INDIA
Narayan Desai recalls the creation of the biography on Mahatma Gandhi, ‘My life is my message’ that has been written originally in Gujarati.
While an English edition of a biography on Mahatma Gandhi, ‘My life is my message’, is being released on Gandhi Jayanti, I have been asked to recall the creation of the biography that has been written originally in Gujarati. When I was supposed to write Gandhi’s biography, books in eight to 10 different languages like English, Bengali, Hindi and Marathi were already present in the market. But there was none in Gujarati, making it necessary to write one.
Another necessity was formed by the fact that none of these works had seen or narrated Gandhi with the perspective I was looking at. An American friend of mine had written to me, saying “one more book on Gandhi?” But after attending my Gandhi Katha in Hindi — not knowing the language, she required an interpreter — she said she was thrilled by listening to me and that she did not have any complaint.
I looked at Gandhi with my own perspective, as I had passed 10 formative years of my life with him. After that, I continued to be associated with his ashrams and worked on his thoughts.
Gandhi had seen the truth comprehensively and that was why he looked at life as an entity, not in compartments. Most of his biographers had focused more on his political contribution, but I believe that only a third of his contribution was political. But Gandhi’s main work was that he built India, brick by brick, as a nation; nobody had recognised that.
This is also true for Richard Attenborough’s film, Gandhi. It did not touch on his constructive side. Some of the biographies talked about Gandhi’s spiritual side, but no work on his life has portrayed him in totality. I have talked about Gandhi’s Satyagraha, constructive work and his ekadash vrat (11 vows) — the three things that made him complete. Most biographers have not touched on his constructive work and the ekadash vrat much. While many have talked about Satyagraha as a political tool, they have not spoken about its spiritual dimension.
Moreover, I felt ashamed that not a single biography was in Gandhi’s mother tongue. It was shameful that Gujarati was referred to a language of ‘shoon shaa paisa char’.
I gained confidence in writing Gandhi’s biography, ‘Maru jivan ej mari vani’, after I wrote Mahadevbhai’s biography, which received a good response. I finally finished the work, and it was appreciated and I received the Murtidevi Award from Gyanpith. At the award function, I spoke about my experience as a biographer.
I believe a biographer should be able to enter the personality of the one he is writing about, what we call ‘parkaya pravesh’ in Gujarati. Another aspect is the experience of Samadhi, a state of mind where one becomes the medium through which creation takes place.
I faced many difficulties while writing about the incidences of Gandhi’s life with reference to others like BR Ambedkar and Subhashchandra Bose, with whom he had a difference of opinion on many issues. But every time I though about how Bapu would handle such situations, making my work easy. After the book was published, whenever I read a chapter from it, I would be amazed that it was written by me.
I started my Gandhi Katha, which is based on the book, by thinking about how many would purchase it and how many would read it. I thought that it would be a good idea to conduct the Gandhi Katha so that more and more people would come to know about Gandhi, which I have seen and understood. However, despite the Gandhi Katha being based on the book, the two were different in some manner. While writing the book, I had kept myself in the background and decided to write about myself only where absolutely needed. But in the Gandhi Katha, I have not done so. Sometimes people refer to my Gandhi Katha as the Narayan Katha; but it is the Katha of Gandhi as Narayan has seen it. I am talking to myself and about some of the incidents of Gandhi’s life with me in them, where I feel that it would help people to understand his thoughts and philosophy better.
I am faced with one question, that as a society have we failed to continue Gandhi’s legacy? In reply, I would say that Gandhi is a phenomenon, one that occurs once in 2,000, 5,000 years. And the success or failure of his philosophy cannot be ascertained in just 60 to 70 years. We are too small for this. This needs to be checked after 500 or 1,000 years, just as the world recognised the thoughts of Jesus and Buddha as true after keeping them in the dark for so many years.
(The author has pioneered an effort to keep Gandhi alive through his Gandhi Katha, and is also a biographer of the Mahatma)
(As told to Paras K Jha)
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