Bapu’s Ideals for Young India

Context: There is a need to rededicate ourselves to the core values of freedom fighters which is significant for India’s development.

Values that should inspire Youth: From the freedom struggle.

• Ideals of Mahatma Gandhi
  • Oneness: He inspired to rise above casteism, communalism, regionalism and provincialism.
  • Non-violence (ahimsa): This ideal inspired great men across the world, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela.
  • Truth, Satyagraha and Peace.
  • Selflessness: He remarked: “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in service of others.”
• Ideals of Revolutionaries: like Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru and Chandrashekhar Azad.
  • Patriotism: They placed the nation before the self, valued freedom over slavery and oppression, and rose against the might of the British Empire.
  • Selfless nationalism.
  • Indomitable will and the courage to practise the ideals which they preached: reflected in Bhagat Singh’s immortal words that “the sword of revolution is sharpened on the whetting stone of ideas”.
• Ideals of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak:
  • Selflessness: For one’s life to acquire substance, one must be driven by a purpose larger than oneself.This value is reflected in his words that “each one of us will have to subordinate himself to the larger good” i.e. Nation-building. 
• Other values of the freedom struggle:
  • Sacrifices: Thousands of sons and daughters of India had sacrificed their lives for the Country.
  • Rise above social divisions and barriers: transcend narrow sectarianism in a manner of speaking, by Swami Vivekananda’s stirring call, “Arise, awake and do not stop until the goal is reached”.
  • Wisdom: Freedom fighters showed the wisdom to carry forward the torch of our great nation’s guiding philosophy i.e. Vasudhaiva kutumbakam (The whole world is one family) and the underlying message of the Rig Vedic verse, “Ekam sat, vipraah bahudhaa vadanti (Truth is one, but the sages call it by many names)”.

Significance of following these values by the Youth

• They can chart the course of India’s development.
• Helps to realize Atmanirbhar or self-reliance: This was M. Gandhi’s dream that was reflected in his khadi and village industries during the freedom struggle.
  • Atmanirbhar campaign will set India firmly on the path of development and national pride.

Conclusion: We must ensure that the sacrifices of freedom fighters will not go in vain. Their austerity, forbearance, asceticism, spirituality, and self-effacing spirit of sacrifice should serve as a fountainhead of inspiration to all of us.