An Englishman at Gandhi's charkha

Prime Minister Boris Johnson finally made it to India this week. As has become the norm in recent years, visiting dignitaries and state guests must have Ahmedabad on their itinerary even if for a few hours. It used to be Mumbai once which used to be the economic-commercial headquarters parallel to Delhi’s political gravitas. For reasons known and unknown, Ahmedabad has unseated Mumbai. So, from Chinese premier Xi Jinping to former US President Donald Trump and now Johnson, a visiting dignitary must do a paay laagu, the Gujarati token of obeisance, to Ahmedabad.

While in Ahmedabad, how can a dignitary not be herded into the famous Gandhi ashram? As others before him did, Johnson, his unkempt hair notwithstanding, looked sufficiently interested in watching the life of a man who had shaken – symbolically and otherwise – the might of the British Empire in the subcontinent. And, typically, he sat at the charkha whether as a mere photo-op or to spin a yarn of his own, it’s hard to say. It was incongruous given Johnson’s own worldview and politics which are the farthest from Gandhi’s, and unlike say, Martin Luther King turning the charkha. But the substance does not matter these days, photo-ops do. If anything, the irony in a British Prime Minister spinning the charkha in Gandhi’s ashram is delightful for Indians.