Memorial toaman of the people
«How
shall we praise him," Jawaharlal Nehru once asked, «and how shall we measure him, because he was not of common clay .... " True though it was that this gentle, physically frail Indian was a giant among men, yet Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi possessed the kind of basic humanity that found a response among people everywhere. He is respected by the world's political thinkers, but he is also held in affection by children, such as those shown at right and below. And while his countrymen called him Mahatma or «great soul," they also called him Bapu, the simple word for <'father."
On Delhi's Ring Road, just where the old walled city ends and the new begins, stands a simple two-storeyed building half hidden behind a hedge of flowering bougainvillaea. Here, in the Gandhi Memorial Museum, the spirit of the Father of the Nation still lingers. One of several museums established by the Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya Samiti, the institution houses a library, a photographic exhibit detailing events in Gandhi's life, and an assortment of Gandhi memorabilia. Since it was moved to its present site ten years ago, and particularly during the current Gandhi Centenary Year, the Museum has drawn a stream of visitors who come from all parts of th~ country to pay tribute to one who was a great leader and also a man of the people.