Heavyweight Halo

Canonising Gandhi has done him no favours; it has made him a myth more than a man

Since 1996 a portrait of Mahat-ma Gandhi in his last years has adorned Indian currency notes. On the notes in my wallet, underneath the portrait, in very small print, is written Mahatma Gandhi in English and Hindi. I doubt whether that identification is necessary; so well known is the face with trademark rimless spectacles. When I looked at the portrait more carefully, I noticed that Gandhi was smiling slightly. It is a quizzical smile, as though he is saying, “What on earth am I doing here?” Were Gandhi to find himself in India now I believe he would almost certainly ask that question.

In the first place he would be surprised to be associated with the money which keeps the wheels of modern India’s economy turning. With its inequality, its corruption and its consumerism, its obsession with growth without concern for how India is growing and who benefits from the growth, it represents all that Gandhi opposed.

At the same time Gandhi would not like to be given the title Mahatma. He once said, “Often the title has deeply pained me and there is not a moment I can recall when it may be said to have tickled me.” He maintained he had become “literally sick of the adoration of the unthinking multitude.” He even felt humiliated by some of the adjectives used to describe him because he had to confess he didn’t deserve them.