Kamal Hassan On Gandhi

Ahimsa is a rather intricate idiom. It is akin to what you would term as Nirvana. Both are quite close or perchance inter-related. Ahimsa is as complex as integrity to put into practice. Nonetheless, just because it is becoming more and more difficult to practice, you cannot decry wisdom. You can probably modify it. I am sure I will come under flak from various quarters. But then it is a sort of fate that even wiser people had to face, like Mr Gandhi himself. He said something because he had the audacity and the honesty and the integrity to publicly accept and contradicts his deeds, criticise his mistakes, change track and say ‘I am sorry’ in public. I think that is what I admire by the gentleman.

There are very few people whose photographs I keep. I don’t even display my awards. I have had some asinine moments as an adolescent when I have had some pin-ups of actors and actresses with me. But those have been fleeting moments. I am a great aficionado of Charles Darwin and Subramanya Bharati too. But I have never kept their photographs.

What inspires me most is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi — his attitude and approach to life. I have always felt that icons should not be idolised and stuffed with their halos and angels floating around them. It robs me of the hope that I could be like them. It is only humanising them that gives me hope in my life.

And India is capable of throwing up many more Gandhis. It need not be me. At least I can aspire to be. I may fail in the process, but it is a great thing to be involved in the process in the first place.

There have been great people in this country. I am one of them. I hope I am one of them. Charlie Chaplin has a great sense of humour. Many people can imitate what he did. But that is an imitation.

There have been others, but I am able to hazily comprehend Gandhi much better. He suits my contemporary living time. Shivaji or Buddha don’t. What is suitable for me is what Gandhi had to offer. I am still looking around and shopping.

Gandhi is my hope, my friend. Do not rob my kith and kin away from me by making them messiahs of God. They are humans like me and fallible. I like to keep them on the human level. That gives me hope.

‘Be the change, you want in society,’ said Gandhi. Buddha and Gandhi became a change. There is a dialogue attributed to Gandhi in one of my earlier films Hey Ram, which says, ‘Everyone is a Mahatma or an animal’. You have to be one. So the Mahatma is not a specific post. It is a metaphysical word for a better person.

Yes, it is an easier and better view when I sat away from it. I could understand what was the problem with Godse and Nehruji. That gives me the equipoise, which they could not have had.

That is why I can understand Gandhi much better.