Vivek Shukla
Notwithstanding his busy schedules, Mahatma Gandhi always finds time for students. He visits schools and colleges often. He even became a teacher of both young and old. When he came to Delhi for the first time on 12 April, 1915, he stayed at the St. Stephen’s college. He was then only Mr MK Gandhi. He became Mahatma Gandhi and Bapu later. According to Father George Solomon of Delhi Brotherhood Society (DBS) that had established St. Stephen’s college, “ Gandhiji arrived here with his wife, Kasturba Gandhi ji. They were received at Delhi Junction by principle of the college, Prof. S.K. Rudra, his several colleagues and some students.”
St. Stephens college moved to new or the present campus only in 1941. But before we move further, we should know as to why he stayed at St. Stephens College only? There is a story behind Gandhi’s tryst with St. Stephen’s college. “Actually, Gandhi ji had already become a highly respected name as a crusader for the rights of people of Indian origin in South Africa before he returned to India in 1915. He also took up the fight against racial oppression there in South Africa. Prof. Rudra knew about his work in South Africa mainly through his friend and colleague Deen Bandhu CF Andrews. Andrews also taught at the college and was an active member of Delhi Brotherhood society,” says Father Solomon. In this background, Prof. Rudra wanted to meet him. And when Gandhiji returned from South Africa, Rudra requested CF Andrews to use his good office so that Gandhi ji would be his guest on his first visit to Delhi. Andrews dutifully contacted Gandhi ji and expressed the desire of his friend, Rudra. It is said that Gandhi ji happily accepted this offer.
During his stay at the college, he met St.Stephen’s College community. Gandhi ji had narrated his experiences of South Africa and stressed the need to fight British rule.
Gandhi ji visited St. Stephens College again on January 27, 1918. During this visit, Brij Krishna Chandiwala, a student of this very college met him. Deeply influenced by Gandhi ji, Chandiwala became his close associate and authored many books about his life with Gandhi.
Meanwhile,Pandit Malaviya had invited Gandhiji to speak on the occasion of the opening of the Banaras Hindu University. Lord Hardinge, the Viceroy, had come specially to lay the foundation-stone of the University. Eminent persons from all over India had come. Many of them delivered addresses. On February 4, 1916 it was Gandhiji’s turn to address the audience, mostly consisting of impressionable youths. A galaxy of princes, bedecked and bejeweled, had occupied the dias.
Not many people know that Gandhi ji had even become a teacher. While the world knows Gandhi as an apostle of peace, leader of our freedom struggle and social reformer, not many are aware that briefly he also became a teacher. Well, he was a regular teacher to kids and their parents. He became a teacher of English and Hindi by choice when he started living at Valmiki temple in Delhi. That was perhaps the first and only time when he became a teacher in true sense of the world.
When you visit Bapu’s room inside the Valmiki temple, you would see several old sepia coloured photographs of Gandhi ji with Lord Mountbatten and Lady Mountbatten, Acharya Kriplani, Frontier Gandhi, C. Rajgoplachari, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad and Pt Nehru. However, one painting would tell you the story of this venerable room.
Here in this carpeted room, you would also find a wooden desk in the centre that Gandhiji used to write. And on the right side is the bed that Gandhi ji would use. Bapu’s charkha is also there close to the bed. This charkha is a small one.
There are still many Valmiki families who live around the Valmiki temple. It is said that Gandhi ji asked the elders of Valmiki colony in 1946 that he wanted to stay with them for a couple of months. They gladly asked him to stay with them. Gandhi ji stayed here for exactly 214 days from 1 April 1946 to 10 June, 1947.
“Once he moved to Valmiki colony, he started interacting with Valmiki families. He was shocked that they were all illiterates. Nobody had even seen the school. Then he asked local residents to send their kids to him as he would teach them. With Bapu’s offer, elders started sending their kids to his classes,” informs Krishan Vidhyarti, the caretaker of the temple. Vidhyarti’s father and uncles also attended Bapu’s classes.
Gandhi ji ensured that his classes took place both in morning and evening without fail. He was such a conscientious teacher that he often used to delay his meetings with stalwarts of the freedom movement in order to finish his classes. That starts before prayers. So during his classes and later prayers, he didn’t meet guests. Well, Gandhi ji was a hard-task master. He used to chide students if any of them attended his class without taking a bath.
And much before his classes at the Valmiki temple, Gandhi ji had visited the prestigious Modern School in the capital in 1935 at the invitation of Sardar Sobha Singh, head of the Modern School managing committee. He was also the father of a certain writer and journalist, Khushwant Singh. A sepia coloured picture of Bapu with students of Modern school is there in the school principal room.
Finally, Mahatma Gandhi and Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) are inseparable. JMI was founded in 1920 during the Khilafat and Non-Cooperation Movements in response to Gandhi’s call for a boycott of all government-sponsored educational institutions. It had the blessings of Gandhi at its very inception. In 1925, it was moved from Aligarh to Karol Bagh, Delhi. Gandhiji sent his grandson Rasiklal to the Jamia for his education. His youngest son, Devdas Gandhi taught English there too. So, Gandhi ji had very intimate ties with various students, schools and colleges. Father George Solomon, who also takes part in all religion prayer at Rajghat, says “ Gandhi ji would remain our guiding lights. Thanks to his blessings, Delhi Brotherhood Society is now opening St. Stephen’s School in Haryana”. Ends.