Mahatma Gandhi

1869 - 1948

Warning: This post may be a bit academic and preachy (i.e., boring). It's not a travelogue.

I have, in a sense, been a follower of Mahatma Gandhi since I discovered his writings in college. He has certainly influenced my spiritual path. I always thought that I would go to India to follow in his footsteps.

But there isn't any one place to go. Gandhi is everywhere and nowhere. There's a Mahatma Gandhi Road in every municipality. His face is on every denomination of paper money. The name "Gandhi" has survived through four generations of political leaders, though ironically, none of them are related to the Mahatma: they are descended from the country's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Neru. The name has survived, but not the ideals. No one would claim that India is the non-violent, caste-less, power-in-the-hands-of-the-people, unified society that Gandhi strove for.

So where should I go? To New Delhi, to the place where Gandhi was assassinated in 1947. The site is the house and grounds where Gandhi spent the last months of his life. Having just ended a hunger fast he was pretty weak when he left his room, supported by his two grand-nieces, to attend afternoon prayers. A Hindu extremist pushed his way through the crowd and shot Gandhi, killing him almost instantly.

It was immediately obvious that what had happened should be remembered and memorialized. Details of his last days, including what he ate and drank, to whom he spoke, when he napped and other "trivia" became important remembrances, and these are all recorded. Most poignantly, his footsteps from his room to his death are marked in stone.

His few possessions became symbols of the man, the saint, and the life he had led. His watch is set permanently at 5:17, the time that he died, as if time itself had died. And for India, perhaps, it did. With Gandhi's death was the death of his dream of a united, peaceful India.

I'm glad that we went to this site. We were there early and it was quiet. Many of Gandhi's words are inscribed on signs and they make you pause. There is a mural depicting events in his life, many of which I could identify. The simply-furnished room, the few possessions, the museum that puts everything in historical context--all were interesting. But the footprints remain in my mind, as they lead to a simple, small shrine that befits the man.

---------------------------------------------------

Bangalore has a sculpture garden dedicated to Gandhi.

In 1930 the 61-year old Gandhi led a 230-mile march to the sea to protest the British monopoly on salt. (The sale or production of salt by anyone but the British government was a criminal offense.) There, he scooped up some of the salty soil and "made" salt, breaking the law. The march "forced the British to recognize that their control of India depended entirely on the consent of Indians."

Gandhi was, in a way, at the height of his influence over India.

Gandhi believed that the power of India was in the villages, where most of the poor lived. In the 1930s, Indian farmers raised cotton, sent it to English mills to be spun and woven into cotton, then sold back to the Indians at a much higher price.
Gandhi encouraged everyone to make and wear "home-spun" cloth. He spun nearly every day, though he was not, apparently, very good at it.


Gandhi wrote: "The villagers should develop such a high degree of skill that articles prepared by them should command a ready market outside. When our villages are fully developed, there will be no dearth i n them of men with a high degree of skill and artistic talent. There will be village poets, village artists, village architects [and] linguists... In short, there will be nothing in life worth living that cannot be had in the villages." (This statue is in Delhi.)

Gandhi, aged, sits and meditates.

Gandhi, supported by his grand-nieces, walks along the path to evening prayers, where an assassin awaits him.

A pair of artistic photographic interpretations

As he makes what will be his final walk, Gandhi looks back to the statue of himself from 17 years earlier, when he led the Salt March that was the beginning of the end of the British dominance of India.

Today, a tired, worn Gandhi sits in a quiet lawn in Bangalore, gazing out, for better or for worse, at the India that is today.

A note about his possessions. Recently, some of Gandhi's possessions were auctioned off and bought by an Indian who will return them to India. These are not the possessions Gandhi had when he died, which remain in New Delhi.

Gandhi's sayings.

Gandhi would have thrived in the era of the sound bite.

• "Live simply so that others may simply live."
  
• "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth leaves the whole world blind and toothless."
  
• "Nobody can hurt me without my permission."
• "Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."
• "What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea."
• "Truth is by nature self-evident, as soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear."
• "There is more to life than simply increasing its speed."
• "Whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love."
  
  
  

His last words were "Hey Ram."