38 THE WEEK • JUNE 30, 2019

P

rophet, spiritual leader,

secular saint, freedom

fi ghter, social reformer,

philosopher, healer and

“Father of the Nation”—

Mahatma Gandhi is

perhaps the most deifi ed

political fi gure in mod-

ern history. Many were

baffl ed by his masterful

grip over statecraft combined with his garb of a

religious ascetic—a loincloth and shawl, which

he insisted on wearing even when he went to

meet the English emperor in 1931.

While he is much written about, perhaps the

only Indian most profusely written about, Gan-

dhi continues to fascinate, confound and stupefy.

For someone whose intellectual and political de-

velopment crystallised outside India, who upon

his return from South Africa was sent on an India

study tour by his political mentor Gopal Krishna

Gokhale who considered him a “naive foreigner”,

who came up with the phrase “non-cooperation”

because of his unfamiliarity with Hindi at the

time, Gandhi worked his way up to command

staggering resonance across India. As Gan-

dhi wrote in 1947, “For men like me, you have

to measure them not by the rare moments of

greatness in their lives, but by the amount of dust

they collect on their feet in the course of life’s

journey.” What are the lesser-known facets of his

life’s journey from Mohandas to Mahatma?

VOYAGER

Mahatma Gandhi was a tireless walker. Most

statues of “Bapu”, including the iconic Gyarah

Murti, has him marching ahead. But Gandhi

was a voyager, too. Rajmohan Gandhi, author,

professor and grandson of Mahatma Gandhi,

writes: “In Hind Swaraj one reads his attacks on

cars. On planes. On trains. But there is no attack

on ships!”

Interestingly, Hind Swaraj or Indian Home

Rule, Gandhi’s most important book on his

political philosophy, was entirely executed in

a ship called SS Kildonan Castle. It was, in fact,

written in ten days, between November 13 and

22, 1909, while returning to South Africa from

England after a failed lobbying mission. It is

said that when he was tired of writing with his

right hand, he switched to left; 40 out of the

275 pages of Hind Swaraj were written with his

left hand. Apart from writing his most seminal

work like a man possessed, he translated Tol-

stoy’s Letter to a Hindoo on the same trip.

During his voyage back to India from

England in 1891, after fi nishing his barrister’s

degree in London, Gandhi wrote in his diary

in the aff ected tone of a British snob about

“a crowd of dirty looking beggars” in Malta,

“rogues and rascals” in Port Said and waiters

who “murder the Queen’s English”. In 1896, the

voyage in which he took his family to Durban

from Bombay, Gandhi witnessed the power

of multi-faith prayer.

A violent storm hit

the two ships—the

Courland and the Na-

dir—that were sailing

together to Durban.

As the ships rocked

and rolled, everyone

prayed to their own

gods in their own

languages.

When Gandhi

was fi nally ready

to head back home

from South Africa in

In Hind Swaraj one

reads his attacks on

cars. On planes. On

trains. But there is no

attack on ships!

Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of

Mahatma Gandhi

AKBAR PADAMSEE

TITLE PORTRAIT OF GANDHI

MEDIUM WATERCOLOUR

ON PAPER

SIZE 14x11 INCHES

YEAR 2009