Beethoven got Gandhi, Rolland & Mirabehn together

June 21 is world music day

My long rides from work to home in the evenings often compel me to listen to music on my cellphone. Unlike most of my co-commuters in the bus, who have earbuds perennially plugged into their ears, I don’t normally listen to music, preferring to read news features on Flipboard, or read a book. But when I’m running low on data, I occasionally switch over to music, and often the music is either Indian or western classical.

I’m not an expert at either, nor an aficionado, but I can claim to have an appreciative ear for both, and enjoy the music.

I’ve noticed that unlike reading, which always leads to thinking and occasionally to aggravation, listening to music is soothing, it calms the nerves.

The two collections that I frequently listen to are Western Classical – Top 50, and Voices of India – Bhimsen Joshi. Both CDs bought many years ago in India, then transferred to my laptop, and now on my cellphone.

The Western Classical – Top 50 has some of the most beloved compositions known to music lovers across the world, and includes, among others, such perennial favourites as:

• Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik (Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major);
• Vivaldi’s The Four Season Spring (Part 1);
• Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, ‘Fate’: Allegro con brio;  
• Carl Orff’s Carmina burana i o fortuna;
• Bach’s Suite for Orchestra No. 2 in b minor for flute and string bwv 1067 vii badinerie;
• Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake ballet sui; and
• Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra.

My favourite, of course, is Carl Orff’s Carmina burana fortuna. Although I don't comprehend a word of what is being sung, I can never tire listening to it; and unlike most of the compositions in the collection, this one is relatively new, from the last century.

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This version has the minimalist lyrics of the classic,
and that perhaps makes it more interesting

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I recalled reading of how Beethoven brought together Mahatma Gandhi, Romain Rolland, and Mirabehn (Madeleine Slade). In his book Music of the Spinning Wheel, Sudheendra Kulkarni narrates the encounter between Rolland and the Mahatma:

“I played him the Andante from the Fifth Symphony, and, on Gandhi’s request, returned to the piano and played Gluck’s Elysian Fields from Orfeo, the first orchestral piece and the flute melody,” writes Rolland.

Kulkarni says, “Since Gandhi never showed much interest in Western classical music, we can ask ourselves the question: Why did he expressly ask Rolland to play him Beethoven?” There are many answers to this question, Kulkarni says, and then adds: “…there is another, more important, reason behind Gandhi’s request to Rolland to play Beethoven for him. That reason was Mirabehn.”

What follows is a fascinating narration of a little known history:

“Strange though it may seem, Beethoven had played a pivotal role in bringing Madeleine Slade to Gandhi. She fell in love with Beethoven’s music when, at age of fifteen, she first heard a composition by him, Sonata Opus 31 No. 2 She writes in her autobiography, The Spirit’s Pilgrimage, that her whole being was stirred by it; she played it over and over again…She learnt French so that she could read about Beethoven’s life in Romain Rolland’s Jean Christophe (the 10 volume novel that got him the Literature Nobel)…”

Upon meeting Rolland, she was advised her that “the only living person worthy of the sort of veneration you have felt for Beethoven is Mahatma Gandhi.” Of course, Madeleine had never heard of the Mahatma. Then, after she had read Rolland’s book on the Mahatma (which he had written without having met him), she decided to visit India.

Kulkarni writes, “(Rolland)…had been himself craving deeply for many years to receive Gandhi in Villeneuve and to let him experience Beethoven’s sublime music. In a letter to Mirabehn on 25 April 1927 (that is, four years before Gandhi came to meet Rolland), he had written” “If Gandhi knew him (Beethoven), he would have recognized in him our European Mahatma, our strongest mediator between the life of the senses and eternal Life. And he would bless this music which perhaps, for us, is the highest form of prayer, a permanent communion with the Divinity.”

“Earlier, too, in his letter to Mahadev Desai on 24 February 1924, Rolland had described Beethoven as ‘our European Mahatma’ who ‘sings in his Ode to Joy; Let us – millions of human beings – embrace each other.’”

Mahatma’s apostles

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The Spirit's Pilgrimage is the autobiography of Madeleine Slade, better known to Indians as Mirabehn. In a moving story, she recounts how her interest in Beethoven was indirectly responsible for her awakening. It was Beethoven's music which led her to Romain Rolland, the French philosopher who guided her footsteps to Gandhiji. 

Rolland's book, Mahatma Gandhi, revealed to Mirabehn her one and only master, whom she served throughout her life. Without second thoughts, she gave up an affluent life in England and came to India, completely immersing herself in Gandhiji's life and work.

Mirabehn wasn't alone. There were several others who gave up everything they had, or could ever have had, to identify themselves with the man they considered next only to God - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. It wasn't just the Mahatma's personality that attracted them; it was what he wanted to attain and they all came to share his dreams.

While Jawaharlal, Vallabhbhai and the Maulana (among others) were the political arms of Gandhiji, his work for the social reconstruction of Indian society – more important to him than the political transformation of the country – was done by a chosen few, working away from the limelight, quietly.

Disciples, through their long association with Gandhiji and his work, became his true apostles. They were Mahadevbhai Desai, JC Kumarappa, Mirabehn, Valji Govindji Desai, Kishorelal Mashruwala and Narhari Parekh.

For them nothing could ever come in the way of their endeavour to serve Gandhiji and carry out, without exception, even the most menial tasks assigned to them. Gandhiji's wish was their command.

When she first came to Sabarmati Ashram Mirabehn was given the task of keeping the premises clean. It is said that she did this with such thoroughness and sense of purpose that nobody could fail to notice it.

Mahadev Desai

Mahadevbhai Desai was, so to say, the first among equals. Thomas Hyslop, writing on Gandhiji's role as a social revolutionary in Quest for Gandhi, describes Desai thus: "Mahadev Desai, for over 24 years the secretary and chronicler of Gandhi, is in fact so able a reporter that her has been called Gandhi's Boswell…"

Mahadevbhai's dedication to Gandhiji was so complete that it seems unimaginable that a person of such immense learning, knowledge and obvious talent was content to remain in Gandhiji's shadow.

An incident which clearly illustrates the depth of Mahadevbhai's scholarly eminence occurred when master and disciple were languishing in jail. The discussion between the two veered towards literature and its social relevance.

Mahadevbhai was of the opinion that both Tolstoy and Ruskin initially concentrated only on pure art, but Ruskin later realized that life was much more than just art and literature; and that the advancement of the two could not alleviate stark poverty even indirectly.

It was this realisation that made Ruskin write Unto the Last – the book which forever changed the life of the Mahatma. Gandhiji felt that though Tolstoy too went through a similar phase, he did not write any such book.

To this Mahadevbhai replied that unlike Ruskin, Tolstoy was a true revolutionary and did not limit himself to writing a book, he changed his lifestyle totally. Gandhiji found this an important distinction.

Though he had translated Rabindranth Tagore's Chitrangada into Gujarati, most of Mahadevbhai's later writings were on Gandhiji's multifarious activities. The most memorable writings are the diaries Mahadevbhai wrote detailing Gandhiji's visit to England to attend the Round Table Conference, his internment in Yerwada jail, the Bardoli satyagraha and others.

Despite being an authority on the Bhagwad Gita himself, he was content with translating Gandhiji's commentaries on the Gita into English.

Mahadevbhai's end came quite unexpectedly, in August 1942, when Gandhiji and all the top ranking leaders of the Congress had been jailed in the wake of the Quit India movement. He was more than a son to Gandhiji and the Mahatma, never one to publicly display emotions, is said to have broken down when he heard of his demise.

Joseph Chelladurai Kumarappa

JC Kumarappa was born just a few days after Mahadevbhai, on January 4, 1892. His father was a civil servant and his mother, a deeply religious Christian. Kumarappa was the unlikeliest of Gandhiji's disciple.

Having studied in England, he had come back to India and started a chartered accountancy practice, through a partnership firm. It was while Kumarappa was researching the article he was writing on the causes of Indian poverty that his transformation to a nationalist began.

While he was in the United States, he wrote a book on public finance and Indian poverty. This book was read by Gandhiji, who called Kumarappa over to his ashram for a meeting.

That meeting changed Kumarappa's entire worldview and life. He gave up his practice and took up a job as a professor with Gujarat University, at that time totally controlled by nationalist leaders.

At Gandhiji's behest he undertook several research projects on the feasibility of initiating agro-based village industries in several villages of Gujarat.

Moreover, he was entrusted with the task of editing Young India when both the Mahatma and Mahadevbhai were in jail, which was quite frequent.

Kumarappa was so involved with Young India that once, when authorities sealed the offices of the publication in the hope that it would cease bothering them for a while, Kumarappa cyclostyled the content and managed to hit the newsstands in time.

Besides such crusading activism, Kumarappa was one of the main formulators of the Congress's policy on India's economy. He also drew Gandhiji's attention to the importance of applying economic theories to village-based industries.

After Independence, Kumarappa was appointed as an advisory member to the Planning Commission; but he could not see eye to eye with Nehru's ideas on state planning and disassociated himself with the Commission.

In 1959, he left Wardha and went to a village near Madurai, a broken-hearted man. On January 30, 1960 – 12 years after his guru's death – Kumarappa passed away.

Kishorelal Mashruwala

Kishorelal Mashruwala never really claimed that he was a Gandhian, but he worked all his life to make people adopt not just his ideals and values, but also Gandhiji's concern for social reconstruction. He was the head of the Gandhi Seva Sangh since its inception in 1925 till 1940, when failing health forced him to relinquish the post.

Gandhiji, instead of appointing someone else, wound up the organization, much to the consternation of the day's political heavyweights, members of the Sangh themselves.

After Gandhiji's assassination, Mashruwala took charge of editing and publishing Harijan and was quite vehement in his opposition to the Congress government of the post-Independence era. He wrote Gandhi and Marx which gives a glimpse of the immense understanding that he had of Gandhian philosophy.

He observed, "When it is said that Gandhism is Communism minus violence, the impression created is that the violence factor in communism is some small impurity, the removal of which will make it the same as Gandhism. The minus violence factor is of considerable value. The implications of minus violence are so great as to make the equation as illusory as to say that red is green minus yellow and blue, or a worm is a snake minus poison."

Narhari Parekh was a fervent organizer of the several activities that the Mahatma initiated. He was also a writer and between 1916 and 1956 he authored 15 books, six translations and edited nine collections. He concentrated on the constructive-work programmes of Gandhiji.

Valji Govindji Desai is best remembered for causing immense trouble at school where he was doing his matriculation; calling for a hartal when he heard that Khudiram Bose had been executed. He too had a long and fruitful association with Gandhiji.

With such disciples working wholeheartedly towards achieving India's social reconstruction, Gandhiji could well afford to devote a major part of his time to political transformation. 

He, however, never thought himself the master. For Gandhiji, the relationship he shared with Mirabehn, Mahadevbhai and others was not that of teacher-disciple.

Writing to Romain Rolland after Mirabehn had arrived in India, Gandhiji said: "What a treasure you have sent me: I shall try to be worthy of the great trust. I shall leave no stone upturned to assist her (Mirabehn) to become a bridge between East and West. I am too imperfect to have disciples. She shall be a fellow-seeker. I propose to share the honour of fatherhood with you."