Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (October 2 1869–January 30, 1948) (Devanagari: ??????? ??????? ?????, Gujarati મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ ગાંધી) was a national icon who led the struggle for India's independence from British colonial rule, empowered by tens of millions of common Indians. Throughout his life he opposed any form of terrorism or violence, instead using only the highest moral standards. His philosophy of nonviolence, for which he coined the term satyagraha, has influenced national and international nonviolent resistance movements to this day, including the American Civil Rights Movement led by Martin Luther King.

Influence on Hindu society

Mahatma Gandhi was perhaps the greatest modern leader of Hindu society, in the mold of reformers and religious thinkers like Kabir, Ramakrishna and Sai Baba, but with a considerably wider impact.

Related Topics:
Hindu - Kabir - Ramakrishna - Sai Baba

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Gandhi was a member of the third caste, but was reverred by thousands of Brahmin priests as an expert on Hindu religion. His ascetic lifestyle, uncompromising adherence to the moral high-ground (he stopped a national civil disobedience campaign over the killing of a few policemen by a rowdy mob of agitators in 1922), and his insistence on the equality of all humankind enabled him to touch Indian society as few have.

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Gandhi struck out firmly against untouchability and caste discrimination. He brought uniformity, a sense of common identity and unity to millions of Congressmen and hundreds of millions of people who were divided by caste, religion, language and ethnicity. Gandhi defended common Hindu traditions, customs and values against the criticism of Christian missionaries and the Westernized elite of England-educated Indians and Britons in India; equally, he was critical of Brahmin corruption and the oppression of the common people by corrupt priests and leaders.

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Gandhi felt that as long as Hindu society retained this system of oppression, the nation could never truly be free in spirit and character, which he viewed as more important than mere control of the government. Adopting the call of the freedom struggle, tens of millions of orthodox Hindus invited untouchables to eat with them, and the Congress and social groups opened dozens of unsegregated schools and hospitals in different parts of the country. Thousands of prominent Hindus worked to end this regressive practice within Hindu society.

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Gandhi never allowed the British government and other political groups to divide Hindu society along caste lines by granting them different political status; his fast at Yeravda Jail compelled B.R. Ambedkar, political leader of the untouchables, to agree to reject separate electorates, demonstrating the formidable support he commanded from the harijans of India.

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Gandhi was also a champion of women's freedoms and rights, and was especially critical of child marriage and the social castigation of widows. He wanted Hindu women to receive equal treatment in the eyes of the law, and a position of respect and honour in mainstream society. He also worked strongly against alcoholism, which had ruined the lives of countless women by claiming their husbands.

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Much of the persisting momentum to break with old, regressive social practices was fueled by Gandhi's leadership and the freedom movement he cultivated and strengthened. Untouchability, dowry, child marriage, and the purdah were outlawed in independent India and casteism was denied official recognition and use. Although a controversial figure for some Hindus (owing to the partition of India), and despite the persistence of many of the social problems he tried to end, Gandhi is widely viewed as having been a progressive influence on Hindu society.

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The Triumvirate

The most closely analyzed of all personal relationships with the Indian leaders by historians, is the Triumvirate of Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru.

Related Topics:
Triumvirate - Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel - Jawaharlal Nehru

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Sardar Patel was a settled, successful middle-aged barrister in Ahmedabad, earning wealth and respect and with no hankering for the stylish politics of pre-Gandhi Congressmen. But in 1918, with the Kheda Satyagraha, Patel volunteered to head the movement with Gandhi, and abandoned his life of comfort and riches. Gandhi almost single-handedly inspired the re-birth of a proud, hard-charging barrister, who became the most aggressive and action-minded of all nationalist leaders, the undisputed leader of Gujarat, the paramount contributor state to the Indian Independence Movement and the "Ironman of India"; a man who single-handedly brought 565 princely states into the Union to form a united India by independence; led the charge to fight-back the communal riots in Punjab and Delhi and rehabilitate over 10 million refugees, and defended the young nation's unity and peace by swift action against the rogue state Hyderabad and Pakistan's invasion and claims over Jammu and Kashmir and Junagadh. This political phenomenon in 1918, had been a bridge-playing, sharp-witted, sophisticated barrister in the Gujarat Club, cracking jokes about loose-mouthed politicians and the newcomer from South Africa.

Related Topics:
Kheda Satyagraha - Gujarat - Indian Independence Movement - Punjab - Delhi - Hyderabad - Jammu and Kashmir - Junagadh

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Sardar Patel grew very close to Gandhi and his wife Kasturba, personally serving Gandhi as a younger brother when they were incarcerated in the early 1930s at Yeravda. Patel developed a deep respect for Gandhi's political instincts, and did not disagree with him until the partition crisis in 1946-47. Patel realized that Gandhi's true power lay in inspiring common people to fight for their rights and freedom, that the purity of non-violent resistance empowered a wide majority of Indians. Gandhi in turn, developed a deep affection for Patel.

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There were notable incidents in the Gandhi-Patel relationship. In 1929, a Sardar Patel who had just won a great victory in Gujarat over the British was passed up for the Congress Presidency for the glamourous, unseasoned and suave Nehru. Gandhi also famously asked Patel to stand down from the election for the party's presidency in 1946. This election was crucial because the elected man would go on to head a free India's new government. 11 out of 15 Congress provincial committees had submitted Patel's name. Despite receiving no nomination, Nehru's candidacy was backed by the Working Committee. After pointing out to Nehru the fact that no PCC had nominated him, and measuring Nehru's frigid response, Gandhi asked Patel in a written note to withdraw, even though the election was his.

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Both in 1929 and 1946, Patel obeyed the Mahatma. In 1946 especially, it was the greatest sacrifice to forgo becoming India's first Prime Minister. Yet Patel never hesitated to relinquish the honor, and remained very close to Gandhi.

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Why did Gandhi pick Nehru? Contemporary media often portrays the Gandhi-Nehru relationship as that of a father and son. Scion of a political family, Nehru was more radical in ideas, more glamorous in persona and the darling of the masses. Nehru and Subhas Bose were considered the young radicals of the Congress in the 1920s, but Nehru had, like Patel, agreed with the Mahatma or stuck to his line more than Subhas Bose did. Nehru was often a political liability, speaking his radical views at the embrassment of the Congress, and was never actually responsible for a singular initiative in the movement, or commanding the loyalty of Congress organization.

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Gandhi saw all his flaws, but knew that Nehru's energy, passion and rapport with the public was more advantageous to a young nation when a leader was to be picked. The PM would be the public image, which would form the public's trust with the Government. Gandhi knew that Nehru's appeal to the hundreds of millions of common Indians, to the Muslim community and to young Indians would serve as a uniter, especially in the poisonous, suspicion-filled climate of partition-era India. Nehru was energetic and young, while both Gandhi and Patel were in their 70s in 1947.

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While Gandhi sparked the inner fires of Sardar Patel, he actually made Nehru. Without Gandhi's patronage and mentorship, Nehru's raw, temperate political judgment would have won him no kudos from the Congress Party. Patel on the other hand was the chief of India's most nationalistic province. Patel was the architect of the Congress Party's election strategy in 1934, 1937, 1946 and 1947. Patel was Gandhi's foundation pillar of support and execution during the Civil Disobedience Movement and the controversial and divisive, yet India's largest mass revolt, the Quit India Movement, and of course, at anything that happened in Gujarat. Had Patel openly objected to Gandhi's leadership at any of these junctures, it would have wrecked the Congress right down the line. Even the British acknowledged that Sardar Patel was the only man who could stand up to Gandhi.

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But the Sardar's loyalty and affection for Gandhi, and vice versa were higher than thirst for power or office. And if Gandhi gave birth to the modern rebellion and oversaw its nationwide expansion, it was the Sardar who saw the nationalists and India through the finish line and safely into a free future.

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The relations between the Sardar and Nehru were never personally affectionate, but of camaderie despite ideological differences. After independence, Patel became the Deputy Prime Minister, and the rivalry that fostered there drew Patel to the limit of his emotions and constitution. Gandhi was the referee in the Patel-Nehru disputes, and in early 1948, it was widely assumed that an exhausted Patel would be asked to leave the Government in Nehru's hands entirely by the Mahatma.

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On January 30th 1948, Gandhi and Patel had the most crucial talk of both their lives. Gandhi asked Patel to continue as Deputy Prime Minister, and equal partner in India's leadership team. Gandhi then asked Patel to tell Nehru about his wishes, and left for his prayer meeting. Sardar Patel thus became the last of Gandhi's closest associates to see and talk with him. He was assassinated half an hour later.

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Before Gandhi's body later that evening, a distraught Nehru emotionally embraced the Sardar and gave his pledge for their united partnership. This would last till the Sardar's own death in 1950, although it would undergo more rocky bumps.

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Sardar Patel himself suffered a heart attack one month after Gandhi's death. He was saved only by the divine-sent presence of his nurse. It was the observation of his closest associates and Patel's own confession that it was Gandhi's tragic murder and Patel's bottling up of immense grief that caused his own shy with death.

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While Nehru's relationship with Gandhi is more celebrated and fantasized about by Indian media, school books and common people, the Gandhi-Patel relationship produced the phenomenon, the wonder of absolute self-less patriotism and dynamic revolution that propelled a disunited, enslaved and divided India into freedom, unity and the future.

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Mentors and proteges

Gandhi inspired spiritually and emotionally many men and women like Kala Kalelkar, Vinoba Bhave, Mirabehn, Mahadev Desai, Narhari Parikh and Badshah Khan. Mirabehn was a young Englishwoman Madeleine Slade who had left England inspired by Gandhi's teaching and had come to live by his side, utterly devoted to her guru and his teachings. Mahadev Desai was a young lawyer who had abandoned his ambitions to become his most loyal secretary, gaining an insight into the Mahatma which Wikipedia and countless historians would have loved to have. Narhari Parikh was the architect of many inspired revolts and battles in Gujarat against the British, and a close associate of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel himself. Badshah Khan was a Pathan leader, who in stark contrast to the common perceptions of his people, built an organization more committed to non-violent resistance than the Congress itself.

Related Topics:
Kala Kalelkar - Vinoba Bhave - Mirabehn - Mahadev Desai - Narhari Parikh - Badshah Khan - Madeleine Slade - Wikipedia - Gujarat - Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel - Pathan

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Kalelkar and Bhave built ashramas in Maharashtra, and worked hard against economic injustice, social reform, against discrimination, untouchability, the opression of women and human freedom. Both are widely regarded as having carried the flame of Gandhi's non-political work and legacy, as Nehru is seen to have carried on Gandhi's political mission.

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Gandhi's optimistic, sweet nature won him the undying loyalty and reverence of thousands of co-workers, and led them to openly confide with him and ask his guidance upon the most personal issues of the lives of each person. The daughter of Sardar Patel, Manibehn, spoke to Gandhi more openly about her future, especially marriage and family, than she could with her more reserved father. Gandhi served as a facilitator between the two.

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Gandhi's open and humble nature also won him the admiration, mentorship and support of distinguished men who clashed with him ideologically on several issues at different times. Rabindranath Tagore, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Annie Besant, Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Motilal Nehru were all senior leaders of the Indian cultural conscience and the freedom movement before Gandhi came along. Besant and Tilak opposed the satyagraha of the early 1920s, and Tagore clashed with Gandhi from time to time. But he only fascinated them, despite the reality that he was disloding a departing generation and ushering in a new era, far more different than their own.

Related Topics:
Rabindranath Tagore - Bal Gangadhar Tilak - Annie Besant - Gopal Krishna Gokhale - Motilal Nehru

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Rabindranath Tagore wrote a poem for Gandhi, which famously and beautifully asked him to press forward, do the right thing and walk forth, even if it meant walking alone. Luckily, the hundred million followers of Gandhi made sure this encouragement was not necessary.

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