It was 64 years ago today that Mohandas Gandhi (known as
Mahatma, the great soul) was murdered by a Hindu extremist, who
believed Gandhi had been too sympathetic to the Muslim cause
during the British withdrawal from India. Delhi has two Gandhi
memorials, one the site of his cremation at Raj Ghat, in a park
on the banks of the Yamuna river where several other Indian
leaders have since been commemorated, and the other at Birla
House, in New Delhi, where he was shot. I visited both places
with friends last week, seeking to commemorate Gandhi quietly
and away from the grand ceremonies that today will mark the
anniversary of his death. The site at Raj Ghat (literally the
riverbank of the king or leader) was designed by Vanu G. Bhuta,
an American-trained Indian architect who won the Government-
sponsored competition to create a suitable memorial to Gandhi.
His was a stark, modernist solution, intended to reflect the
profound austerity of Gandhi’s life. The design, which was
completed around 1956, is a square, sunke