Celebrating The Mahatma

“Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed.” - Young India, 23 March 1922

- Innamburan

JBS Haldane FRS, the Indianised British scientist, went on a fast to protest media intrusion. A student, I queried his grasp of Gandhian creeds. He responded with disarming Gandhian candour and humility. Such was the Mahatma Gandhi’s (Bapu) overarching influence over men and matters for all times to come.

A tantalising study in contrast, Bapu was ecumenism incarnate. A devout practising Hindu, he integrated the Islamic Rahim into his daily prayer. A cup of coffee to a boy in the sick bay, an eccentric letter to Adolf Hitler, outright rejection of the Viceroy’s proposal, teaching slum-children and such diverse tasks were carried out with the same diligence, as to manner born Three episodes from his Life as lived, are presented here, as Salutations to Mahatma, the Great Soul.

1913 SOUTH AFRICA