14

Feb

Valentine Day special Mahatma Gandhi my all-time 'Valentine'

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Valentine Day special

New Delhi, 14 February 2024

Amitabh Srivastava

This Valentine's Day it suddenly dawned on me that since 1969 I have had an affair with Mahatma Gandhi which has become stronger in the last half a century and more.

My first crush with Gandhi began when I read his biography “My experiments with truth”

To my teenage mind the man was too honest for his own good and revealed personal family details no one would dare.More than that what stood out in his book even at that age was his total lack of malice or hatred for those who differed with him.

In college I again bumped into him when I read the Bhagwad Gita as a subject and learned that Mahatma had made Gita his touchstone in critical situations.He wrote that whenever he was confused or at crossroads in life he consulted the Bhagwad Gita.We were equally in love with Gita!!

Recently my interest in the 'naked faqir' was kindled yet again when after spending almost 45 years in journalism myself, I read about his role as a journalist as I read 'Historic speeches of Mahatma Gandhi' compiled by Dr.Ramesh Bhardwaj and distributed by Gandhi Sahitya Bhandar. This gave me a new reason to fall head over heels in love with him all over again.

Gandhi looked upon journalism as a means to serve the people. He wrote in his autobiography: “The sole aim of journalism should be service.The newspaper is a great power, but just as an unchained torrent of water submerges whole countryside and devastates crops, even so an uncontrolled pen serves but to destroy...."

But like in everything in life he refuses to be intolerant or force his views and ends by saying,"Who will be Judge? The useful and the useless must, like good and evil, go on together, and man must make his choice.”

He brought out four papers 'The Indian Opinion' in South Africa, 'the Young India', 'Navjivan' and the ' Harijan' in India. And his appeal was very widespread because his papers were published in English,Hindi and Gujarati and even Tamil.

As expected, he refused to take advertisements,as he mentions in his autobiography,it would exert external control on his pen.

Gandhi had started writing at the age of 19 when he saw a newspaper for the first time on reaching London. He wrote nine articles for the Vegetarian Society of England in his three year stay there.

In South Africa 'The Indian Opinion' became his main weapon to educate the Indians settled there about their rights and how to use the Satyagraha to get their demands fulfilled.

In India he brought out his weeklies regularly and each magazine had at least one of his articles, unless he was in jail.

Gandhi tried for sedition

After the violence that flared up in Madras, Bombay and the Chaura Chauri incident he and his printer and publisher were charged  with sedition by the British under the same Act that the Government uses today.

Tried for sedition along with Shankarlal Ghetabhai Banker Editor, printer and publisher of 'Young India' under the notorious section 124 A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC),he told the court on March 18,1922, "I have no desire whatsoever to conceal from this court that to preach disaffection towards the existing system of government has become a passion for me".

Admitting that some of his actions had led to violence he said,"I ran the risk and if I was set free I would still do the same."

He further stated, "Section 124 A, under which I am happily charged is perhaps the prince among the political sections of the IPC designed to suppress the liberty of the citizen. Affection cannot be manufactured or regulated by law...one should be free to give the fullest expression to his disaffection, so long as he does not contemplate, promote or incite to violence."

The final shot was his challenge to the Judge Mr.Broomfield. He told him he had two options- either to resign his post and dissociate himself from evil or to "inflict upon me the severest penalty, if you believe that the system and the law you are assisting to administer are good for the country and that my activity is therefore injurious to the public weal."

The Judge admitted that it was a very difficult task for him,"It would be impossible to ignore the fact that in the eyes of millions of your countrymen you are a great patriot and a great leader."

But, he continued, that judging under the violation of laws prevalent which he had himself pleaded guilty to, he was awarding him the same penalty of six years simple imprisonment as was given under the same section to Bal Gangadhar Tilak 12 years ago.

At the same time he wished that if with time  the circumstances changed and his sentence could be reduced, no one would be happier than him.

Gandhi welcomed the judgement without further argument and in fact thanked the Judge for putting him in the same category as Tilak.

Not failing to add in his style,"So far as the sentence itself is concerned,I certainly consider that it is as light as any judge would inflict on me and so far as the whole proceedings are concerned, I must say that I could not have expected greater courtesy."

(Words 890)

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