Commemorate Gandhi's Legacy With $25,000 Montblanc Pen
This week marked the 140th anniversary of the birth of Indian independence pioneer Mahatma Gandhi. And to commemorate a man who chose a life of poverty and shunned material goods, Montblanc has created a limited-edition pen with an 18K gold nib and a price of just $25,000.
The pen, in an edition of 241 (a reference to Gandhi's 241-mile tax-protest walk in 1930), also includes a 26-foot golden thread, meant to symbolize Gandhi's ascetic lifestyle, which included weaving his own simple clothing from cotton thread.
Followers of Gandhi's legacy expressed surprise over the pen. "Mahatma Gandhi advocated a simple lifestyle," said Dijo Kappen of the Center for Consumer Education in Kerala:
"He was, of course, a nationalist and, in the nature of the independence movement, the only thing he promoted was Indian-made goods. It is a mockery of the great man and an insult to the nation... to use him as a poster boy."
Kappen's group has filed a lawsuit against Montblanc to stop the pen from being sold.
Montblanc produced the pen with the endorsement of Gandhi's great-grandson, Tushar Gandhi, whose foundation has received $145,000 from the company. For each additional pen sold, the company will add aother $200 to $1,000.
Tushar Gandhi, while admitting that his great-grandfather "wouldn't have used the pen," defended it as Montblanc's "acknowledgment of the greatness of Gandhi." The pen, he said is about taking Gandhi's message of nonviolence and tolerance forward, "and what better way than with a writing instrument? In a world traumatized by violence, a pen reaffirms faith in dialogue." We kind of like that sentiment, though we think we'd probably be able to embrace the concept just as easily with a $2 Pilot VBall as with a $25,000 Montblanc.
Anger at Montblanc's Gandhi pen [BBC NEWS]
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Comments:
Who cares?
Also, people seem to forget that the great ghandi was a racist.
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@threadislocked: So a great person must be a perfect person? Your world must be very devoid of people to admire.
Considering I lose about every single pen I have on a weekly basis and end up buying new ones every weekend. I'd likely just put this in a glass case and display it and therefore never use it
but then again, who would take an 18K $25,000 pen to high school?
Think of the food, clothes, and other basic necessities $25,000 could buy. A ridiculously over-priced fountain pen stand for a decadent materialism that would have offended Ghandi. Who uses fountain pens anymore anyway, other than people signing treaties and constitutions? I thought the super rich paid others to write for them.
@witeowl:
Ghandi hated that indians were discrimated against in Africa, but then forgot all that when he was discriminating against blacks.
Ghandi believed in the caste system in africa and was pissed that the native blacks were hire up than indians. So he wanted to assist the british and help fight (that is right, FIGHT) the natives who wanted rights just so the British would give indians full citizenship rights.
Then in WWII Ghandi only offered nonviolent support to the British fighting the nazis, not because of his morals, but basically he tried to take advantage of the war and told the British that India would only help them fight the Nazis if they gave India independance. If the British gave India its independance you would have never know about Ghandi's non violent teachings because it never would have happened.
His non violence attitude was political BS.
He definately was not a great person.
@threadislocked: Everyone is always on Gandhi's nuts like he was a humanist. A nationalist-humanist is an oxymoron.
@threadislocked: and don't forget that he liked to sleep nekkid with young girls and had an obsession with enemas
@AppleAlex: To paraphrase Mitch Hedberg:
"I bought a $25,000 pen, because I kept losing them and I was sick of not caring!"
Would this be a bad time to unveil the Colt's Manufacturing Company's special commemorative handgun, the Colt .45 Pacifistmaker? Perfect for all the self-styled dispensers of Karma.
@threadislocked: And how many of the USA's historical "great men" owned or otherwise had no objection to owning slaves? Or were OK with treating women like property? I consider Malcolm X to be a great person despite his unquestionable flaws. Heck, let's not even address the evils of our ancient Greek philosophers. I even hear tell that Mother Theresa was not a very nice person.
My point remains: If you hold out for perfection, you will never find anyone to respect. Each great man or woman in our world history was working on one problem while living in ignorance of others. That doesn't lessen the overall impact.
I'm honestly surprised that some pen company has the balls to charge $25k for a pen in this economy. I can't imagine how much money I would need to have to justify this expense.
@witeowl:
Is there some sort of rule that says you have to admire an old historical figure?
Most people are d-bags. I don't really admire anyone unless I know them personally. Probably not even a handful of people on my list.
@TecmoTech: I don't think his point was whether you personally admire them or not, but rather that history admires them. And History certanily does admire, for example, Thomas Jefferson, who despite being a great political leader and such definitely owned a lot of slaves.
@TecmoTech: I agree. We should forget all people of important history so history can repeat itself. Great logic there.
@TecmoTech: Not really, I guess. But I can't imagine a world in which we don't look upon people who have made significant contributions with some sort of respect. I'm not one to mourn for anyone who wouldn't mourn for me, but I appreciate how many have made my world a better place. I shudder to think how our country's growth would have been stunted had Ghandi's methods not provided some inspiration and guidance for Dr. King.
@witeowl: Dr. King was a philanderer (whereas Gandhi wasn't as he became abstinent after his father died, though the part about the girls is true and was an exercise in self-control), but the first sentence in his entry on Wikipedia isn't "Dr. Martin Luther King was a notable adulterer who happened to become an influential figure in the American Civil Rights Movement."
@AppleAlex: I think that's how most people who buy these pens use them, which is a shame, although I doubt that this pen writes 100 times better than a $250 fountain pen (don't use them, so don't know the prices).
... who would buy it? I highly doubt that people who can afford a $25k pen would be followers of Ghandi's philosophies. I just can't see the Trumps and Hiltons of the world wanting this. There's probably no need to even oppose the pen, as it will probably bomb just fine on its own.
@ohnoes: it doesn't. you don't even need to spend $250 to get a nice fountain pen that writes well. but there are many collectors of rare fountain pens & mont blanc caters to those collectors.
to be honest, $25k is probably a steal for this pen. that may sound silly, but there will only be 241 sold - that puts it on the rare side of pens in mont blanc's collection. most of their production runs are for 4,810 - the height of mont blanc (the mountain).
@gladeye: i use a fountain pen. i like the way it writes. i'm not rich (& my pen cost me $50; not $25k).
The pen probably doesn't even write well.
Dear Marc:
Please note the spelling is "Gandhi", not "Ghandi". This article lists both spellings and the latter (which I presume are your additions) just fail to notice the correct spelling twice, within the same paragraph!
It is such a common habit to call him "Ghandi", but it baffles me all the time!
"We kind of like that sentiment, though we think we'd probably be able to embrace the concept just as easily with a $2 Pilot VBall as with a $25,000 Montblanc."
Agreed, and agreed.
I read about this in a Graduate business class...I believe it was POOR TASTE 605
@threadislocked: You're going to love my Gandhi musical comedy...it's hilarious and has a gigantic foot of Ganesh squashing all his enemies. The rest is hush hush.
Ghandi is idolized because of a lack of information flow. Ghandi was a political asshole that tried to take advantage of the nazis killing the british. He was not a great spritual leader or a nonviolent protester.
@witeowl:
Ghandi was not a nonvoilent person, only lack of commuication and twisted of stories for the 40s made him seem great.
Ghandi only came up with the nonviolent protest to resist helping the british kill the nazis. He told the british if they gave indian indepedance they would help fight.
He was a political asshole that tried to use the Nazis to get what he wanted.
@ohnoes:
Dr. King actually did what he was known for.
Ghandi was not a nonviolent protester. He became nonviolent only when the british wanted India to help them fight the Nazis. He told the British if they gave Indian indepedance Indian would help FIGHT.
Ghandi volunteer Indiana to kill native blacks in south africa in the early 1900s. He was political asshole, not a spiritual nonviolent leader as people like to pretend.
@aaron8301: Eeh, just wait a few months and you will be able to pick up a $25,000 Montblanc knockoff for about $25 in SoHo or China.
@threadislocked: Nelson Mandela started out with violent tactics and then turned to nonviolent ones. Should we remember him as a "political asshole" as well? Jews in Palestine bombed 14 bridges to force the creation of Israel. Should we remember the founders of Israel as "political assholes" as well since they supported these tactics? Or just terrorists?
Regarding that Gandhi became nonviolent "only" when the British wanted something, you're wrong. Nonviolence was adopted as a tactic when he was in South Africa, working as a lawyer. And it's strange that Gandhi became the leader of the INC in 1921, 12 years before Hitler came to power.
Considering that the British raped their colonies economically and materially, intentionally engendered ethnic and religious hatred (not only in India but everywhere they went), responded to local unrest in ways that make the final scenes of Braveheart look like an elementary school play, and did it all in the name of the "white man's burden," it doesn't strike me as odd or unfair that Gandhi would demand Indian independence as a condition of helping fight a war thousands of miles away. I am cognizant though, that the British did lay the foundation for the industrialization of India, one example being the laying of thousands of miles of rail that Gandhi would likely have opposed in his agrarian utopia.
If you're going to focus on only one aspect of an individual, then you're going to have a very skewed and ignorant perception of history. That's your right, but don't blame others if you get exploited because of it.
@AppleAlex: Micron tech pens cost $3 and write better than any expensive pen I have tried. At $3 I only get moderately annoyed when someone steals it or I lose it.
It is the same thought process as designer sunglasses. I can't imagine paying over $100 for something that I will lose or drop lens first onto the sidewalk leaving a huge scratch.
And who'd be self-indulgent and obnoxious enough to buy this?
The belongs with the Faberge junk that they are now only selling by private appointment. A total waste of money even if you could afford it.
@eirrom: I'm sure there's 241 people in the world with the appropriate intersection of cash, lack of corporate oversight, and lack of self-insight to purchase this item.
And I bet every copy of this ridiculous priced pen will be picked up by people richer than they really should be :^)
@threadislocked: I've got to ask what your cultural heritage is, since yours is such a unique way of looking at the anti-Colonial movement in India.
@threadislocked: You lost me at "Ghandi". Spell the fucking name right before trolling.
@ohnoes: If you've noticed his comments in other threads, you probably have noticed that he is a borderline troll. I mostly just ignore him.
This doesn't surprise me. Anything to make a buck. Nothing is sacred anymore. My mother has students who don't even know who Gandhi was.