Gandhi's Pilgrimage of Faith: From Darkness to Light

Foreword

Foreword By Rajmohan Gandhi, Grandson of Mahatma Gandhi Let me explain why I welcome and commend this study. First, and here the study is quite distinctive, it theorizes Gandhi. It sets his life against a theory of a life of faith. It is one thing yet again to examine , if possible from a fresh angle, Gandhi’s life in all its dilemmas, ironies, and challenges. An instructive portrait could well result. But it is a different thing to suggest a pattern of obstacles and conflicts in any individual’s life of faith, and to look at Gandhi in the light of such a pattern. I am not aware that this has been done before in Gandhi’s case. The theory that Majmudar invokes is not her own, but it is clearly one yielded by painstaking and informed research. Tested against Fowler’s theory, Majmudar’s Gandhi emerges not as a strange great figure on an exotic stage but as a pilgrim on an obstacle course to which other pilgrims too are drawn, and to which we too, no matter who we are or where we come from, might potentially be drawn. My second and third reasons are connected to the first. In addition to theorizing Gandhi, Majmudar’s study universalizes him. As happens to Fowler’s theoretical figure, we find that before long Majmudar’s Gandhi too is “freed from the confines of tribe, class, religious community or nation.” That Gandhi, who for decades was seen in India as the most authentic Indian of them all, has been universalized is now well-known. All over the world men and women seem touched by him; all over the world a courageous, self-restrained, and compassionate individual in the neighborhood is at times spoken of as “a Gandhi”; in the mind, on a billboard, or on a blackboard, Gandhi is an easily summoned suggestion of the brave, self-denying, and imaginative dissenter. ix Majmudar’s Gandhi is also a very human Gandhi. Not only is he seen as, and termed, imperfect, he faces pulls and conflicts and doubts that any of us might face. Majmudar wants us to touch and feel Gandhi. He is not on a pedestal, he is not made of granite or bronze, he is warm and vulnerable. Finally, Majmudar’s is, in a helpful sense, a summarized Gandhi. Not only are the numerous rich episodes of his life summarized here; the study makes good use of, even if at times it seeks to differ from, some of the “lives” and studies of Gandhi provided by others. I am glad to be associated with this study. The author informs us that she has always lived with her childhood memory of the blow of Gandhi’s assassination. May this study clarify, and help sustain, the legacy of pilgrimhood and of a pilgrim called Gandhi. Rajmohan Gandhi Urbana, Illinois November 3, 2002 x Foreword ...