Prof.P.L.Bakhshi
September 11, has historical significance for three notable events of which first two are conceptually diametrically opposite to the third one. The first event occurred on September 11, 1893 when a 30 year old monk from India, Swami Vivekananda, enthralled his audience of approximately 7,000 people at Chicago’s Parliament of the World’s Religions while interpreting India’s spiritual culture, especially in its Vedantic setting. Swami was not an invited delegate as no invitation was extended to any representative of Hindu faith, yet he went all the way from India and stepped up to the rostrum on the afternoon of 9/11 and impressed the learned gathering with his saintly character, oratorical power, command over English language and in-depth knowledge of Hindu scriptures. He said, “I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance…..If anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own religion and the destruction of others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart and point out to him that upon the banner of every religion will soon be written, in spite of resistance, help, and not fight; assimilation and not destruction; harmony and peace and not dissension.” Because of this historical speech Swami Vivekananda suddenly leapt into fame and was hailed the very next day the greatest figure in the Parliament of Religions at Chicago. Swami Vivekananda is considered a key figure in the introduction of Vedanta and Yoga in Europe and America and is also credited with raising interfaith awareness.
The second notable event occurred on September 11, 1906 with the birth of one of the greatest ideas of the last century- the Satyagraha, a non-violent resistance as a form of public protest for a just cause like racial discrimination and colonial rule. The architect was Mahatma Gandhi, a young Indian Barrister-at-Law working in South Africa. On August 22, 1906 the Transvaal Government in South Africa enacted a law requiring all Indians, Arabs and Turks to obtain a certificate of registration from the Government on which identification marks and finger prints had to be recorded. Mahatma Gandhi felt the act embodied hatred of Indians and so resisting it was a must but in a peaceful non-violent way. He chose to stand up against an iniquitous system and set in motion events that have profoundly shaped history ever since. Gandhi’s insistence on non-violence was not simply about turning the other cheek. It reaches out to a high intellectual plan. To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm or weapons of any kind or any other means of threatening a person with any injury or death. With a roar of enthusiasm about 3000 Indians working in Transvaal province gathered in Johannesburg to exhibit their non-violent protest against the Draft Asiatic Ordinance act. Thus a new political technique- Satyagraha was born and was put to a stern test. After a prolonged struggle it did get dividends, the ordinance was withdrawn.
Mahatma Gandhi spent 21 years in South Africa developing his philosophy of non-violence and Satyagraha. The idea of Satyagraha to lead the struggle for independence eventually led Gandhi back to his own country in June 1914. Over the years to come, Satyagraha- which literally means the force born of truth and love was put to test in India. . Satyagraha, a combination of satya (=truth/love) and agraha (=firmness/force) is a movement that set a nation free. It is the vindication of truth not by infliction of suffering on the opponent but on one’s self. The movement was launched by Mahatma Gandhi, whom millions of Indian people acclaimed as the Father of the Nation, to break the “fetters of slavery”. Without Mahatma Gandhi, India may have become independent but would not have been a democratic republic. Before Mahatma Gandhi appeared on the national stage, independence was all important, but not democracy. Gandhi ji’s non-violence and his ability to reach out to a multi-class alliance built democracy into the nucleus of the nationalistic movement. Mahatma Gandhi’s influence can be seen in almost every page of our Constitution. Satyagraha’s influence on world leaders which include Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Aung San Suu Kyi, Dalai Lama etc. has been tremendous and they have made use of it for different political events around the globe.
The third event, most gruesome, occurred on September 11, 2001 when horror came out of clear blue skies in the United States of America. The day got christened as Day of Terror and America’s illusion of invulnerability was shattered. On this black day, which in abbreviated form is now known as 9/11 and immediately became shorthand for violence, the unthinkable happened at the two renowned places of the world’s superpower. The international terrorists audaciously attacked the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center at the base of Manhattan island in New York, and almost simultaneously the Pentagon, a concrete fort at the banks of the Potomac in Arlington, Virginia, killing round about three thousand innocent people of various religious faiths and belonging to different countries of the globe, majority of course were Americans. Nineteen indoctrinated hard core terrorists hijacked four American passenger planes scheduled for long flights, each plane loaded with approximately 24000 gallons of fuel, and plunged three of them into the predetermined targets along with hapless passengers and maimed crew so as to put the humanity in grief. This was horrendous terrorism brought to near perfection in a dramatic form.
The fourth plane could not make it to the desired target simply because of patriotic efforts of the passengers therein. What is striking about this beastly attack on innocent men, women and children is the un-nerving precision with which they were executed. Indeed it was one of the most heinous acts in world history and will remain fresh and painful in the memory of people for decades to come, particularly those who’s near and dear got perished in this gruesome holocaust.
September 11 now symbolizes a choice that the world has to make. Which is the path one should take- the path of a peaceful struggle or the path of a brutal violence that targets innocents? The relevance of Swami Vivekananda’s and Mahatma Gandhi’s messages is much more potent in today’s world which is affected by international terrorism and religious war. It is believed that in the backdrop of rising terrorism Mahatma Gandhi’s Satyagraha launched more than 100 years ago, born as a non-violent, political and moral force can be much more effective even today as a method to attain larger political goals. Violence and anger only create bitterness in the victim and brutality in the attacker. Instead with Satyagraha, which is peaceful, the opponents can be converted (not annihilated) by a demonstration of purity, humility and honesty.
Satyagraha assumes there is a constant dialogue between the opponents with a view to ultimate reconciliation. Insults, threats and violence only serve to obstruct the goal. Gandhi ji’s Satyagraha means honesty, firmness, openness, ahimsa and tapasya.
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