Rescuing the Mahatma

On the eve of Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary, a picture of his headless statute was circulated on Whatsapp. Nobody’s sentiments were hurt, obviously. The decapitation of Gandhi is a message of hatred nurtured by two streams of ideologies, apparently contradictory, but flowing out of the colonial fount. The British could never reconcile to the loss of the Empire to a frail fakir, seemingly meek, speaking the Biblical language of compassion and forgiveness. So, it was no surprise that he was felled by the Empire’s loyal subjects. The ideology that sought to create the ‘Super Hindu’, promoted by a man pardoned by the British, was directly responsible for the Mahatma’s murder. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was not just the intellectual mentor of the assassin, Nathuram Godse, but a co-accused as well. The fact that Nehru’s government refused to go on appeal against Savarkar’s acquittal still remains a mystery.

Then there is the other stream of identity politics that has consistently attacked Gandhi in the name of religion and caste. This group was blatantly sponsored by the colonial government through its allies and the Viceroy’s Executive Council. The proponents of the division of the Indian nation, through separate electorates, in the name of religion and caste were defeated conclusively by Gandhi and the idealists of the national movement. The only woman Scheduled Caste member of the Constituent Assembly, Dakshayani Velayudhan, was a staunch Gandhian. So was everyone, but for those who supported the British.

After the economic reforms, with foreign capital coming into publishing and academia, there has been a renewed attempt to de-legitimise Gandhi using the old tools of identity politics. Gandhi had evolved over the years and had continuously revised his views on society. Now, the attempt is to cherry-pick Gandhi’s statements to fit him into a new construct of casteism and religious conservatism by some writers. This is the prime reason why Gandhi is no longer fashionable in Indian campuses. To be radical is to abuse Gandhi. But it is getting more and more difficult to rescue Gandhi with Savarkar’s disciples having appropriated him.