Brand Mahatma

Mahatma in a Makeover
Outlook - India - September 11, 2006
Gandhi goes glitzy for Gen Y, and the signs are everywhere
Museum muse
One of the world’s first digital multimedia museums in Delhi’s Gandhi Smriti has sent footfalls soaring to 2,000 visitors a day.
A mobile Gandhi museum begins countrywide tour after an extended show in Mumbai.
Gandhi Smriti goes for makeover in ethnic chic, adding cafeteria, shops, live demo-exhibits of pottery, spinning.
Becomes hub of activities for schoolkids and underprivileged, including computer classes.
Gandhiana for the kids
Schoolkids open new version of Gandhi’s newspaper.
A Gandhi quiz competition for schoolkids goes national.
Over one lakh school and college children pay to take an exam on Gandhi’s life.
Debating and elocution competitions on Gandhi’s relevance.
Summer camps, tours, workshops
Summer camps at Sevagram ashram becoming popular.
Chennai schoolkids line up for ‘In Gandhi’s Footsteps’ tour of four states
Free radio/newspaper/comicbook workshops on Gandhi’s principles.
Kids go as volunteers to work in slums/villages.
Workshops on non-violent communication.
Bestselling icon
An audiotape abridging Gandhi’s autobiography with Shekhar Kapoor and Nandita Das launched in Planet M music stores in five metros.
Regional translations of My Experiments with Truth in last five years sell in lakhs of copies.
Publishers/authors applying for rights of Gandhi’s works doubled in last 2-3 years.
Between 1,000 and 2,000 new books on Gandhi every year across the world—publishers here say huge demand for new, attractive, relevant books on Gandhi for young readers. New Gandhi picturebooks coming up.
A Times Music cassette on Gandhi’s bhajans climbs to top of music bestseller list.
Renewed interest in Gandhi seeps into popular cinema; Rakeysh Mehra, director of Rang de Basanti, claims Gandhi is India’s single-largest export; filmmakers and playwrights try to reinvent Gandhi for a new generation.
Buddhists from across the world begin their pilgrimage to Buddhist holy places with a visit to Gandhi museum.
A new breed of social activists drawn from young, middle-class urban India start innovative schemes in slums and villages across India, claiming their inspiration is Gandhi—recent campaigns include the tribal land struggle campaign in Umariya district of Madhya Pradesh, and the campaign against multinational steel company POSCO in Orissa.
Universities open centres for Gandhian studies, search begins for postmodern lessons on Gandhi.
Brand Gandhi
T-shirts with Gandhi quotes
Car screens with his sayings
Posters of Gandhi hottest item at museum shops.
A new fashion collection for satyagraha centenary.

Outlook, Sept.11, 2006

Bharat Soka Gakkai's Pune Exhibition 'Seeds of Change"

“The future at once holds great peril and great promise”
“We stand at a critical moment in Earth’s history…a time when humanity must choose the future”
“No matter how complex global problems may seem, it is we ourselves who have given rise to them. They cannot be beyond our power to resolve…”

This text is on the introductory panel of Seeds of change : The Earth Charter and Human potential , an exhibition initially created by the Soka Gakkai International and the Earth Charter Initiative for the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. The exhibition reflects the global dimension of pollution, poverty and injustice, and the burden placed on the environment by technological progress. The message is clear: We must alter the situation confronting us before time runs out.

the inauguration of the exhibition was held on Saturday, 9th Sept. at 11 am at Nehru Memorial Hall. Pune citizens, environmentalists, students from Pune schools and NGOs visited the exhibition. The BSG Pune through this exhibition helped to spread awareness and motivate citizens initiative at a community level, to creating a sustainable and peaceful global society. A pamphlet titled What can I do? How can I make a difference? How can I bring change? was distributed to all visitors.

For more information contact:Dr. R. N Bharadwaj/ Mrs. Kanika Mall
(Local Co-ordinators)
E-A1, Konark Enclave, Bund Garden Road, Pune
Cell: 937135335, 9860666899

Gandhi back in style thanks to Bollywood blockbuster Munnabhai

One hundred years after Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi launched his non-violence movement, a new runaway hit comedy film is helping to bring his teachings to a whole new audience. “Lage Raho Munnabhai” (Carry on Munnabhai)” has played to packed houses since it opened two weeks ago and is on its way to becoming one of Bollywood’s biggest moneymakers of the year, according to industry watchers. The film, which has earned rave reviews, features Bollywood superstar Sanjay Dutt as a gangster named Munnabhai with a heart of gold. But Gandhi, portrayed by veteran stage actor Dilip Prabhavalkar, steals the show as he steers the gangster onto the path of honesty while dispensing old-fashioned lessons about truth and honesty. “If Bapu (Gandhi) were to see the film today, he would have applauded the role,” said Gandhi’s great-grandson Tushar. “Already, I hear people are buying more books on Gandhi after watching the film.” In the film — currently number one at the box office according to Bollywood website indiafm.com — Munnabhai falls in love with a female radio host who has no clue about his wicked past. Bapu, or father — as Gandhi is known in India — appears to Munnabhai as a ghost when the gangster starts researching the life of the loincloth-clad Indian leader in a bid to impress the radio presenter with his knowledge. Gandhi, famed as the torchbearer of India’s fight against British rule, urges the gangster to give up his life of crime to woo the woman. The gangster ends up co-hosting the advice chat show, and he ends up winning over both the woman and listeners with the folksy advice relayed to him in the studio by Gandhi himself — who is invisible to everyone else. Gandhi’s principles of austere living and passive resistance, which he followed in his everyday life and with which he fought British colonial rule, are a running theme in the comedy. An elderly man tired of paying bribes is told to shame the offender by offering all he has — his clothes, hearing aid and glasses — until the government official finally does what he asks without payment. “Gandhi is the real hero of the film. The film is really funny, and sends a message without being too heavy,” said student Aastha Singh. Gandhi’s portrayal has found favour in unusual quarters. The Delhi state government approved so much of the Hindi-language film’s message that it made the movie tickets tax-free so more people might see it. “The storytelling is swift, saucy and knife-sharp in critiquing the loss of Gandhian ideals” in everyday Indian life, wrote film critic Khalid Mohamed in Mumbai’s Daily News and Analysis newspaper. The release of the film coincided with centenary celebrations on September 11 to mark the start of Gandhi’s resistance movement against racial discrimination in British-ruled South Africa, where he practised as a lawyer. Ten years later in 1916, Gandhi came back to India and started leading India’s fight against British rule. Movie critics said young people could relate to Prabhavalkar’s portrayal of Gandhi, thanks to his use of slang spoken in Mumbai — where the film is set — and his friendly interaction with the underworld. “Hardcore moral preaching doesn’t sell, but if you package it with entertainment, it works,” said indiafm.com editor Taran Adarsh. “Bapu himself considered humour to be essential. He wasn’t a dour man at all. He used to say “If it wasn’t for my sense of humour, I would have committed suicide long ago’,” said his great-grandson Tushar.

Courtesy Khaleej Times, Sept 14, 2006, New Delhi

Munnabhai sends new Gandhians rushing to city bookstores!

The portrayal of Gandhian principles in Sanjay Dutt’s new film has revived an interest in the Father of The Nation!
There has been an unexpected rise in the sale of Gandhi books in this past week. And taking deserving credit for this rise is our innocent ‘Munnabhai’. The newly released movie, ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ is based on Gandhian principles and the portrayal of these principles is done so well in the movie, that the audience is rushing into bookstores to learn more about the ‘Father of The Nation’.
Amazed at such a rise, Oxford Bookstore’s all India head of sales, Abhijit Chandra, said, “Usually, there is not much demand for Gandhi books, but in the last one week, the sales have risen 35 per cent. We had to order new stock within this week.”
Chandra also said that it is college students who are inquiring the most. The demand at Oxford is for titles like ‘Samadhi’ written by Bhikhu Parekh, ‘Gandhi on Personal Leadership’ written by Anand Kumar Swami, and ‘M. K. Gandhi, An Autobiography’.
The Gandhi Book Centre at Tardeo, which is run by the Bombay Sarvodaya Mandal, not only has experienced a rise in the sale of Gandhi books, but also a rise in audiences at their yearly function that celebrates Satyagraha. “On September 11, we had a function at Bharti Vidya Bhavan. This time, not only was the entire auditorium full, but we had arranged a screening in the hall above the auditorium as well,” said a very surprised Tulsidas Somaiya, who is in charge of the Book Centre.
The sale in books has been tremendous. “We sell books on a wholesale basis too. In this last week, we have already given 9,000 books away and are currently packing another order of 400,” said Somaiya, who has been receiving many calls urging him to watch ‘Lage Raho...’ “I was busy in the function, but now I am planning to see it,” he said.
The most selling books on Gandhi, are ‘M. K. Gandhi, An Autobiography’, and ‘My Experiments With Truth’, written by Gandhi. “In this store, currently we just have around 300 copies of Gandhi books,” said Somaiya.
However, Strand Bookstore at Fort is not experiencing any difference in the sales of books. “At an average, there is a sale of two or three books on Gandhi every day. This sale will go up a week before October 2. But currently the sale is average,” said Sanjiv Kamat, a sales executive at Strand.

BY A STAFF REPORTER Friday, September 15, 2006 11:18:21 IST
Cybernoon

Pune Gandhi Exhibition

The Eternal Gandhi Multimedia Exhibition has come to Pune for one month. It is sponsored by the Aditya Birla Group and designed by the Sacred World Research Laboratory. Interactive Multimedia has been used to bring out the message of Gandhi whilst tracing his life and messages from his childhood to death. Special sections are devoted to the Salt Satyagraha, the charka and communal harmony. This is the first of its kind exhibition in which Gandhi’s teachings are depicted through a blend of the traditional and the modern; by the use of traditional handicrafts and skills and computer screens. Young people will find the exhibition especially exciting and inspiring ,while olders ones like ourselves will be assisted to catch up with little details that we may have missed in our readings and discussions.

Do not miss it. A must see for everyone.

Venue: 5th Floor, A Wing, MCCIA Trade Tower, Intl.Convention Centre,
Senapati Bapat Road
Duration: 30 August upto 10th October 2006
Timings: 10 a.m.-7 p.m. except Tuesdays
Entrance free

Pushbutton Gandhi

Gandhi is now available at the push of a button. The Eternal Gandhi museum seeks to bring the nation’s founding father to people growing up in an India the ascetic never envisioned, one filled with foreign cars, cellphones, fast-food chains, malls and multiplex theatres.

The challenge was to get the message across to the younger generation. The exhibition is an expansion of an older, more solemn memorial, the sprawling colonial-style house where Gandhi spent the last 144 days of his life. It was on its grounds in 1948 that Gandhi, walking to a daily prayer meeting, was shot dead by a Hindu radical.
For many years, the house has been pilgrimage destinations for millions of Indian and foreign visitors. Now the house also has what claims to be India’s first hands-on, multimedia museum.

The musem uses archival film footage extensively in several exhibits. In the first gallery, a small touch screen computer slides along a mud wall which, in a blend of tradition and the modern, is coated with cow dung that in Indian villages is traditionally viewed as a purifying agent. Moving along the wall, the screen presents a tableau of events from Gandhi’s life in film and photographs, his childhood, family portraits, the scene from Richard Attenborough’s 1982 Gandhi when he is thrown out of first-class train coach in South Africa, and many others.

In a section about Gandhi’s timeless campaign against India’s caste system, visitors are encouraged to form a human chain around a carved pillar. When the visitors hold hands, the pillar lights up. The mere act of people touching strangers whose caste is unknown to them is meant to remove biases at this exhibit called the “Pillar of Castelessness”.

Courtesy Sunday Express, August 27, 2006