In Search of Gandhi

FRANK OPINIONS/ FRANK KRISHNER

In Search of Gandhi

The famous Ajanta caves in Maharashtra are worth a visit, but a few kilometres away, there’s a fascinating quiet place called Jalgaon. Here, located in a property called the Jain Hills, is a phenomenon that has already found echoes in distant north Bihar. But first, a story:

It was 1985. A farsighted industrialist wanted to set up a factory to manufacture resin, the raw material for PVC pipes. It was the ‘license raj’. So he needed a licence. The file arrived in New Delhi. The project was  accepted. All it needed was one crucial signature, that of the minister. The minister called the businessman to Delhi to discuss the deal. The ‘cost’ of the signature was 5 crore rupees. The man said that all his life he had accomplished everything on merit, and he had never paid a single rupee as bribe. He told the minister that if there was merit in the proposal , then there was no reason to pay the bribe. The signature never went on the file. Fifteen days later, a license was granted to a competitor. The man who refused to pay a bribe was Bhavarlal H. Jain, whose group became the undisputed king of PVC pipes a decade later.

This Gandhian industrialist, now chairperson of the largest irrigation systems manufacturing group in India, that has gifted the world one of the most amazing tributes to the Mahatma, the first ever dedicated multimedia Museum named ‘Gandhi Teerth’.

A walk through the museum takes about three hours. On entry, the visitor is handed an electronic gadget with a set of headphones. The guest can choose to receive the narration in Hindi or English. In the first gallery, ‘Wants and Needs’, the guest is confronted with a touch screen  and asked to make an ‘avatar’ of himself- to choose the house, clothes, and lifestyle he wants from a set of visuals. The next exhibit shows his face (recorded by the camera) and along with it his lifestyle and the how ‘cost-effective’ it is for Mother Earth. This is the first of eleven stages of the ‘Gandhi Pilgrimage’:  the childhood, influences, student life, journey to England, then India, then South Africa, then the return to India and Champaran and so on. Each gallery has surprises, experiences and new learning opportunities. Mahatma Gandhi’s school leaving results, for instance, is an eye opener. He didn’t even make it to forty percent! Paintings, sculptures, replicas of lifestyle items, actual artefacts used by Gandhi, and audio-visual magic that transports you to the sights and sounds of the late 19^th and early 20^th century: it’s an experience to remember and cherish.

But that’s not all. Before you leave, witness the work being done across India by different ‘Gandhians in action’, people using their skills and knowledge to make India’s villages work.

GANDHI 'EXAMINATION' FOR PRISONERS BY GRF

Gandhi Research Foundation, founded by Padmashree Bhavarlal Jain, (the industrialist in the story) is an international academic and research organisation that doesn’t limit itself to armchair philosophy. It is actively involved in helping surrounding villages grow organic crops, adopt water harvesting, improve the condition of their schools, and aspire to a better economic status through small income generation measures that will be linked to viable marketing strategies.

In Bihar, Bhavarlal Jain, through the Gandhi Research Foundation, has offered technical support to the Gandhi Shodh Sansthan in a sleepy undiscovered corner of West Champaran. Every week, scores of school kids from neighbouring schools go to this ordinary looking building to experience Gandhiji and admire replicas and material made possible by the GRF. They also learn to spin thread on a charkha. This is not all.

Several young people between the ages of 21 and 32 are already making their way to Bhitiharwa. They are educated, articulate achievers from across India, with one vision: to develop an environment friendly, humane, responsible and Gandhian approach to rural development in one of Bihar’s most backward districts.

Mahatma Gandhi, on 20 November 1917, had established his second basic school at Bhitiharwa. His development work was based on education, sanitation, and health. In his autobiography, he expressed his regret that his work in Champaran was left unfinished, because of the lack of committed local volunteers. It is just possible, that 95 years on, the youngsters of Bihar will rise to the occasion and by 2017, Champaran will show signs of a vibrant ‘gram swaraj’.

 

Author: Frank Krishner