For people of Mysuru and students drawn from various institutions, it was a trip back in time to the days when Mahatma Gandhi was leading the freedom struggle.
For, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, author and historian Rajmohan Gandhi, played the role of a teacher constantly engaging with the audience and putting queries to them that brought alive a slice of modern Indian history as in a classroom.
More important, he was subtly underlining the importance of Mahatma Gandhi’s message of tolerance, democracy, duties of a journalist etc., which are relevant to present-day India.
The programme was a seminar on ‘Media and Democracy’ organised by the Gandhi Vichara Parishat and Institute of Gandhian Studies, University of Mysore. Vice-Chancellor G. Hemantha Kumar, social activist P. Mallesh and others were present.
During the course of his talk, Mr. Rajmohan Gandhi asked the audience as to what they thought was Mahatma Gandhi’s most important message. The responses included non-violence, humanity, Sarvadharma Samabhav, Satyameva Jayate etc., to which Mr. Rajmohan Gandhi expressed his happiness and said “you are a wonderful class’.
While agreeing that each of the response deserved an “A plus’’, Mr. Rajmohan Gandhi asked the audience: “What about Ishwar Allah Tere Naam”. Then he went on to elaborate that Almighty is called by different names but whatever name one may give, Almighty remains the same. He turned to the audience again and asked if one forgets the above line, was it possible to remember Mahatma Gandhi.
In this context he referred to Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, also known as Frontier Gandhi, and quizzed the audience if it was possible to remember only one without the other as the latter also had worked for India’s unity. Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan believed in Hindu-Muslim friendship, did not believe in Partition and opposed it along with Mahatma Gandhi.
“But today, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan’s followers are being killed by extremists in Pakistan and it is not even being reported in the Indian media’’, he lamented.
His next question to the audience was to guess the profession of Mohandas Gandhi and nodded quietly when it was spelt out as a lawyer. Mr. Rajmohan Gandhi then switched to the Ahmedabad trial of 1922 and pointed out that Mahatma Gandhi had referred to himself as a farmer and a weaver. The reason being weavers were considered to be untouchables and Gandhiji was fighting the scourge.
“However, if you look at Gandhiji’s life, he started Indian Opinion in South Africa in 1903. It was published in English, Hindi, Gujarati and Tamil. Till he died in 1948, he continued to write for Indian Opinion, Young India, Navajeevan and Harijan. So whatever else he was from 1903 to 1948 Mahatma Gandhi was a journalist.’’
Then he asked the audience if they could remember the movement that began in 1940 and answered it himself, pointing out that it was the individual civil disobedience movement or satyagraha and of which Vinobha Bhave and Jawaharlal Nehru were the first two satyagrahis. The message was not lost on the audience as the movement was launched to affirm the freedom of speech and has resonance in the present times.
