While the whole of Tamil Nadu appears to be in a state of confusion on what to do about the wide prevalence of the drinking habit among its populace, we at the Mahakavi Bharathiyar Higher Secondary School, situated in Kasuva village near Thiruninravur, have taken a few quiet steps towards combating the evil on a long-term basis. The school is run by the charity trust Sevalaya, and provides quality education from balwadi to Class XII, free of cost, to nearly 2,000 students. The school is co-educational and the students are from poor families of the adjoining villages. There is an orphanage attached, where about 200 children are sheltered. They study in the school.
On August 5, 2015 we celebrated at our school what we decided to call ‘Putlibai Day’. Putlibai was the mother of Mohandas Gandhi, the father of the nation. She was married to Karamchand Gandhi, father of the Mahatma, as his fourth wife. Karamchand Bhai (Kaba) Gandhi lost his first wife very early in life, married a second time, and lost her too. He married a third wife who turned out to be an incurably sick woman. Then, with the consent of the third wife, he decided to marry a fourth time. A family that would agree to give their girl to be married as the fourth wife of a 40-year-old man and whose third wife was still alive, had to be necessarily very, very poor; and that was exactly what Putlibai’s family was. She was some 22 years younger than her husband. While the husband was the diwan of a princely state, she was an unlettered village girl.
But then she turned out to be one with extraordinary qualities of head and heart. She was wise beyond her years. She could easily handle the task of running a vast joint family household with tact and efficiency. She was also kind-hearted and deeply religious — almost a saint, as the Mahatma remembered her. She was greatly loved and respected by everyone. She and Kaba Gandhi had four children, three sons and a daughter, of whom Mohandas was the last — and her favourite, who she called ‘Monia’.
It is well-known that after completing his higher secondary education young Mohandas went to England to qualify as a barrister. What is perhaps not equally known is that there were quite a few obstacles that he had to cross before he could go. There was the taboo in most Hindu families of that era against crossing the ‘dark waters’ (kala pani) and getting polluted in an unholy land. Putlibai wanted that Monia should take the permission of the family elders, specifically an elderly uncle, before setting sail for England. The uncle had his reservations, but anyway gave his consent. Then there were the problems of finance. The family decided to overcome this by pooling jewellery and other resources. Finally everything appeared set.
The year was 1888. The date of Mohandas’s departure from home in Rajkot to Bombay was fixed as August 10. And he was to set sail from Bombay to England on September 4. But as the date of departure approached, a group of busybodies, mainly womenfolk of the family and the surrounding households, got to Putlibai. As narrated by Pyare Lal, one of the Mahatma’s illustrious secretaries and biographer: “They poured into her ears lurid tales about the muck-hole of sin and temptation into which she was sending her son, and how young men who went there took to meat and liquor — not to mention women.”
The Gandhis belonged to a Vaishnava sect of the Vaishya caste, for which taking meat and liquor were abhorrent acts. Putlibai was very upset; and her Monia did not want to leave without her whole-hearted consent. The trip to England was in jeopardy. Then the solution came from the advice of a Jain monk, Becharji Maharaj, whom Putlibai consulted. The monk told her he would administer to her son in her presence three vows: that he would not touch wine, women and meat. This was done, and the mother gave her consent. The most probable date on which this was done was August 5.
This is the event we replicated in Sevalaya at the function at our school. We got about 300 of our boy students, in their mid to late teens, to assemble in our ground with their mothers. A suitably worded solemn oath in Tamil was read out.
Each student, holding his mother’s hand, repeated the words of the oath. T-shirts specially prepared for the occasion, bearing the message in Tamil to the effect that the wearer had sworn to keep away from liquor for life, and with an appropriate pictorial, was worn by the students. It was a grand occasion in its own way.
Was our Putlibai Day a success? Time alone can tell. But we have every hope.
visalam.rammmohan@gmail.com
