Gandhi's opinion

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/OPINION/Editorial/Gandhis_opinion/articleshow/967427.cms


Gandhi's opinion
Sagari Chhabra



The National Gandhi Museum has just released a CD collection of 1,420
issues of Mahatma Gandhi's Indian Opinion launched in South Africa on
June 4, 1903.

Gandhi had written that "a struggle that relies chiefly on internal
strength, cannot be carried on without a newspaper", and so Indian
Opinion was launched primarily to articulate the status of the largely
marginalised and racially oppressed Indian community in South Africa.

The columns of Indian Opinion are a rich source of historical
evidence, both in terms of his thought and strategy. The desire to
seek truth and express it through journalism is documented in issue
after issue.

In fact, Indian Opinion had launched a competition to find an
appropriate Indian word for foreign terms, such as passive resistance
and civil disobedience.

Mahatma Gandhi under the title 'Gujarati Equivalent for Passive
Resistance' wrote: "Only four persons took the trouble of sending
suggestion. We have only one word available to us for the present,
'satyagraha'. The person who suggested this word, does not want his
name published, nor does he want the prize".

And who actually was this nameless person who gave arguably the most
lasting word of the twentieth century? It was Maganlal Gandhi, a
nephew of the Mahatma and a selfless team worker of Indian Opinion.

Madanjit Vyavharik, a political co-worker of Gandhi, had launched the
International Printing Press in Durban and was persuaded by Gandhi to
be the first publisher.

It was on Gandhi's insistence that the paper was not used for
commercial purposes and resisted carrying advertisements of all sorts,
while simultaneously publishing columns in English, Gujarati, Hindi
and Tamil.

Rising debts and a financial crisis forced Gandhi to rush to Durban.
During the journey he read Unto This Last by John Ruskin, given to him
by his friend Pollack.

The book had a lasting impact on him and on reaching Durban he
informed them of his decision to move the press to the Phoenix
settlement, where everyone would get a living wage, live simply and
work on the paper.

Phoenix is the first ashram experiment in collective living started by
Gandhi. Gandhi became the publisher of Indian Opinion investing his
personal savings, although the Natal Indian Congress and British
Indian Association initially shared the losses.

However, the Natal Indian Congress withdrew its support in 1906. The
paper carried on with peculiar twists and turns.

During printing of the first issue at Phoenix, the printer engine
failed and Gandhi along with others had to put his shoulder to the
wheel to bring it out manually.

The first edition of Indian Opinion had articles on issues such as
'Police Zulu In Transvaal', 'A Plea For India' and 'The British Indian
in South Africa'.

To begin with, Gandhi believed that the British Empire would respond
to appeals and petitions and so the columns pointed out instances of
injustice and racial discrimination against Indians.

Later, the tenor of Indian Opinion changed as Gandhi's own political
understanding of imperialism evolved.

The paper carried a strong protest against the partition of Bengal in
1905. Many of Gandhi's articles were unsigned or he wrote a column
simply called 'Ourselves'.

The newspaper carried his articles on Tolstoy, Abraham Lincoln,
Florence Nightingale, Thoreau, and a Gujarati translation of John
Ruskin's Unto This Last.

Hind Swaraj was also serialised. Indian Opinion's first honorary
editor was Hiralal Nazar, followed by Herbert Kitchin and Henry Polak.

The latter were Englishmen who, Gandhi recorded, were "of selfless
character to the best of my knowledge".

After Gandhi's departure to India in 1915, the work and responsibility
fell on Gandhi's son, Manilal. Gandhi instructed Manilal to continue,
but he forbade him to move to the city for Sita's (Manilal's daughter)
education.

Gandhi wanted Indian Opinion to be published as a social service.
Manilal struggled and valiantly kept it going till his death in 1956,
after which his wife, Sushila, renamed the paper Opinion.

The paper was officially reopened by Nelson Mandela in 2000. The CD
collection provides historical evidence of journalism being used as a
tool in satyagraha.

To search for and publish truth was what Gandhi set out to accomplish
as editor. While the dynamics of journalism have changed, Gandhi's
words — "I will give you a talisman, when in doubt, shut your eyes and
think how the poorest of poor, will be affected" — still remain a
valuable touchstone.

The writer is a film director.


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