By M.R. Narayan Swamy
New Delhi, Sep 27 (IANS) Mahatma Gandhi considered the story of Lord Krishna and Lord Ram a “metaphor”, reveals a 1930 diary of a Congress activist that a lifelong communist happened to pick up from a street vendor here.
The Mahatma had asked those who marched with him during the historic Dandi march to maintain a diary, and C.K. Nair, a diehard Congressman, did just that.
At a daily meeting, when someone asked Gandhi why fighters like Maharana Pratap, Shivaji and Guru Gobind Singh were worshipped as great men, he replied: “Even Ram and Krishna did the same. But I do not believe in the actual story but believe it as metaphor.”
Gandhi went on: “What I think is that violence is not the religion of this age. I again appeal to you all for purification… We must be humble enough before we undertake to begin this great and holy work.”
Nair carefully and faithfully took down Gandhi’s sermons, making fresh entries in the diary every night, mostly in Hindi but occasionally in English. The Mahatma regularly went through the diary. His initials figure at least eight times in the 352-page vintage document.
The diary covered the periods from Jan 1, 1930, to May 9, 1930 – when Nair was based at the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad – and from May 11, 1930, to June 7, 1930. There is a long gap — probably Nair was jailed then – before the entries resume July 12, 1934, and conclude on March 29, 1935.
Anand Gupta, who has been with the Communist Party of India (CPI) since 1944 and is also a bookworm, picked up the handwritten diary, its pages having turned yellow, from a second hand bookseller at Ajmeri Gate here a long time ago “for four annas”.
Thanks to Gupta’s efforts, the now bound dairy – a historical document of great importance – is well preserved. It provides a valuable window to a tumultuous period in Indian history. The National Archives has microfilmed it.
“Mahatma Gandhi’s comments are very interesting in the light of what is happening now,” Gupta told IANS, referring to the row triggered by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi’s remarks about Hindu god Ram.
At age 81, Gupta remains a dedicated communist and a voracious reader – but he has contempt for Mahatma Gandhi.
“I think he was a coward and a selfish man,” he said. “I have no respect for Mahatma Gandhi in any way.”
Gupta feels that Mahatma Gandhi was timid vis-à-vis the British.
“When he was pushed out of the train in South Africa, he should have kicked the man who did it instead of preaching homilies about non-violence. Gandhi repeatedly halted the civil disobedience movement whenever there was even minor violence.”
Gupta has some 2,000 books in his collection including a rare a khadi-bound first edition of Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography, “My Experiments With Truth”.
“I have a love for old letters and manuscripts,” he says. “But when I bought Nair’s diary, I had no idea what it was. Even the man who sold it did not know what it was.
“My thinking was, ‘Well, if it is handwritten, then it must be important.’ So I bought it for four annas.
“It is only after going home that I realised that I had purchased a treasure. It was a record of Mahatma Gandhi’s activities during a certain period in 1930 by someone who knew him well. I have no idea how it ended up at Ajmeri Gate.”