h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hate to tell you guys this, but you've spelt his name wrong, its supposed to be Gandhi, not Ghandi. By the way, you should consider adding the fact that out here in India, he's known as the father of the nation. You should have consulted the Indian researchers first, eh?

You sound like the ideal guy to have written this article Why didn't you?
BCNU - Crescent

Hmmmm, I am writing an article on cannabis, there is a section on the history of the wonderplant and India is mentioned. Now all the bits and bobs I got off the net, so though all seem to back each other up they maybe lying bassa's Could you come by and check out the relevant section for me http://www.h2g2.com/A246377 If you would be so kind
BCNU - Crescent

Thanks for that everyone - should be correct now.

Cheers

It's right now. I did a report on Gandhi in highschool, and I can back up most of this article. It doesn't mention his assasination (on this date in 1948). It doesn't mention his absolutely inappropriate burial ceremony (he was given a military funeral complete with tanks and armed gaurds even though he abhored violence, guns, etc). It doesn't mention the fact that, to further annoy the British, every time he was put in prison he would go on a hunger strike, and the Brits, fearing the reaction of the Indians if he died in prison, would be forced to release him!

~Irving

It also implies that his wife, Kasturbai, spent the last thirty years of her life in prison. I'm pretty sure that's not right.

Okay, let's take it one question at a time....

The reason I didn't write the article was that I happened to have my Std. X exams on and I was too busy studying about Gandhi to write much about him, the younger generation is pretty much tired of him cos our history syllabus changes according to the whims and fancies of some fool in the government, and this guy seems obsessed with Gandhi, so you can imagine that we've had to study the Indian freedom struggle almost every year from the 5th to the 10th grade, and when we didn't do India, we got some equally boring topic anyway, so I think its best if they stick to the freedom struggle.

Piece of info about Gandhi's assassination:
He was assassinated by some lunatic called Nathuram Godse who claimed that he was doing "vadh"(slaying a demon)since Gandhi(or Bapu as he's affectionately known) was a stickler for Hindu-Muslim unity and being a Muslim, I kinda feel strongly on that...anyway the upshot of the deal was that they celebrate 30th January as Martyr's Day out here. Thought you might wanna add that...

By the way I'll check out your entry...

Hmmm, you seem to have really done your homework...I've heard the story about churning the ocean and all, though I'm no expert on Hindu mythology. There is a friend of mine who'll be joining H2G2 shortly who might know about it. I'll try and get it out from him...it pays to be an avid quizzer!

What are you std X exams? I hope you did well Thanks for giving the article a wee shuftey, it's good to know it seems to be right
TVM
BCNU - Crescent

Yeah, I think that the name "Bapu" should get a mention somewhere in the article. If I remember rightly, it transltes to "Father", and he liked that a lot better than being called "Mahatma" which he thought was a bit pretentous. After doing above mentioned research paper on Gandhi I wrote a song inspired by him, the chorus being "Bapu, Bapu, come sit by my side". Of course, I have to explain it to my friends, all of whom think it's just a non-sense word, as they don't speak Hindustani.

~Irving

Just for the record, there's no language called Hindustani. We have over 30 officially recognised languages down here, and there seem to be hundreds more...the states are divided on the basis of language, you see, and there're a whole bunch of dialects too and so on...anyway Gandhi must have spoken Gujarati, seeing as he was born in Gujarat. If you're interested you could check out my article on Bombay( http://www.h2g2.com/A284320 ); its got something on communication for hitchhikers foolish enough to fall into the trap of coming here. And yes "Bapu" does translate to Father, though for Bengalis, "Babu" instantly conjures up images of a clerk in a government office...

Which I think that Bapu... er... Gandhi, was at one point in time. I know that his father was a government official, and that he himself was a lawyer by trade -- though that's certainly not what we remember about him.

~Irving

The english used to call Hindi and Urdu collectively Hindustani. The word has fallen to disuse, what with the partition and so forth, but you can see it in older books etc.
And by the way, have you been to thehungersite.com today to click food for people in need?

Ah yes, Hindi and Urdu happen to sound quite alike, in fact I speak both languages though my mother tongue is Urdu. Of course, the older generation keep complaining that the present generation speaks English fairly better than Urdu, which is absolutely true. I myself speak English like a pro and find it much easier to read Hindi than Urdu(the scripts are different, you see). In fact to survive out here, we have to study English(international), Hindi(national) and Marathi(state language). Marathi's rather good for insulting people.

I'd picked up the word "Hindustani" from a fairly old source, it's true. And yes, I have visited thehungersite.com today, as it's the homepage on both my webbrowsers!

~Irving

Strange coincidence, but when I logged on to thehungersite.com, their "dim and a person dies of hunger" map dimmed India! Coincidental? I dunno. Gandhi would have loved the Internet, had he been alive...but then world history wouldn't be the same!