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BOOKS
By Smruti Koppikar MOTHER TERESA: BEYOND THE IMAGE "Is this flawed saintliness ... or difficult saintliness that knows no compromises?" asks Anne Sebba, referring to Mother Teresa's disregard of protocol during her legendary anti-abortion speech at the presidential Prayer Breakfast in Washington in February 1995. President Bill Clinton and wife Hillary were forced to sit -- like many other pro-abortionists in the audience -- stony faced. When Sebba wrote that question in her manuscript, she had no idea of the resounding impact it would have a year later. Mother's passing away has energised the debate over her saintliness all over again. A London-based journalist and biographer who first wrote a children's book on the Mother 15 years ago, Sebba takes a broad-brush view of the phenomenon, locating it in its religious and social contexts. Sebba's is not a traditional biography; it is a critical yet balanced account of the person. Most of Mother's early life is familiar ground covered by other biographers. Still, Sebba manages to give it depth and detail, which are quite evident in her description of the Co-Workers, an affiliate of the Missionaries of Charity (mc). Started in the '60s by Ann Blaikie, one of the four early Mother loyalists, it helped raise funds in Great Britain and Europe through the early days. A registered charity, it had 20,000 "selfless and devoted" co-workers who internationalised the mc but -- as Blaikie lay dying in February 1993 -- Mother rather ruthlessly closed down the group. "Perhaps she had misgivings about letting a secondary organisation grow alongside her own," writes Sebba. There are the inevitable stories of Mother and her sisters working in Shishu Bhavan or Nirmal Hriday in Calcutta but they go beyond the tired accounts. Sebba manages to infuse varied voices into her story-telling: first-person accounts of Indians and foreigners who came to Calcutta to work with Mother -- students and socialites, doctors and hikers. Some felt blessed, others were horrified that she placed love above medicines in her care for the dying. It is in the second half that Sebba really comes to form. She uses a thematic approach to unravel the phenomenon. You read Mother through various subjects: medicine, theology, numbers, politics and ego -- the last chapter is rather surprising. Sebba doesn't attack; she questions. You cannot but see Mother as a saint with spots. However, Sebba's agenda is not to negate the legend. "Divine guidance and human imperatives are interesting bedfellows ... finding the equilibrium has often proved elusive even for her (Mother)," she notes. Christopher Hitchens' iconoclastic film Hell's Angel, Sebba feels, broke the barrier to criticism. Mother's consistent refusal to address issues of social justice, her belief that poverty was a desirable state, non-criticism of the world-order that perpetuated poverty, acceptance of tainted money as donations -- all this is addressed with rigour. Mother, according to Sebba, knew the value of publicity. She knew how to wangle out of a world leader a building or land for an mc home -- and she did it with panache. Sebba may not have expected her book to be ready for the shelves when the world had just said goodbye to the Mother. As if anticipating events, she wrote an epilogue on the succession saga and Sister Nirmala. When the cacophony of eulogies die down, this is the book to pick up. An impressionistic account enlivens tales from the Raj By Ashok Malik MUGHALS, MAHARAJAS & THE MAHATMA Anecdotes make history engaging. K.R.N. Swamy seems to recognise this and his Mughals, Maharajas & the Mahatma is a collection of tales from, primarily, the British Raj. There is, for instance, a charming if brief history of the English East India Company -- from its formal constitution on the last day of the 16th century to its dissolution almost three centuries later. The chapters devoted to the wealth and idiosyncrasies of Indian princes are eminently readable. There is the bizarre case of the maharana of Udaipur, who threatened suicide if he wasn't given pride of place among native rulers at the Delhi durbar,1911. Swamy also unfolds the main newspaper reports dated October 2, 1869 and November 14, 1889 -- the birth dates of, respectively, Gandhi and Nehru. It is interesting to note that while The Pioneer, Allahabad's chief contemporary newspaper, announced the birth of one Jadunath Bose, son of the subdivisional magistrate, Katwa, it ignored the arrival of Motilal Nehru's heir. Motilal was not a government official and, in The Pioneer's reckoning, not part of the social elite. Swamy's efforts cannot but merit a comparison with P.J.O. Taylor's anecdotal tribute to the Mutiny or Ruskin Bond's Strange Men, Strange Places. The difference lies in the eye for detail. Taylor's books, for instance, are more informative. Swamy's storytelling is often too impressionistic to satisfy the reader. Even so, Swamy does provide pleasure. Particularly heartwarming is his report on the Mahatma's visit to Buckingham Palace in 1931. King George V was imperious; Gandhi responded with a humble dignity. It is a moving story which, like the rest of Swamy's book, should perhaps be read while you're on the move -- say on a train journey |
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© Living Media India Ltd |
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A critical but balanced
account of Mother Teresa's life and work.
