Modi reclaims Mahatma: Why those jhaadu photo-ops are important

By Vivek Bhardwaj

A few decades ago, when memories of his struggle against the British were still fresh in our minds, there used to be a popular saying among many Indians: Majboori ka naam Mahatma Gandhi hai. This statement had many connotations. Some implied that one was as helpless as the Mahatma. Others suggested that if one was helpless, the Mahatma was the only source of hope.

You may have not heard anybody use this phrase in the past few years. Unlike in the past, children do not say, ‘Remember Gandhi_ji_ and call off the fight’ either or compare each other with his three monkeys. Like many others related to the Mahatma—for instance, derogatively calling a person who wore glasses as Gandhi —everyday references, both good and bad, to Bapu have faded from colloquial language.

So, it is good to see the Mahatma once again become part of our daily lives through the cleanliness drive launched by the Prime Minister. From being a subject of academic interest and debates, Gandhi has returned as a symbol of a way of life.

For Gandhi had compared cleanliness with Godliness. And he was an exemplar of the ideal. If you have seen Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi, there is a scene in it that puts his priorities in perspective. In the film, Kasturba refuses to clean the lavatory at their South African camp earning Gandhi’s ire.

Cleanliness, for Gandhi, was not just about hygiene. It was a social tool to cut through the caste and class divide, award dignity to labour and create empathy and respect for those considered “untouchable”. The broom in Gandhi’s hand conveyed the message of equality, though some of the terminology and methods he used could be considered controversial. But then, that was a different day and age.

The irony of a BJP-led government turning Gandhi into a symbol of their campaign has not gone unnoticed. The saffron parivar has had a complicated equation with Gandhi. Nathuram Godse, Gopal Godse and Veer Savarkar’s ideological leanings and views on Gandhi, and their alleged role in his assassination, have always hovered over the saffron parivar like a dark shadow.

From Sardar Patel, Narendra Modi has moved on to the Mahatma. That he is publicly embracing the Mahatma’s many ideals shows that he wants to reshape the parivar’s ambiguous relation with Gandhi. It is also a clever—and legitimate—attempt to delink Gandhi from the Congress and reclaim him as a leader of all, irrespective of party affiliation. Modi knows that Bapu was the ‘Father of the Nation’ and not just of the Congress. He is making a conscious effort to share the Mahatma’s legacy with all of us.

It is heartening, therefore, to see politicians in their starched kurtas line up to sweep streets and dirty toilets. By making politicians, bureaucrats come out on the streets with brooms, Prime Minister Modi is making clear that netas and sahabs are no longer more equal than others. It is his way of dismantling the power structure and its established notions. Yes, most of it is pure symbolism, an opportunity for a jhaadu photo-op or boast about it on Twitter. Once the cameras disappear and the hashtags fade, the netas—like all of us—will bury their brooms in some dark corner.

Politicians have revived Mahatma for their interests, both political and social. Once their goals are achieved, it is likely they will move on to new symbols and ideals. There are power games aplenty to be read into today’s photos of Modi wielding his broom. But none can take away from the heartening value of the return of the Mahatma to public discourse. Some of his ideas, many of his practices and a large portion of his philosophy have the power to change our personal lives.

Let us then keep the Mahatma alive, if not for godliness then for cleanliness, for we can all do with a more swachh bharat—both literally and figuratively.