Gandhi mocked and glorified

Sometime in the 1930s, Winston Churchill, the famous British politician who later became the prime minister of the United Kingdom, described Mahatma Gandhi as "a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, posing as a half-naked fakir of a type well known in the East".  Today, after about eighty years, a statue of Mahatma Gandhi stands tall next to a statue of Winston Churchill.

Gandhi was derided as a fakir by Churchill as he was his political opponent during British colonial era. The same half-naked fakir is today revered by the present-day British generation as they are embarrassed about their colonial history.

The man who was once mocked is today so highly glorified. What a strange twist of fate with the passage of time!

The 9-foot bronze statue, created by British sculptor Philip Jackson, was unveiled on Saturday (March 14) in London's Parliament Square, marking 100 years since Gandhi returned to India from South Africa to begin his struggle for independence of the Indian subcontinent.

British and Indian members of Gandhi Statue Memorial Trust raised more than one million pound for the work.

British Prime Minister David Cameron who was present at the unveiling ceremony said: "This statue is a magnificent tribute to one of the most towering figures in the history of world politics and by putting Mahatma Gandhi in this famous square we are giving him an eternal home in our country."

Gandhi, as everybody knows, is one of very few great people in the world who long after their death have been able to continue to live on through their stories. Gandhi did not cry just for the independence of Indian subcontinent.

He cried for the whole oppressed humanity. It was Gandhi who taught the world how to bring effective change through non-violent methods. It was Gandhi who undertook hunger strikes to protest against the oppression of India's poorest classes.

It was Gandhi who found no difference between a Hindu and a Muslim, between a Brahmin and a member of Dalit, the untouchable community.

It was Gandhi whose dream was to feed the stomachs of the hungry, wipe the tears of the hapless and soothe the souls of the tormented.

Had Gandhi's departed soul been able to speak out well before the unveiling ceremony of his statue in London he would perhaps have suggested spending the raised fund of one million pound to feed the hungry people instead of wasting the money for a sculpture of a dead man.

But there is some irony in the fact that when Gandhi is so warmly embraced by the British people, his legacy in India is somewhat ambivalent. Hindu hardliners are of late increasingly vocal in criticising Gandhi.

Emboldened perhaps by the sweeping national election victory last year of the pro-Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the ultra nationalists have started accusing Gandhi of having betrayed Hindus by being too pro-Muslim.

They also blame Gandhi for the division of India and the bloodshed that marked the partition. Some of them even want to revise the reputation of Nathuram Godse, the man who assassinated Gandhi on January 30, 1948.

Some right-wing Hindus even attempted to build a temple to honour Godse, a man they now describe as a hero for ridding the nation of Gandhi. What a strange turn of fate with the passage of time!

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