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To my great delight Gandhi was an utterly mediocre student

In a freewheeling chat with Dr Dileep Padgaonkar, Dr Ramachandra Guha revealed interesting and lesser known facts about the Father of the Nation

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The auditorium at Symbiosis International University on Saturday witnessed mixed reactions of laughter and seriousness as  Dr Ramachandra Guha  interacted with  Dr Dileep Padgaonkar during the release of ‘Gandhi before India’ authored by the former.

Dr Guha started the session by a lecture where he spoke of his experiences while researching material for the book. “Through my research and great delight I found out that Gandhi was an utterly mediocre student. He constantly scored a second class. I say to my great delight because I sailed in the same boat for most of my student years,” said Guha.

There are several reasons the historian states of having taking up this book. “To start with, in a biography and to understand the protagonist properly you have to go beyond what he said and pay attention to what others had to say about him. Secondly, not much has been written about his mentors and friends who played an important role in his life. Especially, Dr Pranjivan who, unfortunately, has been forgotten. He, in fact, was the one who realised the potential of Gandhi to become a Mahatma.”

The author also added how he lets out a silent prayer every time he walks by High Court and shared, “Gandhi failed as a lawyer hence matured as a great activist and that had to do a lot with him failing as a lawyer in Mumbai in 1892 and 1902.”

If he had the chance, Dr Guha would like to add two more pages on the man in this book but will wait the second volume to divulge more details. “His obsession with perfection led him to become a terrible father but in the later years he evolved as a husband. As a historian I am very restrained in my perceptions. Honestly, we have had musicians be brutal to their best disciples, similarly, he was stern with his sons as he expected them to be perfect.”

The author mentioned that Gandhi was one of the few transparent politicians of his time but at the same time he was crafty too. 

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