Sir Ben Kingsley plays Mahatma Gandhi in the multi-Oscar winning biopic - Allstar Picture Library Limited / Alamy Stock Photo
Nobody Knew Gandhi before Oscar-Winning Biopic, Says Narendra Modi
By The Telegraph Foreign Staff
Mahatma Gandhi was broadly unknown until Sir Richard Attenborough made a film of his life in 1982, India’s prime minister has claimed.
In an interview with local media, Narendra Modi blamed the Congress-led governments of the 20th century for failing to promote the national hero.
“Nobody knew [about Gandhi], ” he said. “The first time when the Gandhi film was made [1982], the world got curious about who he might be.
“If the world knew Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela , Gandhi was no less than them,” he added, saying “we didn’t do the needful [promotion].”
Among a host of other sources, Mr Modi’s claim is belied by the worldwide presence of statues of the man who led India’s campaign against British colonial rule, which long predate the film.
In 1969, Harold Wilson, the then-prime minister, unveiled a statue of Gandhi in London’s Tavistock Square. One year later, another was erected in Park Marie Josee, in Brussels.
Hundreds of books, films and documentaries had been produced on Gandhi long before the Attenborough drama , including Mahatma Gandhi: 20th Century Prophet in 1953.
In popular culture, he was known as the ‘father’ of India and his campaign of non violent resistance against the British Raj inspired protest movements across the world.
Between 1937 and 1948, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize four times – but controversially never won the award – while Martin Luther King hailed his influence on the fight against racism in the US and South Africa.
Mr Modi’s Hindu-Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is predicted to win India’s ongoing election, which enters its seventh and final phase on June 1.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pays tributes to Mahatma Gandhi on the anniversary of his assassination - Press Information Bureau (PIB)/Anadolu via Getty Images
The Indian leader has long twisted history to suit his own political ends, claiming after he was first elected in 2014 that centuries-old Hindu holy texts proved that Indians practiced cosmetic surgery and reproductive genetics before anyone else in the world.
Mr Modi’s decade in power has seen the steady erosion of India’s founding principles of secularism at a state level.
In 1946, Gandhi said “I swear by my religion, I will die for it. But it is my personal affair. The state has nothing to do with it. The state would look after your secular welfare, health communications, foreign relations, currency, and so on, but not your or my religion.”
As a young boy, Mr Modi joined the RSS, a paramilitary Hindu organization whose members included the man who assassinated Gandhi in 1948.
The opposition Congress party, which Gandhi led from 1920 until 1934, condemned Mr Modi’s remarks.
Sir Richard Attenborough and Sir Ben Kingsley with some of the 13 Oscars Gandhi won in 1983 - Bettmann
“I don’t know in which world the outgoing Prime Minister lives where Mahatma Gandhi was unknown across the world before 1982,” said party leader Jairam Ramesh.
“If anyone has destroyed the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, it is the outgoing PM himself. It is his government which destroyed the Gandhian institutions in Varanasi, Delhi and Ahmedabad.”
Mr Ramesh said the ongoing election was truly a battle between the followers of the Mahatma and those of his assassin, Nathuram Godse.
“This is the hallmark of RSS. They do not understand Mahatma Gandhi’s nationalism. The atmosphere that their ideology created led to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by Nathuram Godse,” Mr Ramesh wrote.
Indian social media users also mocked Mr Modi, sharing the front page of the January 5, 1931, issue of Time magazine, describing Gandhi as Man of the Year. - The Telegraph
