In Gandhi's Footsteps

The world paid homage to the apostle of peace Mahatma Gandhi on Sunday, October 2. This included those who are also the followers of his assassin Nathuram Vinayak Godse. It was time again to discuss Gandhi's personality and his relevance at a time when the country is passing through tumultuous times when what is being done is exactly the opposite of what he preached.

For many like this writer it was yet another occasion to ponder what Gandhi was all about. It was time to recall my closest brush with his thoughts and how they have translated. The occasion was the 2005 re-enactment of the famous Salt March from Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, to the sea shore of Dandi. It was a journalistic assignment that came with the rider that the march had to be covered from all aspects other than the routine humdrum.

This proved to be a challenge since filing multiple stories for the radio network where I was employed, while catching up with the marchers on a daily basis, was a daunting task.

One is reminded of the march also in context of the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra being undertaken by senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi which is again trying to heal the injuries inflicted by hate over the last several years and stitch together the tattered social fabric.

The march in 2005 was a brainchild of Congress leader Sunil Dutt who in a one to one interaction had said, "it is people like me who migrated from the other side of the Border in that killing monsoon of 1947 who understand Gandhi's language of love and non-violence the most. The country needs to visit Gandhi again and again. His influence on the masses can be felt from the mere fact that at the time when the mass media had very little reach, he was able to galvanise lakhs at a single call."

Anyhow, Gandhi and his ideals started seeping in as the march took off. The attempt was to look at what he dreamed or preached and where things had reached. It was my colleague Narayan Bareth who set the ball rolling with an emotional live commentary on the march from Gandhi's statue on Ashram Road in Ahmedabad. He had then recalled that in 2002 the statue had witnessed hate filled mobs baying for Muslims blood, and the sound of boots of security personnel trying to restore order.

In 2005 the same statue was witnessing love and unity walking down the same road. In the evening it was time to land at Aslali village on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, where we interacted with members of a Dalit community in context of Gandhi's battle with untouchability.

I can recall a nine-year-old asking, "Why do our gods have names like 'Boot Bhawani' and are not named like the Goddess worshipped by upper castes." The child had expressed her desire to become a painter. Our visit showed us that the battle against caste atrocities was far from over, and that equality, social and economic, was also elusive.

Gandhi has been rising again and again all these decades on various occasions to tickle the conscience of the society. Just a peep into his life and preaching is enough to rekindle the questions lying dormant.

As that march moved through the famous Charotar belt of central Gujarat, that is also known as the 'NRI belt' of the state, one was pounded by the trend of the people looking for greener pastures abroad. They wanted to migrate despite the fact that this was the cradle of India's 'White Revolution' or 'Operation Flood', and was also among the agriculturally rich areas. Gandhi had always talked of self-sufficient villages where no one had to migrate.

We interviewed a woman victim of 2002 anti Muslim pogrom in a village near Anand, she said, "we just wish that Gandhi was alive today. He would have come to apply the balm of love and understanding to redress our pain."

Participating in that march were a group of Pathans from the Frontier area of Pakistan. They had come as they had descended from the Red Shirt movement or the Khudai Khidmatgar that had been once led by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, who was also known as Frontier Gandhi.

One of the elders from the group had played in Gandhi's lap as a child, and we interviewed him live on the radio. It was a difficult interview as he became very emotional and burst out saying, "we were cheated by the politicians and the country was divided. We were told that Islam is coming to Pakistan. Is it coming on a bullock cart that it is still to reach us over all these years?" We had to wrap up the conversation hurriedly.

In another interesting interaction in a village on the Napa-Raas rural circuit I met a 105-year old woman who had participated in the Dandi march of 1930. The aged woman had become hard of hearing, but still remembered the songs that they used to sing at that historic march led by Gandhi. She sang a couple of them for us. The irony was that the organisers had forgotten all about her when the march went through her village.

We interviewed another woman somewhere north of Surat who recalled how she had come to the village as a newlywed bride on the day Gandhi had halted there briefly. She had retained a piece of Khadi that her husband had purchased from the auction that was held at the village to promote Swadeshi produce and raise funds.

Chronicling the special cleanliness efforts made in Surat after the plague of 1994 was another aspect when one looked at things with the Gandhian perspective of 'Safai' (cleanliness).

Also interesting was a peep into the world of diamond workers and the exploitation that they faced in the context of Gandhian Socialism along with those employed in power looms and dyeing units in the city. The city had witnessed the death of 43 workers in 2003 in a building collapse that had followed a compressor blast.

The idea of India had once again been demonstrated by villagers south of Surat who cut across religious and caste lines and built a floating bridge joining boats for the marchers to cross a river like their ancestors had done in 1930.

Yet it was painful to see the tribals in a village near Sachin huddled in their huts while the marchers had stopped close by for a small public meeting. Nobody had bothered to invite the tribals to the meeting and be a part of the initiative.

But it was the scene at Dandi on that morning of April 6, 2005 that made one realise what Gandhi was all about. Lakhs had gathered at the venue of the conclusion of the march. These people had trod several kilometres to reach the venue. They stood in stark contrast to the socialites that had descended from Mumbai, Delhi, Surat and Ahmedabad making a glamorous statement in their designer Khadi and branded sunglasses.

The masses had come to hear their Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh as he talked about Gandhi's ideals. One can gauge the numbers that had descended from the tribal areas of South Gujarat, and neighbouring Maharashtra, from the fact that a journey back to Surat that should have taken a little over one hour could only be completed in around four hours. It was enough to understand that Gandhi continues to mean inclusion.