Rare Mahatma Gandhi treasure in Chor Bazaar

In the small, congested lanes of Chor Bazaar in South Mumbai, amid the antiques and artifacts, a treasure has been found. LP copies of a special recording of the only poem written by Mahatma Gandhi are available at some shops in Chor Bazaaar.

What makes the recording even more special is that the poem has been sung by the legendary Manna Dey and has music by veteran musical genius Vasant Desai.

The poem, Namrata ke Samrat, was set to music to commemorate the Mahatma’s birth centennial in 1969 by the Maharashtra government. The Gramaphone Company of India recorded only around 500 copies of the rendition for distribution to educational institutes. It is believed that while some records were given away, stacks of undistributed copies lay in government godowns.

The appearance of the rare collection would have gone unnoticed, but for Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) scientist Suresh Chandvankar, who is also the honorary secretary of the Society of Indian Record Collectors. He bought an original copy of the 1969 recording from Chor Bazaar recently.

“Most of the discs were damaged. I could find only one intact copy,” he said.
Chandavarkar spoke to people associated with the recording to know the story behind the disc. He was astonished to know that the lyrics of the song were taken from a letter written by the Father of the Nation. The letter was found by Madhukar Rao Chowdhury, president of the Gandhi Centenary Committee.     Turn to p8

Chowdhury asked Desai, who was associated with the state cultural and music department, to set the words to tune.

“Thus the letter took the form of a song. Special records were made by state government and distributed to its institutions. Some copies were stashed in godowns and later on scrapped. Die-hard record collectors found a few copies in Chor Bazaar. Thus, a part of history was preserved,” Chandvankar told DNA.

Disputing the notion that the words in the recording are from a letter written by Gandhi, the Aditya Birla Group claims the song has been inspired by the only poem written by Bapu. They even plan to bring out another recording of the song. “The Birla family was very close to Gandhiji and he often stayed at the Birla homes in various cities. I had seen a copy of the song displayed at the Gandhi Smriti at Birla House in Delhi and decided to get it recorded,” said Bharat Parekh, general manager (special projects), Aditya Birla Group.

In 2008, the Birlas asked music director Ilayaraja to compose the song. Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Ajay Chakraborty and Parveen Sultana sang the recording while Amitabh Bachchan recited the lyrics. The recording was called O Namrata Ke Sagar and its rights are with the Aditya Birla Group.

“We did not release it publicly then because we were not clear how to distribute it. This is the only song penned by Gandhiji. We wanted to do complete justice to it,” said Parekh, adding that the group plans to release the recording this year.

Nobody knows the origin of the song written by Gandhi since the Birla Group only has a copy of it. “There is no authentication of the song from any source. Even the Gandhi family does not know about it,” said Parekh.

Chandvankar, however, maintains that people connected to the 1969 recording said the lyrics were not written as a song or a poem. Chandvankar met Bal Deshpande, a music arranger who worked with Desai, to know more.

“As soon as I asked him about this record and the song, he began singing it. He was present at the recording of the song in Mumbai,” said Chandvankar.
Deshpande, who lives in Nashik, said it’s neither a poem nor a bhajan. It is, in fact, a letter that Gandhiji wrote to Maniben Patel, daughter of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.  Young Mani had asked Gandhiji some questions about the God. The song, or rather the letter, is an answer to those questions, he said.

“While it is true that recordings were made earlier, it is not clear whether it was a letter addressed to Sardar Vallabhai Patel’s daughter. The whereabouts of the original writing by Gandhiji is not known,” Parekh said. Even those familiar with Bapu’s writings do not know about the song. Dhirubhai Mehta, former trustee of Mani Bhavan, said, “I have heard the song but I don’t know if it was written by Gandhi.”