The Mahatma in Kannada

You are blessed, Gandhi, you are God, Gandhi,
Why have we become Satans today?
Why did we forget the voice of our conscience?
Why did we sacrifice our India?

Thus ends the poem Gandhi, written by Kannada writer and poet Siddalingaiah, who died in June this year. Siddalingaiah who identified himself as a Marxist and Ambedkarite came closer to Gandhi later in life and wrote the poem, which calls Gandhi a God.

D S Nagabhushana, an eminent Kannada litterateur, explains that starting from Govinda Pai to Kuvempu, U R Ananth Murthy to Devanooru Mahadeva and Siddalingaiah, most writers idolised Gandhi, and critiques were not attempted at except by some Dalit movement leaders in their political write-ups.

“This is because most of them were in awe of Gandhi,” says Nagabhushana. Most of the literature produced had Gandhian ideas running as an undercurrent. But most authors were not critical of him; they romanticised Gandhi by not seeing him as a man of flesh and blood, he adds.

Gandhi Kathana, a book by Nagabhushana, has been called neutral by critics and offers explanations to many of the seemingly controversial issues. More than 20,000 copies of it have been sold to date.

Nagabhushana says all literary movements in Kannada from Navodaya to Navyottara have highlighted Gandhi and wrote about him.

Jagadish Koppa, a Kannada author with many books on Gandhi, says: “Gandhi’s image needs to be broken and rebuilt for the new era, while the events need to be judged keeping in mind the era in which they occurred.”

Taking the example of Gandhi and B R Ambedkar, he explains that at that point in time, Gandhi’s priority was to bring independence to entire India, while Ambedkar wanted adequate representation for Dalits. Both of them had disagreements that need to be placed at that point of history while analysing, he adds.

Kannada scholar D R Nagaraj was one among the first writers to try to bring reconciliation between Gandhi and Ambedkar, with his The Flaming Feet and Other Essays: The Dalit Movement in India written in English. Prof S Chandrashekhar and Mogalli Ganesh are among other authors who wrote on Gandhi and Ambedkar.

P Lankesh and Devanooru Mahadev also have contributed to Gandhi-based literature by means of many articles and stories.

Kannada writer Bolwar Mahamad Kunhi wrote Papu Gandhi Bapu Gandhi Aada Kathe in 2011 when he felt children did not have any easy literature to know about Gandhi. Written in simple, lucid language, it has 18 fictionalised accounts of incidents from Gandhi’s life. More than one lakh copies of the book got printed. The book got translated into English and won many awards including the coveted Kendra Sahitya Academy award. It was also adapted into a play. A cinema based on it by P Sheshadri was released on October 1, 2021.

Feminist perspective

Dr H S Anupama is the author of Naanu Kastur, a novel written from a feminist perspective, through the eyes of Kasturba Gandhi. Kasturba came from a traditional background and got married at a young age. Anupama says adjusting to the idealist personality of Gandhi must have been quite challenging for her, which is why she chose to look at Gandhi from Kasturba’s lens.

Two more books that offer feminist perspectives on Gandhi are being translated into Kannada and being published, with assistance from Tamil Development Department under Tamil Nadu Education Department.

Wooday P Krishna, the president of Karnataka Gandhi Smarak Nidhi explains the work of Gandhi Pratishtana over the years, wherein a lot of low-cost small Kannada books on various Gandhian thoughts came out, making it easier for Kannadigas to access Gandhian ideologies.

The need to revisit Gandhi

In Kannada, there are more than 500 books have been printed on Gandhi as per an estimate, but not all are in the market now. When there is such a vast written material available, what more needs to be written on Gandhi in Kannada?

Nagabhushana says looking at Gandhian philosophy from the lens of today’s digital age is a need of the hour. There’s a need to revisit Gandhian ideas and see what ideas are relevant, and what needs to be reinterpreted and reconstructed for today, he adds.

A Narayana, Associate Professor at the School of Policy and Business, Azim Premji University, says that Gandhi’s idea of modern State is something that is yet to be covered in Kannada. Gandhi advocated grassroots level governance where small units build the state and Union governments. This idea has not been brought into Kannada literature yet, he says.

Guruprasad D N, the Founder of Bengaluru-based Aakruti Books, says that there are not enough strong accounts in Kannada on Gandhi’s political philosophy, fights and ideologies, which made him the leader he was.

Another problem he sees is in the way Gandhi’s death was covered. He says there is a dearth of books that give a real picture of the ideology behind the killing of Gandhi.

“The dangerous ideology that led to the killing of the Mahatma has not been explored enough in Kannada literature. I feel the literature has not espoused enough regret regarding the act,” says Guruprasad.

The market for Kannada books on Gandhi has kept on increasing, showing that Gandhi still piques the curiosity of the new age readers. This is why interpreting Gandhi, the icon of India with many complexities, multiple facets and philosophies, for today’s generation is the need of the hour.