Prophet, spiritual leader, secular saint, freedom fighter, social reformer, philosopher, healer and “Father of the Nation”—Mahatma Gandhi is perhaps the most deified political figure in modern history.
Gandhiji won rights for the 75,000 Indians living in South Africa. He achieved this without violence. Gandhiji firmly believed that people could never win their rights through violence. He used new form of protest "Satyagraha" - derived from the Sanskrit words meaning "truth" and "force."
Many were baffled by his masterful grip over statecraft combined with his garb of a religious ascetic—a loincloth and shawl, which he insisted on wearing even when he went to meet the English emperor in 1931.
The Satyagraha movement, Dandi March, Non-Cooperation movement were only some of the non-violent social crusades initiated by him.
Gandhi was no fan of cricket. Or football, hockey, boxing or any sport for that matter. He did not understand the frenzy around football and cricket among “colonial-born Indians” and preferred the daily grind of “simple agriculturalists” to achieve fitness goals. Congress stalwart K.F. Nariman once called Gandhiji “the least sportive saint”.
When a reader of the Indian Opinion inquired why he did not carry any sports news, Gandhi responded that “... sport indulged in for the sake of developing the body is of some use. But we venture to suggest that agriculture, the inherited occupation of Indians—indeed of the human race—is better sport than football, cricket and all other games put together.”
When Gandhiji returned to India from South Africa, he brought with him an untouchable boy named Naiker. He also adopted an untouchable girl called Lakshmi as his daughter.
He married Lakshmi to a Brahmin boy in 1933.
When Gandhiji started living in Shegaon near Wardha, a boy called Govind generally prepared food for him. He was an untouchable by caste.
Gandhiji, whose beliefs inspired an entire school of thought, influenced films down many decades, some based on his life, others on the values he inspired in society and many in which he is the silent backdrop—literally a picture on the wall—to the hero's moral conflict.
From Jagriti in 1954 to "Lage Raho Munnabhai" in 2006, the arc is long.
Hindi poet Kavi Pradeep eulogised Gandhiji in the Jagriti song, 'De di azadi hamein bina khadag, bina dhaal, sabarmati ke sant tune kar diya kamal' (You gave us freedom without using any weapons, o saint of Sabarmati, you are great), words which underscore reverence for the man and still reverberate.
There is an entire genre of films based on chapters from Gandhi's life. The most famous—and most successful—is Richard Attenborough's 1983 Oscar winner Gandhi with Ben Kingsley in the central role.
There are other films in which Gandhiji plays a prominent role—The Legend Of Bhagat Singh, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero, Viceroy's House and the TV show Samvidhaan being some of them.
The poet Rabindranath Tagore gave the title Mahatma to Gandhiji.
Gandhiji's statues across the globe
A kurta for Gandhiji
Once, in a gathering, a little boy approached Gandhiji. He was distressed to see the way Gandhiji was dressed. Such a great man, yet he didn’t even wear a shirt, the boy wondered. ‘Why don’t you wear a kurta?’ he questioned Gandhiji. ‘Where’s the money, child?’ Gandhiji asked him gently. ‘I’m very poor and I can’t afford a kurta,’ he went on to add. The boy’s heart was filled with pity. ‘My mother makes all my clothes. I will ask her to sew a kurta for you,’ he said. ‘How many kurtas can your mother make?’ Gandhiji asked. ‘As many as you need,’ came the reply. ‘One, two, three . . .’ Gandhiji muttered for a moment and said, ‘But I’m not alone, child. I have a large family. And it wouldn’t be right for me to be the only one to wear a kurta.’ ‘Just how many kurtas do you need?’ insisted the child. ‘I have forty crore brothers and sisters,’ Gandhiji explained. ‘Till every one of them has a kurta, how can I wear one? Tell me, can your mother make kurtas for all of them?’ The boy became thoughtful at this question. But Gandhiji was right. The whole nation was his family and he was their father.
Gandhiji was TIME Magazine’s Man of the Year in 1930. In another cover story three months later, TIME described him as a saint.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi breathed his last, falling to the ground with a gentle "Hey Ram" on his lips as Nathuram Godse fired three bullets into him, and from where Jawaharlal Nehru echoed the grief of a nation with his words, "The light has gone out of our lives."
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