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PRABUDHHA JIVAN GANDHI SMRUTI CHINTAN SPECIAL
PUJYA GANDHIJI
Pushpa Parikh
An eminent, simple, impressive personality means Pujya Gandhiji. Those who have not seen him are also impressed by his character. Einsteine is absolutely right in saying that people after ages might not believe that Gandhiji was a human being like us who was born in India and that too-in youngster's language a Gujju person. Now I would like to share with you some of my experiences during th freedom movement.
It was in 1942 when I was only twelve years old. Once I attended Gandhijis meeting at Juhu Beach. Though I was far away I was very much impressed by his address.
The very next day our group of boys & girls started joining the freedon movement in whatever way we could. The first thing we started was spining. We used to buy cotton, make punies, spin either on takli or charkha, make yarn & skein of threads (il) and send them for weaving. We also started wearing Khadi.
Then we started joining processions & shouting slogans. It was a very exciting experience. Early morning at 6 o'clock we used to go for Prabhat Pheri and at night we would go for Mashal Sarghas (torch light procession). Once it so happened that a police van came and arrested some boys from the morning procession. One boy nearly fourteen year old jumped out of the
Gandhiji's Personality By Different A mystic who was hard-headed realist
A pacifist who was all his life a troublemaker
A revolutionary who was a very staunch conservative: a strict disciplinarian who challenged the established order in every field of life
A shrewd politician who would implicitly trust all his opponants
A statesman who refused to look beyond one step ahead. A generous man of very stingy habits who would save his pennies and throw away his pounds.
A great lover of children, who often imposed very cruel punishment on them
A kind hearted captain who was hard task master
A confirmed democrat with very pronounced authoritarian traits.
A gentle spirit seeking to accomodate an amazing gamut of openions and personalities and high-handed patriarch insisting on total submission.
A staunch Hindu respecting all faiths as his own.
An orthodox devotee who opposed all rituals of all reli
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open van when the van was moving slowly. He became the hero of our group. Even orthodox parents encouraged the children for the activities regrading independance movement.
Another exciting thing was strikes in the schools. The girls used to offer bangles to the boys who did not co-operate in the strike activity. It was a fun to sit on the road in a row and stop students attending the school.
Now I will tell you about an incident which shows the effect of Gandhiji's principles and movement on the people. There was no fear of imprisonment. My father who was a renowned solicitor started wearing khadi and a person who was a chain smoker one fine morning declared that he had left smoking. We were surpriesd. The reason he gave us was this Suppose I am imprisoned to-morrow, who will give me cigaretts in the prison? We should be ready for imprisonment on any day and at any time.'
Gandhiji made everybody fearless. It was fun to attend his meetings. Even today people are astonished if they meet person like me who have seen Pujya Gandhiji.
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Angle : Gandhi is many men in One!
gions.
• An intense seeker after spiritual bliss, devoting most of his time and energy to mundane (earthly) power politics AND
An expert dietician, and educationist of note, a superb organiser, a great publicity expert, an evengalist reformer of social evils, an enthusiastic naturopath, a lover of humanity, an apostle of peace and non-violence recruiting slodiers for British army in souch Africa... It is hardly ever possible to present gandhi in his entirety
He kept on evolving and changing until the very last moment of his earthly existense
A shy, ignorant, timid Gandhi of 1888, an active, gregarious and Vocal Gandhi of the nineties, the failure of a barrister in India, the ablest and the most highly paid advocate in Johanesburg, a status conscious and comfort loving Gandhi, an ardent ascetic etc.
In his own words Gandhiji said:
In my search for TRUTH I have never cared for consistency.
(From `The Agony of Arrival' Gandhi - The South Africa Yrs.) By - NAGINDAS SANGHAVI
