Bapu Kuti

Rajni Bakshi, Bapu Kuti: Journeys in Rediscovery of Gandhi, New Delhi, Penguin Books, 1998

…Gandhi …had categorically told his followers that there could be no such thing as ‘Gandhism’.  He did not want to leave behind any sect, for, he said: ‘I do not claim to have originated any new principle of doctrine. I have simply tried, in my own way, to apply the eternal truths to our daily life and problems.’—p. 10

…when he went to the great Paris Exhibition of 1890, he was not impressed by most of the fancy modern goods and inventions displayed there.  He agreed with Leo Tolstoy that the Eiffel Tower was a monument to man’s folly. The Tower, Gandhi observed, ‘was a good demonstration of the fact that we are children attracted by trinkets.’—p. 11 [no reference is given for this quote by Gandhi—db]

               Gandhi anticipated and answered the criticism that he was anti-machinery. On the contrary he deeply appreciated any machine which eliminated drudgery and enhanced human creativity.  Machines, he argued, become a problem when they encroach upon a ‘person’s individuality and ‘cripple the limbs of man’. For Gandhi a machine, like the human body, was useful only to the extent that it subserves the growth of the soul.  Nothing is more detrimental to such growth than the loss of livelihood and lack of adequate nutrition.—p. 12 [no reference is given for this quote by Gandhi—db]

               Formal history…had done Gandhi an (p.14) injustice. It lauded him for choosing to live in poverty. This entirely missed the essence of Gandhi’s striving. For one, Gandhi’s lifestyle decisions were small manifestations of a deep inner journey. They were not strategic moves aimed at any external audience. He liked the mud house because, for him, it was synonymous with indigenous creativity, not poverty and squalor….—pp. 14-15

…In the old days it was said that only three creatures were sure to survive even the worst famine: the Brahmins, sheep and camels. In modern times, (p.25)….two additional creatures were guaranteed survival: the sarkar, government, and the sarpanch, village head….—pp. 25-26

…It was a few years before she {Aruna Roy, IAS}  became absolutely certain that the IAS was not there to implement either the letter or the spirit of the Constitution. It simply served the interests of the resident power elite. Some good work in ‘soft’ areas like literacy, family planning and health, could not compensate for the genetic flaws. To challenge the power structure from within was to put oneself at peril and, even then, the chances of success were slim.—p. 29

…She {Aruna Roy, IAS} saw herself saying goodbye to middle-class inhibitions, to timidity and the middle-class habit of withdrawing as soon as there is social conflict and the threat of public criticism.—p. 29

               The SWRC {Social Work Research Centre} had enhanced the quality of life for many people…Yet it was a sort of parallel bureaucracy, supplementing the government’s machinery, sometimes by assisting, and at other times challenging, its functions. This wasn’t necessarily empowering people at large.

               The walls of the SWRC campus enclosed a ‘created’, and somewhat privileged, community however simple and frugal its lifestyle.  By then Aruna {Roy, IAS} was convinced that even the most well-meaning rural development ‘programmes’ could not alter the pervasive inequities and injustices she had seen all over India….—p. 30

               Nikhil’s father was posted as the Air Attache at the Indian embassy in Washington at that time.  Unlike the children of most other embassy staff, Nikhil and his sister had no desire to stay on in the United States.  Nikhil went through the motions of a Bachelor of Arts degree at the George Mason University, but then suddenly quit a few weeks before the end of the last semester. The degree was going to be of little or no use to him, where he was going.  Returning to India, Nikhil spent a year travelling all over the country spending time with activist groups of assorted ideological hues.  This journey had no specified destination or easily definable parameters.  He wanted to work in a village, ideally a place of lush green fields and slopes.

               The semi-aird plains of Rajasthan never featured in Nikhil’s dreams about the future. But one day, a friend and relative, Laila Kabir Fernandes, invited him to join her on a trip to SWRC{Social Work Research Centre} Tilonia. Nikhil went along not expecting SWRC to contribute any clues for his search. There Nikhil met Aruna {Roy IAS} and in talking with her heard echoes of his own search. Later, that feeling grew stronger when he met Shanker and slowly pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place. It was a few years more before the search ended in the shade of a long gulmohar at Devdoongri—which was now more a home than any of the plush homes that were part of Nikhils’ early life.—p. 42

…{R.N.} Mishraji {English teacher in Bhim, Rajastan, native of Bihar}didn’t preach any fixed dogma to his devoted and ever-affectionate students. But he passionately urged them to see beyond their narrow self and fight against all injustice.—p. 43

…Yet {R.N.} Mishraji {English teacher in Bhim, Rajastan, native of Bihar} instinctively shared the activists’ conviction that an ethical basis of life and work could be converted into an ideology.  Certainly there was no divide between their personal ethics and social morality.  But could this ethical strength itself create a movement?  Didn’t one have to give the people an ideological frame to fight their oppression?  But these questions didn’t entirely preoccupy Mishraji, he was too busy being involved in the emerging struggle.  And the living proof of unfolding actions was more compelling than any unresolved theoretical questions.—p. 44

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