ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846 Natwar Thakkar (1932–2018): Gandhi’s Peace Emissary in Nagaland AJAY SAINI Ajay Saini (
[email protected]) works with remote indigenous communities. He worked closely with Natwar Thakkar from 2015 to 2018 and served as the Chairperson of the Mahatma Gandhi Academy of Human Development in Chuchuyimlang, Nagaland. Vol. 53, Issue No. 45, 17 Nov, 2018 Natwar Thakkar was one of the last Gandhians whose constructive work has made an invaluable contribution to peace-building, reconciliation and rural development in North East India. [Natwarbhai’s] has not only been a pioneering job, but one that needed rare courage and uncommon spirit of dedication… I salute Natwarbhai and his wife… — Jayaprakash Narayan In October 1932, in a frantic effort to save her newborn baby boy Natwar, Leelawati in Dahanu, a small town in Bombay Presidency, decided to “cheat” the god. Before Natwar’s birth, her two sons had died in infancy. A local priest insisted that she was cursed. On his advice, Leelawati tried to convince the angry god that Natwar was not her biological son. Until the age of six, the boy was disguised and raised as an orphan girl—he wore a nose ring, cross-dressed and begged food from the neighbourhood. Leelawati also secretly promised to the family deities that if the boy pulled through, she will dedicate him to their ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846 service. The boy survived and later became renowned as “the Gandhi of Nagaland.” Ideological Grooming Natwar Thakkar, popularly known as Natwarbhai, was born to a lower-middle-class Gujarati family.