The First Glimpse of Gandhiji…

(KC Kalkura)

“Whoever he loved, loved at first sight”. said, Shakespeare. “The first impression is the best impression” is a popular adage. ‘Sight’ is physical. ‘Impression’ is psychological. We might have heard about the person whom we see for the first time. The impression is formed even when we hear about the person or the object. We may not have been able to see them at all. Yet we form an impression.

For example, only a few people are said to have seen God. But every believer has an impression of God. We have not seen the historic personalities; maybe Kings and Emperors like Asoka and Srikrishnadevaraya;  poets and writers like Valmiki, Vyasa, Kalidas, and Milton; social and religious reformers like Buddha, Sankaracharya, Basavanna, and Vivekananda.

Gandhiji had toured the nook and corner of the country. The population of the country, including present Pakistan and Bangladesh, was 40 crores.  Half the contemporary Indians might have seen him in flesh and blood.  A few were fortunate to see him from close quarters and still fewer were lucky to be associated with him.

Gandhiji too considered himself fortunate to see some great leaders of his time. Gandhiji had visited only a few countries in Europe and fewer in Asia and Africa. He did not set foot in Australia and the Americas.  At Least half the World knows him today. He left an indelible impression on the pages of History.  He has, including former President Obama, a good following in America too.

In 1888 in London Gandhiji fell at the feet of Dadabhai Naoroji, whom he considered a fatherly figure. There was no discipleship, nor voluntary surrender. Hence there appeared to be no meeting of minds.

In South Africa in 1896, Gandhiji met Justice Ranade, Badruddin Taiyabji, and Pheroze Shah Mehta. Even though they influenced, Gandhiji’s thoughts and actions, disciple and follower relationship were reserved.

Today is Martys’ Day

After returning from South Africa to India, Gandhiji met some leading public personalities like Gopala Krishna Gokhale, Feroz Shah Mehta, and Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar  Tilak. Meeting Gokhale was like a meeting between a mother and son after a long separation and a teacher and student.

He found the Ganges in the gentle face and affectionate welcome of Gokhale. It seemed as though they were renewing an old friendship. His minute inquiries about Gandhi’s doings in South Africa at once enshrined Gokhale in Gandhi’s heart.

Sir Feroz Shah Meetha had looked like the Himalayas, and the Lokmanya Tilak resembled an ocean for him.  He could take a refreshing bath in the Ganges which invited him to its bosom. Himalaya was unscalable and could not launch forth on the high sea.

“Gokhale told me whom to approach and how to approach them. He asked to have a look at my speech. … And as I parted from him I said to myself ‘You are my man’. In the sphere of politics, the place that Gokhale occupied in my heart during my lifetime and occupies even now was and is absolutely unique………. ” Gandhiji had unfailingly acknowledged the discipleship of Gokhale.

Great men, who adore the pages of history, with gratitude acknowledged the influence of individuals, institutions, and events which influenced their lives. The often heard; “I am a self-made man” had no place in Gandhiji’s dictionary. These “The experiments with truths” tell us the humility in the man. To be Mahatma and Father of the Nation, it was not an easy route and not by himself.  He did not forget even the servant maid, Ramba. Young Mohandas was afraid of ghosts. Ramba advised him to chant RAMANAMA to dispel the myth of ghosts. Ramanama invested so much courage in him that he engaged in an ‘Epic rivalry with Churchill that destroyed an empire.’ Churchill had had so much contempt for India that he repeatedly said that given Independence, India would be ruled by ‘goons, rascals, and bootleggers.’ They were fit to be ruled and could not rule themselves. Gandhiji forthrightly replied: “If Sir Win­ston was here I would have said to him, ‘India had been existing ages before the British­ers knew how to brush their teeth. India was there when the  British­ers ruled, and India is still there and the world’s biggest and glorified democracy and British­ers are long gone. Churchill is no one to talk about my nation.”  If there are shortcomings in the functioning of the democracy in India, they will be set right in the future. But the disintegrated British Empire will not rise again.

Many patriots and Statesmen attracted by Gandhiji at first sight which influenced their career, noted them in their diaries, autobiographies, or through special writings. Research scholars find no records of his first meetings with elders like Anne Besant, Ravindranath Tagore,  M.Visvesvaraya, and Madan Mohan Malaviya.

Though they had ideological differences with Gandhiji, there was no dearth of mutual respect and fraternal feelings.  But Nehru and Patel, whom Gandhiji considered as his, as well as Congress’ and the country’s two eyes and Rajaji, his conscience keeper seems to have left no note of their first meeting of their master.

His first political lieutenant, Nehru, surprisingly only refers to his first meeting in his AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY: “My first meeting with Gandhiji was about the time of the Lucknow Congress during Christmas 1916. All of us admired him for his heroic fight in South Africa, but he seems very distant and different unpolitical to many of us young men.”

This was the man who was to be the successor to the political legacy of Bapuji. Patel’s impressions are funny.  His first meeting was recorded by others. Two lawyers, Patel and the future speaker of the Central Assembly and the Lok Sabha, G.V.Mavalankar were playing a game of bridge in the Court Club at Ahmedabad. Mavalankar wanted to hear Gandhi who was scheduled to speak in the Club Hall. There are different versions about the reaction of Patel in Barrister’s robe and cigar on his lips. One such was: “I have been told that he comes from South Africa. Honestly, I think he is a crank and as you know I have no use for such people. We already have too many Mahatmas, You will learn more if you watch our game. I can tell you what he will say.  He will ask you if you know how to sift pebbles from wheat, and that is supposed to bring independence.”  This was Vallabhai Patel in 1916. What a metamorphosis!  The hero of Bardoli, Sardar Vallabhai Patel surrendered to Gandhi and Gandhism. He presided over the 1931 Karachi Session of the Indian National Congress, which passed the resolution on: “Fundamental Rights and Economic Policy”.  As irony would have it, Patel was elected Chairman of the Fundamental Rights Committee of the Constituent Assembly.  This was the electrifying effect of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

Among those who noted their first encounter with Gandhiji were TSS Rajan, later a Minister in Madras and one of the Surgeon who used to attend on ailing Gandhiji; Nightingale of India, Sarojini Naidu; Kapurthala Princess and the first Health Minister of Independent India -Rajkumari Amrit Kaur; Voniba Bhave – the spiritual heir to Gandhi; Rajendra Prasad — the Champaran Champion, Rajarhushi (Saintly King) and the first President of India;  Kripalani — the learned Acharya, successor to the dissenting political legacy of Gandhiji; Kumarappa — votary of the Gandhian Economics; R.R.Divakar — a Central Minister, Governor and activist in Gandhi Peace Foundation; Zakir Hussain – for whom, education, particularly Nayee Talim was a Mission and President of India;   Paramahansa Yogananda — personification of sainthood, earned fame through his AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A YOGI;  Dr Dinshaw Mehta — Naturopath who treated Gandhi and Kasturba;  Nirmal Kumar Bose — Bengali writer who compiled Gandhian writings.

Gandhiji had admirers and disciples across the borders of nations and continents.  Among the foreign dignitaries whose first meeting was scripted by themselves were:

French dramatist and Nobel Laureate in 1915,  Roman Roland, a vegetarian; Comedian Actor-Charlie Chaplin; England born Christain Milligram — who with the help of Gandhiji married the Jew Henry Polcok;American born Jew  — Jo Davidson, a sculptor; Philadelphia born Jew, U.S Citizen, Louis Fischer;Joseph k Doke — British baptist, missionary, whose daughter sang Lead Kindly light, favorite with Gandhiji; Stanely Jones — born in Baltimore, US, Missionary Episcopal Church; Madeleine Slade– British National, a devotee of Beethoven, a disciple of Gandhi, Sabarmati Ashramite; Mary Baar — Missionary Boarding supervision in Hyderabad; British Playwright– Hermon Ould; Hallam Tennyson — Marxist theoretician and great-grandson of Lord Tennyson; Vincent Sheean — present in Birla House from 27 January 2021 till Gandhi’s death: Archbald Fenner Brockway — born Calcutta, Labour M P, supported the Indian independence movement: Horace Gundry Alexander — one of the founders of Indian Conciliation Group, the intermediary between India and Britain; Sherwood Eddy –, YMCA,  widely traveled in Asia.

AMERICANS:  Katherine Mayo, — American writer; Newton Phelps Stokes;  William Lawrence Shirer;  Neggle Farson; John Hynes Holms; Webb Miller; Nilla Cram Cook @ controversial Nila Ragini Devi,  Edgar Snow – American journalist;  Margaret Bourke White —  American Photographer; Halide Edib Adivar —  from Constantinople, Ottoman Empire, Crusader for women empowerment and literateur; Margaret Sanger –Champion of birth control from Irish Catholic Church; Lord Louis Mountbatten — The last British Viceroy and the first Governor-General of independent India, and the list is unending.

All these meetings were between 1904 and 1948. Why was he so attractive  – A thing of beauty is a joy forever. Though not ugly, he was not beautiful, nor strong and sturdy to fear.

Gandhiji had a beautiful transparent heart. It was as attractive like a magnet. It was as useful as air, light, and water.

The eternal message from Gandhiji and his admirers are:  As Kannada poet-philosopher Sarvajna said the company of Noble persons is like tasting the honey.

(On January 30, 1948, during his evening prayers in the Birla House, Gandhiji was killed by Nathuram Godse.  The day is observed as Martyrs Day in India)

(*KC Kalkura, Advocate, A-301, NSL Susntha, Opp. D Mart, KPHB, V Phase, Hyderabad, 500072)