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Ahmedabed - March 10, 2006
Dual carriageway through dusky valley of brooding Aravalli hills. Our original plan had been to take a Friday evening train out of Udaipur, arrive Ahmedabad at 4:35am, Saturday morning, visit all day; and depart for Mumbai at 10:35pm. Once we took a close look at this schedule, as we dined overlooking Lake Pichola, we knew this was a plan, like most plans, made to be changed. Thinking travelers do not show-up, at strange railway stations, at 4:35am, anywhere; pretty elementary.
Instead, we hired a car and driver for a leisurely Friday excursion, through the dusky valleys of the brooding Aravalli Hills, on whose sloping sides grow miles of cactus thorns, serving as impediments to herds roaming the semi-arid land. In time, we broke free of the stony hills into more verdant pastures in eastern Gujarat, traveling a dual carriageway we shared with standing-room-only auto rickshaws, where the rooms were outside the moving vehicles. The state of Gujarat is dry of liquor, unless you apply for and are granted a license for two 750’s of wine per week, which we did not. The state touches Pakistan to the North, Rajasthan, from whence we had come, to the East, the state of Maharashtra to the South, where Mumbai awaited us; and
Ahmedabed - March 10, 2006
Sharing the dual carriageway with standing room only auto rickshaw. the Arabian Sea, including the Gulf of Cambay, to the West. We were coming full circle to where we had begun our odessey.
But, first, Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat. We had come here, because it would have been unthinkable to visit India for over two months and not pilgrimage to Mahatma Gandhi's home city. It is from here that he morally suaded the British Empire back to its metropolitan moorings; arguably, not only from India, but also from all of its colonial holdings. Once India was gone, the template was there for the other colonies to be unfettered. Indeed, Gandhi’s methods, as applied by Martin Luther King, were also central to the U.S. finding its way to equality in civil rights as a living, breathing reality of a plural society.
We sought, in a day, to capture the essence that was Gandhi by spending our time at the ashram he founded in 1915, as a spiritually based community, onto which he grafted economic and social activity. The three activities each resident engaged in each day were community weaving, cleaning and praying. In his view, the ashram was to be self- reliant and reflect the simplicity of
Ahmedabed - March 11, 2006
Ghandi Ashram. The modest, spartan house Ghandi lived in for 15 years. village life. Its objective was "that members should qualify themselves for and make a constant endeavour towards service of the country not inconsistent with universal good." It was from this place, that he came and went on his various forays, in behalf of the cause of a free Indian State.
The ashram does an excellent job at providing a range of insights into his life's work. The basics are captured on the walls. Born October 2, 1869 at Porbandar in Gujarat; married at age thirteen to Kasturbai; studied law in the United Kingdom, practiced law in South Africa; and used non-violent techniques there for the first time. Returned to India in 1915; and took up the cause of freeing India from colonial rule and the excesses of the caste system. Under the triple force of equality of everyone, civil disobedience and non-violent protest, he was a persistent adversary of the caste system and of British rule in India. Over some thirty years, he engaged in agitation that often called for nation-wide strikes, led protest marches, including walking 385 km from this Ashram to the Gulf of Cambay, with 90,000 protesters in tow. Once there, he made salt in defiance
Ahmedabed - March 11, 2006
The prayer ground where Ghandi did devotions on the west bank of the River Sabarmati. of a law that only the government could make and sell salt. Once he had broken this law, every self-respecting ordinary person followed suit. When he would be arrested, he would advance arguments in court for why he was guilty as charged and willingly accept jail terms for his infringement of the laws. In and out of jail, he would take to fasting, as pressure on the government to yield to his will; and he would also fast, just as determinedly, to influence his adherents to treat untouchables as equals and strictly follow the path of non-violence. Through it all, he prayed for his adversaries as fervently as he did for his supporters; and received, as visitors, both in jail and at the ashram, all who would wish to commune or intervene with him. Of his struggle, it can truly be said: he strove to have his laudable ends ennoble the means he used to achieve them.
The final achievement was bittersweet, in that the British relinquished rule of the sub-continent in 1947; but two countries, not one, as he had wished, emerged, India and Pakistan. Alas, he was assassinated, in 1948, on his way to Morning Prayer, by
Ahmedabed - March 11, 2006
The great salt march gathered on this spot and walked 385 km to the Bay of Cambay. an extremist, enraged at how hard he had tried to make peace between Hindus and Muslims, in a futile effort to avoid partitioning of the sub-continent.
A selection of quotes from him:
"My message is my life".
"I have nothing new to tell the world. Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills".
"A dignified doctrine would be the greatest good for all; not the greatest good for the greatest number".
“The Allah of Islam is the same as the God of Christians and the Ishwar of Hindus. Religion is one tree with many branches. As branches, you may say, religions are many; but as tree, religion is one”
“A customer is the most important person on our premises. He is not dependant on us. We are dependant on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider on our premises. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us an opportunity to do so. A customer is not a person to argue with. No one ever
Ahmedabed - March 11, 2006
A school still operates for girls who would have been untouchables. won an argument with a customer.”
Testimonials to the significance of his work and beliefs form a montage on one wall at the ashram. They are from the likes of Thoreau, Martin Luther King, Charlie Chaplain, Toynbee, Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell, Aldous Huxley, Albert Einstein, Mme Montessori, Rev C.F. Andrew, Prof Gilbert Murray, Will Durant, Romain Rolland, and Abdul Gaffer Khan.
The prayer ground, where he did daily devotions on the west bank of the river Sabarmati, is a hallowed place; and continues to be used by visitors and residents. A school still operates on the ashram for girls who would have been of the untouchable caste. He called them Harijans, God’s people. The modest, little house, in which he and Kasturbai lived and received guests, still stands on the grounds. Some of his ashes are kept there, as are a few of his personal items, straw broom, spinning wheel, desk, sandals, and walking stick.
We found it useful to focus on the rules he agreed with his community for life at the ashram. These became known as his vows; there were twelve. He derived the first five from previously received knowledge in Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Abrahamic religions. To these, he added seven more. A thumbnail of his vows follows, from my notes. There is no take away pamphlet at the ashram; just messages on its walls.
1. Truth is God; God is love.
2. Non-Violence is active love.
3. Chastity, through abstinence, engenders purity in relationships.
4. Acquire control over the palate and taste; eat just enough to sustain necessary bodily needs.
5. To steal includes use of a granted trust in ways that are different from the terms of the trust.
6. Be not a slave to possessions; possess not anything one does not really need.
7. Serve first your neighbour, before those abroad, and abroad in the land; purchase locally that which is available locally.
8. Be fearless in following truth and love; in their pursuit, have no fear of caste, government, poverty or death.
9. Untouchability is irreligious; all castes and classes have equal place.
10 Caste, with its implications of superior and inferior status, is contrary to love.
11. All religions are revelations of truth, outlined by imperfect beings, thus affected by imperfections and alloyed with un-truth; give the same respect to the religion of others as you do your own; pray for perfection in all religions.
12. Able bodied adults should do all their personal work themselves; not be served by others, unless there are exceptional circumstances.
We departed the ashram with a sense we had spent a worthwhile day, retracing the journey of someone, who left us quite a legacy: how, in the strongest terms, to disagree; without destroying.
The time was ripe for our return to Mumbai.
Vernon
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