Mass Mobilization through Perambulation

M.K. Gandhi

Abstract

Mass Mobilization through Perambulation: M. K. Gandhi

Dr. Jasmine Anand

Assistant Professor of English

Mehr Chand Mahajan DAV College for Women, Chandigarh

jasmine18anand@gmail.com, 8146531523

Mahatma Gandhi was an icon of many things- truthfulness, temperance, chastity, vegetarianism, non-violence, self-rule, cottage industry, and Hindu nationalism to name a few. Amidst the political, religious, humanitarian, and moral outlook of Gandhi we often forget the holistic magnitude of his marches. A journal mentioned that Gandhi walked around 18 kms daily for 40 years and between the period of 1913-1948. During his political campaign he walked a total of 79,000 kms which equalled to walking the earth twice. Interestingly, many of the visual mediums in form of paintings, pictures, and statues of Gandhi represent him walking with a stick. Taking this account further the paper shall study Gandhi’s perambulation in the light of his Collected Works and especially his autobiography The Story of my Experiments with Truth covering the various aspects of his walking.

Walking makes poets in motion, joins roots and routes, gives experience in the wild, is about record breaking fitness, is therapeutic, or leads to revolutions. But for Gandhi it could be seen as solvitur ambulando, that is, sort it out through walking. Thus, his political campaigns can be seen as axis points in creation of his philosophy of walking. Nowadays, with the change in our lifestyle and economic boom there has been a decline in our engagement with walking. The new Fitbit era if at all has increased walking, accounts to mechanical and conscious walking aimed to compete in steps only. With the alarming and rising climate change and poor health, walking the Gandhian way needs to be encouraged culturally to a larger extent. Walking is also about positive and healthy interaction with the public sphere. Hence, in this light the paper will try to explore the dynamic and democratic dimension of Gandhi’s walking.