Book Review
Title: Gandhi: A Life in Three Campaigns
Author: M J Akbar
Publisher: Bloomsbury, 2023
Pages: 250
You can love this man or hate him, but you cannot
ignore him. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is the man, aka the Mahatma. The amount
of hatred that is spewed on social media day after day, after Mr Modi became
the Prime Minister of India, is simply stounding. Right now there is a social
media campaign going on to get Mahatma Gandhi’s picture removed from the
country’s currency notes. It is possible that Narendra Modi’s picture will
replace the Mahatma’s sooner than any sane Indian would expect. In such a
context, yet another biography of the Mahatma is not out of place.
This biography is written by a man
who was inducted into the Union Council of Ministers by no less a personage
than Narendra Modi himself. M J Akbar was an eminent journalist before he chose
to join Modi’s cabinet for reasons known only to him. The regal association ended
when a charge of sexual harassment was raised against him by a fellow
journalist in those farcically entertaining Me-Too days.
Politics aside, Akbar is a good
writer, though journalistic, and this new book on Mahatma Gandhi is
well-written. It is required too at a time when the Mahatma is under attack
from too many quarters, ignorant quarters. Evil quarters, should I add? Today’s
youth in India have frighteningly distorted notions about Gandhi. When I
mention the name of Gandhi in class, my students think of Rahul Gandhi. Most youngsters
don’t even seem to have heard of Mahatma Gandhi! If they have, it is from Mr
Narendra Modi or his political party. No good.
Hence a book on Gandhi is welcome.
And I must say that Akbar has done a fairly good job with it. He has divided
the book into three sections, three campaigns: Nonviolence, Untouchability, and
Do-or-Die. But these are nothing more than journalistic labels that become convenient
to construct a narrative.
It's good that Akbar, a BJP man, thought
about writing a book on Mahatma Gandhi. The BJP is a party whose prime leader will
gladly garland both the Mahatma and his killer if the media were totally under
his control.
The entire right-wing in India is
convinced that Mahatma Gandhi was responsible for the partition of India. A lot
more sins are heaped on the head of the great visionary Mahatma by Modi’s right
wing. All the obeisance displayed by Modi on occasions like Gandhi Jayanti is
mere sham. Modi hates the Mahatma. Modi is a personification of hatred even as
Hitler was. India is becoming a country whose soul is suffused with that
hatred. Alas!
In such a time, it is great that a
BJP man thought of writing a book on Mahatma Gandhi’s greatness. For those who
are familiar with the history of India’s freedom struggle, this book has little
new to offer. But the youngsters who think of Gandhi as a villain just because of
Narendra Modi’s dubiousness may find this book useful. After all, it is written
by a BJP man. So, go ahead and read it, young friend, if you want to know India
and its Mahatma better.
I’m driven to quote a few lines from the
book.
Nehru … wrote from Dehra Dun jail on 5
May 1933: ‘Religion is not familiar ground for me, and as I have grown older I
have definitely drifted away from it. I suppose I have something else in its place,
something other than just intellect, reason, which gives me strength and hope….
Religion seems to me to lead to emotion and sentimentality and they are still
more unreliable guides.’ [p.140]
Gandhi’s deep sympathy for Jews did
not blind him to any injustice against Arabs in Palestine under British rule. ‘Palestine
belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or
France to the French… The nobler course would be to insist on a just treatment
of the Jews wherever they are born and bred.’ [Gandhi wrote.] [p.148]
Nehru could not accept the centrality
of religion in Gandhi’s weltanschauung, or view of life, and Gandhi looked
askance at notions like class war, the fashionable shorthand solution of
leftists. For Gandhi, the village was the centre and source of India’s
regeneration, while Nehru the moderniser’s answers lay in urban
industrialisation. In Gandhi’s India, villagers would not be dull, nor would
they ‘live like an animal in filth and darkness’…. Every village would be a
republic with a panchayat exercising full powers, linked in ever-widening but
never-ascending circles. Life would be an ocean, not a pyramid. [p.203]
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteI too am glad there is someone keeping the record straight... No leader is perfect, but some are definitely more noble than others. YAM xx
Gandhi doesn't deserve the vilification he's getting from the right wing these days, whatever his failings were. So this book is relevant.
DeleteWow, interesting. I had no idea he was being vilified nowadays. It's funny how different eras change their perspectives on those that came before.
ReplyDeleteThe present vilification will vanish from history like mist clearing when the sun shines. Some heroes don't stand the test of time and India's present hero belongs to that category.
DeleteThis is a thought-provoking review that highlights the complexities surrounding Gandhi's legacy, particularly in today's political climate. It's interesting to see a BJP figure like M J Akbar taking on the task of writing about Gandhi, given the ideological differences within the current political landscape. The way the book is positioned for young readers, who may have only heard of Gandhi through a political lens, makes it all the more relevant. Great insights!
ReplyDeleteRead my new blog post: https://www.melodyjacob.com/2024/10/cozy-up-for-christmas-my-favorite.html Wishing you a happy weekend.
The sad truth is that youngsters won't read it.
Delete