This is a self generated question and a simple one. What is Gosh! A brief introduction follows.
There is a flood of propaganda against Gandhi. The relentless attack coupled with a poor understanding of Gandhi among the common citizens carries the capacity to lead many people to disregard Gandhi without a proper examination of the arguments that run down the Mahatma. Where are clean, clear, rigorous narratives that help us examine the attacks and see if they stand up to scrutiny? Gosh! seeks to do just that. We say Gandhi must be understood first, and for that we must engage with the Father of the Nation and his ideas. This work must be done if we are to do justice to Gandhi and to ourselves and our spirit of inquiry. Not doing so is to submit ourselves to propaganda and the agenda of vested interests.
In the India of today, Gandhi and his ideas are under attack. The attack is often not rooted in either a good understanding of Gandhi or in honest research or robust academic inquiry. The denigration instead comes with a flavor of the uncouth, often ununderstood ideas mixed with a hefty dose of prejudice to reduce the lofty to the laughable.
Voices against Gandhi, and his messages of non-violence, have grown in recent times. There is more energy and engagement seen with anti-Gandhi voices, who go unchallenged, almost, and claim a very large public space today. Statues of Gandhi have been defaced and temples to his assassin Nathuram Godse have been raised and are allowed to stand.
At a panel discussion on "The Relevance of Gandhi in Today's Times" organised in July 2023 by the Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Conflict Prevention and Management, ABBS School of Management, Bengaluru, this author had said:
"Voices against Gandhi, and his messages of non-violence, have grown in recent times. There is more energy and engagement seen with anti-Gandhi voices, who go unchallenged, almost, and claim a very large public space today. Statues of Gandhi have been defaced and temples to his assassin Nathuram Godse have been raised and are allowed to stand.
There is a flood of propaganda against Gandhi. The relentless attack coupled with a poor understanding of Gandhi among the common citizens carries the capacity to lead many people to disregard Gandhi without a proper examination of the arguments that run down the Mahatma. Where are clean, clear, rigorous narratives that help us examine the attacks and se if they stand up to scrutiny? Gosh! seeks to do just that.
"Ramchandra Guha wrote in The Financial Times, UK, just ahead of Gandhi’s martyrdom day, in January this year:
The leadership of Gandhi and his Congress party in the freedom struggle is denied, and those who advocated armed revolution against the British extolled as the true patriots. The formative role of the progressive and secular constitution of 1950 in shaping the democratic republic is ignored. Instead, Indians are told that they have been a Hindu nation from time immemorial. Professional historians derisively refer to these claims as “WhatsApp history”, but the tragic truth is that they are gaining ever wider currency. In this new narrative, Gandhi is the major hate figure. This is the story of the India of today." [https://www.ft.com/content/a0b17ed9-092d-4e83-90fe-2a6cea952518]
...reasoned, informed and well-argued editorial that can show to young audiences how and why the current fad of denigrating Gandhi is often not founded on fact, not in the collective interests of all of us as free and well-informed citizens
These attacks when unchallenged do no service to ideals of journalism or inquiry.
Gosh! is a project of the Foundation of The Billion Press, a non-profit section 8 news company in Mumbai, to build reasoned, informed and well-argued editorial that can show to young audiences how and why the current fad of denigrating Gandhi is often not founded on fact, not in the collective interests of all of us as free and well-informed citizens and does disservice to a new generation of Indians. The framing of the project is captured in one simple question: “Gosh! What have we done to Gandhi?"
We do not, indeed would not and cannot, challenge the right of those who oppose Gandhi for whatever reason to voice their ideas; we are opposed to misinformed and twisted logic, and hope to be able to offer a fact-based, well-informed and reasonable analysis to correct the unfortunate skew. In the process, we will build new material on how Gandhi can be seen, studied and integrated into our lives in the 21st century and beyond.
We hope this will open the space for better learning than the fixed ideas and narrow frames with which Gandhi has been taught all along in our schools and colleges. Curious minds must ask difficult questions, and it is for those well versed in Gandhian ideas and ways to help provide reasoned, nuanced, balanced, fact-based and well-researched answers.
Gosh! seeks to build such reasoned, informed and well-argued editorial that can show to young audiences how and why the current fad of denigrating Gandhi is often not founded on fact, not in the collective interests of all of us as free and well-informed citizens and does disservice to a new generation of Indians.
Gosh! compliments our work on the “long form conversations” book series, where we publish books that the youth can engage with, picking up from any page to better understand narratives beyond the dominant stories of our times. The first book in the series, published in the UK by Triarchy Press and in India by Speaking Tiger is a long conversation with Satish Kumar, a monk-turned-founder of Schumacher College, Devon, UK, and among the last of the living Gandhians.
Gosh! aims to provide columns as standalone Op-Ed pieces (1,200 to 1,800 words) written by eminent Gandhians and edited by The Billion Press, to correct inaccuracies, mis-readings and misplaced conversations as and when they appear in our discussions and in other public spaces or on social media.
We say Gandhi must be understood first, and for that we must engage with Gandhi and his ideas. This work must be done if we are to justice to Gandhi and to ourselves and our spirit of inquiry. Not doing so is to submit ourselves to propaganda and the agenda of vested interests.
Think of it as a mission-driven mandate to fix the misreads, inadvertent or otherwise, and provide a fact-based, values-driven understanding of Gandhi.
First, as we begin, we offer a well-thought-through answer to the popular Shiv Khera, who in a viral post explains why Ram was not a Gandhian, why the Sikh Gurus were not Gandhians and so, why, he too, is not a Gandhian. The column answering Khera comes from an eminent Gandhian, Dr. D John Chelladurai, Dean, Interdisciplinary Studies and Prof. and Head, Dept. of Gandhian Studies, MGM University, Chh. Sambhaji Nagar, Maharashtra.
Gosh! Invites you to send in your questions, and we’ll be happy to answer them through this project. We also put up self-generated questions and columns based on contemporary political events and will take these up for discussion through this initiative.