Gandhi and his 'Ji': Grooming up of a fake

The School Version

Even though I was a student of physics, I was very much interested in history. Since my early days, I was inundated with themes on Gandhi, in the form of ‘Gandhiji’ in themes on Indian history. The school version of history was that of a man, a saint, a thinker, a divine personality, a super human who stood out against the might of an evil empire, and came out glorious, defeating them, and reclaiming the lost freedom of the Indians, from their shackles. It may have looked fine in the history texts, and many persons were deeply impressed. Even though at the student level no one cared much; it was just textbook subject, to be parroted for marks. 

The Multitudes

Personally I had nothing against him; only thing was that I couldn't find anything great about him, other than the rhetoric. As I grew up and started having independent understandings on the realities of history, I increasingly found it difficult to find his greatness. As I grew up, I started seeing a lot of ‘Gandhis’ all round India; in fact, in every village, every small town, in every social group, there seemed to be at least one ‘Gandhi’; a person who was the focus of respect and the symbol of simplicity; yet a man who kept everyone else in lower mental levels; by lower level feudal words.