From politicos to feminists — a thought for everyone

Eminent philosopher Ramchandra Gandhi (1937-2007), grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and Rajaji, though often fiercely contested in academic circles, broke that cycle of ‘poverty of public imagination’ with his unique honesty and daringness in articulation, laced with an all-embracing humour. Ramu Gandhi, as he was endearingly called, has in a deep sense been missed out like several of our gifted thinkers and artists; so much so fragments of his stunningly original thought processes that blended the truth-quest and wisdom of the East with the free, logical questioning spirit of modernity in a continuum as it were, now seems to gain some coherence in public sphere.

The most recent Penguin India publication, “The Seven Sages – Selected Essays by Ramchandra Gandhi”, edited by A Raghuramaraju, Professor of Philosophy at the Central University of Hyderabad, of which DC had a sneak peak, has brought together Ramu Gandhi’s reflections on a wide range of concerns impinging our polity and society in recent years- from religious intolerance, power of non-violence, Indo-Pak ties, development vis-à-vis ecology, higher education mess to inter-personal relations. Even his notes on political campaigns, marginalized sections and democracy are so instructive.

“The present volume assembles some of his published and unpublished works in a single place for the first time; and some of the talks appearing here are also in print for the first time,” says Raghuramaraju, who was also Ramu Gandhi’s former student at Hyderabad, in his introduction, terming it a “process of tracing the path of one’s teacher.” With someone like Ramu Gandhi it is difficult as he “often tosses you from one corner to the other.”

What grounds this major effort and the common thread that so finely unites the themes and issues he addresses are the lectures that Ramu Gandhi delivered on ‘Modern Indian Spirituality’ at the California Institute of Integral Studies in July 1988, besides a lecture on Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘Moksha and Martyrdom’ delivered at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru, in November 2003. These non-technical lectures are truly outstanding for the depth of his insights, relating metaphysical concepts to everyday life, humanistic imaginative leaps and his inimitable humour.

The modern Indian sages he discusses in those lectures are Sri Ramakrishna, Sarada Devi, Swami Vivekananda, Ramana Maharishi, Aurobindo, Mother Mirra, J. Krishnamurthy and Mahatma Gandhi. For Ramu Gandhi, they have collectively “enhanced the credibility” of modern Indian spirituality as they offer alternate self-images that ought to “free people” from narrow sectarianism and dualistic ideologies that spread hatred and divisions.

Significantly, the 1988-2003 years, has been one of the most turbulent periods politically in post-Independent India, with the rise religious fundamentalist groups, ‘Hindutva’, and intolerance of other faiths. Ramu Gandhi’s unstated sub-text never lost sight of that new emerging big picture. The oneness of all being, as shown by ‘Advaita’, is for him the core of modern Indian spirituality. Ramu Gandhi’s entry point is the poignant life and self-enquiry of Sri Ramana Maharishi at the foothills of Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu, who demonstrated the truth of Advaita by the way he “conquered” the fear of death. And the grand culmination of ‘Advaita’ was in Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘martyrdom’, which in fact was his ‘moksha’, through his weapon of non-violence in leading the anti-imperialist struggle.

“The stated life-goal of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is self-realization, not martyrdom,” says Ramu. What Gandhi and Ramana “have both come to do is to show that ‘moksha’ and martyrdom’ are companions”. Ramu does not hesitate to declare that the Advaitin’s conception of unity of all life and being was “shattered by partition”. “This is also the tragedy of partition, not only the slaughter of two million people (on both sides).”

“The old way of practising spirituality is to set up walls between the different religions and secular traditions,” and the old way of practising morality – that morality is for my caste, my class, my nation, or in the end, for my species-, are both denounced by Ramu Gandhi in the California lectures. Both these old ways should go, he asserts. “Let every religious tradition be available to every human being at birth…and also a completely free inquiry into everything,” he adds. The “new morality and the new spirituality can tolerate no walls, no limitations and that is the legacy of Gandhi and of others (modern Indian sages),” emphasises Ramu.

In ‘Two Cheers for Tolerance’, he urges people of any faith should give the ‘benefit of theological doubt’ to the other religion. “Quite clearly, Allah is not displeased with Hinduism and Ishvara is not displeased with Islam,” he quips. Centuries of co-existence by Hindus and Muslims is itself ‘proof’ that “their traditions are worthy of mutual tolerance”, he adds, an insight relevant even today when fringe groups on either side try to make brownie points.

To those flaunting Freud and liberal social mores, Ramu Gandhi has this thoughtful remark in an essay on ‘Brahmacharya’: “Sri Krishna and Sri Radha are lovers, not spouses; in this bold image, sacred myth draws our attention to the oneness of divine reality.” And in a political context when he writes that the Marxist leader E M S Namboodiripad, had a “greater ideological right to exploit class hatred,” it is clearly Ramu’s brand of humour that stands out even when he discusses serious issues.

This collection of writings has truly a thought for everyone and anyone.