Government's plans to "rev up" Bapu's martyrdom place killing its essence, politically motivated: Gandhi kin

NEW DELHI: Less than two weeks before the world observes his 72nd death anniversary, Gandhi Smriti, the place where Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, has been "digitally transformed" with vibrations of foreigners singing Vaishnava Jana toh, LED screens with scaled-down pictures of his last journey and multimedia boards on the importance of Gandhi's "charkha and chashma (spinning wheel and spectacles)."
The changes, however, have upset his family members who feel it is an attempt to "cleanse the place of his murder and make it all about 'celebrating' his ideals".

An autonomous body under the culture ministry manages the memorial.

For years, a part of Birla House that was converted into a museum, had its hallway filled with sepia-toned scenes of Gandhi’s last journey clicked by legendary photographer Henri Cartier Bresson. These included photographs of the flower-decked body of Gandhi, people flocking to see him for the last time, his shocked secretary at the funeral, crowds waiting for his funeral cortege to pass, and also an iconic picture of Nehru announcing his assassination to a crying crowd.

Now, all these pictures have been scanned, put in a pen drive and attached to LED screens much smaller than the panels, where they keep rolling out one after the other, after 30 seconds each.


The photo panels were six feet by four feet, while the LED screens are three feet six inches and four feet five inches, thereby displaying a much scaled down version.

At the slot which earlier had the panel of Bresson's most stunning pictures of Gandhi's last journey, now stands a digital panel with an interactive world map letting you choose the language you want to listen "vaishnava jana toh," in, with a video that was released by the foreign ministry last year as part of the 150th Birth anniversary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi, when it got Indian Missions in 124 countries identify local artistes to record the bhajan.

There are also new digital panels on the Dandi march with details about the satyagrahis who accompanied him, the peace march of Noakhali, speeches of Martin Luther King and quotations of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and Rabindranath Tagore on him.

A large, interactive panel tells you in Hindi and English what Gandhian ideals of "Satya, ahimsa and swaraj" mean, and how his charkha is a symbol of "human dignity". The iconic picture of Nehru is also part of a panel but has only a few lines from the speech he made that day.


The attempt is to "create a more vibrant, interactive space" for visitors of all ages and "present Gandhi's life and values in an effective way", Gandhi Smriti director Dipankar Shri Gyan told ET, adding that the panels were getting "old" and that they were re-created on digital panels so that they are preserved for many years. "We have been very careful with the digitisation … there is not even a single detail missing in the scans."

Gandhi Smriti has attracted several international delegates such as former US president Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself has shown a lot of interest in the development of this place, an official added.

The place has been careful about bringing in changes — a few years ago, the first AC installed was taken down, when it was pointed out that Gandhi would not have approved of it.


"The first floor has all digitised pictures since 2005. So, it is not that digitisation is being introduced only now. The photographs were on sun boards so they were also copies which we have scanned and put up on digital displays now," an official said.

Mahatma Gandhi's great grandson Tushar Gandhi, who was the first to raise concern over the changes last week, calling it an attempt to obliterate historical evidence, sees a political conspiracy in this.

"The place stands for a very solemn occasion, something very poignant and sad. The prints that were displayed before added to the poignancy of the place. They have turned it into a discotheque. They might as well put a robotic Gandhi moonwalking here," he told ET.

Claiming that he felt "desecrated" when he saw the changes, Gandhi said: "An image floating around in the screen doesn't hold your attention like a static photograph with a poignant theme does. Maybe it is dull, but this is Bapu's memorial for whom simplicity was religion. These three rooms was where history was created. This was where people came and paid homage to him. How can you 'jazz' that up?"

He said the intent behind this was not to show Gandhi's death and remind people of who killed him. "Those photographs too are descriptive, they don't want to remind people of who killed him. They have an ideological reason to do this," he said.

According to officials, future plans at Gandhi Smriti include creating thematic and dynamic exhibitions of pictures to provide the visitors more information about Gandhi.


"There are many more new panels we are getting done based on what Gandhi said that would interest people, for instance on woman empowerment, importance of diversity … all those will be put up here in the coming days. Since it is digital, we can keep changing the content to make the museum more interesting," the official added.

Paintings from the National Gallery of Modern Art, National Museum, archives and the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts related to Gandhi are also being brought to Gandhi Smriti to make it more attractive for visitors. Apart from the museum run by Birlas, there is an exhibition at the premises of mini figures made by Sushila Gokhale-Patel depicting Gandhi's life.

Last week, Gandhi Smriti was opened for a delegation from the Czech Republic and then closed and reopened on Wednesday.

"We are also finalising things, and always open to changes. There is no question of us or anyone trying to undermine the legacy of Bapu … We cannot even think of that," Gyan told ET.