SAJAforum

GANDHI: A rare English recording surfaces

In an exclusive story this week, Shankar Vedantam, a staff writer and columnist ("Department of Human Behavior") for the Washington Post, was able to contribute to our collective understanding of Mahatma Gandhi.

According to Vedantam, only two speeches that Gandhi gave in English have been recorded. One was from the 1930s and, as described in "Saying His Peace":

Recently, however, the second speech surfaced in -- of all places -- downtown Washington. It had been lovingly preserved for 60 years by John Cosgrove, a former president of the National Press Club. Cosgrove's copy came from Alfred Wagg, a journalist who recorded the speech in New Delhi and produced four 78-rpm LPs that included both Gandhi's voice as well as Wagg's own commentary about the Indian independence leader. Cosgrove discovered the significance of the recording during a chance encounter with Rajmohan Gandhi, when the author came to the Press Club this past spring to promote his new biography.

Gandhi's speech -- made with the uneven diction of an elderly man who sounds as though he has lost most of his teeth -- had the same themes he visited over and over throughout his life: the importance of nonviolence, the eradication of the caste system in Hindu society, amity between South Asia's Hindus and Muslims, and a world united against violence and exploitation.

"A friend asked yesterday, did I believe in one world?" Gandhi says at one point in the speech. "Of course I believe in World One. And how can I possibly do otherwise? . . . You can redeliver that message now in this age of democracy, in the age of awakening of the poorest of the poor."

Read the rest of the piece here. You can listen to the recording below and then watch his grandson and biographer, Rajmohan Gandhi talk about the recording and about his grandfather.

Asked how get got this scoop, Vedantam told SAJAforum via e-mail: "Serendipity + luck. I happened to be at a dinner table with Rajmohan Gandhi when John Cosgrove came by to introduce himself." And the rest is a piece of recaptured history. Vedantam wrote a guest  "On Faith" column for WP & Newsweek.com.

Listen to the Gandhi recording:

SPORTS: Jerry Manuel, New York Mets Manager, Gandhian

Jerry Manuel, the newly appointed interim manager of the New York Mets, is not your typical baseball lifer.  Manuel replaced the fired Willie Randolph earlier this week and the ensuing press coverage has noted his intellectual bent.  “Cornel West, Reinhold Niebuhr and Gandhi are just three men whose thoughts and philosophies he says have influenced him,” according to Wednesday’s New York Times.

A February 2007 Times profile elaborates further on Manuel’s interest in Gandhi, which stemmed from his study of Martin Luther King.

It was while he was reading about King that Manuel saw a photograph that showed King reading a book with the word “Gandhi” on it.

“Whatever he was reading was good enough for me,” Manuel said.

Manuel began scouring for books about Gandhi, and he still reads highlighted passages in a Gandhi memoir. Every winter, he makes a point of watching a movie version of “Gandhi.” And from Gandhi, Manuel found Tolstoy.

“They move men,” Manuel said. “I always wanted to move men, to take them to a level that they’ve never seen before. Let’s see how far you can go is how I feel.”

Here's his official Mets profile.

Please post your comments below.

Earlier on SAJAforum: SPORTS: Dante Culpepper, Quarterback and Gandhi Quoter

DESI SPOTTING: Stephen Colbert on Mahatma Gandhi at Princeton and TV

Stephen Colbert, the star of "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central, was the keynote speaker at Princeton's Class Day for graduating seniors on Monday, June 2. According to a report on the Princeton site:

[Colbert] deplored the effect the class members could have, saying "you people are like a virus that will soon be unleashed upon the world, with your unstoppable drive and your infectious enthusiasm."

Colbert blamed this fervor for changing the world on leaders such as Mohandas Gandhi and Al Gore. "Please don't try to change global warming," he said. "The older generations cut down the forest and sprayed millions of tons of CO2 in the air for a reason -- because they felt a draft in here. ... When you're older, you'll understand that it is a lot easier to raise the ocean temperatures a few degrees than to remember to bring a cardigan."

Turns out the Colbert was much more specific about Mahatma Gandhi, but you can see why Princeton's PR department glossed over it.

On Thursday's show, Colbert reprised parts of his address, including the following line:

Sure, Gandhi said, "You must be the change that you want to see in the world," but he also drank his own urine.

As he said that, the words "What Frat Was He Pledging?" showed up on the screen.

You can watch the segment below.

I gather Colbert and his writers were confusing Gandhi with Morarji Desai, the former Indian prime minister, who was famous for his belief in urine therapy.

According to an article on the Internet (so it must be true): "In 1978 Dan Rather, on CBS's 60 Minutes, interviewed Desai, who spoke at length about the great value of drinking urine. Newsweek reported (August 21, 1995) that Mohandas Gandhi was a urine drinker, but this was later denied by India's Gandhi Institute."

UPDATE: I turned to one of the foremost experts on Gandhi, Prof. Dennis Dalton of Barnard College. His response: "Sushila Nayyar, Gandhi's personal physician, told me that Gandhi did not believe in this practice, though Moraji definitely did. There is no reference in Gandhi's works to it. Arun Gandhi at the Gandhi Institute denied it and Arun is a sound authority on Gandhi."

Post your comments below, please, after the video.

CLIMATE: Saving the Environment through Satyagraha - Q&A

As with so many other problems of this modern world, the crisis of climate change begs the question: What would Gandhi do?

A coalition of environmentalists and other activists think Mahatma Gandhi's notion of satyagraha--nonviolent resistance (literally "truth force")--has powerful relevance to the struggle to save the planet. Last year, Al Gore cited Gandhi in a speech to the Sierra Club, calling for a morally courageous stance:

We ought to have a mass movement around a carbon freeze; it's scalable from the individual level to the company, community, state, and national level. Gandhi used the word Satyagraha or "truth force." In American politics, there have been soaring moments throughout our history when the truth has swept aside entrenched power. In the darkest hours of our Civil War, Abraham Lincoln said, "We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country." We need once again to disenthrall ourselves.

Gore also apparently drew upon Gandhi in using the phrase "An Inconvenient Truth." That's according to Pavan Sukhdev, an environmentalist from India who also serves as Managing Director in the Global Markets division of Deutsche Bank AG, based in London. He was recently commissioned by the G8+5 to spearhead their new report on environmental degradation and deforestation.

In this SAJAforum Q&A, Sukhdev answers questions surrounding his involvement as a member of the Garrison Institute ahead of its recent event, the Satyagraha Public Forum. The event, that took place on April 13th in New York City, gathered people like Gandhi biographer Rajmohan Gandhi and world famous composer Philip Glass to talk about climate change (Glass' opera "Satyagraha" is currently being performed at the Metropolitan Opera). They were joined by Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne, founder of Sri Lanka's Sarvodaya movement, and Billy Parish, founder of the Climate Campaign.

SAJAforum spoke to Sukhdev for his thoughts on India’s role in climate change, the importance of satyagraha and his relationship with Al Gore.

What can an event on climate change and satyagraha hope to accomplish?

Garrison's weekend program is a very novel initiative driven by a powerful idea. It picks up on the lineage of civil disobedience, from Henry David Thoreau to Mahatma Gandhi to Martin Luther King Jr. It also sees and dwells on the spiritual dimension of this challenge to human society.

How do the concepts of satyagraha and civil disobedience, once used to refer to direct oppressor-oppressed relationships, now relate to climate change? How does the re-appropriation of such terminology help to better address the struggle for climate change?

Struggle and truth: these are the heart of "Satyagraha." The challenge for our generation is to figure out how to apply this powerful idea and its methodology of peaceful struggle not to an oppressor without, but to an oppressor within. Who are the oppressed? Our children--they should inherit the Earth but might instead inherit a living hell. Who are the oppressors? It is us and our own triple-whammy of old-world habits: over-consumption, careless materials/energy use, and an addiction to fossil fuels. [Although] these are all habits [that] can each be changed by conscious choice it needs the determined power of truth, or satyagraha, for each of us to address them. Understanding truth comes first, then meditation and deep thought and, finally, solutions.

Can you tell me about your interactions with Al Gore and his involvement in this project. Why did Al Gore name his film "An Inconvenient Truth"?

I was invited by Vice President Al Gore to train with him for the India launch of his program, The Climate Partnership in New Delhi last month. I was also one of their two "local" speakers on the subject. Al Gore was deeply inspired by Gandhi's satyagraha movement and said that was also an inspiration for the name of his movie, “An Inconvenient Truth.”

PREZ POLITICS: Obama writes in India Abroad

Senator Barack Obama has a two-page, 1,832 word op-ed in the latest issue of India Abroad (here's a link to the pdf version). In it, he calls for a better balance between security and civil liberties, better immigration policies for foreign students and families, and less rigid alignment with the Musharraf government. He also links his own family's immigrant story to that of Indians, and of course, gives props to Gandhi.

Early on in the piece, he calls for... change.

This kind of change will require the active participation of the American people. And as President, I will reach out to encourage the active engagement and partnership of the vibrant Indian American community in making the change we seek.  Already, in communities across this country, Indian Americans are lifting up our economy and creating jobs. Leading entrepreneurs, innovators, lawyers, doctors, engineers, and hard-working professionals are adding to the richness and success of the American story. 

And yet, since the attacks of 9/11, we have been gripped by a politics of fear that has far too often targeted Indian Americans, excluding them from the American story. Too often, flawed strategies like racial profiling have had a disproportionate effect on Indian Americans. Too often, restrictions at our borders have prevented entry for many students and family members who seek nothing more than opportunity and reunification with loved ones. In the process, we have restricted the promise of America for millions of hard-working, law-abiding individuals who advance our nation’s economy and potential through strong families, excellence in education and achievement, and personal faith. 

As President, I will restore the essential balance between the security we demand and the liberties we cherish. I worked as a State Senator to bring together law enforcement and civil rights advocates to reform racial profiling tactics – this is not a reliable tool for our law enforcement, and it is not reflective of core American values. As a United States Senator, I co-sponsored legislation that would expand federal jurisdiction to reach violent hate crimes motivated by race, color, religion, or national origin – because there can be no justification for these heinous acts.  And I helped craft comprehensive immigration reform that would have fixed our broken immigration system by securing our borders while reaffirming our legacy as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants.

Further down he discusses strategic ties between the US and India, and a conditional relationship with Pakistan.

The United States and India must work together to combat the common threats of the 21st century. We have both been victims of catastrophic terrorist attacks, and we have a shared interest in succeeding in the fight against al Qaeda and its operational and ideological affiliates. That fight must not be undercut by a misguided war in Iraq. 

FOLLOW UP: Community groups come to Arun Gandhi's defense

A couple weeks after Arun Gandhi was forced to resign from the MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence for his comments on The Washington Post's On Faith website - see our earlier coverage, with loads of comments - he's finding support from a number of progressive/leftist academics, activists, filmmakers and others. A statement in his defense has been endorsed by over a hundred individuals and groups based in the U.S., India, Canada, the UK and other countries. It criticizes the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League for labeling "any and all criticism of Israel’s policies as anti-Semitic."

The statement, titled "Why Did Gandhi Have to Resign?" was drafted by Sunaina Maira of the University of California-Davis, who authored "Desis in the House" and co-founded the desi activist event known as Youth Solidarity Summer. She singles out the Hindu American Foundation for "attempting to model themselves on the lines of the Israel lobby, while criticism of Israel's policies or support for justice in Palestine are increasingly less tolerated within the Indian community." (Read HAF's initial take on Arun Gandhi's remarks here)

From "Why Did Gandhi Have to Resign?":

"It was not enough for University of Rochester that he had been pressured to apologize. Gandhi’s resignation makes it clear that he was the latest casualty of the powerful and highly organized pro-Israel lobby in the U.S. that immediately deems any and all criticism of Israel’s policies as anti-Semitic. The irony is that in his post, Gandhi was actually noting the very phenomenon of a community overplaying its historic experience that was enacted in the vitriolic response of powerful and well-funded organizations created to silence and intimidate critics of Israel."

CONTROVERSY: Arun Gandhi resigns from MK Gandhi Institute for Jewish remarks

[ Updated below with statement from Hindu American Foundation ]

Arun Gandhi, the South African-born grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and the founder of the MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, has resigned from the institute following charges of anti-Semitism. The uproar arose over his remarks in the Washington Post's "On Faith" section online, in a Jan. 7 post titled, "Jewish Identity Can't Depend on Violence":

"Jewish identity in the past has been locked into the holocaust experience -- a German burden that the Jews have not been able to shed. It is a very good example of a community can overplay a historic experience to the point that it begins to repulse friends. The holocaust was the result of the warped mind of an individual who was able to influence his followers into doing something dreadful. But, it seems to me the Jews today not only want the Germans to feel guilty but the whole world must regret what happened to the Jews. The world did feel sorry for the episode but when an individual or a nation refuses to forgive and move on the regret turns into anger.

"The Jewish identity in the future appears bleak. Any nation that remains anchored to the past is unable to move ahead and, especially a nation that believes its survival can only be ensured by weapons and bombs. In Tel Aviv in 2004 I had the opportunity to speak to some Members of Parliament and Peace activists all of whom argued that the wall and the military build-up was necessary to protect the nation and the people. In other words, I asked, you believe that you can create a snake pit -- with many deadly snakes in it -- and expect to live in the pit secure and alive? What do you mean? they countered. Well, with your superior weapons and armaments and your attitude towards your neighbors would it not be right to say that you are creating a snake pit? How can anyone live peacefully in such an atmosphere? Would it not be better to befriend those who hate you?"

The post has generated hundreds of comments, many of them accusing Arun Gandhi of bigotry despite an apology he later posted. The MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence had relocated from Memphis to the University of Rochester in New York, and university president Joel Seligman called the resignation 'appropriate' on the "On Faith" site:

PREZ POLITICS: Dennis Kucinich, His Bride and Their Desi Connections

This is not your typical SAJAforum posting about the 2008 U.S. presidential race. First of all, it's about a candidate we have never written about, Dennis Kucinich, the Ohio Congressman who is far behind the more famous names in the race. It's about the twice-divorced Democratic rear-runner and his wife of two years, Elizabeth (who gets a lot of attention because of her looks) and their India connections.

In a Washington Post "Style" section story called ""The Love Song of Dennis Kucinich,"  by Libby Copeland, there are various desi references:

The story of Dennis and Elizabeth Kucinich involves: Indian nuns, a bust of Gandhi, a portrait of "conscious light," a mystical opal ring, congressional legislation, an Indian guru and the meeting of souls.

<snip>

That very morning, believe it or not, guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who teaches peace through meditation and rhythmic breathing, had come to town. Dennis and Ravi have known each other for a long time. Ravi asked about Dennis's love life. Dennis said he was still looking for that special someone.

"And his response was, 'Stop looking and then she will appear,' " Dennis says. "And I said, 'Okay, I'm going to stop looking.' I said that. And that afternoon -- "

"I walked through the office door," Elizabeth finishes.

<snip>

GANDHI: Time Looks at What Makes Us Good/Evil

Time magazine looks at what makes us good or evil. On the cover: Representing good, Mahatma Gandhi. Representing evil, Adolph Hitler. Read the full story. Post your comments below.

This has been added to our collection of 130+ covers of major U.S. magazines featuring South Asiana.

CARTOON: Tom Toles on Natwar Gandhi's Troubles

Pulitzer Prize-winner Tom Toles is the popular editorial cartoonist of the Washington Post. Here's his Nov. 13, 2007, take on the controversy surrounding Natwar Gandhi, the chief financial officer of Washington, D.C. (read the SAJAforum coverage). In addition to commenting on Gandhi's troubles, it's a play on all the statutes of Mahatma Gandhi (the one in D.C. is below) Post your comments below.

The Mahatma Gandhi in Washington, D.C., opposite the Indian Embassy:

BOOKS: Ramachandra Guha's "India After Gandhi"

[ UPDATE: Publicist info; NY event info added below ]

As you know, we are collecting stories in the U.S. press about the 60 anniversary of India-Pakistan independence. Among the items there is this op-ed that ran in today's New York Times by Ramachandra Guha, the noted historian: "India's Internal Partition." EXCERPT: "Despite their shared culture, cuisine and love for the game of cricket, India and Pakistan have already fought four wars. And judging by the number of troops on their borders and the missiles and nuclear weapons to back them, they seem prepared to fight a fifth."

Guha's new book, “India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy” has arrived just in time for the anniversary and is being quoted all over the place (click on the image on below to see two days worth of Google News results for his name).

Guha's publicist, Suzanne Wickham, is taking press queries from working journalists: Suzanne.Wickham[at]HARPERCOLLINS.com - tell her SAJA sent you. Due to the volume of requests, she will not be able to reply to non-press queries. SAJA is working to organize an event with Guha when he visits NYC in late September.

From the Harper Collins site:

Ramachandra Guha writes compellingly of the myriad protests and conflicts that have peppered the history of free India. But he writes also of the factors and processes that have kept the country together (and kept it democratic), defying numerous prophets of doom who believed that its poverty and heterogeneity would force India to break up or come under autocratic rule. Once the Western world looked upon India with a mixture of pity and contempt; now it looks upon India with fear and admiration.

Moving between history and biography, this story of modern India is peopled with extraordinary characters. Guha gives fresh insights on the lives and public careers of those long-serving prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. There are vivid sketches of the major "provincial" leaders whose province was as large as a European country: the Kashmiri rebel turned ruler Sheikh Abdullah; the Tamil film actor turned politician M. G.

ROUNDUP: Coverage of the 60th Anniversary of India/Pakistan

[Update: Several new items continue to be added below. Comments welcome...]

Happy birthday, independent India and Pakistan! [the tiny Reuters photo on the left is by Amit Dave - see the caption and full photo here.]

August 14-15 marks 60 years since the British left their former colony of India, leaving behind two free nations (eventually becoming three when East Pakistan became Bangladesh in 1971) and one of the most horrific bloodbaths in history.

We are collecting web links to various stories from around the world about the anniversary, so please post them below or e-mail saja[at]columbia.edu. Your analysis of the coverage is also welcome.

First, some history: Stories from 1947

• NYT: Front page story on Aug. 15, 1947 by Robert Trumbull (see replica of front page below)
  Other NYT stories that ran in 1947
• Time: India: Liberty & Death - Oct. 12, 1947 (see replica of cover below)
• SAJAforum collection of South Asian magazine covers includes several from 1947 - just click back in time on the slideshow
  Also see SAJA collection of historic front page stories
  (other links welcome!)

Coverage from 1997, the 50th anniversary

• CNN: India & Pakistan: 50 Years of Independence (big package)
• Time: Special package of stories
  The Price of Freedom: 50 Years Later, the Scars of Division Remain
  Mahatma's Miracle: How Gandhi spent Aug. 15, 1947
  Land of Plenty: Salman Rushdie Finds Reason to Celebrate
• Hurrying Midnight by Larry Collins & Dominique Lapierre
  also see a Time review of the authors' "Freedom at Midnight," from 1975
• PBS Newshour: Pakistan Celebrates (transcript of news story)
    India Turns 50 (David Gergen interviews Shashi Tharoor)
• Harappa.com: 50 years of India, Pakistan & Sri Lanka movies/newsreels

Coverage from 2007

Packages/roundups:

• Time International's cover story & several stories: India Charges Ahead (ran last week in Asia, Europe; did not run in US edition, which had a Katrina package)
• Forbes package includes several stories, op-eds (by Amartya Sen and others), even a video
• Financial Times: several reports and features, including a slideshow
• The Guardian: several stories on India & Pakistan
• BBC: several stories linked at Partition: A Quick Guide

Stories:

• SAJAforum: Posting about The Observer on Coopers Camp, the refugees at the easter border of India by Dan McDougall
• VOA: Pain of Partition Lingers by Steve Herman (audio & text)
• NPR: India, Pakistan Mark 60 Years of Independence (audio)
  
  • From Guns to Cereal, Military Dominates Pakistan (audio & text)
• Yahoo: Pakistan Marks Independence Day
• Forbes: At 60: Pakistan's Potential & Pakistan's Conundrums by Ruth David
• Reuters: India, Born in Violence, Celebrates Miraculous Survival by Simon Denyer
• Reuters: Pakistan Celebrates, Warns of Meddling by Augustine Anthony
• The Journal News (NY): Rockland's India Independence Day Festivities by Amisha Padnani
• Asbury Park Press: India-Pak Enmity Evaporates in Melting Pot by Shruti L. Mathur

Opinion, editorials, etc:

• Slate: The Parallels Between India '47 and Iraq '07 by Fred Kaplan
• The New Yorker: Exit Wounds: The Legacy of Partition - review of "Indian Summer" by Alex Von Tunzelmann, reviewed by Pankaj Mishra
• The Economist: The Unruly End of Empire - review of "The Great Partition" by Yasmin Khan
• Indivual-Land: Pakistan at Sixty
• IHT: Pakistan's First Three Generations by Mohsin Hamid
• SAJAforum: Essay on the anniversary by Ambreen Ali
• IHT: India's democratic Path by Salil Tripathi
• Dorf on Law: Now we are Six(ty) by Prof. Anil Kalhan of Fordham Law
• BBC: Have Your Say - What is the Legacy of Partition?
• Daily Candy: Indian Summer
• Wild River Review: In A State of Partition (a novel excerpt) by Aneesha Capur
• Boston Globe: The Pakistan Problem by H.D.S. Greenway
• CFR.org: India & Pakistan at 50 by Lee Hudson Teslik
• NYT: India's Internal Partition by Ramachandra Guha
  
  • After 60 Years, Will Pakistan Be Reborn? by Mohsin Hamid
• The Guardian: The "Poor" Neighbour by William Dalrymple
  • Every one of is a minority by Shashi Tharoor
• Baltimore Sun: India Beat the Odds to Achieve Democracy by Shashi Tharoor
• Time: The India Advantage by Ishaan Tharoor
• Forbes: India and the United States by Mira Kamdar (see her new blog)
  
  • India @ 60 by Amartya Sen
  • India's 40 Richest
• NPR: Media emboldened under Musharraf by Fasi Zaka

Please post your links and comments below!

FILM: Sir Ben Kinglsey Answers Time's Questions

Sir Ben Kingsley (seen here is an 1983 photo promoting "Gandhi") answered 10 questions from readers in the current issue of Time; on Time.com, they ran some extra questions. You can also listen to a podcast version. Here are some of them.

How would Gandhi play the role of Ben Kingsley? —Mills Chapman, VILLANOVA, PA.
He was an astonishingly quick and witty judge of character, so I bet he could have done a very good impersonation of me.

Why did you change your name (from Krishna Bhanji)? —Andrew Lawrence, FAIRFIELD, CONN.
It was a way of getting to my first audition. My dad [who is Indian] was completely behind it. My first name, Ben, is my dad's nickname. My second name, Kingsley, comes from my grandfather's nickname, which was King Clove. He was a spice trader. It's a bit late to change it back now.

MAGAZINES: 130+ South Asian Covers From 1921 to the Present

The cover on the right, "India: Liberty & Death" is what ran on the cover of Time on Oct. 27, 1947.  And it's a part of a major SAJA research project that you can participate in. Starting in Oct. 2006, we have been building right here the largest database of major U.S. magazines featuring South Asia and South Asians.

Below is a collage/slideshow of the covers we found - 75+ 85+ 100+ 125+ 130+ as of now. This not a comprehensive list and we need your help to make it better. If you know of a cover image we missed, please let us know in the comments section. Better yet, include the URL or file of the image. Or e-mail us at saja[at]columbia.edu - subject line = "South Asian covers." We will keep adding to this slideshow as you help us find more covers.

A quick analysis and trivia (add your own below).

• The images on the cover seem to fall into these major categories: photos/illustration/cartoons of newsmakers; and photo illustrations/cartoons featuring some typical subcontinental elements, including elephants (lots of elephants!), turbans, snake charmers, sari borders, multi-armed gods/goddesses, etc, etc.
• Since SAJA is most interested in tracking the American press, we are only including the U.S. editions of Time, Newsweek, Businessweek, etc. The Asian editions of these mags regularly feature South Asian themes. We have also included the U.S. edition of The Economist, which is a separate edition created for American audiences.
• Time is the only publication which has full archives of its covers online and easily accessible. It's search function, too, is very good. Once you find a cover you are interested in, you can read the table of contents and read the stories themselves. You can also buy the cover images, ready for framing or already framed.
  If you have access to Newsweek and other mags' covers, please help fill in the gaps.
• Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was popular with the editors of Time. He made the cover  six times, his daughter, Indira Gandhi  and the most famous Indian of them all, Mahatma Gandhi  (no relation, of course), only three times each (see results for a search of "Gandhi").
• Gandhi's first appearance, in March 1930, is in a drawing so unusual that you may not  recognize him.
• In the run-up to Partition, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, and Sardar Patel, a major Congress leader, both made the cover once each.
• Nehru's repeated appearances show you how the world has changed. I can't easily imagine a near-term scenario when a leader from anywhere in South Asia makes multiple appearances on the covers of the U.S. editions of Time or Newsweek. I would love to be proven wrong, of course.
• While three other British Viceroys made the cover of Time (Irwin, Linlithgow, Wavell), Lord Louis Mountbatten never made the cover as Viceroy (he did make the cover, in June 1942, for his leadership during World Word II).
• The nuclear test of May 1998 by India and Pakistan did not get full cover treatment in the U.S. As you can see from this Time cover, Frank Sinatra's death moved the test to a secondary story and  a cover mention; same thing for that week's Newsweek.
• In the last couple of years, almost all the covers have to do with India's economy, rather than South Asia's politics, security, etc.
• We couldn't find Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on a major U.S. magazine cover - though he must have made it at least one - let us know if you know if you find one.
• Naeem Mohaiemen says in the comments: "Bangladesh's independence war in 1971 was mostly covered as the 'India-Pakistan war' in US media, and most of the focus was on last 20 days when India intervened on behalf of Bangladesh."

Please take a look and post your comments, analysis, etc, below. You can control each image by clicking on the forward, pause and back buttons.

SOUTH ASIA-RELATED COVERS, 1926-2007 (in reverse order)

Post your comments below - help us make this list better! If you can't see the covers above, click here.

[This is just an example of the kinds of activities that SAJA does. You can support us by becoming a member - just $10 a year for students, $20 for journalists, $40 for everyone else. Sign up now. Or you can make a donation of any amount (click "I will attend" on that link).]

CARTOON: "Mother Goose & Grimm" on Outsourcing

Here's "Mother Goose & Grimm," the popular daily cartoon strip by Mike Peters (it runs in more than 800 newspapers worldwide), for Thursday, July 26, 2007. Might be the first one to get Mahatma Gandhi into an outsourcing cartoon. Post your comments below.

Post your comments below. See a bunch of outsourcing cartoons at CartoonStock.com.

REQUEST: Cartoonists! Do you have an outsourcing cartoon? An author has contacted SAJA looking to buy some for his next book. E-mail us: saja[at]columbia.edu

EARLIER ON SAJAforum:

• OUTSOURCING: An Unusual Cartoon about Call Centers (see the 35+ comments, too)
• Coverage of the 2007 SAJA Convention & Job Fair

[ Welcome, SepiaMutineers! Love your remix of this cartoon! ]

SPORTS: Dante Culpepper, Quarterback and Gandhi Quoter

Dante Culpepper, a quarterback for the Miami Dolphins National Football League team, was cut from the club on today. That wouldn't make SAJAforum, except that he quoted Mahatma Gandhi in his press statement.

Culpepper said his attorneys alerted him of the news Monday night. "As I was going through this process, I heard about a quote by Gandhi that best expresses my thoughts about this victory," Culpepper said in an e-mailed statement. "He said, 'First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.'."

Can't say I have ever noticed a U.S. sports star quoting Gandhi.

Am not sure if that's the exact wording of the original quote, but according to Google, there are 90,000  references to Gandhi quotes using the phrase "ridicule you," but there are 225,000 references on the web to that quote, using "laugh at you" instead: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you. Anyone know what the exact original quote is, and in what context Gandhi said it? Post your answers below.

EARLIER ON SAJAforum:

• Read all previous postings mentioning Gandhi.

SOUTH AFRICA: Durban Renames A Road After Gandhi

The New York Times had a story on May 18 by Michael Wines about a controversy in South Africa about roads being renamed in Durban. Not everyone, apparently, is happy with some of the new names - some because they are tied to the ruling party, the African National Congress; some because they are named for controversial figures such as Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and Yasir Arafat, among others. The photo used to illustrate the controversy is the one on the left, by Rogan Ward, which ran with the caption: "In Durban, South Africa, Point Road may be renamed Mahatma Gandhi Road. Some proposed name changes for roads and landmarks have stirred strong political opposition from various factions."

There is no mention of M.K. Gandhi in the text of the story, so some readers might not know why a road is being renamed after him in South Africa. Gandhi, of course, spent 21 years in South Africa and gained his political consciousness and first opportunity to oppose imperialism while there (that's a photo of him there in 1895). You can read about his South Africa connections here, here and here. And if you haven't seen it, get your hands on the DVD of "The Making of The Mahatma," Shyam Benegal's movie based on Fatima Meer's book, "The Apprenticeship of The Mahatma."

Meanwhile, the renaming of colonial place names is all the rage in India. Mumbai, Kolkata, etc, are just the most famous examples. See a large list at Wikipedia.

Reax? Post your thoughts in the comments section.

EARLIER ON SAJAforum:

• Postings on U.S. place names with desi connections

OPINION: Christopher Hitchens Advocates Strong Ties With India

For years, Christopher Hitchens has written about South Asia, often in controversial terms. Among the folks he has attacked: Mother Teresa  (Wikipedia entry), the Dalai Lama and Mahatma Gandhi (DailyIndia.com, MSNBC reports and Jon Stewart video). See a Hitchens index on OutlookIndia.com. (Incidentally, Hitchens was in the news this week for attacking Jerrry Fallwell at his death.)

In the Winter 2007 issue of the conservative City Journal, he reviews Mark Steyn's new book, "America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It," in a piece called "Facing the Islamist Menace." He lists  10 points  as a way to combat Islamic fundamentalism. Among them:

2. A strong, open alliance with India on all fronts, from the military to the political and economic, backed by an extensive cultural exchange program, to demonstrate solidarity with the other great multiethnic democracy under attack from Muslim fascism. A hugely enlarged quota for qualified Indian immigrants and a reduction in quotas from Pakistan and other nations where fundamentalism dominates.

Read the entire piece.  

EARLIER ON SAJAforum:
Hitchens appearances...

• HISTORY: Krauthammer, Zakaria, Hitchens debate Iraq comparison to 1947 India-Pakistan
• MEDIA: The Beltway and Its Cozy Critics

Post your reax in the comments section below.

CRIME: Anand Jon's Gandhi defense

Mahatma Gandhi has been appropriated in many ways over the years, but this may be the first time he's been used in a celebrity rape defense. Here's what alleged rapist Anand Jon's lawyer, Ronald Richards told The New York Times, in response to accusations from a 19-year-old blonde:

"Why would she change into pajamas?" asked Mr. Richards. "Why didn't she leave when she sees there's no bed for her? Why didn't she punch him in the face?" He noted that there were no signs of physical trauma. "My client is 5-foot-4 and 130 pounds. He's a thin Gandhi-type guy. He can't overpower anybody. Any girl would kick his butt." [NYT: "The Designer Who Liked Models"  - cover story in the "Sunday Styles" section]

Jon has been released on $1.3 million bail, after the L.A. County District Attorney charged him with "rape, battery, lewd acts on a child and other ugly crimes..." A spokeswoman for the D.A. called him a "sexual predator." But he and his lawyer have said he only engaged in concensual sex with women who were all too willing to use him, and that they often continued to work with him past the dates they were allegedly raped.

GANDHI: Request for photos of Mahatma Gandhi

A request from a SAJA Lister, Vijay Rana in London.

This is Vijay Rana; I am a former BBC Radio editor and now a freelance journalist based in London. I edit a South Asian community web-radio www.nrifm.com.

I will be grateful if you could circulate this among your members as I need the help of everyone how loves the legacy of  Mahatma Gandhi.

I am researching on a project on Gandhi's global influence for last one year. A part of this publication will consist of Gandhi’s visual representation around the world.

I am looking for high-resolution photographs of any public display of Gandhi, his message or his legacy. My priority is street art, posters or even graffiti or any other kind of visual representation of Mahatma Gandhi around the world.  Statues at common places like Indian Embassy  in Washington or Bay Bridge statue in San Francisco I do not need as they are fairly known. 

I cannot afford to pay any money, but I shall properly acknowledge the contribution in any final publication.

 

I will need to know the full name and place of contributors to give them proper credit.

 

Your help will be grately appreciated.

Best Regards

Vijay Rana

UK 07764 511 388
vijairana@gmail.com

www.nrifm.com

                           

NAMES: "Ghandi" vs "Gandhi"

Let's face it: Americans routinely have trouble with the spelling of the name of Mahatma Gandhi. You will regularly see it rendered "Ghandi" (or worse) in informal writing, on the Web and elsewhere. One site had to change a page because of this problem:

quotes from ghandi
The Quotes from Ghandi has been changed to Quotes from Gandhi (http://www.sfheart.com/Gandhi.html) ...
www.sfheart.com/ghandi.html - 2k

And for years, I have had this quasi-funny button on my desk:

Today, I got an e-mail about a talk at a major New York-based university by  a prominent Indian academic (original invite below):

"Subject: Friday  March 23, 2007 - Dr. Angelie Ghandi's talk"

Turns out, you guessed it, about Dr. ANJALI GANDHI, a professor of women's studies at Jamia Milia Islamia, one of the most important universities in India.

MOVIES: "Gandhi," 25 Years Later

I can't believe it's been 25 years since Richard Attenborough's "Gandhi" hit the big screen. I was in New York City when the movie came out in 1982. We went to a big premiere hosted by the Indian Consulate, and even at 12, I remember being completely mesmerized by the film and the performance by Ben Kinglsey, the half-Gujarati, half-British actor who became Gandhi in my mind (the actual M.K. Gandhi looked somehow "unreal" in photos thereafter).  Soon after, I got to see it several times. We had recently gotten our first VCR and soon my father acquired, on a trip to Dubai, a pirated cassette of the movie. Since we owned only two films (the other was an Amitabh Bachchan-starrer called "Lawaris"), I saw "Gandhi" or parts of it, at least a dozen times. I was glued to the TV the following spring when it was up for 11 Oscars, winning eight, including best picture. I got in trouble the following day at school, an incident I wrote about in this essay, "Making Peace with Oscar."

Last week, Sony Pictures released a 25th Anniversary 2-disc Collector's Edition. That's the cover you see above.  If you click on the picture, you will see a larger size and you might notice that the image  (drawing?) of Kingsley they used is an odd one, making his makeup much too clear. It has a lot of features and has subtitles in Portuguese, Korean, Spanish, French - but no Hindi.  Am looking forward to watching the new edition tonight (a student is bringing it to a marathon "Gandhi" and Oscars party we are hosting tonight for my students and some friends).

Some "Gandhi" resources:

• See a New York Times collection of stories about "Gandhi," including the original Vincent Canby review ("...a big, amazingly authentic-looking movie, very sincere and aware of its reponsibilities in the panoramic manner of a giant post office mural.") and stories about the 20-year struggle to bring the movie to life.
• See a recent Telegraph interview