Notwithstanding Narendra Modi’s erroneous reference to Mohandas as Mohanlal, Gandhi was invoked by both the BJP and Congress in the just-concluded campaign in Gujarat. But they were referring to Gandhi neither as a possibility nor even as an absence.

Gandhi as a possibility is both spiritually illuminating and politically creative. This was the Gandhi that was invoked by not only Vinoba Bhave and K.G. Mashruwala but also by those who through their critique deepened our understanding of Gandhi. Rammanohar Lohia and JP both accepted the possibility that Gandhi offered us. This was anchored by an unshakable faith that the political realm was and ought to be a moral realm. They did not accept that the polity could be self-referential. This view of politics affirmed that politics and political discourse must refer to something outside of itself and that measure was higher and nobler than the political realm.

The Gandhi that the BJP and the Congress invoked in the Gujarat campaign was not also a deeply felt absence of Gandhi, a sense of spiritual and societal lack that produces a longing. This longing is best epitomised in Gujarat today by Narayan Desai. Deeply perturbed by the violence of Gujarati society and moved by a sense of having become a party to this violence, Desai decided to reclaim Gandhi for himself and for us. His chosen mode has been the Gandhi Katha.

He moves around Gujarat tirelessly narrating the story of Gandhi’s quest. In so doing, he has also retrieved the beauty of the ancient form of katha by making it a narration of truth, both personal and societal. His is perhaps the most creative response to the people of Gujarat as it engages with them and believes that all of us are capable of recognising the truth within us and following it. He also illustrates the duties of a witness. And yet the Gandhi that he invokes is an intensely personal Gandhi.

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