“A new ‘Gandhi’ shakes India” is the headline a British newspaper carried on Thursday, referring to the popular support that has sprouted all over India in support of Anna Hazare, an anti-corruption activist. When Hazare, a self-proclaimed Gandhian had initiated his fast earlier this year, he himself marketed it as a second call to independence. Just like Gandhi, Hazare also lives a simple life dedicated to chastity and public service. He wears only khadi, hand-spun cotton and a Gandhi cap and lives in a small room in a remote village in Maharashtra in western India called Ralegan Siddhi. But the similarity with Gandhi possibly ends there.
