Tag: mahatma gandhi

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Film screening: Gandhi’s Salt Satyagraha

Gandhi Film Foundation will screen the film, shot in 1930, till May 31. School students and historians are particularly invited.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

We’ve all read about Mahatma Gandhi’s famous Salt Satyagraha and the Dandi March that led to the breaking of the British monopoly over the first use of salt in India. Now, you’ve got the chance to see the actual journey.

Salt The Gandhi Film Foundation is screening a 15-minute film that shows rare footage from Gandhi’s historic 241 miles-long walk from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi. The film is being screened several times a day from April 22 and will be shown till May 31, 2014. The Foundation believes that students of schools, colleges and activity centres, as also historians, would like to see the footage that was recorded in 1930.

Says Nitin Potdar, Chairman of the Gandhi Film Foundation, “The audio-visual medium the best medium to keep students interested in history and since we have the footage of this great historic movement which occurred almost 85 years ago, we thought it would be good for students to see the manner in which the Salt Satyagraha was lead by Gandhiji rather than reading the same in text books.”

Subhash Jaykar, Director of Gandhi Film Foundation adds, “Gandhiji started a 241-mile-long walk from the Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi, a village on the sea-coast, along with his chosen band of seventy-eight Ashramites. After 24 days, on April 5, 1930, Sarojini Naidu received Gandhiji and his followers on the outskirts of the village. On April 6, after the dip into the sea, walking at a slow pace in solemnity, Gandhi picked up a lump of natural salt on the seashore and the nefarious monopoly was broken.  Nowhere had a law been more peacefully and yet more defiantly disobeyed. We have captured this very journey in the film.”

Head to Gandhi Films Exhibition Centre, at Mani Bhavan, Annex Building, at Laburnum Road, Mumbai 400007. Call Subhash Jaykar or Pratibha on 022 2380 4681 or write to info@gandhifilms.org for details.

(Pictures courtesy www.sumit4all.com, www.starsai.com)

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Bid for Mahatma Gandhi’s letters, famed coin from ‘Sholay’

The city-based Rajgor’s House readies to auction authentic items of interest and historical value on April 28. Collectors, be there.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

We’re always fascinated by royalty, and more importantly, by items of a bygone era. Naturally, when one is presented with the chance to view such items or better, purchase them, one must seize the chance at once.

Charni Road-based Rajgor’s, the famous auctioneers, will host an auction of rare historical artefacts and jewellery; more importantly, collectors and buyers will get the chance to bid for two original letters penned by Mahatma Gandhi (see pic above). Moreover, the famed silver coin from the evergreen classic Sholay will also go under the hammer.

Dilip RajgorRajgor’s last had an auction in September 2013 in Mumbai; however, the event was marred by some controversy after it was learnt that a coin belonging to the era of Shivaji was to be auctioned. Nevertheless, Dilip Rajgor (see pic on left), Founder and CEO of Rajgor’s, is confident that this auction will go off as well as the last one.

Excerpts from an interview with Dilip Rajgor:

What was the response to the last auction like?

The last (Auction 10) was very well received by the collector community. The only problem we had was (sic) since a political party objected to the auction of Shivaji hoan (a ‘hoan’ is a coin), so many people thought that the auction was cancelled and hence they could not attend. However, they called us later and were surprised to know that the auction took place as planned. That was the only set back. 

What are some of the interesting items to go under the hammer in this auction? 

There are many such items. First and foremost is Mahatma Gandhi’s handwritten letter. There are two such letters. Lot 143 is handwritten and autographed by the Mahatma and Lot 144 is written by his assistant, but he has signed it. In both the Gujarati letters, he has signed off as Bapu na ashirwad (Blessings of Bapu).

The letters are important for a number of reasons. Firstly, the letters are genuine. Secondly, it’s for the first time in India that such letters are being offered to collectors and the public.

Thirdly, the letters have a full pedigree, that is, the sources of the letters are well-reported – this proves that they are not stolen.

Fourthly, the letters are also well-reported in the books on Mahatma Gandhi, namely, Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. And finally, these letters are offered to collectors at a tenth of their international value.

Among other important things in the auction are a silver coin from the film Sholay, important and rare statues of Buddha and the Jain religion, prints of Raja Ravi Varma, and silver Articles and jewellery.

Is it possible to bid online through your site?

Yes, it is quite possible to bid online. But one must be registered with us before they bid.

What are you doing different for this auction from the last one?

The most important part of the present auction is its printed catalogue. The catalogue is printed in India by world-known printers, Pragati Printers of Hyderabad, who are known for their international print quality. The printing of the catalogue ‘speaks’, and one feels like that all the objects are live on the pages.

Who do you anticipate will be most interested in this auction?

The top-most attractive item will be the letters of Mahatma Gandhi. Looking especially at the response from collectors of Mumbai, we are sure that the two letters of Mahatma Gandhi are going to create record prices in India. And a lot of people will talk about it for days together.

The auction will take place on April 28 at 7 pm, The Ballroom, The Taj President, Cuffe Parade. Look up more details at www.rajgors.com.

(Pictures courtesy Rajgor’s)

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Enough said

Revisiting Gandhi’s present-day legacy

Would our politics be any different if Mahatma Gandhi’s grandchildren had joined active politics? Or would things continue as before?
by Humra Quraishi

As I write this column a little after Gandhi jayanti this year, I have been recollecting several things about the Mahatma. The very crux of his philosophy was simplicity laced with truth. Nothing complicated or layered, just a subtle and direct way of communicating. Probably this is why we can so easily relate to the great man even today.

gopalkrishna gandhiEvery time I meet any of his four grandchildren, children of his son Devdas Gandhi, I get the sense the same sense of uncomplicated communication. Each time I’ve interviewed Ramchandra Gandhi, Rajmohan Gandhi, Gopalkrishna Gandhi (in pic on left) and Tara Gandhi Bhattacharjee, I’ve always got a sense of ‘genuineness’ in their words and views. Even when I visited Tara and Rajmohan’s homes, I was struck by the simplicity. In fact, the late Ramchandra Gandhi had never even owned a home and lived all his life in a rented annexe in very tight financial conditions.

When I first visited Tara (in pic below) at her South Delhi home, I could see it was a very ‘different’ space. Huge hand-made dolls stood in the house, as did charkhas and khadi weaves. When I asked her about her grandfather, she’d said, “Bapu kept a very tight schedule so we couldn’t interact for hours at a stretch, though I’d spent most of my childhood with him and Ba. He spoke on ‘mulya’(values), taught us to value time, to focus on ‘buniyadi usul’(fundamental values). I never saw him angry or cranky. But very often he’d looked sad. In fact, whenever he was upset he’d stop talking and fast or tara gandhi bhattacharjeekeep a maun or roza and stop eating. When upset, he would sit at the charkha spinning for hours at a stretch.”

Rajmohan described his relationship with Gandhiji thus: “As his grandchildren, we didn’t have any special rights to his time. He belonged to the entire nation. At that time, I was a child so I couldn’t understand it, but I later realised that the family had to pay a heavy price to achieve freedom. Looking back, I think even then I had some inkling of why we, his grandchildren, couldn’t spend much time with him.

rajmohan gandhiHe recounted the values he inherited from his grandfather and father, “My father Devdas Gandhi brought us up on the same values – that money making was not to be the purpose of life, that service was to be part of life and that any service ought to be totally unconnected with personal advancement. He always stood for freedom of the Press and told us how important it was for the Press to be free.”

There is much to share on the subject of Bapu and the many anecdotes of his life and times, but I have to share this one thought: I wish Gandhi’s grandchildren had joined active politics. Who knows, the situation in the country could have been somewhat better with their presence? Rajmohan (in pic above), who had joined the Janata Dal briefly before leaving the party and politics after huge disillusionment, said, “Today, political parties have hardened their stance on questions of caste and religion. My inability to do that prevents me from finding a strong voice in any political party. As far as the Congress is concerned, the refusal of the party to fight out corruption keeps me away from it.

“The BJP is out of the question because of its ideology. I am too old to start a new party of movement. I would have done it years back but not now…today I find my skull too  fragile!”

Humra Quraishi is a senior journalist based in Gurgaon. She is the author of Kashmir: The Untold Story and co-author of Simply Khushwant.

(Pictures courtesy www.thehindu.com, www.zimbio.com, www.theguardian.com, www.hss.iitm.ac.in)

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Enough said

Reading does save you!

Humra Quraishi is enlightened by her recent acquisitions – three new books that shed light on our lives and times.

I attended two book launches this week. One was Harsh Mander’s (in featured picture) launch of Ash In the Belly: India’s Unfinished Battle Against Hunger (Penguin) where the three speakers – Dr Upendra Baxi, Mark Tully and NC Saxena – minced no words as they spoke about how a certain percentage of our population is perishing because of malnutrition and hunger.

The Government of the day is actually killing and murdering its people, slowly and methodically, by not knowing the actual ground realities and not doing enough to deal with them. Yet, its machinery continues to churn out numbers for high growth rates, replete with several exaggerated figures.

The other launch was for Professor Mushirul Hasan’s book on Mahatma Gandhi, which I wrote about last Sunday (see the piece here), where Gopal Krishna Gandhi’s talk on his grandfather, the Mahatma, was very touching. He spoke in chaste Urdu and narrated an incident which showed Gandhi’s strength of character even in the face of personal crisis: when he heard that his teenaged grandson Rasik had passed away in Jamia Millia Islamia, he said that it was some solace that Rasik had passed away in a place like the Jamia Millia, and also that he had been looked after by the well-known physician, Dr Ansari.

And I have recently received two books on Gulzar saab. One is a collection of his song lyrics and verse, titled Umr Se Lambi Sadkon Par (Vani Prakashan) which is compiled by  Delhi-based poet and doctor Dr Binod Khaitan. The other volume is titled  In The Company Of A Poet: Gulzar in Conversation With Nasreen Munni Kabir. Published by  Rupa, this volume focusses on Gulzar saab’s views and viewpoints, complete with his verse…maybe, these lines will help you wake up at dawn!

‘I wake up at five when it is still dark.

I want the sun to look for me instead of me looking for the sun.

Just as the first serve in tennis can be advantageous,

So the first serve must be mine.

The second goes to the sun.’

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist based in Gurgaon. She is the author of Kashmir: The Untold Story and co-author of Simply Khushwant.

(Picture courtesy citizensforpeace.com)

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Enough said

Why Gandhi is relevant in today’s times

Humra Quraishi reviews a valuable new book released on Gandhi’s martyrdom day, which is relevant especially in today’s turbulent times.

I sit writing this piece clutching a book that was released on January 30. I’m not able to let go of it, and I’m feeling a bit possessive about it. Why? Because it’s an important volume in the turbulent times we are living in.

The book is titled Faith And Freedom: Gandhi in History (Niyogi Books) by well-known historian Professor Mushirul Hasan focusses on those aspects of Mahatma Gandhi’s life, those aspects that are crucial to us Indians. How did he move millions with such seemingly little effort? Why did he succeed in most cases, but not when it came to engaging with Muslim nationalism? Is it not ironic that the messenger of non violence lived through Partition, one of the subcontinent’s most violent events?

Apart from these vital questions, Professor Hasan has also focussed on Gandhi’s reading and interpretation of Islam, his relationship with the Muslim community and his strategy of dealing with them. I’m just going to quote a few observations from the 550-page volume: ‘Gandhi considered all religions equally good, for they teach the very same truth, and point to the very same goal and spiritual regeneration of man. The method of worship was important to him, but the spiritual force of a religion counted more and its power to uplift the soul and to transform man. “Our temple is in our ashram,” Gandhi quoted Kabir, “nay, it is in our hearts…” Also, “It was a denial of God to revile one religion, to break the heads of innocent men, and to desecrate temples or mosques…”

Also these lines, ‘Gandhi portrayed Islam as a religion of peace in the same sense as Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism…whenever he came across coarse intolerance or religious bigotry, he reacted sharply rather than remaining a detached onlooker.’

Hasan relays the bond between Gandhi and Ghaffar Khan: ‘On 4 December, Ghaffar Khan returned to Wardha with his twelve-year-old son and fourteen-year-old daughter. Often, he read the Quran in the evening prayer and joined in reading Tulsidas’ Ramayana. He loved the tune and listened intently. “The music of the bhajan fills up the soul,” he once proclaimed. He served the sick, and, what is more, helped Gandhi wash his feet. Once Badshah Khan came along with his two sons. At the midday meal , one of them asked, “Isn’t it your birthday today?”

“Yes, it is. Why?”

“Well, you see, I thought…there might be something special to eat – cake and chicken pilau perhaps. But there is simply plain boiled pumpkin, just as usual!” Gandhi chuckled and made the children laugh. Afterwards he took Frontier Gandhi aside and suggested that, “We ought to get something they would really enjoy, some meat or something.”

“No, no, they were only joking; we always eat gladly whatever our host provides.” The children agreed. This was an affectionate parental-like tie; a young boy or girl turning to him for advice and Bapu, in turn, showering his affection and blessing!”

After I finished reading this book, I have been thinking: Why are such books not introduced at the school or college levels? I sure that such readings will help people bond. Credit must go to the author for putting together a gamut of voices, opinions and  facts, and quoting extensively from Indian and non-Indian academics, scholars and poets, combined with his own historical inputs. What I found extremely refreshing is that he has relied very little on today’s politicians for inputs to this volume, instead focussing only on the absolutely serious and authentic.

To you readers, I can only suggest that you should start this new year reading books of this kind so that the coming months could usher in some cheer and the hope that you and I are no longer used by today’s politicians to further the divides between us. Gandhi would agree.

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist. She is the author of Kashmir: The Untold Story and co-author of Simply Khushwant. 

(Picture courtesy finewallpaperss.com)

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New Gandhi on the block

Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Rajmohan Gandhi has recently become a grandfather – the child was born last month in the US.
by Humra Quraishi

I have often wondered if the Indian political scene would have been any different if Mahatma Gandhi’s children, grandchildren and great grandchildren had stepped in and got into the thick of things. Sure, his grandson Rajmohan Gandhi (son of Devdas Gandhi) had been politically active for a brief while, but then he moved far away from it, taking to academics and writing on a full-time basis. But Rajmohan and Usha have now been blessed with a grandson! A new Gandhi is born.

I have known Rajmohan and his wife Usha for several years now. Their daughter Supriya  and my daughter Sarah studied together  in college and were great friends, and through the girls, we parents got to meet each other. They – Supriya and Sarah – were pursuing Philosophy honours at Delhi’s St. Stephen’s College. We’d resided quite close by on  Lutyen’s Delhi Shahjahan and Pandara Roads, so the interactions grew. And what struck me about the couple was the simplicity at Usha and Rajmohan Gandhi’s home – they believed in simple food, simple clothing, and the very basics required for living.

About 12 years ago, Usha, Rajmohan and their two children, Surpiya and Devadatta, shifted to the United States. Rajmohan is currently a Research Professor at the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, but the family comes to India almost three or four times a year.

A few years ago, Supriya married an academic, Travis Zadeh. The wedding was a simple affair – just flowers and diyas dotting the lawns and  in the midst of it sat the guests. Perhaps in keeping with Mahatma Gandhi’s stress on simplicity, his great grand-daughter Supriya Gandhi’s marriage was one of the most austere marriage ceremonies anyone’s ever attended. There was no band, dholak, shehnai or music of any strain, no horses or elephants, no dolis or carts, none of the usual tamashas. Friends and close relatives were served vegetarian snacks and fruit juice. The same was offered to the baraatis who had come all the way from the US with the groom, Travis, who is of mixed American-Iranian parentage.

After all these years, it brings me a quiet happiness to know that Supriya, my daughter’s friend, is now the proud mother of a baby boy. The child was born last month in October in the US. They have named the child Anushirvan Gandhi-Zadeh. Anushirvan in Persian means ‘one possessing an immortal soul’.

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist and author of Kashmir: The Untold Story, and co-author of Simply Khushwant.

 

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