Gandhi Returns: The World after Covid-19 Pandemic
| Published date | 01 September 2021 |
| Date | 01 September 2021 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00195561211045798 |
| Subject Matter | Notes |
Gandhi Returns:
The World after
Covid-19 Pandemic
Gajendra Nath Trivedi1
Introduction
The return of Gandhi in the context of Covid-19 pandemic reveals the fragile
and threatened human existence, the intensity of which is acutely realised in
the wake of the surprising fact that this deadly menace is created by human
beings themselves. The uncritical glorication of the ideas of science, progress,
technological triumph and, above all, ceaseless attempt to tame nature and to
make it subservient to innite human needs and desires appear to be the main
cause of this global pandemic. The unmitigated sense of conquering nature has in
fact jeopardised the delicate balance struck between individual and society, on
the one hand, and nature on the other. The ever-widening rupture, if not repaired
timely, would inevitably lead to the frightening situation of immense loss of
precious human lives. The invocation of Gandhi in this context becomes all the
more relevant because he strongly contested such anthropocentric modern
worldview and insisted on the necessity of harmonious relation between living
and non-living beings to sustain and survive on the planet earth. Gandhi, for this
purpose, applied the age-old tested axioms of truth and nonviolence. This note
seeks to examine the nature of contemporary world in the context of Gandhism.
Gandhi represents an ecumenical worldview that perforce comprises
love, nonviolence and incessant quest for truth, demonstrating undiminished
potentialities of these verities even in the wake of strong resistance to them. His
leadership of India’s freedom struggle provided him a unique opportunity to
test the validity of these core values that often appeared to his contemporaries
and compatriots as quaint and impractical in attaining the goal of Independence.
Despite scepticism, his unswerving belief in inner goodness of human beings
forever remained untrammelled. This realisation consciously set the nonviolent
course of freedom struggle, making its way to success in the midst of competing
Note
1 Motilal Nehru College (Eve.), University of Delhi, New Delhi, India.
Corresponding author:
Gajendra Nath Trivedi, Professor, Motilal Nehru College (Eve.), University of Delhi, South Campus,
South Moti Bagh, New Delhi 110021, India.
E-mail: mailgajendra67@gmail.com
Indian Journal of Public
Administration
67(3) 492–498, 2021
© 2021 IIPA
Reprints and permissions:
in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india
DOI: 10.1177/00195561211045798
journals.sagepub.com/home/ipa
To continue reading
Request your trial