Yarr majumdar bhai..i agree that Gandhi was not treated like regular joe in the pen but give the guy props for standing up to status-quo. Human beings are not angels they have a genetic compulsion to faulter, no one is perfect and from our belief only God know what the real intentions of human beings are but if they seem sincere than we must not become conspiracy theorist and knock everyone down.

Shastri's widow i believe didnt have enough money to afford housing when he passed away and he was the prime minister of india, compare that with our rulers...what i am saying is that lets give props where they r due and lets knock the same ppl when the same people have err'd ....human beings are capable of good and bad at the same time..if there good is far more than evil than lets call it how it is.

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Majumdar bhai, you are confusing issues here. It is not what the British did or Mountbatten said. It is if Gandhi asked for it. Did he ask for clean third-class compartments? Did he ask to be imprisoned at the Aga Khan palace?

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Some more.

Class Act

"To identify himself with the masses of the poor, Gandhi would insist on traveling third class on his many journeys across India. The filthy third-class carriages with wooden seats and no cooling ventilation bulged with excess loads. Ragged people sat on top of each other, half out of the windows and perched on the footboards.
"The Bntish raj was rightly terrified of Gandhi travelling under such conditions: a special train was always laid on. It would have three third-class compartments, spotlessly clean. In the middle one sat Gandhi and his immediate disciples. In the compartments on either side, the remainder of his retinue was housed. The wooden seats were a trifle uncomfortable, but nothing else was.

"After the journey, Gandhi would say, 'Now find out how much the third-class fare is from Calcutta to Madras and send it to the Government. We must not be beholden to the British in any way.' So, in return for the special train costing some £500, the railway authorities would receive a few rupees - the exact third-class fare for a normal train."


[Sources: Ved Mehta, Mahatma Gandhi and His Apostles]

Regards

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Harishbhai,

From anecdotage.com

"When Gandhi [who was determined to live his life as an ascetic] was Mrs Sarojini Naidu's guest and required supplies of goat's milk, fresh fruit, juice and other rarities, she is reputed to have exclaimed, 'You've no idea, Mahatma, how expensive it is to provide you with the wherewithal to fast.'"


"Even after becoming an internationally recognized statesman, Mohandas Gandhi persisted in following an extremely spartan lifestyle. He wore the simple clothes of the poor, traveled on foot whenever possible, preferred staying in the slum areas of cities, and always used the cheapest class of railway travel. In view of the danger to which such behavior exposed Gandhi, Lord Louis Mountbatten, the British viceroy, expressed surprise to an eminent member of Gandhi's party on one occasion at a railroad station. He was told that all the Untouchables in the carriage had been carefully selected and checked by the security services: 'You have no idea what it costs to keep that old man in poverty!'"]


[Sources: Malcolm Muggeridge, Observer, Oct. 19, 1969; Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes]

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No MKG did not insist on royal treatment but we shud stop referring to MKG and JLN's "great sacrifices" in being in prison.

If it wasn't sacrifice, what was it? What compelled them to be at the forefront of the freedom movement? What compelled them to go to prison when they could have just turned the other way? What compelled Gandhi to tour riot-hit areas with little or no security? What compelled him to fast for days (now don't tell me he secretly consumed food when no one was watching)? What compelled Nehru to forego the comforts he could have bought with his wealth and tour dusty villages and sleep on bare slabs inside prisons?

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Harishbhai,

Obviously it was Congressmen who used to travel with him, not him alone.

No MKG did not insist on royal treatment but we shud stop referring to MKG and JLN's "great sacrifices" in being in prison.

Regards

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The guy used to travel third class but what is not known that the INC would book the entire third class bogey.

Are you saying Gandhi had the entire bogey to himself and no one else traveled with him in it? And are you sure Gandhi insisted that the entire bogey be booked for him and no one else be allowed in?

And what about his "treatment as royalty" in prison? Again, did Gandhi insist on being treated that way?

As Sarojini Naidu (by no means a Leaguer ) would say "It keeps the nation a fortune to keep the Mahatma poor"

I guess you meant "costs", but Gandhi's upkeep would have cost the nation a lot more if he'd insisted on traveling first class by flight (or even train) and stayed in an official building with thousands of servants to attend to him.

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Harishbhai,

You dont have the whole story about the third class train travel. The guy used to travel third class but what is not known that the INC would book the entire third class bogey. As Sarojini Naidu (by no means a Leaguer ) would say "It keeps the nation a fortune to keep the Mahatma poor"

Regards

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Majumdar bhai, if he was treated like royalty, was it his fault? Did he demand royal treatment? And what about his insistence on traveling second class (or was it third?)

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Harishbhai,

MKG was imprisoned in several other jails too - Yeravada or some such other place. But I am sure he was traeted like royalty wherever he was placed.

Regards

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Majumdar bhai, you are increasingly beginning to sound like Yasser. Was Gandhi always imprisoned at the Aga Khan palace? Did he never suffer the pain that ordinary prisoners did?

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Give the man some credit, doing two young things at 78 years of age. The Good Lord does not make men like that any more.

Btw, did the J-man have any peculiarities?

Regards

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majumdar,

Yeah it's rumoured his 'poverty' cost an arm and a leg to his hosts

But Gandhi's best 'stroke' was sleeping naked with nieces to practice his abstinence

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I guess it's a bit like the Hindu racist,.... bigoted freak suffering the pains of prison life at Aga Khan's palace.

Regards

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Catchy,

Yeah he's in some city ... perhaps in Arizona

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Very sharp eye, zeemax. good spot. he seems to be in some city.

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