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Non-violence and football

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON DEC. 26. The ultimate in corporate branding has happened with Mahatma Gandhi appearing on a new line of sports t-shirts being promoted here as "ideal Christmas presents for fans who like their football deep".

For £18.99, you can order online a designer t-shirt with Gandhiji's image on the chest and your name on the back, but you need to be pretty big to wear it because it comes only in the extra-large size, which the great man himself would have found rather baggy.

The company behind this marketing gimmick calls itself Philosophyfootball.com and has chosen Gandhiji as a means of promoting non-violence on the football field or what it calls "winning a tackle" through Gandhiji's "non-violent methodology". Its website quotes the Mahatma as saying: "First, they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

Gandhiji, who dismissed modern civilisation as an "interesting idea" when asked what he thought of it, would have been amused at this commercial exploitation of his image and philosophy, but Gandhians might like to find out whether any copyright is involved here. But he is in distinguished company, sharing "honours" with Marx, Gramsci, Nietzhe, Sartre, Che, Mandela and a host of other philosophers, thinkers and revolutionaries. They also figure in a book which speculates what they might have achieved had they chosen to play football.

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