Relevance of the middle path: Rediscovering Gandhi for all Southasia

Attribute it to the power of the Empire, but Southasians have no hesitation in embracing Adam Smith, Ayn Rand, Marx or Mao as their own. In one country where the Turkish Ataturk is a role-model of "enlightened moderation", the proponent of real enlightened moderation is an 'Indian'. In the countryside of another Southasian nation where the guns rule, the epitome of courage with conscience is seldom remembered. Is it a deep-seated inferiority complex which makes Southasians oblivious of the legacy of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi? From South Africa to the United States, proponents of peaceful protests draw their inspiration from the pioneer of ahimsa. But most Southasians look at him through the tinted glasses of bigoted nationalism and see a nationalist 'Indian'. Within India itself, Gandhi is consigned to history textbooks and his values dismissed as romanticism in the power corridors of Delhi and the state capitals. However, more than a concerted effort to rehabilitate his memory, it is the needs of the time that will establish the primacy of Gandhi as a Southasian ideal who foresaw the complexities of the region and devised a middle path to face the challenges of the future. His legacy is a shared Southasian heritage and the region will discover his relevance as it enters into yet another turbulent phase in its history.

These are sanguine times for some Southasians. Unocal alumnus Hamid Karzai has declared the dethroned King Zahir Shah the Father of the Afghanistan nation, once destroyed and then rebuilt to the specifications of US Pacific Command. Bangladesh is happy being at the centre of SAARC and BIMSTEC, two sets of idiosyncratic alphabet mixes that stand for largely ceremonial organisations. Bhutan is enthralled by the prospect of democracy which King Jigme Singye Wangchuk has promised to introduce by 2008. The Burmese junta has just shifted its capital to correct the feng shui and entrench itself further. India isn't exactly shining, but some Indians are certainly gloating over the prospect of becoming the back office of the world in the next one, two, or three decades depending upon whether you are talking to a free-market fundamentalist, a socialist planner or a self-proclaimed pragmatist; they all seem to share the same brahminical dream of making it big without getting their hands dirty.