Daughter Of Midnight - The Child Bride of Gandhi. Arun Gandhi

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СКАЧАТЬ the “advice” of a British political agent or resident — officials such as Frederick Lely in Porbandar. Actually, the British political agents were the de facto rulers of the princely states.

      With high hopes, Mohan went by appointment to Mr. Lely’s residence to present his cause. It was his first personal encounter with British officialdom. Upon approaching Mr. Lely, he bowed politely as Indians would to an elder, palms together. But, even before he could explain the reason for his visit he was curtly interrupted. “No help can be given to you now,” Mr. Lely declared, murmuring something about financial aid for study in England being available only to those who had already earned a college degree.

      With that, Mr. Lely turned his attention to weightier matters, unaware, as the British historian Geoffrey Ashe put it, “that he had just stood face to face with the ruin of the Empire.”

      This ignominious dismissal left Mohan more determined than ever to go to England. On his return to Rajkot, he and his brothers redoubled their efforts to find 5,000 rupees somewhere, anywhere. Mohan wrote to distant cousins requesting money. One or two indicated they might help, but reneged on their promises when caste leaders objected. Lakshimidas went to local officials asking for assistance on his brother’s behalf. The British political agent in Rajkot, a Colonel Watson, offered nothing more than a letter of introduction to someone in England. The local ruling prince, the Thakore of Rajkot, presented Mohan with a signed photograph of himself. Even Sheik Mehtab, as friend and former schoolmate of both Karsandas and Mohan, was recruited into the fundraising campaign; he wrote a letter to one of his own cousins asking for a loan for Mohan — to no avail.

      There remained one other possibility. Mohan suggested the family mortgage Kasturbai’s jewellery. A woman’s jewels were her property. Kasturbai was pained by the suggestion not so much because she was attached to her jewels but because secretly she dreaded the separation. She feared that she would lose her husband to western culture. She also knew going to England was something he considered very important. She resolved to bear whatever came without complaint.

      Putliba relented only after consulting a Jain monk Becharji Swami, another trusted family friend and now Putliba’s main spiritual adviser. He suggested that Mohan make a solemn vow to his mother in his presence that he would not touch wine, women, or meat while he was away. Putliba believed in vows, and she believed in her son. He could go now, with her blessings.

      On August 10, 1888, friends and relatives gathered at the Gandhi home in Rajkot to honour Mohandas as he set out for Bombay. He was accompanied by his brother Lakshimidas who was safeguarding the passage money. Several years later, writing for an obscure English journal, The Vegetarian, Mohandas depicted this emotion-filled occasion:

      “My mother was hiding her eyes, full of tears, in her hands, but her sobbing was clearly heard. I was among a circle of some fifty friends. If I wept, they would think me too weak; perhaps they would not allow me to go to England. Therefore I did not weep, even though my heart was breaking. Last, but not least, came the leave-taking with my wife, it would be contrary to custom for me to see or talk to her in the presence of friends. So I had to see her in a separate room. She, of course, had begun sobbing long before I went to her and stood like a dumb statue for a moment. I kissed her, and she said, ‘Don’t go.’ What followed I need not describe.”

      Lakshimidas had planned to book passage for Mohan on a voyage leaving for England in August, but on arriving in Bombay, where they stayed in the home of their sister Raliatben and her husband, they heard that a ship had recently gone down in stormy seas. Already uneasy about ocean travel, Lakshimidas accepted the advice of knowledgeable travellers that Mohan’s departure should be delayed a few weeks until the rough monsoon seas had calmed. Since he could not remain away from his work that long, Lakshimidas left Mohan in Bombay with Raliatben and her husband Vrandavandas, to whom he also entrusted the passage money.

      No sooner had Lakshimidas departed than word came from the Modh Vania caste elders in Bombay that the council, headed by a distant relative of the Gandhis, disapproved of Mohan’s trip. No Modh Vania member had ever crossed the “black waters” to England, and none could go there without compromising their religion. Summoned to appear before the council, Mohan somehow mustered the courage to object. “I have already promised my mother to abstain from the things you fear most. I am sure my vows will keep me safe.”

      The council was unconvinced. But Mohan, in one of the first of his many eventual refusals to submit to the irrational exercise of authority, held firm. He would not agree to cancel his plans.

      The head of the council then pronounced judgment: “This boy shall be treated as an outcast from today. Whoever helps him or goes to see him off at the dock shall be punished.”

      Mohan was excommunicated! The edict would affect his entire family, but the most immediate effect was on his brother-in-law Vrandavandas. For fear that he too would lose caste, Raliatben’s husband refused to turn over the passage money to Mohan — even after receiving a letter from the faithful Lakshimidas authorising him to do so. Mohan himself resolved this final impasse. He borrowed passage money from a friend who could later be repaid by Vrandavandas. In that way, Vrandavandas could truthfully claim not to have helped his brother-in-law.

      On September 4, 1888, Mohandas Gandhi boarded the S.S. Clyde in Bombay and sailed for England. Westward across the Arabian Sea, up through the Red Sea, the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea, then to the straits of Gibraltar, and northward on the Atlantic Ocean to the English Channel — the voyage would take seven weeks.

      In Rajkot, Kasturbai Gandhi began a long and lonely vigil that would last for three years.

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      Her husband’s expulsion from his Modh Vania caste brought wrenching changes to Kasturbai’s life. As Mohan’s immediate family, she and Harilal were included in his excommunication ban. It was as if she had suddenly been set adrift in an ocean.

      To help fill the void created by Mohan’s absence, and make the long months pass more quickly, Kasturbai had counted on taking her little son to Porbandar for regular visits with his maternal grandparents. But since the Kapadia family was also Modh Vania, she and Harilal were, in effect, disobeying caste injunctions whenever they visited her parents in Porbandar.

      Her nights were long and lonely. Thanks to little Harilal, her days were full and sweet.

      From today’s perspective, when I examine the Hindu culture of that time, I cannot help but note how many facets of that culture were reflected in their later endeavours in reshaping the world in which they lived. Bapu and Ba boldly challenged certain accepted beliefs and outworn customs of their Hindu heritage. But they also found creative new uses and powerful new meanings for many other ancient practices of Hinduism. That, I believe, may be the ultimate measure of their success and effectiveness as reformers. How natural was Bapu’s lifelong concern about the minutest details of day-to-day living: food, clothing, cleanliness, health care? How inevitable was his concern for diet as political testimony? How inescapable his dedication to fasting as a moral enterprise? How valid was his emphasis on the self-reliance achieved through such household activities as spinning and weaving, and how ingenious was his transformation of these everyday tasks into declarations of independence?

      Above all, how crucial was Ba’s alliance with him in these matters? Her active participation in her husband’s experiments came gradually, but it grew steadily. It was always an authentic expression of her own beliefs and experiences, her own sensibilities.

      In the end Ba was able to translate his teachings as no one else could; into a simple, sometimes silent, always straightforward message that reached the minds and touched the souls of untold millions СКАЧАТЬ