But we are talking of people with NO household. Where will they go? They will go where generations of homeless people have gone—behind bushes, under trees, roadsides, railway lines. But when they go there these days, they will be taking the risk of disobeying a rigid, majoritarian government.
Like the two little slum boys in Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh. They were seized red-handed by local patriots and battered to death. Just like that. Brilliant goalkeeping. Irony rules the world. In the name of progress, our rulers resort to high-handedness and build up nationalist frenzy to serve their purpose. Gandhi is on their hit list. But the public adoration he commands makes them cautious.
Their strategy seems to be to appear pro-Gandhi but confine him to the Swachh Bharat corner with his spectacle frame as its logo. From a corner, it will be easier to push him into oblivion. Some ultra patriots, too impatient to wait, have already knocked him down. Our prime minister enjoys such open acknowledgement of his grandeur as the Houston mega spectacle showed. And he has helpers who can turn day into night to keep him flattered.
Being wise, let me get on the survivalist bandwagon early. Down with Father of the Nation. Up with Father of India. Disclaimer : We respect your thoughts and views! But we need to be judicious while moderating your comments. All the comments will be moderated by the newindianexpress. Abstain from posting comments that are obscene, defamatory or inflammatory, and do not indulge in personal attacks.
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Mahatma Gandhi File Photo. By T J S George. Now we are on Telegram too. A hashtag Ghandimustfall sic has gained circulation on social media. Gandhi's biographer and grandson, Rajmohan Gandhi, says the younger Gandhi - he arrived in South Africa as a year-old briefless lawyer - was undoubtedly "at times ignorant and prejudiced about South Africa's blacks".
He believes Gandhi's "struggle for Indian rights in South Africa paved the way for the struggle of black rights". He argues that "Gandhi too was an imperfect human being", but the "imperfect Gandhi was more radical and progressive than most contemporary compatriots". Ramachandra Guha, writer of the magisterial Gandhi Before India , writes that "to speak of comprehensive equality for coloured people was premature in early 20th Century South Africa".
Attacking Gandhi for racism, wrote another commentator, "takes a simplistic view of a complex life ". This involved whites and Indians higher up than Africans on the civilised scale.
To that extent he was a racist. To the extent that he wrote Africans out of history or was keen to join with whites in their subjugation he was a racist," Ashwin Desai told me. Thank God he did not succeed in this as we would have been culpable in the horrors of apartheid. You cannot have Gandhi as an accomplice of colonial subjugation in South Africa and then also defend his liberation credentials in South Africa.
Desai also rejects the assertion that Gandhi paved the way for the local struggle for black rights - "in one sentence," he says, "you are writing out the history of African resistance to colonialism that unfolded much before Gandhi even arrived". In his book, Guha writes what a friend in Cape Town once told him about Gandhi. Ashwin Desai thinks this is a "ridiculous assertion" about a man who "supported more taxes on impoverished African people and turned a blind eye to the brutality of the Empire on Africans".
The authors of the new book are not the first to challenge the conventional Indian historiography on Gandhi. That led to a confrontation and ultimately differences with Jawaharlal Nehru too.
In the elections, Netaji was ill and the Mahatma used this opportunity to push his candidate Pattabhi Sitaramayya. The writing was on the wall. The leadership of the nation had passed from the Mahatma to Netaji. However instead of accepting it gracefully, the Mahatma camp played intense politics and forced Netaji to resign from the Congress.
Installing Nehru as Prime Minister: In terms of charisma, Netaji was probably the most able to lead the nation. He was the most popular too as his stint showed.
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