Ashraf Engineer
October 2, 2025
Last year, as part of our annual Mahatma Gandhi series, we traced his early years. We started with his grandfather and father, Gandhi’s mother Putli Ba, his childhood, going all the way till the boy from Porbandar turned into a political personality with his first politico-legal battle in South Africa. The objective was to understand the making of Gandhi, the mass leader and Father of the Nation.
Every year, we take one part of his life and dissect it. This year, however, we break the mould. I thought that there is a lot happening in the country that we could put under the microscope and view through Gandhi’s eyes. Not only is there widespread social division, authoritarianism, sub-par economic performance, neglect and crumbling infrastructure seem to be the norm. India badly needs a reset and what better way to talk about it than through the lens of Gandhi?
As always, Tushar Gandhi, great grandson of the Mahatma, an author and peace activist, is our guide through this journey. Tushar has written the extraordinary book ‘Let’s Kill Gandhi’, a chronicle of the conspiracy to assassinate the Mahatma. The first Gandhi series we ever did, in 2021, was based on that extraordinary chronicle. He has also written the ‘Lost Diary of Kastur, My Ba’, translating a notebook he found, forgotten and worn, at the Kasturba Ashram in Indore. We’ve done a special series around that book too. And, as I’ve said earlier, my hope is we can have such a conversation every year.
The sand in the hourglass of our lives will run out at some stage but there will still be a lot left to explore and understand about Gandhi.
Video: https://youtu.be/WD7zxObwvl8?si=wINpJkJqibnkcwkW
Audio: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3DHscSaB4pvDNj8eLflBBE?si=5sSIHMBPR8mKWVDpgfYwoQ
Available wherever you get your audio.
