How Gandhi included common man in struggle for Independence

No one needs any introduction about Mahatma Gandhi. He is the one who united Indians and fought a non traditional battle against Britishers. He is the one who thought the world that Truth, Non-Violence, Peace are not week but they are a symbol of strength. 

How did he do that? Why did people took blows without protesting, just because a half naked lean man asked them? What is so great about him? In this blog I want to answer these from my perspective.

First of all, Gandhi might look week. But, when his ideology is added to him, he becomes immensely powerful. Now the question is, how can an ideology alone makes a person so powerful. The answer for that is, No. Ideology alone doesn't make a person great. Dedication towards it, following it with whole heart and trying to help people through that makes a person great. It is the same with Gandhi, his dedication towards his belief. The answer to first question above is, Gandhi's dedication and determination towards his belief.

Coming to second question, why did people took blows without protesting and blindly followed Gandhi. I believe the answer to this is the combination of below factors-

• Gandhi mingled with the crowds and identified himself as one of them. He wore clothing just like a normal village man. With simple dhoti and no shirt. This made common man assume that Gandhi is one of them and they can trust him.
• Fasting is part of regular religious practices of Hindus and Muslims of the country. A normal person might have connected well with protesting in that manner.
• While I am not disrespectful to any great freedom fighter, the paths chosen by most of them didn't include common man. But, Gandhi's plans always included the common man. Be it-
• Non cooperation movement.
• Making salt(Dandi yatra).
• Banning foreign goods.
• Quit India movement.
• Gandhi already have achievements in South Africa, before he arrived in India. This might have made people trust him with their issues.
• Gandhi preaches what he follows. He didn't hide behind the crowd and avoid beatings or prison. He is the first to take them.
• His protests included even marginalized communities.

Above are few points, I can think of in 5minutes. I am sure it is not extensive list. But, this simple list gives a glimpse of why people followed Gandhi. They surely didn't follow blindly, they followed seeing a light of hope.

Now comes the third question, what is so great about him? There are many aspects I find that make me think that he is really great. Some of them are below-

• He didn't hide his mistakes in his auto biography. He admitted them. 
• He genuinely tried to work with common man by constantly learning ways to reach them. Some examples are-
• weaving cloths and demonstrated the importance of native weavers community.
• learning to walk in difficult terrain to reach the last person. 
• He finds ways to protest with daily ingredients of common man like salt and water.

In short, his plans won't just say things to people. They make them part of the plan.

I also want to touch briefly about criticism against Gandhi. I also read the criticism and believed it when I am young. But, when I think about them in a matured way, they all lack content. Ask few questions to anyone criticizing Gandhi, you will find the below-

• They don't have the full picture.
• What they said doesn't have any valid proof.

I personally believe the reason such criticism are below-

• Muslims think that Gandhi is a Hindu and he worked for Hindu benefits mainly.  
• Hindus think that, Gandhi made Hindu's sacrifice a lot more just to get Muslims onboard.
• Many people think, Gandhi is responsible for killings of many people through his non-violent methods and delayed independence of the country.
• He is responsible for division of the country.

While first 2 points above can be dismissed right away, the 3rd and 4th points are interesting. Starting with 3rd point, I too believe that India might have got independence atleast couple of decades earlier. But, I think achieving independence earlier would have caused the below-

• With no single leader acceptable to everyone, the whole country might have quickly gone through a civil war. (We can see live examples in Syria and few other middle east countries)
• Unifying the country might have been a really difficult task if not impossible.

Finally, coming to keeping the country unified. I personally find this point is rather silly and doesn't make sense for people to stay together for namesake and fighting always. Also, in the history records. Gandhi might be one of the rare leader at that time, who tried to prevent the partition. 

Note: All this is only my personal opinion based on what I read till now.