![]() And that this state may well have placed him under house arrest and otherwise treated him poorly, as the British had before them. In my essay “What if Gandhi had Lived” in my new book, I speculate that if he had lived beyond 1948 he would probably have been disappointed with the nation he helped mould and bring together. But still, I have this nagging suspicion that if Gandhi knew of the kind of people paying homage to him today in front of press cameras while doing reprehensible things in front of mobile cameras, he would have been horrified. ![]() To be clear, many of his ideas were theoretically and practically unsound and inconsistent, so perhaps it was wise not to take them literally. Gandhi, by the end of his career, was seen in his own party as more of a moral figure-as power and instruments of power came into hand, Indians preferred to forget him. I like to think of him not as a saint, but as a sharp mind who knew the benefits of being perceived as a saint. He matters not just as a romantic symbol, but also as the most effective, shrewd, even controversial Indian politician of the 20th century. Gandhi in that sense can serve as a guidebook for political communication. Present-day Opposition parties could learn from him. It is remarkable that without great media penetration, in a largely illiterate country, Gandhi managed to rouse millions using the available press effectively. His point was never merely to break the law it was to use it as a means to highlight how unjust British rule was even in terms of something as basic as salt, not to speak of giving publicity to his cause. In a country divided by caste, religion, region, language and so much more, the kind of media interest this event generated captured not just national but global attention-Gandhi was featured as “Man of the Year” by Time Magazine. It was, in that sense, political theatre, amplified by cameras. From the late 19th century onwards unjust salt laws were on the agenda of the Congress, but why is it that in 1930 it created a sensation? It was because of how it was orchestrated, how the press’ attention was marshalled and how Gandhi walked for weeks, building momentum, before he broke the law.
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