A Mahatma for Mourners and Militants: The Social Memories of Mohandas Gandhi in Arampur

Me: "Why is August fifteenth so important?"

Tipu Caurasiya: "Hamari des azad [Our country became free] from English rule. Mahatma Gandhi brought us from the hands of the English. We were slaves. Before there was Sivji, Rana Pratap, and Jhansi Rani. Many died. After this came Mahatma Gandhi. He was a barrister who began the movement. There was much danger. Mahatma Gandhi was the pujari [sacrificer] of peace. There was also Jawaharlal Nehru. The movement spread through the whole country. That is how freedom happened. Mahatma Gandhi was a baniya.¹ Then freedom of the country happened, and then the Hindustan-Pakistan division occurred. Many did not want it. Some wanted Hindus in Hindustan and Mussalman in Pakistan, but Mahatma Gandhi did not. Then West Pakistan and East Pakistan happened and Mahatma Gandhi allowed it. After that came Nathuram and the people who killed Gandhi."

Me: "Who?"

Tipu: "Nathuram was a scholar who made a plan to kill Gandhi. In '48 Mahatma Gandhi was killed."

Me: "How do you know about this?"

Tipu: "About the time of Mahatma Gandhi? If your country gets freedom, you are happy. Books are published about this. Nathuram was hung."

Me: "Who was he?"

Tipu: "He was not a bad man. He was a great man. How can a division happen in a house? He did not want it. How dangerous is Pakistan?! But Mahatma Gandhi made it happen."

Me: "Was Gandhi's death a good thing?"

Tipu: "Yes."

This conversation, which occurred as Tipu and I relaxed in his cousin's village grain store soon after India's Independence Day celebrations, demonstrates how Mohandas Gandhi represents a figure around which powerful, yet divergent, feelings flow. Exactly at the moment Gandhi and his fellow leaders of the Indian National Congress emerged victorious over the British imperial occupation and celebrated the independence of India, the communal violence of partition simultaneously culminated with the division of the subcontinent of South Asia into two new nations: India and Pakistan. So, a half century later, the memories of independence—communicated by witnesses and reinforced through state-sponsored education and rituals—are often imbued with the trauma of partition. Gandhi's life mirrored this troubled legacy. The victim of a cruel double paradox, Gandhi, among the most prominent of Indian nationalists, died at the hands of an Indian, a Hindu militant who had assassinated the most world-renowned Hindu because he thought Gandhi pandered too much to Muslims and Pakistan. While the central and state governments of India have often sought to reinforce a pluralist and secularist ideology through the commemoration and memorialization of Gandhi, powerful forces have recently gathered that challenge this ideology with competing memories. While many Indians collectively mourn the violent death of "Mahatma" Gandhi and his vision of peaceful coexistence, others applaud his assassination through competing social memories derived from a militant Hindu nationalist ideology.

No matter what their politics, when the male residents of one set of villages in Bihar state discuss the recent past, Mohandas Gandhi figures as one of the most prominent, if controversial, characters in their narratives. For many, his name is synonymous with the struggle for independence. Nevertheless, he may be portrayed in any of a variety of ways: as Indian hero, Hindu leader, or Muslim sympathizer. But how do these villagers know the "Mahatma"—a man who died long before most of them were born—that they can remember him? The answer includes a broad array of sources: personal memory, family discussions, school textbooks, public ceremonies, radio, and—for the elite—books, association magazines, comic books, and television. Overall, these sources may each contribute to an individual's knowledge of Gandhi yet seem unlikely to be universally acknowledged as "history." What common category of comparison exists that allows for an analysis of the...