Gandhi rewound and revised

Repackaging and shape-shifting Gandhi as a totem of realpolitik, diplomatic nicety, and avant garde tradeoff is one thing - revising him ideologically is another

In the waves of Gandhi worship that have engulfed us on his 150th birth anniversary, few have paused to consider what the Father of the Nation and Apostle of Non-Violence might have made of the celebrations and commemorations as birthday presents — or how and where he might have chosen to spend October 2?

Apart from the usual minting of coins and stamps, crocodile queues of schoolchildren hustled to samadhis, walkathons, and garbage clearing by politicians and release of prisoners, some of the memorialising is far-fetched. For instance, the BJP announced a four-month Gandhi marathon till his death anniversary on