Life And Times of Gora

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The Life and Times of Gora is the saga of a remarkable figure in the Indian national movement whose story has hitherto gone mostly unsung by our historians. Mark Lindley has rendered a singular service to that part of our history which concerns the making of a resurgent modern India. Gora was, like Mahatma Gandhi, driven by a passion for the substance of freedom above and beyond the quantum of political independence from the British Empire.

Gora's courageous truthfulness and faith in his own radical insights brought him close to Gandhi. They held contradictory beliefs in regard to the concept of God, but the depth of their respective convictions made them good friends when they became personally acquainted with each other in the mid-1940s. Gora was fighting against superstitions and customs which generations of people had followed without ever questioning them, and he was often made to pay a heavy price for his engagement in that struggle. His ceaseless activism for the betterment of the condition of the depressed classes (traditionally depressed in India by means of religious doctrines) won Gandhi's avid support and admiration. Gora's efforts included "interdining" with "Untouchables" and organizing special education for their children, as well as obtaining for them access to public wells and temples. Gandhi paid glowing tributes to Gora's assiduous work in that regard.

In their first conversation with each other, Gora drew a distinction between mere "godlessness" and "atheism." His atheism was positive in ways that went far beyond denying the existence of anything supernatural. He described atheism as a "manifestation of the feeling of freedom," and declared that it was not just a theoretical concept but could undergird substantial social programs. He said to Gandhi, "I want atheism to make man self-confident and to establish social and economic equalities non-violently. Tell me, Bapu, where I am wrong."

Book's Contents and Sample Pages