Just around the corner in the suburb of Chinhwad, the road already has two temporary platforms blocking the road for the Garnesh festival, or Ganipati. Idols of the little elephant – promising wealth and prosperity - are everywhere.
A Pune firm has even managed to make an environmentally friendly version.
It is perhaps appropriate that I visited the Aga Khan palace and the Peshawar palace just before the Garnesh festival. In the palace, I read a memorial to Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856 – 1920) among the many reminders of Gandhi and his philosophy.
I am told the British had restricted the right of association, and Tilak turned the once small family festival into a major social unifier and nationalist event.
Flouting British restriction, the festival became both a right of association, religious worship and nationalism.
Tilak was impressed by his grandfathers recollections of the Pre-British Peshawar Marathi kingdom – the last to fall to the British in 1817.
In 1833, my ancestor Hannah Cox gave birth to William Hicks Cox on March 25, claims a hand written family record. He died there on June 27, the same year.
So we took off to the Aga Khans palace where I bought a homespun kurta and handkerchief.
The Sultan Muhammed Shah Aga Khan III built the palace in 1892 to offer employment following a famine, in Yerwada region in eastern Pune suburb that joins Kalyani Nagar (Kalyani City), also called Neelkanth Kalyani after a city industrialist and founder of the Kalyani Forging company.
The present Prince Shah Karim al-Hussayni Aga Khan IV was a supporter and associate of Gandhi, and it was here, that the British transported Gandhi during his 1942- 1944 house arrest. He gave the palace to the public in 1969 becoming the he Gandhi National Memorial.
To Westerners Gandhi is best remembered for his political achievements which he described being of “little value.” The title Mahatma “pained me” he said.
In the 1925 introduction of his biography,he claimed the had been “striving and pining to achieve these thirty years is self realization, to see God face to face, to attain Moksha.”
“For me truth is the sovereign principle … This truth is not only truthfulness in word, but truthfulness in thought also, and not only the relative truth of our conception, but the Absolute Truth, the Eternal Principle that is God.”
In 1930 Gandhi wrote letters from his Yeravda Central Prison stating “the {Sanskrit} word Satya (truth)
is derived from Sat, which means 'being.' Nothing is or exists in reality except truth. That is why Sat, or Truth is perhaps the most important name of God.”
“It is more correct to say Truth is God, than to say that God is truth.”
Gandhi believed there are “innumerable definitions of God, because His manifestations are innumerable.”
“They overwhelm me with wonder and awe and for a moment stun me. But I worship God as truth only. I have not yet found him, but am seeking after Him.” he wrote in 1925. “I am prepared to sacrifice the things dearest to me in pursuit of that quest. Even if the sacrifice be my very life.”
As shown in .Attenborough's film, Gandhi's wife, Kasturba, and also his long-time aide, Mahadev Desai, both died there while under house arrest. Samadhis (memorials) were built by Charles Correa. To the side lay Gandhi's ashes – although friends claim the majority were separated to an number of locations.
One of the most poignant moments for me was reading Gandhi's words after the death of Mahadev Desai – sadly I could not find a copy online.
Mahadev Desai (1892—1942), a journalist, was born in 1892 in the Surat district of the Indian state of Gujarat. A student of philosophy, logic and law he loved literature First meeting Gandhi in November 1917, Desai joined Gandhi full-time becoming viewed as a son by the Mahatma and his wife.
He died on the August 15th, 1942 in the Aga Khan Palace.
Gandhi wrote he expected he would be buried by Desai. Gandhi could not bear to hand his 'son' to the British – who could not aford to have Gandhi visible in a public funeral. Thet relented allow Gandhi to perform the Hindu rites an d cremation on the grounds.
“ ... [Mahadev Desai] was much more than [Gandhi's official secretary]. He was in fact Home and Foreign Secretary combined.” wrote Verrier Elwin “He managed everything. He made all the arrangements. He was equally at home in the office, the guest-house and the kitchen. He looked after many guests and must have saved 10 years of Gandhi's life by diverting from him unwanted visitors....”
Gandhi's room and bathroom are protected behind glass – much like a shrine to Keterba, who died there. Along with his spinning wheel, its simplicity reminded me how great men often remove superfluous distractions in pursuit of dreams and principles.
There is a walk down to the Samahdi for Desai and Mrs Gandhi. Here Ghandi daily trod the path to his daily observances. Kept free of commercial distraction, this area, like the gardens, are tranquil and reflective
Once a clinic for leprosy and other skin conditions, homespun is available for charitable fund raising..Gandhi loved children and on one side near the Samadhi is a children's nursery.
I bought my first homespun garment – a kurta – for 288 rupees. I also bought two of Gandhis books and one by his grandchild for 30 rupees. The only commercialism (found nearly everywhere) is the far higher entrance price for non Indians.
There is a beautiful air of calm in the gardens. The lawn is mowed by an electric mower and swept clean by women with straw brooms.
Gandhi was arrested for speaking out against war. Curiously, as we sat in the gardens carpark we were approached by a women holding the Watchtower – itself banned for political neutrality during the war.
Then, as we left the Aga khans palace, a flatila of cars and a crowd of young men were gathering outside – the flag of Congress – a fist in bands of Indian Orange, white and green – blazed as the cars drove off. Indira Gandhi's grandson, Rahul was in town – and I found out later, he visited youth in my area of Pimpri – Chinhwad purportedly top hear their concerns.
We discussed the Indira and Rajiv Gandhis earlier policies – his plan for voluntary sterilization. I had recently listened to an Indian professor who described the period of democratic suspension by Indira and Rajiv as a dictatorship but afew friends believed at the time tough – focused leadership was needed. She believes India needs a single President figure, USA style, who can get things done. I still feel a single powrful figure needs a president/Governor General counter balance when the constitution is threatened.
We drove through the older part of Pune - Shaniwar Peth. I hope to return to photograph the beautiful old buildings and then to the Shaniwar Wada. This fort was built by Shrimant Pahile Bajirao Peshwe taking two years to complete in 1732. It was the used by the Peshwa rulers until 1818 when the last Indian kingdom surrendered to Britain.
The massive stone construction has large steps – not the size a child would like to run up - held off the British.
Expanded to include, fountains, courtyards, gardens, offices, quarters and audience halls, it was guttered by an unexplained fire in 1827 that lasted 15 days. What remains of the perimeter and fountains hows it was once formerly magnificent.
My own interest in the city comes from It was here that my ancestor Hannax Cox gave birth to son William on March 25, 1833, claims a handwritten family document. He died June 27.
Although the British base, now a suburb named Camp, is further south, it is Shaniwar Wada that made victory so crucial to the British. The Peshiwar legacy is still a catch cry to freedom in Pune. The dynasties founder, Shivaji, has the most locations and statues named after him. He is also a symbol to Hindu nationalism and Marathi pride.
Although offering helpful services, I wonder whether Gandhi would have preferred a more inclusive less parochial politics.
Truth is straight and narrow, he said, it is a 'razors edge' impossible to be achieved by the arrogant, to attain it the seeker must be “humbler than dust.”
Gandhi believed his message of truth and non violence was not new but “as old as the hills.”
Its just that moral lessons are quickly tainted by greed, power and self interest. We easily totter off the razors edge.
Then we forget - or ignore - the truth that we innately know.
Thus endeth the reflections.
