‘MY BROTHER, NEHRU, AND I RESOLVE PEOPLE’S DIFFERENCES’

VGandhi is the fourth of five children born to his parents who lived in Virudhachalam, a town in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu. The first, a girl, was named Victoria after the Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India. The second, a boy, was named Kennedy after John F Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States.The third, a boy, was named Charles Armstrong, after Prince Charles of the United Kingdom and Neil Armstrong, American astronaut who was the first person to walk on the moon. Gandhi came next. The youngest child, a boy, was named Nehru, after Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister. “We were the only children in the village to be named after famous people,” he said.

His father, Vaidhyalingam, was also a follower of Mahatma Gandhi and a member of the Congress party. He even had a personal Gandhi connection. “Before the peak of the independence movement, he ran into the Mahatma at the local station. He had a lemon in his hand at that time which he offered to Gandhi. He accepted it,” he said.

Gandhi said his father, a high school teacher, was Gandhian to the bone. “Whatever he said, my father followed.” He is no longer alive, but the five siblings continue to live by Gandhian principles. “We are following peace and harmony in our lives.If there is a fight in the village, my brother Nehru and I sit both parties down and make them resolve their differences,” he said. “I’m helping people who don’t have much. In the village we still don’t have drinking water. I work with people below the poverty line,” he said. His family belongs to a Scheduled Caste and follows Hinduism. “We are pure Hindus,” he said. He believes everyone is making progress in India, at times without the help of governments, including the Scheduled Castes. Currently, his sister manages her home and his brothers work as farmer, pharmacist and teacher.

Gandhi’s income comes from farming and real estate brokerage, but he is actively involved in the local politics. He began his political career as the town’s coordinator for Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam but he has recently switched over to Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam as associate secretary. It saddens him to think that his father’s party is no longer a political force to be reckoned with. “No one is there to show the path to the Congress party.”