BENGALURU: Last week gave me an opportunity to ponder over the role of Mahatma Gandhi in our modern lives. For decades, Mahatma Gandhi could be found all over government offices, schools and police stations. NCERT text books all began with a note called Gandhiji’s talisman. Films and TV shows always had a portrait of Gandhi in the room of a policeman or politician. Gandhi’s picture could also be found on postage stamps, currency notes, and even on train tickets. But the once ubiquitous father of our nation today struggles to compete for our attention and consciousness along with film stars, cricketers and advertisements for online sales.
Gandhi has been removed from currency notes — the one place you could meet him everyday. Gandhi was also the most popular Gujarati at one time, but has been replaced by prime minister Modi and Jasprit Bumrah. For corporate offices, Gandhi Jayanti is just another holiday, and managers try to sneakily send in assignments on October 1. For youngsters, October 2 is a dry day. Some of Gandhi’s ideas can be found in khadi and ethnic clothing in high-fashion stores. The youth today is more familiar with MGK — Machine Gun Kelly — rather than MKG — Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. But these are all examples of imagery. What about Gandhi’s ideals? It is a case of ‘out of sight, out of mind?’
The picture is quite dismal, I’m afraid. Peaceful protests are not in vogue anymore — every protest is marred by violence and political mud-slinging. When we get slapped on one cheek, to show the other is seen as a weakness today. Leaders are expected to reply and respond quicker, and with greater force. The history we were taught in our schools — in which Gandhi featured in a big way — is being questioned and revised.
Gandhi’s advice to ‘See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ doesn’t hold much weight in today’s social media age. If anything, the quote has been modified to ‘See what’s viral, speak what’s woke, hear the opinion you subscribe to’. In the business world, Gandhi’s call for swadeshi products has made a comeback with the ‘Make in India’ movement. While the phrase has been around since the launch of the initiative in 2014, we are yet to see any direct result of the initiative. Our phones are Chinese, our softwares are American, and our TV shows are Korean.
It’s not hard to see that Gandhi’s relevance in our lives has diminished to a large extent. In such a scenario, there is still one bastion where Gandhi rules — memes and humour. Every Gandhi Jayanti, memes of Gandhi begin to appear. They are usually those of an everyday line, attributed to Gandhi with his image next to it. Gandhi has had many contributions to the world. But one of his greatest contributions to India is still unheralded — the contribution to India’s sense of humour. Gandhi can be found in India’s jokes. Every Indian’s first ‘non-veg’ joke featured the Mahatma. I am glad that at least that element of Gandhi has been retained by Indians. Joking about the prime minister could land you in jail, but a joke on Gandhi is considered harmless.
As a humour writer and stand up comedian, I’m glad Gandhi jokes are still not frowned upon in an age where sharing a cartoon could mean a jail stint. It is the one space where Gandhi is still holding a peaceful protest against draconian politicians. In that sense, it won’t be wrong to revisit the epithet ‘father of the nation’. If anything, Mahatma Gandhi could be called the ‘friendly uncle of the nation’.
(The writer’s views are his own)