Mahatma Gandhi
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''' 6 The Impossible Indian: Gandhi and the temptation of violence- Faisal Devji ''' | ''' 6 The Impossible Indian: Gandhi and the temptation of violence- Faisal Devji ''' | ||
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| + | =The Dandi March= | ||
| + | ==The route== | ||
| + | [https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL/2019/10/02&entity=Ar02502&sk=48774755&mode=text Parth Shastri , Oct 2, 2019: ''The Times of India''] | ||
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| + | With inputs from Radha Sharma | ||
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| + | It’s been 89 years since Mohandas K Gandhi electrified the world by walking 388 km from Ahmedabad’s Satyagraha Ashram to a town called Dandi on the Arabian Sea to defy a British tax on salt. The image of the 61-yearold with lathi in hand and 78 followers in tow has inspired many others — from politicians and students to activists and foreign tourists — to reprise the 1930 yatra. TOI traces the route where history was made… | ||
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| + | 1 Sabarmati Ashram | ||
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| + | Mahatma Gandhi shifted his ashram from Kochrab to the banks of the Sabarmati on June 17, 1917, because he wanted to take his experiments in simple living a step further. Also, the site was between the Sabarmati jail and a crematorium — the two places where satyagrahis end up, Bapu believed. This became Bapu’s home till 1930. At the ashram, he continued with his experiments with truth, and also brought together a group of men and women who believed in non-violence as the means to set India free. Today, the ashram, which draws anywhere between 500 to 3,000 visitors daily, stands as a monument to Bapu’s life mission. According to Gandhi scholar and former director of Sabarmati Ashram Tridip Suhrud, the Dandi march was a “collective demonstration of the ideals of the Satyagraha Ashram.” | ||
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| + | 2 Nadiad | ||
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| + | The marchers spent the fourth night at Santram Mandir. Ashish Dave, a local historian, said the mahant (chief priest) of the temple, Jankidas Maharaj, stepped out to receive the Mahatma. “The social more at the time was that once appointed, the mahant could not leave the temple premises,” Dave said. “It was the first instance of the protocol being broken.” Nadiad has a memorial dedicated to the Mahatma and Sardar Patel commissioned by former union minister Dinsha Patel, whose relatives were among those arrested in aftermath of the march. | ||
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| + | 3 Borsad | ||
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| + | The epicentre of the Borsad Satyagraha (1922-23) — launched by Sardar Patel to abolish tax on villagers to fight against dacoits — was the site of the sixth night’s stay. The town has preserved the Mahatma’s memory in the form of a century-old high school whose first trustee was Sardar Patel. Ilesh Sharma, principal of JD Patel High School, said, “The balcony from where the Mahatma addressed the gathering still exists in its original form.” However, the structure, despite being declared as heritage, has been damaged by recent spells of rain. | ||
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| + | 4 Kankapura | ||
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| + | The village of 1,200 people on the banks of the Mahi was the spot for the seventh night’s halt. It is believed that the boatmen who ferried the satyagrahis were afraid that their vessels would be seized by the British. Today, the main problem for the villagers is connectivity across the river for better employment opportunities. Former sarpanch Vinu Parmar, 75, says he has written several letters to authorities, including the PM’s office. “The Mahatma had to cover 7km between the banks. By road, the distance is 35km,” he said. | ||
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| + | 5 Kareli | ||
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| + | The resting spot for the eighth day is where Jawaharlal Nehru met the Mahatma to seek guidance ahead of a Congress meeting. A Dandi Path hostel has been built by Gujarat Tourism at the location and the rooms used by the leaders have been preserved. Hemant Mahant, manager of the hostel, says that that about 100-odd persons from India and abroad have come tracing the Mahatma’s path in the past one year. “Earlier this year, a Swiss couple came here while tracing the same route on a bicycle. A German national walking the Mahatma’s path was so particular about adhering to the routine that he would start walking from the exact place where he suspended his journey for a night stay,” he said. | ||
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| + | Another historic spot is the residence of Nathubhai Bhatt, where the marchers stayed on the 17th day. This is among the few private residences with Dandi March history. Nathubhai’s son Harish Bhatt, said: “Our family was touched by the Mahatma’s magic. We continue leading a simple life and not wasting any resource.” | ||
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| + | 6 Bhatgam | ||
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| + | This was the spot where Gandhi made a moving speech about a labourer who was forced to carry a kerosene burner on his head during the march. “No worker should be made to carry such a load on his head. If we do not mend our ways, there is no Swaraj such as you and I can put before the people,” he said. He and the group stayed in school which has been named Gandhi Kutir, a structure that is fast eroding according to Ishwar Patel, a village elder. | ||
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| + | 7 Dandi | ||
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| + | On April 5, the 23th day of the march, the Mahatma stayed at Saifee Villa, owned by religious leader from the Dawoodi Bohra community. The Syedna later handed it over to Nehru so that it could be preserved as a museum. At dawn, the Mahatma picked up salt from the shore, defying a British law over manufacture of salt. The memorial here gets over 15,000 visitors every month. It has 24 free-standing pillars depicting an event from each day of the march. An 18-foot statue of the Mahatma is flanked by two spires which converge at a crystalline point made of salt. The main attractions, however, are the lifelike statues of the Mahatma and 78 marchers. | ||
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| + | Shantanu Iyer, who had come from Mumbai on a rainy day to visit the memorial, said that she had only read about the event in history textbooks. “But looking at the spot and going through the entire history is like re-living those days and understanding its importance. I hope our future generations remember what our forefathers did to give us freedom,” she said. | ||
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| + | =Delhi= | ||
| + | ==Taught English, Hindi while at Valmiki temple, Reading Road== | ||
| + | [https://epaper.timesgroup.com/olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL/2019/09/30&entity=Ar02116&sk=9C6674E8&mode=text Sep 30, 2019: ''The Times of India''] | ||
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| + | ''' When Gandhi taught at a Harijan basti in Delhi ''' | ||
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| + | The black board, used by none other than Mahatma Gandhi during his classes to teach his students, is still intact. While the world knows Gandhi as an apostle of peace, a leader of the freedom struggle and a social reformer, not many are aware that he briefly became a regular teacher to a bunch of kids and their parents in Delhi. He taught English and Hindi when he started living at Valmiki temple on what was then Reading Road (now Mandir Marg). That was perhaps the first and only time when he became a teacher in the true sense. | ||
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| + | When you visit Bapu’s room inside the Valmiki temple, you will see several old photographs of leaders like Lord and Lady Mountbatten, C Rajagopalachari, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Maulana Azad and Jawaharlal Nehru with him. However, one painting tells you the story of this venerable room. In this fading painting, several kids are talking to Bapu in a very animated manner. | ||
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| + | In the centre of Bapu’s room, you will find a wooden desk that he used. To the right is the bed that Gandhi slept in. Bapu’s small charkha is also there, close to the bed. He used to spin it for around 30-40 minutes every day. Everything is there in the same position that Gandhi left more than seven decades ago. | ||
| + | Gandhi chose this place so that he could live with ‘Harijans’. In those days, a large number of Valmiki families lived in slums at the Valmiki colony close to the temple. They worked as sweepers in areas like Gole Market, Irwin Road (now Baba Kharak Singh Marg) and Connaught Place. Many Valmiki familes still live there now, though in decent flats. The jhuggies are long gone. | ||
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| + | In 1946, Gandhi asked elders of the Valmiki colony if could stay there for a couple of months. They gladly agreed. Gandhi stayed there from April 1, 1946, to June 10, 1947 — for 214 days, to be precise. | ||
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| + | “Once he moved to Valmiki colony, he started interacting with the families. He was shocked to learn that they were all illiterate. Nobody had even seen a school. Then he asked them to send their kids to him as he would teach them. People started sending their kids to his classes,” says Krishan Vidhyarti, a priest and caretaker of the temple. Vidhyarti’s father and uncles also attended Bapu’s classes. Gandhi wanted to teach them to read and write basic English and Hindi. And he ensured that his classes took place both in the morning and evening, without fail. | ||
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| + | Gandhi was a hard task master. He would chide students if they turned up in his class without taking a bath. He was also a conscientious teacher. He would put off meeting leaders who came visiting to get on with his classes. Louis Fischer writes in his biography of Gandhi, “The Life of Mahatma”, “Once I reached at the Valmiki temple from my Hotel Imperial to interview him. But, he met me only after the prayers.” Fischer spent over a month in Delhi in 1946 to collect notes for his biography. | ||
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| + | “I grew up listening to stories of Gandhiji teaching at the Valmiki temple from my father. He had attended Ganghiji’s classes during those days,” says Pritam Dhaliwali, 64, a social worker of Gole Market area. “Thanks to Bapu, my father became a little literate.” | ||
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| + | When Bapu began teaching, kids of Gole market, Paharganj, Irwin Road and other nearby areas too started attending. The number of students kept swelling. From about 30 students when Bapu started, it soon grew to about 75. Classes then had to be held in an open area. It is said Gandhi knew all the students by their names. | ||
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| + | “It was Bapu who taught our elders. They were illiterate and came to Delhi from Meerut and other parts of western UP. But for him they would have remained as they were. After Bapu left Valmiki temple, his students joined various schools in the Gole Market area,” says Dr OP Shukla, a Dalit activist and former member of the Railway Board. | ||
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| + | “It was a big blow for us when he was forced to shift from here to Birla House for security reasons. Our elders were devastated. Alas, he was killed where security was tight,” Vidhyarti, the temple priest, says. | ||
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| + | ''Vivek Shukla is the author of ‘Gandhi’s Delhi’'' | ||
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| + | [[Category:Biography|GMAHATMA GANDHIMAHATMA GANDHIMAHATMA GANDHIMAHATMA GANDHIMAHATMA GANDHI | ||
| + | MAHATMA GANDHI]] | ||
| + | [[Category:India|GMAHATMA GANDHIMAHATMA GANDHIMAHATMA GANDHIMAHATMA GANDHIMAHATMA GANDHI | ||
| + | MAHATMA GANDHI]] | ||
| + | [[Category:Pages with broken file links|MAHATMA GANDHIMAHATMA GANDHIMAHATMA GANDHIMAHATMA GANDHI | ||
| + | MAHATMA GANDHI]] | ||
=Fasts= | =Fasts= | ||
Revision as of 18:28, 2 June 2021
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Philosophy, views
From: Oct 2, 2019: The Times of India
Champaran Satyagraha
Indeed, Champaran Satyagrahas marked the emergence of Mahatma from M. K. Gandhi wherefrom began a new era in India’s freedom struggle.During those days when popular protests were repressed by brute force unleashed by the British Government, the strategy of peace and non-violent persuasion in Champaran proved to be highly useful as it discouraged the English rulers from resorting to barbarity against the agitators.
With Mahatma Gandhi’s approaching martyr day very close to observe, everyone is reminded of his immense contribution towards selfless service of humanity suffering the agony and trauma of utter ignorance, poverty and wretchedness and also violence, injustice or inequality of all kinds all over the world.And that moved Gandhi’s inner core which motivated his pious self to jump into fulfilling his lifelong mission for alleviation and uplift of these millions as he could feel the inner voice of their hearts. While he was working in South Africa towards this end but his deep passion for service of own motherland brought him back to India where he began with this utter desire to serve the hapless millions.And the farmer’s agitation in Champaran against various forms of prevailing injustice provided him the required opportunity to practice his noble ideas into action wherein he proved to be very successful. In fact, the Champaran peasant movement was a part of the wider struggle prefixed for independence. When Gandhiji returned from South Africa, he wanted to experiment with his first-ever non-cooperation satyagraha,as alimited endeavour, by providing leadership to the infant peasant agitations at Champaran in Bihar and later atKheda in Gujarat. Although these struggles were taken up as reformist movements yet the underlying rationale was to mobilise the peasants towards their genuine demands meant for their survival.Indeed,Champaran Satyagraha was based on insistence on ‘truth and non-violence’,along-with persuasive strategy. It was organized as a peaceful movement in total contradiction with the violent peasant uprisings in the past. Fortunately the movement received massive support from some of the prominent leaders of the country like Rajendra Prasad, Brijkishore Prasad and Muzhar-ul-Haq who constituted the progressive intelligentsia of the then India. This provided strength and a constructive direction to the movement. Can’t it become again a role model in today’s world fraught with never-ending macabre violence and global terrorism?
In the early 19th century, European planters had set up indigo farms and factories at Champaran, in North Bihar. Thereafter, they forced the local cultivators to enter into the tinkathia system, which stipulated that out of 20 khatas which make an acre, they had to dedicate 3 khata sexclusively for indigo plantation. Though the peasants (bhumihars) of Champaran and other adjoining areas of Bihar were growing the Indigo under the tinkathia system, they had to lease this part in return to the advance at the beginning of each farming season and adding further to their woes, they were compelled to sell their crops at a throw away price which was fixed on the area cultivated by them rather than the crop produced. When the demand for indigo in the international market began to fall with the arrival of German synthetic dyes, the European planters passed the burden of losses over these cultivators, besides raising rents and extracting other illegal dues from them lest they close producing indigo. As Indigo plantation had been destroying the fertility of their soil they had nothing but to protest against such unjust farming. Consequently, the planters used illegal and inhuman methods of indigo cultivation upon the poor peasants while forcefully subjecting them to an extremely inadequate remuneration. Further these planters demanded heavy price from the peasants in lieu of relieving them from the lease contracts. Thus, as a whole, they were being bitterly cheated by the planters and the overall situation had become very horrible as well as pathetic which compelled a noted writer and documentary-maker D.G. Tendulkar to write: ‘The tale of woes of Indian ryots, forced to plant indigo by the British planters, forms one of the blackest in the annals of colonial exploitation. Not a chest of Indigo reached England without being stained with human blood.’
Against this backdrop, an enlightened peasant in Champaran, Raj Kumar Shukla who was also suffering this highhandedness, managed to persuade Gandhiji to survey the area to standup for the cause of the exploited peasants. Hence Gandhiji and his supporters visited extensively through villages,while listening to their grievances, and recording their horror tales of repression. Thus Gandhiji could understand the inhuman misery and brutal savagery which these peasants had been suffering from in the Champaran.Hence their miseries were discussed thread-bar at the annual conference of the Bihar Provincial Congress Committee on 10th April, 1914,which concluded that the Champaran peasants were really suffering their worst. And that again motivated the Provincial Congress Committee in 1915 to recommend for constitution of an inquiry committee to assess the woes of the Champaran peasantry. As the issue had drawn countrywide attention by then, the Indian National Congress, in its Lucknow session in 1916, also discussed the Champaran case to decide for immediate remedial measures for them.
Hence, Gandhiji chose to represent the peasants’ cause and initiated the Champaran peasant movement which was launched in 1917-18. Its objective was to create awakening among the peasants against the prevailing exploitation of the European planters. On 14th May, 1917 Gandhiji wrote a letter to the District Magistrate of Champaran, W.B. Heycock, wherein he showed his deep concerns about the sufferings of peasants at the hands of landlords and also the Government of the day. The peasants opposed not only the planters but also zamindars,as they were equally brute and oppressive for the peasants though Gandhiji wanted to normalize their mutual relations. Meanwhile, a Champaran Agrarian Committee had already been constituted by the Government, with Gandhiji as one of its members. As pressure mounted against such exploitation and the recorded statements of about 8,000 peasantstestified the inhuman exploitation and barbarity, the Government had to accept Gandhiji’s suggestion of abolishing the tinkathia system. The European planters had to sign an agreement granting more compensation and control over farming to these poor farmers and cancellation of revenue hikes and collection until the famine ended. Furthermore, the planters were asked to refund 25 percent of the amount they had illegally collected from the peasants as enhancement of dues.
Thus the Champaran Satyagraha became a grand success and turned to be a powerful tool of civil resistance in the ensuing India’s freedom struggle. The psychological impact of this Satyagraha was outstanding as it aroused firm belief in truth and non-violence among the suffering peasants of Champaran and also among the countrymen as well. Indeed, the satyagrah aproved to be a great morale booster to not only Gandhiji -which made him a global symbol forever – and the Champaran peasantry but became an icon of peaceful and non-violent struggle for the whole nation and also the whole world. In fact, this icon is the only option even today for survival of innocent humanity bearing the brunt of ever-recurring gruesome violence and various forms of terror, besides innumerable temporalpains and physical difficulties in every nook and corner of the world.
(The author is Political Science, U.P. Rajarshi Tandon Open University)
Racism against the Africans?
Anger Against Mahatma's Use Of Slur For Africans In Writings
Three months after President Pranab Mukherjee gifted a statue of Mahatma Gandhi to the University of Ghana, a group of professors and students have started a petition to bring it down.
The opposition centres around their belief that Gandhi was “inherently racist“ for his depiction of native black Africans as “kaffir“ (considered a racial slur in Africa) in his early writings, when he was fighting for the rights of Indians in South Africa.
According to reports, some members of the university , led by a former director of the Institute of African Studies, Professor Akosua Adomako Ampofo, have started a campaign to get the institution to pull down the statue, which was unveiled during a visit by President Pranab Mukheriee in June. natures, which comes as an embarrassment to the Indian government.
The campaign carries the slogan `Gandhi Must Fall' and `Gandhi For Come Down' (pidgin for Gandhi Must Come Down), inspired by the “Rhodes Must Fall“ campaign against a statue of Cecil Rhodes at Oxford University .
The statue was installed at the recreational quadrangle of the university's Legon campus in Accra.
Apart from a campus agitation, a petition to the university authorities on change.org has already attracted 872 signatures in a bit of a quandary . The site was chosen by the Ghana foreign office when the President went for a visit in June. While there are some voices preaching moderation, the ministry of external affairs is also waiting to see whether the campaign gathers steam.
The offensive passages
One of Gandhi's writings that have been cited in the petition reads thus: “A general belief seems to prevail in the Colony that the Indians are little better, if at all, than savages or the Natives of Africa. Even the children are taught to believe in that manner, with the result that the Indian is being dragged down to the position of a raw Kaffir.“ (Dec 19, 1894) A second, more damaging (Sept. 26, 1896) one reads: “Ours is one continual struggle against a degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the Europeans, who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw Kaffir whose occupation is hunting, and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with and, then, pass his life in indolence and nakedness.“ (The petitioners have sourced the quotes from Gandhi and South African Blacks http:www.gandhiserve.orgecwmgcwmg.htm ) Putting an international spin to their petition, they listed a number of colleges and universities around the world seeking to remove the overt symbols of racism.
Religion
Organised religion vs. ethical/ moral practices
Ashok Vohra, Recalling Gandhiji's Perspective On Religion, October 2, 2017: The Times of India
MK Gandhi was aware of the difficulties in defining the term `religion'. He took pains to explain it in a number of his writings over several years. He was aware that the term religion can be, and is, used in two senses to refer to organised religion and to refer to ethical or moral practices that have their root in a specific ontology and metaphysics.
He uses the term in both these senses. In `Hind Swaraj' he says, “Religion is dear to me ... Here i am not thinking of the Hindu ... or the Zoroastrian religion, but of that religion which underlies all religions.“ That Gandhi does not use the term religion to connote such individual religions or faiths is clear when he says, “By religion, I do not mean formal religion, or customary religion, but that religion which underlies all religions, which brings us face to face with our Maker.“
Elaborating on his use of the term `religion' further, he says, “Religion does not mean sectarianism. It means a belief in ordered moral government of the universe.“ According to him, religion is that “which transcends“ the limits of any particular religion. It does not supersede individual religions like Hinduism, Islam, Christianity ... but “harmonises them and gives them reality“.
This kind of religion is one “which changes one's very nature, which binds one nature, which binds one indissolubly to the truth within, and which ever purifies. It is a permanent element in human nature which counts no cost too great in order to find full expression and which leaves the soul utterly restless until it has found itself, known its Maker and appreciated the true correspondence between the Maker and itself.“
Gandhi in `Hindu Dharma' explains this: “All of us with one voice call God differently as Parmatma, Ishwara, Shiva, Vishnu, Rama, Allah, Khuda, Dada Hormuzada, Jehova, God, and an infinite variety of names. He is the One and yet many; He is smallest, smaller than an atom, and bigger than the Himalayas. He is contained even in a drop of the ocean, and yet not even the seven seas can encompass Him.“
That Gandhi does not regard religion or being religious or following of a religious order or creed as something external, some kind of a `job' or `profession' is abundantly clear when he asserts, “I do not conceive religion as one of the many activities of mankind.“ The main reason for this is that “the same activity may be governed by the spirit, either of religion or of irreligion.“
Gandhi regards being religious as something inherent to humankind. The term religion, as used by him pervades all our activities. Therefore, he concludes, “For me every , tiniest activity is governed by what i consider to be my religion.“ He explicitly admits this fact when he says, “This is the maxim of life which i have accepted, namely , that no work done by any man, no matter how great he is, will really prosper unless he has a religious backing.“
Gandhi's notion of religion is `metaphysical or the ideal'. In this context, there can be no conflict between religions because it assumes that there is just one universal religion or that there is just one religion underlying all religions. Then, the word religion would be always used in singular and never in the plural.
Satyagraha and The Three Monkeys
The Times of India, Oct 02 2015
K M Gupta
One way of fighting evil is not to shut it out from our senses
Granted, there is so much evil in the world corruption, nepotism, terrorism, for instance. But it is beyond us to change what is widespread. We have seen even well-intentioned people entering politics to cleanse it and then getting sucked into its vortex. It is a misconception that the world was good in the past, and it has worsened only now. The world was always the same and will be always so, perhaps.
So, do we accept evil, surrender to it?
Certainly not. There is a passive way of fighting evil and making the world a little more beautiful. In Japan, Kobe College's department of psychology conducted an experiment: they divided students into two groups. The first group was required to do nothing but carry on as usual. The second group was asked to just observe the good deeds done by people around them helping an elderly person to get into or out of public transport, feeding birds and animals, nursing a hurt bird or animal, and indulging in other acts of compassion and kindness. Small things; not great sacrifices or exceptionally kind deeds. After some time, it was found that the happiness levels of the second group registered a marked jump. The conclu sion was: even just observing the kind deeds of others increases one's happiness level.
In science, the term `observer effect' refers to the effect an observer has on the observed by his act of observation.For example, to check the pressure in an automobile tyre, a little air needs to be released.This affects the pressure in the tyre. That is the observer effect.The result of the Japanese study is the reverse of the observ study is the reverse of the observer effect. The observed influences the observer's mind.
So we can raise our happiness level free of cost. There are small streams, though not great rivers, of the milk of human kindness flowing all around us.Just by observing them, our happiness levels rise. Money and materials can create conditions conducive for happiness, but cannot exactly conduct it.
This influence of observing good deeds can, and does, go beyond just a rise in one's happiness level.
As we observe good deeds of others, not only does our happiness level rise, we start aping the good deeds of others unconsciously . We begin to radiate the goodness we experience. The observed becomes the observer.
When we are good at heart, in thought, word and deed, we start lactating the milk of human kindness. We start from observing the goodness of others and aping it and end up being aped by others. This cycle of goodness boosts the happiness level of society as a whole. The more the absorption and radiation, the less would be the evil around us.This is one silent but viable way of fighting evil, and it is not difficult.
When he started his non-violent movement in South Africa, Gandhiji first named it passive resistance. Then he felt the term to be tame and likely to be misunderstood and so he switched to the term satyagraha. The silent absorption and radiation of goodness discussed above is close to Gandhiji's idea of passive resistance.
Observing the goodness around us and absorbing it as a habit requires shutting our senses to the evil around us as far as possible. That is where Gandhiji's Three Apes come in: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. In Japan, the three mystic apes are called Mizaru, Kikazaru and Iwazaru.
Sex: Kusoom Vadgama on Gandhi ji and sex
`Gandhi was obsessed with sex ¬while preaching celibacy to others'
The Times of India Aug 16 2014
A controversy has erupted in Britain over the proposed second statue of Gandhiji in London, this one in Parliament Square. Kusoom Vadgama, the doughty historian (born: 1932) and former `Gandhi worshipper', told Bachi Karkaria at age 82 why she is leading the fight brigade against the statue.
On Gandhi's `debasement of women' by his experiments with sexual self-control.
Kusoom Vadgama: Men in position of power take advantage of their status. They have no qualms about abusing minors or women. All his life Gandhi was obsessed with sex ¬while preaching celibacy to others. No one challenged him. He was the nation's `untouchable' hero, his iconic status eclipsed all his wrong doings. The protest against yet another statue of his in London, just two miles from the one in Tavistock Square, is a perfect opportunity to speak the truth about this other people's Mahatma.
Gandhi never made a secret of sleeping naked with his greatgrand daughter and the wife of his great-grand son. It may have been his way of testing his control over his sexual drive, but these women were used as guinea pigs. If he had used other adult women, it would have been nothing more than interesting gossip. But Gandhi chose a teenage blood relation and a great-grand-daughter-in-law for his sexual whims. I have no fear or hesitation in telling the truth about him. Ironically , it was he who instilled in me the mantra of `satyameva jayate'.
Gandhi's darker side was ignored but never forgotten.
But Gandhiji did give a great deal of space to women in the freedom struggle. For them it was a personal liberation.
Kusoom Vadgama: Gandhi mobilised the women of India. One of the reasons for his success was that his political rallies were called prayer meetings. Women attended in thousands not only to listen to him but also to have the `darshan' of the saintly man.
Earlier, Kusoom Vadgama too `worshipped Gandhi'.
He was Kusoom Vadgama’s God in Nairobi,Kenya, where both her parents were deeply involved in India's free dom movement.
In school, Kusoom Vadgama stud ied the glory and great ness of the British Empire, but spent all her time outside in protest marches and dawn processions, ordering the British out of India. she even shouted `Jai Hind' to the English school teacher, and thought she would be expelled.
Spirituality: How it shaped Mahatma Gandhi
IANS | Jan 29, 2014
Title: Gandhi: A Spiritual Biography
Author: Arvind Sharma
Publisher: Hachette India
Pages: 252
Price: Rs.550
This work captures the spiritual side of a man who played probably the most important role in helping India to become a free nation. The weapons he used were unique: truth and non-violence. This, author Arvind Sharma says, was part of his innate spirituality.
For Gandhi, morality and religion were synonymous. He made it amply clear that what he wanted to achieve was self-realization, "to see God face to face, to attain Moksha". His earliest influences came from Hindu lore. His parents were devout worshippers of the god Vishnu. It was part of this influence that Gandhi learnt to repeat the name of Rama - a Vishnu 'avatar'- to get rid of his fear of ghosts and spirits!
But Gandhi was no Hindu fanatic. He respected all religions equally. The New Testament made a definite impression on him. Theosophy made a deeper impact. He battled for Muslims. He was a true religious pluralist. But "if he did not find Christianity perfect, neither did he find Hinduism to be so". It was his faith in spirituality that clearly gave him the courage to act the way he did on so many occasions, even when it looked as if he was treading a lonely path.
Gandhi would say that the thread of life was in the hands of God. But unlike most Hindus he did not believe in idols. At the same time he worshipped the Bhagavad Gita - calling it his "mother" in later life. Even Nathuram Godse saw Gandhi as a saint - but a saint gone wrong and deserving to die.
The book has one gaping hole. There is surprisingly no reference to Paramhansa Yogananda, an iconic Indian saint whose "Autobiography of a Yogi" (published in 1946) is still considered a spiritual classic. Yogananda moved to the US in 1920 and for three decades preached Kriya Yoga and meditation to tens of thousands. On a short trip to India, he spent time with Gandhi at Wardha and taught the Mahatma and his aides Kriya Yoga. It was probably the only yoga Gandhi learnt. A self-realized guru, Yogananda called Gandhi a saint. I am surprised how Sharma overlooked this important spiritual chapter in Gandhi's life in an otherwise informed book.
The British
Vis-à-vis Churchill
Suneel Sinha , Oct 1, 2019: The Times of India
Two men who would find themselves implacably opposed to each other for close to half a century would have first glimpsed each other in the aftermath of a battle.
Gandhi and Churchill would have been yards apart on Spion Kop (Spy Hill) in Natal, South Africa, on January 24, 1900, a book suggests, even if neither then knew the other or that the outcome of future decades would lead to the elevation of one to the Mahatma who would dissolve the empire the other lived and breathed.
Gandhi of the Indian Ambulance Corps was carrying a wounded general, Edward Woodgate, on a stretcher that passed by Churchill, then a young reporter during the Second Boer War who had been commissioned as a lieutenant in the South African Light Horse. “In fact, he and Gandhi must have passed literally within yards of each other…” the historian Arthur Herman writes in “Gandhi and Churchill”. The yet-to-be British statesman would acknowledge this years later.
They would meet in person just once — when Gandhi called on Churchill who was then colonial undersecretary in the first decade of the 20th century — and well before Churchill would train epithet and invective at his immovable opponent.
While Gandhi received his real education reading law at University College London, where he was also drawn by the Theosophists, to studying the Bhagavad Gita, second lieutenant Churchill would begin in Bangalore the voracious reading that would later lead to a Nobel Prize in Literature.
The adversarial lives of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Winston Spencer-Churchill began in irony. For Churchill, it ended in one. He was buried in 1965 on the date his adversary was assassinated in 1948.
Books about Gandhi
As in 2019
Oct 2, 2019: The Times of India
1 The Life of Mahatma Gandhi- Loius Fischer
2 Gandhi and his critics- BR Nanda
3 The Good Boatman- Rajmohan Gandhi
4 Prisoner of Hope- Judith M Brown
5 Gandhi: A very short introduction- Bhikhu Parekh
6 The Impossible Indian: Gandhi and the temptation of violence- Faisal Devji
The Dandi March
The route
Parth Shastri , Oct 2, 2019: The Times of India
With inputs from Radha Sharma
It’s been 89 years since Mohandas K Gandhi electrified the world by walking 388 km from Ahmedabad’s Satyagraha Ashram to a town called Dandi on the Arabian Sea to defy a British tax on salt. The image of the 61-yearold with lathi in hand and 78 followers in tow has inspired many others — from politicians and students to activists and foreign tourists — to reprise the 1930 yatra. TOI traces the route where history was made…
1 Sabarmati Ashram
Mahatma Gandhi shifted his ashram from Kochrab to the banks of the Sabarmati on June 17, 1917, because he wanted to take his experiments in simple living a step further. Also, the site was between the Sabarmati jail and a crematorium — the two places where satyagrahis end up, Bapu believed. This became Bapu’s home till 1930. At the ashram, he continued with his experiments with truth, and also brought together a group of men and women who believed in non-violence as the means to set India free. Today, the ashram, which draws anywhere between 500 to 3,000 visitors daily, stands as a monument to Bapu’s life mission. According to Gandhi scholar and former director of Sabarmati Ashram Tridip Suhrud, the Dandi march was a “collective demonstration of the ideals of the Satyagraha Ashram.”
2 Nadiad
The marchers spent the fourth night at Santram Mandir. Ashish Dave, a local historian, said the mahant (chief priest) of the temple, Jankidas Maharaj, stepped out to receive the Mahatma. “The social more at the time was that once appointed, the mahant could not leave the temple premises,” Dave said. “It was the first instance of the protocol being broken.” Nadiad has a memorial dedicated to the Mahatma and Sardar Patel commissioned by former union minister Dinsha Patel, whose relatives were among those arrested in aftermath of the march.
3 Borsad
The epicentre of the Borsad Satyagraha (1922-23) — launched by Sardar Patel to abolish tax on villagers to fight against dacoits — was the site of the sixth night’s stay. The town has preserved the Mahatma’s memory in the form of a century-old high school whose first trustee was Sardar Patel. Ilesh Sharma, principal of JD Patel High School, said, “The balcony from where the Mahatma addressed the gathering still exists in its original form.” However, the structure, despite being declared as heritage, has been damaged by recent spells of rain.
4 Kankapura
The village of 1,200 people on the banks of the Mahi was the spot for the seventh night’s halt. It is believed that the boatmen who ferried the satyagrahis were afraid that their vessels would be seized by the British. Today, the main problem for the villagers is connectivity across the river for better employment opportunities. Former sarpanch Vinu Parmar, 75, says he has written several letters to authorities, including the PM’s office. “The Mahatma had to cover 7km between the banks. By road, the distance is 35km,” he said.
5 Kareli
The resting spot for the eighth day is where Jawaharlal Nehru met the Mahatma to seek guidance ahead of a Congress meeting. A Dandi Path hostel has been built by Gujarat Tourism at the location and the rooms used by the leaders have been preserved. Hemant Mahant, manager of the hostel, says that that about 100-odd persons from India and abroad have come tracing the Mahatma’s path in the past one year. “Earlier this year, a Swiss couple came here while tracing the same route on a bicycle. A German national walking the Mahatma’s path was so particular about adhering to the routine that he would start walking from the exact place where he suspended his journey for a night stay,” he said.
Another historic spot is the residence of Nathubhai Bhatt, where the marchers stayed on the 17th day. This is among the few private residences with Dandi March history. Nathubhai’s son Harish Bhatt, said: “Our family was touched by the Mahatma’s magic. We continue leading a simple life and not wasting any resource.”
6 Bhatgam
This was the spot where Gandhi made a moving speech about a labourer who was forced to carry a kerosene burner on his head during the march. “No worker should be made to carry such a load on his head. If we do not mend our ways, there is no Swaraj such as you and I can put before the people,” he said. He and the group stayed in school which has been named Gandhi Kutir, a structure that is fast eroding according to Ishwar Patel, a village elder.
7 Dandi
On April 5, the 23th day of the march, the Mahatma stayed at Saifee Villa, owned by religious leader from the Dawoodi Bohra community. The Syedna later handed it over to Nehru so that it could be preserved as a museum. At dawn, the Mahatma picked up salt from the shore, defying a British law over manufacture of salt. The memorial here gets over 15,000 visitors every month. It has 24 free-standing pillars depicting an event from each day of the march. An 18-foot statue of the Mahatma is flanked by two spires which converge at a crystalline point made of salt. The main attractions, however, are the lifelike statues of the Mahatma and 78 marchers.
Shantanu Iyer, who had come from Mumbai on a rainy day to visit the memorial, said that she had only read about the event in history textbooks. “But looking at the spot and going through the entire history is like re-living those days and understanding its importance. I hope our future generations remember what our forefathers did to give us freedom,” she said.
Delhi
Taught English, Hindi while at Valmiki temple, Reading Road
Sep 30, 2019: The Times of India
When Gandhi taught at a Harijan basti in Delhi
The black board, used by none other than Mahatma Gandhi during his classes to teach his students, is still intact. While the world knows Gandhi as an apostle of peace, a leader of the freedom struggle and a social reformer, not many are aware that he briefly became a regular teacher to a bunch of kids and their parents in Delhi. He taught English and Hindi when he started living at Valmiki temple on what was then Reading Road (now Mandir Marg). That was perhaps the first and only time when he became a teacher in the true sense.
When you visit Bapu’s room inside the Valmiki temple, you will see several old photographs of leaders like Lord and Lady Mountbatten, C Rajagopalachari, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Maulana Azad and Jawaharlal Nehru with him. However, one painting tells you the story of this venerable room. In this fading painting, several kids are talking to Bapu in a very animated manner.
In the centre of Bapu’s room, you will find a wooden desk that he used. To the right is the bed that Gandhi slept in. Bapu’s small charkha is also there, close to the bed. He used to spin it for around 30-40 minutes every day. Everything is there in the same position that Gandhi left more than seven decades ago. Gandhi chose this place so that he could live with ‘Harijans’. In those days, a large number of Valmiki families lived in slums at the Valmiki colony close to the temple. They worked as sweepers in areas like Gole Market, Irwin Road (now Baba Kharak Singh Marg) and Connaught Place. Many Valmiki familes still live there now, though in decent flats. The jhuggies are long gone.
In 1946, Gandhi asked elders of the Valmiki colony if could stay there for a couple of months. They gladly agreed. Gandhi stayed there from April 1, 1946, to June 10, 1947 — for 214 days, to be precise.
“Once he moved to Valmiki colony, he started interacting with the families. He was shocked to learn that they were all illiterate. Nobody had even seen a school. Then he asked them to send their kids to him as he would teach them. People started sending their kids to his classes,” says Krishan Vidhyarti, a priest and caretaker of the temple. Vidhyarti’s father and uncles also attended Bapu’s classes. Gandhi wanted to teach them to read and write basic English and Hindi. And he ensured that his classes took place both in the morning and evening, without fail.
Gandhi was a hard task master. He would chide students if they turned up in his class without taking a bath. He was also a conscientious teacher. He would put off meeting leaders who came visiting to get on with his classes. Louis Fischer writes in his biography of Gandhi, “The Life of Mahatma”, “Once I reached at the Valmiki temple from my Hotel Imperial to interview him. But, he met me only after the prayers.” Fischer spent over a month in Delhi in 1946 to collect notes for his biography.
“I grew up listening to stories of Gandhiji teaching at the Valmiki temple from my father. He had attended Ganghiji’s classes during those days,” says Pritam Dhaliwali, 64, a social worker of Gole Market area. “Thanks to Bapu, my father became a little literate.”
When Bapu began teaching, kids of Gole market, Paharganj, Irwin Road and other nearby areas too started attending. The number of students kept swelling. From about 30 students when Bapu started, it soon grew to about 75. Classes then had to be held in an open area. It is said Gandhi knew all the students by their names.
“It was Bapu who taught our elders. They were illiterate and came to Delhi from Meerut and other parts of western UP. But for him they would have remained as they were. After Bapu left Valmiki temple, his students joined various schools in the Gole Market area,” says Dr OP Shukla, a Dalit activist and former member of the Railway Board.
“It was a big blow for us when he was forced to shift from here to Birla House for security reasons. Our elders were devastated. Alas, he was killed where security was tight,” Vidhyarti, the temple priest, says.
Vivek Shukla is the author of ‘Gandhi’s Delhi’
Fasts
1925, after “moral lapse” among young Ashram boys and girls
Oct 2, 2019: The Times of India
‘Moral Lapse’ That Made Gandhi Go On A Fast
On November 23,1925, after two days of agony, MK Gandhi decided to go on a fast for seven days. There was a “moral lapse” among the young boys and some girls at the Satyagraha Ashram at Sabarmati. This fast was to commence on November 24 and last up to November 30. This decision was taken neither in haste nor without the awareness of its consequences, both on his body and on the boys and girls and whose moral lapse had prompted this fast. The Phoenix Settlement in South Africa had “ashramic character”, especially after the advent of Satyagraha in 1906. The community at Sabarmati was ashramic, in the full sense. That is, each member was aware of the ashram observances and the ideal conduct that they were expected to strive towards, if not attain in every instance.
What was it about this community that its moral lapse prompted Gandhi on several occasions to undertake purificatory penance? In his account of an earlier lapse at Phoenix Settlement, Gandhi confessed that he was wounded. “News of an apparent failure in the great Satyagraha struggle never shocked me, but this incident came upon me like a thunderbolt. I was wounded.”
For Gandhi, untruth in the ashram was a symptom of a deep failing, a failing that could only be attributed to himself. It was a sign that the light with which he aspired to lead his life still eluded him. What he was required to do was reach deep within and seek to dispel the darkness. This he hoped and believed would purify himself and those around him. Before establishing the Satyagraha Ashram, first at Kocharab and later at Sabarmati, Gandhi had established two ashramlike communities in South Africa. Ashram-like, as he steadfastly refused to describe them as ashrams. One was merely a settlement the Phoenix Settlement — and the other a farm — the Tolstoy Farm. Phoenix was established in 1904 under the “Magic spell” of John Ruskin’s Unto This Last but acquired an ashram-like character only after 1906. It was in 1906 that Gandhi took the vow of brahmacharya, initially in the limited sense of chastity and celibacy. Gandhi says, “From this time onward I looked upon Phoenix deliberately as a religious institution.” Observance of a vrata, often inadequately translated as vow, is a defining characteristic of the ashram. It is only through the observances that a community becomes a congregation of co-religionists and a settlement becomes a place for experiments with truth.
The ashram and its community were Gandhi’s greatest experiment and also the site for his experiments. It was a community that had its foundations in truth. In absence of truth, or even in case of violation of it, the ashram could not be. It was simultaneously a community that aspired to Ahimsa, not only as a negation, as non-violence but as active working of love. This community sought to lead a life of non-stealing, which included in its understanding “Bread-Labour” and non-acquisition. This community sought to cultivate equability or Samabhava, with regard to religion and on the practice of untouchability. Samabhava, Gandhi knew, is possible only when the sense of Mamabhava, of “mine-ness”, of possession disappears. Gandhi had hoped that his ashram would be like the Sthitprajna, a person of equipose, a person whose intellect is secure as described in the Bhagvad Gita. “When it is night for all other beings, the disciplined soul is awake! When all other beings are awake it is the night for the seeing ascetic.” Such an ashram, Gandhi believed, was his only creation, the only measure by which he would be judged and would like to be judged. Writing at the conclusion of the 1925 fast, he said of the ashram, “It is my best and only creation. The world will judge me by its results.”
It was to this community that Gandhi chose to retreat each time he had to do soul-searching or dwell closer to Satyanarayan, Truth as God. Gandhi had one deeply felt need, desire, want and aspiration; to be an ashramite in the sense of living for a length of time in the communities that he had created. His oft repeated lament was that his work and obligation to myriad causes made him an itinerant ashramite. The ashram observances went with him, but the community of co-religionists could not. This was true not only of ashram at Sabarmati, but also of Phoenix and Tolstoy Farm.
The day the ashram at Sabarmati was founded — June 17, 1917 — Gandhi was far away in Motihari for his work on the Agrarian Inquiry Commission. From June 17, 1917, to March 12, 1930, when he left the ashram for the coastal village of Dandi, never to return, Gandhi spent a total of 1,520 days at the ashram. His most intense period of in-dwelling was from November 1925 to February 1929, when he lived at the ashram for 685 days. It was during this period that he wrote his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth and gave discourses on each verse of the Gita and also translated it in Gujarati.’
With passage of time Gandhi’s need to dwell within ashramic community decreased, till such time that during his lonely pilgrim through Noakhali that reminded Sarojini Naidu of Via Dolorosa, the path that Jesus of Nazareth walked carrying his cross, he chose to be alone with only two companions N K Bose and Manu Gandhi. He had been never been so isolated from people ever since his return to India in 1915, not even during his incarcerations. His need for the physical space called ashram and community decreased as his reliance upon the ashramic observances increased, as did his devotion to Ramanama. Ashram was what lived within him, his Anataryami, the dweller within that guided him.
(Suhrud has recently published a critical edition of M K Gandhi’s Autobiograhy and The Diary of Manu Gandhi)
Food
The Mahatma’s Experiments
Vikram Doctor, Oct 2, 2019: The Times of India
In late 1888 a hungry young Indian man could be found roaming the streets of London. Mohandas Gandhi was there to become a barrister, but his more urgent need was to find food to eat. He had promised his mother never to eat non-vegetarian food, but in his lodgings that meant a dreary diet of oatmeal porridge and bread.
Gandhi was searching for the few vegetarian restaurants in the city and finally found the Central Vegetarian Restaurant quite close to Fleet Street. “The sight of it filled me with the same joy that a child feels on getting a thing after its own heart,” he wrote in My Experiments with Truth. He entered and had his first proper meal in the UK.
Gandhi also bought a book at the restaurant: Henry Salt’s A Plea for Vegetarianism. Salt was a pioneer advocate for animal rights and his book made a deep impression on Gandhi. Vegetarianism in the UK then was not just about food, but brought together many alternate causes, like feminism, nature therapy, sexual liberation, theosophy, animal rights and, crucially for Gandhi, anti-colonialism.
Gandhi went to the restaurants (there was another called The Porridge Bowl) to eat but started getting interested in the ideas he found there. He made a friend in Dr Josiah Oldfield, the editor of the journal of the London Vegetarian Society who encouraged the shy young Indian to meet people through vegetarianism — one was Sir Edwin Arnold, the translator of the Gita, which Gandhi had just started reading — and also to contribute his first published works, on Indian vegetarianism, to the journal.
Another vegetarian contact in London was the Gujarati writer Narayan Hemchandra. He had arrived in the UK recently, but spoke no English and sought out Gandhi to help him communicate — and find food. But when Gandhi offered him Westernised food like carrot soup Hemchandra turned up his nose. He insisted he needed dal and “once he somehow hunted out moong, cooked it and brought it to my place. I ate it with delight.” Hemchandra was unapologetically Indian, even wearing a dhoti in the street, despite being jeered at, and his self-confidence in his own identity was to have a profound influence on Gandhi.
Gandhi’s link with the Vegetarian Society continued in South Africa. He became their agent to promote vegetarianism there and, while converts were few, people were generally interested enough to hear the young Indian talk passionately the subject, and this helped Gandhi overcome his shyness. And it was at a vegetarian restaurant in Johannesburg that he met Henry Polak and Hermann Kallenbach who would both become vital early supporters of his work.
Looking back on those years, while writing Satyagraha in South Africa in 1926, Gandhi wrote: “I have been fond for about the last 35 years of making experiments in dietetics from the religious, economic and hygienic standpoints. This predilection for food reform still persists.” South Africa was where Gandhi started living in a commune, and for the rest of his life would live in a revolving community of people, many of whose diets he supervised in an extended experiment on eating.
It is startling how much food features in Gandhi’s collected works. He can be writing to the Viceroy or Congress politicians, and the next letters might be instructions to a follower on what to eat, requests to procure the fruit and leafy greens that formed a large part of his diet or suggestions on how to promote village foods, like oil crushed in traditional ghanis. Gandhi was keenly interested in British attempts to improve Indian agriculture and also corresponded with Dr Robert McCarrison, Director of Nutritional Research in India who was doing pioneering work on nutritional deficiencies in diets.
Visitors often ended up talking about food, like Paramahansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi, who recommended avocados to Gandhi (and sent him seedlings from California, but they all died on the way). All this interest was strictly on food as fuel for a healthy body, and most visitors also noted how dire the food served in Gandhi’s ashrams tasted. One of the few to say this was his grand-daughter Ela who once told him in exasperation that Sevagram should be called Kadugram since all they seemed to eat was pumpkins. Gandhi laughed and gave instructions for different vegetables to be cooked.
This fascination with food might make it seem odd that Gandhi is famous for his extended fasts. But these extended periods of food denial are extensions of his basic interest in feeding. Gandhi knew that food, like clothing, was one of the few essentials for humans and that gave anything to do with it power. Wilfully refusing to eat affirmed that power, and even just fasting for a fixed time was a kind of self-purification for him.
It also meant that what one ate mattered, which was why Gandhi vowed not drink cow’s milk after he learned how they were ill-treated to produce it. But his body rebelled. Gandhi had few other source of protein — he was suspicious of pulses for forming gas — and needed dairy to survive. So, at Kasturba’s suggestion, he agreed to drink goat’s milk since he reasoned he was not thinking of goats when he made the vow. But Gandhi always felt guilty about such a hair-splitting reasoning — and procuring lactating goats wherever he went would become a major headache for his assistants like Mirabehn.
Today, Gandhi would be vegan. He inquired about the potential for plant-based milks and soy proteins, but these were not widely developed in India at that time. Several times in his life he tried raw food diets and tried other foods like caffeine-free tea made from roasted wheat or wheat-free bread made from banana flour that are popular diet options today. But Gandhi also had a larger perspective on diets that might be worth recalling for those who might as food focused as he was.
Gandhi spelled this out in a speech he gave in 1931 when he was back in London for the Second Round Table Meeting. He was given a reception by Vegetarian Society, where his journey had begun, and he sat on stage next to Henry Salt, whose book had provided a catalyst. It was a moment to savour yet he used it to recommend his vegetarian friends remember the value of humility. In his experience, he said, “I found also that health was by no means the monopoly of vegetarians… and that nonvegetarians were able to show, generally speaking, good health.”
Gandhi recalled debates from his early days at the Vegetarian Society where people argued furiously, even divisively, for the benefit of one diet versus another. He felt this was a problem since one didn’t necessarily become a better person because of what one ate. Believing someone was inferior for eating meat was wrong — and also a tactical mistake since it would made it harder to convince them to become vegetarian someday. Gandhi felt what was needed with food was both mindfulness and moderation, which is a message that is still relevant today.
Films about the Mahatma
From: Sep 29, 2019: The Times of India
See graphic:
Films about the Mahatma
Friends, international
From: Oct 2, 2019: The Times of India
Hermann Kallenbach and Gandhi
The Times of India, Sep 30 2015
Kounteya Sinha
Kallenbach was Gandhi's `wailing wall': Researcher
Priceless documents discovered in Israel have revealed, for the first time ever, the role a Jewish architect played in creating the phenomenon that was Mahatma Gandhi. When Lithuania unveils the statue of Gandhi and Hermann Kallenbach in Rusne on October 2, researcher Shimon Lev of Jerusalem's Hebrew University, who has extensively studied the archive, will reveal to the world the story of the deep friendship between India's father of the nation and his “soulmate“. Excerpts from Lev's exclusive interview to TOI:
How did you get your hand on the Gandhi Kallenbach documents?
Some years ago, I wrote a series of articles about a hiking trail across Israel. During my hike, in a cemetery near the Sea of the Galilee, I went to see the neglected grave of Kallenbach.I published a few lines about him, which resulted in an invitation from his niece, Mrs Isa Sarid, to “have a look“ at Kallenbach's archive. The archive was located in a tiny room in a small apartment up on Carmel Mountain in Haifa. On the shelves were numerous files carrying the name of Gandhi. One of the less known chapters of Gandhi's early biography was waiting for a researcher to pick up the challenge. Finding an archive like this might be the fantasy of any historian.
You call Gandhi and Kallenbach soulmates. Were they truly?
Their friendship was characterized by mutual efforts towards personal, moral and spiritual development, and a deep commitment to the Indian struggle. On a personal level, Kallenbach provided Gandhi with sound emotional support. He was Gandhi's confidant, with whom Gandhi could share even the most personal matters, such as troubles with his wife and children. Gandhi's letters to Kallenbach and documents in the archive reveal their relationship to be an extremely complex and highly unconventional one, with elements of political partnership and surprisingly strong personal ties for two such dissimilar men.
Any interesting anecdotes fom their lives that show their proximity to each other?
Kallenbach was Gandhi's “wailing wall“. When Harilal, Gandhi's eldest son, ran away to Delgoa Bay on his way to India in an effort to get the formal education his father denied him, it was Kallenbach who was sent to bring him back.
What was the unique historical significance in their encounter?
I think that one of most important contributions of Kallenbach is the establishment of Tolstoy Farm in 1910.It is impossible to over-emphasize the influence of the experiment on the formulation of Gandhi's spiritual and social ideologies. But what made their story even more unique was the “second round“, which took place in 1937, when Hitler was already in power. Kallenbach was asked by future Israeli PM Moshe Sharet to brief Gandhi on Zionism, hoping to get his support for a Jewish homeland. That is when Gandhi came out with the disturbing proclamation, The Jews, in 1938, in which he called the Jews to begin civil resistance and be ready to die as a result. Gandhi used Kallenbach as an example of the tension between his nonviolence doctrine and what was going on in Europe.
“I happen to have a Jewish friend...He has an intellectual belief in non-vi olence. But he says he cannot pray for Hitler. I do not quarrel with him over his anger...“
So the chronicles of their relationship traverse the dramatic events of the first half of the 20th century.
What was unique about this relationship and why isn't their relationship so widely known?
Kallenbach was Gandhi's most intimate European supporter. He was the one who Gandhi could mostly trust.
There may be a number of reasons for the general disregard of Kallenbach's contribution. Their forced separation due to Kallenbach's confinement in a British internment camp during World War I is partly to blame.Had Kallenbach gone to India, it is probable that he would have become the administrative manager of Gandhi's Indian ashrams. Moreover, the scarcity of first-hand sources regarding their relationship makes the study of his influence difficult.
Who inspired whom in the relationship and how?
Obviously, Gandhi was the one who inspired everyone else around him, including Kallenbach. He was the spiritual authority no doubt about this. Kallenbach's Jewish family regarded him as one trapped by “Gandhi's spell“.
How will this statue help in telling their stories?
Well, definitely it will make their fascinating story more known. I claim that it is impossible to understand Gandhi without understanding his relationships with those close to him.Between 1906 and 1909, Gandhi underwent an extremely significant transformation, the result of which was that his doctrine became fully solidified. His partner in these crucial years was Herman Kallenbach.
Nelson Mandela on the Mahatma
Nelson Mandela, Divinely Inspired Extraordinary Leader, Jan 30 2017: The Times of India
Mahatma Gandhi was no ordinary leader. There are those who believe he was divinely inspired, and it is difficult not to believe with them. He dared to exhort non-violence in a time when the violence of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had exploded on us; he exhorted morality when science, technology and the capitalist order had made it redundant; he replaced self-interest with group interest without minimising the importance of self. In fact, the interdependence of the social and personal is at the heart of his philosophy . He seeks the simultaneous and interactive development of the moral person and society .
His philosophy of Satyagraha is both a personal and social struggle to realise the Truth, which he identifies as God, the Absolute Morality . He seeks this Truth, not in isolation, self-centredly , but with the people.
He sacerises his revolution, balancing the religious and the secular.He resuscitated the culture of the colonised; he revived Indian handicrafts and made these into an economic weapon against the coloniser in his call for swadeshi the use of one's own and the boycott of the oppressor's products, which deprive the people of their skills and their capital.
Gandhi's insistence on self-sufficiency is a basic economic principle that, if followed today , could contribute significantly to alleviating Third World poverty and stimulating development.
Gandhi predated Frantz Fanon and the black-consciousness movements in South Africa and the US by more than a half century and inspired the resurgence of the indigenous intellect, spirit and industry .
Gandhi rejects the Adam t Smith notion of human nature as motivated by self-interest and brute needs and returns us to our spiritual dimension with its impulses for nonviolence, justice and equality .
He exposes the fallacy of the claim that everyone can be rich and successful provided they work hard. He points to the millions who work themselves to the bone and still remain hungry .
He seeks an economic order, alternative to the capitalist and communist, and finds this in Sarvodaya based on Ahimsa non-violence.
He rejects Darwin's survival of the fittest, Adam Smith's laissez-faire and Karl Marx's thesis of a natural antagonism between capital and labour, and focusses on the inter dependence between the two.
He believes in the human capacity to change and wages Satyagraha against the oppressor, not to destroy him but to transform him, that he cease his oppression and join the oppressed in the pursuit of Truth.
We in South Africa brought about our new democracy relatively peacefully on the foundations of such thinking, regardless of whether we were directly influenced by Gandhi or not.
Gandhi is not against science and technology , but he places priority on the right to work and opposes mechanisation to the extent that it usurps this right ... He seeks to keep the individual in control of his tools, to maintain an interdependent love relation between the two, as a cricketer with his bat or Krishna with his flute. Above all, he seeks to ... restore morality to the productive process.
At a time when Freud was liberating sex, Gandhi was reining it in; when Marx was pitting worker against capitalist, Gandhi was reconciling them; when the dominant European thought had dropped God and soul out of the social reckoning, he was centralising society in God and soul; at a time when the colonised had ceased to think and control, he dared to think and control; and when the ideologies of the colonised had virtually disappeared, he revived them and empowered them with a potency that liberated and redeemed.
Goals
Independence from Britain and from casteism
Sunil Khilnani, Oct 2, 2019: The Times of India
Sunil Khilnani is director of the King’s College London India Institute and coined the phrase, ‘the idea of India’
Until his assassination in 1948 by a Hindu militant with R S S connections, Gandhi directed his abilities towards two worldhistorical tasks. The first was to undermine the largest empire in human history. The second was to challenge the world’s most anti-egalitarian, hierarchical society, one in which violence defined and permeated its daily life. He was, that’s to say, taking on Britain and India at once.
That first ambition he lived, just, to see completed — though amidst disarray that plunged him into despair, as the violence he sensed coursing through in Indian society burst its runnels. But the second enterprise remains as incomplete as it ever was.
Among those of his arguments that proved, in the kindest gloss, over-optimistic centered on caste. Gandhi chose to see the projection of caste stigma as simple instances of individual moral failing and myopia among the upper castes. Just as he’d shamed the British into retreat, he believed he could shame India’s elites and non-Dalit castes into treating better those whom they were oppressing. But shame doesn’t come easily to elites of any kind, and especially not to our own. After all, they’ve been squatting on the top of the heap longer than most elites anywhere.
Ambedkar knew that well. Yet Gandhi entirely ducked Ambedkar’s profound insight: that caste, with its structure of graded inequality (a structure that was psychologically internalised at both the individual and collective level), was India’s distinct contribution to human oppression. It could only be blown apart by Dalits acting for themselves. Not upper caste self-reform, but Dalit self-assertion just might enable the birth of a new community of Indians who could be citizens together not just in their shared right to vote, but with actual social equality and common fraternity.
Gandhi was too hopeful in another of his core beliefs, that he could separate religion and violence — as his own fate made desperately plain. He felt he could release the scriptural declarations of tolerance, peace and diversity that feature in a variety of religious traditions and use such better-angels concepts to tame the violence which religious belief also entails. His was a brave effort to counter the weight of history’s evidence, previous and since, that there may be, between faith and bloodshed, a near-ineliminable connection. The only thing that can weaken that connection, we also know from history, is a state that refuses to belong to any religion — especially when that religion forms a social majority.
In other lines of argument, though, Gandhi’s radar seemed to pick up future dangers. For one, roughly a century before Twitter and TikTok, he understood the vulnerable circuits of our modern minds and our addiction to distraction. In ‘Hind Swaraj’, he wrote of how easy it was for a person’s mind to become a “restless bird”, flitting constantly in its cage: “the more it gets the more it wants, and still remains unsatisfied.”
He foresaw as well the ecological catastrophe we are now approaching fast. “God forbid that India should ever take to industrialisation after the manner of the West”, Gandhi wrote more than 90 years ago. If it did, “it would strip the world bare like locusts.”
One of Gandhi’s cardinal convictions was that freedom for societies such as India meant the liberty not to ape the west. Today we’re aping hard on consumption, our economists consulting and advising on how to increase sagging consumption levels. What can we do to improve weak vehicle sales in time for the fresh air season of Diwali: One can scroll many such articles lately when caught in a three-hour traffic snarl. In the (now not so) long run, we’d do better to let another passage from Gandhi ring in our heads: “Formerly, men were made slaves under physical compulsion. Now they are enslaved by temptation of money and of the luxuries that money can buy.”
By rights, this and other of Gandhi’s rebukes should make us stumble a bit in our unthinking routines and ideological enthusiasms, just as we remember that, in his own experiments and ideas, our great man stumbled too. To entomb our heroes’ memories in soft gauze, as we so often do, is to hide the most revealing edges. So it seems to me that Gandhi’s 150th birthday is a fine occasion to unwrap him: to open ourselves up to the incitements of this most unusual figure in our history, and keep on arguing with him.
Ideological differences
Dr Ambedkar, Vir Savarkar
Vaibhav Purandare, Sep 28, 2019: The Times of India
For one so wedded to peace, Mahatma Gandhi’s constant companion in life was the tempest. Often it blew all too ferociously, inviting for him charges of preaching from the pulpit, sidetracking the freedom movement in favour of obscure moral questions, pandering to the Hindu majority or Muslim minority, talking down to Dalits and talking up the virtues of non-violence to the point of discrediting India’s armed revolutionaries.
His protracted battles with the British and with Jinnah are well known. So is the exasperation his proteges like Nehru, Patel and Bose sometimes felt over his approach. Unfairly for both Gandhi and his opponents, though, Indian textbooks, for long after Independence, barely informed new generations about his differences and debates with two of his staunchest and most unsparing Indian critics: BR Ambedkar and VD Savarkar.
Savarkar appeared on the scene before Ambedkar, when Gandhi was in South Africa. As the young leader of a group of patriotic Indians in London, he met Gandhi first in 1909 when the latter visited the British capital, and together, they heaped praise on each other at a public meeting. Both then affirmed their faith in Hindu-Muslim unity, but they had fundamental differences: Savarkar embraced revolutionary methods in the struggle for liberation, and Gandhi abhorred violence. On his way back to South Africa, Gandhi wrote on the ship his tract ‘Hind Swaraj’, in which he voiced his disapproval of armed revolution. Savarkar’s reply: “We aren’t fond of violence, but if constitutional methods are denied to us, how else do we fight for our rights?”
Soon, Savarkar was dispatched to Kaala Paani. By the time he was back in a jail on the mainland in 1921 and later placed in conditional confinement in 1924, everything had changed. Gandhi had taken over the Swaraj movement and got the masses to adopt his mantra of non-violence. Worse for Savarkar — now a man transformed after experiences with Pathan jail staffers in the Andamans — Gandhi had openly backed the “pan-Islamic” Khilafat agitation. This was not Khilafat but an “aafat (trouble)”, Savarkar said, and termed the non-cooperation movement and its sudden withdrawal as “eccentric and defeatist politics”.
They discussed their differences in 1927 during Gandhi’s visit to Savarkar’s Ratnagiri home and agreed to go separate ways. Savarkar then wrote a series of essays assailing the Mahatma for his “hollow” Ahimsa absolutism, his “fetish” for goat’s milk, his “needless meddling in politics (in the 1930s) after declaring he’d focus on the charkha,” his opposition to railways and modern medicine, and his invocation of “Ram Rajya” and “cow protection”. Though by now author of the tract Hindutva, Savarkar was no believer in “gau mata”; his Hindutva was political. Gandhi had previously made an appeal for Savarkar’s release from Kaala Paani; asked in the mid-1930s to issue another plea for end of his conditional confinement, he refused, saying “my way of moving in such matters is different”.
Ambedkar, who earned his spurs at Columbia University, shared with Savarkar a dislike for Gandhian projections of a religious morality. Both also felt Gandhi was wrong in defending the caste system. Ambedkar saw the word ‘Harijan’, coined by Gandhi for the Depressed Classes, as patronising and left his first meeting with the Mahatma in 1931 in a huff after Gandhi opposed the Raj’s plan for separate electorates for the ‘outcastes’. Ambedkar was firm on political safeguards, while Gandhi considered the “political separation of Untouchables” from Hindus “suicidal”. Months later, at the Second Round Table Conference, Ambedkar accused Gandhi of “treachery” against the Depressed Classes, said he had “created a scene” during debate, and dubbed him “petty-minded”. Gandhi’s “fast unto death” amid this row, and the 1932 Poona Pact between the two caused a permanent breach — Dalits got more seats but no separate electorates.
The paths of Ambedkar and Savarkar too diverged drastically, with the former declaring he was “born a Hindu but wouldn’t die as one”, and Savarkar in 1937 assuming leadership of Hindu Mahasabha. Both, however, struggled to create an alternative pole in Indian politics even as they intensified attacks on Gandhi. Ambedkar called Gandhi’s politics — like Savarkar once had — “hollow”, “noisy”, “the most dishonest … in the history of Indian polity”, and Savarkar criticised him for his “Quit-India-but-keep-your-arms-here plea” to the British and for giving parity to Jinnah in negotiations.
Savarkar and his followers ultimately blamed Gandhi for “presiding over Partition”. When the Constitution took shape, Ambedkar, for his part, was relieved India hadn’t adopted a Gandhian Constitution with the village (in Ambedkar’s words “a den of casteism and superstition”) as a central unit, but one in the European-American tradition. Still, Ambedkar struggled politically against Congress until his death in 1956, and Savarkar’s arrest in the Gandhi assassination case ruined his political career in spite of his acquittal.
To Gandhi’s credit, he had sought to engage with both critics while still on talking terms with them, telling them he’d visit their place for discussions if it were inconvenient for them to come over. With Savarkar, there was at least some initial warmth; with Ambedkar, there was none.
Places associated with Gandhi ji
Delhi: The Birla House where the Mahatma died
Manimugdha Sharma , Oct 1, 2019: The Times of India
From: Manimugdha Sharma , Oct 1, 2019: The Times of India
Located in the heart of Lutyens’ Delhi, Gandhi Smriti isn’t an average haunt for tourists. It was here that the Father of the Nation spent the last five months of his life. And it was here that he fell to an assassin’s bullets. So, this is no ordinary place. It’s a shrine.
Owned by the Birlas once, and still popularly referred to as Birla House, this sprawling Lutyens’ Delhi bungalow hosted Mahatma Gandhi for the last 144 days of his life. Those were tumultuous days as the whole nation, and Delhi in particular, was engulfed in communal riots emanating from the Partition. Today, however, the serenity of the place and its surroundings betrays the anger, the hurt, and the guilt experienced by all those who came to bid the Mahatma adieu at this place on January 30, 1948.
Professor Apoorvanand of Delhi University believes it is an uncomfortable place for many because they must confront with the reality that the Father of the Nation was murdered. “When schools organise educational trips on Gandhi, they take children to Rajghat first, which is an empty space. You cannot even feel Gandhi there. But when a child is taken to Gandhi Smriti and shown those final steps of Gandhi that were halted midway, s/ he realises what happened to him,” he said.
The memorial is a unique combination of old and new. The ground floor of the twostorey mansion is replete with photo galleries and artefacts that capture the days Gandhi stayed there. There is also a library where many common and rare books on Gandhi and the Freedom Struggle are on display. There is also a special gallery that has dioramas depicting incidents from Gandhi’s life.
The top floor has been turned into a sensory museum that takes ideas from Gandhi’s life and his movements and translate them into interactive props.
One room has an art installation depicting a prison. It has sensory columns at one end made as prison bars, which trigger video clippings on a big screen when touched. In another room, there is a ‘tree of unity’. Visitors have to form a human chain holding hands and touch two sensors on the ground. That lights up the tree. If anyone breaks the chain, the lights go off. “Gandhi stressed on unity among Indians. A nation is made by its people. If there’s no unity, there’s no nation. This tree symbolises that,” says Rohit Kumar who works as a guide at the museum.
The same room also has a xylophone that is tuned to play ‘ Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram,’ Gandhi’s favourite Ram dhun, when it is struck with a stick.
In another room, there is a model of a train engine. A visitor can enter the engine room and work the train levers to run an interactive ride replicating Gandhi’s train journey across the country after his arrival in India from South Africa in 1915. “People love these! We get about 1,000 visitors daily, but the count is higher on Saturday and Sunday. Nearly 400 are schoolkids. About 600-odd foreign visitors also show up every week,” Kumar said.
Canadian citizen Renwick Herry was visiting the place for the first time when TOI caught up with him. “I am originally from the Caribbean. I have always been fascinated by Gandhi’s ideas, and I am glad to be here. He talked about human advancement. He meant something different,” he said.
Once outside the building, a visitor gets to see the final steps that Gandhi took that fateful evening on January 30, 1948. These have been preserved with concrete replicas. They go all the way to a raised, grassy platform and stop right after ascending the steps. It’s a revered spot and the guides there insist that you remove your footwear before climbing on to it. The spot where he fell to Nathuram Godse’s bullets is now a concrete spot for homage. The timing of the assassination and Gandhi’s last words are inscribed there. A little ahead is another raised platform to indicate the spot where Gandhi used to sit as he held his prayer meetings. One leaves this spot with a heavy heart.
On the way back is a souvenir shop that sells khadi apparel, pocket watches, coffee mugs and other memorabilia. The quality of the items here is somewhat better than what is available at National Gandhi Museum.
“If only they had focused on the other places associated with Gandhi in Delhi, things would have been much better. There are barely any visitors at the memorial at Harijan Sevak Sangh near Kingsway Camp. Why this neglect? Will we be able to preserve Gandhi’s memory for long at this rate?” said author Vivek Shukla who has written a book called Gandhi’s Delhi.
Professor Apoorvanand added another perspective on the importance of Gandhi Smriti. “Some people have suggested that Gandhi wanted to die. That isn’t true. He had called for a conference at Wardha on February 2, 1948, to discuss the way forward. He wanted to go to Pakistan with displaced Hindus and Sikhs and return with displaced Muslims from there. He clearly wanted to live. He knew what he was doing was dangerous, and there had already been several attacks on him. He knew that his life was in danger, but he still wanted to live. His mission was cut short. And this place should forever remind you that,” he said.
The Scheduled Castes
Temple entry (in south India)
Manimugdha Sharma, Oct 1, 2019: The Times of India
Vaikom in Kottayam district of Kerala is a small town of about 25,000 people. Politically, it is an assembly constituency reserved for Dalits. But a century ago, this was a place symbolic of upper-caste repression of the lower castes. In 1924-25, the town became the nerve centre of a massive socio-religious movement that threatened upper-caste hegemony over Hindu temples and challenged untouchability. And Mahatma Gandhi was central to it.
The Vaikom Satyagraha, as the movement is known, rose from the ashes of the Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-22), which was really the first nationwide political agitation against the British Raj fought under the institutional leadership of the Indian National Congress.
Welfare
From: Oct 2, 2019: The Times of India
From: Oct 2, 2019: The Times of India
From: Oct 2, 2019: The Times of India
1924: Raising funds for Kerala
Nearly a century ago when floods ravaged Kerala, Mahatma Gandhi had termed the misery of the people as "unimaginable" and stepped in to mobilize over Rs 6,000 to help them, records show.
If the present rain fury has claimed over 290 lives and displaced over 10 lakh people + , the massive floods that crippled the state in July 1924 are believed to have claimed a large number of lives and caused widespread destruction.
Mahatma Gandhi, through a series of articles in his publications 'Young India' and 'Navajivan', had urged people of the country to generously contribute for the relief of the flood-hit' Malabar' (Kerala).
Following his appeal, people from various walks of life including women and children had donated even their gold jewels and meagre savings to help the flood-affected people.
Many had skipped a meal daily or given up milk to find money to contribute to relief fund mobilized by Gandhi, according to the journals penned by him.
The "Father of the Nation" had mentioned in one of his articles in 'Navajivan' about a girl who had stolen three paise to contribute to the relief fund.
"Malabar's misery is unimaginable," Mahatma had said in the article titled "Relief Work in Malabar."
He said he had to "confess" that the response to his appeal had been "more prompt" than he expected.
"It has been proved not once but many times that, by God's grace, compassion does exist in the hearts of the people."
Many funds had been launched for collecting relief amounts and people could contribute whichever one they choose.
"I would only urge that pay, they must," Mahatma Gandhi had said.
The massive flood that lasted for around three weeks in July 1924 had crippled and submerged various parts of the then Kerala including hilly Munnar, Trichur (Thrissur now), Kozhikode, Ernakulam, Aluva, Muvattupuzha, Kumarakom, Chengannur and Thiruvananthapuram.
It was commonly referred to as the "Great flood of 99" as it had happened in the 'Kolla varsham' (Malayalam calendar) 1099.
As per records, Kerala, which was administratively fragmented into three princely states (Travancore, Cochin and Malabar) during the time, had received excessive rains.
Just as now, all rivers were in spate and Periyar had flooded following the opening of the sluice gates of the Mullaperiyar Dam.
Freedom fighter, K Ayyappan Pillai has vivid memories about the "Maha pralayam", the great flood of '99.
"I was a school student when the heavy rains and floods submerged various places causing massive devastation. Normal life was crippled in the unabated rain," the 104-year old Ayyappan Pillai told PTI here.
"Roads had turned into rivers... overflowing water bodies... paddy fields inundated ... people even sought refuge on hill tops in many parts," he said.
Gandhi, who came to know about the deluge from the state's Congress leaders, had sent them a telegram on July 30, 1924 asking them to assist the relief measures of the government and also work in their own way to help the affected people.
In another telegram, the Mahatma said he was collecting money and clothes and his only thought was about people who had no food, clothes and shelter.
In an article in 'Navajivan' dated August 17, 1924, he said, "A sister has donated her four bracelets and a chain of pure gold. Another sister has given her heavy necklace. A child has parted with his gold trinket and a sister with her silver anklets."
"One person has given two toe-rings. An Antyaja girl has offered voluntarily the ornaments worn on her feet. A young man has handed over his gold cufflinks. Rs 6994-13 anna-3 paise have been collected in cash up to date," Gandhiji said.
In the wake of the present floods, the state-based multi-lingual history website - dutchinkerala.com has carried Mahatma Gandhi's 1924 appeal to contribute to Kerala's relief fund to persuade people across the world to donate to the chief minister's distress relief fund.
Meanwhile, donations pouring into the Kerala chief minister's Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF) have crossed Rs 500 crore.
From school children to corporate giants, all are contributing to the relief fund to help rebuild the flood-hit state, whose loss has been estimated to be over Rs 20,000 crore.
Gandhi in Delhi
Harijan Sewak Sangh museum
The Times of India, May 17 2016
Richi Verma
A treasure trove of memorabilia from the times the Father of the Nation frequented the campus with his wife, Kasturba, lies in utter neglect
In a decaying hall in north Delhi's Kingsway Camp, the only surviving docu ment of the Poona Pact, a 1932 agreement between Mahatma Gandhi and Dr BR Ambedkar on legislatives seats for Dalits, lies under lock and key . It is among the rarest of rare items of Indian history . Yet it is not on display and lies locked away in a decrepit cupboard. That's best perhaps, because many other historic documents, mounted behind a smudged glass case, are almost falling to pieces.
A look around the airy , redcarpeted hall at the Harijan Sewak Sangh would give archivists a shiver. There are no indications that historical artefacts in that room have even the basic protection given by humidity controllers or acidfree mounting for the precious photographs. In fact, the white paint on the walls are peeling to show a bluish undercoat, there are ugly seepage stains on the ceiling and ageing doors and windows allow the elements -heat, wind, rain, cold -to enter.
And yet in this unique museum, rarely visited by anyone, there is a treasure trove of Gandhi memorabilia, including a steel plate and bowl that the Father of the Nation used during his frequent visits to the campus in the company of his wife, Kasturba. The three children of Gandhi's son Devdas were born in this ashram. The Harijan Sewak Sangh still has a boastful number of rare photographs, including one showing Gandhi nursing a leprosy-afflicted elder, as well as letters written by Gandhi, but all are in decrepit condition, brittle and falling to pieces.
When TOI visited the place, it found this repository a vic tim of official apathy with a handful of people trying to keep a legacy alive against the greatest odds. A dusty glass case displays letters written by Gandhi, the handwriting faded, the paper yellowed, but his signature still intact. “We have the original Poona Pact signed by Babasaheb Ambedkar and Ma hatma Gandhi signed on September 24, 1932 in Yerwada Central Jail,“ said an official.But this document, probably the only one in existence, and some personal objects owned by Gandhi and his wife are locked in a cupboard and seldom accessed by scholars.
The 21-acre ashram, museum and library are managed by the Harijan Sewak Sangh, an independent non-profit organisation. It was formed in the wake of Gandhi's fast at Yerwada Jail that resulted in the Poona Pact. “Gandhiji opposed the segregation of what was then called the Depressed classes of the Hindu community into a separate electoral group. He saw in it a sinister device of the British government to create a split in the Hindu community in furtherance of its policy of `divide and rule', reads a backgrounder at the ashram.
Officials said that after Gandhi's death, all his personal belongings were sent to the Nehru Memorial Museum, but most were returned to the Harijan Sewak Trust. The organisation's officials told TOI that they had neither the funds nor the resources to maintain the museum. “It would be our pride and joy if people came to see our Gandhi collection, but lack of funds limits our ability to maintain the museum,“ said Hira Paul Gangnegi, secretary of the trust.
Taking government help was contemplated some time ago, but the organisation's management felt the body would lose its independence.
“We plan to approach the state tourism department in a few months because we want visitors to come to the ashram. Among other things, we have a Kasturba memorial exhibition as well as the foundation stone of a deityless temple that Gandhiji laid. Gandhi's value may not have as much importance in today's economy oriented politics. But there is a past that India has to conserve. Yet that is exactly what is on the endangered list at Harijan Sewak Trust.Gandhi's value may not have as much importance in today's economy oriented politics. But there is a past that India has to conserve. Yet that is exactly what is on the endangered list at Harijan Sewak Trust.
Gandhi in Malaysia
The Mahatma Gandhi Kalasalai in Sungai Siput
From: Aradhana Takhtani, This school in Malaysia reveres Mahatma every day, October 2, 2018: The Times of India
Nothing in the nearly 3-hour drive through a vast expanse of lush fields and hills, from Kuala Lumpur to Sungai Siput, a small subdistrict of the royal town of Kuala Kangsar, prepares one for this. A simple but imposing Mahatma Gandhi statue ensconced in the reception cum prayer hall of a school has been greeting visitors since 1954.
The Mahatma Gandhi Kalasalai, as the Tamil school is called, is an edifying tribute to India’s Father of the Nation, in the Malayan Peninsula, by the founding father of Malaysian Independence, late V T Sambanthan.
The school reveals a rich history of the close ties between India and the British ruled Malaya in the 1950s; Mahatma Gandhi Kalasalai was inaugurated by Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, who was at the time the first woman president of the UN General Assembly.
“Three European plantation managers were shot dead by the communists in 1948, in Sungai Siput, and the town had become a hotbed of communist guerillas. Emergency was declared, and the then high commissioner of Malaya, Gerald Templer, was against this visit for safety reasons. However, Sambanthan convinced him that Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit was the best leader to inaugurate a Gandhi school,” Sambanthan’s wife Uma recalls.
The decision to build a school and name it after Mahatma Gandhi was taken in 1951 but there was no state fund available. The school was shaped up, brick by brick, with passion and dedication of the town’s Indian community.
While immigrants A Veeraswamy and A M S Suppiah Pillay, who had left the shores of India in the latter part of the 19th century, cleared their coconut plantation estate to donate 2 acres of land for the school, it was left to Veeraswamy’s son Sambanthan and Pillay’s son Periaswamy to plunge into the task of arranging funds. They donated $25,000 each for building classrooms, and engaged the famous Danish architect B M Iversen. Responding to the call of educating and liberating the poor plantation workers’ children, the labourers too responded with a total donation of $7000.
The then British district officer of Kuala Kangsar, M J Mackenzie Smith, called it the result of private enterprise and personal sacrifice of the Indians. Today, the school is home to around 600 students, with every first minutes of the morning spent in remembering Gandhi, the great educationist.
Vignettes
Boy from south wanted coffee
Oct 2, 2019: The Times of India
Boy from the south who wanted coffee
Once a young boy from the south fell ill at the Sabarmati Ashram. He was down with an attack of dysentery, and was in the hospital for a few days. Every evening, Gandhi used to visit and enquire about the progress he was making. He had grown accustomed to anticipating Gandhi’s arrival, as soon as he heard the sound of Gandhi’s wooden sandals outside. Since he was from the south India, he was accustomed to his tumbler of good hot coffee everyday.
As he was lying there thinking of the day he would sip coffee again, Gandhi appeared near his bed. After making enquiries from the doctor and assistants, Gandhi told him: “You are getting better. Now you can start eating idlis or upma. Shall I send you some? What do you want?” Suddenly it occurred to the boy to say, “I am pining for the day when I can have a cup of hot coffee. Then to his surprise, Gandhi said: “Light coffee can be soothing to the stomach. We don’t have idlis and dosas. But hot toast will go well with the coffee. And Gandhi moved on, out of the sick room.
The young boy lay on his bed thinking of Gandhi’s words. Coffee and tea were not permitted in the Ashram’s kitchen. Only Gandhi’s wife Kasturba was likely to have some coffee in her kitchen. Gandhi’s house and Kasturba’s kitchen were far away. Even if Gandhi sent someone across and the coffee got made, it will take a long time arriving. As he lay lost in these thoughts, he heard the tick tock of Gandhi’s wooden sandals. And lo and behold! There was Gandhi himself with a tray on which a covered tumbler of hot coffee and two toasted pieces of bread. He set the tray down before the boy was was dumbfounded, and was saying that he would never have dared to ask for coffee it he had known that Gandhi would have had to make it and bring it. Gandhi laughed and asked him to drink his coffee while it was hot. And he left post-haste for work that was waiting for him.
(From G Ramachandran’s A Sheaf of Gandhi Anecdotes)
Letters to The Times of India
From: Oct 1, 2019: The Times of India
See graphic:
Letters to The Times of India by Mahatma Gandhi
Gandhi and the Chicken Soup
From: Sep 30, 2019: The Times of India
See graphic:
Bapu Katha: Gandhi and the Chicken Soup
The goldsmith and the dacoits
From: Vaibhav Purandare, Sep 28, 2019: The Times of India
See graphic:
Bapu Katha: The goldsmith and the dacoits
His preference to dictate
One day, 56 letters
Gandhi preferred writing to dictating. One day, I actually counted 56 letters that he had written in his own hand. Each one of these he re-read from the date line to the final detail of the address before handing them for dispatch. At the end of it he was so exhausted that pressing his throbbing temples between his two hands he lay himself down on the hard floor just where he was sitting
(From Pyarelal Nayyar’s ‘Gandhi As I Saw Him’)
See also
Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi: In South Africa
