Gandhiji said, a leader should clearly say what people should do. He should say it in simple language, so that, people can easily understand. And it should be within their power to do what you say.

He asked people to spin cotton by moving spinning wheel (Charkha) at least three hours a day. It was a very simple thing to do. People could do it at home.

They need not go to protest rallies. They did not have to take stick blows from police.

They did not have to do Jail Bharo Andolan.

It was legal to spin wheel at home. Gandhiji asked them to do only this much.

People began to spin wheel at home.

The result followed. Textiles mills in London closed down. British Govt’s income from India declined. Expenditure for ruling India became higher than income from India.

They left India.

WHAT GANDHIJI COULD HAVE SAID IF HE WERE ALIVE TODAY?

Instead of asking you to spin wheel, he would have said, “Tweet and Retweet” for at least three hours a day.

It is very simple thing to do. We can do it at home. We do not have to go and join any rally.

We do not have to bear stick blows of police. We do not have to join Jail Bharo rally.

And it is legal to tweet and retweet. So we can do it easily.

DOES IT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE TO GOVERNMENT?

Yes. It made so much difference, that at one stage, Government had to declare Intention to Censor Social Media.

Again people tweeted and retweeted.

Again, Government had to retreat and say that it had no intention to censor Social Media.

So, Tweeting and Retweeting do make difference.

SUPPOSE, IF WE ASK GANDHIJI, about what should we tweet and what should we retweet,
HE WOULD HAVE ANSWERED LIKE THIS:

“Those of you who want Judicial Reform, should open a twitter id, called @Jidicial_Reform. Then they should tweet and retweet only on this subject. If followers will increase, it will have impact.

“Those of you who want Electoral Reform, should open a twitter id @Electoral_Reform and start tweeting and retweeting only on this subject.

“Those who want reforms in SEC.498A of IPS, should open a twitter id @498A_Reforms, and then tweet and retweet only on this issue.

“In this way, all of you should choose a subject of your choice and then tweet at least three hours a day.”

SOME OF YOU MAY ASK GANDHIJI, “WE ARE ALREADY DOING THIS SINCE MONTHS, BUT WE ARE NOT SEEING ANY RESULT”.

To them, Gandhiji would have said,” The doors of heart of your enemy should be opened from inside. You cannot force open doors to their heart from outside. If in your tweets, you will use harsh and barbed words, then, the enemy will not open door of his heart from inside. To use barbed words is a sort of violence. It does not help.

“If you condemn media as “Paid Media”, no journalist will think about correcting his/her ways. They will not open their hearts from inside and your tweeting may not work.

So, the common thing between a spinning wheel and Twitter is, both are weapons of mass awakening on a given subject.

Thanks for reading this blog,
Plz also check post on, Power Slips Away From Hands Which Are Incapable of Holding it.

Haresh Raichura
16/3/2012

Please also see related post “How Gandhiji Used “Polite Peer Pressure” to persuade Government to accept his request?” and “How Citizens in U.S. and U.K. use twitter for Social Justice?” and “Can One Single Man Stop Parliament From Passing Any Bill?