Rev. Dr. P.B.M. Basaiawmoit
Friends and fellow travellers,
I am sure that we all know that today is India's National Martyr's Day for it was on this day, 70 years ago, i.e. on January 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated for reasons best known by the assassin and his group of supporters.
Seventy years is a long way back. Generations have come and gone and most of us, were not even born then. But the clock cannot be turned back and what happened on this day, 70 years back cannot be written off.
Even though we might not concur with all the thoughts penned and articulated by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi then and subsequently promoted and idolised and some of us would agree fully with Babasaheb Ambedkar on the issue of caste, yet Mahatma Gandhi, acknowledged and respected as the Father of the Indian Nation as he led the freedom movement against the British rule, cannot be ignored and considered irrelevant in 21st century India.
At this juncture, allow me to remind ourselves of the seven social sins identified by the Mahatma some 75 years back but still contemporaneous as they are being blatantly practiced without batting an eyelid and insultingly, justifying for resorting to such operandi, day in and day out. They are: # Pleasure without conscience; # Wealth without work; # Commerce without morality; # Education without character; # Science without humanity; # Politics without principle; # Religion without sacrifice.
We need to be engaged in telling all concerned that these are the social sins absolutely abhorred by the Mahatma that he made his grandchildren memorise them and whenever he is with them, he would ask them to recite in front of him clearly and without any need for prompting.
With best wishes for the New Year and for an India freed from these social sins.
