Mahathma.....The Great Human

I was never a psychologist, but always loved to study people’s behavior and analyze why people behave so in so and so situations.

Someone who has never ceased to capture my attention is apna Gandhiji. From our school days we were taught how great a man he was, how saintly he was. Later most of the newspapers said that, so did the world leaders, great men like Mandela said they drew their inspiration from Gandhi. Anyone who said something against him was labeled as anti nationals.

One of the best historical fiction I have read is Kushwant Singh’s ‘Delhi’. I had not read much into history. Kushwant Singh’s version of history shook me pretty much. It was for the first time I learnt what a cruel man Aurangazeb was. It was for the first time that I had come to know that Mughals where the ones who started the divide and rule policy and not the British. I came to know why many Indians fought for the British against Indians in First war of independence. There is no point in denying the fact that we would have been living in a different place and in a different state if British had not come here. Their contribution to the great Indian civilization is something that cannot be ignored.

WARNING: This blog is to encourage readers to confront the facts. If you do not want to, then please do not go on.

During our school days we were taught the Indian National Congress version of history. All the freedom fighters were angels in khadi. I don’t want to say that the sacrifices they made for our country was born out of any selfish acts. But I won’t agree that the political degradation started after India achieved freedom. I would say the degradation became more obvious and became enhanced after our freedom.

You will have to be exceptionally lucky to get a good book in the library here in Trivandrum. It is not because there are no books. It is because if the book is good, there is a good probability that it will be misplaced (don’t know if it is intentional or not). Sometimes I managed to get a good one. ‘Liberty Or Death’ by Patrick French was one.

Writing about India has become a trend among foreign authors. I believe it is because of the exotic tales you can write about poverty, pollution, practices, terrorism etc. You are bound to get a good number of western readers and a good deal of Indians too. But I really believe this guy has done his homework and has been careful not to get influenced by any particular school of thought with their own versions of history.

The part that caught my eye was the chapter on Gandhi. It seems that this guy has done some work on Gandhi. I felt slightly bad when a foreigner says he knows more about our Father of the nation than us. Well the truth is many works and writings of and on Gandhi has been expertly hid away from public reach.

We Indians need a hero in our daily lives to look up to. The hero can be from sports or bollywood or army or police (rarely). We won’t like anyone rubbishing our heroes. Free India needed some hero or saint to present to the world. The simple dressed Gandhi with his toothless smile fitted the bill. So he was elevated to the pedestal of sainthood.

Some interesting facts about Gandhi from the book, which you might not have known.

1. One of Gandhi’s obsession was with diet. He wrote many articles on food habits and proper diet to be adopted. He believed that all the diseases can be cured with proper diet and he used to prescribe diet for his fellow Ashram mates for their diseases, mostly dal and leafs. The first question he would ask the female ashram mates during his morning discourse was ‘Sisters, did you get good bowel movement in the morning?’

2. Due to his experiments with the truth he could not clearly draw a boundary between his personal, political and religious life. So all the three existed together in a murky, unclear relationship which was quite dangerous at times.

3. He had a medicine out of salivic enema which he administered personally.

4. He worked and wrote extensively on ‘Black Gold’, the extract from human excreta. He claimed that it can be used as a good fertilizer in our fields.

5. He got married to Kasturba in an early age. The young couple used to fight with each other regularly. She was a stubborn character but very much worldly wise. She did not acknowledge his teachings and practices fully. She had a firm say on family matters pertaining to she and her children. Gandhi became a brahmachari after his return from South Africa. He said he needed to conserve the ‘vital fluids’ to elevate him to a plane of spirituality. He believed sex emasculated man and made him coward, defiled woman. He wanted to eliminate sex from all kinds of relationships.

6. By now all might know Gandhi’s troubled relation with his elder son Hiralal. He changed his religion and reconverted back. He became an alcoholic. Gandhi did not believe in educating his children much.

7. Al though he is painted as benevolent to all religions, because of his attitude to his and Congress’ attitude to Muslims, Muslim league was alienated and ultimately lead to division of India. During Lucknow pact, not much effort was made to pacify the apprehensions of Muslim population. It is said that Gandhi had confided to his close friend that Hindu Muslim unity will not be possible.

8. In order to appease Muslim population he endorsed the Khliafat movement. Khliafat movement was not supported by moderate Muslims as they considered the people in it as too violent and low class. Khilafat movement came to a premature end when the Turkish government themselves dissolved the Caliphate.

9. During initial days of satyagraha he had spoken against inter caste and widow marriages. But later changed his view.

10. Even in spite of his call for Hindu Muslim unity, he opposed his son, Manilal’s, Muslim marriage. He said it is against his dharma.

11. When a controversy came up about him sleeping with his great grand niece, he said that he had become eunuch for the sake of truth.

12. He was a ruthless politician and negotiator and made sure that he got what he wanted. It was demonstrated during the partition talks. He made Nehru the congress president despite their difference in opinion.

13. Even when Gandhi was against the western type of industrialization he had no problem in accepting donation from big industrialists like Birla.

Well I think Gandhi was a human after all……..