30-01-1948

It’s the 70th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s ­assassination. And it’s time we fulfilled our part of a long-neglected compact.

- Apoorvanand

January should be the month of collective atonement, ­repentance and cleansing for all Indians. January, after all, to use a Gandhian metaphor, has been made sacred by the blood of a man who was once called and accepted as the father of the nation. On January 30, 1948, barely five months into independence, it was decided that the nascent nation had seen enough of Gandhi. The time had come for India to detach itself from him.

January 30, 2018 marks the completion of the 70th year since the assassination of Gandhi. Why is a nation that is so fond of anniversaries, and which is recovering from the celebrations of the 70th year of independence, so indifferent to this particular annivers­ary? There is a lot of hullabaloo over the 150th year since Gandhi’s birth. The government has promised to celebrate it in style and on a grand scale. But why is it that we just want to pass by the anniversary of his killing?

Is not his death the searchlight which illumines the meaning of his life? Why not proceed backwards from this point to understand and grasp the significance of the man? A man who was more “womanly”, had deliberately shed manliness and asked his people to cure themselves of this disease.

Is it wrong to say that Gandhi was consciously walking towards his death? He, the true friend of Gurudev, was not afraid, for death was his friend. One must remember that January 30 was not the only day he was attacked. He had encountered physical violence in South Africa. In India, he received ­letters threatening murder, and survived at least five attempts which could have been fatal. In one attempt at Sevagram in 1944, the man who would ultimately be his killer was involved. We know that January 20 could have been his last day when a bomb was thrown at his prayer meeting.