Gandhi for a Younger Generation Part II

[Jordan Hill]

Let me start by acknowledging Alice Bosley’s first posting and her thoughtful coverage of making Gandhi’s message accessible to a younger generation. I too believe that one of the most pressing Gandhian matters of the 21st century will be discovering new ways of presenting the ideas of Gandhi in order to make them accessible to the younger generation. This work is of vital importance because many of the pressing global issues that we face today (sustainability, reconciliation, prejudice, relating to the other—to name just a few) could be informed by Gandhi’s ideas and experiments.

To take a road between the suggestions of Prasad Sarvodaya and Alice Bosley, I would like to suggest that the major obstacle in presenting Gandhi to the younger generation is an issue of communication. Many of the noteworthy books about Gandhi such as Judith Brown’s Gandhi: Prisoner of Hope and Louis Fisher’s Mahatma Gandhi, are well researched and insightful, but clock in at 394 and 546 pages, respectively. The problem that arises here is that our generation has undergone a shortening of attention that makes valuable books such as these essentially inaccessible. From this perspective, the issue is not a matter of presenting Gandhi’s original ideas (as Prasad suggests) or of presenting a modern version of Gandhi’s ideas (as Bosley suggests), but rather presenting Gandhi’s ideas in a WAY that connects with a new global generation that has been weaned on hot flash television and instant message compatible technology.

My impetus for this idea has arisen not from the modern situation, but from the example of Gandhi himself in his vision for writing Hind Swaraj. As Anthony J. Parel notes, Gandhi was attempting to write “to a mixed audience: expatriate Indians . . . the Indian National Congress . . . ordinary Indians . . . and the English.” (Hind Swaraj and Other Writings, xvi) In order to do this, he wrote in the “Editor” to “Reader” format. This allowed him to speak in plain language, and to address issues one-by-one in short chapters (originally published as articles in Gandhi's newspaper Indian Opinion). Gandhi’s example can inform us 99 years later, (exactly, as he wrote Hind Swaraj from November 13-22, 1909) in a situation where the generations of the 21st century are in need of a way of connecting with Gandhi, but on their own terms. I believe it is the responsibility of those of us who have grown up in this thoroughly modern age, but under the priceless guidance of mentors like Prasad, Carson, Harding and Kapur, to develop new and creative ways that help our generation to understand the unadulterated wisdom of Gandhi.

(** I hope to expand this conversation, but the pressures of the end of the semester have kept me from going further at this time. I sincerely look forward from hearing the diverse perspectives of the Gandhi/King community on this issue.**)

[Shara Lili Esbenshade]

Thank you for your post, Jordan. I really agree with your argument. I want to suggest too, though, that the desire for immediate results, the "shortened attention" of our generation has more of an impact than simply causing youth to avoid the several-hundred page books. I think that the need for instantaneous results also serves to turn youth away, at least in my experience, from protest movements in general because of the very fact that social movements take years and years and maybe decades to achieve successes. I remember having the conversation over and over again with peers in high school where they would tell me that organizing against the war was pointless, protest never achieves anything, I shouldn't waist my time and they were definitely not going to waste theirs. It is not as if they have more important things to do and its definitely not that they don't disagree with the war in this case, or other social justice causes, but working on homework for school or playing video games seems to have an immediate concrete effect- an A in class or a fun time. Being part of a social or political grassroots movement, however, requires long term dedication and perseverance through failure and being ignored over and over and over again. I think the culture of instantaneous satisfaction or achievement tends to make people feel like anything without quick results is pointless, whether or not the cause is worthy. I would be really excited to see what would happen if more youth were exposed to Gandhian thought in an accessible way- a way that made them interested, that sustained that interest, that was short enough that they felt their time was well-spent. And I think that if Gandhi's philosophy and the process of social movements and their importance were taught in school from a young age, as the Liberation Curriculum is working toward achieving right now, then this "culture of immediacy" or whatever we might call it could be broken through and stopped. People tend to think in the way that they were raised to.