— Attributed to Gandhi; not traced to his Collected Works – unverified
About this quote
हिन्दी में
भीड़ में खड़े रहना आसान है; अकेले खड़े होने के लिए हिम्मत चाहिए।
What it means
The word to watch is easy. The sentence nowhere says the crowd is wrong; it says that standing in it costs nothing. What is being measured is price, not truth, and keeping those two apart is the whole use of the line.
It is normally quoted to mean the lone dissenter must be right, which it never claims. Courage is not evidence. A person can be brave and mistaken, and a crowd can be comfortable and correct; this sentence rates the difficulty of the two positions and then stops.
What it teaches you
The next time you are the only objector in a room, accept the courage the line grants you and go on looking for the argument, because you have not yet been given one. Then run it backwards: on some view where you agree with everyone around you, ask whether you would still hold it if the room emptied — if yes, the agreement is incidental; if no, you have found a position you are renting from the people nearby.
अर्थ और सीख
बात यह है कि भीड़ के साथ खड़े रहने में कोई क़ीमत नहीं चुकानी पड़ती, अकेले खड़े होने में पड़ती है। ध्यान दीजिए, यह कहीं नहीं कहा गया कि अकेला खड़ा आदमी सही ही होता है — हिम्मत कोई सबूत नहीं है। सीख यह है कि अगर आप अकेले खड़े हैं तो अपने पक्ष का तर्क ढूँढ़ते रहिए, और अगर सबके साथ खड़े हैं तो ख़ुद से पूछिए कि कमरा ख़ाली हो जाने पर भी क्या यही राय बचेगी।
Where it comes from
Circulates under Gandhi’s name but has not been traced to his Collected Works; quote researchers class it as unverified. Its spirit matches his lone stands, which is likely why it attached to him.
