Kanu Gandhi (1917 – 20 February 1986) was an Indian photographer. He was a grandnephew of
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...
who lived with him in several of his
ashrams
An ashram (, ) is a spiritual Hermitage (religious retreat), hermitage or a monastery in Indian religions, not including Buddhism.
Etymology
The Sanskrit noun is a thematic nominal derivative from the root 'toil' (< Proto-Indo-European, PIE *' ...
and was a member of his personal staff. He is best remembered as Gandhi's photographer, recording many moments of Gandhi's life on film from 1938 until his assassination in 1948. Following Gandhi's death, Kanu and his wife Abha moved to
Rajkot
Rajkot () is the fourth-largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat
Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the ...
where they ran a rural centre named after
Kasturba Gandhi
Kasturba Mohandas Gandhi (, born Kasturba Gokuldas Kapadia; 11 April 1869 – 22 February 1944) was an Indian political activist who was involved in the Indian independence movement during British Raj, British India. She was married to Mohandas ...
. 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 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 Gandhi who lived at Sabarmati (Gujar ...
, 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. He received his education at the Sabarmati Ashram,
Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad ( ), also spelled 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 ...
.
With Gandhi
Only 15, he was jailed for his participation in the
Civil Disobedience Movement
Civil disobedience is the active and professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders, or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". ...
. 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 (; , ), also known as Maruti, Bajrangabali, and Anjaneya, is a deity in Hinduism, revered as a divine ''vanara'', and a devoted companion of the deity Rama. Central to the ''Ramayana'', Hanuman is celebrated for his unwavering devotio ...
" 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, 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, an associate of Gandhi's gave Kanu 100 to buy his camera, a
Rolleiflex, 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 (; ''Vallabhbhāī Jhāverbhāī Paṭel''; 31 October 1875 – 15 December 1950), commonly known as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, was an Indian independence activist and statesman who served as the first Deputy Prime ...
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 in
Pune
Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...
. Years later as Gandhi breathed his last in Abha's lap at
Birla House,
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, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...
, Kanu was away at
Noakhali
Noakhali District (), historically known as Bhulua (), is a Districts of Bangladesh, district in southeastern Bangladesh, located in Chattogram Division. It was established as a district in 1821, and officially named Noakhali in 1868. The distr ...
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 possible factors, including, but not limited to war, natural disasters, crop failure, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenom ...
affected
Bihar
Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...
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, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
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, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
.
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 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 status of ...
. 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 Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...
on 20 February 1986 while on a pilgrimage in
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...
.
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. Leicest ...
through the efforts of the
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
based artist Saleem Arif.
Several scenes from
Richard Attenborough's biopic
Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British ...
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 and
Pyarelal did to immortalise Gandhi through their memoirs and biographical writings".
References
External links
Photographs by Kanu Gandhi
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gandhi, Kanu
1917 births
1986 deaths
Gandhians
Kanu
20th-century Indian photographers
Indian photojournalists
Indian portrait photographers
Journalists from Gujarat
Artists from Ahmedabad
Photographers from Gujarat