by Damini Purkayastha

As time turns a corner to the 140th anniversary of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's birth tomorrow, the Mahatama’s legacy seems to be in the throes of a revival

With American presidents wanting to dine with him, Irish rock stars quoting him in songs, Bollywood making award-winning films on him and international auction houses, conservative Indian groups and the Indian media making brouhaha out of his belongings - Gandhi is back in popular, urban discourse. But in a curious twist of fate, it seems as if his current avatar is a paradox of everything he stood for.

Started in 2006, international clothing line Sir Alistair Rai (which bases itself on the teachings of Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Indian deities) launched a line of T-shirts and pendants imprinted with Gandhi’s face. Earlier this year Hollywood stars like Dev Patel, Kirsten Bell and Emma Stone were spotted in these tees that come at $61 online and the ‘Gandhi coin necklace’ that’s for $ 225.

But it’s not just international labels that put Gandhi on a T-shirt. His own great-grandson, Tushar Gandhi (one in 54 grandchildren) released an online line of nine Gandhi T-shirts in 2005. Around the same time that Tantra, a t-shirt label popular with Indian youngsters, introduced two similar shirts.

For Gandhi, who gave up wearing Western clothes (as he associated them with wealth and success) and dressed in homespun clothes - being the face on a designer label would not have been much of a kick.

But the Gandhians aren’t bothered by the Mahatama’s increasing rockstar status. Amrut Modi, Secretary, Sabarmati Ashram Foundation, a spiritual lodge in Ahmedabad where Gandhi lived and began the Dandi March in 1930, says, “Famous people have their likes and dislikes so they pick up new things and the media notices unusual things – Gandhi that way would be unusual.”

Back in 2005 though, both Tushar Gandhi and Ranjiv Ramchandani, director of Tantra ceded that Indians weren’t ready for Gandhi tees. But in 2009, perhaps in light of the Sir Alistair Rai line, Gandhi was even seen on the ramp.

During the recent Lakme Fashion Week held in Mumbai, designer Sanjay Hingu’s autumn collection had formal jackets and large buttons with Gandhi and Jawahar Lal Nehru’s faces imprinted on them. The show was declared a success and fashion critics were all praises for Hingu. “India is in the limelight, everybody wants a bit of India, so why shouldn’t Indians. We wear Che Guevara on tees all the time, now its time to adorn our country’s heroes,” said Hingu at the event.

Bangalore-based designer Jason, who has a kitschy design label called Small Shop, however, feels that Indians revere Gandhi too much to ever wear him lightly. “Certainly Gandhi tees could become popular but if there’s a cause they can go with – like at a time when peace needs to be propagated,” says Jason. He adds, however, that Gandhi memorabilia in museum shops would be a great idea as a way to keep him in conversation and make people more aware of his legacy. “I think it’s only a matter of time before that happens… it’s a great venture and someone will think of it soon.”

Given the hype around Gandhi’s memorabilia in 2009, Jason could be on to something.

In March 2009, even as certain Indian groups went up in arms against Antiquorum Auctioneers, liquor baron Vijay Mallya paid $ 2.1 million (Rs 10.81 crores) for Gandhi’s sandals, glasses, a pocket watch and supper bowl from James Otis’ collection. In July at a Sotheby’s auction, letters by Gandhi sold for 175,000 pounds while a small khadi cloth signed by him and Jawahar Lal Nehru sold for 2125 pounds. And earlier in September a 13 inch bronze Buddha statue gifted by Gandhi to a friend sold for £6840 at Bonhams (even as the National Commission of Minorities in India lamented the ‘loss of history forever).

While purists feel such events only serve to reduce Gandhi’s stature, there are those who feel that even such ‘tokens’ serve their purpose.

Dr Savita Singh, the head of the Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Smriti in Delhi, feels this may not necessarily be a bad thing. “You see when Gandhiji was alive he reached out each and every person possible. In those days there was no TV and no internet, so he too worked with a form of symbolism… the charkha (spinning wheel) was a symbol of self reliance. He went and lived in ashrams in villages so that if people wanted to meet him they would have to come to the villages and see for themselves what state they were in. I have no problems if people have taken to Gandhiji through tokenism it marks a beginning. I am sure that gradually people will go deeper and try and understand Gandhi as a whole,” she says

And Singh may just have a point. In 2006 Bollywood director Rajkumar Hirani and producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra decided to re-introduce Gandhigiri (following Gandhi’s ideals) to the Indian masses. And so came about Lage Raho Munna Bhai, a Sanjay Dutt blockbuster starring Dilip Prabhavalkar as Gandhi who taught 21st century Indians the power of peaceful protests. Not only did Prabhavalkar go on win a national award for his role, the movie made Gandhigiri a fad among the youth. Young corporate employees sent ill-mannered bosses ‘get well soon’ cards (calling their behavior a sickness) and corrupt politicians were sent roses in commiseration. And, on Independence Day the following year a group of young executives in Bangalore decided to celebrate by spending the whole night fixing potholes all over the city instead of cribbing about the government’s non-performance.

In 2008, around the same as Obama’s ‘Be The Change’ campaign swept the world, Bollywood made another offering – Gandhi, My Father – a movie about Gandhi and his failings, if you may, as a father. A critically acclaimed movie, it met with some resistance from elitist Gandhians who were uncomfortable with the public scrutiny the Mahatama would come under. But Darshan Jariwala, a Gujarati theatre artist who played Gandhi in the film (and won a National Award for it earlier this year) felt that the movie made Gandhi more real. “I think youngsters were actually quite relieved to have found Gandhi more human,” says Jariwala.

Regardless of what skeptics feel, Bollywood and growing international iconography of Gandhi has brought back the believers. “In the last 10 years or so more and more people have started coming to the Sabarmati Ashram… people have become interested because Gandhi’s influence on the world is becoming more apparent, and also with tourism opening up more people can come and visit these places a lot more easily today,” adds Modi.

Jariwala, who is also currently in Gandhi’s home state Baroda adds, “For the West, Obama is the culmination of Martin Luther King and Mahatama Gandhi and now everyone is interested in getting to source of that ideology. They now see Gandhi as one of their own.” He explains that turning him into a pop-icon is a form of reverence too, superficial or not. “Every culture has its own sensibilities about reverence, while the west puts their icons on t-shirts we believe in touching their sandals,” he says.

But will becoming a cult figure in popular culture make Gandhi more accessible to the youngsters? Jariwala says, “I wish Obama comes and spends some time in Sevagram and actually sees what Gandhi’s principles are about… Anyway, public memory is fickle and only the outrageous appeal to them, sadly there’s not much Page 3 appeal to Gandhi.”

Interestingly enough, the annual report of the Gandhi Smriti & Darshan Smriti for the year 2008-2009 focused on National Building and Youth, and the centre, along with several NGOs, organised learning workshops throughout schools in India. Ten of thousands of children picked up issues like sanitisation, peace, self reliance and social responsibility and conducted plays, debates, projects and workshops on them, vowing to imbibe these principles in their lives.

A Gandhian would probably say, pop culture and coolness be damned: as long as there is peace and equality in the world, Gandhi’s tenet lives on. After all, it was Gandhi who said, “An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”

Liked this article? Want to see more? Join our mailing list. Email us at subscribe@thesamosa.co.uk