नेल्सन मंडेला " नये युग के प्रणेता "
- by Dhananjai Chopra
Nelson Mandela vanished, aged 44, into reformatory for the next cut up of a century he happen to an ambiguity being, the lost leader. Moreover when he lastly surface triumphant in 1990, there was a pent-up claim to listen from him. Ever since, books about and by Mandela have become an industry, number of books have appeared. Is there really room for another book on the stuffed Mandela mantelpiece? This was the big question which was there in my mind when I saw a new book on Mandela in Hindi Language by writer Dhananjai Chopra.
As Indians we encompass tiny idea about Mandela as he is popularly understood as ‘African Gandhi’. But after reading this book the answer of “Is there really room for another book on the stuffed Mandela mantelpiece?” would be Quite a lot, it turns out. Writer has successfully described the connection between India and Africa . Readers would get the idea of how Indians are connected with Mandela.
The prison years, as one might expect, are particularly moving. "Until I was jailed I never fully appreciated the capacity of memory," says Mandela. Some of the abstracts are taken from his letters to his family and friends, many of which never reached their intended recipients, because they were blocked by the censors. Mandela made copies of some of these letters in a hardback notebook. It includes his speech in Indian Parliament and after receiving Nobel Prize. From Childhood to the days of struggle writer Dhananjai Chopra has got readers interest as write up is not only interesting but new statistics which are not known are inscribed in precisely.
The book is a constructive corrective to our affinity to see history through retro spectacles, to assume that what go off was someway foreseeable. To the prisoners on Robben Island
One is reminded, too, of how precipitous in history and the archetypal Mandela is. He was believer of Gandhi’s ideology and even articulated that he took the struggle forward when Mahatma Gandhi left Africa . Mandela we see here can also be abrasively self-critical.
The book is a dear lens onto how Mandela made historic decisions – what he felt about communism, his Christian viewpoint, the armed struggle, and the predictable repercussion by the establishment against the naive bystanders, as well as the perpetrators. It is decisive that, as a role model, he privileged Nehru to Gandhi. He also makes it clear that he only believed in non-violence as an approach and not as an attitude, though he could not say that at his trial. He discusses how he entirely estimated to be sentenced to death, what it's like when you sense a judge "is going to spin to you and tell you now, that 'This is the end of your life'."
When Mandela lost his eldest son, Thembi, was killed in a car accident. Mandela's letter of 13 July 1969 to the commanding officer of Robben Island prison, asking to be present at his son's graveside, makes heartbreaking reading. It was refused. But Mandela expresses no jealousy. And when Winnie is herself jailed, Mandela sends her advice on how to cope. The relationship between Mandela and his wives is inscribed how it helped him to be focused.
There are substantive political insights here, in particular Mandela's account of the negotiations that ended apartheid. When the authorities moved him away from his comrades, isolating him in another prison, he decided to accept the move, as this would allow him to open secret talks with the apartheid authorities, without consulting his comrades. "So what I decided to do was to start negotiations without telling them, and then confront them with a fait accompli." He was taking a huge risk.
One element gleaned from the calendar section which is at the last section of this book is how important the gestures made around the world were to Mandela while he was locked up. The mass petitions for his release and the attempts to make– often dismissed as silly, ineffectual gestures – were all clearly vital in keeping up his morale.
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