Birth Anniversary of Mahatma
Gandhi: 2nd
October
Special Feature – “Swachchta
Hi
Sewa”Pakhwada
For Gandhi Non-violence was
akin to Swacchta
*Sudhirendar
Sharma
India’s decisive battle against cleanliness
and hygiene has
got a fillip through ‘Swachhta Hi Seva’, Cleanliness is
Service, which draws
attention to making sanitation a shared responsibility. Embedded
in the idea of
this top-up initiative to the already ongoing ‘Swachh Bharat
Mission’ (SBM) is a
clear invocation for the masses to shun the entrenched notion
that cleanliness
is but the task of the ‘others’ who have historically been
performing it on
behalf of the rest of ‘us’.
Nothing could be closer to the Mahatma who on
numerous
occasions in his checkered life had demonstrated a clear but distinct
relationship
between sanitation and service, by presenting himself as a living
example that
‘everyone be his own scavenger’. Convinced that he will not allow
‘anyone walk through
his mind with their dirty feet’, Gandhi had held the broom firmly
in his hands through
his life without missing a single occasion to extend his ‘service
as a
scavenger’.
From the Phoenix in South Africa to Sewagram
in India, Gandhi’s
ashrams were lived-in examples of what service meant in the quest
for
cleanliness. More than an act in symbolism, cleanliness was
perceived as a
noble service in which all the ashramites used to engage
on a daily
basis. It is evident that for the Father of the Nation the
service for swacchta
was a social tool that he used to cut across class and caste
barriers that
hindered cleanliness. It has continued to remain relevant till
this day.
However, it is intriguing how the Mahatma had
kept alive
his message of cleanliness throughout his non-violent crusade for
attaining
freedom. Even during the ultimate test of his idea and practice
of non-violence
following the Noakhali massacre, which had accounted for the
lives of 5,000
people in the worst communal riots before independence,
Gandhi had not missed out
an opportunity
to convey the message that sanitation and non-violence were two
faces of the
same coin.
One day during the peace mission through the
troubled areas
in Noakhali he encountered filth and dirt deliberately strewn on
the unpaved
street aimed at thwarting his march to spread his message of
peace among the
affected populace. Not deterred by it, the Mahatma used it as an
opportunity to
do what only he could do. Pulling some twigs from nearby bushes
and converting
it into brooms, the apostle of peace and non-violence had swept
the street of its
opposition, from inciting further violence.
For him ‘a healthy mind in a
healthy body’ was not a physical
manifestation but a
deep-rooted philosophical message. Could an individual harbor
non-violent
thought if his actions were violent towards nature and fellow
beings? That cleanliness
was viewed as an integral part of his political campaign for
freedom, there is
little doubt that lack of
cleanliness was
clearly equated to an act of violence. It indeed is as
lack of hygiene continues
to cause death to millions of children in the country.
No
wonder, lack of sanitation remains an invisible killer. Manifest
in it is the
worst form of violence, Gandhi had long perceived. Therefore
sanitation was
made an uncontested metaphor for non-violence, a co-traveler in
the quest for
both social and political freedom. Having observed scrupulous
rules about
cleanliness in the west, Gandhi could not resist applying the
same in his life,
and in the lives of millions who followed him. Much of his work
remains unfinished,
though.
“I learnt years ago that a lavatory must
be as clean
as a drawing-room”, Gandhi had once remarked. Taking his learning
to a higher
level, Gandhi had made his toilet (in his ashram in Sewagram at
Wardha)
literally a place of worship – cleanliness is close to godliness.
Only by
elevating it to the high pedestal can the value of a toilet be
understood by
the masses. This calls for a significant shift in our perception
of living
amidst filth, wherein sanitation has remained more of an
exception than a norm.
The ambitious
target of making
the country open defecation free by October 2, 2019 is
the first step
in that direction, and a formidable undertaking in giving a
functional toilet
each to over 50 million households in the country. However,
converting a
‘toilet movement’ into a ‘social movement’ wherein actual toilet
usage becomes
a norm will call for pulling lessons from the life of Gandhi.
Among other
factors, reluctance of villagers to clean toilets and empty
sewage pits remains
a socio-cultural taboo.
No one could foresee this
problem more
than Gandhi himself. Kasturba
had once
expressed her disgust when asked to carry and clean the chamber-
pots. Gandhi
had rebuked her and told her to leave the house if she wanted not
to observe
the practice of being a scavenger herself. In doing so, Gandhi
had expressed a
violent behaviour albeit for a short moment, to inculcate
the greater
value of non-violence through an act of cleanliness. In many
ways, swachhta
to him was akin to non-violence or sometimes perhaps above it.
This small but significant episode from the
life of Gandhi harbors
a valuable message. By practicing it through the rest of her
life, Kasturba had
inadvertently demonstrated Swachhta Hi Vyavhaar,
Cleanliness is
Behaviour. It could be the message for the top-up campaign
next year.
Afterall, it is the behavioural change that SBM is trying to
inculcate amongst
millions.
*******
*Dr Sudhirendar Sharma is an independent writer, researcher and
academic
Views expressed in the article are author’s
personal.
