The Tawarikh book in Malay for the history curriculum at that time had us students learning about Jesus Christ and Siddhartha Gautama Buddha under the great religions of humankind topic. Perhaps that is what sparked my interest in the world’s great religious traditions that has continued until today, 52 years later.
I remember this early exposure to great minds when I accepted an invitation by the Indian High Commission to join a panel discussion on “Gandhi Revisited: The Future of Non-Violent Struggle” in conjunction with the United Nations International Day of Non-Violence that is marked annually on Oct 2.
There are three characteristics of Gandhi’s life that impressed me the most.
I remember watching the 1982 movie Gandhi in which the title role is played excellently by Ben Kingsley, who displays the spirituality, suffering and tenacity of the man. That inspired me to buy a biography on Gandhi to find out more about this man. I wish now that I had read more of Gandhi’s personal writing – I think that will be in my bucket list of readings in the near future.
The first impressive thing to me that Gandhi did was to suggest that Muslim leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah be the first prime minister of India after the country gained independence in 1947. Gandhi was supposed to be of the Hindu faith, but his spirituality showed a high level of consciousness that transcended the simplistic idea of religion as a socio-political divisive force.
In my sunset years, I believe I have reflected enough about my readings, and raised and answered enough questions about religion to come to the same conclusion. Like Gandhi, I worry not about a Christian or Hindu or Buddhist wakil rakyat, or guru besar, or vice-chancellor, or even a prime minister. If you are a good person then you are a good person, regardless of your socially and traditionally defined faith.
Unfortunately for Gandhi, most Hindus around him could not accept a Muslim leader in a Hindu-majority nation. He was ahead of his political and social times, as I believe I am.
The second thing that impressed me about Mahatma was how he handled the widely talked about incident (also portrayed in the movie) in which a Hindu declared that he was going to hell for killing a Muslim child in revenge after a Muslim mob had killed his own son. Gandhi reportedly told the suffering man that he should find a Muslim child of the same age as his son and nurture him like his own – but to make sure he grew up as a Muslim.
My stomach turns and my chest constricts whenever the world’s evil touches a child. A child is a child, no matter his or her ethnicity, skin colour or faith. I hold that the death and hardship of all children are the burden of sin all adults carry no matter what our race or faiths are.
The recent issue of a corporation “orphaning” a child even with the parents alive and well was a shock to my system. One of my architecture students from Bangladesh told me about the 600,000 street children that scrounge for food in the capital without any parents by their side. This made me sad. The fact that there are more than 200,000 mosques in Bangladesh made me even sadder that building places of worship seems to take priority over looking after hungry children.
The third thing that impressed me deeply about Gandhi was how he remained true to his principles and refused to press charges against those who had tried to assassinate him despite the danger. The Hindu extremist who eventually killed him is said to have tried to take Gandhi’s life twice before.
What kind of hatred can a man harbour that would carry him through two attempts of murder and onto a third attempt? Such is the depth of evil caused by a toxic version of religious belief. On the other hand, what kind of a man would forgive his own murderer twice and would probably have forgiven him a third time with his dying breath?
Gandhi, to me, shows the highest level of what a man can achieve without the title “Prophet”, “Messenger” or “the enlightened one”. Without Gandhi having lived until less than a decade before I was born into the world, I would have found stories of the prophets and sages of old to be mere myth. It was hard to find in a selfish world a man of such selflessness being an actual, real figure from the 20th century.
As a Malay, as a Muslim, and as a Malaysian, I will always hold Gandhiji close to my heart.Prof Dr Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor of Architecture at the Tan Sri Omar Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Studies at UCSI University. The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.
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