Gandhi’s message of non-violence seems to have been buried the very day he was assassinated. While he lived, ahimsa was not just preached, it was practiced, tested, and proven.
Against slavery, imperial power, violence, and systemic oppression, Gandhi wielded non-violence as a moral weapon, and it worked.
But once the man was gone, the message was quietly shelved.
Today, Gandhi survives comfortably in statues, street names, universities, textbooks, commemorative days, and international awards.
His image is polished, framed, and safely frozen in history.
When it comes to real wars, real bombs, and real bloodshed, Gandhi’s philosophy finds no takers.
In the ongoing wars of our time, from Gaza to Ukraine, and other conflict zones, not a single powerful nation, institution, or global influencer openly invokes Gandhi’s strategy of non-violence as a viable path. Not even leaders who brand themselves as champions of peace and justice, Bernie Sanders included, dare to apply Gandhian ethics to today’s brutal realities.
Barack Obama once spoke proudly of Gandhi as an inspiration. Today, that inspiration has been reduced to silence.
Across the world, politicians, academics, and thinkers routinely praise Gandhi’s “relevance” in seminars and soundbites. But relevance without application is merely lip service.
In an age of drones, missiles, and televised destruction, Gandhi has become a ceremonial figure, respected, quoted, and awarded, yet entirely absent from the world’s moral decision-making.
The uncomfortable truth is this:
Gandhi is universally admired, endlessly celebrated, but utterly ignored. — Promod Puri
Promod Puri.com 