Monomania is a state of mind, when a person is obsessed with one kind of ideas or emotions, often delirious. The obsession can be with even slightest and smallest of thought. Feelings of Guilt, Love with a stranger, elderly people have all been a subject of monomania of different people in the past.
Incidentally, I stumbled upon the climax of Moby Dick on Monday, where I found Captain Ahab also showed monomaniac instincts in his quest to kill Moby Dick.
Nathuram Godse. The man is indeed very famous in India. After trying five times, he finally assassinated Mahatma Gandhi. As Godse grew up, he worked a lot for social causes like eradication of untouchability and anti-caste moments. He was an avid reader of Socialism and Marxism, Veer Savarkar and Mahatma Gandhi and confessed in his deposition in the court of law at his trial for murder, that the last two had influenced him the most. Two things emerge as the outcome. First, he was no illiterate religious fanatic. Second, he believed in equality among all human beings. Then there was this time when Gandhi's influence in the Congress and in the struggle for independence sored. The Civil Disobedience and Fasting were the talisman of Gandhi led movement.
Bhagat Singh. The martyr. Grew up at the same time as Godse. As a teenager, he was a part of the Non Cooperation movement as well. He Burnt his books and clothes among other sacrifices as part of that movement. Unfortunately for him, the movement was withdrawn by Gandhi in the light of killings in Chauri Chaura.
Anger, Repression and Disgruntled was how Singh and Godse among other soon to be revolutionaries must have felt. The fact that Gandhi became a Judge and Jury in his cause and the amount of time his method took fuelled the popular youth sentiment of rejecting Violence as a tool against the unjust British Raj as an insanity. Resulting which, Bhagat Singh among other revolutionaries opened a second front in the fight for independence. A way completely different from Gandhi's. Incidentally, their movement gained momentum and was increasingly becoming popular.
On the contrary, to label men like Bhagat Singh, Mahatma Gandhi and for that matter Godse as Monomaniacs wont be wrong because Passion is too small a word for their contribution to freedom struggle.
Egoist is the word that comes to my mind, almost immediately I think about Gandhi at this point of time. To twist the arm of morality, for self interest is the obvious follies of ordinary men in such situations. Please dont rule out Gandhi's ignorance of the fact. To advocate only Non-violence as a tool of winning freedom and behaving almost intolerant and giving a cold shoulder to other efforts is evident of this ignorance. So much so, turning down the oppurtunity to plea for Singh's case and instead signing the Gandhi-Irwin pact, almost facing the storm in the face of the public and infact Congress facing the public ire after Singh's hanging. To cut out a part of India against the will of millions of Indians and changing the course of history to his own effect.
Was Gandhi the biggest monomaniac to live on the face of this earth ?
