New Delhi, Jan 17: He gave the Britishers many a sleepless night, but few know that Gandhi was scared of ghosts and spirits so much so that as a teenager, he "did not dare to stir out of doors at night and could not sleep without a light near him." "Haunted by fears of thieves, ghosts, serpents and robbers, the boy-husband (after marriage to Ba) did not dare to stir out of doors at night and could not sleep without a light near him," says the book "Mohandas: A True Story of a Man, his People and an Empire" by Rajmohan Gandhi.
This was in contrast to Kastur (Ba), who the book says, "knew no fear of serpents and ghosts" and "could go out in the dark." When Gandhi was just four, "Monia, as his parents called him, terrified of spirits and ghosts, was told by Rambha (his nurse) that the divine name of Rama would drive his fears away. Having more faith in her than in her remedy, Mohan recited the name but the terrors did not disappear," he says.
Even at seven, when his family moved from Wankaner to Rajkot, he "took his fears with him." His terrors continued into his teens, even after his marriage to Kastur. "Mohan felt ashamed of himself," notes his grandson Rajmohan, in the book.
However, Mehtab, a friend of Gandhiji's brother, and a 'rakish youth of strength, speed and daring', mounted a campaign that played on Mohan's (Gandhiji's) eagerness to repair his male pride. Mehtab knew from Karsan of Mohan's cowardly fears and of his frustration at Kastur's independence.
"You have to take meat and wine," Mohan was told by Mehtab. That was the only way to drive out the British. Also meat would toughen Mohan, dissolve his terrors and even if this last argument was not explicity, it would help in pitting Kastur in her place, was Mehtab's argument. Rajmohan says the Gandhi who emerges from this reading is one entering into his late teens with prestige in his circle, curiosity about the world around him, a peculiar strength, a weakness for a questionable character and surprising fears, is different from the popular image of a timid unimpressive pious boy awaiting a life-enhancing experience.
"Much of the blame for this other picture must go to Gandhi himself, for in the autobiography he mixes frank recollections of his boyhood and youth with the contrition of a later period.
"The contrition of an older Gandhi and descriptions of lessons learned long after the events described, surround the candid recollections and can conceal them, just as accounts of his early fears envelop the revelations of his strength as a lad," he notes.
However, the fear vanished before he went to England.
The book says... Mohan set off for Porbandar (to seek the consent of his uncle Tulisidas for going to England), a five-day bullock-cart journey across risky stretches inhabited by supposedly dangerous tribes. Mohan should have felt frightened, but his cowardice vanished before the desire to go to England.
--- PTI
http://www.newkerala.com/news4.php?acti ... s&id=81019
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