George Orwell assessment of Gandhi - 1949; My view: Britain-India friendly relationship of equals today was enabled by Gandhi's non-violent & without hatred approach
An interesting assessment of Gandhi by famous English writer and intellectual of those days, George Orwell: "‘Reflections on Gandhi’: George Orwell’s assessment of Mahatma Gandhi after his assassination", https://scroll.in/article/852522/reflections-on-gandhi-george-orwells-famous-review-of-gandhis-my-experiments-with-truth, (first) published in 1949.
George Orwell writes in this article (in 1949), "And if, as may happen, India and Britain finally settle down into a decent and friendly relationship, will this be partly because Gandhi, by keeping up his struggle obstinately and without hatred, disinfected the political air?"
Ravi: I think it surely is true that significantly because of Mahatma Gandhi, 70 years today after India attained independence from the British and 68 years after the above article of George Orwell, India and Britain have a friendly relationship! Quite recently, the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, a Conservative, visited and worshipped at a Hindu temple in Bangalore dressed in an Indian sari, along with her husband, I think (see https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2016/11/theresa-may-prays-at-hindu-temple-in.html)! On the invitation of former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, a Conservative again, Indian PM Narendra Modi addressed British parliamentarians in the British parliament two years ago, and that address was well received by the British parliamentarians (see https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2015/11/pm-narendra-modis-address-to-british.html)!
Winston Churchill, a Conservative, who mocked and attempted to humiliate Gandhi by calling him a "half-naked fakir", would never have dreamed that in less than a century after India attained independence from the British, Britain and India would be good friends in a relationship of equals between two democratic countries! I think it is the non-violence and without hatred towards British colonizers approach of Gandhi (and other leaders of India's independence struggle like Nehru), along with British leaders of that time (Labour government mainly, I guess), that paved the way for what we see now in Britain-India friendship of equals in 2017.
George Orwell writes in this article (in 1949), "And if, as may happen, India and Britain finally settle down into a decent and friendly relationship, will this be partly because Gandhi, by keeping up his struggle obstinately and without hatred, disinfected the political air?"
Ravi: I think it surely is true that significantly because of Mahatma Gandhi, 70 years today after India attained independence from the British and 68 years after the above article of George Orwell, India and Britain have a friendly relationship! Quite recently, the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, a Conservative, visited and worshipped at a Hindu temple in Bangalore dressed in an Indian sari, along with her husband, I think (see https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2016/11/theresa-may-prays-at-hindu-temple-in.html)! On the invitation of former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, a Conservative again, Indian PM Narendra Modi addressed British parliamentarians in the British parliament two years ago, and that address was well received by the British parliamentarians (see https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2015/11/pm-narendra-modis-address-to-british.html)!
Winston Churchill, a Conservative, who mocked and attempted to humiliate Gandhi by calling him a "half-naked fakir", would never have dreamed that in less than a century after India attained independence from the British, Britain and India would be good friends in a relationship of equals between two democratic countries! I think it is the non-violence and without hatred towards British colonizers approach of Gandhi (and other leaders of India's independence struggle like Nehru), along with British leaders of that time (Labour government mainly, I guess), that paved the way for what we see now in Britain-India friendship of equals in 2017.
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