To some the title of this article may come across as strange: what are the commonalities between the life and work of the greatest Indian leader of the last century and the father of Indian independence, Mahatma Gandhi, and the Arabs of today?
The question arose for me last week when I found that two prominent Arab media outlets had carried the story of Gandhi.
One was the television station MBC, which broadcast a film — Nine Hours to Rama — about Gandhi’s life and his unique struggle against the British Raj in India.
The other was the National Geographic magazine (Arabic edition), which ran a long article on the life of Gandhi, and particularly the Salt March he undertook along with his followers in March 1930, as part of his efforts to free India and its people from a long-lasting foreign occupation.
But all this was also a reminder of the one great failures of that legendry man. While he did pull off a number of political miracles, he failed to unite Muslim and Hindus, and immediately after the Partition that led to the emergence of the independent states of India and Pakistan in 1947, a bloody sectarian war broke out between the two great groups that make up the Indian nation, Muslims and Hindus.
Gandhi couldn’t do anything about that; in fact his efforts to bring peace and harmony between the two groups led to his own death at the hands of a Hindu fanatic, Nathuram Godse.
The situation is almost the same today, in the Arab and Muslim worlds. India had a negative experience bringing two religious groups together in one nation, and one land.
But the Arab world is seeing violence between Muslims themselves, based on sect. Fanaticism has led to more fanaticism. One should see the daily news reports shows and try to count the number of fatalities in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and some other Muslim countries.
Most of these deaths are at the hands of fellow Muslims. Any such viewer will conclude that there is an ongoing sectarian war, and all the victims are Muslims, killed by fellow Muslims.
Vanishing borders
The analogy between Mahatma Gandhi’s struggle, and the prevailing situation in the Arab world, is not about the ill effects of fanaticism alone.
It goes to the heart of the more serious issue of Partition of the subcontinent. A good number of existing borders of Arab countries are under threat; already the border between Iraq and Syria has vanished.
Iraq may end up being divided into three parts — Sunnis in the west, Kurds in the North and Shiites in the south. Syria may end up as more than two statelets. Yemen most probably will be broken into two or even three parts. The same with Libya. Some may think that this is a nightmare scenario, and will not happen. But they may be wrong,
Let me just remind them: some of us thought that Sudan will never break up into two countries.
Gandhi and his followers, even with their human ideals, and positive political thoughts and philosophy, could not prevent the Partition of the subcontinent at the dawn of independence.
Later, in 1971, Pakistan broke up into two countries. Even today religious problems persist in India, and sectarianism is rife in Pakistan.
Gandhi’s ideals probably need more time to sink into human thought, and be practiced by human beings.
That is why some Arabs nostalgically run films and articles about him, hoping to learn from history! United we stand, divided we fall.
Mohammad AlRumaihi is a professor of political sociology at Kuwait University. You can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/@rumaihi42
