150 Ba-Bapu

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The year 2019 marked the 150th birth anniversary of both Kasturba and Gandhi. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was a few months younger to Kasturba. He was wedded to her in the same marriage ceremony as his brothers. Their sixty-year marital relationship has been examined in every possible way in the last one hundred and fifty years, including questions about how their lives were, how successful they were, and their mutual love and respect. It won't be wrong to say that each of them found something special in their relationship. In his autobiography, Gandhi shared his perspective quite frankly with the world, and people are still left amazed after reading this book. This book is an attempt to offer an insight into the life, personality, and works of Ba and Bapu on this special occasion.

The readers may decide if this book adds to further knowledge to our understanding of their lives. I have only tried to present their lives, personalities, and works through one hundred fifty interesting anecdotes and stories. It is difficult to claim that something novel has been done. There is no hesitation in accepting that this book does not offer a complete evaluation or presentation of Gandhi and Ba's works, personalities, or mutual relationship.

However, I do not have any doubt in saying that understanding the lives of Gandhi and Ba through these stories will offer every reader something to cherish. It has been an enriching experience for me as an author to indulge myself in Gandhian literature in search of these stories. These are only 150 stories, and who knows how many more still exist other than these? The Gandhi couple was very fortunate in the sense that they were always surrounded by dedicated, loving, and capable people. Among them, many have written a lot about Gandhi and Ba, including Louis Fischer, B.D. Tendulkar, Mahadev Desai, Pyarelal, Vanmala Parikh, Manubehn, Rajendra Prasad, Acharya Kripalani, Sushila Nayyar, Brijkishore Chandiwala, and many others. The diaries of Mahadev Desai strenuously capture twenty-five years of Gandhi's life in such a way that important events from his personal life, such as his son's birth, find no mention in them. Apart from these, many other writings also exist about them, but one can see some kind of unreliability in later writings. Either there are some differences in the narration of popular incidents or the story is twisted to make it an interesting read. This book has tried to take incidents from actual sources or from the narration of contemporary writers.

The glaring presence of Gandhi in the entire Gandhian literature overlooks the presence of Ba. There is indeed a difference between Kasturba and Mahatma, but it is also true that Ba, who accompanied him to the bathroom in his childhood days due to his fear of ghosts and who continued to be in prison with him at Aga Khan Palace and attended to all his needs, was not just his wife or mother of his children. She was his most reliable and strong companion and never left him alone. Due to her belief in old and traditional practises, she found it difficult to adapt to Gandhi's experiments and had many disagreements with him, but she turned out to be his strongest supporter in the end. She was an equal participant in all movements of Gandhi, right from being the first Indian woman to be jailed in South Africa to being in jail together till 1942. Ba became his first associate from outside when Gandhi reached the unknown land of Champaran to launch a movement against the oppressor. She continued her work, ranging from community kitchens to raising awareness among village women. Moreover, Ba and Shri Hari Krishna Dev were leading affairs relating to constructive work, which were also given due importance by Gandhi, apart from resisting indigo planters. We also see Gandhi becoming angry only when Ba was insulted. Ba seems like a huge tree that tries to provide Gandhi with shade in his life.

Ba was hardly literate, but she continued to learn throughout her life. Sushila Nayyar has written interesting stories about her efforts to learn English during her idle time before her death at Aga Kha Palace. Gandhi's experiments are well known, but how he faced, accepted, tested, or sidelined them is hardly discussed. Ba was a strong woman from within, and no matter whether she received support from Gandhi or not, she supported Gandhi at every instance. This cannot be said about any other of Gandhi's closest allies. Ba saved Gandhi's life at a crucial juncture when Gandhi and the doctor were at loggerheads about drinking milk for improving Gandhi's health. The doctor suggested consuming milk as the only life-saving medicine for Gandhi, but Gandhi denied it at every cost. Then Ba came up with the alternative of goat's milk, which saved Gandhi's life in the end. Though Gandhi called himself Vaishnav, his Hinduism was self-devised to a great extent, despite borrowing it from Indian society, tradition, and life. Ba was a complete Sanatani Hindu woman. Gandhi experimented many a time with Ba's life and body, but Ba readily accepted all his decisions and took care of him. It is for this reason that Ba was the only person Gandhi feared. Though she may have been happy to be Gandhi's wife and wished to play the same role in the next life, glimpses of her strong personality were seen through small incidents when she did not act according to Bapu's wishes. When Bapu appeared as a sign of discipline and fear in his ashrams, Ba came out as a bearer of love and emotions. Undoubtedly, Gandhi was affectionate towards children and hardworking women, but they felt closer to Ba. They liked going to Ba rather than Gandhi to ask something. However, not much has been written about Ba. Most feminists feel pity for Ba. Ba has responded to them too. Many women writers have been writing books and novels about Ba, but instead of adding something new to already existing research and knowledge, they have merely repeated the popular facts by analyzing them through feminist lens. This author should also accept that he too has failed to save Ba from discrimination. Firstly, the book planned to take half the stories from the life of Gandhi and the other half from that of Ba. This target could not be achieved. Gandhi's personality, works, understanding, perspective, and approach of constantly experimenting on these markers were so extraordinary that he not only went ahead of Ba, but also of most of his contemporaries and historical heroes. Comparing anyone with Gandhi will not only turn Ba, but anyone else, into someone of diminished stature. Hence, if we are attempting to collect his works, thoughts, associations, and stories related to his personality, then it will be wise to focus on him alone. Had it not been the 150th anniversary, then there would be no need to read Ba alongside. It will also be wrong to claim that Gandhi can be understood or evaluated through such stories. This book has been written for those readers who already know Gandhi so that they can understand Ba and Bapu in a better way through these one hundred and fifty stories and the various explanations that surround them. Readers will explore something new about Gandhi and Ba's works, thoughts, characters, and associates. Moreover, people who know less about the Gandhi couple will get curious to know more about them, questioning why we call Gandhi the Father of the Nation and Ba the Universal Mother. Readers will also comprehend why there are so many people who do not hesitate to call Ba and Bapu, tum (a Hindi word spoken affectionately for someone close, suggesting an informal relationship) and not aap (a Hindi word for offering respect to another person, hinting at a little distant and formal relationship). Despite practising great caution, the author has made this mistake at many places in this book.