The great soul

During my time here, I've been doing some research into the founding father of India - Mahatma Gandhi.  This is a man idealized around the world for his principled stand against colonial oppression and struggle to unite a country divided by regional and religious differences.  As part of my research, yesterday I visited Mani Bhavan, the house in Bombay where Gandhi lived from 1917-1932 and which has now been converted into a museum in his honor.

 

The house itself was charming and larger than I had expected, though still modest.  It belonged to a friend of Gandhi's and served as his home and headquarters whenever he was in Bombay during this period of time.  

 

The exterior of the house

 

One of the highlights of the museum is the room in which Gandhi would stay.  The curators have made every effort to keep the room intact as it was during his time there.  I got chills thinking that I was standing in a place where Gandhi had stood, walking where he had walked and touching the walls and staircase railings that he had touched (yes, I'm a nerd - get over it).

 

Gandhi's room

 

The house's walls were covered in photos and memorabilia from his life.  There was also a room filled with mini dioramas showing key scenes from his life.  It showed him sitting at his father's deathbed, receiving his mother's blessing to go study law in London, arriving back in India after living in South Africa, visiting the King in Buckingham palace in his traditional modest outfit, cradling his wife's dead body after she passed away, visiting the site of the Amritsar massacre, marching to protest the Salt Tax, and many others. 

 

Scene showing Gandhi being received by the Indian people upon his return from South Africa

 

I have to admit that I'm not very well educated on the specifics of Gandhi's life - I haven't even seen the Ben Kingsley movie.  Walking around the museum, I found some interesting tidbits that I'm going to record here - at the very least for my own memory's sake, if not for your edification:

• Gandhi married his wife at the age of 13 (when she was only 12).  It was an arranged child marriage - a practice that he later opposed.
• Before Gandhi traveled to London to pursue a career in law, his mother made him promise in the presence of  Jain monk that he would abstain from meat, alcohol and women during his time there. 
• Mahatma isn't his given name - it is an honorary name bestowed on him by the Indian people meaning "great soul."  His birth name was Mohandas.
• Gandhi believed in the power of villages and didn't buy into the idea that industralization would save the Indian people but rather than individual empowerment and self sufficiency at the village level.
• Gandhi would spin yarn and make his own clothing, rather than wearing British textiles.  He encouraged Indian men and women to do the same, causing the spinning wheel to become a symbol of independence.  This resulted in the spinning wheel becoming the symbol in the center of the pre-independence Indian flag
• He was pen pals with Tolstoy - !?!
• Gandhi wrote a letter to Hitler in 1939, urging him to use his influence to avoid war.  In the letter he was very polite and apologetic if he had been improper in writing the letter unsolicited.
• The plaque below the diorama showing his funeral pyre reads: "From the pyre comes the message: Lead Me from the Unreal to the Real, From Darkness to Light, From Death to Immortality."

Gandhi wasn't perfect - he was human, after all - but he worked hard to be the best form of himself every day.  When asked to give a message to the people of India, his response was "my life is my message."  Similar to his popular quote about being the change you'd like to see in the world, what he meant was that his actions put his principles into practice every day.  Or as my dad would say, he walked the walk rather than just talking the talk.

 

I feel like today's post is particularly fitting, given the celebrations that are going on back home in honor of the 4th of July.  Gandhi was a leader during India's rebellion against British colonial power.  Although that struggle took place nearly 200 years after America's war for independence, many of the challenges they faced and the principles espoused during those turbulent time were the same.  In honor of the 4th of July, this quote of Gandhi's resonated with me particularly:

 

"There must be no impatience, no barbarity, no insolence, no undue pressure. If we want to cultivate a true spirit of democracy, we cannot afford to be intolerant. Intolerance betrays want of faith in one's cause."

 

Happy 4th, everyone!  Let freedom ring...