1 Some Reminiscences of Mahatma Gandhi He (Gandhi) was like a powerful current of fresh air that made us stretch ourselves and take deep breath; like a beam of light that pierced the darkness and removed the scales from our eyes; like a whirlwind that upsets many things, but most of all the working of people s mind. Jawaharlal Nehru I had the opportunity to see Mahatma Gandhi for the first time in 1935 at Sevagram (Wardha) during the Congress Working Committee meeting. All the leaders from grass-roots level workers to Jawaharlal Nehru were engaged in various kinds of manual labour. I saw Jamnalal Bajaj grinding the mill. After seeing this, I felt that something is wrong with Gandhi s head. Has Gandhi gone mad? Why is he asking these great personalities to undertake such trivial works? I found that a number of great leaders were working in the kitchen at that time. Therefore, I told the manager of the ashram that in our house these menial activities are undertaken by our maidservants. But here it is being done by world famous leaders and activists. Is it proper to ask them to do such works? The manager asked me, Do you not like vegetables? Yes, I like very much I answered. Then he asked me again, If you like vegetables, then why do you feel ashamed in peeling, cleaning and making it consumable? On that day, I understood the significance of bread labour. In a country or society where there is no dignity for bread labour, we respect only parasites who are people without shame.
2 Contemplating Gandhi: Essays on Mahatma s Life and Thought In the course of time, inspired by Gandhi, all of us got engaged in the cleaning work including sanitation of open latrines in untouchable colonies of Wardha. Those who spin have right to wear and those who wear must spin symbolised the entire message of Gandhian revolution. That is why Gandhi considered the spinning wheel and broomsticks as symbols of social revolution. If and when broomstick comes in the hands of Brahmins and Bhagavad Gita in the hands of Valmikies, there will be total elimination and eradication of caste system based on birth. It made a tremendous impact on my life and thought. Even today, I never ask anybody about his caste or income. To me, value of a person is never dependent on these considerations. It was at that time that we could really understand the importance of community prayer. Individual prayer always limits the man to himself, whereas one reaches out to the entire society through community prayer. The day Gujarati or Marathi or for that matter Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist start thinking about the welfare of each other, real Indian nationhood would emerge, based on the love, cooperation and respect of its different sections. I had the good fortune that while going for a walk, Gandhi placed his hand on my shoulders. This became a source of real strength when I had to stand up in the face of any turmoil including the infamous Emergency rule (1975-77), while upholding the right and liberty of people. I felt that the shoulder on which Mahatma Gandhi had rested his hands would not bow down under any circumstances. The division of Indian society on the basis of caste and religion was never acceptable to Gandhi. Unfortunately in today s Hindu religion, caste is a reality and religion is a fiction. A conglomeration of castes does not necessarily lead to the creation of a society. In a grocery shop there is nothing like an item called grocery. Similarly, in Hindu religion there are numerous castes and sub-castes but there is nothing like Hindu. In fact there is no Hindu society as such. It lacks interdependence and cooperation. According to Dr. Ambedkar, Hindu society is like a four story building. One
Some Reminiscences of Mahatma Gandhi 3 who is born in a particular floor, goes on living on the same floor throughout his life; as if there is no staircase connecting each other. In reality, in today s India, the Hindu is a real minority group, as it does not constitute a single community. There was tremendous impact of Gandhi on our lives. I was born in a Brahmin family and that too in a Dharmadhikari one. But the moment we decided to renounce caste based hierarchy, we renounced all the external symbols like sacred thread etc., from our lives and living. Thus, for Brahmins I don t belong to twice born group, for them I am as good as a Shudra. Unless the marriage related ceremony becomes inexpensive and simple, the birth of a female child would be never welcomed in a Hindu family. We could understand this simple truth only through Gandhi and his thoughts. I had a registered marriage. The total expense was rupees 22 only including the registration fee. Usually Brahmins are invited on such occasions but that day we called the sweeper named Paku with his wife and they sat with us for dinner. We never went to the temples which were not accessible to the untouchables. We are convinced that God who is polluted by the touch of untouchables would never be our God. This also, we learned from Gandhi. Among the Dharmadhikaris, we were taken to be Shudras and not twice born. We were made to sit in a different row while taking meals in such families. We could not even use bathrooms used by them. Thus we came to realise the real pain of being Shudras. This was also a kind gift of Gandhi to us. There is no connection between citizenship and one s place, caste and religion. The Indian constitution provides only single citizenship. The vision of single Indian citizenship is also a contribution of Gandhi. Thus even Indian Muslims should identify themselves more with Indian citizenship rather than with those of Pakistan, Afghanistan, or Egypt. This is the core of Indian nationhood which was greatly influenced by Gandhian thinking. The Indian Hindus should feel closer to their fellow citizens even if belonging to different religions rather than being closer to Hindu citizens of other countries. Unfortunately, the members of middle and higher
4 Contemplating Gandhi: Essays on Mahatma s Life and Thought classes temperamentally consider themselves like aliens in their own country. By temperament they are neither Indians nor inspired by swadeshi spirit. This is also true of those Indians who are always eager to take citizenship of other countries. Thus the foundation of Indian nationhood would not remain strong and stable because of such division between Indianess and Indian citizenship. Violence could not solve this problem as it would result in producing only counter violence. This has been clearly understood by foreigners; hence they are being attracted towards Gandhian ideas. It seems that Gandhian ideas will first be well established in the West and then exported back to India. After all we Indians are very fond of imported goods! Gandhi revived Khadi and other handicrafts of India and believed that swadeshi would really work as real foundation for swaraj. He realised the significance of Khadi in our economic life. I have been a Khadi wearer since my childhood as it was an integral part of our family tradition. In our childhood, we never used crackers even on the occasion of Diwali as they were imported products. Nor did we use cloves as it was being imported from Zanzibar. Even alpins were being imported from foreign lands, so we used the thorns of babool tree in place of alpins. Thus use of Khadi and swadeshi items and boycott of foreign goods became a natural part of our lives. Of course, it was not our own contribution, rather we were being inspired by Gandhi and Dada Dharmadhikari. It is this family tradition and overall socio-political environment which made me, a mere fifteen year old lad, to participate in the Quit India Movement of 1942. We moved out of the schools in which we were studying and the government issued an order that we could never get an admission in any government recognized schools. But we learned great lessons from these movements which we could not have learned from any other school. It gave a great meaning to our lives. One of the major lessons we learned that we should work for real swaraj of Gandhian concept which would ultimately result in gram swaraj. It was on account of such a vision inspired by Gandhi
Some Reminiscences of Mahatma Gandhi 5 that I never sought to stand as a candidate in election or accepted any position in the political field. Gandhi and Jayaprakash Narayan never sought any political position for themselves in any of the so-called representative institutions. They strongly believed that power seeking people hardly make any positive contribution to societal good rather they undermine it. This great tradition of Gandhi and Jayaprakash Narayan was altogether ignored by the Indian political leadership. With the result that though India became independent, but the slavery of the people could not be ended. In fact, what was the real place of Gandhi in our life became clear only after his martyrdom. The day Gandhi was assassinated; I cried and shed copious tears. The pain was more intense than one s father s death. After all, it was the death of the father of the nation and that too unimaginable and untimely. The subsequent developments both at the Indian and international scenarios have only re-validated the relevance of Gandhi and his ideas in the present context. Jamnalal Bajaj with Bapu