Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the man, the idea, is as close to immortal as can get.
Mahatma Gandhi on the cover of a magazine or the front page of a newspaper is not an unusual sight, even today, more than seventy-five years after his passing. In his time, his methods and his pronounced influence in world politics, and in a number of other non-political realms, ensured that the world over, Gandhi received a lot of his attention.
“To which of his fellowmen might a discerning citizen of the world point as Man of the Year?” thus began the lead article in Time magazine’s January 5, 1931 issue. (Perish the thought that one could discern a modicum of gender awareness. It was then clearly a ‘man’s world’!) It considered a banker — one Albert Wiggin, Chairman of Chase National Bank. And then a golfer — Robert Tyre Jones Jr.—who had won four championships, but declared him ‘Sportsman of the Year’ and moved on. The name of Sinclair Lewis, the American writer who had won the Nobel Literature Prize then came up. But no, his work had been done earlier. Time was interested in a man who had rocked the world in 1930 specifically!
Scales tilt in Gandhi’s favour
Prime Minister Macdonald of the UK? No. Not quite. Not influential or successful enough. Joseph Stalin? Adolf Hitler? Alphonse Gabriel Capone aka Scarface? Believe it or not, all of them were actually discussed. Stalin was yanking the Soviet Union along on the road to industrialization. Hitler was now something of a player in the German political scenario. Al Capone had just been released after a short stint in prison and that was enough apparently. He was a newsmaker!
Sanity eventually prevailed. Time chose to honour Gandhi. It was he who, more than anyone else, had made an impact in 1930. The Purna Swaraj resolution of January 1930, the Salt Satyagraha, his overweening influence on Indians of all hues so much so that even the Viceroy of India, Lord Irwin, had conceded the need to make some concessions to Indian nationalism — all of these momentous events had tilted the scales in his favour.
Time magazine’s January 5, 1931 issue
For the cover, the magazine chose to feature a contemplative Gandhi who seemed to be immersed in reading a newspaper. His round spectacles dominated his face. He did appear even frailer than we would imagine. This picture was a marked improvement on the Gandhi who had featured on the cover of Time on March 31, 1930. That cover featured a badly sketched, barely recognizable caricature and it carried the curious moniker ‘Saint Gandhi’. But regardless of its shortcomings, it was quite something— Gandhi on the cover of one of the world’s pre-eminent journals for the very first time.
Time magazine’s March 31, 1930 issue
Gandhi was to feature on the cover of Time once again — on the June 30, 1947 issue a few weeks before Independence and perhaps at the beginning of the horrors of Partition. It was a smiling Gandhi holding on to a bunch of what appeared to be bamboo sticks.
Time magazine's issue on June 30, 1947
Another important magazine of that era was Life. Its March 25, 1946 issue featured a famous photograph shot by Margaret Bourke-White. Gandhi was somewhat in the background with half a blurry spinning wheel in the foreground.
The February 9, 1948 issue of Time’s great rival publication, Newsweek, put Gandhi on the cover. Clearly, his assassination a few days ago had prompted this. The sidebar was a trifle alarmist and said: ‘INDIA: After Gandhi, What?’
Newsweek wasn’t the only international publication to feature Gandhi on the front pages after his assassination. Many international newspapers did too.
Why, after his death, Gandhi even featured on the cover of Dawn, at that time, Pakistan’s leading English newspaper. Jinnah (referred to as Quaid-i-Azam — the Great Leader, in the headline), the paper’s founder, had even remarked, ‘loss to India is irreparable’.
Among the more unusual magazines where Gandhi has featured on the cover is the Organiser, the mouthpiece of the RSS. That the RSS has not exactly seen eye-to-eye with Gandhi is no secret. And yet, it chose to feature him on the cover, twice in the last few years. In October 2014, Gandhi featured on its cover in the context of the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan and an article inside also spoke of his views on conversion — Gandhi (and the RSS) weren’t in favour.
In October 2019, Gandhi, more correctly his silhouette, featured on the cover of Organiser yet again. This was on the occasion of Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary.
A number of ideas like Gram Swaraj, Basic Education and Khadi were inscribed on the silhouette. In addition, there were other interesting titles inscribed: Languages, for instance — not an issue that the RSS would find itself in agreement with Gandhi. His desire for a Hindi-Urdu mixed language (which he called ‘Hindustani’) in either the Devanagari or the Urdu script as the national language couldn’t have been something that the RSS would have been inclined to consider. Perhaps on the issue of ‘Gau Seva’, they would have been more in agreement. Nevertheless, the engagement and the covers were unusual.
In the years to come, in all likelihood, there will be many more front-cover appearances. Gandhi, the man, the idea, is as close to immortal as can get.
