Gandhi's Pilgrimage of Faith: From Darkness to Light

3. The Seed and the Soil

The Seed and the Soil When the Reverend Joseph Doke remarked that those who listened to Gandhi speak about his parents felt like they were on “holy ground” (1909, 22), he was neither exaggerating nor using a figure of speech. Like most Indian children brought up in the Hindu tradition, child Gandhi learned early in life to revere his parents as human personifications of the Divine; like other children, child Gandhi must also have recited the following prayer in Sanskrit: O Lord, You are my mother and my father, You are my brother and my friend as well; You are the Knowledge, You are the wealth, You, my Lord, are all in all and everything to me.1 Little Moniya’s reverence for his mother and father, however, was not dictated by tradition alone. Those biographers of Gandhi who knew him closely (e.g., Prabhudas Gandhi, Pyarelal, and others) witnessed that even as an adult, Gandhi could hardly speak about his parents without tears welling up in his eyes; those tears spoke even louder than words of his devotional love and gratitude to both parents. He was indebted to his mother and father for being living examples of selfless and dedicated public service. Even after they were gone, they continued to inspire him on his personal, moral, and spiritual journey through life, as well as in his public service mission to India, which included service to humanity at large. Although he was devoted to both parents, there were times when he began to resent and criticize his father. Never once, however, did he speak 3 33 or write harshly about his mother, whom he absolutely adored. What were the reasons—revealed and unrevealed—for some of Gandhi’s unfavorable remarks about his father in his autobiography? What role did his father play in shaping Gandhi’s early ambitions and honing his political and public relational skills? Why was child Gandhi closer to his mother than to his father? Did Gandhi’s relationship with his father and mother form an Oedipal triangle as Erikson implied in Gandhi’s Truth (1969)? Or were there other indigenous social and cultural factors involved? In what religious environment did Gandhi grow up? Following is an examination of these questions for their impact on Gandhi’s character formation and faith development in view of Fowler’s Theory of Stages of Faith. Father Kaba Gandhi Among all six sons of Ota Bapa, his fifth son, Karamchand (“Kaba”) Gandhi, showed the most promise of occupying the family gadi or premiership of Porbandar, which had become a family legacy for the last six generations of the Gandhis. According to Prabhudas Gandhi,2 Gandhi’s grandnephew, Kaba Gandhi was an able, morally upright, and wellrespected prime minister of Porbandar and subsequently of Rajkot and Vankaner. The adult Gandhi himself acknowledged in his autobiography many outstanding traits of his father, although they were mixed with some personal resentment and negative criticism as well. In a rather matter-of-fact manner, the middle-aged Mahatma described his father in Autobiography (1948, 12) as “a lover of his clan, truthful, brave, generous, but short-tempered…he was incorruptible and had earned a name for strict impartiality in his family as well as outside.” As an example of his father’s integrity, Gandhi mentions an incident in which Kaba, the prime minister, defended the Rajkot Thakore Saheb (king) when the British political agent spoke insultingly of him. Kaba was ready to suffer the punishment for defying the agent, and suffer he did, willingly as well as bravely. Another quality that Gandhi admired about his father was his total indifference to money and his lack of greed. As Gandhi puts it, “my father never had any ambition to accumulate riches and left us very little property” (ibid.). Gandhi’s accounts, supported by others in the family, suggest that Kaba Gandhi had inherited his father Ota Bapa’s political acumen—his skills of management and negotiation, combined with integrity and an independence of mind. Having no political degree, Kaba was schooled in the practical management of state affairs. He was skilled in resolving the 34 Gandhi’s Pilgrimage of Faith most intricate political questions, yet he managed to remain above all the political intrigues. Prime Minister Kaba Gandhi was well liked, and respected by all in the family and the community. Mohandas Gandhi was not only aware of his father’s admirable qualities and...