PEDESTAL FANS

A pedestal fan, in the heat of summer, is a cooling experience, not just for the body, but also for frayed tempers! There is another type of “pedestal fan” that actually raises temperatures and tempers to fever pitch. This other “pedestal fan” is actually a fan of an icon; so we have sports fans, movie fans and even fans for iconic figures like Gandhiji. A pedestal is usually a base on which a statue or icon is placed, from where it towers over the “fan”. We have many such “pedestal fans” in both religion and society; those who place iconic figures “up there”, while they themselves are happy “down here”. They believe in adulation, not emulation, of the pedestalised icon. In spirituality this is called pedestalisation. As a Christian leader I have often observed that those who become most agitated or incenced at a perceived desecration of a church or a sacred object, are those who normally wouldn’t care two hoots for Christian values. They are the dangerous “pedestal fans”, that seem to wait for an opportune moment to express their sense of outrage or sacrilege. I see such a drama unfolding in the case of the auction of Gandhiji’s memorabilia. There is national outrage, with fasts, protests and sanctimonious TV debates. One Gandhian panellist had the courage to say that the protestors should first follow the path of satya and ahimsa that Gandhiji trod. I endorse that view. A “pedestal fan” is an iconolater, who looks up at the pedestalised one. I would rather be an iconoclast, who challenges such convenient and escapist beliefs. To the case at hand, Gandhiji must have used many pairs of slippers, specs and bowls. If during his lifetime he gifted such items to others, then they are the property of the recipient, and nobody else has a claim over them. Gandhiji is today a world icon, possibly respected more outside his own country. So if somebody has sold or acquired some of his erstwhile material possessions what is the big hullabaloo about? As for the sod with his blood, it should first be subjected to a DNA test. If indeed it is his blood a different scenario emerges. According to Hindu custom a dead body is impure, placed on the ground, usually outside the house, and quickly consigned to flames. In contrast, in the Christian tradition, the blood of martyrs is considered a sacred relic, and venerated. The most famous Christian relic is the burial shroud of the Lord Jesus, preserved and venerated in Turin, Italy. What shall we now do with Gandhiji’s blood, if indeed it is his? Before writing this piece I phoned Wg Cdr Cecil Baretto VSM, now 89 years old and retired in Goa. His father Dr Christopher Baretto of Nagpur was Gandhiji’s personal dentist. As a young boy Cecil often accompanied his father to Gandhiji’s Sewagram Ashram at Wardha. Cecil himself later became a dentist in the Airforce, while three of his brothers had illustrious careers in the Army. Cecil told me that his father had extracted Gandhiji’s teeth and made his dentures. Two teeth remained in Dr Baretto’s family for several years. About 30 years ago the family donated them to the Gandhi Museum in New Delhi, where they are now preserved. So here is a family that both adulated and emulated Gandhiji, and did not exploit their unique heritage for commercial gain. I am now reminded of another world icon from India – Mother Teresa. It was through my mother’s efforts that she came to establish her houses in my hometown, Kanpur. After my mother’s death I followed up one case with Mother Teresa. I have carefully preserved her reply to me. Similarly, after my father died in 1970, Sri V.V. Giri, the President of India, former President Dr S. Radhakrishnan and several other dignitaries wrote letters of condolence to my mother. These valuable letters are preserved in a file. If for some reason, pecuniary or otherwise, I choose to sell these valuable letters, who is there to stop me? Reverting to Mother Teresa, after she had an operation some years ago, some devout nurses in the operation theatre picked up the cotton swabs dabbed with her blood. One of these swabs reached the then bishop of Meerut, Patrick Nair. He was sightless in one eye, and was now losing his vision in the good eye. He applied Mother Teresa’s “bloody relic” to his eye, and his eyesight was miraculously restored! If the good bishop now decides to auction off that “bloody relic” to raise money for an orphanage or whatever, who is there to stop him? Incidentally, my family has been in the auction business from 1858 to 1988 (a span of 130 years). An auctioneer is guided by two basic principles. The first is to ascertain the ownership of the article for sale, and the second is to ensure that his client gets the best price for his goods. An auction is invariably held on an “as is where is” basis. It is for the buyer to check out the claims of the seller. In the light of the above I would not like to further raise the temperature regarding the auction of Gandhiji’s memorabilia. With passions already running high we could do with the original pedestal fans that cool the body and calm the mind. Let us emulate Gandhiji, not just adulate him, as his pseudo “pedestal fans” do. * The writer is a Kanpur based Gandhian social activist.