Ramchandra Guha is one of the finest liberal intellectual and thinker. He received many awards including Padma Bhushan. To meet him personally was a wonderful experience. I was fascinated by his gesture, and what more fascinating is exchange of wonderful emails afterwards and receiving few compliments too. No one could have expected more than such happenings with the person he admires. I wish these communications would continue.
His endorsement to the contemporary scientific ideas to contemporary problems but not rejecting, disregarding, and detaching from looking into the past; rational and insightful style of writing; criticism towards any sort of extremism – religious, atheistic, scientific, political, and social; endorsement of non prejudicive middle paths are what drive me towards him and admire the person. He has written books and articles on diversified subjects environment, cricket history, political history, current affairs, biographical, sociology. Who does not know ‘India after Gandhi’ for which he received Sahitya Academy award. He taught at various universities in India and abroad. He takes on both left wing and right wing for their petty, prejudiced, narrow-minded ways. In 2008 and 2013, Prospect Magazine nominated him as one of the world’s most influential public intellectuals.
Guha’s contributions to Gandhian studies are indeed much more worthier. His works on Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest human being had ever born in the last 2000 years are also instrumental in driving me towards Guha’s works (not just only on Gandhi). His book ‘Gandhi before India’ presents multiple dimensions in the life of Mahatma Gandhi before he arrived back to India from South Africa in 1915. If anyone admires Mahatma Gandhi deeply, the judgement by his or her neighbouring world (keeping aside the critics of Mahatma Gandhi) is he or she should have deep interests towards social activism or inclined towards political concerns but Gandhi is too big to confine only to social or political aspects. Mahatma Gandhi is the father of our nation, leader of Indian national and freedom movement but his legacy is beyond these. He is a mobiliser and organiser, prolific writer and trustworthy journalist, planner and manager, listener, pluralist, seeker of truth, social reformer, political thinker, environmentalist, cultivator of friendships and dialogues across racial, regional and religious boundaries, opponent of class discrimination, caste discrimination, gender discrimination, the man who brought more women into public life than any other activist, the man who lived and died for inter-faith harmony, prophet of non-violence and civil disobedience. In this world there exist distinct attitudes and different characters among the people, but for each and every one there is atleast one thing to learn from this great man. He is a person of evolution, as someone rightly said ‘Mahatma Gandhi made heroes out of the clay and the first and the most successful experiment is with himself’, his life is a true and finest example to the evolution. Ramchandra Guha’s book ‘Gandhi before India’ presents this in an insightful way. I would say every one should read this book atleast once.
satta king