Ink Notes

- By Keshava Setiur *

(Keshav Setlur analyzes Gandhi's handwriting and gives a detailed explanation of his personality. According to Mr. Setlur Gandhi was simple and relentless in his work. Gandhi's qualities of truth and compassion are also easily seen.)

Gandhiji's Handwriting

"Gandhiji's handwriting highlights two great aspects of his personality simplicity and relentless determination.

Gandhi's greatness was his simplicity. His handwriting reflects a person of forthright and honest nature. The covering loops in the middle zone show a man of spontaneous and outspoken disposition. The 'i' dots that frequently occur as fine dots near the stem signify honesty and patience in his personality. Such was his simplicity that in the word, 'sympathy', we find the rounded 's' which literally stands for sympathy.

This spontaneity, however, did not suggest lack of caution. The separated 'd' down stroke shows a certain deliberateness, which means that he liked to work at a pace which suited his comfort, and his goals. many of his leading out lines (which follow the baseline, far after the words have ended) emphasise a man of caution.

This man, though frail in body, was by no means weak. In fact, the heavy endings in the letters, and strong down strokes in the 'g' indicate a person of high determination. The 't' bars, which end heavily while going slightly downward, indicate self-control and a strong will power. This indicates a person who wielded the power to dominate. It was probably his broad-mindedness, sympathy and benevolence that made him a lovable dominator.

Wide spacing between the letters indicate broad-mindedness in his personality.

Gandhi thought fast (denoted by the high degree of connection between letters, and the 't' bars of the previous words being used to start the following words and in the right-wardness of some of the 'g' ending strokes), which, combined with his deliberateness, indicates a person who was fast and thorough. At the same time, he was never reckless in his actions, as is shown by the upward curving, leading out strokes in the middle-zone letters such as 'n'. A tendency to be formal is shown in the occasional arcade connections used in words like 'f' and, of course, in his signature.

Leanness in the upper-zone loops indicates a person who was alert and agile in his mind. All the same one does not need to look hard to find the lines crashing into each other repeatedly which indicates a person who seldom learnt from his mistakes!

His refined literary and cultural leanings stand in the delta 'd's that he do so often used. Also emphasizing this is the frequent usage of the fluid 'g'.

Being unemotional, fair and objective in his thoughts and deeds was obviously not beyond him, which is reflected in the sharp-pointed 'n's and angular (albeit wide) 'm's. For the most part, he was a person who believed in logic, shown by many words which have a high degree of connectivity.

All in all, he was a strong, frank and benevolent person, with enough integrity to stand by his principles.

Source: Life Positive Plus, October-December, 2002

* Keshava Setlur has done his MBA from the University of Michigan, USA. He is a graphologist, currently working in Chicago.