Mohandas: True Story of a Man, His People

by Gandhi, Rajmohan

  On occasion she blamed her husband: ‘Did I not tell you not to pick a quarrel with this government?’ Or, ‘Why do you ask the English to quit India? Our country is vast. We can all live here.’ But she agreed with Gandhi that the British should stay as brothers, not as rulers, and was outraged when he asked if she wished an apology sent on her behalf.

  ‘There is nothing to do now but to put up with the result of your doings,’ she said. ‘We will suffer with you. Mahadev has gone. Next it will be my turn.’198

  Indeed she felt certain that she was not going to see the world outside again. Coming on top of her unhappiness at Gandhi’s detention, and their unending sorrow over Harilal, this sense of impending death greatly depressed her.

  More than before, however, she enjoyed the lessons that Gandhi was now giving her daily: about the rivers of the Punjab, about the equator, longitudes and latitudes, with Gandhi using an orange for the earth, and so on. She successfully learnt (from him) two songs out of a Gujarati fifth-grade school reader, and while she had the strength husband and wife often ‘sat down and sang the two songs together’ at night, causing Sarojini Naidu to ‘joke about the honey-mooning old couple’.199

  Called Ammajaan (Mother) by Gandhi and the rest, Sarojini Naidu never missed a chance to tease a fellow-detainee. Mahadev received a dart from her while trimming his moustache on the morning of the day he would die. Keeping poorly throughout her detention, she was released on health grounds in early 1944.

  During Gandhi’s twenty-one-day fast Kasturba’s was a strengthening presence for him. She had left the others ‘dumbfounded’ by endorsing the fast.200 But once it was over her condition steadily deteriorated, with mounting problems in the heart, lungs and kidneys. Fifteen-year-old Manu’s company and nursing helped her, and during her husband’s fast Kasturba was thrilled to see Ramdas and Devadas, but confinement without an end-date embittered her, and bitterness led to fretfulness.201

  There was no question of her release being asked for, but Gandhi hoped that the Raj would offer to free her. Shortly after her death he would say:

  Whilst it is true that no request was made by her or by me (as satyagrahi prisoners it would have been unbecoming), would it not have been in the fitness of things, if the Government had at least offered to her, me and her sons to release her? The mere offer of release would have produced a favourable psychological effect on her.202

  In the circumstances, he found ‘amazing’ a report that Sir Girija Shankar Bajpai, agent in the USA of India’s British government, had told the American public that ‘at various times, the Government considered [Kasturba’s] release for health reasons, but she wished to remain with her husband, and her wishes were respected’.203

  In December Kasturba suffered three heart attacks. On the 29th Gandhi said in a letter to Agatha Harrison that she was ‘oscillating between life and death’.204 Eight days later he wrote to superintendent Kateli:

  I must confess that the patient has got into very low spirits. She despairs of life, and is looking forward to death to deliver her. If she rallies on one day, more often than not, she is worse on the next. Her state is pitiful.205

  Though refusing to apply for her release, Gandhi did not hesitate to ask for doctors and nurses, or for visits by relatives to offer bedside comfort. The Raj’s response to repeated pleas was usually negative or tardy, though eventually Kanu Gandhi, a nephew of the late Maganlal, and Jayaprakash’s wife, Prabhavati, who had been very close to Kasturba in Sabarmati and Sevagram, were let in. Prabhavati nursed Kasturba, and Kanu sought to soothe her with gentle bhajans.

  After several letters from Gandhi, an ayurveda specialist, Pandit Shiv Sharma, and a nature cure expert, Dinshaw Mehta, were also permitted to see Kasturba. But when Devadas brought to AKP a new drug called penicillin that he had managed to import, Gandhi advised his son against using it on Kasturba. The drug was untested; injections would be hard for her to bear; her agony should not be increased. The son yielded. 206

  Twice during her illness Harilal came to see his mother. On the first occasion she was overjoyed. Ramdas and Devadas were also visiting at the same time, so she had three of her four sons with her: only Manilal, doing duty in South Africa, was missing. Sushila would record the ‘great solace’ that Kasturba derived, and Sushila also observed that ‘Bapu came and stood by, watching the three brothers having [a] meal together.’207 It was a sight he had not seen for decades, and his silence spoke of how moved he was.

  Sadly, Harilal was plainly drunk the second time he visited his sick mother, who beat her head in anguish.

  At night she often sat up in bed, coughing, her head resting on a wooden stool. Gandhi was near her night and day, seeking to help or calm. On 22 February 1944, a day of the full moon, Shivaratri by the Hindu calendar, Kasturba died in her husband’s arms. Devadas sobbed like a child on his dead mother’s breast, and Sushila saw a tear swell in Gandhi’s eye.

  He joined the women in bathing his wife’s body, which was then wrapped, in accordance with Kasturba’s wish, in a sari made of yarn spun by him. He parted her hair, combed it and put the kumkum tika on her forehead.208 Round her wrists the women tied, as bangles, fresh yarn he had spun.

  He sat for hours near the body and later, while she was cremated on AKP grounds, near the pyre (which was lit by Devadas). And he appropriated the small stool on which her head had lain while she coughed, making it his dining table. Another intimate possession, a necklace of holy beads that Kasturba wore till the last, would be given, he decided, to Lakshmi, their Dalit ‘daughter’ whom Kasturba had grown to love dearly, after early hiccups.209

  Wavell and his wife sent him their sympathy. In his reply to the Viceroy, Gandhi said:

  I send you and Lady Wavell my thanks for your kind condolences on the death of my wife. Though for her sake I have welcomed her death as bringing freedom from living agony, I feel the loss more than I had thought I should.

  We were a couple outside the ordinary. It was in 1906 that after mutual consent and after unconscious trials we definitely adopted self-restraint as a rule of life. To my great joy this knit us together as never before. We ceased to be two different entities. Without my wishing it, she chose to lose herself in me. The result was she became truly my better half.

  She was a woman always of very strong will which, in our early days, I used to mistake for obstinacy. But that strong will enabled her to become quite unwittingly my teacher in the art and practice of nonviolent non-cooperation.210

  Resisting first his sexuality and later his morality—his views on money, their children’s education and caste—Kasturba had taught Gandhi the power of ‘no’. But she also provided a lesson in ‘yes’, accepting the hardships and shocks of living with Gandhi, his changing circles of companions, his unusual practices. Through it all she looked after him, fed and nursed him, was his constant support and companion, and at least once (over his vow against milk) saved his life.

  But other women also performed intimate chores for her husband. Sharing wifely tasks with them must have been as hard for the uneducated Kasturba as watching other women enter Gandhi’s intellectual and political life in ways not open to her. Yet she somehow found it in her to get on with most of the women around her husband.

  With some (Sushila and Prabhavati, for instance) she formed deep bonds, and was unhappy if she was deprived of their company, or Gandhi of their assistance. The wives of Chhaganlal and Maganlal and other women in the ashrams had given Kasturba friendship, and though Harilal was cause for boundless sorrow, she found joy in his children and grandchildren, and in her other sons and their families.

  She was also, as we have seen, a fighter in her own right, courting imprisonment in South Africa and later during several battles in India, and was respected as such by large numbers. If Vallabhbhai, C.R., Mahadev, Pyarelal and scores of other Indians who knew Kasturba entertained great warmth for her, the rest honoured her as Gandhi’s faithful, sacrificing, courageous wife. Those knowing Kasturba also admired h
er caring, agility and neatness; her ease, despite handicaps, with women of rank; and her understanding of human nature.

  Neither Mohandas nor Kastur gave everything the other desired; in some ways each disappointed the other; yet each was also fulfilled in the other. Despite his unusual ways, Kasturba’s respect for Gandhi rose with the years. Despite her limitations, Gandhi’s respect for her also grew. Each was obliged to find patience and tolerance, which grew into love, partnership and, from some perspectives, merger. India saw them as one, not merely inseparable.

  ‘If I had to choose a companion for myself life after life, I would choose only Ba,’ said Gandhi after she was gone.211 In an earlier chapter we saw Harilal’s remark to his father: ‘[A]ll the greatness you have achieved is because of Ba.’ In June 1947 Gandhi would repeat the thought. ‘It is because of her that I am today what I am.’212

  Finding that stories of the trouble supposedly taken by the Raj over Kasturba’s illness were being circulated in India, Britain and the USA, Gandhi reminded the Government of the reluctance and tardiness he had run into, and added:

  It is not pleasant or easy for me to write about such personal matters to the Government. But I do so in this case for the sake of the memory of one who was my faithful partner for over sixty-two years. I leave it to the Government to consider what could be the fate of other prisoners not so circumstanced as Shri Kasturba was.213

  THE OTHER GANDHI

  There was more to the AKP Gandhi than the unbowed, spirited and refreshing Empire-challenger we have seen. Depression often assailed him. The deaths, in fairly rapid succession, of Andrews, Bajaj, Mahadev and Kasturba had removed his trustiest sources of love and support; and politically the Raj had weathered his rebellion. In his low moments Gandhi was helped once more by the care of women, with Sushila, Prabhavati and young Manu (the latter two allowed in to nurse Kasturba) playing a role.

  We get clues from two notes he jotted down on a Monday, his silence day, for Manu, who was motherless. Written five days after Kasturba’s death, the notes were preserved by Manu. The first note said:

  27 February 1944 : Chi. Manudi (‘Blessed little Manu’), Did you sleep well? Yesterday I drafted a long letter about keeping you and Prabhavati here, but I kept thinking over the matter the whole of last night and could get no sleep. In the end, I saw light. We cannot make such a request. Aren’t we prisoners after all? We must endure our separation.

  You are a sensible girl. Forget your sorrow. You want to do great service. Stop crying and live cheerfully. Learn what you can after leaving the jail. After all this service that you have given, you are bound to prosper no matter what happens. More after my silence ends. I am your mother. Am I not? It is enough, if you understand this much. Blessings from Bapu. P.S. Preserve this letter.

  It seems plain that Manu and Prabhavati both wished to continue their stay in AKP. Kasturba’s death had removed its reason, though from her death-bed she had evidently ‘entrusted [Manu] to Gandhiji’.214 Manu certainly, and perhaps Prabhavati also, cried about having to leave, but Gandhi too felt troubled by the impending separation—troubled enough to lie awake the whole night.

  From the claim, ‘I am your mother,’ and the instruction to preserve the note bearing the claim, we may suspect that in AKP Gandhi thought of Manu as a future partner for developing his, and her, brahmacharya. The ‘mother’ remark asserts the contemplated experiment’s innocent character.

  Whether Manu’s apparent keenness to grow in brahmacharya was spontaneous or induced by him, it made her an ideal candidate, in his eyes, for the intimate circle.215

  Gandhi’s reliance on young Manu is made even clearer in the second note (translated from the Gujarati original), which also discloses admiration as well as concern for the fifteen-year-old who was evidently thinking of studying in Karachi:

  27 Feb. 1944: I feel much worried about you. You are a class by yourself. You are good, simple-hearted and ever ready to help others. Service has become dharma with you. But you are still uneducated and silly also.

  If you remain illiterate, you will regret it, and if I live long, I too will regret it. I will certainly miss you, but I do not like to keep you near me as that would be weakness and ignorant attachment.

  I am quite sure that at present you should go to Rajkot. You will get there the benefit of the company of Narandas; such good company you will get nowhere else. You will learn there, besides music, the art of working methodically. You will learn Gujarati, too…

  If you go to Karachi or anywhere else you like after you have become more mature, you will get all that you want… [Y]ou will get only education [in Karachi]. That also will be useful, of course. Living in the company of so many girls will also do you good. But what you will get in Rajkot you will get nowhere else. Blessings from Bapu216

  We should mark that Gandhi allows a choice (Rajkot or Karachi) to Manu and also that he wishes her to get ‘all that you want’ in the future. To persons like Manu, Prabhavati and Sushila (who with Gandhi’s approval had obtained an MD on top of her bachelor’s degree in medicine), Gandhi offers both warmth and freedom.

  These women are members of a privileged circle, counterparts, in Gandhi’s private life, of key colleagues in his political life: men like Jawaharlal, Vallabhbhai and Rajagopalachari. If they are dependent on him, he is on them. His dealings with them are sensitive, often tender, at times plaintive, but at other times forthright.

  Though not present in AKP, another young woman close to his private circle at this time was Abha, daughter of Amritlal Chatterjee, a Bengal Congressman. Older than Manu by about three years, Abha too had spent some time in Sevagram in 1942, and fallen in love with Kanu Gandhi, who was permitted inside AKP to lift Kasturba’s morale. A photographer and one of Gandhi’s associates and helpers in Sevagram, Kanu was the son of Maganlal’s younger brother, Narandas.

  Mira remained outside the circle. In AKP she was an important part of Gandhi’s political team, Pyarelal being its other member.

  Illness, darkness & release. After Kasturba’s death Gandhi was listless and ill with malaria and dysentery. There was even a moment when his spirit seemed to fade. ‘At one stage,’ Pyarelal would write, ‘the inner light which had sustained him all through life seemed to be on the point of going out. But it was momentary only.’217 The faithful secretary recorded the darkness and its departure but did not elaborate on what clearly was a black night of the soul. In her account, Sushila would speak of Gandhi’s ‘delirium’, ‘depression’ and high fever.218

  In any case, on 4 May 1944 Wavell sent the following cable to Amery in London:

  Latest reports show progressive deterioration in Gandhi’s anaemia, blood-pressure and kidney functions, all of which in opinion of Dr. B.C. Roy, shared by Surgeon-General Candy, have tendency to produce coronary or cerebral thrombosis… This is a case in which I consider we must be guided by medical opinion.

  Deterioration in Gandhi’s health appears such that his further participation in active politics is improbable and I have no doubt that death in custody would intensify feeling against Government…

  I am accordingly instructing Bombay Government to release Gandhi unconditionally at 8 a.m. on Saturday, 6th May, with announcement that release is entirely on medical grounds and am informing all Governors accordingly.219

  On the evening of 5 May Gandhi was informed that he and his companions would be freed at eight the next morning. Kateli, the jailor, sought the prisoner’s blessings and quietly presented a purse of seventy-five rupees in anticipation of Gandhi’s seventy-fifth birthday.

  Despite a sleepless night Gandhi felt fresh in the morning, because, he told his companions, he had been repeating Ramanama all night, but also, we may suspect, because he was about to walk free. He added: ‘I have felt so much at a loss… I do not know what I shall do or speak. But He that has guided my footsteps so far will show me the path.’220

  Before leaving the AKP Gandhi asked the government to ensure access for friends and relatives to t
he ‘consecrated ground’ where Kasturba and Mahadev had been cremated:

  To the Home Secretary, Government of Bombay, 7.45 a.m., May 6, 1944: Sir, I have been told by the Inspector-General of Prisons that the party of detenus in this camp is to be discharged at 8 a.m. today. I wish to put on record the fact that by reason of the cremation of the corpses of Shri Mahadev Desai and then my wife, the place of cremation which has been fenced off becomes consecrated ground…

  I trust that the plot will be acquired by the Government with the right of way to it through H. H. the Aga Khan’s grounds so as to enable those relatives and friends who wish to visit the cremation ground whenever they like. Subject to the permission of the Government, I would like to arrange for the upkeep of the sacred spot and daily prayers.221

  The released prisoners stood in prayer at the cremation site before crossing the barbed-wire fence around AKP into freedom, and again three days later, before leaving Poona for Bombay.

  In London, Churchill hated Wavell’s decision to release Gandhi. Eight weeks later, as Gandhi seemed to improve, the Prime Minister sent Wavell, in the Viceroy’s words, ‘a peevish telegram to ask why Gandhi hadn’t died yet’.222

  Chapter 14

  Rejected

  India, 1944-46

  Twenty years earlier, released from Yeravda jail after an attack of appendicitis, Gandhi—Porbandar’s son—had gone for convalescence to the sea at Juhu in north Bombay. In May 1944 he turned once more to the Juhu beach, where he was again hosted by the Morarjee family.

  On 21 May he was persuaded to watch Mission to Moscow, a Hollywood movie made to popularize America’s alliance with the Soviet Union, possibly the first talkie he had ever seen. It did not attract him to Stalin or Communism.