Mahatma Gandhi the Known and the Unknown

By M. L. George

About the book:
Why I venture to write a book on Gandhiji when tons of pulp have already been used up by authors across the glob?  I would like to justify to be an inner urge or rather an instinct to communicate what has been communicated.  This year being Gandhiji’s 150th birth anniversary, I decided to undertake a pilgrimage to his birth place, Porbandar and to his ancestral house, presently known as "Kirti Mandir".   Then this idea flashed across my mind.   Jesus Christ has been my soul force.  So was he to Gandhiji as well.  I prefer to think, this is the connecting link with me and Gandhiji.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pencil
• Release date: May 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9789354381645

Book preview

MAHATMA GANDHI THE KNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN

BY

M L GEORGE

---

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ISBN 9789354381645

© M L GEORGE 2021

Published in India 2021 by Pencil

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DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in this book are those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of the Publisher.

Author biography

​

W hy I venture to write a book on Gandhiji when tons of pulp have already been used up by authors across the glob?  I would like to justify to be an inner urge or rather an instinct to communicate what has been communicated.  This year being Gandhiji’s 150th birth anniversary, I decided to undertake a pilgrimage to his birth place, Porbandar and to his ancestral house, presently known as Kirti Mandir.   Then this idea flashed across my mind.   Jesus Christ has been my soul force.  So was he to Gandhiji as well.  I prefer to think, this is the connecting link with me and Gandhiji.

According to me, he was a hero of no comparison who fought all through his life amidst all trials and tribulations without jettisoning any of the ideals and values of life.  He considered his life as an experiment with Truth.  He cited his concept of Truth in his autobiography as: The Truth is not only truthfulness in word, but truthfulness in thought also, and not only the relative truth of our conception, but the Absolute Truth, the Eternal Principle, that is God. 

When I stood at the birth spot at his ancestral home, many painful thoughts passed across my mind as if in a celliloid such as, how the new generation is forgetting him; how and why the leaders of almost all political parties ignore him and indulge in corrupt practices and loot the nation without any qualm; how they conspire to sanctify his murderer, Nathuram Godsey etc.    It is not that easy for we the little worldly souls to understand this great soul who strode on this earth as a perfect human being in flush and blood! .

This book is my humble tribute to our Father of Nation on his 150th birth anniversary.                                                 

Adv. M .L. George

Pencil portrait by the Author

Contents

1. MAHATMA'S WAYS IN HIS EARLY DAYS

2. LIFE WITH KASTURBA

3. AN AWKWARD ENGLISH MAN

4. GANDHIJI RUNNING FOR A LIVELIHOOD

5. EMERGES AS A CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST

6. DISCOVERY OF SATYAGRAHA

7. EXPERIMENTS IN COMMUNITY LIFE

8. THE BIRTH OF ''INDIAN OPINION''

9. PHILOSOPHY OF NON VIOLENCE

10. EXPERIMENTS WITH SEX AND CELIBACY

11. VEGETARIANISM AND HEALTH CARE

12. GANDHIJI'S GLIMPSES ON RELIGION

13. FAREWELL TO SOUTH AFRICA

14. PLUNGES INTO INDIAN POLITICS

15. NON VIOLENT SATYAGRAHAS

16. FAILURE OF NON VIOLENCE

17. AT THE ZENITH OF FAME

18. QUIT INDIA,THE FATAL PUNCH

19. THE AGONY OF PARTITION

20. ''HI, RAM!''

21. DAVID AND GOLIATH

22. GANDHIJI MELTS THE IRON

23. THE LAMB AND THE LION

24. TWO SAVIORS OF THE UNTOUCHABLES

25. THE CHOSEN ONE

26. ROMANCES WITH CELIBECY

27. SARVOODAYA, THE WELFARE OF ALL

28. GANDHISM, THE NEW CULT

29. CHARKHA, THE ''SUDHARSHAN CHAKRA''

30. VIOLENCE VERSUS NONVIOLENCE

31. THE MARTYR AND THE ''MAHATMA''

32. CONGRESS BEFORE AND AFTER GANDHIJI

33. EPILOGUE

1. MAHATMA'S WAYS IN HIS EARLY DAYS

G

andhiji was not born as a Mahatma nor he was the son of a Mahatma.  His story shows that he walked the way to a Mahatma, as man born on earth with all the impurities.   Gandhiji, otherwise known as Mohandas Karam Chand Gandhi was born in Porbandar on Octobr 2, 1869 as the youngest child of Karamchand Gandhi and Putlibai, the fourth wife of Karamchand.  His father, Karam Chand was the prime Minister of Porbandar which was a hereditary post right from Lalji Gandhi, the earliest known ancestor of Gandhiji.  Lalji hailed from Bhavnagar and got settled down in Porbandar in search of fame and fortune.   Gandhis originally belong to Hindu Modh Baniya caste and were traders of groceries.  Since Lalji was brilliant, he became the Diwan of Porbandar.  The post there after became a hereditary one and hence Gandhiji’s father, Karamchand Uttamchand Gandhi became the Diwan of Porbandar.  

Lalji Gandhi bought Gandhiji's ancestral home in 1771 CE.  This Haveli was under the special protection force of Arab Guards.   It is said that when there was a dispute between the Porbandar ruler queen, Rani Rupaliba and Karamchand, this Haveli was ordered to be attacked and in the fight, the leader of the Arab guards, Gulam Muhammed Makrani died on the spot.  It showed the dedication of the Arab Muslims to Gandhiji’s family and perhaps, this may be the reason why Gandhiji had much affection for the Muslims at large!   Gandhiji’s assassin, Nathuram Vinayak Godsey also had raised this allegation against him.

Porbandar, which is about 400 kilometers from Ahemadabad, is a coastal town.  It was an erstwhile Princely State and had about 300 small States under it.  Therefore court intrigues were the order of the day.   Karamchand, though was only of very little education, was a respectful man.  Through his rich experiences, his judgments were shrewd and were admired by all.  He even became a member of the Rajashanik Court, a powerful agency to solve disputes among the states.   But Karamchand was almost like an ascetic who did not have any inclination to amass wealth.  So he left only very little wealth for his family.   Gandhiji was just 16 when his father died.   During the bed ridden days of his father Gandhiji played the role of his nurse.   Gandhiji remembered his father in his autobiography: Of religious training he had very little, but he had that kind of religious culture which frequent visits to temples and listening to religious discourses make available to many Hindus.  In his last days, he began reading Gita at the instance of a learned Brahman friend of the family, and he used to repeat aloud some verses every day at the time of worship.  

His mother, Putlibai was 25 years younger to her husband.   Though she was totally illiterate, she was very intelligent.  She was having a sound commonsense with wide general knowledge.  After the death of her husband the burden of looking after her children fell on her shoulder.  But she took the responsibility boldly.   Since she was a very pious lady, adhering to all the rituals of her community, she brought up her children under a strictly religious atmosphere as per the Vaishnava community.  It was perhaps from her blood and lineage that Gandhiji inherited such a deep love for Hindu religion and lived as a passionate Hindu until his death, despite great pressure from his English friends.  Note what Gandhiiji’s impression about his mother:

The outstanding impression my mother has left on my memory is that of saintliness.  She was deeply religious.  She would not think of taking her meals without her daily prayers.  She would take the hardest vows and keep them without flinching.   Illness was no excuse for relaxing them.

Mohandas, who later became Mahatma and the Father of the Nation by leading the Indian independence movement and finally freeing India from the clutches of British colonial rule, was a frail and shy child.    He did not have any inclination for sports and games.  He was a coward, afraid of thieves, ghosts and serpents.  He was even afraid to go to another room of his own house without the company of his brothers.   Due to extreme shyness, he did not even mingle with others and used to run back home, for fear of taunting remarks from his colleagues.  He was ordinary in every aspect, even in his studies.  His elementary education was at Porbabdar, then in Rajkot consequent on his father assuming the office of Prime Minister of Rajkot.  After passing the Matriculation, he joined for graduate studies in a college in Bhavnagar, but got dropped out.

Though Gandhiji appeared to be very shy and timid, he had enough mischieves with him.  During his high school studies he used to indulge in many boyhood mischieves.  The blame was attributed to the bad company of his Muslim friend, Sheik Mehtab.   He was his brother’s friend and was introduced to him by his elder brother.   He prompted and persuaded him to eat meat, go smoking, and even stealing money for all these wicked purposes.   He even took Mohandas once to a brothel where from he had to rush back in total humiliation.  He later repented on all these vices and confessed to his father.  But his father did not rebuke him, but only wept in silence.  This had a cathartic iffect on his life and influenced him to be brahmachari in later life.

Though he had all vices of a bad boy, he was honest in every sense of the word.  There was a story to prove his sterling quality.  One day the Inspector of Schools, Mr. Giles visited his school and he came directly to Gandhiji’s class room.   He read out five English words and asked the students to write them down.   Mohandas wrote four words correctly, but he could not write down the word kettle.  Noting his embarrassment, the teacher stealthily stood behind the Inspector and made a sign to him to copy the word from his neighbor’s slate.  But he did not obey the teacher.   Consequently he was scolded for the disobedience.   He felt very sad and began to brood over, why the teacher had scolded him.   Later, when he started his career as a lawyer, he used to tell his clients not to bring any suit where he was to lie in the court against the truth.   He was therefore respectful in the eyes of the judges. 

He had great love and respect for his father who was his company even after his marriage.  He used to keenly listen to great Hindu sages who were visiting his father.  Though he was always at the beck and call of his father, he did not have the chance to be with him when he breathed his last.  It was because, he was lusty and used to run for sex with his wife.  At the time of his father’s death, he was having sex with his wife, who was then pregnant.  And that baby did not survive.  He was therefore terribly stricken with grief.  He kept on weeping for days together for his monstrous crime.      

Gandhiji got married at the age of 13 in a group marriage along with his brother and a cousin due to financial difficulties.  His wife, Kasturbai was senior to him for few months.  She was also from Porbandar and happened to be the daughter of his father’s friend.  She was illiterate, but stubborn and daring and used to move with her whimsies,   Whereas, Gandhiji was a jealous husband who wanted his wife to be under his complete control.  But she did not care and consequently paved way for quarrels in between, often. 

Though her first child in Ghandhiji survived only for few days, later she gave birth to four male children, namely: Harilal, in 1888; Manilal in 1892; Ramdas in 1897 and Devdas in 1900.   He went to London for his higher studies after Gandhiji became the father of two children.   It can be seen that he did not give much space for the details of his children, nor their career in his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments With Truth, except few passing remarks, here and there.  It was a pity that he did not give them proper education.   His eldest son, Harilal wanted to go to England for studies like him, but was flatly denied.  This was because he was against formal education in schools and colleges.  So he educated them along with the other children of the colony in the Tolstoy Farm in South Africa, which he established for Sathyagrahis.   There, he himself was their tutor and their mentor!

Gandhiji's Parents

2. LIFE WITH KASTURBA

T

hough the marriage engagement was over when Gandhiji was 7 years, marriage was actually celebrated only in 1882, at his age of 13. It was an arranged marriage as per the tradition and existing customs of their community.   Kasturba Makhanji Kapadia’s  father, Gokuldas was a leading merchant, trading in grains and clothes in Africa and the Middle East.  He was once the Mayor of Porbandar.   Gandhiji’s father, Karam Chand was a family friend of Gokuldas.   Both sets of parents cemented their friendship by marrying their children.  Frankly speaking, his married life was not a happy one, mainly because he was ignorant of the duties of a husband and lacked romantic aesthetics.  It is said that both of them were shy even to look at each other.   At the same time, he was full of lust.   See, what he says about his married days in his autobiography: Even at school I used to think of her, and the thought of a nightfall and our subsequent meeting was ever haunting me.  Even so, he used to quarrel on petty things.  Moreover, he was so possessive and manipulative that he wanted her to be an ideal wife, who would follow his command.  

Another fact was that marriage took place while he was studying.  Hence even after marriage, Gandhiji continued his schooling as usual and Kasturba was mostly left at her parental house.   Then he left for higher studies, leaving her behind with their two small children in India.   For three years, there was practically no correspondence at all in between.  When he came back, he was shuttling between Bombay and Rajkot, searching litigation.   Finally, he left for South Africa leaving the family in India.  Hence she had enough justification for her rude behavior, giving Gandhiji a tit for tat!

Though she was totally illiterate, she was strong hearted to pick up quarrels.   Main reason behind such quarrels as per his own version was, he was very nosey in all her affairs.  He was a jealous husband and used to check her movements and even chose friends for her.  Above all, he was rude!  Kasturba being stubborn, did not yield easily.  The more he pelted little tyrannies at her, the more she resisted!  These quarrels for silly things deeply affected their relationship and they even kept silence for days together.  More so, Gandhiji’s friendship with Sheik Mehtab, who dragged him to vices like meat eating, smoking and stealing also troubled and tormented her little soul.   As Gandhiji used to spend more time with his ailing father than with her, she thought that he was ignoring her.  Gandhiji allegation was that she was very obstinate and despite all his pressures, she would do as she wished.  Things improved slowly and steadily when Kasturba began to understand him and began to see into the noble heart within him.  She later understood that the outward crudeness was only because, he could not control his anger which stemmed from something else.  When Kasturba became the mother of his four children, she became matured as a wise mother, and a shrewd lady to compact with his unique behavior.     The nobility of her character was to be measured from the love and care she gave to his children during his long absences while in England or in South Africa.  She showed extra ordinary courage to look after his family at all odds, braving all the cranky, abnormal and unnatural behavior of her husband.   How much agony she would have undergone when Gandhiji neglected her and her children without giving them proper education.  When he became almost a stranger to his children, she was the only hope for them.  So, they had more love to their mother with whom they could place their trust confidently.

While in Phoenix Settlement, Kasturba had to live alone in the wilderness, as Gandhiji was to live in Durban to look after his professional responsibility of a lawyer.  Therefore she had to take care, not only their children but was forced to ensure the welfare of all the inmates in the Settlement.   

Gandhiji’s practice of brahmacharya, renunciation of worldly possessions, his estrangement from children and neglect, his decision to lead a life of a vanaprastha etc etc  should have definitely pained her deeply, but she suffered everything in silence.  To quote a single incident of Gandhiji’s brutality towards his wife that occurred in 1898, in Durban, South Africa, is