Who is Gandhi

This year marks the centenary of the First World War. Apart from being a historical event which shaped the world's destiny, the Great War didn't carry much of a significance for me. In fact, the chessboard of World War II seemed more interesting. It is probably the reflection of the same mindset which finds the narrative of Mahabharat much more interesting and politically enlivened as compared to the Ramayan.

It was only after my daughter Seemontini pointed out that she had a link to the Great War that I took a little more interest. They were doing a project in school and found out that although the war broke out on 28 July 1914, it was triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on June 28, which happens to be Seemontini's birthday. Although separated by 90 years (Seemontini was born in 2004), I was quite amused by the link she worked out with the Great War.
However, the more interesting revelation came on November 10, ahead of the Armistice Day, when I came across a lecture of eminent Gandhian scholar Dr Uday Singh Mehta. He was delivering a talk titled "Putting Courage at the Centre: Gandhi on Civility and Society", organised by the Tagore Centre for Global Thought at the King's India Institute.

I got stuck in the train and was forced to miss the first part of the talk. However, what I came across was no less startling. Dr Mehta pointed out that Gandhi was a recruiter for the British Army ahead of World War I. Gandhi thought that it was his moral duty to defend the British Empire at the time of war, and using the opportunity to arm twist Britain in India's quest for self-rule or independence would be highly immoral.

What I found fascinating in Dr Mehta's reading of Gandhi is the predominance of morality and ethics in his thinking. Not that it was anything new, but the multiple shades of analysis that intertwined Gandhi as a thinker, according to Dr Mehta was quite revealing. He even went to the extent of arguing that Gandhi was happy with Dominion Status as long as it fulfilled his moral and ethical parameters.

Dr Mehta argued that at some stage Gandhi probably resigned to himself and reluctantly felt that there was no other way than being a nationalist. My reading of Indian history during the movement for independence is quite limited, even then, I can somehow reason the restlessness of Netaji in joining hands with the enemy of the British to facilitate India's independence, which many, including Gandhi, found to be immoral.

It seemed that probably Gandhi was too obsessed with morality and ethics. He situating morality and ethics at the heart of his arguments probably makes Gandhi more endearing to the wider world than the popular notion of non-violence and Satyagraha. Endearing Gandhi in a way gives credence to ones apparent commitment to morality without any obligation of practicing it or treading the ethical path in everyday life. It's almost analogous to flaunting a prestigious publication in ones study rather than having any penchant for going through it with the desire to understand.

It is widely known that Gandhi was deeply influenced by Bhagavad Gita, but drawing from the conversation between Krishna and Arjun, Gandhi probably accepted that violence was no aberration but a fact of life. What transpired from the talk by Dr Mehta was that Gandhi's lifelong endeavour had been to find out an ethical argument to morally justify violence.

The many facets of character that is encapsulated in Gandhi as a person, a social thinker and above all the political leader, seem fascinating to me. The more I read, hear and think about him the more I get a feel of his complexities.

What I also find intriguing is the chemistry that worked between Gandhi and Nehru. I can sense a fair amount of oriental values in Gandhi's version of morality and ethics, which to my understanding is different from what is portrayed by western modernity. What I find difficult to understand is how Nehru, very much a poster boy of western modernity in an Indian set up, could get along with such rationalisation of the political with moral ends.

I look forward to Dr Mehta's forthcoming book, "A Different Vision: Gandhi’s Critique of Political Rationality".

Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay is a journalist and media consultant. 
He can be contacted at tirthankarb@hotmail.com 

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