Mahatma Gandhi as a humourist is perhaps no less striking than the humanist, the leader and the journalist. Humour,not the sarcastic one, was the essence of his nature. He stresses the importance of humour in his speeches and writings. His autobiography and correspondence with all leaders contain his gems of humour.
Humour became Gandhiji’s characteristic from his youth towards life. His lively humour and capacity to smile was as much striking as his advocacy of non-violence. Political cartoonists over four decades treated him as a saint and good joker. Humour for him was the bond that cemented his relationship with people. While talking to a person, Gandhiji once said that if humour were to be banished from life, he himself would think it fit to commit suicide. There is a saying ‘laugh and the world laughs with you, weep and you weep alone’. This was his attitude to life.
Gandhiji liked to have fun with children, smiled and laughed in the amidst his numerous works and schedules. Without humour and laughter he could not have neither survived the attacks on him nor his burdens. Gandhiji’s jokes were never without a purpose. His American friend John Hayne Holmes observed, “Laughter was the doorway to his soul.” George Bernard Shaw called him ‘the only man in the East with a sense of humour’.
Gandhiji’s Humourous Accounts
Gandhi was known as uncle to many children in England. Maria Montessory, who hosted Gandhiji after the second round table conference, said, “Everybody knows him, even the smallest child at every corner in Europe. Everyday when he sees his picture he exclaims, in his own language, ‘That is Gandhi’.”
Once he joked about his material possession and who would inherit them after him. Jawaharlal Nehru was named as is successor. P C Ghose and others joked with him, “What will he inherit?” “My stick and my watch” and all laughed. One had never a dull moment with him.
Western observers used to be amused seeing him in his dhoti, sandals, old metal watch, his bald head and the beak-like nose. Sarojini Naidu affectionately called him the Micky Mouse. Gandhi once remarked to Padmaja Naidu, daughter of Sarojini Naidu that he was not the second but the first ‘ugliest man in Delhi’.
The real test of humour lies in one’s capacity to joke about oneself and one’s cherished convictions. He referred to charkha and the spinning wheel as ‘that skeleton in the cupboard’.
Mahatma replied to the question ‘will you agree to become the Prime Minister of India’ thus: “It must be reserved for the younger minds and stronger hands. And again when insisted by people he smiled and said, “I will seek shelter behind journalists like you.”
The meeting between Gandhiji and Rajaji used to be a feast of wit, wisdom and sense of good humour. Once Gandhi was talking about saltless diet. “I have lived without salt for years in South Africa. Here, I interrupted the rule but reverted to saltless diet on further consideration.” Rajaji then quipped, “When people are made to go without salt in their diet, they are likely to take to licking walls and eating clay like children to satisfy their natural carving for salt.” To this Gandhiji replied, “It will do them good, the walls will be cleaner.”
One significant occasion that showed Gandhiji’s cool, calm and humourous attitude was at the garden party in Buckingham Palace after the Second Round Table Conference. Gandhi and his colleagues were invited to the party by King George V. Looking at his bare knees the King suddenly flared up and said, “Your Congress party will be dealt with severely if the murder campaign against loyal officers is not stopped. The King’s Government must go on. Take care of it.” An undeterred Gandhiji replied, “I must not enter into an argument with you Your Majesty in the palace after receiving Your Majesty’s hospitality.” This diffused the tense situation.
It was optimism that lay behind his humour. Even on occasions of grief Gandhi he expressed smile in his face, a trait expressing the goodness of God.
(Courtesy: The Philosophical import of Gandhism)
-Adv M K UNNIKRISHNA PANICKER, MEMBER, PERMANENT LOK ADALAT, former Director, School of Medical Education, MG University, Kottayam