4 THE WEEK • JUNE 30, 2019
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
IN THE WINTER of 2017, a news photograph
from Delhi caught my eye. A striding Mahatma
Gandhi wearing a white mask, secured with
elastic loops around his ears.
Two Delhi MLAs had resorted to this novel
way of highlighting the national capital region’s
abysmal air quality. And, they had chosen the
Gyarah Murti Gandhi for this. The eleven sat-
yagrahis stand at the point where Sardar Patel
Marg meets Mother Teresa Crescent. In a city
teeming with statues, the MLAs had chosen
to put the mask on this one man, and at this
memorial to an iconic protest march.
Why?
Why not?
I think it is simply because no other protes-
tor has imprinted himself on our imagination
like Gandhiji. Not Bhagat Singh, B.K. Dutt and
their rallying call—“Inquilab zindabad”. Not
the ‘Tank Man’ at Tiananmen Square. Not
the flaming Thich Quang Duc in Saigon. Not
the Arab Spring crowds. Not the lone girl in a
white thobe, standing atop a car in Khartoum
and screaming “Thowra (Revolution)!” For
most Indians, the lanky, dhoti-clad man with
a toothless smile symbolises the cliff against
which the empire’s ceaseless waves smashed
ineffectually.
And, it is not only about his life, but also
about his death. Like khadi, like the handful
of salt he picked up at Dandi, his assassin, too,
was swadeshi. A life and death like no other. Alife laid down in service of the nation. That
is why we turn to him when we feel let down
by governments. We are strengthened by the
mere thought that he would have been in
our corner today. And this is why his 150th
birth anniversary becomes important. This
mid-year special issue of your favourite news-
weekly marks this milestone and brings you
unlit chapters from his life.
On the National Salt Satyagraha Memorial
website, Tushar Gandhi says, “A lot of the
facts of the historic Salt March were being
forgotten and a lot of myths were creeping
into the narrative.” That is true, not just about
the Salt Satyagraha, but also about
Gandhiji’s life in general. One urban myth
that we discuss in this package is about a
painting by Feliks Topolski, displayed in the
Rashtrapati Bhavan. It shows “Mahatma Gan-
dhi bathed in blood, leaning on two young
women, calmly slumping to the ground”. The
myth is that it was painted in 1946, two years
before Gandhiji was assassinated. Was it a
prophetic painting? The answer is on Page 74.
The words in the package come from ac-
complished wordsmiths: Rajmohan Gandhi,
Mark Tully, Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd, Vikram
Sampath and Tushar Gandhi. I am sure that
you will appreciate the images that accom-
pany the words. A special word of thanks
to Bose Krishnamachari for his invaluable
guidance. Permission to reproduce the
paintings was generously granted by Akbar
Padamsee, Atul Dodiya, G.R. Iranna, Jitish
Kallat, Riyas Komu, Bara Bhaskaran, Priyasri
Art Gallery and The Raza Foundation. The
rare photographs are courtesy of Navajivan
Trust, Ahmedabad, and Pramod Kapoor and
Roli Books. My thanks to everyone.
As I end this letter, I must tell you that
Gandhiji is present all over my hometown. All
my early correspondence had his mark on it
because my parents had built their home on
a hillock called Mount Wardha. A short walk
from the Malayala Manorama headquarters
is Kottayam’s own Gandhi Square, complete
with a statue of the Mahatma. And, the town
is also home to Mahatma Gandhi University,
which has adopted Gandhiji’s eight-spoked
charkha as its coat of arms.