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Published in 1948 by: Orient Longmans Ltd.,
Bombay, Calcutta, Madras.
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Portraits
of Mahatma Gandhi
by Mukul Dey
Preface
Jacket of the album designed by Mukul Dey |
My book Twelve Portraits had just come out at the end of 1917 and,
with a view to making a collection of portraits of the great men of South
India, I visited Madras in 1918. There I heard that a great leader of
the Indians of South Africa had come to stay in Madras for a few days.
It was Mrs. Sarojini Naidu who took me one morning to the house where
Gandhiji was staying at the time. I found him sitting on a taktaposh
(wooden-bed) with only a loin cloth tied round his waist, talking to several
people who sat round him on the floor. His hair was closely cropped, but
he had a shikha, the vaishnava Hindu's tuft of hair at th e back of his
head. It stuck me that he was a great saint and a political leader at
the same time.
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It was Mrs. Sarojini Naidu who took me one morning
to the house where Gandhiji was staying at the time.
It stuck me that he was a great saint and a political leader at
the same time.
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Mrs. Naidu then introduced me to Gandhiji and told him of my errand. Gandhiji
smiled sweetly at me, as if signifying his consent to my doing his portrait.
He went on talking to the people in the room, while I busied myself with
my pencil. I finished the portrait within an hour. Gandhiji
looked at it and said, 'Do I really look like that? Of course I cannot
see my face from that angle.' Then he passed it round to the persons assembled
there. At my request he put down the following words in Gujrati:
Mohan Das Gandhi
Phagun Badi 3, Samvat 1975
Mahatma Gandhi, Madras 1918
Click on the above image for larger view. |
After thus putting his name and date on the drawing, he again gave
me another of his characteristic smiles.
In 1922, when my friend the late C. F. Andrews came to visit me in
my studio in London, he admired this portrait so much that I made a
present of it to him. It subsequently passed into the possession of
the Visva-Bharati at Santiniketan, among other effects of Charlie Andrews.
Through the courtesy of Sreejut Rathindranath Tagore, the General Secretary
of the Visva-Bharati, this pencil drawing is reproduced here.
On my return from England in the year 1928, I held an exhibition of
my work at the Indian Society of Oriental Art in Calcutta. Whilst the
exhibition was in progress, I felt a sudden impulse to visit Mahatma
Gandhi and do a portrait of him in the new medium of drypoint (something
like engraving on copper or zinc plates) which I had learnt and practised
in England.
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He seemed to me to be a re-incarnation of our
great saints Bhakta Kabir and Tulsidas.
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So I secured an introduction from C. F. Andrews, fearing that the Mahatma
might have forgotten me, as so many years had passed since our first
meeting. I also had a faint curiosity to see at first hand how this
great saint lived in his hermitage at Sabarmati. He seemed to me to
be a re-incarnation of our great saints Bhakta Kabir and Tulsidas.
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He was surprised to know that such a frail and
unimposing person as himself was worthy of being portrayed by
an artist coming from such a great distance.
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On arriving there one morning in March 1928, I found that the Mahatma
had gone to bathe in the Sabarmati near-by. When he came back shortly
afterwards I presented my letter of introduction and was cordially received
by him. He was surprised to know that such a frail and unimposing person
as himself was worthy of being portrayed by an artist coming from such
a great distance. He permitted me to stay in one of the rooms of the school
building of the ashram across the road. The Ashram is situated on the
high bank of the river and is a cluster of tiled huts in a pomegranate
grove. On the other side of the river can be seen the tall factory chimneys
and big houses of Ahmedabad city.
Early in the morning after prayers Mahatmaji would go out for a long walk
with the inmates of the Ashram. He always walked very fast. Returning
to the ashram before sunrise he would regularly help the inmates in their
domestic duties for an hour or so. After sunrise he would sit in the sun,
and have his body massaged with ghee about 60 years old - almost black,
with age - and at the same time put a thick coating of cold mud on his
head and press it down with a towel. At the same time his
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..his correspondence used to be read out to him
by his Secretary, the late Mahadev Desai, to whom the Mahatma
dictated the replies while he shaved himself with a silver Gillette
razor
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correspondence used to be read out to him by his Secretary, the late Mahadev
Desai, to whom the Mahatma dictated the replies while he shaved himself
with a silver Gillette razor, Sardar Vallabhai Patel with his daughter
Mani Ben and Miss Slade (Mira Ben) were also there; Mira Ben was specially
asked by the Mahatma to look after my comforts. Here for the first time
I came to know that Mahatma Gandhi is addressed as 'Bapuji' (Revered Father)
by the inmates of the Ashram, just as we of the Santiniketan Ashram call
Rabindranath 'Gurudev'.
After the midday meal which was a simple affair and which I used to
share with him, always sitting on his right, he would sit with his Charkha
in the same hall. The room was almost without furniture. This was the
time when I would generally make my drypoints on copper plates.
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The whole atmosphere was calm and peaceful but
rather desolate with its background of tiny shrubs of neem and
mimosa.
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In the evening after prayers I would sit and watch the cranes and other
birds coming back from all quarters to the trees of the Ashram as if
to a refuge where they felt completely secure. The whole atmosphere
was calm and peaceful but rather desolate with its background of tiny
shrubs of neem and mimosa.
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The Mahatma showed me the greatest kindness during
my fortnight's stay at the Ashram. He was so kind as to offer
me half of the school building at Sabarmati to start an Art School
according to my own ideas...
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I did four different drypoints of him and a few pencil sketches, and also
a portrait of Kasturba Gandhi, who was always besides her husband. The
Mahatma showed me the greatest kindness during my fortnight's stay at
the Ashram. He was so kind as to offer me half of the school building
at Sabarmati to start an Art School according to my own ideas; unfortunately
this was never realized, as I fell ill at the beginning of the hot weather
in April 1928. So I left Sabarmati.
In September 1945, I went to Allahabad to do some portraits of Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru. In the course of a conversation with him, I brought
up my
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...I had discovered, whilst staying at Sabarmati,
that the Mahatma had a deep love for the Fine Arts. In the course
of his conversations with me he had made various clever suggestion
about art education in India.
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old plan of establishing a National Art Gallery and gave Pandit Nehru
the skeleton of my scheme. I suggested that the Mahatma would be the fittest
person to be the Chief Patron of such an Art Gallery as I had discovered,
whilst staying at Sabarmati, that the Mahatma had a deep love for the
Fine Arts. In the course of his conversations with me he had made various
clever suggestion about art education in India.
Pandit Jawaharlal grew enthusiastic over the matter and asked me to
visit Mahatma Gandhi again and discuss the scheme with him. Shortly
afterwards, I proceeded to Bombay, and found that Mahatmaji was recuperating
at the Nature Clinic in Poona.
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I presented Mahatmaji with a copy of my Twenty
Portraits and laid my scheme for the National Art Gallery
before him.
Mahatmaji blessed my scheme and said everything would come right
in the end, and there would certainly be a National Art Gallery
when India had obtained her independence.
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I went there on 15 November, 1945. I presented Mahatmaji with a copy of
my Twenty Portraits and laid my scheme for the National Art Gallery
before him. Mahatmaji laughingly remarked, 'You have only produced twenty
portraits in twenty years? Is that all you have done?' I joined in the
laugh and said, 'If you come to my Studio at Santiniketan you will see
for yourself what I have done.' Mahatmaji blessed my scheme and said everything
would come right in the end, and there would certainly be a National Art
Gallery when India had obtained her independence.
Mahatma Gandhi at Nature Clinic, Poona 1945
Click on the above image for larger view. |
I stayed in Poona for three days and my visit was amply rewarded, as
I was able to make several pencil and crayon drawings and pen and ink
sketches of the Mahatma.
Gandhiji loved to visit Santiniketan and he stayed there on several
occasions after his return from South Africa. Mahatmaji's deep regard
for this 'Abode of Peace' where in turn the Maharshi, his eldest son
the Philosopher Dwijendranath Tagore, called Baro-Dada (eldest brother)
by Mahatmaji, and his youngest son the poet Rabindranath Tagore communed
with nature was always evidenced by his words and actions.
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He would always take off his shoes near the village
of Bhubandanga, a mile away from the precincts of the Santiniketan
Ashram, and enter it with great humility of sprit.
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He would always take off his shoes near the village of Bhubandanga,
a mile away from the precincts of the Santiniketan Ashram, and enter
it with great humility of sprit just like a king visiting an ancient
'Tapovana' (forest hermitage).
Thus he came one evening, the 18 December, 1945, and sat down to the
prayers with the inmates of the Ashram. Next day, early in the morning,
the Mahatma held his usual congregational prayer at the Mandir attached
to the Ashram.
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..Bapuji and his party visited my studio and stayed
for about an hour. Among other things, I showed Bapuji the drypoint
portrait of Kasturba Gandhi which I did at Sabarmati in 1928.
He was immensely pleased and held it tenderly close to his eyes,
as if he was talking to her for a while.
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Later in the day Bapuji and his party visited my studio and stayed
for about an hour. Among other things, I showed Bapuji the drypoint
portrait of Kasturba Gandhi which I did at Sabarmati in 1928. I presented
the portrait to Bapuji. He was immensely pleased and held it tenderly
close to his eyes, as if he was talking to her for a while.
Mahatmaji invited my wife and myself to visit him at Sevagram. The
interest which he showed in the various objects of art at my studio
encouraged me to think that I might possibly find a way through him
of establishing a National Art Gallery, Museum and Art School.
We arrived at Wardha Station on 8 August, 1946. After an hour's traveling
in a tonga through a bleak hilly countryside, we suddenly came upon
a number of tiled huts surrounded by trees and plants looking like an
oasis in the desert. This was Sevagram, where Mahatmaji and his associates
lived a simple and austere life of toil.
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What at once stuck us about the place was its
exceptional cleanliness and profound silence; even the crows perched
on the top of the trees had forgotten to caw, and the dogs to
bark.
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What at once stuck us about the place was its exceptional cleanliness
and profound silence; even the crows perched on the top of the trees
had forgotten to caw, and the dogs to bark. Everyone in the Ashram was
busy with his own work, moving about quietly. Through the deep silence
I felt peace creeping into my soul, and I forgot all about the object
of my visit for the time being.
I soon discovered that I had come there at a most inopportune moment
and did not wish to trouble Bapuji about my own affairs. It was already
too late to discuss things other than those of more pressing and immediate
interest. I therefore only sought his blessings on my project. Bapuji,
through his infinite kindness, readily gave me his blessings and I departed
from Sevagram on the day which was his day of silence.
When I went to him to do my obeisance just before my departure, he
handed me a paper containing his message and smiled at me with uplifted
arm in a gesture of blessing. Silently we turned back homewards, little
thinking at the time that we should never see his smiling face again.
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Click on the above image
for larger view. |
English translation of the message written in Hindi
by Mahatma Gandhi.
Brother Mukul Dey has an intense desire to see the Fine Arts flourish.
To aspire after a thing is man's nature, but God has kept in his
own hands the fulfilment of man's desires. Let adoration of God
be, therefore, the sustenance of Brother Mukul Dey.
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