A well-researched book on Mahatma Gandhi’s travels and public meetings

By Bharat Dogra

Sunil Bhatt’s recently published book on travels and public meetings of Mahatma Gandhi in Hindi, titled 'Uttarakhand Mein Gandhi—Yatra aur Vichar’ provides a fascinating narrative on his ability to achieve very spontaneous and close intimacy with the huge number of people he met on almost daily basis, even though he travelled often in very tiring conditions.

Although this book is confined to travels in what is at present known as the state of Uttarakhand in India (including parts of the Western Himalayan region and the plains immediately below these mountains), the account presented here of Mahatma Gandhi’s travels and public meetings can be taken to be representative also of his many other extensive travels in India.

A typical day would start very early in morning with prayers followed by replying to letters and related work. Then there would be the first public meeting in morning hours. Then there would be about five hours set aside for writing for the two weekly journals he was closely associated with and other editorial work related to them. The day the journals went to press was a particularly hectic one. Then there would be inter-actions with various persons who had come to meet him. This would be followed by a public meeting or event in the evening. Then there would be some more work on returning, or else preparing to leave for another place.

The public meetings of course related to the freedom movement, and this could occupy most of the attention in days when preparations for a big movement like the civil disobedience movement were being made. However in more normal times various constructive work programs like spread of khadi (hand spun, hand woven cloth) as a symbol of opposing the destruction of Indian crafts by colonial rule, abolition of social discrimination and promotion of inter-faith harmony occupied almost equal attention. Almost every public meeting turned out to be a significant step forward for promoting all these causes, enthusing local freedom fighters and constructive work participants. Women were present in significant numbers in most meetings, and their response was generally highly supportive and highly emotional.

Almost all of these travels and public meetings were also an important means of collecting funds for the freedom movement as well as various constructive activities. Sometimes the fund collection started right at the railway stations with even groups of porters, tonga (horse-cart) drivers and taxi-drivers contributing donations which they had collected in advance for presenting to Mahatma Gandhi on his arrival at the railway station. Apart from what various public meeting organizers had collected in advance for presenting to Mahatma Gandhi, the emotional upsurge created by his presence and personal appeal led to more donations by people on the spot, including donations of whatever ornaments they were wearing by the women present at the meeting. The task of counting and depositing everything would be assigned to a very responsible member of the team. What is more, if any gift or token of respect was presented to Mahatma Gandhi, he arranged often to auction it publicly and quickly so that the funds obtained in this way could also be used for worthy causes.

So on a typical day he would be working as a public speaker, freedom fighter, social reformer, promoter of crafts and village industries, editor, writer, fund-raiser, all rolled into one, apart from meeting many people, replying to many letters and taking up other routine activities.

These meetings were well attended by weaker section people and dalits as well in good numbers. Several meetings took place despite adverse weather conditions and heavy rain.

These and other valuable insights are available in plenty in this thoroughly well-researched book which took the author to several places mentioned in this book. The book’s plan was worked out in consultation with such distinguished scholars as Anil Nauriya, Shekhar Pathak and Kumar Prashant. This book, published by Samay Saakshaya, has many important document copies and photographs, some of the most important ones being provided by Rajiv Lochan Sah, known for promoting people-oriented journalism for several decades in Uttarakhand. There are also several extracts from the speeches of Mahatma Gandhi and his essays and notes written in the course of these travels.

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The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Protecting Earth for Children, When the Two Streams Met, Man over Machine, and A Day in 2071

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