From Books to Memorabilia Gandhi Sells, And
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Page 24 Mail Today, New Delhi, Friday, October 2, 2009 On his 140th birth anniversary, the Mahatma is still India’s biggest brand Gandhi lives PTI on in luxury brands & tees K ASIF By Archana in New Delhi MAHATMA Gandhi, a prolific writer, may not have ever used a Mont Blanc to write any of his soul-stirring words, nor did he flaunt any branded item of daily use even when he was a successful lawyer in South Africa, but that hasn’t stopped him from becoming one of the most respected brands in the country, 140 years after he was born this day in the then princely state of Porbandar. Mont Blanc, the Swiss luxury brand, unveiled a limited edition of 241 pens in Mumbai earlier this week to commemorate Gandhi’s 241-mile- long Dandi March against the punitive salt tax in 1930. The pen, which has an 18-carat gold nib plated with rhodium, is priced at Rs 14 lakh. The company has also rolled out the ‘Mahatma Gandhi 3000’ pen (priced at Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 1.7 lakh) with sterling silver mount- ings on its cap and the cone. “We must learn to accept that Mont Blanc is not associated with being frugal as Bapu was. Still, they have felt the need to salute his image,” says Tushar Gandhi, the Mahatma’s great grandson. Mont Blanc, though, is not the first big brand that has wanted to get linked with the Mahatma. Says Tushar Gandhi, “One of the most surprising cases was the campaign the makers of the Audi car had conceived of, exclusively for Spain, where they had wanted to use Bapu’s image. I asked them how they would justify the use of Bapu’s image in that campaign. They replied it was the ‘long-last- ing untarnished image of Mahatma Gandhi’ that they wanted Audi to be identified with.” But the (Top) The Mahatma’s great-grandson, Tushar Gandhi, at the Mumbai release of Mont Blanc’s limited-edition pen campaign got shelved mid-way for some undisclosed commemorating the Dandi March; (above) Gandhi tees are best-sellers at the Tantra stores in Delhi/Gurgaon reason. People the world over continue “That poster is now a collector’s four varieties of Gandhiji T-shirts ature on fitness, sometime in a chef, an image of Bapu, holding to interpret the Mahatma and his item,” says Tushar Gandhi. and they are equally popular 1999/ 2000-01 where they had sh- out dishes like Rogan Josh and ideology in ways that suit them, Closer home, his most visible among both men and women,” owed an American jock kicking, Tandoori Chicken,” informs even for products and services presence in quotidian life is on says Gupta. The tees for men are beating and punching a dummy, Tushar Gandhi. that did not exist when Gandhi the chests of young people. priced at Rs 295; for women, they which was a replica of Bapu. They The above examples, in bad walked the earth. Tushar Gandhi Gandhi tees may not be as com- come for Rs 220. got away with it; the next edition taste and rare, however, not in recalls that two years back an monly seen as those of the other merely carried a half-baked any way take away from the high Italian telecom ad made head- popular icon, the Argentine-born apology.” respect that the man earned in lines and won important awards revolutionary Che Guevara, but Even Audi tried to The other instance that he cites his lifetime the world over and when it used the Mahatma’s Tantra, the popular T-shirt brand appropriate Gandhi is that of an Australian restaurant which continues to grow even 61 image to drive home the mes- with three shops in Delhi and that called itself Handi Gandhi, years after he passed away. sage: “If he had access to our Gurgaon, rates them among their an Indian food take-away fran- Icons don’t invent themselves, technology, the world would have fastest-selling tees. “We sell However, there are certain inter- chise of an Australian fast food what they do in their lifetime been different.” Gandhiji tees well throughout the national instances of the sym- company. “An NRI from Australia gives them that exalted status. In the early 1990s, when Apple year, irrespective of the season,” bolic use of the Mahatma’s image brought this to my notice as he Gandhi was one such icon. launched its Macintosh range of informs Rajesh Gupta, who dis- that Tushar Gandhi says should was directed to me by the Indian What’s ironical, though, is that he computers with the ‘Think Differ- tributes Tantra products across have been dealt with sternly. He High Commissioner in Australia is being reinvented in ways he ent’ campaign, its ads showed northern India. recalls, “The US edition of the who himself couldn’t do anything would never have imagined. Gandhi sitting in meditation. “At any time, we have three or magazine Maxim had done a fe- about it. The joint’s logo showed [email protected] From books to memorabilia Gandhi sells, and how K ASIF By Neha Tara Mehta Gandhi, I practised not speaking hisattva statue, which had been in New Delhi on Sundays for nine years. My gifted by Gandhi to his Irish friend book is a result of my experi- Emma Harker, was sold for Rs 5.47 Sixty-one years after he ments with silence.” lakh at a Bonhams auction. breathed his last, everyone Otis, scion of the Otis elevator But the commodification of wants a piece of the man who family, has possibly inherited his Gandhi doesn’t stop with the auc- couldn’t care less for material love for Gandhi’s writings from tions. This December, the Mahat- possessions. his mother, Elsa Lambert, 69. “I ma is being sold to the West in For the academically inclined, read Mahatma Gandhi’s autobi- the form of a ‘philanthropic ad- it’s about possessing the Mahat- ography when I was in college, venture’ trip to India costing ma’s writings. Says Ajit Vikram and join millions of others who $2,750 (Rs 1.3 lakh). Singh, owner of Fact & Fiction at aspire to spread his message,” Group members will commit Vasant Vihar, “We have a shelf full says Lambert, who opposed her $1,000 (Rs 47,700) per person to of books by him and about him. son’s decision to auction off the raise $10,000 (Rs 4.7 lakh) to sup- Not a week goes by without port the Gandhi Worldwide Edu- someone coming and asking for A lot of moolah clearly cation Institute in Illinois, USA. these books.” The institute’s stated objective is Besides Gandhi’s autobiogra- rides on the Mahatma to work for the uplift of poor phy, The Story of My Experiments people around the world. With Truth, the other titles that Tushar Gandhi, the Mahatma’s keep moving are Hind Swaraj, Books on and by Gandhi continue to fly off the shelves at bookstores items in an online petition. great-grandson, who will shep- Satyagraha in South Africa, and Gandhi went under the ham- herd the tourists, doesn’t see the his biographies by Romain Rol- autobiography. “We have come Gandhi mementos, to write his mer this July as well. Britain’s initiative as the ‘commodifica- land (The Man Who Became One out with leather-bound editions first book, My Experiments with curry king Gulam Noon, along tion’ of Gandhi. “Wherever Bapu with the Universal Being) and for gifts and libraries,” says Pri- Silence. Says Otis, who owned with another UK-based business- travelled, he collected funds. Louis Fischer (The Life of Mahat- yanka Malhotra, managing Gandhi’s silver Zenith pocket man, Nathuram ‘Nat’ Puri, How can Gandhi foundations run ma Gandhi). director, Full Circle Books. watch, sandals, glasses, bowl and bought three letters and two without funds?” With most seats Publishers are going the extra The Mahatma’s autobiography plate, which were auctioned for postcards handwritten by Gandhi sold out on the tour, it is appar- mile to cash in on the Gandhi has inspired, among others, US- about Rs 10 crore amid high in Urdu, along with a piece of ent that a lot of moolah still rides frenzy. Jaico Books is rolling out based billionaire James Otis, and drama at Antiquorum in New khadi signed by him for Rs 6.9 on the Mahatma. an audio version of Gandhi’s a hoarder-cum-auctioneer of York this March, “Inspired by lakh. More recently, a Bod- [email protected].