Happy birthday Bapu - 2025

Albert Einstein once said this about him - "It is hard to believe such a man in flesh and blood ever walked on the surface of earth". The world famous scientist wasn't far from the truth, as the man he was referring to rightly earned his accolades. We are talking about non other than our BAPU (Father of the Nation), Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, popularly known as MAHATMA (the famous soul) Gandhi.

Born in Gujarat to an upper middle class family, educated in England, Mohandas Gandhi first experimented his peaceful protests against the brutally racist Apartheid regime in South Africa. He subsequently applied the same against the British rule in India. 

Gandhiji (as he was popularly addressed as) experimented with different vices and virtues early in his life, prompting him to write "My Experiment with Truth", where he frankly admitted his distaste for sex when as a young adolescent he had a sexual urge while attending to his ailing father and slipped away momentarily to his wife's bed to fulfill his desire. When he returned, his father had passed away. This incident filled him with remorse and anathema towards sex.

But sometimes his experiment went little too far. At old age of 67 after his wife's death, his experiment of sleeping naked with his nubile niece to test his control over libido attracted a lot of controversy. Tongues started wagging about a man sleeping naked, cajoling his neice to get naked and sleep next to him. His opponents, notably the Muslim League made a big deal out of it doing Gandhi's character assassination. Gandhi finally discontinued this practice after some persuasion by an image conscious Congress party. What happened in dark, stayed in dark.

Newton's 3rd Law says every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Same is applicable to human emotions. Every violent action would naturally follow with an equal or more violent reaction, often leading to a continuous, never ending cycle of revenge. But Mahatma Gandhi decided to fight violence in an exactly opposite manner, using something different and out of box concept called "Non-violence". 

Many with minimal understanding of history who blame Mahatma for launching non violent protests against the British should note that when Gandhi came back from South Africa in January, 1915 violence was not an option as India was not in a position to take the might of the ruling British by force. The last biggest organized mutiny against the was firmly squashed in 1857 as the British broke the last backbone of Indian resistance. Unlike many who believe that English shat in their pants and fled away on the sight of Subash Chandra Bose, militarily Indians never posed any serious threat to British empire. They ruled India with the support of majority of its people using an iron hand who with their efficient spying network could smell like ripe fart any resistance from miles away (For those now ridiculing Gandhi for his nonviolent method of resistance should ask themselves how many Battalions were raised by their idols RSS and Hindu Mahasabha - both were present prior to our independence).

However, his method of protest being unique, immediately caught the eyes of the world at a time when the upcoming electronic media was at its infancy. The world stood up and took notice, appalled by the sight of the "DANDI" march protesters brutally mowed down by the DANDA (stick) of British Police (Indians who formed the majority of the British police force had no qualms hitting or killing their own when ordered by their English masters). The victims didn't show an iota of retaliation or remorse and went ahead with their protest, still taking the blows from police baton and falling injured one after one another, until they couldn't carry on any further. 

This incident was covered extensively by the Western media which brought Gandhi and his unique mode of protest to the the World's attention. Gandhi was an idealist whose idealism did not fail in his missions, though finally he fell to an assassin's bullet. His ideology of non-violence was later replicated by Dr. Martin Luther King Junior half a world away in The United States to fight for the Civil Rights. Dr. King, like his idol Mahatma Gandhi was too assassinated, but both vindicated the efficacy of "Non-violence" as a mode of protest.
When India celebrated its independence, arguably brought by his non-violence means, instead of celebrating, Gandhiji spent the day praying and fasting. He was steadfast in his pursuit for Hindu - Muslim unity, but India was partitioned amidst bloody violence on communal lines, opposite to what he stood for. Gandhi failed to stop the partition from happening.

Post partition, Pakistan asked India to pay Rs.48 crore (480 million), a princely sum those days. India refused to oblige. Bapu wanted India to pay the money to younger brother Pakistan and went on fasting, forcing India to relent and pay the money to its western neighbor. Pakistan used that lump sum amount of money to buy arms and attack India.

As mentioned by the eminent Freedom Fighter and Social reformer from Odisha, Pandit Nilakantha Das who was a contemporary of Gandhijee, the later visited the Satyavadi School in Sakhigopal, near Puri during his trip to Odisha in 1923. Sri Das disagreed with his mode of operandi by getting freedom through spinning wheel of CHARKHA. After completing his public meeting at Puri, it was Gandhi's turn to proceed towards his next stop - Cuttack. 

Gandhi's team suggested that half of them would travel by train and the rest by PADAYATRA (March on foot). But Pandit Nilakantha advised all of them to take the walk, so as to build the momentum of public enthusiasm, giving Gandhi an opportunity to better connect with the local polulace. Gandhijee heeded to Pandit Das's advice, opting for a walk in coastal Odisha. 

On their entire journey Gandhi's entourage survived on boiled rice and vegetables. It was tough on Pandit Nilakantha, a typical Brahmin from Puri who loved his fish curry. Midway, he came across a leper and donated his hand spun KHADADA (crude cotton cloth) to the destitute. Next day, Bapuji encountered a group of KELA (nomads) feasting on Barbecued KATASA (wild cat) who strayed into their camp. 

He went on preaching vegetarianism to them, trying to dissuade them from eating meat. Gandhijee advised them - "Eat milk and ghee which are good for health. Stop committing the HIMSA (violence) of killing animals". But for the poor nomads, milk and ghee were pipe dream, a distance luxury and KATASA MANSA (Wild cat meat) was the crude reality.

After Gandhi's death, his countrymen hardly retained his ideologies. India continued to be riddled with violence of all sorts, later in the form of terrorism. The current affairs of our nation may aptly described by these few lines lifted from the Odia song LE NABEENA from 1981, depicting the sad saga of the Mahatma. (Naveena here depicts the typical down to earth Odia guy, no relationship to any person bearing the same name).

LE NABEENA TIKE PACHHAKU ANA,
HATHE BAADI DHARI THIA BAPUJI NANA,
BAPUJI BUDHA RA AAKHI RE LUHA,
TA RAMA RAIJE AAJI YAMA RA BHAYA.

(O' Nabeena, take a peek behind.
Stick in hand Old man Bapuji is standing,
The old man's eyes are filled with tears,
Yama, the God of death has filled
His Dream Land with fear).

Happy 156th Birthday to Bapu, the Father of the nation. We may or may not agree with what you did or what you could have done, or whether your out of box experiment with non violence was an useful weapon. But you carved your niche to be the greatest amongst the greats who ever walked on the surface of earth.