If Gandhi Returns

 

At Raj Ghat in 2001

About a decade back I suggested the theme ‘Gandhi Returns’ for a one-act play to a student. It was for an inter-House competition. Gulshan, the House Prefect, understood me instantly and wrote the script for the play that went on to win the first prize. In the play, Gandhi returned to the present India and was tormented by what he saw: corruption and political chicanery on the one hand and the helplessness of the common person on the other. Gandhi was another helpless common man on the side of the stage where life’s noisy drama was played out. Whenever he tried to interfere on behalf of truth and justice, he was rebuffed. Indians didn’t recognise him anymore. If someone did, it was worse: Gandhi was mocked or blamed.

Narendra Modi had not ascended the throne in Indraprastha yet. If he had, Gulshan’s script would have been different. Because for Gulshan, Modi became the real hero of India, the man who deserved to replace Gandhi as the father of the nation, after 2014. Probably Gulshan would have written a script in which Mahatma Gandhi retreated graciously and gracefully after placing his mantle on Modi’s back and congratulating him for being Sabka Saath and bringing Sabka Vikas.

Now, a decade after I suggested that theme to Gulshan, I sit in my home in a serene village in Kerala wondering about both the helpless Gandhi I imagined and the Gandhi I now imagine Gulshan would have portrayed a couple of years later. I think Gandhi wouldn’t have been either of these. He would refuse to be a helpless common man. He never was a helpless man. He was a fighter though one who fought differently from all others. He wouldn’t have stopped fighting even in the waning days of Dr Manmohan Sigh or in the heyday of Narendra Modi.

My suggestion to Gulshan was inspired by Dostoevsky who had imagined Jesus returning to the Catholic Spain only to be defenestrated by a Cardinal of the Church. Gandhi was different from Jesus, however; he wouldn’t have given up so easily. Jesus was driven more by love and kindness than by truth and justice. Gandhi was not so tender. I was wrong to suggest a feeble Gandhi to Gulshan. Gandhi would never give up without a fight even if it was Narendra Modi himself that he was pitted against.

Unfortunately Gandhi has no choice just as Jesus does not. Jesus is a prisoner of the churches established in his name and Gandhi’s mantle has been snatched by Modi. Modi is one of those rare figures in history to have paid obeisance to both Gandhi and Godse, the martyr and the killer. Modi is likely to be the only Indian who ever dared to replace the Mahatma in a classical picture. Only Modi can rush in where the greatest of spirits would dread to tread.

And today’s India belongs to that daring Modi. Today’s India is Modi’s creation. It took him just a few years to alter the entire fabric of a humongous nation. India today is just the obverse of what Gandhi had dreamt for the country. And it is the handiwork of Modi. I wouldn’t go to the extent of putting the words of one of Salman Rushdie’s characters verbatim into India’s mouth: “You took beauty and created hideousness.” But I would put what follows those words in Shalimar the Clown: “I am the meaning of your deeds. I am the meaning of your so-called love; your destructive, selfish, wanton love. Your love looks just like hatred… You turned me into a lie. This is not me. This is not me. This is you.”

I can visualise Gulshan gnashing his teeth if he reads this post. He thinks Gandhi deserves to be replaced with Modi. He is convinced that India deserves that if only for redeeming Hinduism from predators. And he is not an exception. He is just one among a few million Indians who think alike.

Ironically, Gandhi was the best Hindu who ever walked the earth.

Happy Gandhi Jayanti.

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