you will admit that Gandhi's place in British, nay World history is justified, I wonder if you will admit that teaching about Gandhi's life in schools is vitally important, given the world they are inheriting is full of terrorism acts and fake heroes that the X factor churn out.

I wonder ( my mind is full of wonder ) if you will admit that you are wrong.

Gonnagle.

I'm wrong because I don't put people on pedestals?

I have no issue with his cause or peaceful protest, I wasn trying to demonise him.

Just pointing out I'm not into hero worship and believing he was above everyone else as expressed by Sriram or that what he did couldn't hav been done by others.

Sometimes people do great things and don't even get reported let alone idolised.

Perhaps those people in the links worked out their own ideas of peaceful protest, after all people did that before Ghandi was born.

Ghandi didn't invent the peaceful protest.

[Sebastian Toe]

Two sides to every penny.

There are three sides to every penny.
If you can't get something simple as that right..........

[Sriram]

Have watched the flm several times, including in a cinema in South India in 1983 or 4.  Possibly the most powerful viewing, but also the most frightening.  Not sure where the break between reels was here in  the UK - but over there it came *immediately* after the Amritsar massacre.  My wife and I were sitting in one of the front-est rows, and were the only white folk in the auditorium at the time as far as we could tell.  As everything paused, we slowly slid down our chairs.  If we hadn't been known in the place - my wife was the nurse of the school we were working in and was therefore responsible for the health not only of the ex-pats, but all the local staff and their families - I'm not sure what would have happened.

I don't think anything would have happened Hope!   There is no simmering anger against whites or the British or anything of that sort. There have been lots of whites living in India for decades and all of them are fine and very well treated. 

[trippymonkey]

I've NEVER had any problems in India - the Indians seem to still look on us as friends ?!?!?
Typical fantastic Indian attitude - Shah Bash !!!

Nick

[Bubbles]

I've NEVER had any problems in India - the Indians seem to still look on us as friends ?!?!?
Typical fantastic Indian attitude - Shah Bash !!!

Nick

I should think it's a very interesting country.

Very big and I expect very different culturally across the whole.

We only tend to get curries and standard dishes  at many Indian restaurants in the UK, but I have this brilliant Indian cook book that has some wonderful recipes that are different to what we get as standard as Indian.

One day, I will have to visit, just to see some of it for myself.

 

 

[Aruntraveller]

The EU are pro-globalization and big players in it. We freed ourselves from the 'Devil'!!!

And what is going to stand between us and globalization in this new reality. The Tory party? The press? The UKIP party?

All of them devoted to the idea of globalization - even if they deny it.

And now standing alone we will be so much better placed to withstand the pressures that globalization brings 

You are indulging in delusional thinking.

[Sriram]

I should think it's a very interesting country.

Very big and I expect very different culturally across the whole.

We only tend to get curries and standard dishes  at many Indian restaurants in the UK, but I have this brilliant Indian cook book that has some wonderful recipes that are different to what we get as standard as Indian.

One day, I will have to visit, just to see some of it for myself.

 

You'll be surprised to know that in all my 63 years of living in India I have never eaten anything called 'curry'. I ate it (veg curry) at a balti restaurant in Farnborough for the first time. 

In Tamil, 'Curry' means meat. Attu curry means goat meat, Mattu curry means cow meat, koli curry means chicken meat. 

Many non-vegetarians in India cook meat in a spicy gravy to be eaten as an accompaniment with rice or chappatis.  It is possible that because of this, any such  spicy gravy got the general name of curry among the British. 

[Jack Knave]

There are three sides to every penny.
If you can't get something simple as that right..........

That is not a side it is an edge. You semantic simpleton.

[Jack Knave]

And what is going to stand between us and globalization in this new reality. The Tory party? The press? The UKIP party?

All of them devoted to the idea of globalization - even if they deny it.

And now standing alone we will be so much better placed to withstand the pressures that globalization brings 

You are indulging in delusional thinking.

Have you not been aware of the turn in the tide in the political arena? Globalization only works if people allow it. If countries get together they can restrain it. The internet and robotics also is changing things.

[Sebastian Toe]

That is not a side it is an edge. You semantic simpleton.

A coin is a cylinder and technically has no sides but three faces. You cretinous ignoramus.

[Jack Knave]

A coin is a cylinder and technically has no sides but three faces. You cretinous ignoramus.

No it is not, it is a disc so it has an edge.

[trippymonkey]

Sriram bhaiya
Doesn't KHARI mean a spice of some kind???

Nick

[Hope]

Have you not been aware of the turn in the tide in the political arena? Globalization only works if people allow it. If countries get together they can restrain it. The internet and robotics also is changing things.

There are pros and cons to globalisation.  As an island population, we have long relied on the rest of the world (or at least parts of it) for our survival as a nation and as 'British' human beings.  The problems arise when the means of such sustenance/raw materials become the property of a very small number of people/companies.  Sadly, we as Brits are partially responsible for the development of this problem, and currently we are amongst the worse culprits of its continuation.

[Aruntraveller]

If countries get together they can restrain it.

I am having trouble coping with the particular irony of that statement from Jack Knave.

[Sriram]

Sriram bhaiya
Doesn't KHARI mean a spice of some kind???

Nick

Not that I know of.  Khari is a snack...a small puff pastry.

[Jack Knave]

I am having trouble coping with the particular irony of that statement from Jack Knave.

The people who lose out with globalization are the people, the masses. So if they vote in governments that work for them and not the big corporations and then these nations work together to stop this parasitical actions of those corporations then they win. The proto types of these governments have been seen in Greece etc. and Trump is feeding off this desire to stop the elites.

[Bubbles]

You'll be surprised to know that in all my 63 years of living in India I have never eaten anything called 'curry'. I ate it (veg curry) at a balti restaurant in Farnborough for the first time. 

In Tamil, 'Curry' means meat. Attu curry means goat meat, Mattu curry means cow meat, koli curry means chicken meat. 

Many non-vegetarians in India cook meat in a spicy gravy to be eaten as an accompaniment with rice or chappatis.  It is possible that because of this, any such  spicy gravy got the general name of curry among the British.

I had heard that what passed for Indian in the uk didn't resemble any similarity to real Indian crusine
In India.

I would love to try real Indian food.

Any chance you could post one of your own favorites, in the recipe section?

🌹