?There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end, they always fail. Think on it?always. All through history, the way of truth and love have always won.?
Mahatma Gandhi (as quoted in Lester Kurtz? ?Gandhi and His Legacies?)
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) Mahatma (an honorific title meaning ?Great Soul?) Gandhi was born in 1869 in Porbandar, India. He was an inspiration to Martin Luther King, Jr., Desmond Tutu, and many other major figures of recent times. Time Magazine named him the second most important person of the 20th century, after Albert Einstein. When serving in the American Senate, US President Barack Obama placed a picture of Gandhi on his office wall. Through non-violent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence from Britain. He is officially honored as the father of the nation; his birthday, October 2, being a national holiday in India, as well the International Day of Non-Violence. Mahatma Gandhi is recognized as one of the most prominent political and spiritual leaders of the twentieth century, and probably of all time.
This historically important pocket watch belonged to Mahatma Gandhi. It is said that Gandhi, who had a preoccupation with time and being punctual, always kept his pocket watch attached to his loincloth. In the 1940s, he gave this pocket watch to his grandniece, Abha Gandhi, his assistant of six years, in whose arms he died. As illustrated in Stephen Murphy?s book ?Last Hours of Mahatma Gandhi?, towards the end of his life Gandhi had an extremely close relationship with his beloved grandniece Abha, and was very dependent on her:
"The Mahatma's last day would be as methodical and crowded as any other. Upon getting up from his wooden plank, he roused the other members of his party. They included attendants Manu and Abha, his grand-nieces.
After prayers, leaning on his 'walking sticks', Manu and Abha, the old man moved slowly into the inner room.?
Gandhi?s watch and the significance he places on time are also often referred to throughout Murphy?s book:
?Manu and Abha saw the hour but dared not interrupt such an important conversation. At 5:10 they could wait no longer. Abha showed Gandhi his watch. But he was not distracted.?
Abha and Manu teased Gandhi for neglecting his watch and his timekeepers both. 'It is your fault that I am 10 minutes late,' he responded. 'It is the duty of nurses to carry on their work even if God himself should be present there. If it is time to give medicine to a patient and you hesitate, the poor patient may die.
I hate it if I am late for prayers even by a minute."
That was part of the last conversation that Gandhi ever had ? minutes later he was assassinated, with Abha at his side.
Upon her death, Abha willed the watch to her daughter, Ghita Mehta. Accompanying the watch and personal items of Gandhi?s are letters of authenticity from Ghita Mehta. In one of her letters, dated December 27, 2004, she states:
?Herewith, I declare that the silver pocket watch was presented by Mahatma Gandhi to my mother in the 1940s. My mother, affectionately called "Abhaben", was the young woman on whom Gandhiji used to lean and in whose arms he died.?
One of the most important features of the theory of satyagraha as advocated by Gandhi was that means and end are inseparable. He once made amusing use of a watch to illustrate this principle: ?If I want to deprive you of your watch, I shall certainly have to fight for it; if I want to buy your watch, I shall have to pay for it; and if I want a gift, I shall have to plead for it; and, according to the means I employ, the watch is stolen property, my own property, or a donation.?
Lester Kurtz is Professor of Sociology at George Mason University, where he teaches peace and conflict studies, comparative sociology of religion, and both western and nonwestern social theory. He was previously director of Religious Studies at the University of Texas and holds a Master?s in Religion from Yale Divinity School and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago. He is the editor of a 3-volume Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace and Conflict (Elsevier-Academic Press), co-editor of Nonviolent Social Movements (Blackwell?s), and The Web of Violence (U. of Illinois Press) as well as author of books and articles including Gods in the Global Village (Pine Forge/Sage), The Politics of Heresy (U. of California Press), and The Nuclear Cage (Prentice-Hall). He is currently working on a book on Gandhi?s legacies as well as a documentary film, ?Peaceful Warriors,? with James Otis, narrated by Martin Sheen. He has lectured in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America and is the past chair of the Peace Studies Association as well as the Peace and War Section of the American Sociological Association, which gave him its Robin Williams Distinguished Career Award.