Of late I was giving way to feeling to despair. Frequent reporting of corruption in high spaces in media, reading depressing books like ‘Crime & Punishments’, working in an atmosphere where we are supposed to look the other way on facing instances of dishonesty by clients in he name of organizational well being, not to mention leading a life devoid of principle and goal – all these contributed to this feeling.
In this mental set up I took up to reading the biography of Mahatma Gandhi by his grandson Rajmohan Gandhi. The book looked intimidating on account of its voluminous appearance but I have crossed bigger mountains like War & Peace, The Brothers Karamazov and Don Quixote and therefore ventured into the journey in right earnest. I am not uninitiated about the Mahatma having read his autobiography, Freedom at Midnight, Discovery of India, India’s Struggle for Independence and some writings of Mahatma on various issues. However, I expected some additional insights and was slightly worried that Rajmohan Gandhi, being his grandson, may end up eulogizing the character of Mahatma. One could have hardly blamed him if he had done so as we have seen people taking lesser figures to divinity in their biographies. What, however, I found was a restrained and often critical voice taking me through the various episodes of the life of this great but complicated figure. This realization was however not an unmixed blessing for me as I nurture great respect for Mahatma Gandhi and secretly feared that too critical an examination of certain complicated side of his personality like his role in partition or his sexual experiment in quest for brahmacharya may lead me to lose a part of this respect. With such mixed feeling and certain amount of uneasiness, I continued the journey. The initial part of the life of Mahatma was heavily sourced from his autobiography. This is only to be expected and we have no reason to suspect the authenticity of this part as anyone who has known Mahatma Gandhi would admit that without exception he had been his own severest critic. We were gently guided through the transformation of a shy, gentle young man to one who would hold his head high against mighty imperialist forces – in South Africa and ultimately, in India. In the process we were introduced to his friends, families and other stalwarts in national and international politics. Then came those glorious movements, unparalleled in political movement in history and geography of the world in their symbolism, masse participation, moral message and creativity – non-cooperation and civil disobedience. With that we had the glimpse of the personality of the man, who introduced morality in politics, who held truth and non-violence as twin pillars on which Indian freedom movement rested. The whole nation willingly cooperated in this noble experiment in which the oppressed sought to win over the oppressor through love and understanding. Gradually Mohandas became Mahatma – the keeper and speaker of national conscience. The hold he had on his compatriots, Nehru, Patel and Azad however diminished as he came out of the prison after Quit India Movement. These men were now eager to break free from the shackle of his guidance and fulfill their personal destiny. Mahatma Gandhi, like a responsible father, understood their inner cravings and made way for them, assuring them of his help and guidance in their hour of need. They, however, confident of their understanding of the situation and problem, went ahead following their own sense in the final hours of the freedom movement. Mahatma Gandhi watched from a distance and knowing the masses more intimately than any of his colleagues, he knew the suicidal path they had taken. He knew the inclinations of all his colleagues inside out as a father knows his son but also trusted them for their patriotism and sincerity. What followed was the most tragic episode in the life of the great man. And the most heroic. Here we come to realize the fallibility of Gandhi but at the same time his courage to stand by his own conviction in the face of universal condemnation and love for all human lives – the conspiring British, the adamant Jinnah, the rioting masses and the ambitious Nehru and his team. He prayed and pleaded to stop the madness called ‘Partition’, trying to work out a solution or at least a compromise only to find that even his mighty soul force was inadequate for the purpose. The worst fear of Mahatma came true in the days leading to and following partition. It appeared that whatever he stood for all his life was in shambles and the cost of independence was too great to instil a single drop of joy in his heart. He repeatedly approached Jinnah in place of later’s choice, tried to persuade Mountbatten of the folly the British had undertaken and lastly offered to give the Prime Ministership to Jinnah to save the unity and identity of India. For a brief time it seemed that this may save the impending disaster but then Mahatma realized that his influence in Congress and on its leaders was no longer what it used to be. He accepted the opinion of majority with bowed head and waited for the inevitable. But Gandhi was too much of a man of action to give in to despair – he ran from one wounded place to other in the body of her beloved and mutilated Motherland with balm in hand to replace hatred and apathy with love and understanding. He placed his own life along with the life of his most loved ones at the mercy of the people gone mad. The world watched in awe as he succeeded to bring peace and harmony in the heart of the rioting population in Noakhali and Kolkata. Lord Mountbatten paid a tribute to this ‘One Man Army’ when he wrote, ‘55000 soldiers in Punjab failed to achieve what Mahatma achieved single handedly in Bengal’. But he after all, as Rajagopalachari remarked, was ‘the single sane man’ and Punjab and Delhi continued to burn along with Pakistan. The Sun that lighted the Indian landscape on its way to setting but not without giving a final glimpse of its ethereal beauty. With indomitable spirit, now Mahatma Gandhi focused his attention to Delhi and Punjab. He had plans to visit Pakistan next. But the providence had other plans. His last fast brought the illusive peace in Delhi and in turn partly in Punjab and Pakistan which the collective force of Nehru’s Government, Jinnah’s Pakistan and Mountbatten’s military acumen had failed to do so far. The prophet of peace and love one last time demonstrated the power of his principles to the world. His time was now up. As he approached the prayer meeting, he met the messenger of his Rama and with his name on the leaps, the Mahatma embraced the land to whom his life was dedicated. Looking back to his life, one cannot help but being amazed. It is not that the world had not witnessed life of great men of principles – there is Socrates and holy figures like Ramakrishna – but then their life was not open to the constant scrutiny and examination like Mahatma Gandhi’s nor was they involved in action of such gigantic dimension throughout their life. It is one thing to live a perfect life of morality and peace away from the worldly turmoil and temptations and quite another to lead the same amidst the greatest turmoil the humanity has ever faced. The personal lives of other stalwarts of politics from Lincoln to Churchill not to mention the lesser mortals doesn’t simply compare in terms of ethical way of living, sacrifice undertaken and transparency. Repeatedly he was misunderstood, ignored and humiliated but not once did he uttered a word against the persons who were responsible for them be it Jinnah, Nehru, Patel, British or the rioting masses. If ever a person embodied the Christian doctrine of ‘Hate the sin, not the sinners’, it was Mahatma Gandhi. His heart was large enough to embrace the ones who disagreed with him be it Nehru, Subhas, Mountbatten, Jinnah or Ambedkar and often he lauded their actions and admired their character in spite of personal differences.