Having a Moment with Gandhi

I bawled like a baby at Gandhi’s ashram. I don’t know why it hit me so hard in that moment but I had all the feels and just couldn’t stop. We were looking at the site map and K asked “what’s khadi again?” and, as I was about to tell her about Gandhi’s protest on behalf of Indian cloth weavers against the British, the enormity of his actions and their effects against the colonizers overwhelmed me.  

All colonized people of the world deserve a Gandhi-like figure. Pretty much all colonized groups have people who stand up to power, but usually those people end up dead or betrayed or only get so far. And many rebellions are based in violence which the state considers valid reason for assassinating leaders. It’s rare for someone to affect the changes he was able to make. Of course, he too was assassinated. 

I am curious how Gujaratis hold both Gandhi and Modi in such high esteem. Their viewpoints could not be more in opposition. Some radical BJP (Modi’s political party) allied politicians have suggested making Gandhi’s assassination day a holiday as they now consider his desire to unite Indians of all faith in a secular country to be heretical to the fundamentalist understanding of Hinduism.  

Even his nearest and dearest were skeptical about some of his challenges to Hinduism. He kicked his sister out of his ashram because she wouldn’t eat with the untouchable family he invited in. His wife was on the way out the door, too, but fell in love with the family’s little girl. 

Pundits say his methods wouldn’t work today because they suppose an ethical opponent. Are you kidding me? The Brits knowingly forced death upon millions of impoverished Indians with their Salt Law and just look up the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh. The Brits were hardly all fucking tea and crumpets.

I have read his book “The Story of My Experiments with Truth” and knew many of his popular protests, his marches and fasts, but there was so much more in this museum that I didn’t know and it suddenly felt real and less like ancient history.

You can visit their basic ashram home and put your feet on the same stone floors Gandhi and Kasturba walked. I maybe have a little Gandhi DNA on my feet. Or not, I wash my feet a lot here. Did I mention dusty? 

In addition to being a fantastic place to learn about Gandhi’s life and legacy, it’s a peaceful refuge in the middle of a loud chaotic city.