One of my friends asked me, if we got independence due to Gandhi and non-violence. He went on to say that independence was achieved due to violent outbursts and fighting due to people like bhagat sigh, mangal pandey(!), and subash chandra bose. I could not quite agree. He said british had guns and they were able to rule us. Only way we got/could have gotten and to get independence is through a fitting reply in kind. Call me old fashioned, but somehow I disagree. I certainly refuse to believe that we got independence due to violence and violence is a way to permenent solution - in this case independence. I m no great fan of Gandhi, I know relatively little about him. Definitely what is taught in schools is not enough to get a good picture. I respect him though, but then leaving that aside, my question is how can violence be taken as a cure/solution to our problems? Does is mean we have not learnt to live peacefully? If then, are we truely civilized? Or like my other friend claims, we have inherent ability to fight amongst ourselves. Not sure. But very disturbing if it is true.

I still keep on saying to myself everytime I hear about war and blood and pain, "After everything is said and done, I still believe in humanity". Sometimes such believes are shaken.