What Is Mohandas Mahatma Gandhi's Relevance On Foreign Policies In Dissertation

What Is Mohandas Mahatma Gandhi's Relevance On Foreign Policies In Modern Day India - Dissertation Example However, his exploits are not just restricted to bringing freedom to his motherland but has also extended to the basic philosophy that an average individual leads his or her life with. Thus, there is hardly any doubt about the fact that Gandhi ji’s beliefs and philosophy also underlies the foreign policies of the nation to a great extent. However, policies do change over the years, and even if we consider Gandhi’s towering personality as well as influence at the time of the independence of India, it can hardly be said without taking a relook at the contemporary scenario whether the legacy of consulting Gandhian policies for embarking upon any policy of substantial importance for India stills holds value or not. If the existing foreign policy of India were to be evaluated in the light of Gandhiji’s outlook or for that philosophy, then an obvious approach would be to start with the freedom struggle of India, a time that was overtly dominated by the strategies formu lated by Gandhiji as well as his thousands of ardent followers.Bandyopadhyaya notes that the Gandhian ideals were more of a set of policies that governed the strategies of freedom struggle movement of the Indian National Congress, the biggest political organization spearheading the freedom movement in India. The author further reports that this typically successful strategy has been utilized by the government of independent India under its ‘Directive Principles of State Policy’ in the pretext of â€Å"peaceful settlement of international disputes†. This is significant to our understanding of how important Gandhi ji and his preaching have been for the formulation of what India presently is. In terms of the relevance of Gandhi ji in today’s political context, we must acknowledge the fact that some of the most crucial policies pertaining to the domain of foreign relations have been deeply influenced by the legacy that the Mahatma has left behind. In the light of what he professed, preached as well as practiced it is on us to give due recognition to the enormity of his foresight, the magnitude of his philosophy as well as the vastness of his acute perception of the scheme of things in the political arena. Thousands of books, articles, research papers have been published on this â€Å"great soul† (Adams, 2010; Wolpert, 2001) and a formidable bulk of literature has been published on various topics related to Gandhi ji and of course not without reason. Among the salient tenets of Gandhian philosophy, one of the foremost pillars was his affinity for as well as staunch belief in the practice of non violence. As various authors quote Godse in his book, who calls Gandhi ji a â€Å"violent pacifist†, though whether the Mahatma actually brought â€Å"untold calamities to the nation† is seriously questionable (Elst, 2001; Nussbaum, 2007; Karawan, 2008; Godse & Godse, 1989). Obviously Godse accuses Gandhi ji of being responsibl e for many a debacle that has shaken India by its roots at the time of independence and thus the term â€Å"violent pacifist† is basically used in the pejorative. Now we may also take a relook at what the term may mean apart from the pejorative connotations that Godse attached to it and therefore we may indulge in deconstructing the meaning of the term in the light of Gandhi ji’s contribution to the freedom struggle as well as his philosophy being tantamount to become instrumental in shaping the future of the nation not in within the country but also externally as well. Coming back to the moot point of that of Gandhi ji’s relevance in modern day India’s foreign policies, we should obviously start from the very beginning and trace the