There is pathetically little on the web about PC Joshi, the General Secretary of the CPI in the thirties and forties. While searching for his letters to the Mahatma, I found this quote which is worth remembering on the latter’s birthday on 2nd October.
…the secret of Gandhi’s greatness lay not in the absence of human failings and foibles, but in his inner restlessness, ceaseless striving and intense involvement in the problems of mankind. He was not a slave to ideas and concepts, [which] were for him also aids in grappling with human problems, and were to be reconsidered if they did not work”
- P.C. Joshi, in Gandhi and Nehru (quoted here)
Photo Credit: Comrade Sunil Janah, the ace photographer of the CPI during Joshi’s days
This is what I think about Gandhi too and it probably explains some of the contradictory statements of Gandhi. Many keep thinking that Gandhi was a defender of varnashrama dharma but he said towards the end of his life “Caste has to go” (from the book ‘Castes of mind’ by Dirks).
I have a friend named after PC Joshi , called Perepa P.C. Joshi son of Perepa Mrityumjayudu.
Regards,
Swarup
Bipan Chandra has dwelled on this theme in his book on the freedom struggle. Gandhi was of course a very contradictory person and some of his views rather outlandish. Good thing is that he did not always put them into practice !
I believe it was PC Joshi who first called Gandhi ‘Mahatma’ in one of his letters. I was trying to find that letter on the internet but found that there is very little about and by PCJ.
kindly go throug this.
http://www.gandhi-manibhavan.org/main/q1.htm
Mahatma Gandhiji is revered in India as the Father of the Nation. Much before the Constitution of Free India conferred the title of the Father of the Nation upon the Mahatma, it was Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose who first addressed him as such in his condolence message to the Mahatma on the demise of Kasturba.
Given the change in my views about Gandhi since this blog post, I think it is a fallacy to address him as father of the nation. Thanks for the link all the same.