Rhetorical Constructions of Gandhi on the Net

• In Event: Gandhi on the Web: Globally Mediated Interactions with Nonviolence

Abstract

Bapu (“little father”), Mahatma (“great soul”), Gandhiji. The telltale sign of the greatest or most memorable figures in history is that they are often given nicknames by their legion audiences and fans. Mohandas K. Gandhi of India is one such beloved, if misunderstood, paragon of nonviolence who rose to international fame in his Quixotic campaigns to rid India of the British, which was successful, and of its own caste system and interethnic hatreds, which was unsuccessful (Rushdie 1998). As a mystical leader who attained international stature and recognition in the Twentieth century through his sustained campaigns in what he called his “Experiments in Nonviolence,” Gandhi continues to be reinvented today in popular culture through renewed representations. Gandhi fascinates and is ever coopted by those who find his image useful (Rushdie, 1998). This essay examines some recent portrayals of Gandhi on the Internet, such as the Telecomm Italia (2008) television commercial now running on YouTube that prominently features his nonviolent speech and iconic image. Specifically explored here are the ways that Gandhi’s original messages—condoning simplicity, “fierce” independence and courage—are ironically amenable to excerpting and devaluation by large corporations such as Apple, whose electronic products Gandhi himself would likely have found to be reprehensibly “modern,” wasteful and polluting (Rushdie, 1998). The staying power of Gandhi as a highly rhetorical figure who is continually renewed on the Net is rooted in tropes that are used universally in globalized marketing media.

Author

• Ellen Gorsevski, Bowling Green State Univ