5
RAJA RAO ON GANDHI: GANDHI AS MAHATMA
About Gandhi winter/lawyer C.S. Dharmadhikari writes:
Gandhi was the most normal of men. He was universal. Such a man cannot be
measured, weighted, or estimated. He is the measure of all things. Gandhi was not
a philosopher, nor a politician. He was a humble seekers of truth. Truth unites,
because it can be only one. You can cut man’s head, but not his thought, Non-
violence is the only other aspect of the sterling coin of truth. Non-violence is love,
the very content of life.
These words best define the reverential attitude towards Mahatma Gandhi that still rules
the roots not only in India but also throughout the world. This is despite a vehement critical as
will as creative re-visioning of the saint-cum-politician in recent times. This segment consisting
of Gandhi’s admirers, by and large, particularly positions Gandhi as an amazingly successful
leaders who touched the world both spiritually and politically. The very reasons that Gandhi is
criticised for happens to be the very points for which he is admired as well. He is defined as a
moral, spiritual leader whose religion was a means to invigorate the sentimentally sensitive
people, especially Indians. The spiritual approach he used was a means of implementing his
revolutionary ideas through a more accessible mode. His inner voice of illumination guided him
throughout in the selfless process of seeking welfare of other through the medium of his very
own self. He was the right combination of the supple and the firm, a shrewd politician, and a
humanitarian, a spiritual guide, all at the same time. In contrast to diaspora writers of the likes of
Naipaul, Rashavan N. Iyer and Bikhu Parekh whose presentations of Gandhi border on careful
scrutiny and unsparing attitude, we have, a positive or rather meditative invocation of Gandhi
emanating from another space of diaspora, Raja Rao who has been a diasporic for more than 70
years is a prominent figure of this space. Most of Raja Rao’s fiction and non-fiction delves into
the religious and mystic roots of India, and can thus be considering a very strong example of the
above-mentioned space of Indian diaspora. In all his works—non-fiction and otherwise Rao
exhibnits a tendency to romantically indulge with the persona of Gandhi who he seems to
consider one of the most significant of icons representing India. His treatment of Gandhi in his
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biographical masterpiece The Great Indian Way is particularly unique. Rao does merely compile
the facts from Gandhi’s life but tries to weave an essence around each of these facts and ends up
with a presentation of Gandhi as more of a mahatma than a man.
In the current chapter an attempt is made to sketch the idealised presentation of Gandhi in
Raja Rao’s works from the space of works from the space of diaspora in contrast of Gandhi-
bashing discussed in the previous chapter. A detailed study of Gandhi in Rao’s non-fiction work
The Great Indian Way has been undertaken along with references to The Meaning of India some
of his fictional works as well. Rao loves to play with ideas and has treated Gandhi in a similar
fashion in his writings but all the while his dealing of the leader is a reflection of his affinity to
the subject For Rao, duality makes the world and his intended purpose is to exert on duality in
order to abolish all contradictions and reach non-duality. This is exactly what he does with
Gandhi—presenting him not only as the player but the game itself, both a learners as well as a
teacher. Thus, Gandhi is The Great Indian Way. A poem on Raja Rao entitled “To Raja Rao” by
polish Nobel laureate Czeslaw gives an ideal of the basic ideology of the winter who idealises
Gandhi like no one else does. Czeslaw writes:
Link, if you wish, may peculiar case
(on the border of schizophrenai)
To the messianic hope
Of my civilization.
…..I hear you saying that liberation is possible
And that Socratic wisdom
Is identical with your guru’s.
From these lines we have an indication of Rao’s tendency of idealisation and optimism.
And this is what is depicted in Rao’s treatment of Gandhi. Rao has been nourished with faith and
reverence for his roots, culture and nativity and his approach to Gandhi comes from this domain.
He is strongly influenced by Gandhi and sweats to pen the persona of Gandhi in ardently
idealistic terms. Gandhi is a combination of man and mahatma but the latter weighs more. The
Great Indian Way or The Meaning of India are not a mere compilation of facts from Gandhi’s
life but rather they diffuse these facts to give an refreshed comprehensive meaning to Gandhism
and state the essence of all facts of happenings from Gandhi’s life, big or small, thereby making
things appear bigger and also superior. It is the way and how behind what Gandhi did and the
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great impact left behind that is the source for learning in all times to come. It has been rightly
observed regarding The Great Indian Way that here Rao weaves together the whole chronicle in
epic dimensions. It is as if a glorious parable on Mahatma’s life unfolds as we read the biography
further.
GANDHI—THE MAHATMA
Besides idealising Gandhi, Rao is also trying to eternalise Gandhi and Gandhism,
perceiving them through his Indian eyes, Rigorous Gandhian devotion perhaps propels Rao to
perpetuate Gandhi’s persona though words often soaked in deep spiritual content. Rao nurturing
unqualified adoration for Gandhi weaves him into his symbolic association with India. There is
an assertive attempt to dehumanise Gandhi and elevate him to the stature of a superior being, an
oracle. He was for the commoners and of them, yet he was above.
Rao is found of giving his writings a background or some reference in order to take the
reader slowly to the genesis of situation. In The Great Indian Way before introducing Gandhi,
Rao discusses other heroes such as Mahavira, Buddha, Harishchandra in order to categorise him.
By referring to Gandhi’s parents as the holy couple in the beginning of the biography, Rao is
able to approach Gandhi in Vedic terms so as to both inform and prepare the reader for the
magnanimity of the subject to follow. He takes up the characters of Rama. Krishana
Harishchandra, Buddha and Ashoka to provide that of Krishana go side by side. Rao draws
analogies ion their birth, their childhood mischiefs, their mother and descries both as
incarnations, acknowledging the presence of god in them and in them and at many instance both
become the one “Cloud–blue Lord” (Rao, 1998, 37). Rao even describes the history behind
Gandhi’s place of birth; it is referred to as the holy land that bore him. He mantions that is was
but natural that Gandhi’s birthplace had to have a history and thus he narrates the tale of
Krishana and his friend Sudhama to reveal how the city Porbander got its name. It was “haven”
city—a city befit to produce Gandhi. Gandhi’s childhood, his parents, to Rao, is an empire that
gods themselves protected and he describes the Gandhis themselves as a scrupulous people.
While referring to Gandhi’s home in the book, Rao writes, “But who can destroy what God has
built and established” (Raim 1998, 25). Gandhi, born to a wise father and pious mother, was to
be led by God as the protector of Dharma fighting in the great Indian way of Mahabharta. Thus,
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from Mohania to Mohandass Karamchand Gandhi to Gandhiji to Gandhi-swami and finally to
Rama, the trajectory of the prophesy of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as the future Mahatma is
narrated in theological loops and leaps of imagination. And Rao feels the need to mention Putli
Ba’s words, “Oh Mohania!..... Where have you come from? And who taught you all this? What
were you before you came to me, Son” (Rao,1998,40)? And if this was not enough, later he
mentions that Mohandas’ first unborn child was a superior being. Rao too joins in the call for
Ramrajya that could only be attained by Gandhi us evident in the lines: “yes, he had led them
rightly, he, this thin and deep-eyed man, soft-voiced and silent, and he would take us where we
have to go, to that Rajrajya, the Kingdom of Rama, which is ours. And like Sri Rama he only
speaks of the truth and of love…..” (Rao, 1998, 304).
Here one is reminded of Basavraju Appa Rao’s poem on Gandhi. He dubs Gandhi as
reincarnation of Jesus who by using the weapon of-violence defeated his foes1. In The Meaning
of India while writing of Nehru in the Book Rao is careful not to bestow him the title of lord
Rama as that is for Gandhi alone. Nehru, who had ascribed Gandhi with the title of Saint King,
has to settle down for the status of Bharatha. Rao has commented that without Gandhi there
could be no world of tomorrow. And to him, not only the Indian messes but also the British
could feel the empowering influence of Gandhi. Rao’s heightening of the historical significance
of Gandhi evident of his own Ghandian loyalties.
Rao’s Gandhi seems more than a man and definitely beyond ordinary comprehension.
Rao’s references to his personal mystical experiences in the presence of Gandhi further
strengthen the above view, as the writer discloses the awe, the fear that he experiences when in
the company of Gandhi. It is as if god has come alive for him. This is because Rao does not
approach Gandhi as writer alone but also to make other aware of the greatness that Rao has
experienced and perceived in the man and his ideals. Rao states that to attempt Gandhi’s
biography requires courage and dare2. It is a story that Rao has felt from within and penned
down. Every world is an experience. Religious pacifist John Heynes Holmes’ words may be
applied to Rao too. Holmes has said that his real life as a teacher began with Gandhi and ended
with his death. In Rao’s case, however, the association with Gandhi has been unending. Being a
man of ancient Brahmin descent and deep Indian spiritual concerns, Rao experiences Gandhi or
rather “Gandhi-swami”; Gandhi is the divine Rama in Rao’s soul symbolising the ultimate
greatness, the saviour Rama of India
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Rao considers life as bigger than history. Kathleen Raine has rightly commented that
Raja Rao uses his work as a philosopher and his writings become instruments of exploring
profound themes. For Rao, Gandhi has transcended history, has already become a myth, a divine
person carrying the fruits of his previous life. In The Meaning of India Rao mentions at various
places that has Gandhi lived long enough, the intricate problems that India is facing would have
been resolved better for if Socrates was the progenitor of the modern world then Gandhi was the
founding architect of the world of tomorrow (Rao, 1996, 77). In the biography, Gandhi’s
kingdom is that of Sri Rama and Ayodhya comprises the Indian messes. This Ayodhya
celebrates all of Gandhi’s victories and weeps for his sufferings. Thus, liking spirituality to
motherhood, motherhood to truth and so on, Rao places Gandhi in a splendid cycle of celestial-
divine cosmos. Bay play of gods, Gandhi was born in the land of bondage so as to liberate and
guide. Rao defines Gandhi as the Visvamitra.
R. Parthasarathy’s description of the Great Indian Way is only a proof of Gandhi’s divine
influence on Rao. Parthasar defines it as:
….a sprawling oral history interspersed with tales from the Mahabharata and the
Ramayana. Raja had lived at Sevagram for six months in 1942, and every page of
the book speak of his honest justification of such an experience of Gandhi.
The book is rather an invocation of Gandhi following the harikatha3 traditional of his
Gandhi based fiction work Kanthapura. Rao does not merely present the facts from Gandhi’s life
but rather is working on the rasa of Gandhi’s life. Each fat of his life has to be presented against
history. Against time and various other coordinates. The normal is transformed into mighty and
further Gandhi becomes a myth. Moreover, it is not only in the two afore-mentioned non-fiction,
but Rao’s fiction too is replete with innumerable references to Gandhi as “Mahatma”. Rao’s The
Cow of the Barricades also reflects the role of Gandhian principles in helping redeem the evil
world of history. And then there is his masterpiece Kanthapura where the mahatma is discussed
through the harikatha tradition. The bookportraqys the rise of Gandhian nationalism as a
voluntary mass movement with people jointing in numbers, from all walks of life in a small
Indian village representing a microcosm of India. Here Gandhism does not merely represent a
fight against the British rule but also comes across as means to deal with the evil of the caste
system, especially untouchability and for supporting women participation in politics. The
movement brings about unity, sense of responsibility; there are sparks of social transformation.
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Thus, Gandhism is offered as a spectrum functioning at so many different constructive levels.
Some define it as addition of an ethical dimension of the social and political movement with
precedence of moral concern over the political ones. Rao’s treatment of character in the novel
elicits the mesmerising effect of Gandhian magic on the masses.
Iyengar (Iyengar, 391) in the study of Kanthapura concludes Roa’s concludes Rao’s
approach to Gandhian politics as half-poetical and half-whimsical. He evaluates Gandhi in the
book as the invisible lord. He is Rama himself in this Gandhi Purana. Not only in Kanthapura,
but rather in all of Rao’s works that deal with Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi’s life is discussed in the
typical sthalapurana5 style and by extension of the of the same logic Gandhi himself become the
legend. Critics have observed the “master” in Rao’s story “Narsiga” and The Cow of the
Barricades as symbolic figures for Mahatma Gandhi. In the story entitled “Narsiga” we come
across a young lad bewitched by mahatma by his very description given, though never heard of
or seen before. Mystrey surrounds the reality of this Mahatma—is he a great saint or is he an
incarnation of god. Through words heard alone, Mahatma becomes a god as seen in the lines
below:
Auntie said, there was a bit, big man called Gandhiji….An old man- a
bewitching man, a Saint, you know!... He looks beautiful as the morning sun,
…..They say he is an incarnation of God, ….when you touch his feet you feel as
though the body has sunk to the earth, and you are nothing but a mere ant before
an elephant (Rao, 1947, 106)
Nevertheless, the mahatma is also a man who walks among the masses and pats them on
the back, If on one hand he is Rama flying to Ayodhya and an object of daily worship, then on
their other he is also permeating the varied and almost all aspects of life. He is presents in a
moral preaching conversation between a teacher and his pupil, in social gatherings, in grandma’s
stories, in books and comics: myths get associated with him. He becomes a way of life! In this
work On the Ganga Ghat, Rao discusses the legendary vulture Krodha and mentions that it “was
seen by man at least since the last 20 years—so people say, since a year or two after Mahatma
Gandhi assassinated (Rao, 1989, 22). In another story entitled “A Client” we seen Gandhi
permeating even a common day-to-day talk—“it is because of these examination that we have
become such slaves, losing our ancient traditions and our self-respect. Do you know what
Mahatma Gandhi thinks of it? He thinks of it….”. Also, Rao does not attempt to 119
compartmentalise Gandhi and render artificially to his presentation. Instead he portrays him to be
a many-sided personality in order to make his character more believable. He does not impose the
mahatma upon the readers straight away. His treatment is that of transition of a common man to
mahatmahood.
Thus it is on a higher plane consciousness that Rao attempts to explore Gandhi at
multiple levels while putting him in religious dimension and trying to explore him
metaphysically. Rao’s elevation of Gandhi has been done with a strong Indian flavour. Rao’s
Gandhian works are, to use Robert D. King’s expression from the article “Raja Rao’s Works”,
appear as a “subdued discourse on Gandhism”, making it seem a tradition. Rao, experiencing
Gandhi in total realisation, personalises him and offer Gandhism as a so-called mighty field of
energy capable of gigantic social transformation starting from a scratch and taking on epic
dimensions. He exhumed power the could heal or correct all. He is only seen within the cosmic
paradigm.
Gandhism implies a way of life as Rao writes, “But what is Gandhism? It is not a creed;
it is a perspective on life (darshana)” (Rao, 1998, 173). This cosmological force inevitably by
virtue of its principles took over the world. Gandhi thus become a legend, a perspective and is
therefore analogised through epic/historical character. Thus, where a section of the diaspora
tends to colonise Gandhi, Raja Rao, rooted in Brahamnism and Hunduism, on the other hand,
nativises him all the more. He give a fabled version Gandhism, which otherwise as a task has
been undertaken by indigenous writers largely. For instance, Humaun Kabir6 has written a sonnet
on Gandhi in which his evocation of Gandhi from the indigenous space is in total analogous to
that of Rao.
GANDHI—AN INDIGENOUS PRODUCT
Another aspect of Gandhi’s life that has been keenly explored in writings on him is the
fact that he spent a lot of time abroad and was trained outside India. Naipaul says that London
made Gandhi a colonial, he developed an outsider’s attitude whereas on another plane, Gandhi
is more often described as an indigenous-cum-universal man for all places and for all times. Raja
Rao has indigenised Gandhi in and out. There was wonder and amazement for Gandhi on
entering a new world in London and Rao justifies it by describing the beauty and the mystical 120
essence of England that makes an outsider realise one’s own awkwardness all the more. Rao
mentions in the biography, There’s a splendour about England that seems almost mythological.
The barges, the Thames, the ships, the high buildings, the palace of Westminser, the lean and
quiet ways of a civilised land” (Rao, 1998, 86), Naipaul condemns Gandhi of ignoring London at
the cost of attending to himself all the while, Rao, on the other hand, turns this the other way
round by explaining how London was responsible for creating conditions that made it impossible
for Gandhi to orient anything but his self. The wonder and amazement of London never escaped
Gandhi’s attention. Rao writes, “The landscapes, the houses, and the people, seemed just as the
pictures in textbooks. When you see what you’ve imagined and it’s found true, you always have
a secret sense of self-assurance” (Rao, 1998, 86). Defending Gandhi’s stand on vegetarianism he
says that vegetarianism was not an obsession but rather “The most civilised way of eating, and
also the most scientific one” (Rao, 1998, 90). Each and every act of Mohandass was in fact a part
of his efforts to best fit in the society of London with his limitation.
Rao refers to Gandhi’s strenuous efforts in his quest for survival out of India. Gandhi has
to endeavour hard and Rao adds that there is always a sincere effort, persistence, strong well
power, resilience on his part be it for keeping the vows that he took in front of his mother or
adjusting to new society. Of course, Rao does conclude that ultimately there was success. Gandhi
was told that in England etiquette was morality and thus he emphasises on befitting the society in
the best possible manner—the dress, speech, music, dance, attire–all was a part of his sincere
effort. And Rao writes that an Indian out of India becomes, as it were, an Englishman, the
universal man (Rao, 1998, 112). England was n amalgam of financial metropolis and political
megalopolis and this it was obvious that after London, Bombay would look so provincial, so
parasitical. The Indian were bound to seem so thin, so drab. The British looked the master race
that can rule a country with high elegance, with shrewd competence (Rao, 1998, 101). Rao
further explains how London was responsible for making Gandhi realise that the Gita was
scientific and Bible religious; that the inner voice has its significance and it was the source to
comprehend God (Rao, 1998, 96-97). He writes, “But above all he was the edge of finding God.
This trip to London has become a pilgrimagte” (Rao, 1998, 100).
Rao does explicate that Gandhi by comparing India with London was not trying to
support the maintenance of British control over India but rather voicing the need of an inter-
cultural translation resulting in betterment of India. Gandhi was at no point suggesting a 121
surrender of Indian to British manufacture but rather Rao asserts that Gandhism was a challenge
to colonialism. Explaining that Gandhi’s attitude towards things has changed but not the person
within him. Rao writes, “England has not made him forget his Hindu instinct” (Rao, 1998, 102).
He has learnt to make better sense of his life and segregating priorities. Rao mentions that
Gandhi’s life in London made him aware of the things he wanted and those that he did not. He
explains that if Gandhi rediscovered India on his return it was but a natural reaction to the
disparity between the fast-paced progressive people of London who are “hard-working, united,
silent and love to get things done” (Rao, 1998, 277) and the sluggish of things in India in the
biography, bound to move any thinking mind. He comments, “And naturally the delegates when
on living in their own filth and odours. Who cares? This is India” (Rao, 1998, 240).
Gandhi has acknowledged that the British taught him to be a gentleman. Amidst an
Indian that was used to living in filth and odour, here was Gandhi with his sanitary instinct. His
exposure to a methodical world has made him conscious of the lack of order and Methodism in
his native land. Some critics question as to way Gandhi was not moved by the plight of Indians
in India but rather in the foreign land of Sough Africa B.R. Nanda in his article “Tarring the
Mahatma” discusses the genesis of Gandhi’s struggle in South Africa, with his primary focus on
interrogating as to why Gandhi’s struggle began for the indentured Indians only and not for the
entire black community of Africa, He adds:
….if the back population did not figure in Gandhi’s campaign, it was partly because it did
not suffer from the disabilities against which the Indians were protesting…Moreover, it is
doubtful whether, at the turn of the century, the black population in South Africa would have
readily accepted a young Indian barrister as its leader.
Rao justifies the concentration of Gandhi concern on the Indians alone in Africa.
He concludes that the political circumstances were such that Gandhi felt the
urgent need to attend to the Indians in South Africa. Rao describes South Africa
as nations within a nation. It is a colourful land of splendour and Gandhi entered
this land at the tender age of twenty- four “carrying with him the multiple riches
of India, recognised and unrecognised, with a thousand little understandings from
the British…..”(Rao, 1998, 112).
Gandhi’s supporters ignore the fact that it was Sought Arica and not India where his
struggle began. They are rather appreciative of the fact that South Africa prepared Gandhi to
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struggle in India. Africa was the nursery of satyagraha. In The Great Indian Way, Rao gives a
detailed accountant of the genesis of Gandhism in South Africa, Unlike Naipau, Rao is not
concerned where this genesis took place. He is simply scripting the birth and development of
Gandhian ideas that were unleashed later on a much larger scale in India. Africa became the
testing ground for Gandhian resistance that was to later brings about political transformation in
India. Rao has in fact dedicated a major portion of the book to Gandhi’s life in South Africa with
very little reference to the movement in India. By giving a reverential and fable-like treatment to
Gandhi’s experience in South Africa, Rao has made the country a battleground that prepared
Gandhi for a much bigger fight in India.
Scripting Gandhi’s political and spiritual enrichment in Africa, Rao is only expressing
amazement and wonder as his book progresses along with Gandhi in Africa Gandhi has gone
there to earn a livelihood but the bitter experiences that he underwent in Africa had to be an eye-
opener. He was thrown out of railway compartments, kicked on the pavement. Rao comments
that the whole encounter changed something within him. It made him realise that he was a
British subject. And so on his second return to Africa, Gandhi haggard by the misery of Indians
there finishes his task of rousing Indians to heroism and prestige in Africa through his lordly
games. In Rao’s words, he realised that the evil committed was for the purpose of bestowing
good. He writes that “Evil is only a round about way of affirming good” (Rao, 1998, 122). Sita’s
imprisonment brought about Ravana’s liberation (Rao, 1998, 122). Rao even adds that Gandhi
helped Indians in Africa to better themselves, teaching them English and trying to make them
better civilised. He expresses gratitude for Gandhi because it was due to him that good was
happening for the Indian community there.
Thus, according to Rao, South Africa changed Gandhi from within. His experience there
gave him inner radiance. He became loyal to the British constitution. And as he return to India,
his mind was preoccupies with the plight of Indians thought he knew that from a distance things
looked exaggerated and his first attempt would always be to reason out with them. On his second
visit to South Africa when the British were at wars with the Boer, he retained his royalties as a
British subject and offered to nurse the wounded British soldier. Rao described how this act won
India great pressing in Sough Africa. He mentions that when Gandhi decided to stay back in
South Africa to fight his first barrel it spelt the death of colonialism. In fact, he lauds at the
success achieved and he impact left by Gandhi in Africa as he writes, “Auspicious the waters of
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the ocean will feel, father, and holy the earth wheresoever she will see you. May you live
amongst us a hundred years” (Rao, 1998, 434). Gandhi has planted the tree of satyagraha in
Africa. By citing the individual success stories of Gandhi in Africa, Rao happily graphs the
development and growing success of Gandhi there. At one place he writes, “The principle of the
colour bar was dropped. Here Gandhism won” (Rao, 1998, 207) while at another he mentions,
“The bill was passed, But Sir John and Gandhiji became friends. Thus Gandhism won again”
(Rao, 1998, 208). And thus Rao indigenises Gandhi in a foreign land. The essential Gandhism
never lets go off its hold on him and for Rao that as much a measure of his nativity, as it is of
Gandhi as well.
GANDHI’S SELF AS SELFLESS
Some critics tend to associated Gandhi’s engagements outside India as obsession with the
self. Francis C. Assisi has talked of critics’ notice of an invariable search of self on various levels
in Rao’s character. Gandhi’s ideas And acts seemed to centre on his own self with the personal
experience being the supreme motivation. The influence of containment of all within oneself is
also perhaps the effect of Gandhi’s reading of Ruskin’s Unto This Last, which emphasises the
importance of seeking one’s interests in common welfare7. Critics While referring to Gandhi’s
Writings add that Gandhi’s self was acutely sensitive. Gandhi connected the self with the
satyagrahi in him and the importance given to the self was responsible for growth of the tenets of
truth and non-violence8.
Rao mentions in his essay entitled “The Ultimate Word” the supremacy of the “I” (Rao,
1996,160-174). Exhibiting a metaphysical bias towards the self, Rao’s definition of “self” then is
not in terms of an obsession, but rather it connotes the only source of inspiration and of creative
expression. All enlightenment comes from within the self. It is where the individual
communicates with god and seeks all answers. The self is the substance of the Brahman. And the
inner eye is the only key to making sense of the outer world. Gandhi has sacrificed his al for
other. He lived and died unselfishly but was not always perceived the way he wanted to be. For
Rao, Gandhi felt the messes through his veins. This consciousness is significant for Raja Rao. It
is nothing but absolute knowledge. It is this consciousness that leads to the realisation of the self
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(Rao, 1996, 13). All external acts become hut offering to the consciousness. The beginning and
end of a person lied in “I” itself, as Rao writes in The Meaning of India:
So concludes the Mandukyopanishad, belonging to the Atharva Veda-
Atmantmanam ya evam veda
Aum indded the “I”
He who knows this,
Enters the “I” with this I.
Thus I go where the “I” is (Rao, 1996, 174).
Rao has mentioned the dissolution of the self as the only reality and the light of wisdom
and guidance. And the true sage is the one who understands this. Vira or hero, he mentions, is the
one who leaps inwards before rushing outward and that is what Gandhi did. The inner can be
explained only by proper reasoning and this reasoning borders on the realisation of all others
within himself. Rao considers the inner voice as supreme and beyond bay contestation. It is the
voice of god. Thus, Rao seems supports sacrifice and dissolution of the self, which he symbolises
in Gandhi manifested his own self onto other intead of keeping it to himself and this makes his
“self” selfless. Rao seems to have no problem with this, as he believes that the world is but a
reflection of the self. In fact, he denies denial or isolation as evident in the following lines from
The Meaning of India:
What then would be the form of sacrifice to reach this natural, this perfect state?
All forms such as asceticism and mind-control are but aberrations of this sacrifice.
Denial is no purification. Indeed is only the solidification of thought-from, but as
a negative manifestation (Rao, 1996, 14).
Rao mentions that once man realises the final instruction that the self is everything, there
is no need to know anything more. Life becomes eternal. Gandhi was confronted with the idea of
self in others at an early stage as Rao mentions in the biography, “if one does not know this
dissolution there is only the moral world: I am, so the world is. I am but I seen the many: am I
the many” (Rao, 1998, 103)? But finding his self in other was an ardent task for Gandhi, as Rao
explains that Gandhi had to deal with contradiction all the way. In fact, the very truth that
Gandhi tries his best to adjust to and integrate into the society of London and later South Africa
negates the possibility of considering Gandhian obsession with self at all times outsides India.
Changes within the self after the perception of the world. Gandhi realised this in South Africa.
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Rao interprets it as Gandhi’s most creative experience Gandhism was a product of god searching
beyond the self in isolation and thus the personal became universal. Rao contends that to Gandhi,
self-realisation came in the form of service to community. He realised that non-violence and
service of poor would change the face of mankind. Critical writers prefer to name this self-
obsession but for Rao, the self is supreme universal factor that alone accounts for the true
meaning of life. “There is none beyond, Pray what is there beyond the “I” (Rao, 1998, 39). And
in case of Gandhi, Rao prefers to call it the “higher self” (Rao, 1998, 333). Rao equates “I” with
“Isness” (Rao, 1998, 103) and asserts that the self being ambivalent by nature cannot be
centred—“There is none at the cantre. It is. Is is. Is” (Rao, 1998, 120).
This idea of the “self” in Raja Rao stems from his faith in the theory of advaita or non-
duality9. “I” is the eternal truth. For Rao the advaita was present within and it aimed at
synchronising the outsider with the self. It was thus both an illusion as well as reality10
. Rao calls
duality the “not-two principle”, Strongly advocating the strength of the advaita philosophy
throughout his works, Rao holds that the advaita dissolves all separation between the self and the
world. The individual wave is but water and so are all other waves that make up the entire ocean.
Therefore the individual feels the need to dissolve the self with other. He not longer works for
himself but rather the “self” works with and as other “selves”. What matters is not what one
knows but rather what one is. Thus, Gandhi felt all others being reflected in his being. He
experienced men therefore whatever he did, he felt and did for other and for this it was
imperative that he merged the self with people Rao defines “Mahatma” at the one who can attain
on-duality, he becomes the legend-the great being as Rao writes in The Great India way:
He who achieves the impersonal, the principle, he the great being, the Mahatma.
He it is that’s become the Law, from the laws that hold (dhru) the sun and the
moon, the good and the bad, and the law that makes the waters go down the sea
and the waves are seen as water you see greatness. Greatness is not greater. It is
(Rao, 1998, 111).
In the books, Rao also talks of Mahavira’s discovery of the self that rendered him a free
man and made him a friend of all living things. Rao seems to be in favour of seeking answers to
external challenges from within and therefore the shift from the world to the self. True freedom
or swaraj lies in sway over self. The external is but an expression of the internal and so Gandhi’s
victory was not just confined to himself but the world and in Rao’s words it:
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….will not be a late of rapid conquest or of easy defeat. It will be the story of a
slow victory-internal and then external, for the external is only and expression of
the internal. Thus Gandhji’s personal story is also the expanded story of a world
revolution (Rao, 1998, 221).
To Raja Rao, the advait in the world was not something out there but what within an
individual and as Samkara would put it—the fusion of the outside and the self occurs when maya
of illusion of the phenomenal world is shattered by the advaitin’s razor-shape mind. Gandhi
negated the personal from his suffering and made them the sufferings of all. Suffering became a
powerful tool to propaganda as a self-strengthening force. By tolerance of suffering upon himself
Gandhi aimed at exhibiting resilience, thus winning the hearts of the adversaries and bringing
them to his own side. Suffering is thus considered to be vital for progression in the freedom
struggle. And violence is means to accept paid and this resilience is more powerful than anything
else. Rao mentions that Gandhi suffered with men, for men and thus he was an epitome of
tenderness, ever ready to nurse those who were suffering.
Here then the self-centeredness beings to be seen in a totally new light i.e. “otherness”. It
is total contradiction to Naipaul’s portrayal of Gandhi’s selfishness. Rao mention in The
Meaning of India about Gandhi in London that it “made him a barrister of the inner Temple”
(Rao, 1996, 65). The significance of the self for Rao is further evident from his belief that
realisation and comprehension of one’s own existence is the key to understanding one’s
civilisation. Gandhian critics have cited Gandhi’s saying that equate the idea of self with
renunciation and portray “being” as much superior to “possessing” Dharmadhikari quotes
Shelley’s lyrics to compare the binding factor in his dissimilar notes of music with Gandhi’s
efforts at beckoning Indians to come forward and increase his tribe. For Rao, reality beings and
ends with the self: it is a living experience. The self become identical with god thereby negating
the possibility of de-mahatmaisation. Gandhi took vows. Critics prefer to term these as personal
obsession but for Rao, the vow was a necessary ingredient to “inner transformation” and a
“transfiguration of a primary psycho-biological nature” (Rao, 1998, 265).
And ultimately Rao comes down to Gandhi’s Hinduism instincts and says that Gandhi
was a Brahmin and Brahmanism has always been emphasising the importance of the self. Self-
existence is experienced as Absolute. It is the beginning and end of all knowledge. When Rao
discusses Gandhi’s view of the self despite presenting it as something proximate and distant at
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the same time, nevertheless, makes it sound rather organic. It is as though the inner self rules.
Bhiku Parekh has listed five “distinctively human powers”— self-determination, autonomy, self-
knowledge, self-discipline, and social cooperation. These powers, he adds Gandhi would have
required for any great civilisation. The important this to note is the all-pervasive aspect of the
“self” in Parekh’s construct. It is only through the self that one can aim at doing something
external in nature. With Rao the self is both sublime and at the same time energetic. It is created
from experience and acquires the vision to guide. Rao’s 21-line introduction to The Meaning of
India may be included here to highlight the significance of “I” for the writer. Notice the
repetitive occurrence of the world “I” throughout below:
I am no scholar. I am a “creative” writer. I love to play. I enjoy the juxtaposition
of ideas, I play. The end, I…..I pay the game….I must be forgive for
repetition….I must be forgiven for this misdemeanour…..come, let us play, you
and I (Rao, 1996, 7).
Rao transforms Gandhi’s self into an achievement of cosmic proportion. The self is
“truth” and therefore is absolute. And since is borders on non-duality, therefore all selves of
world merge with the one “self” and therefore there is no need to search for answers outside,
they evolve form within.
GANDHI’S RELIGION SPELT MODERNITY
Critical writings seems to question the hostility that Gandhi’s religious preaching seemed
to bear against modernisation. Naipaul too has throughout questioned application of Gandhism
since according to him Gandhi was a spiritual leader rather than a political one, a preacher of
Gita in the modern times, thereby spelling backwardness for India through his influence. Rao on
the contrary in The Great Indian Way (Rao, 1998, 330) asserts that asceticism is the only way of
true life; spirituality is the key to truth and the Gandhi spiritual was the true perspective on life.
In Rao’s works, Gandhi’s life and his movement are more or less described as play of the
divines. Gandhi, according to him, was on higher perspective of life. By believing in and
surrendering himself to god. Gandhi went on struggling and this was the rasa of his life. Rao
describes Gandhi as the truly wise who has understood the presence of a cosmic rhythm in life
and connection between facts. In fact, he was the “true hero” (Rao, 1998, 72).
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Rao refers to the journey to South Africa as a pilgrimage. At all times Gandhi was
exploring varied religions and constantly accepting desirable tenets from each. For instance in
The Meaning of India Rao mentions that Gandhi respected Islam; in Christianity he was
dedicated human service and spiritual unification of mankind (Rao, 1996, 68). From Gita by
which he was grounded, he learned forgiveness and this forgiveness and this forgiveness laid the
seeds of non-violence. Thus, Rao wraps Gandhi’s life in a celestial cloak. At one time he
mentions that the Gandhian movement is Sri-Krishana’s whirl of his disc and at another moment
the people are lauding him with slogans of “Ramachandraji ki jai.” Rao’s statements in The
Great Indian way as “….and let God decide the rest” (Rao, 1998, 84) or “God’s ways are
strange. Let us play the game not knowing where we go. The end is not here nor now. The end is
where one is beyond the here and now” (Rao, 1998, 28) and finally his implications that all the
while Gandhi was brought up with the chant of Rama Rama on his lips and directed by strange
ways of god—are all indicative of endorsing the significance of spiritual faith and guidance in
approaching Gandhi. Rao depicts Gandhi as playing the strategies of Krishana all the way with
the gods descending to his rescue is needed hours. In the biography Krishana is always there,
behind Gandhi. Thus is transformed a “genetleman of god”.
Rao also refers to sain-philosopher Rajachandra’s deep influence on Gandhi, which
inspired him to merge philosophy with business and begin fighting law through spiritual means.
He was spreading spiritual wisdom more than anything else. His spirituality has huge potential
for transformation. Rajachandra told Gandhi “to attain God one needs to be freed from all
bounds of Karma. The soul is ‘pure consciousness’, total intelligence, all strength, all
knowledge” (Rao, 1998, 138). In The Meaning of Indi Rao depicts the process of shaping of
Gandhian philosophy that draws him closer and closer to “Truth” (Rao, 1996, 66) For Rao, the
metaphysical is not a state of existentialism but rather of progression. Rao seems to have total
regard for the abstract and this is way Gandhian dynamics clicked with him. In fact, he
recognised that the “criticised” irrational means too, be the satyagraha or non-violence, were
capable of productive action, especially where the more reasonable-seeming ways failed.
Esoteric subject have always fascinated Rao. The search for the meaning of truth and the path of
achieve it concerns the protagonists of most of his works. Therefore, there is this tendency to
cling to metaphysical dynamics to explain the various events in The Great Indian way. He
transforms Gandhi into a saint and mentions that this sainthood was nor easy. He writes : “The
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saint astonishes you with the consequences, good or bad. For him, the real is beyond both. He
only seeks the Truth. The means are more fruitful than the end, for were the end reached….”
(Rao, 1996, 75). All that Gandhi had for help was his inner voice or the silence from which
sacred words of wisdom emerged and subsequently there was light and Rao equates this light
with true perception.
As far as Gandhi’s obsession with the Vedas and the Gita is concerned. Rao (Rao, 1998,
17) is very clear to mention that these contain the very essence of the spirituality of Indian and
when the land of gods was invaded by the British, rescue emerged in the form of Vedanitic glory
and Gandhi was one of its pioneer. It was Vedic tenet of strong sense of religion reflected in
Rao’s Gandhi. Religion being dharma acquires the nature of responsibility, decree and highest
merit all together. Rao also adds the Gita taught Gandhi “Samabhava” or equanimity, Bhagwad
Gita was his tried and tested faith. He found it of have more logic than Bible. It gave him the
answers he sought. Rao describes him as the dharma—performer of the Gita (Rao, 1998, 113).
The Gita being “the noblest expressions of philosophy that man have ever stated” carrying “all
the great wisdom of India and of the world” (Rao, 1998, 217; 231) was rightfully chosen by
Gandhi as the guiding source. Tao seems to comply with the Hindu Idea of Vedas and the Key to
the knowledge of the eternal spiritual truth11
.
Gandhi, as Rao implies, found all his answers in the Vedas. Rao himself too has been a
strong advocate of the Vedas12
. In an article entitled “The Example of Raja Rao”. R.
Parthasarathy has included his study of The Chessmaster and His Moves. He observes Rao’s use
of Gandhi’s references to the Bhagwad Gita as a way of life (qtd. In Hardgrave, 1998, 22). The
ancient way, for Rao, was based on truth and helped in shaping the very foundations of man. The
past was a source of inspiration alone. Thinkers as Rao, rooted in traditionalism, view the
contemporary as a condition with a lot desied to be changed and for them only the past has the
power to do so. Therefore, Rao justifies the application of the past to the modern world by
Gandhi. The promotion of divinity-cum-Gandhism has a lot to do with Rao’s own spiritual
perspective. For Rao, Gandhi was simply aiming to achieve both transformation of the society
and that of the individual. The focus has always been on the “moral welfare” rather on improving
social institutions, Sainthood was a fight replete with impediments but having attained victory in
sainthood, Gandhi became a mighty being, more powerful than the kind himself. Critics who
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favour Gandhi’s preference of the spiritual or moral over the material are convinced with his
conviction that the latter would only spell trouble for the villages in the time to come.
Thus Raja Rao defends Gandhi’s appeal to the deep religious sentiments in India. People
in his writings respond to Gandhi largely as the saint-philosopher, the master of the “light-giver”.
Rao attempts to weave Gandhi and Gandhism into the traditional framework of India as he writes
on “Gandhi-inspired stir; new social ideas; Gandhian challenge as a conflict between the good
and evil” or “the right dharma”. For Rao, metaphysics was integral to the representative Indian
tradition. Spirituality was an important binding factor. It had a stronger impact on unifying the
mass sentiments into desired direction. Gandhi’s Rao could be called a “political-saint”. Rao
implies that Gandhism was trying to humanise the state as the spiritual and the earthly are inter-
related. Gandhi has rather a practical approach wherein he webbed the moral, political and
religious aspects of his life. Action and reflection went side by side. And not anywhere does Rao
give the impression that Gandhi’s spirituality is passivity. Rather he offers it as an active field of
energy. Religion was an instrument of truth and spirituality was dynamic not passive.
Naipaul, as mentioned in the previous chapter, blames Gandhi for starting, what he
defines a play of symbolism in India. Gandhi’s symbolism has been controversial concern for
most of his critics. His public display of the everyday rites has often been rapped for the dramatic
manifestation of the symbols. But Raja Rao is quite supportive of Gandhi’s symbolism, Gandhi
sitting on the spinning wheel seems a divine figure to Rao. “Silence spinning silence seems the
round of love” (Rao, 1996, 80). Rao’s support of Gandhi’s symbols is in tune with Rao’s
tendency to encourage the idea of practice of ritualising in his works. Rao mentions that Gandhi
being a true politician realised the potential of the dramatic performance: of the means being
more important than the ends, Gandhi loved his symbols, according to him. Every symbolic
ritual Rao elaborates, has a significance attached. If walks were good for health, then lesser
clothes meat better breathing for the body; sandals instead of shoes meant freedom from smelly
feet; fasting had divine power and his power only led to clarity of vision and stronger devotion
(Rao, 1998, 49). And so when Gandhi beckons his brothers to “spin that love between us, let us
spin and weave such love…” (Rao, 1998, 443). Rao is only patronising Gandhi’s art of
ceremony. He writes, “Every footstep should be a ritual, every word a mantra” (Rao, 1998, 66).
Gandhi for some was basically a good main aiming at revival of virtue and ethics. And
thus from his Gandhian baggage of mysticism, he had realised that all in all, utilitarian means did
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not always come in handy where aiming to reach important ends. His symbols brought about a
unity of heart and mind by virtue of their combination of tradition, ritual and pragmatism. Every
act subsumes and goes beyond the earlier one. Vows takes by a serious man lead to inner
transformation and that too of a permanent nature. This transformation or rather transfiguration,
as Rao puts its, is sanctifying (Rao, 1998, 265). And so when Gandhi realised the power of the
symbols and the vows, he transformed them into weapons. These symbols could be used to
propagate almost any message because everything symbolised the connection of the individual
with the celestial. “Fast” (Rao, 1998, 454) connected one to the Absolute and “prayers” were a
means to receive the message of God. And so Gandhi would fast unto death. “spinning” was
inaction in action and vise-versa. It was supple. One could not dare disturb the spinning of
spinning. Gandhi’s eyes closed while his hands motioned the wheel, and Rao explains the power
within the silence that surrounded him. Rao upholds silence and since prayer to him is wisdom as
an imperative requirement for the path of noble truth. And thus when once Gandhi was
confronted with a snake in the lumber-room, Rao explains that it was due to this inner,
transformation that the serpent has no fear of Gandhi and therefore didn’t attach him.
Perhaps of all Gandhi’s invocation of various symbols, Rao seems to be most fascinated
by the spinning wheel15
. Gandhi has always been emphasising on the role that hand spinning
could play in gaining self-sufficiency, and even moral regeneration. Besides Gandhi has been
associating important tenets with the wheel such as truth, non-violence. Freedom, agriculture and
removal of poverty. Rao (Rao, 1996, 76) adds in The Meaning of India that the beginning of the
wheel was in the end and the end in the beginning and this was the action and this was what
Gandhi wanted. Then there is divine intervention in the act of spinning; “Gandhiji goes on doing
the something doing nothing, nothing. An actionless act, as it were, it moves by itself, Who is
there? No one” (Rap, 1996, 80).
And thus Gandhi the forever pilgrim, in his peasant grab, and walking staff, seemed a
very Sukhama, going a-visiting his Sri Krishana, the Truth, Gandhi was ever the pilgrim (Rao,
1996, 64). Gandhi’s walk, the loincloth wrapped round his frail body normally labelled as part of
Gandhi’s scheme of symbols signify the beauty of naturalness to Rao. The loincloth made it
easier for him to related to commoners. The Gandhi-cap signified a license to earn respect from
them. These symbols according to Rao played an important role in Gandhi’s efforts to bind with
the masses. Importantly, Gandhi has also presented the wheel as an important instrument of
securing cooperation among the people. Thus it is obvious why spinning took the form of a yajna
for Rao. Rao was a devout Hindu and Hinduism gives much weightage to symbolism16. The
entire gamut of symbolisation in The Great Indian Way, is seen making the task of struggling for
freedom much easier. All the symbols combined together give Gandhian struggle a powerful
ethical identity. In on The Ganga Ghat, Rao writes:
The Gandhi-cap gives you such respect that you could go anywhere,, and nobody
will say one harsh word to you. It also made contact easier….And when tow
Gandhi-cap meet there’s much greater fund. Life is not worth living now. I tell
you, unless you speak the Mahatma’s tongue (Rao, 1989, 107).
Various critics have mentioned the significances that have been attached to Gandhi’s
symbolic gesture within the homeland. The symbolic practices of praying, spinning, wearing
Khadi and other were revolutionary by nature. Rao explains that each of the symbols has a
purpose attached to it. The prayer helped in invoking strength from within for the purpose of
community work. The spinning wheel symbolised manual labour and Khadi stood for
independent native industries. Thus for Rao, all these symbols together were basically
instruments of perpetuating a cry for common social change and also importantly they helped
relate daily life with the revolution.
THE POWER OF GANDHI’S TRUTH AND NON-VIOLENCE
Naipaul has been critical of Gandhi with truth and non-violence whereas Raja Rao whose
rediscovery of India has often been described as a quest for truth, is as pains to discuss the Vedic
glory and divinity attached with these principles, especially “truth”. In fact he himself sounds
like a second Gandhi when he resorts to moralistic oratory in order to glorify truth. A reading of
The Great Indian Way clearly indicates that truth according to Rao is the “summum bonum” of
human life. Rao’s advocating of truth was in tune with his own Vedantic belief that truth defines
the ultimate motive of existence.
Rao has worked with the concept of truth in repletion. Even his fictional works have not
been spared of the quest for truth. In The Serpent and the Rope. Rao inserts a metaphysically
conversation on truth to imply that truth is freedom from all illusions. In the Policemen and the
Rose, truth is a pilgrimage of de-sensualisation where all passions give way to selflessness.
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Satyagraha has been regarded not only as a revolution that created togetherness in India but
turned out to be one of the most significant contribution to human world. Gandhi’s domestic
advocates believe that it was because of Gandhi’s conviction in the principle of truth that his life
turned out to be a message. Satyagraha got associated with swadeshi and economic self-reliance.
It was marked by a sense of responsibility. Salt Satyagraha has been accorded with the merit of
being the most spectacular in the history of political revolts. Rao understand Gandhi’s
interpretation of history as truth. Truth is regarded an means of salvation and the highest dharma
as well as the means of normal human existence. Rao says that life “has meaning only when truth
has meaning” (Rao, 1998, 56).
In fact according to Rao, truth was the only way of real adventure, the only way that
Harishcandra-Gandhi could survive in the contradictory and corrupt London and finally succeed
in his struggle against the British. Truth paying its game led Gandhi on. For a satyagrahi Gandhi
“truth was more important than accommodation with contingent realities” (Rao, 1998, 453).
Gandhi, being a man of truth had no secrets. Mystery gave way to bareness of honesty and sound
intentions. Rao himself was popular as an ardent seeker of truth. At times truth implied
compromising with situation, inviting danger, losing relations but herein lies the beauty of
truth—it is both hard as adamant and tender as a blossom, for Rao (Rao, 1998, 174). He
considers truth as invincible. And above all God was on the side of truth-abiding Gandhi. His
death was but victory of Satyagraha. Gandhi kept facing hardships in the path of Harishandra,
yet goes on. Even in South Africa, Gandhi was at all times trying to maintain truth in its pristine
purity. Gandhi guided by truth, got engaged in social service send moral welfare and later in the
struggle for freedom. It is at several places in the biography, that Rao feels the need to elaborate
on the strength and supremacy of truth. The right emerges from as well as ends in truth: no evil
can withstand it. Truth is free of all constraints. It is timeless and victory is for the timeless. It is
a circle and has ns end but is repetitive honesty (Rao, 1998, 368). In The Meaning of India
Gandhism is a technique of revolutionary activity composed, and used, not for the political but a
metaphysical change. So it is called satyagraha or the grasping of “Truth” (Rao, 1996, 68). In the
biography Rao refers to Mahabharata in order to elicit the glory of a satyagrahi:
A king should build up his victory by means other than war; victory through war
is said to be the worst. Death through dharma is better than victory through
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Brahaman: truthfulness is the greatest offering to God: everything is base don
truthfulness (Rao, 1998, 370).
Thus truth become a sure short formula for victory. It gives the strength of fighting on. In
The Great Indian Way truth is spelt with a capital “I” in the upper case, throughtout. The very
title of the book is the definition of truth to Rao. Evil too is but a shadow of truth. Kingdoms
have been sacrificed for the sake of upholding truth. There are numerous suffering and
complexities in its path but it ends in clarity of understanding. Rao refer to Buddha who had to
free his own self of worldly complexities to search eh ultimate truth, as it is more important than
any earthly power. “After all, Harishchandra did it, Why not Mohandas Gandhi (Rao, 1998,45)?
“Truth burns on. Victory is ever to the Truth” (Rao, 1998, 51). Mohandas too lived the
harishandra way, which to Rao was the normal way of existence. Life is meaningless in the
absence of truth. Rao says that thruth was a part of Gandhi’s being since the very beginning but
when he made a confession in front of his father and receive subsequent, forgiveness in return,
truth became a passion for Gandhi, it became his protector and guide. In England too, Gandhi
maintained steadfastness in the path of truth. Path of truth was winning for Gandhi in South
Africa. Gandhi was led by its power in all his movements and ended “not in applause but in an
indrawn void of pure silence” and that is the zenith of truth (Rao, 1998, 294). Gandhi stood by it
like a true satyagrahi, sacrificing accommodation with contingent realities for its sake and thus
went conquering on. Rao writes,: “You never lose when you are truthful and disinterested” (Rao,
1998, 44) “Truth alone is victorious: Satyameva-jayate” (Rao, 1996, 77).
Rao also wondered in the biography whether Gandhi had attain the ultimate meaning of
truth, which is that I the mystery of death lies the prognosis of life. He aroused nationalism in his
search for truth. But satyagraha again is not easy. Rao defines it as a ropedancer’s drama. One
cannot look left or right, up or down, one has to look at the rope and the rope alone (Rao, 1998,
301). Rai says that Gandhi was not fighting an enemy but standing firmly by truth, facing
deterrents in his path of satyagraha. He was not a man but truth himself seeking victory for the
common man and changing his fate. Thus he began his revolution resplendent with Gandhian
miracles all the way.
Rao (Rao, 1998, 72) mentions that the white in South Afria too get swayed by the truth-
abiding leader. When Rao defines truth as dharma, eternal Brahman or the greatest offering to
god, then it is not surprising that it is one of the factors why he considers Gandhi a saint. It is not
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deeds that are the main criteria of a great man for Rao. To him possession of the ultimate
thought-process or rather knowledge is of greater significance. An individual needs to rid himself
of biological strapping and elevate himself to a higher level that is free of all sequencing and the
individual can merge the universe in the self. And once this happens the play beings as one exits
prose and enters poetry (Rao, 1996, 177).
Satyagraha was a moral and social movement. Rao too being a devout Hindu supports
truth as one of the principle aims of human life and also as a modernist concept. Hindu thinkers
are inclined to define the theory of satyagraha in terms of human values. Satyagraha as been
defined as a fight for hearts before any other. And since it is a moral fight, therefore opposing is
justified. The aim was to win hearts through conversiona rather than destruction. Thus there was
an element of traditionalism involved. Naipaul blames Gandhi for perpetuating passivity and
defeatist attitude through his policy of compromising and submitting in the form of non-violence.
Raja Rao has dealt with both the concepts—that of passivity and non-violence. When it comes to
his treatment of Gandhi’s non-violence it would be apt to refer to Mahapatra’s poem quoted in
Bijay K. Das Postmodern India English Literature, in which Mahaptra has represented non-
violence as a mystical yet beautiful and assuring light, something that happens to be Rao’s
perception also:
It is a world in itself
This ashimsa,
With its mysterious shadows
Lurking under ancient places,
That assumes the clear self-sustaining
Light of suns:
A redefinition of beauty .
Firstly, considering Rao’s perception of Gandhi’s passivity, his definition of non-violence
is fact the exact oppotie of the literal meaning of the world “passive”. For him, Gandhi’s
passivity stands for power and action and what seems like inaction is in reality a higher from of
action. Action and inaction complement each other and one always includes the other. This
energetic passivity is a highly effective tool of catalysing peoples’ impulses. Besides Rao says
that silence practised by Gandhi enabled him to think before he spoke. Therefore, it was good.
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Rao denies fixities and asserts that man is always in ambivalence. Thus action becomes
an ongoing process and each action becomes an act of sacrifice. The means take over the ends.
The inner is with the outer. Thus, where some critics pull at Gandhi’s passivity as cowardice,
Rao on the other hand, defines compromise as an essential accompaniment of truth and as noble.
Gandhi had according to Rao, unconditionally accepted non-violence as a faith. In fact, non-
violence became the principle weapon that Gandhi has adopted in this fight against the British. In
the biography it is not just Gandhi propagating non-violence, along with truth, as the guiding
p9rinciples of all actions and thought, but it is as though Rao is sermonising the readers himself.
Gandhi was not ready to compromise his stand on non-violence even if it meant failure at any
point of time in his struggle. He was open to negotiations only through engagement of the
opposition’s conscience.
Rao deals with Gandhi’s non-violence as a positive and dynamic approach. His non-
violence had assumed tremendous popularity and relevance in his times. As with all other things,
violence too has to be introduced in Rao’s works and Rao starts with Ashoka and his discovery
of the goriness of violence. Non-violence, like the tenet of truth as an indigenous tool. In fact,
truth and non-violence go into defining Gandhi’s integrity in the biography. Rao identifies the
unwavering resolve of Gandhi to treat the non-violent path. The fact that Gandhi’s non-violence
was a subtle yet powerful force has been recognised time and against in The Great Indian Way.
Raja Rao describes the need of adopting it as a life long practice. He exhibits not only the power
that Ganhdi’s non-violence held but also the kind of resilience one requires to be non-violent. He
advocate attaching rational and sobriety with it. Rao’s commitment to Gandhian non-violence is
clearly revealed in his description of the peasants’ conversion to the principle of civil
disobedience. Rao (Rao, 1996, 93) says that Gandhi’s non-violence what a-politicised: it was a
means of reaching the truth he was searching for. Rao sees Gandhi’s non-violence as an
inheritance from ancient scriptures and asserts that Gandhi simply explore its potential.
GANDHI—THE ORGANISED LEADER
From one diasporic position, i.e., of Raja Rao, there emanates defence of Gandhi’s
opposition to westernisation but at no point of time is this equated to advocating backwardness.
Gandhi has not been presented as an outright protestor of the West but he did not want the West
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to replace what we have. While one section of diaspora views Gandhi’s economic views as not
only modern but global also; aiming ultimately at attainment of self-sufficiency, another section
considers them to be impediment in the way of succeeding in modern economics. Gandhi’s view
based on compromise and submission are seen as incompatible to contemporary times of
competition. In protest to such allegations. Aruni Mukherjee, diasporic remarks, “a major part of
Gandhi’s criticism towards industrialisation was geared towards preserving India’s rich natural
resources”. A reference may be made to Rajendra Prasad18
who has mentioned the prominence
of economical development in the enlightened Gandhian plan of things alongside simultaneous
weightage given to moral development. Well-being was not the standard of measuring economic
development but rather here was an emphasis on comprehensive development. Gandhi’s was
rather a globalised view and his stress on Swadeshi was simply to cultivate self-confidence and
national self-respect.
If on one has Rao eulogies Gandhi as “Mahatma”gaining success with his spiritual spells,
he also draws him as a political leader with intellectual density; a man of vision and firmness
guided by “an imperative and imagery honesty” (Rao, 1998, 368), who shook the foundations of
the Empire with his magical hold on the masses as Rao writes in The Great India Way:
It is here Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi enters history. He touched the nerve
centre of empire building with a gentlemanly geste and an elegant argument–
meek in voice but firm in statement, which eventually broke, in fifty years, the
firmest foundations of the Empire (Rao, 1998, 162-163).
Rao uses the personal of Gandhi to define the meaning of India, Rao’s Gandhi is a
saintly-human combination of a politician for the simple reason that Gandhi, as Rao explains, has
realised that the divine and the real world were inseparable and one could not isolate either of
these. The “irrational in man” can light the creative spark where logic and reason have failed and
Raja Rao was this in action in Gandhi’s Satyagraha movement. An article in the Deccan Herald
entitled “The writer in exile” by Malathi Rao, recognises the difference between the abstract and
Gandhian ways and goes on to say that even though the abstract world of ideology has always
dominated Rao’s thought process, nevertheless, he was drawn to the independence struggle as
well as to the political principles of Gandhi which perhaps should not be all defined on a rational
ground but could be at par with logic.
In Rao’s treatment of Gandhi, one is reminded so Sriniwas Iyengar’s words: “The
greatness of Gandhi was no sudden overwhelming greatness but rather the greatness of ordinary
man who through a long process of trial and error, aspiration and endeavour, achieved a
greatness indubitable his own” (Iyengar, 249). Rao presents Gandhi like any other devout Indian,
as an amalgam of tradition, myths, customs, gestures and rituals, acts eliciting statements of
philosophical, historical superstitious, cast-originality significance and therefore he chooses the
epic style to narrate Gandhi. In The Great Indian Way Rao explains how Gandhi combined both
the illusionary and the real. The demarcation between ritual and reality was very narrow and this
added a whole log of mystery to Gandhi’s character, making him all the more attractive for Rao.
In Kanthapura also the Gandhian movement overshadow the narrow concerns and brings people
together for a bigger cause. Rao discusses freedom only with relation to Everything circles on
him. Anyone, Rao says, can live like a hero but it is death as a hero that counts, Gandhi’s was
heroic.
In the biography, Rao even mentions the quick global realisation of Gandhi as a leader
following his activities in Africa. We come across the whites in South Africa who recognised
Gandhi as an educated and enlightened force to be reckoned with. Gandhi was nobly respected
at such a young age. Gandhi impressed quite a few whites there as he went around experimenting
in human understanding and acting as protector of Indian there, and Rao says that with the
combination of intellect of the whites and Gandhiji’s committed headship, “the movement
carried a secret and astonishing momentum to its own” (Rao, 1998, 195). P(eople were taken by
Gandhi-swami’s fight that was getting bigger and bigger. Rao even talks of Gandhi’s growing
popularity in England even before he began his play in India.
Rao sums up Gandhism as discarding of hypocrisy, winning the hearts of the adversaries;
favouring kindness to accusation; practicing scrupulousness with facts; fair play; honest
argumentation, however, it accepts compromising were required but not sacrifice of truth at any
cost. It was not an overnight miracle but rather a planned wise play of Gandhi that affected its
slow yet consistent winning. The Great Indian Way depicts how despite its appearance,
Gandhism is based on reasoning and reasoning trails on a rough path, making critical decision,
opting for suffering and also at times, overlooking the near in the interest of the far. Gandhism is
darshana just as India’s (Rao, 1998, 173). It follows the path of reality as well as beyond the
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reality of facts. Gandhism was a slow approach but nevertheless it was always winning slowly
and steadily.
In The Meaning of India, Rao has tried to touch the sensitive issue of whether to
politicise or spiritualise Gandhi and concludes that Gandhi after his London experience fulfilled
both:
London has pushed Gandhi not only deeply inward but also has made him a
gentleman—of all British gifts to the world the most precious. The gentleman
combined in himself (somewhat) the moral firmness of the saint, the shy
statement of the chevalier, the knight, and withal the practical wisdom of a
politician or businessman (Rao, 1996, 66).
Rao says that Gandhi has multiple influences that contributed to his and politics was just
one of them. Rao mentions in the biography that Gandhi preferred complete surrender to god but
slowly realised that he was made by god and meant to be the play of god (Rao, 1998, 363). And
this made him all the more powerful; even his silence held powers. Gandhi was a strong
revolutionary on one side; he was also a humanitarian, caring for the deprived and standing for
their well-being. Gandhi’s love was formless with no imitations. He as not regressive but on the
contrary has planned a fabrication of the Indian of tomorrow with particular concern for the
common man’s future. Rao writes, “Gandhi was a revolutionary. He wanted to change the face
of India, of present India, the India of the common man” (Rao, 1998, 71). Gandhi used the tools
of culture and tradition, which even Rao considers to be greater effect than history. In fact, he
considers “tradition as but ritualistic history” (Rao, 14998, 293), Describing the beauty of the
craft that Gandhi employed in suing history, Rao writes, “To all there he turned in deep
salutation, did Gandhiji, and then did he speak: Brothers, he seemed to say, this is an ancient
land, and we walk today where the Buddha might have walked” (Rao, 1998, 442)
Gandhi, through Rao’s writings, also comes across as a reasonable man who would
always give the opponent a benefit of doubt as and when permissible; his first attempt being
always to try and understand the adversary’s situation. Forgiveness, a strong point from the
Bhagwad Gita, was supreme in his scheme of things. Gandhi always pinned trust in his
adversaries and he never treated the enemy as an opponent but as a player among players. All
belongs to but one whole (Raoi, 1998, 351). Rao’s Gandhi was a “selfless being” leading India
by the great Indian way of truth and non-violence; ready to put all that he possessed at stake for
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others. Rao identifies two seekers of path to god–one with Marxian approach and other as truth-
abider and says that the former creates his paradise on earth but it is the latter who will beyond
man and be sacrificed (Rao, 1998, 121). Gandhi was a constant learner eager to grasp and
constantly hone his learning. Reasoning asked of him to overlook the near in the interest of the
far. This very learner was the teacher and this is metamorphic relation between the tutor and the
taught, also goes into defining the Indian way according to Rao.
For Raja Rao, the saint-politician combination was the reason why Gandhi held a magical
influence on the people. Mahatma, Rao says, is not merely a title bestowed upon Gandhi. For
Rao, Gandhi is a mahatma or rather he is mysterious (a whole of energy, unorthodoxy,
forgiveness) which makes it all the more difficult to place him in any fixity or perspective. But
all this miscalculation adds a whole lot of grandeur to his being, thus, making him all the greater.
Rao given full credit to non-violence and civil disobedience as political techniques. Gandhi was
a product of the Fabian world and therefore relied on experimentation. He has learnt “your way
is the all-for you” (Rao, 1998, 139). Gandhi led a self-responsible life and only sought liberation.
As a sage he has transcended ego and the world. His was a journey of rediscovery rather than
that of transformation. And it was in his sincere efforts to change himself that he changed the
world (Rao, 1996, 62). Gandhian miracle occurring times and again while all the times Gandhi
sought victory of the common man and this made him appear most selfless.
Rao’s Gandhi was a revolutionary. In The Meaning of India, Raja Rao deals with both
Gandhi the man the mahatma. He further adds that while comparing Gandhi and Nehru, the
former stood for wisdom or the principle while the latter figured as power of practice. Rao has
further argued that it was only safe for Gandhi and Nehru to be two separate entities as wisdom
and power in one could be disastrous, Gandhian strategy thus from Rao’s perspective is that of
both simplicity as well as complex calculations. Gandhi required a sense of vision to organise his
vision in an executive from and for this it was necessary for his to combine the ethical with the
practical. To sum up, according to Rao, Gandhian philosophy is not just simultaneously a
political, moral and religious offering but it is also traditional and modern, simple and complex.
It embodies numerous western influences to which Gandhi was exposed. At the same time being
rooted in ancient Indian culture and harnessing eternal and universal moral and religious
principles, there was much in it that was not at all new. Even Rao too stumbles across the
peculiar shades Gandhi appearing at times in his political-philosophical progress but nevertheless
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his’ is a relentless effort at Gandhi-worship. In his chapter on Gandhi in The Meaning of India.
Rao offer to interrogate the make-up of Gandhi, the subtitle of the chapter being “Saint or
Politician”. He, however, concludes that Gandhi was both (Rao, 1996, 60-61), Rao writes that
saint is the one who images god whereas politician images goo citizens. Gandhi wanted to be
neither of the two. He only sought liberation for himself in the form of attaining the ultimate
truth and desired to be a sage. He was attempting rediscovery and not a radical transformation;
he was trotting on an eternal pilgrimage in search of truth yet circumstance would not let him be
and he ended up being both a saint and a politician. The search inevitably sowed seeds for the
freedom struggle and thus truth became India. God himself helped Gandhi (Rao, 1996, 67).
In a study debating whether Gandhi was pre-modern, modern or postmodern, Gandhi has
been related to postmodern forms of thought especially in areas of the self, ethics, religion, and
political philosophy. Gandhism has been referred to as “Constructive postmodernism that
involves using the past as inspiration and not as blueprint of the present. His “inner voice” has
been associated with relativism and modernism is being redefined in the post modern times and
in Gandhi’s case it applies to prevalence of hope and wisdom. It is the coming together of facts
and values. Some critics has viewed the idealisation of the guidance through the self, truth and
non-violence as tenets of postmodern philosophy because they encourage coming together for a
common good. It was synthesis of the old and the new.
Raja Rao said about The Great Indian Way that other biographies of Gandhi has been
true to the facts but not to the meaning of Gandhi’s life: “A biography of Gandi it seemed to me
has to be written as it were from the inside, desperately, faithfully” (Rao, 1998, 8). In the book,
Rao has not merely attempted a biography of Gandhi but rather he is trying to take out the
essence of Gndhism—what it means, what it dose and it greatness. In face, the book is imbued
with a plea for understanding and adopting Gandhian philosophy. Rao understands that though
Gandhi was a political leader, the basis of his life lay in the baggage of religion. Gandhi
combined in life of ethical and morality with spirituality. The spiritual played its way through the
veins of his existence and Gandhi linked it with his plan of action through his intermediary
instincts there by always meting with victory. Raja Rao places strong faith in religion and
perceives it a powerful source of guidance and wisdom. Rao (Rao, 1998, 422) depicts how
Gandhi could mould politics and religion in a very balanced way, by harping on the pious and
historical instincts of the people, to get across his message to the masses. Rao has only
emphasised on the global importance to Gandhi’s spiritualisation of politics. He further adds that
by adopting Gandhian disctums a better world may be built. Rao shows that Gandhi’s faith in
god led him in his political endeavour and was thus helped through moral/metaphysical
dilemmas. He became the voice of the future to come. But this does not deter Rao from
describing Gandhi as fearless and dauntless. In fact, Gandhism, to Rao, was based on facts and
precision; each step being a mathematical statement and therefore, it won times and times again
against those with power (Rao, 1998, 173). Rao writes, “Never what Gandhiji said or did could
leave man indifferent” (Rao, 1998, 223). Despite all devotion that Rao practices in his writings
on Gandhi, he nevertheless, presents him as a practical man who flexed himself according to
variant circumstances thereby negating the possibility of fixation. He has power and excitement
in his voice to rouse the ignorant masses. He served humanity. In Rao’s writing we come across
people in accumulation coming under the spell of Gandhi and the symbolic riches of Gandhism.
Realising the potent power that he beholds, cast over by his overwhelming spell, following him
blindly; all men and women, shouting “Say Ramachandraji Ki Jai. Say Victory to Sri Rama”
(Rao, 1998, 415).
Rao himself as a writer has been using religion as a stimulating force in almost all his
writings. His books read like a katha. In Kanthapura, Rao depicts a village swept over by
Gandhian thought and a quiet village transforms into a battleground for freedom. Gandhi
becomes a cult in the novel and the village is enraptured with its essence. Gandhi here stands for
the ethical more than the political. Rao therefore gives us a visionary leader who had learned to
harmonise India values and politics aimed at common welfare. He was clubbing “is” with “what
ought to be”. He does not consider the separation between fact and value. Gandhi has the sense
of supporting decentralisation has knew how to make a perfect mould of the past and the present.
Rao favours the transmutation of the past into a metaphor for the present time. Romain Rolland
too has put Gandhi’s resistance with the aid of religion on an idealised pedestal. Stephen Murphy
in “Brief Outline of Gandhi’s Philosophy” writes, “In coming to grips with Gandhi’s way of
thinking it is most important to understand the perception of truth undergoes an ongoing process
of refinement which is evolutionary in nature”. And that is what Rao has tried to express. In
Gandhi’s thought the emphasis is not merely on attaining the ideal but to obtain it within
practical dimensions.
Raja Rao is a case of first generation diaspora. He was born and brought up in an ancient
Brahmin set-up in India and developed strong spiritual values under the influence of his
grandfather. Even after he left India, he never ceased thinking about it and continued his society
did not alienate him as such. Rao’s consolation lay in spiritual expression and in America he did
not seem to fall short of avenues for the purpose. Thus, with successive time, he gained a deeper
insight into Indian culture and spirituality. Indian spirituality become a source of self-
actualisation for him. Whenever, in India, he seemed to be in a spiritual quest. And slowly as his
socio-political interest in India grew, he became a part of the freedom movement. Ancient Indian
civilisation fascinated him and he attempted to revive its values. It was during his political
engagements that Rao met Gandhi, Gandhi’s sense of spirituality, Indianness, and his strong
advocating of the striking principles of Hinduism such as truth, non-violence impressed Rao and
in Gandhi he perhaps found means to self-realisation.
Thus in Rao we seen an unquestioning clinging on to Indianness. It is evident that in
order to related to the native space, Rao has selected his own set of symbols representing his
spirtial, social, political, cultural interests in India and Gandhi is one of them. Why Gandhi
assumes all the more importance is due to the fact the he represents each of the aspects listed.
Rao seems to see his own self in Gandhina values. Therefore, we do not see anything of the sort
of strong critical examination of Gandhi through a historical paradigm but rather there is a
reverential invocation of him as Gandhi helps Rao strengthen his bond to the native place.
In The Great Indian Way: Raja Rao has explored Gandhi all over again in different
dimensions to give us a whole new divine and rich layered perspective of the leader. And when
Rao claims in The Meaning of India that Gandhi did not live long enough and if he had, most of
India’s worries would have been taken care of, he in fact reiterates how much faith he has
invested in Gandhi as a leader. He writes:
….had Gandhi lived long enough and had Gandhi attained the integrity of non-
duality in himself, which he never claimed he did, Gandhi might have made.
Nehru, his Moghul Emperor, construct and Indian that might have resolved may
of the intricate problems of internal and international politics in a truer
perspective (Rao, 1996, 88).
Another writer from the space of Indian diaspora that may be considered here is the
poetess Meena Alexander. She has repeatedly used Gandhi throughout her poetry. Her approach
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to Gandhi is, however, that of reminiscence. Gandhi is longed for and his absence is painful. She
commemorates the ideal that he stood for and her poems cam be considered tributes to Gandhi’s
gift to India. In her collection of poems, mentioned earlier in Chapter 2, entitled Letters to
Gandhi, Gandhi is throughout referred to as “Dear Mr. Gandhi” which indicates both affection
and reverence towards him. Gandhi lived his life and having made his contribution, proceeded to
heaven. He is the onlooker from above, still very much alive implying the eternity of Gandhi.
The people have failed Gandhi and the situation is out of hand. In her poem “Slow Dancing”
Gandhi’s helplessness is expressed at supreme when Alexander writes:
I see you at the rim of heaven
Grow older till, bewildered, stopped
Dhoti flecked with drops of mud,
Face seared by moon
That has nothing….....
The same poem, Gandhi’s need for guidance is felt more that ever before but extremity of
situations makes it impossible for Gandhism to reach down here as she writes:
Dear Mr. Gandhi
Please talk to me now.
I am slow dancing
In the dark….......
This pro-Gandhi approach to Gandhi is though contemporary and uses a different
approach from that of Raja Rao’s, yet there is the common fact of Gandhi being eulogised by
both. Therefore, they stand for the other space of diaspora that reveres Gandhi as a significant
icon representing the homeland. Gandhi is the link to the glorious past, history, tradition and
culture and even to the present as well as the future of India.
Basavaraju Appa Rao’s peom on Gandhi
A new Jesus Christ that incarnated
By not hurting him,
He melted his foe’s arrogance
Bom in Hindu paigambar.
( Das, Sisir Kumar, 65-66)
R. Parthasarthy while discussing metaphysical speculation of Raja Rao notice the writer’s
awe of Gandhi in every page of The Great Indian Way, while Mulk Raj Anand defines the
evocation of Mahatma Gandhi as the essence of the book. Sometimes Rao makes Gandhi a
compulsive intrusion into the text. And only occasionally there is a Naipaul-like reference to
him “….Walls, Walls, makes my son good. Make him eminent. Don’t make him a Gandhi-
gander. He must be virile and bright…” (Rao, 1989, 70). K. Unnikrishnan finds in Raja Rao a
keen awareness and consideration of the “Guru principle operating in the Indian social psyche”
(Narasimhaiah, 2000, 142). He adds that Rao values the guru-disciple relationship and this is
also evident in Rao, the writer’s relation to his subject Gandhi. The guru stands for source of
strength and inspiration and Rao’s works, the treatment of Gandhi as mahatma is similar. R.
Parthasarathy in “The Example of Raja Rao” while reviewing The Chessmaster and His Moves,
observes that “the guru as light giver for his disciple, takes up many forms, one of them being of
Gandhi besides of Krishana, Buddha, Sankara and others. The guru shall clarify all doubts as he
leads from ‘the unreal to the real, form darkness to light, and from death to immortality”. A
spiritual discipline and self-control is required. Knowledge becomes supreme and ultimately
there is deliverance with the attainment of immortality. (Hardgrave, 1998, 24). In fact, Rao
himself seems sometimes a guru narrating and preaching Gandhism to his readers and
propagating Gandhian ways as a form of spiritual awareness into our daily lives. G.V. Gupta in
his article entitled “Myths behind the Mahatma’s Methods”, says that the book is a “sagar
manthan” the unfolds the story of the development of the mahatma in the backdrop of Indian
tradition.
M.K. Naik observes the effect of the combination The Cow of the Barricades and states
that it was due to this due to this that Gandhi has such a strong impact on the masses. He writes:
The spirit of freedom struggle in the people would not have has the fire it had, has it not been the
celestial influence of Gandhi on them. The people gave Gandhi and his cause their unconditional
commitment and followed him blindly….” The Mahatma said: ‘Don’t buy their cloth.’ And
people did not buy their cloth. The Mahatma said: ‘Don’t pay their taxes’. And people did not
pay their taxes….” (Naik, 55). Rao writes: “The women sat at the train doors and said: Until
Bapu comes we shall not go. And other, the men that were already in the train, they jumped over
the women and came out on the plate form and cried: Brothers, we will not go, and all the men
then shouted, Sri Ramachandra Ki jai, and the….” (Rao, 1998, 422).
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Sthalapurana is the pan-Indian term that refers to myth and the legend associated with a
local place or region. Humanyun Kabir has written the following sonnet dedicated to Gandhi.
A lone figure stands upon he sands of time….
Launches India’s resistless caravan
Into adventure new, a perilous path
Where out of life’s substance must be carved
New values, new direction, order new-
Gandhi, mahatma, India’s leader, India’s soul.
The poet seems to be in a ecstasy as he explores Gandhi in philosophical, political and
humane terms. Kabir talks of Gandhi, the mahatma, India’s leader, India’s soul as a lone figure
standing upon the sands of time. He has launched India into new adventures and the Indian
caravan without the power of resisting followed on a death-defying path. And out of life’s
substance carves new values, new direction and a new order. This is reminiscent of Rao’s faith in
Gandhi who believes him to be for all times and all places.
Gandhi was offered Ruskin’s books by Gandhi’s intimate friend Mr. Polak and Gandhi
read it on his train journey from Johannesburg to Durban. The book gripped Gandhi so much that
its teaching of the book appealed to Gandhi instantaneously and Gandhi paraphrased it into
Gujarati as Sarvodaya (the welfare of all). Gandhi learnt the teaching of the book to be. The good
of the individual is contained in the welfare of all. All have same right of earning their livelihood
from their work, That a life of Labour is the life worth living. Gandhi defined the qualities on an
ideal satyagrahi in fairly clear-cut terms: he or she had to be schooled into knowing the ways of
himself. He admitted that his public presence– as an apostle of peace-has come about as a result
of his carefully tending him erring self. (Geeta, 11). But first, it is important to understand the
philosophy of Advaita or non-dualism. Derived from the school of Vedanta, advaita tenet asserts
the supremacy of the Brahman as the ultimate self. Sankaracharya has expounded this theory
deeply. From Gandhi’s perspective and all the more in Rao’s case we need to focus on
Sarvatmabhava, meaning that the self is all. Therefore, nothing is left to be desired for. All
wisdom and happiness lines in one’s own. “He who sees all beings in the Atma and Atma in all
beings feels no hatred.” Thus with this realisation of the self one become literally selfless and
attains the ultimate Brahman. The Atma, which is all-pervasive, becomes the sole guide. This is
liberation. Other are seen within the self and that is when the self and that is when the possibility
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of having enemies is negated. The only mission is to work for other. Even god is to be identified
with the self.
M.K. Naik in his book on Raja Rao, while making a study of The Serpent and the Rope
mentions Swami Prabhavanada’s views on self: “The world. According to Sankara” is and is
not”. Its fundamental unreality can be understood only in relation to the ultimate mystical
experience, the experience of an illumined soul. When the illumined soul passes into trascendal
consciousness. He realises the self (the Atman) as pure bliss and pure intelligence, the one
without a second. In this state of consciousness, all perception of multiplicity ceases, there is no
longer any sense of “mine” and “thine”, the world as we ordinarily know it has vanished. (Naik,
1972, 88). Winfred P. Lehmann while commenting on the tenets of Advaita school informs that
according to his school of thought-the only reality is Brahman, and reality is undivided, Advaita;
the world before our eyes is Maya, unrealityTo Raja Rao, the advait in the world was not
something out there but what is within you and as Samikara would put it—the fusion of the
outsides and the self occurs when Maya or illusion of the phenomenal world is shattered by the
advaitin’s razor-sharp mind.
Rao writes, “He realised in the midst of all these confusing dabates that every though was
valid in terms of itself, but that creative though was only the gift of “the inner voice” (Rao, 1998,
97). He states that it ws his voice that made India (Rao, 1998, 39). The Hindus of all persuasion
regard the Vedas as their supreme written authority. They believe that the Vedas are divine in
origin, being the direct revelation of knowledge of the eternal spiritual truth (Nanda, Nivedita,
1992, 1). A reference must be made here in brief to the principles and importance Bhagawad
Gita, which has been the ultimate guiding force for Gandhi. Defined as the cream of the Vedas,
the book deals mainly with the importance of work, meditation, charity, worship, knowledge and
so on. The teachings in the book have been implied on the more earthly plane. Indrani
Bandyopathyay while describing it a sphilosophical discourse dealing with the eternal problems
that humankind faces, she mentions of its essence; It illustrates the struggle between body and
soul, the struggle of coming to terms with one’s mortality and impermanence within a greater
permanence. Octavian Srbatoare finds in the book an identification of ethics with dharma.
According to him, the book stresses on the immortality of soul; duty, functions and
responsibilities in relation to the society: spiritual and supreme knowledge : obtaining salvation
through action while renunciation of fruits of it.
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On the importance of dharma, Nivedita Nanda states: No man is an island. He depends
for his sustenance on other members of the society. So it becomes obligatory for him to give
something in return as his contribution for the upkeep and maintenance of the society. This is his
dharma towards the society. Dharma assumes the form of duty at the social plane (Nanda,
Nivedita, 1992, 13). Malayam poet Vallathol’s . Malayam poet Vallathol’s poem on the
saintliness of Gandhi “Ente Gurunathan” translated by P.K. Parmeshwaran may be cited here:
The wide, wise world, is all his home
The grasses; plant and worms, Kinsmen
His gains arise from sacrifice and glories from his lowliness
In him the yogis live their life
And thus my Master reigns supreme.
(qtd. In Dass, Bijay Kumar, 2003, 65-66).
Parekh writes, “Modernism attributes no man godly powers, which is has used to
conquer nature and build weapons of mass destruction. In my other book in this series I have
called this Titanism, a form of extreme humanism in which human beings have taken on divine
prerogatives and, as a result of their hubris, have lost sight of their proper place in the world”. It
is said of Rao and the Vedas that the Vedic world is a living world, its ground satchit-ananda
(being-consciousness-bliss) of essential existence. Deeply as he has respected Western
spirituality, Raja Rae has never doubted the more fundamental understanding which underlines
the Vedic tradition and is the inspiration of the philosophy and the arts of India civilization,
flowering in sculpture and dance, mathematics and architecture, painting and music and poetry;
all alike grounded in the sacred nature of things…. (“Raja Rae: scholar, philosopher, literary
artist”).
Francis C. Assisi comments on Rao:
His spirituality is not a New Age feel good kind, but philosophically rigorous. He
is a novelist of ideas, but the idea is always suggestive of something beyond itself,
pointing, ultimately, to the Absolute.
Parthasarthy states that Gandhi added an ethical dimension to what was basically a social
and political movement. The Gdhian bias of the novel is obvious: moral revolution takes
precedence over social and political revolution. He adds that stress is laid on values as
righteousness, love, non-violence, and on ritual beliefs and practices. Kancha Ilaiah in “The
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symbols of civilisation” too refers to it as the most imaginative and productive symbols of
civilisation. A reference my be made here to an article entitled “Hindu Symbols”P wherein the
author discuss the importance and role of symbols in Hinduism. It mentions that since Hinduism
believes in god being formless, these symbols offer as means to add some comprehension to this
formlessness.
R.K. Dasgupta in his article “Gandhi’s Political Philosophy” Lauds Gandhi’s non-
violence as a globally accepted phenomenon for world peace especially in the light of existing
violence. Gandhi promised a new world and is slowly but steadily emerging as a spiritual and
moral hero on the international scene.
Rajendra Prasad wrote: “Gandhi’s economics, or economic developments, is by and large
qualitative. It is morality-centric because its goal is the realization of people’s satisfaction on
happiness, but not any kind of satisfaction or happiness… Even globalisation, going in for
multinational trade, is in the same direction encouraging the accumulation of wealth in the hands
of a few individuals, or groups or individuals. All this may eventually happen, in spite of some
opposition to it. But the exiom of the Gandhian model of development to develop India while
preserving its ethics-cultural identity is to develop its villages and its ethical soundness is as
valid today as, if not more than, they were in pre-Independence India” (Gandhi, Globalisation,
and Quality of Life: A study in the Ethics of Development”).
A major fraction of the western imagination too has been evocative of Gandhi-chanting.
If on one hand, we have claims to Gandhi as a divine being, there is a more realistic tribulation
being granted to him as an organized leader and a visionary. Stephen Murphy is one of the best
examples as he combines both the sides in his presentation of Gandhi. He considers truth as the
ultimate reality—God for Gandhi and this reality if founded on morality. Gandhi was aware that
only by merging the inner with the outer self could mental harmony be achieved. Stephen even
attempts to redefine Gandhi’s concept of non-violence and instead, he understands it as a
denotation of active love and yet a handy force to reckon with. Gandhi, to him, worked
according to a well-defined thought-process, which did not border on rigidity or set up
paradigms of a system or dogmatism, rather it has the capability of being variedly used in
differing situations, recognizing inconsistency and constantly evolving in more refined forms.
Marie Beuzeville Byles says that Gandhi will be remembered most for all the concept he gave
vis-à-vis satyagraha, non-violence and other. Gandhi had imbibed the teachings of the Bhagwad-
Gita therefore all he did was but a duty. “It seems ironic that worldwide anti-globalisation
movements often portray Gandhi as someone who shared the same side of the ideological
spectrum, when Gandhi himself was clearly a product of globalisation. He was education in
London, started his political activities in Sought Africa before he even joined the political arena
in India and greatly influenced by western figures such as Jesus, Tolstoy, Thoreau and Ruskkin”.
Gandhi was not all about morality and truth has in fact been voiced at all times. V. Geetha
(Geetha, 8) called him not an apostle of peace, but rather its humbles pilgrim a man whose ideas
could help illuminate-even if they do not help resolve–some of the most agonizing moral and
political question of our time, when both oppression and justice appear to demand unprecedented
destruction, death, death and loss of dignity. Akeel Bilgrami in “Gandhi, the Philosopher” too
writes that on one hand, Gandhi is the man of great spirituality and uniqueness and, on the other
as a nationalist leader with a strikingly effective method of non-violent political action.
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