Half-naked fakir

One-hundred-and-forty-three years ago yesterday, Mahatma Gandhi was born.

  

India marked the occasion with a national holiday - Gandhi Jayanti - as the country united to remember its father.

  

With the Deccan Herald, among many other businesses, shut to mark the occasion, I found myself with some free time.

  

I first decided to take a stroll down the road which bears Gandhi's name, to see if I could take in any revelry. But it seemed just like any other normal day in Bangalore. There may have been raucous celebrations elsewhere but I found only citizens relaxing, enjoying the sunshine and, I'm sure, internally reflecting on the influence of Gandhi in their lives.

  

So with no partying, and no presents like on the day of the birth of another famous martyr, I decided to read Gandhi's 12,000-word Wikipedia page.

  

I find few things more fascinating than a good Wikipedia page. Brimming with trivia, it was a great way to enhance my education on Gandhi, which didn't extend far beyond watching the Ben Kingsley film in primary school.

  

With my newfound knowledge overflowing, I now present five interesting facts* I previously did not know about the man whose face adorns every note of Indian currency.

   

(*Legitimacy of facts verified, even though studies have shown Wikipedia is as accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica. The 'Reliability of Wikipedia' Wikipedia page is another decent read.)

1. His moniker has a link to baseball history. Christened Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi when born, he was given the honorific Mahatma in 1914. Meaning 'great soul', Mahatma is a rare title but has also been bestowed upon, among others, Branch Rickey. The deeply-Christian LA Dodgers general manager was renowned for breaking Major League Baseball's colour barrier by signing Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play MLB. For what it's worth, I have never heard him called Mahatma Rickey.
2. He was married at age 13. The wedding, to a 14-year-old bride named Kasturba, was arranged by their families and didn't have much of an effect on the adolescents. "We didn't know much about marriage," Gandhi said. "For us it meant only wearing new clothes, eating sweets and playing with relatives." The couple had their first child two years later but it survived only a few days.
3. He played a part in two wars. Despite his pre-eminent association with peace, Gandhi commanded a detachment of 20 Indian volunteers, acting as stretcher-bearers for British soldiers, during the Boer War. He then actively recruited Indian combatants for World War I, though he did stipulate he "personally will not kill or injure anybody, friend or foe".
4. His admirers did not extend to Winston Churchill. Churchill, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the years leading up to India's independence, opposed the movement. He was also against Gandhi's peaceful disobedience, with reports indicating the Brit favoured letting Gandhi die if he went on a hunger strike. He famously called Gandhi a 'half-naked fakir', referring to a byword for beggar.
5. He had unusual sleeping arrangements. After vowing to become abstinent in 1906, Gandhi experimented in celibate sexuality, or brahmacharya, in his seventies. Such experiments focused on the elimination of desire in the face of temptation, which involved young women, including his grandniece, sleeping in his bed. Gandhi openly discussed this with his friends and family, but they mostly disagreed and he eventually ceased the practice.

Well, that was a day well spent. I hope you learned as much as I did. I can't wait to do it all again next year.