I. V. Chalapati Rao

Many people think that Mahatma Gandhi was a serious-looking man with no lighter side to his character. They make the mistake of imagining that he had no sense of humour. Nothing is farther from truth. Jawaharlal Nehru wrote in his autobiography: “People who do not know Gandhiji personally and have only read his writings are apt to think that he is priestly type extremely puritanical, long-faced, calvinistic and a kill-joy, something like the priests in black gowns walking their rounds. But his writings do him an injustice. He is the very opposite of the calvinistic, priestly type. His smile is delightful, his laughter infectious and he radiates light-heartedness. There is something child-like about him, which is full of charm. When he enters a room he brings a breath of fresh air with him which lightens the atmosphere”. Gandhiji himself said, “As a matter of fact, my writings should be cremated with my body. What I have done will endure”.

He declared, “If I had no sense of humour, I would have long ago committed suicide”. Even when he was engrossed in strenuous and stressful political activity, he did not lose his sense of humour. In his relaxed moments he entertained his followers and admirers with jokes and witticisms. He used to laugh like a child when Sarojini Naidu playfully called him ‘Mickey Mouse’ (one of the cartoons of Walt Disney).

Gandhi used to make fun of his own title ‘Mahatma’. He once said, “My Mahatmaship is worthless. It is due to my outward activities, due to my politics. The Mahatma I must leave to his fate. Though a non-co-operator, I shall gladly subscribe to a bill to make it criminal for anybody to call me Mahatma and touch my feet. Where I can impose the law myself, i.e., at my Ashram, the practice is criminal” (Young India, 17th March, 1927). “Thank God, my much vaunted Mahatmaship has never fooled me” (Young India, 12th January, 1930).

Referring to his title of Mahatma, he once joked “The owes of Mahatmas are known to Mahatmas alone”. Once, the staff of the Malaria Department went to Gandhi’s Ashram to spray medicine to kill mosquitoes. They sprayed in all the rooms. After finishing their work, they went to pay their respects to Gandhi. They told him that they found a mosquito of the biggest size in his room. Gandhi smiled and said, “It is a Mahatma Mosquito”.

Louis Fischer the famous American writer discussed with Gandhi many things including President Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms. At that time, India was not free. Gandhi humorously asked Fischer, “Do your President’s Four Freedoms include the freedom to be free?” There was irony in his comment. Louis Fischer describes the meeting of Gandhi and Bernard Shaw. Shaw was known for his sense of humour. He had great respect for Gandhi. He told Gandhi humorously, “I am a minor Mahatma where as you are a major Mahatma”! He added, “You and I belong to a very small community on earth!” Gandhi enjoyed the joke and had a hearty laugh. Once Bernard Shaw told a press reporter, “Gandhi is the only man in the East with a sense of humour”.

Smoking was one of the ‘don’ts’ at Sabarmati ashram. He wrote, “I do not know why people all over the world wish to smoke. I can’t travel in a compartment in which people smoke. I can’t breathe”. Some one asked him to condemn cigarettes and beedies publicly by giving a statement in the newspapers. With his ready humour he replied, “If I do this, I will lose my title of Mahatma because they are greater than myself”.

In London when an Englishman asked him “Mr. Gandhi, where are your trousers,” he had a hearty laugh. When an English lady approached him for a dance, he laughed and said, “By all means, but my stick will be my partner!” During their conversation, the King of England asked him why he boycotted the visit of the King’s son (Prince of Wales) when he visited India. Gandhi quipped “Not your son, sir, but the official representative of the British Government”. King George V and Queen Mary received Gandhi at the Buckingham Palace. He went there wearing a loincloth. Some one asked Gandhi whether he wore enough clothes. He replied humorously, “The King had enough on for both of us”.

When Winston Churchill called him “a half-naked fakir”, he was not at all angry. He wrote back, “I have long been trying to be a fakir”.

Thousands of people used to fall on his feet. Sometimes he had to apply Vaseline. Once a lawyer fell off a running train. From the way he fell, people felt that his head would break. But he was safe. He informed every one that Gandhi saved him. “I was saved”, he said, “because I travelled by the same train in which Gandhi travelled”. When he met Gandhi, he laughed and said, “If I am God, you should not have fallen at all”. He was as humble as he was humorous.

Gandhi visited Paris and Switzerland and spent some time in the company of Romain Rolland, the celebrated writer. He was highly amused when an Italian gentleman wanted to know from him what numbers would win the national lottery. He told him with a smile that he was an ordinary man. A society of milkmen offered to supply free milk to Gandhi, “the King of India!” Swiss musicians offered to sing under his window every night. He enjoyed the joke but declined the offer of free supply and entertainment.

Gandhi decided to perform the marriage of one of the inmates of Sevagram with Chokhalal. He wanted to play the role of ‘Kanyadata’. He wrote to Chokhalal, “Please come alone. I will make you two’. But, Chokhalal came with seven friends. Gandhi looked at them and commented with a smile, “Oh! Sapta Rushis have arrived”. Noticing a woman with them, he said, “Arundhati, too, has come!”

Gandhi went to London to take part in the Round Table Conference.

Mr. Ramsey Macdonald, the then Prime Minister of England, wanted to see him to discuss an urgent matter. At the same time, a postman came on foot from a distant place to see Gandhi who was known as India’s great leader. Mr. N. Winston, the author of ‘Days with Bernard Shaw’ was with Gandhi. Gandhi was asked whether he would first see Mr. Ramsey Macdonald or the postman. Gandhi smilingly said that he would first see “the man of letters” (pun upon the word which has two meanings (1) scholar (2) postman). He added, “A statesman can wait because he often waits for an opportunity for his intervention”. Gandhi was known for his wit and wisdom.

Once Governor-General Lord Mount batten went to see Gandhi in Delhi. Gandhi was then discussing with three or four farmers who went to him with their problem. They were all sitting on a mat. Mountbatten too sat on the mat and politely listened to their conversation. After sometime, he said, “Gandhiji, let us go inside for a minute. I have to discuss state matters with you”. Gandhi smiled and said, “We can discuss here. The state belongs to them!”

He could frequently see humorous situations in his own life. In his autobiography he recorded how after surreptitiously eating goat’s meat as a boy he dreamed that evening of goats bleating in his stomach! Only a man with a sense of humour could have recorded it.

Once Louis Fischer asked him about the mystical practice of a weekly day of silence. Gandhi said, “I was working hard. I wanted to rest for one day a week. So I instituted a day of silence. Later, of course, I clothed it with all kinds of virtues and gave it a spiritual cloak! But the motivation was really nothing more than taking a day off!

He said, I don’t belong to capitalism, socialism, communism, rationalism or any other ism, not even Gandhism! If I were to know after my death that what I stood for had degenerated into sectarianism, I shall be deeply pained”.

Gandhiji could make a joke and take it. Once he visited Santiniketan as Rabindranath Tagore’s guest. A rich repast was served. He was served pooris cooked in ghee. Gandhi advised Tagore not to eat ghee-cooked pooris because it was poison. Tagore joked, “Is it so? I have been eating them for the last forty years. It must be very slow poison!’ Gandhi enjoyed the joke. He laughed heartily. He “bubbled and chuckled” during conversation!

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