Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869 - 1948) There is no principle worth the name if it is not wholly good. I swear by nonviolence because I know that it alone conduces to the highest good of mankind Mahatma Gandhi CHAIRMAN’S NOTE Mahatma Gandhi was neither a commander of great armies nor a ruler of vast kingdoms; he could boast of no scientific achievements, no artistic gift. Yet men, governments and dignitaries from all over the world have joined hands today to pay homage to this little man in a loincloth who led his country to freedom. Indeed, his life is an inspiring example of his heroic effort to establish values like truth and nonviolence in human life. In pursuing this objective, Gandhiji became a Mahatma from a mere mortal – a messenger of peace and justice for the people of the world. Today, seventy-one years after his death, Gandhiji’s political thoughts resonate again. One of the greatest political and spiritual leaders applauded globally, Gandhiji will remain in his sublime individuality an illuminating guide in our hours of darkness. He was not one of those saints who are marked out by their phenomenal piety from childhood, nor one who forsakes the world to look for spiritual salvation. He lived his life in the midst of his countrymen, fully aware of the turbulence the country was passing through, and taking up the challenge to confront British might through peaceful resistance to oppression. He described nonviolence as ‘the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.’ This special issue of Potpurri is our humble effort to pay tribute to the Father of the Nation. Harshavardhan Neotia Chairman, Ambuja Neotia BACKSTAGE CHAIRMAN Harshavardhan Neotia PUBLISHER Bengal Ambuja Housing Development Limited MANAGING EDITOR Jayabrato Chatterjee ASSOCIATE EDITOR Shahana Chatterjee EDITORIAL CONSULTANTS Shobhaa De, Subhra Chatterjee, Rita Bhimani, Vijay Dwivedi Joe Roberts (UK), Laren Stover (USA), Subhro Sarkar (Editorial Co-ordinator) Tapas Sarkar (Design Co-ordinator) DESIGN Advertising Bureau & Consultants 1B, Raja Subodh Mullick Square, Kolkata 700 013 Phone +91 33 2237 3263 | +91 33 4007 5480 | +91 9038022010 [email protected] | www.abcadvertising.in PRINTER Anderson Printing House Pvt Ltd EN-11, Sector V, Salt Lake City, Kolkata 700 091 Phone +91 33 2357 2988 | +91 33 4006 1847 | +91 9831778971 www.andersonindia.com CONTENT Inner Eye Communications Pvt Ltd 119, Southern Avenue, Green View, 5th Floor SW, Kolkata 700 029 PUBLISHED BY Bengal Ambuja Housing Development Limited Vishwakarma, 86-C Topsia Road (South), Kolkata 700 046 Phone: +91 33 2285 0028 | www.ambujaneotia.com Copyright of the magazine belongs to the publisher. Copyright for individual articles and photographs remain with the authors and photographers. We accept no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, articles and photographs. All objections, differences, claims and proceedings are subject to Kolkata jurisdiction. Opinions expressed in the articles are of the authors and/or interviewees and do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher or editor. While the editor does the utmost to verify information published, he does not accept responsibility for its absolute accuracy. (FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY) Potpourri is traditionally a mixture of dried petals and spices often placed in beautiful bowls to perfume a room. When the fragrance spreads, it encompasses, most magically, a medley of emotions. We have given this name our special twist and believe that the pages of Potpurri will bring for our readers interesting and diverse reading material with aplomb. EDITOR’S NOTE What a privilege it has been to put together this special issue on Mahatma Gandhi! Like the limitless ocean, Gandhiji’s life touched all those who knew him but few are aware today of the enormous impact he left on the lives of several women who had the privilege to serve him and further his cause. Along with other articles, this issue highlights their contribution to India’s freedom struggle. Had a racist railway ticket collector in South Africa not thrown him out from a first class compartment to accommodate a boorish British passenger, Gandhiji may well have remained a successful lawyer with a degree from London’s Inner Temple, attired in Bond Street suits and a top hat, who had made valiant attempts to master Latin and French, play the violin and learn ballroom dancing. But all that changed in an instant on a cold winter night at the railway station in Pietermaritzburg. This issue of Potpurri celebrates Gandhiji and the spirit of Satyagraha. As the Mahatma said, ‘When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall.’ I am happy to acknowledge that the cover photograph of our last issue on Balkrishna Doshiji was taken by Vinay Panjwani who has helped us enormously to celebrate the eminent architect’s life. Jayabrato Chatterjee Managing Editor Truth never damages a cause that is just Mahatma Gandhi CONTENTS The making Experiments of the Mahatma with truth Kasturba: Candle Miraben: O love in the wind that wilt not let me go Sushila Nayyar: Sarojini Naidu: That selfless India’s beloved healing touch nightingale Margaret Bourke-White: The iconic Through the lens Dandi March of Time What the world Mahatma has to say about Gandhi’s life: A Mahatma Gandhi brief chronology POTPURRI | 08 | SPECIAL ISSUE 2020 Young Mohandas Gandhi (middle row 5th from left) with the Natal Indian Ambulance Corp Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as a budding lawyer one of reluctant admiration was influenced as much by his mixed with large doses father’s strict sense of justice of utter amusement, total as by his mother’s unwavering THE MAKING bewilderment, suspicion and religious beliefs ensconced resentment. Except for a tiny in the tenets of Vaishnavism minority of faithful Christian that propagated self- OF THE missionaries and a bunch discipline and nonviolence. of radical socialists in South His experiments with truth Africa led by people like Mr reflect his early upbringing. MAHATMA A W Baker, Miss Harris, Miss Mundane incidents that ‘You must not lose faith in humanity. Gabb and Mr Coates, and would otherwise have been Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of later, by the English clergyman relegated to posterity are the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not Charles Freer Andrews the foundation of his future become dirty’ and the German architect, trials. Thus, meat-eating soon Hermann Kallenbach, the became sacrilegious for him Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi British tended to see him at after having tasted it on the sly best as a utopian visionary for almost a year. Similarly, his and at worst as a cunning confession of smoking a few hypocrite whose confessions cigarettes or pilfering a few of friendship for the British annas from a maidservant, race were a mask for his refusal to cheat in his subversion exams and of the mighty Winston Churchill his trying British Raj. had mocked and to reform Gandhiji his school was always called him ‘half- friends are conscious naked’ and a evidences of the sad ‘seditious fakir’ but of a young existence mind facing of that wall it was the tenacity several of prejudice and willpower personal and it was and moral part of his of this man that dilemmas. strategy of guided India to the However, Satyagraha path of liberation the incident which oday, seventy-one years after his assassination, Gandhiji to penetrate from British rule haunted his remains an iconic global leader whose life has become a it deeply. T entire life message to the world – the message of truth and freedom The real story of Gandhiji was his inability to be present through nonviolence. His every breath was dedicated to the started in 1893, when a at his father’s deathbed – a pursuit of integrity in its most pristine manifestation, justice and twenty-five year old barrister privilege which he felt he liberty for mankind. Revered the world over for his nonviolent began a consistent struggle had lost owing to his carnal philosophy of passive resistance, Mohandas Karamchand against racial discrimination feelings towards his young Gandhi was known to his countless followers as ‘Mahatma’ in South Africa. But the wife. ‘It is a blot,’ he writes in or the messiah. History books tell us today that India’s Nobel makings of the Mahatma had his autobiography, The Story Laureate Rabindranath Tagore had, in 1915, bestowed the title commenced much before that Of My Experiments With of ‘Mahatma’ on Gandhiji while writing his autobiography, after at the port town of Porbandar Truth, ‘that I have never been Gandhi had called him ‘Gurudev.’ And it was Subhas Chandra in Gujarat where his father, able to efface and forget, and Bose who had christened him ‘Father of the Nation’ from Berlin Karamchand, was the Dewan, I have always thought that in Germany in a condolence message on Kasturba Gandhi’s an important government although my devotion to my death while addressing the Indian legion over Azad Hind Radio. official and administrator. parents knew no bounds and I Yet the once fashionable lawyer, always nattily dressed in Born on 2nd October 1869, would have given up anything Bond Street suits, who had left home when he was barely Gandhiji was his father’s last for it, yet it was weighed and nineteen years old to study law in London at the Inner Temple, child from his fourth wife, found unpardonably wanting had hardly anticipated that he would have to disrobe himself Putlibai. His father belonged because my mind was at the and remain covered for most of his later life in a humble length to the merchant caste and same moment in the grip of of white Khaddar to fight for the liberation of his country.