Patriarchs and other esteemed individuals in a culture are very telling of a country’s widely held values and beliefs. A country’s heroes, the individuals referred to a ‘founders’ or ‘founding fathers’ reveal the common attitudes and what people think is important. The United States presents an interesting example of this. The ‘founding fathers’ of the country present the very paradoxes and contradictions of the country. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and others are highly esteemed as founding fathers. There is even an entire city, Williamsburg, Virginia, dedicated to the preservation and promotion of their legacy. The legacy promoted is that of war heroes and the deep thinkers that drafted the constitution. However, these same so-called founding fathers were slave holders, engaged in brutality and forced labor of countless Africans. That is the story of America – the land of the free (but only for some.)
I was intrigued during the Teachers for Global Classrooms India orientation. Our host from India referred to Gandhi as ‘the father of our nation.” I immediately wanted to explore this legacy that so effortlessly flowed from her lips. Gandhi led India’s independence movement. Dr. Martin Luther King’s work was inspired by his. There was a historical connection between my African – American community and India. I wanted to know more. My field experience research question was to find out in what ways is Gandhi presented as a patriarch in Indian culture and the Indian classroom? My findings come from the country’s visual culture and institutions. I was not able to observe how his legacy is communicated in classrooms. However, the environment of the country sets the tone for student learning in their everyday lives. The legacy of Mahatma Gandhi is present and pervasive in all aspects of Indian society. In the visual culture, Gandhi is the images on several rupee notes. His photograph is in many public spaces. There are statues of him in high traffic areas of the cities we visited. There are also several major institutions about him or inspired by him. I visited the Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad. Visiting the Gandhi ashram was a wonderful experience. India was the first nation to throw off British colonial oppressors. They gained independence in 1947. This movement was led by Mahatma Gandhi. An ashram is a hermitage or a monastic community. The ashram has his room on display – the room where he would receive guests from all over the world. Why did Gandhi always spin cotton? Why did he always wear that simple cotton shroud? I learned that these were visible acts of protest. Let me explain.
During the time of the Silk Road one of the many trade items from India was cotton. Others were pepper and all kinds of spices. Other items were jewels like diamonds, rubies and pearls. The first diamond mine was in India. It was cotton traded via the Silk Road that excited the European demand for cotton. Hence, the cotton plantations in United States and the Deep South (and Peru and other New World countries). Enslaved US Blacks produced raw cotton that was then shipped to textile factories in England. From there cotton cloth was manufactured and sold all over Europe. At the start of the British colonial period in India, the British chopped off the thumbs of the Indian cotton weavers. Why? To stop cotton cloth from being produced in India in order to limit competition in the world market. Very evil. The result? Once the British destroyed that generation of cotton weavers, the craft knowledge was lost. Indians were forced to purchase cotton cloth from the British, a textile that they originally produced. Gandhi instituted weaving cotton cloth as an activity in the ashram to protest this violent history and to boycott the purchase of the fabric manufactured in Britain. This is the reason why he spent his days weaving cloth and always wore a white shroud. These and other non – violent resistance methods inspired Dr. King to lead the non – violent African – American civil rights movement. A photograph of Dr. King is in the ashram’s museum. When I saw it I started to cry. Look at the impact of the leader of my African – American nation. His life and work honored thousands of miles away on the other side of the world. I took many pictures and bought five or six books about Gandhi’s life and work. My visit to Gandhi’s ashram was definitely a high point of the trip. I also visited the Gandhi Peace Foundation. This organization is located in New Delhi, the capitol. It was founded by his followers and is still the center of the social activist movement in India. It is an environment for study and research on the teaching and practice of Gandhi. This is the center of the Indian Freedom Movement. Activists from all over the country go there to study, network and organize. There is an extensive library of all works published by and about Gandhi. The center was founded by his followers after his assassination in 1948. There is also a National Gandhi Museum. The National Gandhi Museum has a very rich collection of original relics, books, journals and documents, photographs, audio-visual materials, exhibitions, art pieces and other memorabilia closely connected with Mahatma Gandhi, Kastur Ba and Indian Freedom Struggle. It is developing into a Resource Centre for the Gandhian and allied Studies and Research. It also processes the information, data, audio-visual materials, etc., for the use of different categories. There is also an Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts. It is a major resource center for the arts, especially written, oral and visual materials. Multiple organizations and schools are named for the freedom fighter.