Literary critic G.N. Devy held the audience spellbound at ‘Gandhi: A Name, A Life, My World’, along with poet and artist Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, in a session moderated by author Amandeep Sandhu.
While Sheikh used his works of art to tell his story and that of Gandhi, Devy stirred with mere words. “Today is Makar Sankranti, Pongal. But it is also the day Mahasweta Devi was born,” began Devy. He recalled an anecdote in which he took the writer and social activist to a camp for victims in Ahmedabad during the 2002 riots. “A woman said she had lost 17 of her extended family,” says Devy. “Mahasweta Devi fainted. A little later, I asked her if she wanted to go to a hospital,” he adds. “But, she said, take me to Sabarmati Ashram.”
In that moment of immense pain, she wanted to take refuge in the feeling that only Gandhi can evoke. But, despite it all, “Gandhi is among the most remembered tragic heroes of India,” said Devy. “He was a perpetual loser. Even his children did not think of him as a great father. He was a practising Hindu, but people who spoke for Hinduism thought that he should be killed.”
If we were to look through our newspapers on the day of our Independence, we wouldn’t see even a line on Gandhi, said Devy. “I was born a couple of years after his death and have often wondered, was he a real human being? Or, was he a rumour? I have seen betrayals to Gandhi in my village in Maharashtra, and, at that age, there was a real danger of my seeing him as an enemy of the nation.”
But, this “notorious fellow” cannot be erased from our collective conscience no matter what, felt Devy. He is everywhere; he is like the air we breathe. “If we were to write our collective autobiography, Gandhi would be its title. Why was this man so special? It is because he became the conscience keeper of this world. We are 125 crore now, against one man. And he is not losing.”
