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Journalism of Courage
This Gandhi Jayanti, among the many videos of celebrations, is one featuring a schoolboy recounting Mahatma Gandhi’s experience of being thrown off a train, and how we often fail to fully appreciate Gandhi’s contributions to the nation.
The video shared on X shows the boy giving a speech in Hindi. The clip begins with him discussing how Gandhi, instead of reacting with anger when thrown off the train, responded with a powerful idea – civil disobedience.
He goes on to say, “Badi ajeeb vidambana hai ki Gandhi ke desh ke logon ne Gandhi ko sabse kam padha aur samjha. Harry Potter aur Chetan Bhagat ko din raat ghor dopahari ek karke padhne wali yuva peedhi agar Gandhi ji ko tabiyat se padh di hoti to aaj peedhiyon ka sabak aaj shayad kuch aur hota. Lekin humne aisa nahi kiya aur yehi kaaran hai ki aaj tamaam fancy aur facebookiya gyaan humare paas ho gaye hain. (It’s quite ironic people in Gandhi’s own country have read and understood him the least. The younger generation, which tirelessly reads Harry Potter and Chetan Bhagat day and night, would have learned a very different lesson if they had seriously studied Gandhi. But we didn’t do that, and that’s precisely why today we have all this superficial, fancy Facebook knowledge instead.)”
He also points out that those who blame Gandhi for the partition of India and Pakistan fail to recognise that Gandhi was, in fact, the most secular leader India has ever known. The boy concludes his speech by reciting a poem by Dushyant Kumar.
Watch the video:
The video has gone viral on X and has, by now, amassed 42,200 likes. One user recognised the boy as a student of Central Hindu Boys School in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi.
Another user commented, “This boy has given a good speech.” A third user said, “Dil jeet liya Chhore ne. (The boy has won everyone’s heart.)”
