Gandhis Teachers Rajchandra Ravjibhai Mehta

Author(s): Satish Sharma
Publisher: Gujarat Vidyapith Ahmedabad

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Gandhi's Teachers : Rajchandra Ravjibhai Mehta
of Revashankar Jagjivan Mehta, the chief proprietor of an international firm of diamonds and pearls and who later became one of Gandhi's main well-wishers and life-long supporters. Gandhi was introduced to Revashankar Jagjivan Mehta by his younger brother Dr. Pranjivan Mehta, an acquaintance of Gandhi from England trained as a barrister but who continued to work in the family business and became a thriving jeweler in Rangoon, Burma.25 How Gandhi first met Rajchandra was quite a coincidence.
Describing the day of his return from England in 1891, Gandhi narrates that the Arabian sea was rough as usual in June and July and it had been choppy all the way from the port of Aden. The ship had arrived late in the night. Gandhi's elder brother had come to the dock in Bombay to receive him. As it was already late, Dr. Pranjivan Mehta insisted that Gandhi and his brother should stay with them at their residence. It was there that Dr. Pranjivan Mehta introduced Rajchandra to Gandhi with the remarks that though a poet he was a partner in the family business and was a wise man of spiritual knowledge. Dr. Pranjivan Mehta also disclosed that Rajchandra was a Shatavadhani - one who could remember or attend to a hundred things at the same time. Someone suggested that Gandhi should utter some words in his presence, adding that no matter to which languages the words belonged Rajchandra would repeat them correctly and in the order spoken. Gandhi writes that at that time he was young, had just returned from England, and was proud of his knowledge of foreign languages. Therefore, he wrote many words from different foreign languages on a piece of paper and read the entire list to Rajchandra. Rajchandra, slowly and one after another, repeated all the words and in the order spoken. Rajchandra's education was very limited and that too in a Gujarati school in the vernacular languages. He had no knowledge of English or of any other foreign language. His this memory feat, therefore, was remarkable and it astonished and pleased Gandhi. Gandhi formed a high opinion of Rajchandra's memory, but did not come under its spell. The