Some Gandhian lessons for the Gandhis

In what capacity she can represent India at the UN, one doesn’t know. It would have been in the fitness of things if India were represented by our prime minister. Also, given that it is an honour for India as a whole, the Indian delegation should have included prominent leaders of the opposition. However, these objections would doubtless be considered irrelevant at a time the Congress party is getting ready to coronate the fourth member of the Dynasty as India’s next prime minister.

Since mother and son are going to New York for an event relating to the Mahatma, I wonder if either of them has seen a recently released movie about a father and his son. I am referring to Gandhi My Father by Feroz Abbas Khan, which is one of the finest cinematic narrations of the greatest hero of modern Indian history.

It tells the story of the troubled relationship between Gandhiji and his eldest son Harilal, whose life lurches from one failure to another and ends pitifully in 1955. The film’s director has handled a difficult theme with utmost sensitivity and without passing any value judgement on either father or son. At the same time, he brings out the true greatness of Gandhiji, a man who stood by his principles in small as well as big matters, in private as well as public spheres of life.

Without being overtly pedagogic, the movie is replete with messages of contemporary significance. One of them is how the Mahatma detested nepotism and would do nothing whatsoever to promote his son’s career using his personal influence. Harilal wants to study law in England and become, like his father, a barrister.

A wealthy Gujarati businessman has in fact authorised the father to nominate one student each year for a scholarship to study law in London. The father refuses to name his son for the scholarship the first year — and also the next year. Harilal is frustrated. He thinks his father neither loves nor cares for him. On the other hand, his father, who is running an ashram near Durban in South Africa, believes that all the boys and girls in the ashram are his children and must receive equal love and care from him.

... contd.