Saturday, January 23, 2010

End of The Legendary Hero

Gandhi led the Congress for a period of 25 years, and during this time the party truly came to represent united India’s struggle for freedom. Gandhi’s charisma caught the imagination of millions. Villagers and city dwellers, men, women and children rallied behind the Congress as it led India’s march towards freedom from the British. Freedom came, but at a price. A nation was partitioned to yield a Hindu-dominated India and a Muslim-dominated Pakistan. Gandhi opposed the partition that left millions dead, mutilated and homeless, bitterly till the end. By upholding the cause of the Muslims and Harijans, he alienated himself from the Hindu majority. and on January 30th 1948, in an India that was finally free, a Brahman named Nathuram Godse walked right upto Gandhi and shot him at point-blank range.Both India and Pakistan continue to be plagued by the repercussions of partition till this day. That Gandhi was assassinated by a man who regarded him as a saint but could not live with his ideals, and that Gandhi hankered after the ideal in a practical world far-removed from ideality, shall forever remain a paradox.

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