New Delhi, April 23 -- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi may have become a figure of derision and diminishment in a growing politico-cultural constituency in India but he never fails to astonish even through a cursory scrutiny of his lifelong preoccupations.

For instance, while reading Gandhi on Trusteeship in a 40-page booklet published by Navjeevan Publishing House of Ahmedabad, I came across a remarkable exchange between him and his personal secretary Pyarelal Nayyar.

The exchange took place in 1942 during Gandhi's last detention in Poona, now Pune. Gandhi was 73 and Pyarelal 43. I seriously wonder whether any leader today engages in a discourse of this quality with anyone, let alone their personal secretary. Equally, which leader has a pers...