Monday, January 8, 2007

Gandhi ani Pune

I call myself a Gandhi fan...I admire the man for his ability to challenge not (only) the world but ( also) himself; think different in a time when idealism/angst, call it what you may, was a difficult to imagine emotion, a luxury for the nations/people who had aplenty and little else to ponder on.For trying to teach conscientiousness to a folk so far removed from it.

But I am dismayed that Pune, my home town...safe, peaceful-so they call it now,was the Hate-Gandhi capital of India then....much of the anti Gandhi sentiment originated and was propogated here....Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was a hero for many Puneites .One of my maratha manoos friends loves to regale me about his travails in kaalapani, his dreams of motherland across the seas....(Jayostute and sagara praan talmal la).And yet he chooses to turn a blind eye to me when I tell him that this same person renounced his 'activities' and agreed to honot the British Constitution in return for clemency in a pact he signed with the Brit govt, that Savarkar was the idealogue( disputed co-conspirator/ aquitted and then implicated later by the Kapoor Commission ten years later) of the people who attempted tirelessly to kill Gandhi.Seven times!! Succeded in the eighth.Seven desperate attempts!!. Why?55 crores to Pakistan...can that be a motive to dedicate your life to?

If I am to die by the bullet of a mad man, I must do so smiling. There must be no anger within me. God must be in my heart and on my lips..

-Gandhi on 28 Jan, 1948- 2 days before his assassination


  • 25 June 1934:
En route to deliver a speech at "Corporation Auditorium". Gandhi and Ba were travelling in a motorcade of two cars. En route, they came across a railway level crossing. The car in which the couple was travelling was left behind and the first car reached the auditorium. Just when the first car arrived at the auditorium,a bomb was thrown at the first car.

  • May 1944:
Gandhi suffering from malaria while imprisoned at the Aga Khan palace was taken to Panchgani, a hill station.A group of 15-20 young men came to Panchgani after realizing that Gandhi was staying there. This young crowd led by Nathuram Godse came through a chartered bus. These youth held a day long protest demonstration and declined to talk to Gandhi when invited. However, by evening, during the prayer meeting, Nathuram Godse rushed towards Gandhi with a dagger in hand. He was overpowered.

  • June 29, 1946
A train carrying Gandhi was derailed between Neral and Karjat by miscreants who had placed boulders on the track. The train crashed into the boulders.The Pune police claimed that the boulders were placed to stop goods trains by looters. There were no goods trains on the section before or after the train known as the Gandhi Special carrying Gandhi and his entourage. The Police have not disclaimed sabotage and since the Gandhi Special was the only train on that route at that time, it is highly plausible that it must be the target

  • When finally Gandhi fell to Godse sweets were distributed in many areas in Pune byt the supporters of the Hindu mahasabha.
There is an article on Koenraad Elst's website about Savarkar and his ideas on WW2 and fascism.From someone who despite not being an Indian is so knowledgefully analytical of Hindutva and Indian politics ( his essay on Gandhi's mistakes is a very good read) I would consider his observations very significant even as I choose not to entirely approve of them.

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