Understanding Gandhi

A Mahatma in Making 1869-1914

Sarva Daman Singh

• Publisher: VIJ Books (India) Pty Ltd
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9789386457851
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

Neither an ode of adulation, nor an exercise in iconoclasm, this book on Gandhi gives praise where praise is due; and criticizes where criticism is warranted. The author treads in step with Gandhi as he reveals himself in his Experiments with Truth in an honest attempt to understand the Mahatma in the making. Gandhi's veracity is not in question; but his memory, and selection and omission of episodes, inevitably temper the tenor of truth! His equation of Truth with God can only be understood as justice and fair play analogous to sat or ?ta signifying the Cosmic Order. Page after page poses questions in a bid to understand Gandhi as he speaks, writes and acts.The author relates how Gandhi discovered himself in South Africa; and formulated a new vocabulary of revolt; a new ideology of non-violence and self-suffering to defeat racial injustice and tyranny; to rouse the corrective conscience of his oppressors. Deliberate defiance of unjust laws, self-effacing humility, unflinching acceptance of punishment, the unfading smile and unfailing forgiveness sum up the transformation of an otherwise ordinary mortal into a Mahatma, who identified himself with all downtrodden humanity! Ahi?s?, satya and saty?graha became the watchwords of his philosophy in action. The author explores the meanings of these words; and notes that at times Gandhi's ahi?s? could be devoid of compassion, confined only to self-cleansing, not true to itself.He learned from all religions without conversion to any; and identified religion with morality, without realizing that morality preceded the rise of religion. As basic morality constituting the core of every religion transcends all doctrinal divisions, Gandhi tirelessly advocated religious tolerance; and Hindu-Muslim unity. He lived and died for peaceful co-existence. But his pursuit of mok?a (release from reincarnation) was irrelevant to the world's welfare!Gandhi upheld human equality and indivisibility regardless of race and colour. The author notes his reverence for the Brahmins; and his painful progress from caste consciousness to its final rejection. He draws attention to Gandhi's unwillingness to mount a saty?graha for the liberation of the untouchables from Brahmanical tyranny. Gandhi also took time to realize the woeful plight of the Africans; and to speak of a future which would grant them their due in the land of their birth.The author also takes note of Gandhi's great love of the British, and his faith in their destiny to deliver the world into a dawn of freedom and democracy. He points to Gandhi's celebration of the British success against Indians in 1857! It took a while to shake off that subservience in Gandhi's Hind Swaraj.The book looks closely at Gandhi's relations with his elder brother and friends. The author notes his dictatorial direction of the lives of his wife and sons. His brahmacarya (sexual abstinence) was a capricious imposition on submissive Kasturba; a pathetic denial of the joy of sex mocking mortality and the sorrow of transience. But the book salutes his cruel, uncompromising candour. He practised what he preached. His obsession with sanitation and hygiene unfortunately failed to inspire Indians to follow his example.As an advocate of right means to right ends excluding all violence for the resolution of human disputes, as an enemy of imperialism and champion of human equality, as a practitioner and preacher of religious goodwill and tolerance, as a respecter of the earth and its gifts, as an upholder of the primacy of man over machine, Gandhi remains a beacon of timeless relevance!

Chapter 1

Familial Heritage: Cultural Conditioning

The Gandhis were Modh¹ Banias, and came from a village called Kutiyana in the state of Junagarh. They were a trading community characterized by quiet sobriety and easy forbearance helpful in their mercantile activity, and led abstemious lives, generally avoiding meat and alcohol. Six generations of this family, however, held high office in the princely states of Kathiawar. Mahatma Gandhi’s grandfather Uttamchand, popularly known as Ota Bapa, was a distinguished Diwan or Prime Minister of Porbandar respected for his integrity; and applauded for his sagacity and loyalty to his ruler. On Rana Khimoji’s death, he incurred the wrath of the Queen Regent Rupali Ba by offering shelter to the innocent state treasurer, who found himself unable to meet her limitless demands. The queen dispatched an armed contingent to shell the Diwan’s house to chastize his temerity and force him into submission. Ghulam Mohammad, the Muslim commander of the Diwan’s body-guards, died defending his master and family. The queen’s irate action was brought to an abrupt end by stern British command; but a bond was established between the Gandhis and Muslims by the death-defying allegiance of the Diwan’s Makrani guard.

Ota Bapa left Porbandar to live in his native village Kutiyana, under the patronage of the Nawab of Junagarh. On the death of Queen Rupali Ba, the Nawab persuaded Rana Vikmatji to restore Ota Bapa’s confiscated property, and permit him to return. The old man came back home, but expressed his inability to accept anew the office of Diwan, to which his son Karamchand, already in the service of the state, was appointed in 1847.

The Gandhis were worshippers of Viṣṇu. Rāma was their family deity (kula-devatā); and a Gandhi was one of the founders of a Rāma temple in Porbandar. They also worshipped Kṛṣṇa in the bhakti tradition of Vallabhācārya. Ota Bapa was himself a devotee of Tulasi’s Rāma; and the love of Rāma and Tulasī’s Rāmāyaṇa clearly passed from the grandfather to the son and grandson.²

Karamchand Gandhi, commonly called Kaba Gandhi, was a true legatee of his father’s qualities; of incorruptible honesty and singular authority. With his quick temper held in check by his studied taciturnity, he was a great administrator and an astute manager of the affairs of state. The lack of any formal education was more than made up for by his innate intelligence and worldly wisdom. He was, deep down, a kind and understanding man, a loving and forgiving father. As Prime Minister or Diwan of Porbandar for almost twenty-eight years, he earned the admiration of the Rana and the respect of his subjects. He also served as a member of the Rājasthānik court, and as Diwan of the states of Rajkot and Vankaner; but never cared to amass any riches.

Karamchand married as many as four times. The first marriage at the age of fourteen produced a daughter before his wife’s death. Aged twenty-five then, he married again; and this union also gave him a daughter. The third marriage followed after the death of the second wife, but remained issueless; and his wife, sadly, became an incurable invalid. Kaba did not have a son; and the longing for a male heir in India was, as it is even today, often overwhelming! With his wife’s permission, he married again. Gandhi states in his Autobiography that his father’s successive marriages followed the deaths of his previous wives. But, in fact, the third wife was still alive when Kaba Gandhi married Putli Ba, his fourth spouse.³

In his Experiments with Truth, Gandhi mustered courage enough to castigate the carnality of his father, who was over forty when he married for the fourth time.⁴ It was this marriage, though, that gave Kaba three sons: Lakshmidas, Karsandas, and Mohandas, if also another daughter named Raliat. Mohan, the youngest, was born in Porbandar on the 2nd of October, 1869. His father was forty-seven, and his mother twenty-five.

They lived in a substantial three-storeyed mansion, which housed five generations of Gandhis. It was here that the Gandhis cultivated the values of a joint family, enjoying the benefits of family solidarity, but also cheerfully coping with the constraints and irritants of life in cramped quarters. The Hindu joint family teaches one to defer to seniors; to curb one’s selfishness; and to contribute to the fortunes of the family side by side with ones’s own advancement: sa jāto yena jātena yāti vaṁśaḥ samunnatiṁ: ‘a person’s birth is worthwhile, only if it brings progress and prosperity to his family.’

Kaba Gandhi almost always ate in company, often of twenty or more, including members of his family, guests and officials.⁵ The joint family with its discipline, restraints, obligations and traditions left an indelible imprint on Mohandas Gandhi’s character. Pyarelal, his great biographer, is quite right in his statement that Gandhi learned much from the example of his father in the management of large households, which is clearly discernible ‘in the time and care that he devoted...to the trivia of Ashrama life’.⁶

The mercurial ‘Monia’, as the little boy was called by his mother, was minded by his sister and other ladies of the house, and spent time watching animals, and playing with dogs. A maid-servant named Rambha was engaged to look after him; and stayed with the family till her death. Monia loved to play outdoors; enjoyed the company of his playmates including his siblings and cousins; was generally peacefully disposed; and did not respond in kind if hit by others. Once when he complained to his mother against his elder brother, she told him to hit back; but the little boy protested: the mother should instead ask the elder brother to desist!

Putli Ba was a deeply religious woman devoted to her husband and his family. It must have been hard for the young lady to spend the first few years of her married life in the same house with an invalid co-wife, whom she had superseded at the helm of the household. But she was always serene and sincere, looking after everyone, including her in-laws, with equal devotion. Her loving solicitude was all-embracing; and Pyarelal’s account of her commitment to the needs of the joint family reminds one of the passage in Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa, in which Anusūyā lists the qualities and duties of an ideal wife.⁷

Putli Ba infused an air of great piety into her house. The food cooked and served was strictly vegetarian, though certainly not lacking in variety. As Gandhi wrote, she ‘could not think of taking her meals without her daily prayers. Going to Haveli, the Vaishnava temple – was one of her daily duties....She would take the hardest vows and keep them without flinching. Illness was no excuse for relaxing them....To keep two or three consecutive fasts was nothing to her. Living on one meal a day during Chaturmas⁸ was a habit with her....She fasted every alternate day during one Chaturmas. During another Chaturmas she vowed not to have food without seeing the sun. We children....would stand, staring at the sky, waiting to announce the appearance of the sun to our mother.’⁹

Simply dressed in Kathiawari clothes, she was ever busy with family chores and religious rituals. With no formal education, she loved to listen to religious discourses, and fervently recited the mantra she knew by heart: Sri Kṛṣṇaḥ śaraṇaṁ mama: ‘Śrī Kṛṣṇa is my refuge.’ Her faith and fervour had a profound impact on her youngest son, who was also influenced by her eclectic attraction to a sect known as Praṇāmīs. Their founder Prāṇa Nāth was a kṣatriya resident of Kathiawar in the eighteenth century, who travelled widely, and possibly also visited Mecca. He introduced aspects of Islamic practice into Praṇāmī worship, which did not require any images. Their temple in Porbandar visited by Putli Ba had no icons, in place of which there were writings on the wall from Hindu scriptures as well as the Koran.¹⁰ The son often accompanied his mother to this and other temples, which certainly enlarged his spiritual horizons. Mohan’s special, close relationship with his mother helped shape his sensibility and sympathetic understanding of different religious beliefs and practices.

Both his parents received religious teachers including Jaina monks at home, and listened to their discourses. An avid listener, Mohan imbibed a good deal of knowledge from their discussions. The influence of Jainism on Gandhi was strong and abiding. Jaina monks frequented his home and accepted food offered to them. He learned of anekāntavāda or the many-sidedness of reality from their discussions with his father, which shaped his awareness of truth that was always multi-dimensional. He, it seems, also learned about self-cleansing through the confession of sins from them, which influenced him to confess an act of theft to his father, who quietly read his note of admission and forgave his son in the commingling of their tears. Aparigraha, non- possession, satya, truth, and ahiṁsā, non-violence, which became the guiding principles of his life, bore the unmistakable stamp of Jainism, as did the importance of vows to which he subjected himself throughout his life, initially influenced by the unflagging example of his mother. Their binding sanctity must have been reinforced by his closeness to Jainism and the spiritual sustenance provided later in his life by Raychand Bhai. With its emphasis on ahiṁsā and aversion to war and violence, Jainism proffered a congenial creed for the mercantile community. Peace is a pre-requisite of undisturbed trading activity; and Jainism became the dominant faith of Gujarat as early as the twelfth century. The worship of Viṣṇu also remained popular, and the proximity of Dwaraka provided a potent impetus to the devotees of Kṛṣṇa; but a majority of Banias in Gandhi’s day still adhered to Jainism. Jaina influence on Gandhi can be clearly seen in his acceptance and practice of anekāntavāda,‘many-sidedness of reality’; in his penitential suffering for self-purification and also for the benefit and moral upliftment of fellow human beings. But he was not attracted to the idea of Jaina retirement from the world and self-sequestration as a monk, withdrawing from the quotidian concerns of society to stay undefiled by deleterious karma. His life, instead, unfolded as a story of the deepest involvement with the world and its problems, social, economic, physical and political. Nirvāṇa for him lay in identifying himself with all humankind; in striving to allay their fears and calming their tempers; in solving their conflicts; in preaching as well as practising non-violence. Ahiṁsā (non-violence) is not abstention from or cessation of karma, and must, as it does, express itself in positive, practical action to relieve the distress of all animate creation. Educative and ameliorative, concerned and curative karma would certainly not blemish the pristine purity of the soul; nor, indeed, tarnish its transparency! The concepts of satyāgraha, truthfulness and non-violence, together with fasts, dietary taboos, minimization of clothes and possessions, naturopathic cures and the pursuit of brahmacarya (continence, celibacy) owed as much, if not more, to Jainism as to Hinduism. The concept of non-violence as an absolute value expressing and emphasizing the illimitability of ethics in Gandhi’s thought doubtless owed a great deal to Jainism, the first philosophy in the world to prescribe it.

Notwithstanding his debt to Jainism, and later on in life to Buddhism as well, Gandhi always called himself a Sanātanī Hindu, and regarded both Jainism and Buddhism as philosophical movements arising out of Hinduism, and remaining part of the Hindu world.¹¹ His faith, his code of conduct and his ethics were principally derived from the Hindu tradition. His values were forged by the stories of the Epics and the Purāṇas. His mother, as we know, was a devout worshipper of Kṛṣṇa; and the depth of her faith impressed her young son as much as the discipline and piety that informed the observance of her rituals. Her ardour of faith sank into his soul, though the rituals taxed his credulity. Her formative influence was indeed enduring; and the close rapport between mother and son helped shape Gandhi’s sense of duty along with an understanding of what he should and should not do. And her influence became even more pronounced after his father’s death. The story of Gandhi’s life as told by him has only reverence for his mother!

The story of Śravaṇa left an indelible stamp on his consciousness, as it does on the hearts and minds of countless Indians. The son’s total dedication to his blind parents, and his death in an act of their service is an example that stirs many a heart! Mātṛ devo bhava: Mother is God. Pitṛ devo bhava: Father is God. So say the Upaniṣads. If one desires ever to see God and know God, one can do so only in the loving care and protection provided by one’s parents. To serve them, therefore, is to serve God, and express one’s gratitude to one’s Maker. Gandhi never forgo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 – Familial Heritage: Cultural Conditioning
• Chapter 2 – In England: New Horizons
• Chapter 3 – Back Home in India
• Chapter 4 – In South Africa
• Chapter 5 – The Voyage
• Chapter 6 – Proselytizing Push of Christianity
• Chapter 7 – Indians in Pretoria
• Chapter 8 – The Lawyer
• Chapter 9 – Spiritual Quickening
• Chapter 10 – Persuaded to Prolong His Stay in South Africa
• Chapter 11 – The Indian Response
• Chapter 12 – Gandhi Stays On
• Chapter 13 – The Natal Indian Congress
• Chapter 14 – Inhumanity of Indenture
• Chapter 15 – A Lesson Learned
• Chapter 16 – Immersion in Comparative Religion
• Chapter 17 – Gandhi’s Household
• Chapter 18 – Public Service and the Practice of Law
• Chapter 19 – India
• Chapter 20 – The Roving Publicist
• Chapter 21 – To South Africa
• Chapter 22 – Gandhi Settles Down
• Chapter 23 – The Gṛhastha (Householder)
• Chapter 24 – Spirit of Public Service
• Chapter 25 – Brahmacarya (Sexual Abstinence)
• Chapter 26 – Gandhis Return Home
• Chapter 27 – Calcutta and the Congress
• Chapter 28 – Banaras
• Chapter 29 – In Bombay Again
• Chapter 30 – In South Africa Again
• Chapter 31 – Life in Johannesburg
• Chapter 32 – Statement of Faith in Human Equality
• Chapter 33 – Spiritual Striving
• Chapter 34 – Indian Opinion
• Chapter 35 – Earth and Water Cures
• Chapter 36 – European Friends
• Chapter 37 – Coolie Locations and the Plague
• Chapter 38 – Indian Opinion: Phoenix Settlement
• Chapter 39 – Return of Kasturba
• Chapter 40 – Inroads upon Indian Livelihood
• Chapter 41 – Evolution of Ideas
• Chapter 42 – The Zulu Rebellion
• Chapter 43 – Brahmacarya (Celibacy)
• Chapter 44 – Mokṣa (Salvation)
• Chapter 45 – Tram Cars
• Chapter 46 – Return to Johannesburg
• Chapter 47 – The Civil Rights Campaigner
• Chapter 48 – Kallenbach
• Chapter 49 – Back at Work: To Satyāgraha
• Chapter 50 – Fortitude of Kasturba
• Chapter 51 – Towards a Union of South Africa
• Chapter 52 – Flagging Satyāgraha
• Chapter 53 – London
• Chapter 54 – Henry Polak in India
• Chapter 55 – Hind Swaraj: Collision of Cultures
• Chapter 56 – Gandhi Returns
• Chapter 57 – Indentured Labour for Natal
• Chapter 58 – The Transvaal Satyāgraha
• Chapter 59 – Self-Restraint
• Chapter 60 – The Travails of Satyāgraha
• Chapter 61 – The Parting of Ways: Harilal
• Chapter 62 – Life on Tolstoy Farm
• Chapter 63 – Satyāgrahīs
• Chapter 64 – Gokhale’s Visit
• Chapter 65 – Return to Phoenix
• Chapter 66 – Betrayal
• Chapter 67 – Crisis at Phoenix
• Chapter 68 – Death of Rev. Joseph Doke: Declaration of Passive Resistance
• Chapter 69 – The Scene
• Chapter 70 – Negotiations and the ‘Final Settlement’
• Chapter 71 – Farewell Meetings
• Chapter 72 – Gandhi, the Africans and the British
• Chapter 73 – Ahiṁsā, Satya and Brahmacarya
• Chapter 74 – Steps to Sainthood: Uneasy Birth of a Mahatma
• Chapter 75 – Postscript: Relevance of Gandhi
• Glossary of Indian Words
• Select Bibliography
• Index
• Author