5

RAJA RAO ON GANDHI: GANDHI AS MAHATMA

About Gandhi winter/lawyer C.S. Dharmadhikari writes:

Gandhi was the most normal of men. He was universal. Such a man cannot be

measured, weighted, or estimated. He is the measure of all things. Gandhi was not

a philosopher, nor a politician. He was a humble seekers of truth. Truth unites,

because it can be only one. You can cut man’s head, but not his thought, Non-

violence is the only other aspect of the sterling coin of truth. Non-violence is love,

the very content of life.

These words best define the reverential attitude towards Mahatma Gandhi that still rules

the roots not only in India but also throughout the world. This is despite a vehement critical as

will as creative re-visioning of the saint-cum-politician in recent times. This segment consisting

of Gandhi’s admirers, by and large, particularly positions Gandhi as an amazingly successful

leaders who touched the world both spiritually and politically. The very reasons that Gandhi is

criticised for happens to be the very points for which he is admired as well. He is defined as a

moral, spiritual leader whose religion was a means to invigorate the sentimentally sensitive

people, especially Indians. The spiritual approach he used was a means of implementing his

revolutionary ideas through a more accessible mode. His inner voice of illumination guided him

throughout in the selfless process of seeking welfare of other through the medium of his very

own self. He was the right combination of the supple and the firm, a shrewd politician, and a

humanitarian, a spiritual guide, all at the same time. In contrast to diaspora writers of the likes of

Naipaul, Rashavan N. Iyer and Bikhu Parekh whose presentations of Gandhi border on careful

scrutiny and unsparing attitude, we have, a positive or rather meditative invocation of Gandhi

emanating from another space of diaspora, Raja Rao who has been a diasporic for more than 70

years is a prominent figure of this space. Most of Raja Rao’s fiction and non-fiction delves into

the religious and mystic roots of India, and can thus be considering a very strong example of the

above-mentioned space of Indian diaspora. In all his works—non-fiction and otherwise Rao

exhibnits a tendency to romantically indulge with the persona of Gandhi who he seems to

consider one of the most significant of icons representing India. His treatment of Gandhi in his

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biographical masterpiece The Great Indian Way is particularly unique. Rao does merely compile

the facts from Gandhi’s life but tries to weave an essence around each of these facts and ends up

with a presentation of Gandhi as more of a mahatma than a man.

In the current chapter an attempt is made to sketch the idealised presentation of Gandhi in

Raja Rao’s works from the space of works from the space of diaspora in contrast of Gandhi-

bashing discussed in the previous chapter. A detailed study of Gandhi in Rao’s non-fiction work

The Great Indian Way has been undertaken along with references to The Meaning of India some

of his fictional works as well. Rao loves to play with ideas and has treated Gandhi in a similar

fashion in his writings but all the while his dealing of the leader is a reflection of his affinity to

the subject For Rao, duality makes the world and his intended purpose is to exert on duality in

order to abolish all contradictions and reach non-duality. This is exactly what he does with

Gandhi—presenting him not only as the player but the game itself, both a learners as well as a

teacher. Thus, Gandhi is The Great Indian Way. A poem on Raja Rao entitled “To Raja Rao” by

polish Nobel laureate Czeslaw gives an ideal of the basic ideology of the winter who idealises

Gandhi like no one else does. Czeslaw writes:

Link, if you wish, may peculiar case

(on the border of schizophrenai)

To the messianic hope

Of my civilization.

…..I hear you saying that liberation is possible

And that Socratic wisdom

Is identical with your guru’s.

From these lines we have an indication of Rao’s tendency of idealisation and optimism.

And this is what is depicted in Rao’s treatment of Gandhi. Rao has been nourished with faith and

reverence for his roots, culture and nativity and his approach to Gandhi comes from this domain.

He is strongly influenced by Gandhi and sweats to pen the persona of Gandhi in ardently

idealistic terms. Gandhi is a combination of man and mahatma but the latter weighs more. The

Great Indian Way or The Meaning of India are not a mere compilation of facts from Gandhi’s

life but rather they diffuse these facts to give an refreshed comprehensive meaning to Gandhism

and state the essence of all facts of happenings from Gandhi’s life, big or small, thereby making

things appear bigger and also superior. It is the way and how behind what Gandhi did and the

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great impact left behind that is the source for learning in all times to come. It has been rightly

observed regarding The Great Indian Way that here Rao weaves together the whole chronicle in

epic dimensions. It is as if a glorious parable on Mahatma’s life unfolds as we read the biography

further.

GANDHI—THE MAHATMA

Besides idealising Gandhi, Rao is also trying to eternalise Gandhi and Gandhism,

perceiving them through his Indian eyes, Rigorous Gandhian devotion perhaps propels Rao to

perpetuate Gandhi’s persona though words often soaked in deep spiritual content. Rao nurturing

unqualified adoration for Gandhi weaves him into his symbolic association with India. There is

an assertive attempt to dehumanise Gandhi and elevate him to the stature of a superior being, an

oracle. He was for the commoners and of them, yet he was above.

Rao is found of giving his writings a background or some reference in order to take the

reader slowly to the genesis of situation. In The Great Indian Way before introducing Gandhi,

Rao discusses other heroes such as Mahavira, Buddha, Harishchandra in order to categorise him.

By referring to Gandhi’s parents as the holy couple in the beginning of the biography, Rao is

able to approach Gandhi in Vedic terms so as to both inform and prepare the reader for the

magnanimity of the subject to follow. He takes up the characters of Rama. Krishana

Harishchandra, Buddha and Ashoka to provide that of Krishana go side by side. Rao draws

analogies ion their birth, their childhood mischiefs, their mother and descries both as

incarnations, acknowledging the presence of god in them and in them and at many instance both

become the one “Cloud–blue Lord” (Rao, 1998, 37). Rao even describes the history behind

Gandhi’s place of birth; it is referred to as the holy land that bore him. He mantions that is was

but natural that Gandhi’s birthplace had to have a history and thus he narrates the tale of

Krishana and his friend Sudhama to reveal how the city Porbander got its name. It was “haven”

city—a city befit to produce Gandhi. Gandhi’s childhood, his parents, to Rao, is an empire that

gods themselves protected and he describes the Gandhis themselves as a scrupulous people.

While referring to Gandhi’s home in the book, Rao writes, “But who can destroy what God has

built and established” (Raim 1998, 25). Gandhi, born to a wise father and pious mother, was to

be led by God as the protector of Dharma fighting in the great Indian way of Mahabharta. Thus,

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from Mohania to Mohandass Karamchand Gandhi to Gandhiji to Gandhi-swami and finally to

Rama, the trajectory of the prophesy of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as the future Mahatma is

narrated in theological loops and leaps of imagination. And Rao feels the need to mention Putli

Ba’s words, “Oh Mohania!..... Where have you come from? And who taught you all this? What

were you before you came to me, Son” (Rao,1998,40)? And if this was not enough, later he

mentions that Mohandas’ first unborn child was a superior being. Rao too joins in the call for

Ramrajya that could only be attained by Gandhi us evident in the lines: “yes, he had led them

rightly, he, this thin and deep-eyed man, soft-voiced and silent, and he would take us where we

have to go, to that Rajrajya, the Kingdom of Rama, which is ours. And like Sri Rama he only

speaks of the truth and of love…..” (Rao, 1998, 304).

Here one is reminded of Basavraju Appa Rao’s poem on Gandhi. He dubs Gandhi as

reincarnation of Jesus who by using the weapon of-violence defeated his foes1. In The Meaning

of India while writing of Nehru in the Book Rao is careful not to bestow him the title of lord

Rama as that is for Gandhi alone. Nehru, who had ascribed Gandhi with the title of Saint King,

has to settle down for the status of Bharatha. Rao has commented that without Gandhi there

could be no world of tomorrow. And to him, not only the Indian messes but also the British

could feel the empowering influence of Gandhi. Rao’s heightening of the historical significance

of Gandhi evident of his own Ghandian loyalties.

Rao’s Gandhi seems more than a man and definitely beyond ordinary comprehension.

Rao’s references to his personal mystical experiences in the presence of Gandhi further

strengthen the above view, as the writer discloses the awe, the fear that he experiences when in

the company of Gandhi. It is as if god has come alive for him. This is because Rao does not

approach Gandhi as writer alone but also to make other aware of the greatness that Rao has

experienced and perceived in the man and his ideals. Rao states that to attempt Gandhi’s

biography requires courage and dare2. It is a story that Rao has felt from within and penned

down. Every world is an experience. Religious pacifist John Heynes Holmes’ words may be

applied to Rao too. Holmes has said that his real life as a teacher began with Gandhi and ended

with his death. In Rao’s case, however, the association with Gandhi has been unending. Being a

man of ancient Brahmin descent and deep Indian spiritual concerns, Rao experiences Gandhi or

rather “Gandhi-swami”; Gandhi is the divine Rama in Rao’s soul symbolising the ultimate

greatness, the saviour Rama of India

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Rao considers life as bigger than history. Kathleen Raine has rightly commented that

Raja Rao uses his work as a philosopher and his writings become instruments of exploring

profound themes. For Rao, Gandhi has transcended history, has already become a myth, a divine

person carrying the fruits of his previous life. In The Meaning of India Rao mentions at various

places that has Gandhi lived long enough, the intricate problems that India is facing would have

been resolved better for if Socrates was the progenitor of the modern world then Gandhi was the

founding architect of the world of tomorrow (Rao, 1996, 77). In the biography, Gandhi’s

kingdom is that of Sri Rama and Ayodhya comprises the Indian messes. This Ayodhya

celebrates all of Gandhi’s victories and weeps for his sufferings. Thus, liking spirituality to

motherhood, motherhood to truth and so on, Rao places Gandhi in a splendid cycle of celestial-

divine cosmos. Bay play of gods, Gandhi was born in the land of bondage so as to liberate and

guide. Rao defines Gandhi as the Visvamitra.

R. Parthasarathy’s description of the Great Indian Way is only a proof of Gandhi’s divine

influence on Rao. Parthasar defines it as:

….a sprawling oral history interspersed with tales from the Mahabharata and the

Ramayana. Raja had lived at Sevagram for six months in 1942, and every page of

the book speak of his honest justification of such an experience of Gandhi.

The book is rather an invocation of Gandhi following the harikatha3 traditional of his

Gandhi based fiction work Kanthapura. Rao does not merely present the facts from Gandhi’s life

but rather is working on the rasa of Gandhi’s life. Each fat of his life has to be presented against

history. Against time and various other coordinates. The normal is transformed into mighty and

further Gandhi becomes a myth. Moreover, it is not only in the two afore-mentioned non-fiction,

but Rao’s fiction too is replete with innumerable references to Gandhi as “Mahatma”. Rao’s The

Cow of the Barricades also reflects the role of Gandhian principles in helping redeem the evil

world of history. And then there is his masterpiece Kanthapura where the mahatma is discussed

through the harikatha tradition. The bookportraqys the rise of Gandhian nationalism as a

voluntary mass movement with people jointing in numbers, from all walks of life in a small

Indian village representing a microcosm of India. Here Gandhism does not merely represent a

fight against the British rule but also comes across as means to deal with the evil of the caste

system, especially untouchability and for supporting women participation in politics. The

movement brings about unity, sense of responsibility; there are sparks of social transformation.

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Thus, Gandhism is offered as a spectrum functioning at so many different constructive levels.

Some define it as addition of an ethical dimension of the social and political movement with

precedence of moral concern over the political ones. Rao’s treatment of character in the novel

elicits the mesmerising effect of Gandhian magic on the masses.

Iyengar (Iyengar, 391) in the study of Kanthapura concludes Roa’s concludes Rao’s

approach to Gandhian politics as half-poetical and half-whimsical. He evaluates Gandhi in the

book as the invisible lord. He is Rama himself in this Gandhi Purana. Not only in Kanthapura,

but rather in all of Rao’s works that deal with Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi’s life is discussed in the

typical sthalapurana5 style and by extension of the of the same logic Gandhi himself become the

legend. Critics have observed the “master” in Rao’s story “Narsiga” and The Cow of the

Barricades as symbolic figures for Mahatma Gandhi. In the story entitled “Narsiga” we come

across a young lad bewitched by mahatma by his very description given, though never heard of

or seen before. Mystrey surrounds the reality of this Mahatma—is he a great saint or is he an

incarnation of god. Through words heard alone, Mahatma becomes a god as seen in the lines

below:

Auntie said, there was a bit, big man called Gandhiji….An old man- a

bewitching man, a Saint, you know!... He looks beautiful as the morning sun,

…..They say he is an incarnation of God, ….when you touch his feet you feel as

though the body has sunk to the earth, and you are nothing but a mere ant before

an elephant (Rao, 1947, 106)

Nevertheless, the mahatma is also a man who walks among the masses and pats them on

the back, If on one hand he is Rama flying to Ayodhya and an object of daily worship, then on

their other he is also permeating the varied and almost all aspects of life. He is presents in a

moral preaching conversation between a teacher and his pupil, in social gatherings, in grandma’s

stories, in books and comics: myths get associated with him. He becomes a way of life! In this

work On the Ganga Ghat, Rao discusses the legendary vulture Krodha and mentions that it “was

seen by man at least since the last 20 years—so people say, since a year or two after Mahatma

Gandhi assassinated (Rao, 1989, 22). In another story entitled “A Client” we seen Gandhi

permeating even a common day-to-day talk—“it is because of these examination that we have

become such slaves, losing our ancient traditions and our self-respect. Do you know what

Mahatma Gandhi thinks of it? He thinks of it….”. Also, Rao does not attempt to 119

compartmentalise Gandhi and render artificially to his presentation. Instead he portrays him to be

a many-sided personality in order to make his character more believable. He does not impose the

mahatma upon the readers straight away. His treatment is that of transition of a common man to

mahatmahood.

Thus it is on a higher plane consciousness that Rao attempts to explore Gandhi at

multiple levels while putting him in religious dimension and trying to explore him

metaphysically. Rao’s elevation of Gandhi has been done with a strong Indian flavour. Rao’s

Gandhian works are, to use Robert D. King’s expression from the article “Raja Rao’s Works”,

appear as a “subdued discourse on Gandhism”, making it seem a tradition. Rao, experiencing

Gandhi in total realisation, personalises him and offer Gandhism as a so-called mighty field of

energy capable of gigantic social transformation starting from a scratch and taking on epic

dimensions. He exhumed power the could heal or correct all. He is only seen within the cosmic

paradigm.

Gandhism implies a way of life as Rao writes, “But what is Gandhism? It is not a creed;

it is a perspective on life (darshana)” (Rao, 1998, 173). This cosmological force inevitably by

virtue of its principles took over the world. Gandhi thus become a legend, a perspective and is

therefore analogised through epic/historical character. Thus, where a section of the diaspora

tends to colonise Gandhi, Raja Rao, rooted in Brahamnism and Hunduism, on the other hand,

nativises him all the more. He give a fabled version Gandhism, which otherwise as a task has

been undertaken by indigenous writers largely. For instance, Humaun Kabir6 has written a sonnet

on Gandhi in which his evocation of Gandhi from the indigenous space is in total analogous to

that of Rao.

GANDHI—AN INDIGENOUS PRODUCT

Another aspect of Gandhi’s life that has been keenly explored in writings on him is the

fact that he spent a lot of time abroad and was trained outside India. Naipaul says that London

made Gandhi a colonial, he developed an outsider’s attitude whereas on another plane, Gandhi

is more often described as an indigenous-cum-universal man for all places and for all times. Raja

Rao has indigenised Gandhi in and out. There was wonder and amazement for Gandhi on

entering a new world in London and Rao justifies it by describing the beauty and the mystical 120

essence of England that makes an outsider realise one’s own awkwardness all the more. Rao

mentions in the biography, There’s a splendour about England that seems almost mythological.

The barges, the Thames, the ships, the high buildings, the palace of Westminser, the lean and

quiet ways of a civilised land” (Rao, 1998, 86), Naipaul condemns Gandhi of ignoring London at

the cost of attending to himself all the while, Rao, on the other hand, turns this the other way

round by explaining how London was responsible for creating conditions that made it impossible

for Gandhi to orient anything but his self. The wonder and amazement of London never escaped

Gandhi’s attention. Rao writes, “The landscapes, the houses, and the people, seemed just as the

pictures in textbooks. When you see what you’ve imagined and it’s found true, you always have

a secret sense of self-assurance” (Rao, 1998, 86). Defending Gandhi’s stand on vegetarianism he

says that vegetarianism was not an obsession but rather “The most civilised way of eating, and

also the most scientific one” (Rao, 1998, 90). Each and every act of Mohandass was in fact a part

of his efforts to best fit in the society of London with his limitation.

Rao refers to Gandhi’s strenuous efforts in his quest for survival out of India. Gandhi has

to endeavour hard and Rao adds that there is always a sincere effort, persistence, strong well

power, resilience on his part be it for keeping the vows that he took in front of his mother or

adjusting to new society. Of course, Rao does conclude that ultimately there was success. Gandhi

was told that in England etiquette was morality and thus he emphasises on befitting the society in

the best possible manner—the dress, speech, music, dance, attire–all was a part of his sincere

effort. And Rao writes that an Indian out of India becomes, as it were, an Englishman, the

universal man (Rao, 1998, 112). England was n amalgam of financial metropolis and political

megalopolis and this it was obvious that after London, Bombay would look so provincial, so

parasitical. The Indian were bound to seem so thin, so drab. The British looked the master race

that can rule a country with high elegance, with shrewd competence (Rao, 1998, 101). Rao

further explains how London was responsible for making Gandhi realise that the Gita was

scientific and Bible religious; that the inner voice has its significance and it was the source to

comprehend God (Rao, 1998, 96-97). He writes, “But above all he was the edge of finding God.

This trip to London has become a pilgrimagte” (Rao, 1998, 100).

Rao does explicate that Gandhi by comparing India with London was not trying to

support the maintenance of British control over India but rather voicing the need of an inter-

cultural translation resulting in betterment of India. Gandhi was at no point suggesting a 121

surrender of Indian to British manufacture but rather Rao asserts that Gandhism was a challenge

to colonialism. Explaining that Gandhi’s attitude towards things has changed but not the person

within him. Rao writes, “England has not made him forget his Hindu instinct” (Rao, 1998, 102).

He has learnt to make better sense of his life and segregating priorities. Rao mentions that

Gandhi’s life in London made him aware of the things he wanted and those that he did not. He

explains that if Gandhi rediscovered India on his return it was but a natural reaction to the

disparity between the fast-paced progressive people of London who are “hard-working, united,

silent and love to get things done” (Rao, 1998, 277) and the sluggish of things in India in the

biography, bound to move any thinking mind. He comments, “And naturally the delegates when

on living in their own filth and odours. Who cares? This is India” (Rao, 1998, 240).

Gandhi has acknowledged that the British taught him to be a gentleman. Amidst an

Indian that was used to living in filth and odour, here was Gandhi with his sanitary instinct. His

exposure to a methodical world has made him conscious of the lack of order and Methodism in

his native land. Some critics question as to way Gandhi was not moved by the plight of Indians

in India but rather in the foreign land of Sough Africa B.R. Nanda in his article “Tarring the

Mahatma” discusses the genesis of Gandhi’s struggle in South Africa, with his primary focus on

interrogating as to why Gandhi’s struggle began for the indentured Indians only and not for the

entire black community of Africa, He adds:

….if the back population did not figure in Gandhi’s campaign, it was partly because it did

not suffer from the disabilities against which the Indians were protesting…Moreover, it is

doubtful whether, at the turn of the century, the black population in South Africa would have

readily accepted a young Indian barrister as its leader.

Rao justifies the concentration of Gandhi concern on the Indians alone in Africa.

He concludes that the political circumstances were such that Gandhi felt the

urgent need to attend to the Indians in South Africa. Rao describes South Africa

as nations within a nation. It is a colourful land of splendour and Gandhi entered

this land at the tender age of twenty- four “carrying with him the multiple riches

of India, recognised and unrecognised, with a thousand little understandings from

the British…..”(Rao, 1998, 112).

Gandhi’s supporters ignore the fact that it was Sought Arica and not India where his

struggle began. They are rather appreciative of the fact that South Africa prepared Gandhi to

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struggle in India. Africa was the nursery of satyagraha. In The Great Indian Way, Rao gives a

detailed accountant of the genesis of Gandhism in South Africa, Unlike Naipau, Rao is not

concerned where this genesis took place. He is simply scripting the birth and development of

Gandhian ideas that were unleashed later on a much larger scale in India. Africa became the

testing ground for Gandhian resistance that was to later brings about political transformation in

India. Rao has in fact dedicated a major portion of the book to Gandhi’s life in South Africa with

very little reference to the movement in India. By giving a reverential and fable-like treatment to

Gandhi’s experience in South Africa, Rao has made the country a battleground that prepared

Gandhi for a much bigger fight in India.

Scripting Gandhi’s political and spiritual enrichment in Africa, Rao is only expressing

amazement and wonder as his book progresses along with Gandhi in Africa Gandhi has gone

there to earn a livelihood but the bitter experiences that he underwent in Africa had to be an eye-

opener. He was thrown out of railway compartments, kicked on the pavement. Rao comments

that the whole encounter changed something within him. It made him realise that he was a

British subject. And so on his second return to Africa, Gandhi haggard by the misery of Indians

there finishes his task of rousing Indians to heroism and prestige in Africa through his lordly

games. In Rao’s words, he realised that the evil committed was for the purpose of bestowing

good. He writes that “Evil is only a round about way of affirming good” (Rao, 1998, 122). Sita’s

imprisonment brought about Ravana’s liberation (Rao, 1998, 122). Rao even adds that Gandhi

helped Indians in Africa to better themselves, teaching them English and trying to make them

better civilised. He expresses gratitude for Gandhi because it was due to him that good was

happening for the Indian community there.

Thus, according to Rao, South Africa changed Gandhi from within. His experience there

gave him inner radiance. He became loyal to the British constitution. And as he return to India,

his mind was preoccupies with the plight of Indians thought he knew that from a distance things

looked exaggerated and his first attempt would always be to reason out with them. On his second

visit to South Africa when the British were at wars with the Boer, he retained his royalties as a

British subject and offered to nurse the wounded British soldier. Rao described how this act won

India great pressing in Sough Africa. He mentions that when Gandhi decided to stay back in

South Africa to fight his first barrel it spelt the death of colonialism. In fact, he lauds at the

success achieved and he impact left by Gandhi in Africa as he writes, “Auspicious the waters of

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the ocean will feel, father, and holy the earth wheresoever she will see you. May you live

amongst us a hundred years” (Rao, 1998, 434). Gandhi has planted the tree of satyagraha in

Africa. By citing the individual success stories of Gandhi in Africa, Rao happily graphs the

development and growing success of Gandhi there. At one place he writes, “The principle of the

colour bar was dropped. Here Gandhism won” (Rao, 1998, 207) while at another he mentions,

“The bill was passed, But Sir John and Gandhiji became friends. Thus Gandhism won again”

(Rao, 1998, 208). And thus Rao indigenises Gandhi in a foreign land. The essential Gandhism

never lets go off its hold on him and for Rao that as much a measure of his nativity, as it is of

Gandhi as well.

GANDHI’S SELF AS SELFLESS

Some critics tend to associated Gandhi’s engagements outside India as obsession with the

self. Francis C. Assisi has talked of critics’ notice of an invariable search of self on various levels

in Rao’s character. Gandhi’s ideas And acts seemed to centre on his own self with the personal

experience being the supreme motivation. The influence of containment of all within oneself is

also perhaps the effect of Gandhi’s reading of Ruskin’s Unto This Last, which emphasises the

importance of seeking one’s interests in common welfare7. Critics While referring to Gandhi’s

Writings add that Gandhi’s self was acutely sensitive. Gandhi connected the self with the

satyagrahi in him and the importance given to the self was responsible for growth of the tenets of

truth and non-violence8.

Rao mentions in his essay entitled “The Ultimate Word” the supremacy of the “I” (Rao,

1996,160-174). Exhibiting a metaphysical bias towards the self, Rao’s definition of “self” then is

not in terms of an obsession, but rather it connotes the only source of inspiration and of creative

expression. All enlightenment comes from within the self. It is where the individual

communicates with god and seeks all answers. The self is the substance of the Brahman. And the

inner eye is the only key to making sense of the outer world. Gandhi has sacrificed his al for

other. He lived and died unselfishly but was not always perceived the way he wanted to be. For

Rao, Gandhi felt the messes through his veins. This consciousness is significant for Raja Rao. It

is nothing but absolute knowledge. It is this consciousness that leads to the realisation of the self

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(Rao, 1996, 13). All external acts become hut offering to the consciousness. The beginning and

end of a person lied in “I” itself, as Rao writes in The Meaning of India:

So concludes the Mandukyopanishad, belonging to the Atharva Veda-

Atmantmanam ya evam veda

Aum indded the “I”

He who knows this,

Enters the “I” with this I.

Thus I go where the “I” is (Rao, 1996, 174).

Rao has mentioned the dissolution of the self as the only reality and the light of wisdom

and guidance. And the true sage is the one who understands this. Vira or hero, he mentions, is the

one who leaps inwards before rushing outward and that is what Gandhi did. The inner can be

explained only by proper reasoning and this reasoning borders on the realisation of all others

within himself. Rao considers the inner voice as supreme and beyond bay contestation. It is the

voice of god. Thus, Rao seems supports sacrifice and dissolution of the self, which he symbolises

in Gandhi manifested his own self onto other intead of keeping it to himself and this makes his

“self” selfless. Rao seems to have no problem with this, as he believes that the world is but a

reflection of the self. In fact, he denies denial or isolation as evident in the following lines from

The Meaning of India:

What then would be the form of sacrifice to reach this natural, this perfect state?

All forms such as asceticism and mind-control are but aberrations of this sacrifice.

Denial is no purification. Indeed is only the solidification of thought-from, but as

a negative manifestation (Rao, 1996, 14).

Rao mentions that once man realises the final instruction that the self is everything, there

is no need to know anything more. Life becomes eternal. Gandhi was confronted with the idea of

self in others at an early stage as Rao mentions in the biography, “if one does not know this

dissolution there is only the moral world: I am, so the world is. I am but I seen the many: am I

the many” (Rao, 1998, 103)? But finding his self in other was an ardent task for Gandhi, as Rao

explains that Gandhi had to deal with contradiction all the way. In fact, the very truth that

Gandhi tries his best to adjust to and integrate into the society of London and later South Africa

negates the possibility of considering Gandhian obsession with self at all times outsides India.

Changes within the self after the perception of the world. Gandhi realised this in South Africa.

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Rao interprets it as Gandhi’s most creative experience Gandhism was a product of god searching

beyond the self in isolation and thus the personal became universal. Rao contends that to Gandhi,

self-realisation came in the form of service to community. He realised that non-violence and

service of poor would change the face of mankind. Critical writers prefer to name this self-

obsession but for Rao, the self is supreme universal factor that alone accounts for the true

meaning of life. “There is none beyond, Pray what is there beyond the “I” (Rao, 1998, 39). And

in case of Gandhi, Rao prefers to call it the “higher self” (Rao, 1998, 333). Rao equates “I” with

“Isness” (Rao, 1998, 103) and asserts that the self being ambivalent by nature cannot be

centred—“There is none at the cantre. It is. Is is. Is” (Rao, 1998, 120).

This idea of the “self” in Raja Rao stems from his faith in the theory of advaita or non-

duality9. “I” is the eternal truth. For Rao the advaita was present within and it aimed at

synchronising the outsider with the self. It was thus both an illusion as well as reality10

. Rao calls

duality the “not-two principle”, Strongly advocating the strength of the advaita philosophy

throughout his works, Rao holds that the advaita dissolves all separation between the self and the

world. The individual wave is but water and so are all other waves that make up the entire ocean.

Therefore the individual feels the need to dissolve the self with other. He not longer works for

himself but rather the “self” works with and as other “selves”. What matters is not what one

knows but rather what one is. Thus, Gandhi felt all others being reflected in his being. He

experienced men therefore whatever he did, he felt and did for other and for this it was

imperative that he merged the self with people Rao defines “Mahatma” at the one who can attain

on-duality, he becomes the legend-the great being as Rao writes in The Great India way:

He who achieves the impersonal, the principle, he the great being, the Mahatma.

He it is that’s become the Law, from the laws that hold (dhru) the sun and the

moon, the good and the bad, and the law that makes the waters go down the sea

and the waves are seen as water you see greatness. Greatness is not greater. It is

(Rao, 1998, 111).

In the books, Rao also talks of Mahavira’s discovery of the self that rendered him a free

man and made him a friend of all living things. Rao seems to be in favour of seeking answers to

external challenges from within and therefore the shift from the world to the self. True freedom

or swaraj lies in sway over self. The external is but an expression of the internal and so Gandhi’s

victory was not just confined to himself but the world and in Rao’s words it:

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….will not be a late of rapid conquest or of easy defeat. It will be the story of a

slow victory-internal and then external, for the external is only and expression of

the internal. Thus Gandhji’s personal story is also the expanded story of a world

revolution (Rao, 1998, 221).

To Raja Rao, the advait in the world was not something out there but what within an

individual and as Samkara would put it—the fusion of the outside and the self occurs when maya

of illusion of the phenomenal world is shattered by the advaitin’s razor-shape mind. Gandhi

negated the personal from his suffering and made them the sufferings of all. Suffering became a

powerful tool to propaganda as a self-strengthening force. By tolerance of suffering upon himself

Gandhi aimed at exhibiting resilience, thus winning the hearts of the adversaries and bringing

them to his own side. Suffering is thus considered to be vital for progression in the freedom

struggle. And violence is means to accept paid and this resilience is more powerful than anything

else. Rao mentions that Gandhi suffered with men, for men and thus he was an epitome of

tenderness, ever ready to nurse those who were suffering.

Here then the self-centeredness beings to be seen in a totally new light i.e. “otherness”. It

is total contradiction to Naipaul’s portrayal of Gandhi’s selfishness. Rao mention in The

Meaning of India about Gandhi in London that it “made him a barrister of the inner Temple”

(Rao, 1996, 65). The significance of the self for Rao is further evident from his belief that

realisation and comprehension of one’s own existence is the key to understanding one’s

civilisation. Gandhian critics have cited Gandhi’s saying that equate the idea of self with

renunciation and portray “being” as much superior to “possessing” Dharmadhikari quotes

Shelley’s lyrics to compare the binding factor in his dissimilar notes of music with Gandhi’s

efforts at beckoning Indians to come forward and increase his tribe. For Rao, reality beings and

ends with the self: it is a living experience. The self become identical with god thereby negating

the possibility of de-mahatmaisation. Gandhi took vows. Critics prefer to term these as personal

obsession but for Rao, the vow was a necessary ingredient to “inner transformation” and a

“transfiguration of a primary psycho-biological nature” (Rao, 1998, 265).

And ultimately Rao comes down to Gandhi’s Hinduism instincts and says that Gandhi

was a Brahmin and Brahmanism has always been emphasising the importance of the self. Self-

existence is experienced as Absolute. It is the beginning and end of all knowledge. When Rao

discusses Gandhi’s view of the self despite presenting it as something proximate and distant at

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the same time, nevertheless, makes it sound rather organic. It is as though the inner self rules.

Bhiku Parekh has listed five “distinctively human powers”— self-determination, autonomy, self-

knowledge, self-discipline, and social cooperation. These powers, he adds Gandhi would have

required for any great civilisation. The important this to note is the all-pervasive aspect of the

“self” in Parekh’s construct. It is only through the self that one can aim at doing something

external in nature. With Rao the self is both sublime and at the same time energetic. It is created

from experience and acquires the vision to guide. Rao’s 21-line introduction to The Meaning of

India may be included here to highlight the significance of “I” for the writer. Notice the

repetitive occurrence of the world “I” throughout below:

I am no scholar. I am a “creative” writer. I love to play. I enjoy the juxtaposition

of ideas, I play. The end, I…..I pay the game….I must be forgive for

repetition….I must be forgiven for this misdemeanour…..come, let us play, you

and I (Rao, 1996, 7).

Rao transforms Gandhi’s self into an achievement of cosmic proportion. The self is

“truth” and therefore is absolute. And since is borders on non-duality, therefore all selves of

world merge with the one “self” and therefore there is no need to search for answers outside,

they evolve form within.

GANDHI’S RELIGION SPELT MODERNITY

Critical writings seems to question the hostility that Gandhi’s religious preaching seemed

to bear against modernisation. Naipaul too has throughout questioned application of Gandhism

since according to him Gandhi was a spiritual leader rather than a political one, a preacher of

Gita in the modern times, thereby spelling backwardness for India through his influence. Rao on

the contrary in The Great Indian Way (Rao, 1998, 330) asserts that asceticism is the only way of

true life; spirituality is the key to truth and the Gandhi spiritual was the true perspective on life.

In Rao’s works, Gandhi’s life and his movement are more or less described as play of the

divines. Gandhi, according to him, was on higher perspective of life. By believing in and

surrendering himself to god. Gandhi went on struggling and this was the rasa of his life. Rao

describes Gandhi as the truly wise who has understood the presence of a cosmic rhythm in life

and connection between facts. In fact, he was the “true hero” (Rao, 1998, 72).

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Rao refers to the journey to South Africa as a pilgrimage. At all times Gandhi was

exploring varied religions and constantly accepting desirable tenets from each. For instance in

The Meaning of India Rao mentions that Gandhi respected Islam; in Christianity he was

dedicated human service and spiritual unification of mankind (Rao, 1996, 68). From Gita by

which he was grounded, he learned forgiveness and this forgiveness and this forgiveness laid the

seeds of non-violence. Thus, Rao wraps Gandhi’s life in a celestial cloak. At one time he

mentions that the Gandhian movement is Sri-Krishana’s whirl of his disc and at another moment

the people are lauding him with slogans of “Ramachandraji ki jai.” Rao’s statements in The

Great Indian way as “….and let God decide the rest” (Rao, 1998, 84) or “God’s ways are

strange. Let us play the game not knowing where we go. The end is not here nor now. The end is

where one is beyond the here and now” (Rao, 1998, 28) and finally his implications that all the

while Gandhi was brought up with the chant of Rama Rama on his lips and directed by strange

ways of god—are all indicative of endorsing the significance of spiritual faith and guidance in

approaching Gandhi. Rao depicts Gandhi as playing the strategies of Krishana all the way with

the gods descending to his rescue is needed hours. In the biography Krishana is always there,

behind Gandhi. Thus is transformed a “genetleman of god”.

Rao also refers to sain-philosopher Rajachandra’s deep influence on Gandhi, which

inspired him to merge philosophy with business and begin fighting law through spiritual means.

He was spreading spiritual wisdom more than anything else. His spirituality has huge potential

for transformation. Rajachandra told Gandhi “to attain God one needs to be freed from all

bounds of Karma. The soul is ‘pure consciousness’, total intelligence, all strength, all

knowledge” (Rao, 1998, 138). In The Meaning of Indi Rao depicts the process of shaping of

Gandhian philosophy that draws him closer and closer to “Truth” (Rao, 1996, 66) For Rao, the

metaphysical is not a state of existentialism but rather of progression. Rao seems to have total

regard for the abstract and this is way Gandhian dynamics clicked with him. In fact, he

recognised that the “criticised” irrational means too, be the satyagraha or non-violence, were

capable of productive action, especially where the more reasonable-seeming ways failed.

Esoteric subject have always fascinated Rao. The search for the meaning of truth and the path of

achieve it concerns the protagonists of most of his works. Therefore, there is this tendency to

cling to metaphysical dynamics to explain the various events in The Great Indian way. He

transforms Gandhi into a saint and mentions that this sainthood was nor easy. He writes : “The

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saint astonishes you with the consequences, good or bad. For him, the real is beyond both. He

only seeks the Truth. The means are more fruitful than the end, for were the end reached….”

(Rao, 1996, 75). All that Gandhi had for help was his inner voice or the silence from which

sacred words of wisdom emerged and subsequently there was light and Rao equates this light

with true perception.

As far as Gandhi’s obsession with the Vedas and the Gita is concerned. Rao (Rao, 1998,

17) is very clear to mention that these contain the very essence of the spirituality of Indian and

when the land of gods was invaded by the British, rescue emerged in the form of Vedanitic glory

and Gandhi was one of its pioneer. It was Vedic tenet of strong sense of religion reflected in

Rao’s Gandhi. Religion being dharma acquires the nature of responsibility, decree and highest

merit all together. Rao also adds the Gita taught Gandhi “Samabhava” or equanimity, Bhagwad

Gita was his tried and tested faith. He found it of have more logic than Bible. It gave him the

answers he sought. Rao describes him as the dharma—performer of the Gita (Rao, 1998, 113).

The Gita being “the noblest expressions of philosophy that man have ever stated” carrying “all

the great wisdom of India and of the world” (Rao, 1998, 217; 231) was rightfully chosen by

Gandhi as the guiding source. Tao seems to comply with the Hindu Idea of Vedas and the Key to

the knowledge of the eternal spiritual truth11

.

Gandhi, as Rao implies, found all his answers in the Vedas. Rao himself too has been a

strong advocate of the Vedas12

. In an article entitled “The Example of Raja Rao”. R.

Parthasarathy has included his study of The Chessmaster and His Moves. He observes Rao’s use

of Gandhi’s references to the Bhagwad Gita as a way of life (qtd. In Hardgrave, 1998, 22). The

ancient way, for Rao, was based on truth and helped in shaping the very foundations of man. The

past was a source of inspiration alone. Thinkers as Rao, rooted in traditionalism, view the

contemporary as a condition with a lot desied to be changed and for them only the past has the

power to do so. Therefore, Rao justifies the application of the past to the modern world by

Gandhi. The promotion of divinity-cum-Gandhism has a lot to do with Rao’s own spiritual

perspective. For Rao, Gandhi was simply aiming to achieve both transformation of the society

and that of the individual. The focus has always been on the “moral welfare” rather on improving

social institutions, Sainthood was a fight replete with impediments but having attained victory in

sainthood, Gandhi became a mighty being, more powerful than the kind himself. Critics who

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favour Gandhi’s preference of the spiritual or moral over the material are convinced with his

conviction that the latter would only spell trouble for the villages in the time to come.

Thus Raja Rao defends Gandhi’s appeal to the deep religious sentiments in India. People

in his writings respond to Gandhi largely as the saint-philosopher, the master of the “light-giver”.

Rao attempts to weave Gandhi and Gandhism into the traditional framework of India as he writes

on “Gandhi-inspired stir; new social ideas; Gandhian challenge as a conflict between the good

and evil” or “the right dharma”. For Rao, metaphysics was integral to the representative Indian

tradition. Spirituality was an important binding factor. It had a stronger impact on unifying the

mass sentiments into desired direction. Gandhi’s Rao could be called a “political-saint”. Rao

implies that Gandhism was trying to humanise the state as the spiritual and the earthly are inter-

related. Gandhi has rather a practical approach wherein he webbed the moral, political and

religious aspects of his life. Action and reflection went side by side. And not anywhere does Rao

give the impression that Gandhi’s spirituality is passivity. Rather he offers it as an active field of

energy. Religion was an instrument of truth and spirituality was dynamic not passive.

Naipaul, as mentioned in the previous chapter, blames Gandhi for starting, what he

defines a play of symbolism in India. Gandhi’s symbolism has been controversial concern for

most of his critics. His public display of the everyday rites has often been rapped for the dramatic

manifestation of the symbols. But Raja Rao is quite supportive of Gandhi’s symbolism, Gandhi

sitting on the spinning wheel seems a divine figure to Rao. “Silence spinning silence seems the

round of love” (Rao, 1996, 80). Rao’s support of Gandhi’s symbols is in tune with Rao’s

tendency to encourage the idea of practice of ritualising in his works. Rao mentions that Gandhi

being a true politician realised the potential of the dramatic performance: of the means being

more important than the ends, Gandhi loved his symbols, according to him. Every symbolic

ritual Rao elaborates, has a significance attached. If walks were good for health, then lesser

clothes meat better breathing for the body; sandals instead of shoes meant freedom from smelly

feet; fasting had divine power and his power only led to clarity of vision and stronger devotion

(Rao, 1998, 49). And so when Gandhi beckons his brothers to “spin that love between us, let us

spin and weave such love…” (Rao, 1998, 443). Rao is only patronising Gandhi’s art of

ceremony. He writes, “Every footstep should be a ritual, every word a mantra” (Rao, 1998, 66).

Gandhi for some was basically a good main aiming at revival of virtue and ethics. And

thus from his Gandhian baggage of mysticism, he had realised that all in all, utilitarian means did

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not always come in handy where aiming to reach important ends. His symbols brought about a

unity of heart and mind by virtue of their combination of tradition, ritual and pragmatism. Every

act subsumes and goes beyond the earlier one. Vows takes by a serious man lead to inner

transformation and that too of a permanent nature. This transformation or rather transfiguration,

as Rao puts its, is sanctifying (Rao, 1998, 265). And so when Gandhi realised the power of the

symbols and the vows, he transformed them into weapons. These symbols could be used to

propagate almost any message because everything symbolised the connection of the individual

with the celestial. “Fast” (Rao, 1998, 454) connected one to the Absolute and “prayers” were a

means to receive the message of God. And so Gandhi would fast unto death. “spinning” was

inaction in action and vise-versa. It was supple. One could not dare disturb the spinning of

spinning. Gandhi’s eyes closed while his hands motioned the wheel, and Rao explains the power

within the silence that surrounded him. Rao upholds silence and since prayer to him is wisdom as

an imperative requirement for the path of noble truth. And thus when once Gandhi was

confronted with a snake in the lumber-room, Rao explains that it was due to this inner,

transformation that the serpent has no fear of Gandhi and therefore didn’t attach him.

Perhaps of all Gandhi’s invocation of various symbols, Rao seems to be most fascinated

by the spinning wheel15

. Gandhi has always been emphasising on the role that hand spinning

could play in gaining self-sufficiency, and even moral regeneration. Besides Gandhi has been

associating important tenets with the wheel such as truth, non-violence. Freedom, agriculture and

removal of poverty. Rao (Rao, 1996, 76) adds in The Meaning of India that the beginning of the

wheel was in the end and the end in the beginning and this was the action and this was what

Gandhi wanted. Then there is divine intervention in the act of spinning; “Gandhiji goes on doing

the something doing nothing, nothing. An actionless act, as it were, it moves by itself, Who is

there? No one” (Rap, 1996, 80).

And thus Gandhi the forever pilgrim, in his peasant grab, and walking staff, seemed a

very Sukhama, going a-visiting his Sri Krishana, the Truth, Gandhi was ever the pilgrim (Rao,

1996, 64). Gandhi’s walk, the loincloth wrapped round his frail body normally labelled as part of

Gandhi’s scheme of symbols signify the beauty of naturalness to Rao. The loincloth made it

easier for him to related to commoners. The Gandhi-cap signified a license to earn respect from

them. These symbols according to Rao played an important role in Gandhi’s efforts to bind with

the masses. Importantly, Gandhi has also presented the wheel as an important instrument of

securing cooperation among the people. Thus it is obvious why spinning took the form of a yajna

for Rao. Rao was a devout Hindu and Hinduism gives much weightage to symbolism16. The

entire gamut of symbolisation in The Great Indian Way, is seen making the task of struggling for

freedom much easier. All the symbols combined together give Gandhian struggle a powerful

ethical identity. In on The Ganga Ghat, Rao writes:

The Gandhi-cap gives you such respect that you could go anywhere,, and nobody

will say one harsh word to you. It also made contact easier….And when tow

Gandhi-cap meet there’s much greater fund. Life is not worth living now. I tell

you, unless you speak the Mahatma’s tongue (Rao, 1989, 107).

Various critics have mentioned the significances that have been attached to Gandhi’s

symbolic gesture within the homeland. The symbolic practices of praying, spinning, wearing

Khadi and other were revolutionary by nature. Rao explains that each of the symbols has a

purpose attached to it. The prayer helped in invoking strength from within for the purpose of

community work. The spinning wheel symbolised manual labour and Khadi stood for

independent native industries. Thus for Rao, all these symbols together were basically

instruments of perpetuating a cry for common social change and also importantly they helped

relate daily life with the revolution.

THE POWER OF GANDHI’S TRUTH AND NON-VIOLENCE

Naipaul has been critical of Gandhi with truth and non-violence whereas Raja Rao whose

rediscovery of India has often been described as a quest for truth, is as pains to discuss the Vedic

glory and divinity attached with these principles, especially “truth”. In fact he himself sounds

like a second Gandhi when he resorts to moralistic oratory in order to glorify truth. A reading of

The Great Indian Way clearly indicates that truth according to Rao is the “summum bonum” of

human life. Rao’s advocating of truth was in tune with his own Vedantic belief that truth defines

the ultimate motive of existence.

Rao has worked with the concept of truth in repletion. Even his fictional works have not

been spared of the quest for truth. In The Serpent and the Rope. Rao inserts a metaphysically

conversation on truth to imply that truth is freedom from all illusions. In the Policemen and the

Rose, truth is a pilgrimage of de-sensualisation where all passions give way to selflessness.

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Satyagraha has been regarded not only as a revolution that created togetherness in India but

turned out to be one of the most significant contribution to human world. Gandhi’s domestic

advocates believe that it was because of Gandhi’s conviction in the principle of truth that his life

turned out to be a message. Satyagraha got associated with swadeshi and economic self-reliance.

It was marked by a sense of responsibility. Salt Satyagraha has been accorded with the merit of

being the most spectacular in the history of political revolts. Rao understand Gandhi’s

interpretation of history as truth. Truth is regarded an means of salvation and the highest dharma

as well as the means of normal human existence. Rao says that life “has meaning only when truth

has meaning” (Rao, 1998, 56).

In fact according to Rao, truth was the only way of real adventure, the only way that

Harishcandra-Gandhi could survive in the contradictory and corrupt London and finally succeed

in his struggle against the British. Truth paying its game led Gandhi on. For a satyagrahi Gandhi

“truth was more important than accommodation with contingent realities” (Rao, 1998, 453).

Gandhi, being a man of truth had no secrets. Mystery gave way to bareness of honesty and sound

intentions. Rao himself was popular as an ardent seeker of truth. At times truth implied

compromising with situation, inviting danger, losing relations but herein lies the beauty of

truth—it is both hard as adamant and tender as a blossom, for Rao (Rao, 1998, 174). He

considers truth as invincible. And above all God was on the side of truth-abiding Gandhi. His

death was but victory of Satyagraha. Gandhi kept facing hardships in the path of Harishandra,

yet goes on. Even in South Africa, Gandhi was at all times trying to maintain truth in its pristine

purity. Gandhi guided by truth, got engaged in social service send moral welfare and later in the

struggle for freedom. It is at several places in the biography, that Rao feels the need to elaborate

on the strength and supremacy of truth. The right emerges from as well as ends in truth: no evil

can withstand it. Truth is free of all constraints. It is timeless and victory is for the timeless. It is

a circle and has ns end but is repetitive honesty (Rao, 1998, 368). In The Meaning of India

Gandhism is a technique of revolutionary activity composed, and used, not for the political but a

metaphysical change. So it is called satyagraha or the grasping of “Truth” (Rao, 1996, 68). In the

biography Rao refers to Mahabharata in order to elicit the glory of a satyagrahi:

A king should build up his victory by means other than war; victory through war

is said to be the worst. Death through dharma is better than victory through

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Brahaman: truthfulness is the greatest offering to God: everything is base don

truthfulness (Rao, 1998, 370).

Thus truth become a sure short formula for victory. It gives the strength of fighting on. In

The Great Indian Way truth is spelt with a capital “I” in the upper case, throughtout. The very

title of the book is the definition of truth to Rao. Evil too is but a shadow of truth. Kingdoms

have been sacrificed for the sake of upholding truth. There are numerous suffering and

complexities in its path but it ends in clarity of understanding. Rao refer to Buddha who had to

free his own self of worldly complexities to search eh ultimate truth, as it is more important than

any earthly power. “After all, Harishchandra did it, Why not Mohandas Gandhi (Rao, 1998,45)?

“Truth burns on. Victory is ever to the Truth” (Rao, 1998, 51). Mohandas too lived the

harishandra way, which to Rao was the normal way of existence. Life is meaningless in the

absence of truth. Rao says that thruth was a part of Gandhi’s being since the very beginning but

when he made a confession in front of his father and receive subsequent, forgiveness in return,

truth became a passion for Gandhi, it became his protector and guide. In England too, Gandhi

maintained steadfastness in the path of truth. Path of truth was winning for Gandhi in South

Africa. Gandhi was led by its power in all his movements and ended “not in applause but in an

indrawn void of pure silence” and that is the zenith of truth (Rao, 1998, 294). Gandhi stood by it

like a true satyagrahi, sacrificing accommodation with contingent realities for its sake and thus

went conquering on. Rao writes,: “You never lose when you are truthful and disinterested” (Rao,

1998, 44) “Truth alone is victorious: Satyameva-jayate” (Rao, 1996, 77).

Rao also wondered in the biography whether Gandhi had attain the ultimate meaning of

truth, which is that I the mystery of death lies the prognosis of life. He aroused nationalism in his

search for truth. But satyagraha again is not easy. Rao defines it as a ropedancer’s drama. One

cannot look left or right, up or down, one has to look at the rope and the rope alone (Rao, 1998,

301). Rai says that Gandhi was not fighting an enemy but standing firmly by truth, facing

deterrents in his path of satyagraha. He was not a man but truth himself seeking victory for the

common man and changing his fate. Thus he began his revolution resplendent with Gandhian

miracles all the way.

Rao (Rao, 1998, 72) mentions that the white in South Afria too get swayed by the truth-

abiding leader. When Rao defines truth as dharma, eternal Brahman or the greatest offering to

god, then it is not surprising that it is one of the factors why he considers Gandhi a saint. It is not

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deeds that are the main criteria of a great man for Rao. To him possession of the ultimate

thought-process or rather knowledge is of greater significance. An individual needs to rid himself

of biological strapping and elevate himself to a higher level that is free of all sequencing and the

individual can merge the universe in the self. And once this happens the play beings as one exits

prose and enters poetry (Rao, 1996, 177).

Satyagraha was a moral and social movement. Rao too being a devout Hindu supports

truth as one of the principle aims of human life and also as a modernist concept. Hindu thinkers

are inclined to define the theory of satyagraha in terms of human values. Satyagraha as been

defined as a fight for hearts before any other. And since it is a moral fight, therefore opposing is

justified. The aim was to win hearts through conversiona rather than destruction. Thus there was

an element of traditionalism involved. Naipaul blames Gandhi for perpetuating passivity and

defeatist attitude through his policy of compromising and submitting in the form of non-violence.

Raja Rao has dealt with both the concepts—that of passivity and non-violence. When it comes to

his treatment of Gandhi’s non-violence it would be apt to refer to Mahapatra’s poem quoted in

Bijay K. Das Postmodern India English Literature, in which Mahaptra has represented non-

violence as a mystical yet beautiful and assuring light, something that happens to be Rao’s

perception also:

It is a world in itself

This ashimsa,

With its mysterious shadows

Lurking under ancient places,

That assumes the clear self-sustaining

Light of suns:

A redefinition of beauty .

Firstly, considering Rao’s perception of Gandhi’s passivity, his definition of non-violence

is fact the exact oppotie of the literal meaning of the world “passive”. For him, Gandhi’s

passivity stands for power and action and what seems like inaction is in reality a higher from of

action. Action and inaction complement each other and one always includes the other. This

energetic passivity is a highly effective tool of catalysing peoples’ impulses. Besides Rao says

that silence practised by Gandhi enabled him to think before he spoke. Therefore, it was good.

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Rao denies fixities and asserts that man is always in ambivalence. Thus action becomes

an ongoing process and each action becomes an act of sacrifice. The means take over the ends.

The inner is with the outer. Thus, where some critics pull at Gandhi’s passivity as cowardice,

Rao on the other hand, defines compromise as an essential accompaniment of truth and as noble.

Gandhi had according to Rao, unconditionally accepted non-violence as a faith. In fact, non-

violence became the principle weapon that Gandhi has adopted in this fight against the British. In

the biography it is not just Gandhi propagating non-violence, along with truth, as the guiding

p9rinciples of all actions and thought, but it is as though Rao is sermonising the readers himself.

Gandhi was not ready to compromise his stand on non-violence even if it meant failure at any

point of time in his struggle. He was open to negotiations only through engagement of the

opposition’s conscience.

Rao deals with Gandhi’s non-violence as a positive and dynamic approach. His non-

violence had assumed tremendous popularity and relevance in his times. As with all other things,

violence too has to be introduced in Rao’s works and Rao starts with Ashoka and his discovery

of the goriness of violence. Non-violence, like the tenet of truth as an indigenous tool. In fact,

truth and non-violence go into defining Gandhi’s integrity in the biography. Rao identifies the

unwavering resolve of Gandhi to treat the non-violent path. The fact that Gandhi’s non-violence

was a subtle yet powerful force has been recognised time and against in The Great Indian Way.

Raja Rao describes the need of adopting it as a life long practice. He exhibits not only the power

that Ganhdi’s non-violence held but also the kind of resilience one requires to be non-violent. He

advocate attaching rational and sobriety with it. Rao’s commitment to Gandhian non-violence is

clearly revealed in his description of the peasants’ conversion to the principle of civil

disobedience. Rao (Rao, 1996, 93) says that Gandhi’s non-violence what a-politicised: it was a

means of reaching the truth he was searching for. Rao sees Gandhi’s non-violence as an

inheritance from ancient scriptures and asserts that Gandhi simply explore its potential.

GANDHI—THE ORGANISED LEADER

From one diasporic position, i.e., of Raja Rao, there emanates defence of Gandhi’s

opposition to westernisation but at no point of time is this equated to advocating backwardness.

Gandhi has not been presented as an outright protestor of the West but he did not want the West

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to replace what we have. While one section of diaspora views Gandhi’s economic views as not

only modern but global also; aiming ultimately at attainment of self-sufficiency, another section

considers them to be impediment in the way of succeeding in modern economics. Gandhi’s view

based on compromise and submission are seen as incompatible to contemporary times of

competition. In protest to such allegations. Aruni Mukherjee, diasporic remarks, “a major part of

Gandhi’s criticism towards industrialisation was geared towards preserving India’s rich natural

resources”. A reference may be made to Rajendra Prasad18

who has mentioned the prominence

of economical development in the enlightened Gandhian plan of things alongside simultaneous

weightage given to moral development. Well-being was not the standard of measuring economic

development but rather here was an emphasis on comprehensive development. Gandhi’s was

rather a globalised view and his stress on Swadeshi was simply to cultivate self-confidence and

national self-respect.

If on one has Rao eulogies Gandhi as “Mahatma”gaining success with his spiritual spells,

he also draws him as a political leader with intellectual density; a man of vision and firmness

guided by “an imperative and imagery honesty” (Rao, 1998, 368), who shook the foundations of

the Empire with his magical hold on the masses as Rao writes in The Great India Way:

It is here Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi enters history. He touched the nerve

centre of empire building with a gentlemanly geste and an elegant argument–

meek in voice but firm in statement, which eventually broke, in fifty years, the

firmest foundations of the Empire (Rao, 1998, 162-163).

Rao uses the personal of Gandhi to define the meaning of India, Rao’s Gandhi is a

saintly-human combination of a politician for the simple reason that Gandhi, as Rao explains, has

realised that the divine and the real world were inseparable and one could not isolate either of

these. The “irrational in man” can light the creative spark where logic and reason have failed and

Raja Rao was this in action in Gandhi’s Satyagraha movement. An article in the Deccan Herald

entitled “The writer in exile” by Malathi Rao, recognises the difference between the abstract and

Gandhian ways and goes on to say that even though the abstract world of ideology has always

dominated Rao’s thought process, nevertheless, he was drawn to the independence struggle as

well as to the political principles of Gandhi which perhaps should not be all defined on a rational

ground but could be at par with logic.

In Rao’s treatment of Gandhi, one is reminded so Sriniwas Iyengar’s words: “The

greatness of Gandhi was no sudden overwhelming greatness but rather the greatness of ordinary

man who through a long process of trial and error, aspiration and endeavour, achieved a

greatness indubitable his own” (Iyengar, 249). Rao presents Gandhi like any other devout Indian,

as an amalgam of tradition, myths, customs, gestures and rituals, acts eliciting statements of

philosophical, historical superstitious, cast-originality significance and therefore he chooses the

epic style to narrate Gandhi. In The Great Indian Way Rao explains how Gandhi combined both

the illusionary and the real. The demarcation between ritual and reality was very narrow and this

added a whole log of mystery to Gandhi’s character, making him all the more attractive for Rao.

In Kanthapura also the Gandhian movement overshadow the narrow concerns and brings people

together for a bigger cause. Rao discusses freedom only with relation to Everything circles on

him. Anyone, Rao says, can live like a hero but it is death as a hero that counts, Gandhi’s was

heroic.

In the biography, Rao even mentions the quick global realisation of Gandhi as a leader

following his activities in Africa. We come across the whites in South Africa who recognised

Gandhi as an educated and enlightened force to be reckoned with. Gandhi was nobly respected

at such a young age. Gandhi impressed quite a few whites there as he went around experimenting

in human understanding and acting as protector of Indian there, and Rao says that with the

combination of intellect of the whites and Gandhiji’s committed headship, “the movement

carried a secret and astonishing momentum to its own” (Rao, 1998, 195). P(eople were taken by

Gandhi-swami’s fight that was getting bigger and bigger. Rao even talks of Gandhi’s growing

popularity in England even before he began his play in India.

Rao sums up Gandhism as discarding of hypocrisy, winning the hearts of the adversaries;

favouring kindness to accusation; practicing scrupulousness with facts; fair play; honest

argumentation, however, it accepts compromising were required but not sacrifice of truth at any

cost. It was not an overnight miracle but rather a planned wise play of Gandhi that affected its

slow yet consistent winning. The Great Indian Way depicts how despite its appearance,

Gandhism is based on reasoning and reasoning trails on a rough path, making critical decision,

opting for suffering and also at times, overlooking the near in the interest of the far. Gandhism is

darshana just as India’s (Rao, 1998, 173). It follows the path of reality as well as beyond the

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reality of facts. Gandhism was a slow approach but nevertheless it was always winning slowly

and steadily.

In The Meaning of India, Rao has tried to touch the sensitive issue of whether to

politicise or spiritualise Gandhi and concludes that Gandhi after his London experience fulfilled

both:

London has pushed Gandhi not only deeply inward but also has made him a

gentleman—of all British gifts to the world the most precious. The gentleman

combined in himself (somewhat) the moral firmness of the saint, the shy

statement of the chevalier, the knight, and withal the practical wisdom of a

politician or businessman (Rao, 1996, 66).

Rao says that Gandhi has multiple influences that contributed to his and politics was just

one of them. Rao mentions in the biography that Gandhi preferred complete surrender to god but

slowly realised that he was made by god and meant to be the play of god (Rao, 1998, 363). And

this made him all the more powerful; even his silence held powers. Gandhi was a strong

revolutionary on one side; he was also a humanitarian, caring for the deprived and standing for

their well-being. Gandhi’s love was formless with no imitations. He as not regressive but on the

contrary has planned a fabrication of the Indian of tomorrow with particular concern for the

common man’s future. Rao writes, “Gandhi was a revolutionary. He wanted to change the face

of India, of present India, the India of the common man” (Rao, 1998, 71). Gandhi used the tools

of culture and tradition, which even Rao considers to be greater effect than history. In fact, he

considers “tradition as but ritualistic history” (Rao, 14998, 293), Describing the beauty of the

craft that Gandhi employed in suing history, Rao writes, “To all there he turned in deep

salutation, did Gandhiji, and then did he speak: Brothers, he seemed to say, this is an ancient

land, and we walk today where the Buddha might have walked” (Rao, 1998, 442)

Gandhi, through Rao’s writings, also comes across as a reasonable man who would

always give the opponent a benefit of doubt as and when permissible; his first attempt being

always to try and understand the adversary’s situation. Forgiveness, a strong point from the

Bhagwad Gita, was supreme in his scheme of things. Gandhi always pinned trust in his

adversaries and he never treated the enemy as an opponent but as a player among players. All

belongs to but one whole (Raoi, 1998, 351). Rao’s Gandhi was a “selfless being” leading India

by the great Indian way of truth and non-violence; ready to put all that he possessed at stake for

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others. Rao identifies two seekers of path to god–one with Marxian approach and other as truth-

abider and says that the former creates his paradise on earth but it is the latter who will beyond

man and be sacrificed (Rao, 1998, 121). Gandhi was a constant learner eager to grasp and

constantly hone his learning. Reasoning asked of him to overlook the near in the interest of the

far. This very learner was the teacher and this is metamorphic relation between the tutor and the

taught, also goes into defining the Indian way according to Rao.

For Raja Rao, the saint-politician combination was the reason why Gandhi held a magical

influence on the people. Mahatma, Rao says, is not merely a title bestowed upon Gandhi. For

Rao, Gandhi is a mahatma or rather he is mysterious (a whole of energy, unorthodoxy,

forgiveness) which makes it all the more difficult to place him in any fixity or perspective. But

all this miscalculation adds a whole lot of grandeur to his being, thus, making him all the greater.

Rao given full credit to non-violence and civil disobedience as political techniques. Gandhi was

a product of the Fabian world and therefore relied on experimentation. He has learnt “your way

is the all-for you” (Rao, 1998, 139). Gandhi led a self-responsible life and only sought liberation.

As a sage he has transcended ego and the world. His was a journey of rediscovery rather than

that of transformation. And it was in his sincere efforts to change himself that he changed the

world (Rao, 1996, 62). Gandhian miracle occurring times and again while all the times Gandhi

sought victory of the common man and this made him appear most selfless.

Rao’s Gandhi was a revolutionary. In The Meaning of India, Raja Rao deals with both

Gandhi the man the mahatma. He further adds that while comparing Gandhi and Nehru, the

former stood for wisdom or the principle while the latter figured as power of practice. Rao has

further argued that it was only safe for Gandhi and Nehru to be two separate entities as wisdom

and power in one could be disastrous, Gandhian strategy thus from Rao’s perspective is that of

both simplicity as well as complex calculations. Gandhi required a sense of vision to organise his

vision in an executive from and for this it was necessary for his to combine the ethical with the

practical. To sum up, according to Rao, Gandhian philosophy is not just simultaneously a

political, moral and religious offering but it is also traditional and modern, simple and complex.

It embodies numerous western influences to which Gandhi was exposed. At the same time being

rooted in ancient Indian culture and harnessing eternal and universal moral and religious

principles, there was much in it that was not at all new. Even Rao too stumbles across the

peculiar shades Gandhi appearing at times in his political-philosophical progress but nevertheless

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his’ is a relentless effort at Gandhi-worship. In his chapter on Gandhi in The Meaning of India.

Rao offer to interrogate the make-up of Gandhi, the subtitle of the chapter being “Saint or

Politician”. He, however, concludes that Gandhi was both (Rao, 1996, 60-61), Rao writes that

saint is the one who images god whereas politician images goo citizens. Gandhi wanted to be

neither of the two. He only sought liberation for himself in the form of attaining the ultimate

truth and desired to be a sage. He was attempting rediscovery and not a radical transformation;

he was trotting on an eternal pilgrimage in search of truth yet circumstance would not let him be

and he ended up being both a saint and a politician. The search inevitably sowed seeds for the

freedom struggle and thus truth became India. God himself helped Gandhi (Rao, 1996, 67).

In a study debating whether Gandhi was pre-modern, modern or postmodern, Gandhi has

been related to postmodern forms of thought especially in areas of the self, ethics, religion, and

political philosophy. Gandhism has been referred to as “Constructive postmodernism that

involves using the past as inspiration and not as blueprint of the present. His “inner voice” has

been associated with relativism and modernism is being redefined in the post modern times and

in Gandhi’s case it applies to prevalence of hope and wisdom. It is the coming together of facts

and values. Some critics has viewed the idealisation of the guidance through the self, truth and

non-violence as tenets of postmodern philosophy because they encourage coming together for a

common good. It was synthesis of the old and the new.

Raja Rao said about The Great Indian Way that other biographies of Gandhi has been

true to the facts but not to the meaning of Gandhi’s life: “A biography of Gandi it seemed to me

has to be written as it were from the inside, desperately, faithfully” (Rao, 1998, 8). In the book,

Rao has not merely attempted a biography of Gandhi but rather he is trying to take out the

essence of Gndhism—what it means, what it dose and it greatness. In face, the book is imbued

with a plea for understanding and adopting Gandhian philosophy. Rao understands that though

Gandhi was a political leader, the basis of his life lay in the baggage of religion. Gandhi

combined in life of ethical and morality with spirituality. The spiritual played its way through the

veins of his existence and Gandhi linked it with his plan of action through his intermediary

instincts there by always meting with victory. Raja Rao places strong faith in religion and

perceives it a powerful source of guidance and wisdom. Rao (Rao, 1998, 422) depicts how

Gandhi could mould politics and religion in a very balanced way, by harping on the pious and

historical instincts of the people, to get across his message to the masses. Rao has only

emphasised on the global importance to Gandhi’s spiritualisation of politics. He further adds that

by adopting Gandhian disctums a better world may be built. Rao shows that Gandhi’s faith in

god led him in his political endeavour and was thus helped through moral/metaphysical

dilemmas. He became the voice of the future to come. But this does not deter Rao from

describing Gandhi as fearless and dauntless. In fact, Gandhism, to Rao, was based on facts and

precision; each step being a mathematical statement and therefore, it won times and times again

against those with power (Rao, 1998, 173). Rao writes, “Never what Gandhiji said or did could

leave man indifferent” (Rao, 1998, 223). Despite all devotion that Rao practices in his writings

on Gandhi, he nevertheless, presents him as a practical man who flexed himself according to

variant circumstances thereby negating the possibility of fixation. He has power and excitement

in his voice to rouse the ignorant masses. He served humanity. In Rao’s writing we come across

people in accumulation coming under the spell of Gandhi and the symbolic riches of Gandhism.

Realising the potent power that he beholds, cast over by his overwhelming spell, following him

blindly; all men and women, shouting “Say Ramachandraji Ki Jai. Say Victory to Sri Rama”

(Rao, 1998, 415).

Rao himself as a writer has been using religion as a stimulating force in almost all his

writings. His books read like a katha. In Kanthapura, Rao depicts a village swept over by

Gandhian thought and a quiet village transforms into a battleground for freedom. Gandhi

becomes a cult in the novel and the village is enraptured with its essence. Gandhi here stands for

the ethical more than the political. Rao therefore gives us a visionary leader who had learned to

harmonise India values and politics aimed at common welfare. He was clubbing “is” with “what

ought to be”. He does not consider the separation between fact and value. Gandhi has the sense

of supporting decentralisation has knew how to make a perfect mould of the past and the present.

Rao favours the transmutation of the past into a metaphor for the present time. Romain Rolland

too has put Gandhi’s resistance with the aid of religion on an idealised pedestal. Stephen Murphy

in “Brief Outline of Gandhi’s Philosophy” writes, “In coming to grips with Gandhi’s way of

thinking it is most important to understand the perception of truth undergoes an ongoing process

of refinement which is evolutionary in nature”. And that is what Rao has tried to express. In

Gandhi’s thought the emphasis is not merely on attaining the ideal but to obtain it within

practical dimensions.

Raja Rao is a case of first generation diaspora. He was born and brought up in an ancient

Brahmin set-up in India and developed strong spiritual values under the influence of his

grandfather. Even after he left India, he never ceased thinking about it and continued his society

did not alienate him as such. Rao’s consolation lay in spiritual expression and in America he did

not seem to fall short of avenues for the purpose. Thus, with successive time, he gained a deeper

insight into Indian culture and spirituality. Indian spirituality become a source of self-

actualisation for him. Whenever, in India, he seemed to be in a spiritual quest. And slowly as his

socio-political interest in India grew, he became a part of the freedom movement. Ancient Indian

civilisation fascinated him and he attempted to revive its values. It was during his political

engagements that Rao met Gandhi, Gandhi’s sense of spirituality, Indianness, and his strong

advocating of the striking principles of Hinduism such as truth, non-violence impressed Rao and

in Gandhi he perhaps found means to self-realisation.

Thus in Rao we seen an unquestioning clinging on to Indianness. It is evident that in

order to related to the native space, Rao has selected his own set of symbols representing his

spirtial, social, political, cultural interests in India and Gandhi is one of them. Why Gandhi

assumes all the more importance is due to the fact the he represents each of the aspects listed.

Rao seems to see his own self in Gandhina values. Therefore, we do not see anything of the sort

of strong critical examination of Gandhi through a historical paradigm but rather there is a

reverential invocation of him as Gandhi helps Rao strengthen his bond to the native place.

In The Great Indian Way: Raja Rao has explored Gandhi all over again in different

dimensions to give us a whole new divine and rich layered perspective of the leader. And when

Rao claims in The Meaning of India that Gandhi did not live long enough and if he had, most of

India’s worries would have been taken care of, he in fact reiterates how much faith he has

invested in Gandhi as a leader. He writes:

….had Gandhi lived long enough and had Gandhi attained the integrity of non-

duality in himself, which he never claimed he did, Gandhi might have made.

Nehru, his Moghul Emperor, construct and Indian that might have resolved may

of the intricate problems of internal and international politics in a truer

perspective (Rao, 1996, 88).

Another writer from the space of Indian diaspora that may be considered here is the

poetess Meena Alexander. She has repeatedly used Gandhi throughout her poetry. Her approach

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to Gandhi is, however, that of reminiscence. Gandhi is longed for and his absence is painful. She

commemorates the ideal that he stood for and her poems cam be considered tributes to Gandhi’s

gift to India. In her collection of poems, mentioned earlier in Chapter 2, entitled Letters to

Gandhi, Gandhi is throughout referred to as “Dear Mr. Gandhi” which indicates both affection

and reverence towards him. Gandhi lived his life and having made his contribution, proceeded to

heaven. He is the onlooker from above, still very much alive implying the eternity of Gandhi.

The people have failed Gandhi and the situation is out of hand. In her poem “Slow Dancing”

Gandhi’s helplessness is expressed at supreme when Alexander writes:

I see you at the rim of heaven

Grow older till, bewildered, stopped

Dhoti flecked with drops of mud,

Face seared by moon

That has nothing….....

The same poem, Gandhi’s need for guidance is felt more that ever before but extremity of

situations makes it impossible for Gandhism to reach down here as she writes:

Dear Mr. Gandhi

Please talk to me now.

I am slow dancing

In the dark….......

This pro-Gandhi approach to Gandhi is though contemporary and uses a different

approach from that of Raja Rao’s, yet there is the common fact of Gandhi being eulogised by

both. Therefore, they stand for the other space of diaspora that reveres Gandhi as a significant

icon representing the homeland. Gandhi is the link to the glorious past, history, tradition and

culture and even to the present as well as the future of India.

Basavaraju Appa Rao’s peom on Gandhi

A new Jesus Christ that incarnated

By not hurting him,

He melted his foe’s arrogance

Bom in Hindu paigambar.

( Das, Sisir Kumar, 65-66)

R. Parthasarthy while discussing metaphysical speculation of Raja Rao notice the writer’s

awe of Gandhi in every page of The Great Indian Way, while Mulk Raj Anand defines the

evocation of Mahatma Gandhi as the essence of the book. Sometimes Rao makes Gandhi a

compulsive intrusion into the text. And only occasionally there is a Naipaul-like reference to

him “….Walls, Walls, makes my son good. Make him eminent. Don’t make him a Gandhi-

gander. He must be virile and bright…” (Rao, 1989, 70). K. Unnikrishnan finds in Raja Rao a

keen awareness and consideration of the “Guru principle operating in the Indian social psyche”

(Narasimhaiah, 2000, 142). He adds that Rao values the guru-disciple relationship and this is

also evident in Rao, the writer’s relation to his subject Gandhi. The guru stands for source of

strength and inspiration and Rao’s works, the treatment of Gandhi as mahatma is similar. R.

Parthasarathy in “The Example of Raja Rao” while reviewing The Chessmaster and His Moves,

observes that “the guru as light giver for his disciple, takes up many forms, one of them being of

Gandhi besides of Krishana, Buddha, Sankara and others. The guru shall clarify all doubts as he

leads from ‘the unreal to the real, form darkness to light, and from death to immortality”. A

spiritual discipline and self-control is required. Knowledge becomes supreme and ultimately

there is deliverance with the attainment of immortality. (Hardgrave, 1998, 24). In fact, Rao

himself seems sometimes a guru narrating and preaching Gandhism to his readers and

propagating Gandhian ways as a form of spiritual awareness into our daily lives. G.V. Gupta in

his article entitled “Myths behind the Mahatma’s Methods”, says that the book is a “sagar

manthan” the unfolds the story of the development of the mahatma in the backdrop of Indian

tradition.

M.K. Naik observes the effect of the combination The Cow of the Barricades and states

that it was due to this due to this that Gandhi has such a strong impact on the masses. He writes:

The spirit of freedom struggle in the people would not have has the fire it had, has it not been the

celestial influence of Gandhi on them. The people gave Gandhi and his cause their unconditional

commitment and followed him blindly….” The Mahatma said: ‘Don’t buy their cloth.’ And

people did not buy their cloth. The Mahatma said: ‘Don’t pay their taxes’. And people did not

pay their taxes….” (Naik, 55). Rao writes: “The women sat at the train doors and said: Until

Bapu comes we shall not go. And other, the men that were already in the train, they jumped over

the women and came out on the plate form and cried: Brothers, we will not go, and all the men

then shouted, Sri Ramachandra Ki jai, and the….” (Rao, 1998, 422).

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Sthalapurana is the pan-Indian term that refers to myth and the legend associated with a

local place or region. Humanyun Kabir has written the following sonnet dedicated to Gandhi.

A lone figure stands upon he sands of time….

Launches India’s resistless caravan

Into adventure new, a perilous path

Where out of life’s substance must be carved

New values, new direction, order new-

Gandhi, mahatma, India’s leader, India’s soul.

The poet seems to be in a ecstasy as he explores Gandhi in philosophical, political and

humane terms. Kabir talks of Gandhi, the mahatma, India’s leader, India’s soul as a lone figure

standing upon the sands of time. He has launched India into new adventures and the Indian

caravan without the power of resisting followed on a death-defying path. And out of life’s

substance carves new values, new direction and a new order. This is reminiscent of Rao’s faith in

Gandhi who believes him to be for all times and all places.

Gandhi was offered Ruskin’s books by Gandhi’s intimate friend Mr. Polak and Gandhi

read it on his train journey from Johannesburg to Durban. The book gripped Gandhi so much that

its teaching of the book appealed to Gandhi instantaneously and Gandhi paraphrased it into

Gujarati as Sarvodaya (the welfare of all). Gandhi learnt the teaching of the book to be. The good

of the individual is contained in the welfare of all. All have same right of earning their livelihood

from their work, That a life of Labour is the life worth living. Gandhi defined the qualities on an

ideal satyagrahi in fairly clear-cut terms: he or she had to be schooled into knowing the ways of

himself. He admitted that his public presence– as an apostle of peace-has come about as a result

of his carefully tending him erring self. (Geeta, 11). But first, it is important to understand the

philosophy of Advaita or non-dualism. Derived from the school of Vedanta, advaita tenet asserts

the supremacy of the Brahman as the ultimate self. Sankaracharya has expounded this theory

deeply. From Gandhi’s perspective and all the more in Rao’s case we need to focus on

Sarvatmabhava, meaning that the self is all. Therefore, nothing is left to be desired for. All

wisdom and happiness lines in one’s own. “He who sees all beings in the Atma and Atma in all

beings feels no hatred.” Thus with this realisation of the self one become literally selfless and

attains the ultimate Brahman. The Atma, which is all-pervasive, becomes the sole guide. This is

liberation. Other are seen within the self and that is when the self and that is when the possibility

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of having enemies is negated. The only mission is to work for other. Even god is to be identified

with the self.

M.K. Naik in his book on Raja Rao, while making a study of The Serpent and the Rope

mentions Swami Prabhavanada’s views on self: “The world. According to Sankara” is and is

not”. Its fundamental unreality can be understood only in relation to the ultimate mystical

experience, the experience of an illumined soul. When the illumined soul passes into trascendal

consciousness. He realises the self (the Atman) as pure bliss and pure intelligence, the one

without a second. In this state of consciousness, all perception of multiplicity ceases, there is no

longer any sense of “mine” and “thine”, the world as we ordinarily know it has vanished. (Naik,

1972, 88). Winfred P. Lehmann while commenting on the tenets of Advaita school informs that

according to his school of thought-the only reality is Brahman, and reality is undivided, Advaita;

the world before our eyes is Maya, unrealityTo Raja Rao, the advait in the world was not

something out there but what is within you and as Samikara would put it—the fusion of the

outsides and the self occurs when Maya or illusion of the phenomenal world is shattered by the

advaitin’s razor-sharp mind.

Rao writes, “He realised in the midst of all these confusing dabates that every though was

valid in terms of itself, but that creative though was only the gift of “the inner voice” (Rao, 1998,

97). He states that it ws his voice that made India (Rao, 1998, 39). The Hindus of all persuasion

regard the Vedas as their supreme written authority. They believe that the Vedas are divine in

origin, being the direct revelation of knowledge of the eternal spiritual truth (Nanda, Nivedita,

1992, 1). A reference must be made here in brief to the principles and importance Bhagawad

Gita, which has been the ultimate guiding force for Gandhi. Defined as the cream of the Vedas,

the book deals mainly with the importance of work, meditation, charity, worship, knowledge and

so on. The teachings in the book have been implied on the more earthly plane. Indrani

Bandyopathyay while describing it a sphilosophical discourse dealing with the eternal problems

that humankind faces, she mentions of its essence; It illustrates the struggle between body and

soul, the struggle of coming to terms with one’s mortality and impermanence within a greater

permanence. Octavian Srbatoare finds in the book an identification of ethics with dharma.

According to him, the book stresses on the immortality of soul; duty, functions and

responsibilities in relation to the society: spiritual and supreme knowledge : obtaining salvation

through action while renunciation of fruits of it.

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On the importance of dharma, Nivedita Nanda states: No man is an island. He depends

for his sustenance on other members of the society. So it becomes obligatory for him to give

something in return as his contribution for the upkeep and maintenance of the society. This is his

dharma towards the society. Dharma assumes the form of duty at the social plane (Nanda,

Nivedita, 1992, 13). Malayam poet Vallathol’s . Malayam poet Vallathol’s poem on the

saintliness of Gandhi “Ente Gurunathan” translated by P.K. Parmeshwaran may be cited here:

The wide, wise world, is all his home

The grasses; plant and worms, Kinsmen

His gains arise from sacrifice and glories from his lowliness

In him the yogis live their life

And thus my Master reigns supreme.

(qtd. In Dass, Bijay Kumar, 2003, 65-66).

Parekh writes, “Modernism attributes no man godly powers, which is has used to

conquer nature and build weapons of mass destruction. In my other book in this series I have

called this Titanism, a form of extreme humanism in which human beings have taken on divine

prerogatives and, as a result of their hubris, have lost sight of their proper place in the world”. It

is said of Rao and the Vedas that the Vedic world is a living world, its ground satchit-ananda

(being-consciousness-bliss) of essential existence. Deeply as he has respected Western

spirituality, Raja Rae has never doubted the more fundamental understanding which underlines

the Vedic tradition and is the inspiration of the philosophy and the arts of India civilization,

flowering in sculpture and dance, mathematics and architecture, painting and music and poetry;

all alike grounded in the sacred nature of things…. (“Raja Rae: scholar, philosopher, literary

artist”).

Francis C. Assisi comments on Rao:

His spirituality is not a New Age feel good kind, but philosophically rigorous. He

is a novelist of ideas, but the idea is always suggestive of something beyond itself,

pointing, ultimately, to the Absolute.

Parthasarthy states that Gandhi added an ethical dimension to what was basically a social

and political movement. The Gdhian bias of the novel is obvious: moral revolution takes

precedence over social and political revolution. He adds that stress is laid on values as

righteousness, love, non-violence, and on ritual beliefs and practices. Kancha Ilaiah in “The

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symbols of civilisation” too refers to it as the most imaginative and productive symbols of

civilisation. A reference my be made here to an article entitled “Hindu Symbols”P wherein the

author discuss the importance and role of symbols in Hinduism. It mentions that since Hinduism

believes in god being formless, these symbols offer as means to add some comprehension to this

formlessness.

R.K. Dasgupta in his article “Gandhi’s Political Philosophy” Lauds Gandhi’s non-

violence as a globally accepted phenomenon for world peace especially in the light of existing

violence. Gandhi promised a new world and is slowly but steadily emerging as a spiritual and

moral hero on the international scene.

Rajendra Prasad wrote: “Gandhi’s economics, or economic developments, is by and large

qualitative. It is morality-centric because its goal is the realization of people’s satisfaction on

happiness, but not any kind of satisfaction or happiness… Even globalisation, going in for

multinational trade, is in the same direction encouraging the accumulation of wealth in the hands

of a few individuals, or groups or individuals. All this may eventually happen, in spite of some

opposition to it. But the exiom of the Gandhian model of development to develop India while

preserving its ethics-cultural identity is to develop its villages and its ethical soundness is as

valid today as, if not more than, they were in pre-Independence India” (Gandhi, Globalisation,

and Quality of Life: A study in the Ethics of Development”).

A major fraction of the western imagination too has been evocative of Gandhi-chanting.

If on one hand, we have claims to Gandhi as a divine being, there is a more realistic tribulation

being granted to him as an organized leader and a visionary. Stephen Murphy is one of the best

examples as he combines both the sides in his presentation of Gandhi. He considers truth as the

ultimate reality—God for Gandhi and this reality if founded on morality. Gandhi was aware that

only by merging the inner with the outer self could mental harmony be achieved. Stephen even

attempts to redefine Gandhi’s concept of non-violence and instead, he understands it as a

denotation of active love and yet a handy force to reckon with. Gandhi, to him, worked

according to a well-defined thought-process, which did not border on rigidity or set up

paradigms of a system or dogmatism, rather it has the capability of being variedly used in

differing situations, recognizing inconsistency and constantly evolving in more refined forms.

Marie Beuzeville Byles says that Gandhi will be remembered most for all the concept he gave

vis-à-vis satyagraha, non-violence and other. Gandhi had imbibed the teachings of the Bhagwad-

Gita therefore all he did was but a duty. “It seems ironic that worldwide anti-globalisation

movements often portray Gandhi as someone who shared the same side of the ideological

spectrum, when Gandhi himself was clearly a product of globalisation. He was education in

London, started his political activities in Sought Africa before he even joined the political arena

in India and greatly influenced by western figures such as Jesus, Tolstoy, Thoreau and Ruskkin”.

Gandhi was not all about morality and truth has in fact been voiced at all times. V. Geetha

(Geetha, 8) called him not an apostle of peace, but rather its humbles pilgrim a man whose ideas

could help illuminate-even if they do not help resolve–some of the most agonizing moral and

political question of our time, when both oppression and justice appear to demand unprecedented

destruction, death, death and loss of dignity. Akeel Bilgrami in “Gandhi, the Philosopher” too

writes that on one hand, Gandhi is the man of great spirituality and uniqueness and, on the other

as a nationalist leader with a strikingly effective method of non-violent political action.