The Death & Afterlife of Mahatma Gandhi: A Book of Makarand Paranjape Which Gives the Message That Gandhi Still Matters

The Death & Afterlife of Mahatma Gandhi: A Book of Makarand Paranjape Which Gives the Message That Gandhi Still Matters

An old man with round spectacles and a smiling face is appearing somewhere every day. We can see him through the books or in a square statue or in currency note on a daily basis. There are so many admirers of Mahatma Gandhi and Albert Einstein, a German theoretical physicist was one of them. Einstein never met Mahatma in real life but he has written one letter to him in which he said, “You have shown through your work, that it is possible to succeed without violence even with those who have not discarded the method”. On the death of Mahatma Gandhi, he said that,” Generation to come is scared to believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth”.  As there are many admirers and followers of Gandhi, there are also the opponents of Gandhi. Anyone can say anything about him. He does not belong to any caste or society but belongs to the whole world because great personalities like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr, Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, even founder of Amazon Jeffrey Bezos have been inspired by the work of Mahatma Gandhi. When so many personalities of the world are admiring Gandhi, why does this same person have to face so much hatred in his own country? And to get the answer to this question, one must read the book written by Makarand Paranjape named as The Death and Afterlife of Mahatma Gandhi.

From: Yogesh Gogwekar.

Makarand Paranjape is a critic, an Indian novelist, poet and public intellectual. He was a professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.  He taught there for 19 years. He was born in 1960 in Ahmedabad, Gujrat and did his school education in Bishop Cotton Boys school in Bangalore. He did his BA in English from St, Stephen’s college in New Delhi in 1980 and MA in English Literature and also PhD on Mysticism of Indian English Poetry from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA in 1980. He is the author of several poems and short stories. He has written book reviews and also essays on different topics. He was a columnist in many newspapers and magazines.  The Death and Afterlife of Mahatma Gandhi is fantastic book which has been written on remarkable research and analysis of assassination of the Mahatma Gandhi.

There are so many books & essays written on Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Even after the seven decades of his assassination, his message continuously remains a source to go for resolution of contemporary dilemmas. Even the film industry, Hollywood or Bollywood are not exceptional.  Films by Richard Attenborough Gandhi & Raj Kumar Hirani's Lage Raho Munna Bhai are not only the most successful & spectacular, but also the most inviting for our special consideration because they stand for two different modes & mimetic styles of representing Gandhi. 

Makarand Paranjape is an avid reader of Mahatma Gandhi’s work. He has penned this book, “The Death and Afterlife of Mahatma Gandhi”, in such a way which gives not only the message of Mahatma Gandhi but also the idea of India by inquiring into the meaning of his death. It is a good document for existing and future generations to understand the death of Mahatma Gandhi whether it is viewed as Murder or Martyrdom.  This book has been written in two parts. In first part, it starts with assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, its consequences and views of nationalist readers of that time and also speaks about legacies of Mahatma Gandhi. It also speaks about the madness of Nathuram Godse. In second part, it provides detailed information about last days of Gandhi, impact of partitions and Gandhi’s effort for communal harmony by bringing Hindu –Muslim unity and his contribution to save idea of India by scarifying his life. This has been done very well by giving proper references and with a new perspective.

India was a nation of many diverse nationalities. British created an artificial territory of India for their benefits. After arrival from South Africa, Mahatma Gandhi endowed this territory to all Indians. Mahatma had his Charisma; he was a thinker and man of action. He was a genius and had organising capacity. He established himself as a slave of the people of India, empowering the general public. Just like millions of his country’s people, he resorted to simple and poor living. Therefore, people looked at him as one of their own and could see their own suffering in him. Thus, he is great statesman and a man of vision. He converted congress from three days conference to mass movement and organised congress on linguistic basis.  He promised Indians that independent India would have linguistic states where each Indian can select the language of education as per his choice. He introduced non-violence which means issues and problems can be sorted out through discussion and debate which is nothing but Parliamentary democracy.  He tried to bring communal harmony through Hindu Muslim unity. He was a great supporter of abolition of untouchability & removal of gender inequality. He did not allow having a single language as the official language of independent India.

In today’s India, there is a lot of opposition to Gandhi and he has been hated by many people. It is due to misconceptions and rumours spread about Mahatma Gandhi and also lack of study about Mahatma. It is a simple rule that when any lies have been told consistently, then even today’s educated people start thinking they are real and start considering Nathuram as a hero instead of Gandhi. For them, this book is really an answer. In this book, Paranjape said that religiosity of Mahatma was not the basis of nationalism, but the source of his philosophical questioning. As per Mahatma Gandhi, Religious nationalist produced a hateful perversion. Through this book the author tries to find the motivation of assassins & various psychological theories to figure out the reasons for killing Mahatma & draws the conclusion that ideas & ideologies of Mahatma will remain as long as violence exists in the world.

At the time of describing Mahatma Gandhi as the greatest Hindu of Modern times, Paranjape has tried to find out the details and circumstances of Mahatma’s death. It explored the question which we do not find the answer in popular chronicles of Gandhi.  This book has a good index and extensive reading list with a comprehensive note section. It is very interesting to study this book by all type of readers even though it is not easy to read.

I will end this review with the words of Sarojini Naidu. She said that after three days of assassination of Mahatma," Mahatma Gandhi who lived for truth in this world has been translated, though by hands of assassin, to higher stage of truth; May the soul of my master, my leader rest not in peace, but let his ashes be so dramatically alive...Let the powder of his bones be so changed with life & inspiration that whole of India after his death be revitalized into reality of freedom ".  This is the message given through this book.  This book gives many moral & psychological themes.

Mumbai

02/10/2020