Mahatma Gandhi statue at Gandhi Museum, in Houston, Texas.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Hours before beginning to write this article, a message dropped in my inbox. It was a social media post with an embedded video. It showed an unidentified functionary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) berating an employee of a roadside kiosk, Tomar Dairy, selling dairy products and other assortments, somewhere in Delhi.
Though clad in the all-white ‘uniform’ worn by most politicians, this man mouthed anything but purity. Heckling the harassed employee, this ‘leader’ with the BJP’s symbol prominently pinned on his kurta pocket, repeatedly asked the man at the counter, his employer’s name.
“Altamash Tomar?,” he questioned with unconcealed contemptuous derision, pretending that he had not got the name correctly. When he got a confirmation, he shot the next missive: “Why are you using a Hindu name on the board?”
Thereafter, he cast a string of aspersions and issued several diktats: “You are using ‘Tomar’ in your signboard because it is a Hindu name, to hoodwink Hindu customers. You think you can get away with this? Tell your boss to change the name of the shop from ‘Tomar Dairy’ to ‘Altamash Dairy’ — you must let people in this Hindu colony know that this is a Muslim shop. Tell your owner that if he does not rename his outlet, I will pull down the shutter of this shop.”
The employee half-tried at one point to explain that ‘Tomar’ was indeed the surname of the proprietor. But before he could get even one word in to clarify why this was chosen, the heckling local BJP ‘leader’ shouted him down.
In this video, running for just a fraction more than a minute, it remained unexplained that in large swathes of India, across different regions, especially in a broad strip running from Kashmir to Kutch in Gujarat, numerous communities are noted for their dual religious identities, as well as common surnames — Patels in Gujarat, for instance, are both Hindus and Muslims, as are Tomars in parts of Delhi and Rajasthan.
This reality, and the thick-headed behaviour of the BJP ‘leader’ is just one of the reasons why Mahatma Gandhi is still relevant in contemporary India. In today’s India, it will be undeniably perilous for anyone attempting to engage with the likes of this man, and fearlessly explain the shared heritage of Indians, and how they have come to have the same surnames.
Although the likes of this unidentified BJP ‘leader’ ceremonially utter Gandhi’s name, particularly close to his birth anniversary, it remains important to hold up Gandhi’s principles of truthfulness, non-violence, and compassion in the face of hate-filled utterances and acts of violence.
The refusal of this ruling party ‘leader’ to even listen to the explanation of the one who he is verbally whipping is not the only instance of truth being distorted. Gandhi is doubly relevant in today’s India because the occurrence in the video is not an isolated instance, but merely a manifestation of the new trend of ‘politics of name signboards’, unveiled in recent months with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s directive on food stall signboards.
Another ground for retaining Gandhi in our social discourse is the cause of why fact-checking has mushroomed in recent years, especially in the media, and for those in jobs requiring publicising achievements, failures, and developments.
Gandhi will remain relevant till the time claims or versions of truth cannot be accepted at face value. In fact, contrary to him losing his relevance, the Mahatma, as many still refer to him, has become even more important in the current era when we are entrapped in an epidemic of untruth.
Sadly, Gandhi Jayanti (October 2) has become little but a public holiday and an occasion to ritualistically chant his name. The centrality of truth, fearlessness, and non-violence in his worldview is ignored. Instead, Gandhi is reduced to just one facet of his personality, for instance, as an advocate of cleanliness by the Narendra Modi-led government in its campaign for the Swachh Bharat Mission. Faced with such a narrow and segmented representation of Gandhi by India’s ruling party, his significance lies in his understanding of nationalism, which is non-violent and inclusive.
Gandhi’s continued relevance lies in his imagination that truth and democracy go hand-in-hand, and both require bolstering in today’s world. Furthermore, everyone in India’s political regime, from Modi to BJP’s foot soldiers, like the ‘leader’ in the aforementioned video, contend that citizens must prioritise fulfilling ‘duties’ before seeking ‘rights’ enshrined in the Constitution. Gandhi’s relevance lies in his teachings giving us strength to argue that ‘speaking truth to power’ should also be considered the ‘duty’ of every citizen.
Gandhi became a global icon in 1930-1931, most notably underscored by being featured on the cover of Time magazine, with his act of disobedience and picking up a fistful of salt. Today he is relevant because disobeying the orders of the current regime is considered treasonous. The State may not be colonial in character, but it remains unjust. Gandhi’s moral teachings that when fighting to uphold truth and justice, even breaking rules was justified, makes him an eternal guru.
(Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a Delhi-based journalist, is author of 'The Demolition, The Verdict and The Temple: The Definitive Book on the Ram Mandir Project'. Author's X handle: @NilanjanUdwin.)
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.