Dr K K Aggarwal

What makes a wave?

As we have been witnessing over the last few days, there is an ‘Anna wave’ in the country. People of all ages, from all walks of life have come out on the streets in large numbers in support of Anna Hazare. Till about few months back, Anna Hazare was a relatively unknown name to most people. Since then, he has become the biggest name in the country. A new term has been coined. Just like Gandhigiri, Annagiri is the talk of the town.

What is the reason for this wave of support? Why has there been such an upsurge of people?

The success of a wave depends on the subject and is based on the principles of truthfulness, non violence and sarvodaya i.e. welfare for all. Anna Hazare stands for all these three principles.

For a wave to spread across the entire nation, it must cover one percent of the population. This can be explained by the 100th–monkey phenomenon.

“Long time back there was a monkey called Emo in a far off village in Japan. Monkeys at that time used to eat apples lying in the gardens full of dust. One day Emo by mistake washed the apple in the pond before eating. From then onwards he washed every apple he ate. The message went from one monkey to the second monkey and then to the third and so on. Many monkeys started washing apples before eating. After sometime, some neighboring monkeys from other villages also started washing their apples before eating. The day the 100th monkey washed the apple and ate it, a strange phenomenon was observed all over the country. Monkeys all over the country started washing apples before eating. The critical mass in that area therefore was 100. Once the critical mass was achieved, the information spread like wildfire to each and every monkey and everybody started washing apples before eating.”

In campaigning also the politicians make use of this principle and make sure that the critical mass is achieved to start with. In local political meetings also, the same principle of 1% critical mass is used. For a gathering of 1000 people, politicians make sure that they have minimum 10 of their own people are sitting in the audience to initiate clapping. When 10 people clap, the rest 990 will also follow and clap. Similarly, for a gathering of 2000 they will need 20 people and for 10,000 they will need 100 people.

When you want to pass on a message to the audience, it has to be flashed for at least 10 seconds. The mind cannot remember what it had seen or heard for less than 10 seconds. The politicians will highlight what they want to say and pass on hurriedly what they do not want the people to remember.

If Anna Hazare is able to capture one percent of the people, which he appears to have achieved, then this movement would become nationwide. This critical mass of one percent, once achieved, is the reason why ideas and movement spontaneously spread among the general population.

Understanding Satyagraha

The recent Anna movement has opened a pandora of alternatives for fighting justice. From time immemorial people have been fighting for justice.

 Mahatma Gandhi fought a long battle against the British. His way of protest was based on non-violence utilizing the concept of Satyagraha. The Vedic concept of Satyagraha consists of satya, ahimsa and tapasya. ‘Satya’ implies openness, honesty and truthfulness involving the opinion of every person as a part of the truth. ‘Ahimsa’ refers to non-violence and treats the opponents with the same love as that of our own and ‘Tapasya’ is willingness to sacrifice. A Satyagrahi always provide a face saving way out for the opponents. The goal of a Satyagraha is to fight for the truth and justice and not to achieve victory over the opponents. Mahatma Gandhi defined Satyagraha as ‘satya’ means truth and ‘agraha’ means firmness. He said that if you are firm in the truth in the long run you are going to win.

 During Gandhian times many others showed their way of protest. Rajguru, Chandrashekhar and Bhagat Singh took the path of violence and killed General Dyer. Most of the Indian movies including Rang De Basanti took inspiration from them. Jinnah way of protest was aimed in dividing the country and get Pakistan and Ambedkar’s way of protest was to get reservation for the backward people. Krishna way of protest was to hide himself, “rooth jana or to pretend as if he was upset” Strike is a modernized version of Satyagraha.

 But today’s parliamentarians are adopting their own method and believe in that without paralyzing the work your protest will not be heard. Every day we see them boycotting the parliament and wasting crores of public money………………………………more

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The four pillars of Gandhigiri

For doing a strike follow the Satyagraha based on Gandhigiri : Gandhigiri always works, weather it was Mahatma Gandhi, the movie “Lago Raho Munnabhi” or the Gandhian Anna. The Gandhian principles were so framed that it always united the common man, said Padmashri and Dr B C Roy National Awardee Dr K K Aggarwal President Heart Care Foundation of India and TNL Perfect Health Mela.

Dr Aggarwal said that four basic principles Gandhi taught are of Satya (truthfulness); Ahimsa (non violence); Sarvodaya (welfare for all) and Satyagraha. The word Dharma means to hold together. All the above four principles can hold people together and hence forms the backbone of dharma.

Yoga-shastras as well as the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali propagate truthfulness as one of the main components for living a disciplined life or to start yoga. Satya means oneness in your thoughts, speech and actions. Bapuji’s three monkeys also had truthfulness represented in one of the monkeys who talked about ‘bura mat bolo’.  In fact, Gandhi believed that “there is no religion higher than truth”

Gandhi preached the concept of “experimenting with truth” — a phrase that formed the subtitle to his autobiography. He taught how to learn through trial and error, often admitting to mistakes and changing one’s behaviour accordingly.  Non observance of truthfulness is the root cause of any corruption in the society.

Ahimsa is the next principle and teaches us the path of non violence. Again it has to be practiced not only in actions but in thoughts and speech also. It also forms the basis of Jainism and Hinduism as a religion.

Sarvodaya or welfare for all is the third Gandhian teaching. Vedic philosophy also emphasizes on the welfare for all. It talks about “bahujan hitay-bahujan sukhay” (‘the good of the masses, the benefit of the masses. Gandhi found in it a composite concept of social welfare & economic justice. Any action which is aimed and seems to be aimed at the welfare of the people will e accepted by every one in the society.

Satyagraha is the protest based on satya (path of truthfulness) and non violence and includes peaceful demonstrations, prolonged fasts etc.  It’s a non violence based civil resistance. Satyagraha is formed by two Sanskrit words Satya (truth) and Agraha (holding firmly to or firmness). Gandhi said “Satyagraha is a weapon of the strong; it admits of no violence under any circumstance whatsoever; and it ever insists upon truth”. Gandhi said if you are firm in the truth in the long run you are going to win. It is base on the law of persistence.

The current Satyagraha by Anna Hazare is using all the principles of Gandhigiri and is already in its way to success.

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