Nirmal jain biography of mahatma
New light on Gandhi's love affair
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Who was this lady named Sarla Devi Choudhary in Mahatma Gandhi's life? Was he having a affair with her?
On Monday, a new biography on Mahatma Gandhi called Mohandas - A True Story of a Man, his People and an Empire , written by his grandson, Rajmohan Gandhi, was released in New Delhi by UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Perhaps no Indian has been written about as extensively as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. So, one would assume that there is very little new to say about him.
But a biography written by his grandson proves that several aspects of his life, personality and beliefs can still be explored further. In a chat with Karan Thapar, Rajmohan Gandhi and Vice-Chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia, Mushirul Hasan analyse this complex personality.
Excerpts from an interview given to CNBC-TV18
Q: Let's start with the portrait presented on Mahatma Gandhi. You say as a youngster, he was haunted by fears of thieves, ghosts, serpents and robbers. You say he shrank from competitive gains and at one point he goes so far to call him a sad boy - it seems almost as if you are painting a picture of a timid coward?
Rajmohan Gandhi: That is a remarkable thing that despite these timidities and cowardice, he turned out to be the man who gave fearlessness to millions and millions of people. That is the astonishing thing about Mohandas.
Q: To what extent was this timidity and cowardice a result of a very sheltered and protective upbringing and to what extent was it something that he outgrew?
Gandhi: This timidity and shyness was above all a consequence of his awareness of the great task that he had to perform. Even as a young lad, he maybe knew that he would be called to do something quite difficult, quite dramatic, quite major and that is what made him extra shy. Of course, he had an innate shyness, which perhaps he had inherited but he overcame it in a most astonishing way.
Q: How do you respond to that Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhilisten (Gujarati: મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ ગાંધી, Teimpléad:IPA2) (2 October &#;– 30 January ) was the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer of satyagraha—resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon ahimsa or total non-violence—which led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. He is commonly known around the world as Mahatma Gandhi (Sanskrit: महात्मा mahātmā or "Great Soul", an honorific first applied to him by Rabindranath Tagore), and in India also as Bapu (Gujarati: બાપુ bāpu or "Father"). He is officially honoured in India as the Father of the Nation; his birthday, 2 October, is commemorated there as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence. Gandhi first employed non-violent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community's struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in , he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers in protesting excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in , Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, increasing economic self-reliance, but above all achieving Swaraj—the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led Indians in the Non-cooperation movement in and in protesting the British-imposed salt tax with the Teimpléad:Km to miDandi Salt March in , and later in calling for the British to Quit India in He was imprisoned for many years, on numerous occasions, in both South Africa and India. As a practitioner of Ahimsa Gandhi swore to speak the truth, and advocated that others do the same. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient res We’re talking about books to read about Gandhi, but it’s hard to do that without mentioning your own biography. There’s the volume that covers Gandhi’s years in South Africa, Gandhi Before India, and then there’s another + page volume, Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World, covering the period from until his death in Especially for younger people who might not be as familiar with Gandhi, can you tell us why he’s so important and why we need to know about him? We need to know about him for many reasons. One is that he is regarded as the father of the Indian nation, and India is the world’s largest democracy and its second most populous country. He is the major national figure in India, comparable to, say, Lincoln and Jefferson in the United States, De Gaulle in France, Churchill in the UK, Mao in China, Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam and so on. He was the preeminent nationalist leader of one of the world’s most important and largest countries. But he was much more than merely a political leader. He was also a moral philosopher who gave the world a particular technique for combating injustice, namely nonviolent protest. He called this technique ‘satyagraha’, or ‘truth force’, and it has been followed and adopted in many countries across the world since his death, including in the United States. Gandhi was also a very interesting thinker on matters of religion. He lived, and indeed died, for harmony between India’s two major religious communities, Hindus and Muslims. At a time when the world is riven with discord and disharmony between faith communities, I think Gandhi is relevant. He lived a long life, almost 80 years, during which time he studied and worked in three countries, three continents—in the United Kingdom and South Africa as well as India. He wrote a great deal: his collected works run to 90 volumes. His autobiography was translated into more than 40 languages. An early political text he wrote, called Hind Swaraj, is
Gandhi: A Spiritual Biography
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Arvind Sharma
gandhi A Spiritual Biography
New Haven & London
Published with assistance from the foundation established in memory of James Wesley Cooper of the Class of , Yale College. Portions of I Found No Peace by Webb Miller are reproduced by permission of the family of Webb Miller. Copyright © by Yale University. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections and of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educational, business, or promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email&#;protected] (U.S. office) or [email&#;protected] (U.K. office). Designed by Lindsey Voskowsky. Set in Sabon, Century Gothic, and Bondoluo Peek types by Integrated Publishing Solutions. Printed in the United States of America. ISBN A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress and the British Library. Library of Congress Control Number This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z– (Permanence of Paper). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents Introduction 1
part one 1. Birth and Adolescence 9 2. Child Marriage 16 3. God Enters Gandhi’s Life 22
4. Gandhi in London 29 5. Gandhi and Raychand 42 6. Gandhi’s Conversion Experience 54 7. Out of Africa 60 8. Spiritual Warfare 72 9. Touching the Untouchable 84 Fighting Fire with Light 92
part two Mahatma Gandhi and Ramana Maharshi Spiritual Temptations Spiritual Serendipity
vi
Contents
Beefing Up Vegetarianism The Sex Life of a Celibate The Bhagavad Gita, Gandhi’s Other Mother Gandhi, God, and Goodness Demythologizing and Analyzing Gandhi Gandhi’s Spiritual Biography and Contemporary History
Notes Index
Contents
vii
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The best books on Gandhi