The 49th anniversary of the death of Mahatma Gandhi was marked on January 30. It is truer to say that "he has quit this corporeal frame" than that "he has died". There can be no death for Gandhi's soul. Only his body, which is made of dust, has returned to dust.
Gandhi is known to the entire world; not as a soldier, though he was reported to be an expert freedom fighter; not as a great writer, though he enjoys a great reputation as a writer; not as a politician, though he addressed the right policies.
It was as a good man that the world knew him. He gave up a life of comfort to embrace that of a simple peasant. He himself put in practice what he preached. That is why thousands of men clung loyally to his words.
As a guest of the government of India, I had the opportunity to visit many places, to meet people and to speak in the famous University Gandhi Antarrashtriya Vishwaridyalaya. Both as director of the Peace Lab and as education officer I spared no efforts to adopt a special area of admiration to this big country and to one of her sons, Mohandas Gandhi, who became the biggest icon of our times. So it was imperative for me to visit the Gandhi National Museum in Delhi and the Gandhi Foundation Smirti.
A quote from the Mahatma painted on a large signboard by the entrance to the museum describes the India of Gandhi's dreams: "I shall work for an India in which the poorest shall feel that it is their country, in whose making they have no effective voice; an India in which there shall be no high class and no low class of people; an India in which all communities shall live in perfect harmony". Gandhi wrote this in September 1931. There would be no room in such an India for the "curse of untouchability or the curse of intoxicating drinks and drugs. Women will enjoy the same rights as men". That was his dream not only for India but for the whole world... globalisation in action.
It is an accurate summary of what the world today is not.
The stark absence of education for peace in curricula adds to the impression that Mahatma Gandhi has become an irrelevance in modern times. Unnoticed as the rest of the world watched memorial services for those killed in the World Trade Centre on September 11, India marked the 100th anniversary of Gandhi's starting of his non-violent resistance movement, Satyagraha, to combat racism in South Africa, a campaign he later adapted to fight British rule in India.
Savita Singh, director of Delhi's Gandhi Smriti, the house where he was assassinated, insisted with me that educators should make a concerted effort to reclaim him as a role model for youths around the world yanking him up to date and try to distil elements from his ideology that do not feel too archaic for modern tastes.
A younger generation scarcely knows who Gandhi is, and those who do know think he is a boring historical figure. But hollow slogans that project snapshots of Gandhi's life never attract interest in his life. Museums and exhibitions do not appeal to a sophisticated, computer-literate new generation. How is a man who believed in the supremacy of the village, who berated the advent of the industrial revolution, was suspicious of the automobile and renounced material possessions ever to be made to feel relevant in a modern India, which is the world's fastest growing cellular phone market, in the grips of a manufacturing boom, worships the car and is witnessing a rush from the countryside to the booming cities?
How can Gandhi become especially relevant to the urban, upwardly mobile young people, enslaved by brands and materialistic fads?
What is the message we have to carry to the masses? The Mahatma did not leave even this unsaid. When severely sick, he told the few friends near his bed: "Do not occupy yourselves with writing my biography or spend time in putting up my statues. If you are true sons of India (or the world), dedicate your lives to the fulfilment of our aims, to the service of India". We know, too, what he felt in his heart about the meaning of that service. He meant that the true condition of every country should be placed before the people through speeches and writings. And how is this to be realised? He laid down that the duty of the members of every state would be to spiritualise political life.
In Gandhian philosophy this meaning of life is summed up in four letters spelt "duty". Probably, at the present day, such a meaning of life is not apparent in the conduct of the average citizen. A contemplation of Gandhi's life, then, presents in a most striking manner an illustration of duty lived from beginning to the end.
Gandhi is worshipped today as no other man is worshipped in the world, not because he was a hero but because he was a living embodiment of duty. To him his country was first - he himself was last. He fought because that was his duty. It was he who made India and is making India what it is. The high position to which India has risen today is due to his sense of duty.
The name of Gandhi will live as long as India lives. May the rest of the world produce such heroes.
Like him let us know what our duty is. How can we walk without a staff so long as we are lame?
Fr Mintoff is the director of the Peace Lab and founder of Franciscans International.