January 30 will mark the 60th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's death.
Generations to come, it may be, will scarcely believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.
— Albert Einstein
It was a black day for the world when Nathuram Godse shot Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, ending the life of a remarkable human being.
The world mourned the death of Gandhi, and the UN General Assembly set aside a period for mourning his death. He inspired leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Aung San Suu Kyi, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama to use non-violence as a way to voice their protest.
The UN declared his birthday would be observed as the World Day of Non-violence. This article attempts to examine how an ordinary boy from Gujarat grew up to be the Mahatma (Maha means Great and Atma means Soul).
Karamchand aka Kaba Gandhi was the Diwan of the Rajasthanik Court (equivalent to Prime Minister in a Royal Court). Karamchand married four times as his first three wives died during childbirth. He had a daughter from each of his first two wives. Then Karamchand Gandhi married Putlibhai who bore him one daughter and three sons. Mohandas was the youngest. He was born on October 2, 1869 in Porbandar aka Sudamapuri.
Pre-school days
An extremely shy child, he spent his pre-school days in Porbandar until his father moved to Rajkot. Of his parents, Gandhi writes in his autobiography: "My father never had any ambition to accumulate riches and left us very little property. He had no education, save that of experience. But his rich experience of practical affairs stood him in good stead in the solution of the most intricate questions and in managing hundreds of men.
"The outstanding impression my mother has left on my memory is that of saintliness. She was deeply religious. She would not think of taking her meals without her daily prayers. She would take the hardest vows and keep them without flinching. Illness was no excuse for relaxing them. To keep two or three consecutive fasts was nothing to her. My mother had strong common sense. She was well informed about all matters of state, and ladies of the court thought highly of her intelligence."
Mohandas did his schooling at Rajkot. However, his shyness made him reserved in the classroom and his books became his sole companions. He would rush back home after school as he was afraid he would have to talk to his classmates! He was only 12 years old when he joined high school.
He was 13 when he married Kasturibhai Makhanji.
Gandhi pursued his education after marriage. His father died when he was 17 and to keep the family afloat, his mother decided to make Mohandas a barrister by sending him to London, though this meant excommunication of the entire family from the clan.
University education
In 1888, when Mohandas joined the University College, London, his wife Kasturibhai gave birth to their first child, Harilal in India. Putlibhai passed away while he was in London.
In 1891, Mohandas returned after being accepted as a barrister by the British Bar and set up a law practice in Bombay but failed. He then tried to become a high school teacher but was refused. He then returned to Rajkot and made a modest living drafting petitions.
In 1892, his second son, Manilal, was born. In 1893, he accepted a one-year contract from an Indian firm in South Africa and it was in South Africa that his last two sons were born — Ramdas in 1898 and Devadas in 1900, whom he helped deliver.
His eldest son Harilal was a rebel, and disowned the family in 1911. He died in March 1948 from tuberculosis, two months after his father's assassination.
Manilal and Ramdas resented their father's rigorous upbringing but kept at it though Manilal was severely reprimanded for lending Harilal money to help get out of debt as a result of his alcoholic binges. Devdas was the closest to his father and was his father's secretary for a while.
In 1976, Gandhi's direct descendants lived in 47 nations. They were in different fields but none in positions of power.
Three childhood incidents laid the foundations for Gandhism. The first was a high school incident during the visit of Giles, a school inspector. He gave them all an English spelling test. When his teacher noticed Mohandas had misspelt the word kettle, he prompted him to change it. While the other students corrected their mistakes, Gandhi didn't and was the only one with a spelling mistake. He couldn't accept cheating and deception.
The second was when he read the book, Shravana Pitribhakti Nataka (a play about Shravana's devotion to his blind aged parents) that moved him deeply. The third was a play on Harishchandra — the Indian king who was ready to face any ordeal because he refused to lie — an ideal Gandhi felt he should live up to; to always speak the truth and accept the resulting ordeals.
As an adult, Gandhi's experiences in South Africa shaped his ideology. It was here that he encountered racism first hand when he was thrown off the train for refusing to move to the third class though he possessed a first class ticket.
He learnt non-violent protest from his wife who refused to allow him to mould her the way he wanted her to be but did so by silently protesting while suffering because of his domination.
When his annual contract ended, Indian merchants asked him to stay in South Africa as the Natal Legislature planned to disenfranchise Indian settlers. Gandhi used passive resistance to protest.
The inspiration for passive resistance came partly from Leo Tolstoy's novels, the teachings of Jesus Christ and from Henry David Thoreau's essay on civil disobedience.
When he realised the futility of passive protests, he came up with Satyagraha — a strategy that could be followed by anyone which combined non-violence, passive resistance, love and firmness in demanding freedom and justice. During the Boer War, Gandhi served as a nurse in the British Ambulance Corps. He campaigned for Indian rights after the war and Smuts finally gave in to a majority of his demands.
Simple living, high thinking
On his return to India, his travels revealed the plight of Indians in various regions.
In 1921 he decided to wear only a loin cloth and a shawl just like the poorest Indian until they could afford better. Simple living and high thinking was his motto. He abhorred violence and opposed it even if the cause was just.
Gandhi didn't approve of partition as throughout his life he advocated oneness of God, respect for all religions, social justice, and non-violence in thought, word and deed. His daily prayer meetings comprised devotional songs and readings from different scriptures which people of various religions and sects attended.
To stop the communal riots in the Indian subcontinent, Gandhi went on a fast on January 13, 1948. The rioting came to an end, as the people loved him.
From 1934, over seven attempts were made on Gandhi's life. It was Narayan Apte who planned the assassination with the help of Godse, as Apte opposed Gandhi's policies. Both belonged to the Hindu Mahasabha that was banned after Gandhi's assassination. Godse tried to assassinate Gandhi twice and succeeded in his third attempt when he shot him three times on January 30, 1948.
Gandhi's teachings are more relevant than ever in today's world.
Mohandas became Mahatma to the people as he practiced what he preached, although Gandhi was personally against being labelled the Mahatma.
