The Week India – June 30, 2019

44 THE WEEK • JUNE 30, 2019

S

ince 1996 a portrait of Mahat-

ma Gandhi in his last years has

adorned Indian currency notes. On

the notes in my wallet, underneath

the portrait, in very small print, is written

Mahatma Gandhi in English and Hindi. I

doubt whether that identifi cation is neces-

sary; so well known is the face with trade-

mark rimless spectacles. When I looked at

the portrait more carefully, I noticed that

Gandhi was smiling slightly. It is a quiz-

zical smile, as though he is saying, “What

on earth am I doing here?” Were Gandhi

to fi nd himself in India now I believe he

would almost certainly ask that question.

In the fi rst place he would be surprised to

be associated with the money which keeps

the wheels of modern India’s economy

turning. With its inequality, its corruption

and its consumerism, its obsession with

growth without concern for how India is

growing and who benefi ts from the growth,

it represents all that Gandhi opposed.

At the same time Gandhi would not like

to be given the title Mahatma. He once

said, “Often the title has deeply pained

me and there is not a moment I can recall

when it may be said to have tickled me.”

He maintained he had become “literally

sick of the adoration of the unthinking

multitude.” He even felt humiliated by

some of the adjectives used to describe

him because he had to confess he didn’t

deserve them.

Canonising Gandhi has done him no

favours. Inevitably the demolition squad

has moved in, determined to knock the

Sant off his pedestal. In recent times

Arundhati Roy has argued that Gandhi’s

nonviolence was based on “acceptance

of the most brutal social hierarchy ever

known, the caste system”. On the other

hand, the scholar Nishikant Kolge in

his recent book Gandhi Against Caste,

published by Oxford University Press,

maintains “at times Gandhi was clearly

against caste, and at other times ambiv-

alent.” Even when ambivalent, Gandhi

HEAVYWEIGHT

HALO

Canonising Gandhi has done him no favours; it has

made him a myth more than a man

MARK TULLY

Author and the BBC’s

chief of bureau in New

Delhi for 22 years

JITISH

KALLAT

TITLE COVERING

LETTER

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YEAR 2012