Kanu Gandhi (1917 – 20 February 1986) was an Indian photographer. He was a grandnephew of
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
who lived with him in several of his
ashrams
An ashram ( sa, आश्रम, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery in Indian religions.
Etymology
The Sanskrit noun is a thematic nominal derivative from the root 'toil' (<
Rajkot
Rajkot () is the fourth-largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat after Ahmedabad, Vadodara, and Surat, and is in the centre of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat. Rajkot is the 35th-largest metropolitan area in India, with a population of ...
where they ran a rural centre named after
Kasturba Gandhi
Kasturbai Mohandas Gandhi (, born Kasturbai Gokuldas Kapadia; 11 April 1869 – 22 February 1944) was an Indian political activist. She married Mohandas Gandhi, more commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi, in 1883. With her husband and her eldest so ...
. Abha was one of the companions with Gandhi at Birla House Delhi, when Godse shot Gandhi .
Early life
Kanu was born to Narandas Gandhi, a nephew of the Mahatma's and a manager at his
Sabarmati Ashram
Sabarmati Ashram (also known as Gandhi Ashram) is located in the Sabarmati suburb of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, adjoining the Ashram Road, on the banks of the River Sabarmati, from the town hall. This was one of the many residences of Mahatma Gandh ...
, and Jamuna Gandhi in 1917. Kanu spent his early life with his parents in the ashram at Sabarmati – where his parents moved to when he was only two - and, later, at
Wardha
Wardha is a city and a municipal council in Wardha district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarters of Wardha district. Wardha gets its name from the Wardha River which flows at the north, west and south bounda ...
. He received his education at the Sabarmati Ashram,
Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per t ...
.
With Gandhi
Only 15, he was jailed for his participation in the
Civil Disobedience Movement
The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, Dandi March and the Dandi Satyagraha, was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India led by Mahatma Gandhi. The twenty-four day march lasted from 12 March to 6 April 1930 as a di ...
. Although he wanted to be a doctor, that was not to be and he joined Gandhi's personal staff at Wardha where he supervised clerical, correspondence and accounting functions from 1936 till 1948.
Kanu was nicknamed "Bapu's
Hanuman
Hanuman (; sa, हनुमान, ), also called Anjaneya (), is a Hindu god and a divine '' vanara'' companion of the god Rama. Hanuman is one of the central characters of the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. He is an ardent devotee of Rama and on ...
" and was close to the Mahatma. In 1944, on Kasturba's wishes and Gandhi's blessings, he married Abhaben Chatterjee, who had been adopted by the Gandhis and had been with them since she was 13 and who came to be known as "one of Gandhi's walking sticks".
Gandhi's photographer
It was Shivaji Bhave, Vinobha Bhave's brother, on a visit to
Wardha
Wardha is a city and a municipal council in Wardha district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarters of Wardha district. Wardha gets its name from the Wardha River which flows at the north, west and south bounda ...
, who first asked Kanu to take up photography to capture events at the Ashram. When Kanu approached Gandhi with the request, Gandhi turned him down due to paucity of funds. The industrialist
GD Birla
Ghanshyam Das Birla (10 April 1894 – 11 June 1983) was an Indian businessman and member of the Birla Family.
Birla family history
Ghanshyam Das Birla was born on 10 April 1894 at Pilani town in Jhunjhunu district, in the region known as ...
, an associate of Gandhi's gave Kanu 100 to buy his camera, a
Rolleiflex
Rolleiflex is the name of a long-running and diverse line of high-end cameras originally made by the German company Franke & Heidecke, and later Rollei, Rollei-Werke.
History
The "Rolleiflex" name is most commonly used to refer to Rollei's pr ...
, and a roll of film. From 1938 until Gandhi's death ten years later, Kanu took many personal photographs of the Mahatma.
Gandhi allowed Kanu to photograph him on three conditions: that he use no flash, that he never be asked to pose and that his photography would not be funded by the Ashram. Kanu met the costs of photography through a monthly stipend of 100 paid to him by Amritlal Gandhi of ''Vandemataram'' who had purchased a photograph of
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel (; ; 31 October 1875 – 15 December 1950), commonly known as Sardar, was an Indian lawyer, influential political leader, barrister and statesman who served as the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of I ...
from him. He also sold some of his photographs to newspapers and over time he began to produce images on a daily basis. Kanu also made films of Gandhi including one of his march in Noakhali in 1947.
Kanu however was forbidden by Gandhi from capturing Kasturba's last moments as she lay dying on his lap during his incarceration at the
Aga Khan Palace
The Aga Khan Palace was built by Sultan Muhammed Shah Aga Khan III in the city of Pune, India.
The palace was an act of charity by the spiritual leader of the Nizari Ismaili Muslims, who wanted to help the poor in the neighbouring areas of Pun ...
in
Pune
Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...
. Years later as Gandhi breathed his last in Abha's lap at
Birla House Birla may refer to:
* Birla family
* Members of the Birla family:
** Aditya Vikram Birla
** Ananya Birla
** Basant Kumar Birla
** G. D. Birla
** K. K. Birla
** C. K. Birla
** Kumar Mangalam Birla
See also
* Burla (disambiguation)
Burla may refer ...
,
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
, Kanu was away at
Noakhali
Noakhali ( bn, নোয়াখালী, , New canal), historically known as Bhulua ( bn, ভুলুয়া), is a district in southeastern Bangladesh, located in the Chittagong Division. It was established as district in 1821, and officia ...
where Gandhi had ordered him to stay. Kanu's interest in photography came to an end with Gandhi's assassination although he did undertake a few assignments including one in
famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, Demographic trap, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. Th ...
affected
Bihar
Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...
in the 1950s.
Having had no formal training in photography, Kanu learnt the art on the job. There is variation in the quality of his work which chronicles many of the events, both momentous and mundane, in the life of Gandhi and the Ashram. His work thus forms what
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
called a corpus of "naturally-lit black-and-white photographs, which offer an extraordinary insider's view of Gandhi's life". Kanu's original photographs remained in obscurity until they were acquired by a
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
collector, Peter Ruhe, in the 1980s who traced similar material and began to market them. In 2007, Ruhe proposed to sell his collection of photographs and film to the Sabarmati Ashram Trust for 5 million. These again came up for a private sale in 2012. The attempts to auction off Gandhi memorabilia generated much controversy in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
.
After Gandhi
Following Gandhi's assassination in 1948, Kanu and Abha Gandhi shifted to Rajkot where they ran the Kasturbadham and Rashtriyashala institutes. The Kasturbadham was the site of Kasturba Gandhi's house arrest in 1939 and had been acquired by the government after
independence
Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...
. Kanu ran the centre of behalf of his father to whom the government had entrusted its operations and developed it to function as a centre for small scale industries and into a secondary school. Kanu Gandhi died of a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...
on 20 February 1986 while on a pilgrimage in
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...
.
Legacy
Although Kanu's photographs of Gandhi are renowned in India and printed in many books on Gandhi, the man himself remained out of the limelight and largely uncredited for a long while with only one exhibition in Delhi displaying them under his own name. His photographs were acquired by Ruhe from Abha following Kanu's death in 1986 and she had planned to dispose them off seeing no use for them. In 1995, the first international exhibition of Kanu's photographs was staged at the
Leicester Museum & Art Gallery
The Leicester Museum & Art Gallery (until 2020, New Walk Museum and Art Gallery) is a museum on New Walk in Leicester, England, not far from the city centre. It opened in 1849 as one of the first public museums in the United Kingdom. Leiceste ...
through the efforts of the
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
were shot on the basis of Kanu's photographs. Kanu's ultimate legacy remains "as not just a photographer but a photo-biographer of Gandhi" who did through his camera "what
Mahadev Desai
Mahadev Haribhai Desai (1 January 1892 – 15 August 1942) was an Indian independence activist, scholar and writer best remembered as Mahatma Gandhi's personal secretary. He has variously been described as "Gandhi's Boswell, a Plato to G ...
and Pyarelal did to immortalise Gandhi through their memoirs and biographical writings".