 "Can we, without our conceit and prejudices, observe and empathise with other humans, forget other Indian citizens? Photo: Reuters")
We are familiar with “Vaishnav Jana To”, the song in Mishra Khamaj that Gandhi loved. It was composed by Narsinh Mehta some six centuries ago. The song is written in a language that is not very different from modern Gujarati, which is quite remarkable because many languages have changed drastically in the last century.
The song communicates the following:
“Those can be called Vaishnav who feel the pain of others,
and help those in misery: without feeling self-important.
A Vaishnav respects all and disdains nobody.”
There are other things in the lyrics that speak to restraint and purity and so on but they are not
