It’s hard to imagine what anyone can have against Gandhi. He was entirely harmless. He didn’t hold political power and never forced anyone to follow his beliefs. One might question some of his principles, but no one who’s read “My experiments with Truth” can deny his sincerity in following them.
And yet with his birthday in 2010, there are those with whom Gandhi has fallen entirely out of fashion. Mainly with India’s right wing (and before anyone complains, that’s not an insult. I’m using the phrase “right wing” as generally understood and as defined by Wikipedia. So don’t take offence when none is intended.)
I’ve heard him called a rogue, the destroyer of India, a traitor, a betrayer and what not. Of course, the virulent right wing elements are a minority compared to the rest. But if you listen to these people, you get the picture that Gandhi had horns and slithered around on his belly.
There are many who idolize Nathuram Godse – the crazy fellow who was against Gandhi and who assassinated a defenseless man with a gun. To me, actions speak far louder than words. Never mind what Godse stood for. If the end result is the killing of a someone who never preached violence and never harmed him or anyone else, I want no part of what he was smoking. Such people point to the speech he gave in his defense. Even a cursory reading leads me to wonder if was entirely sane. Here’s a small extract:
All this reading and thinking led me to believe it was my first duty to serve Hindudom and Hindus both as a patriot and as a world citizen. To secure the freedom and to safeguard the just interests of some thirty crores (300 million) of Hindus would automatically constitute the freedom and the well-being of all India, one fifth of human race.
Say what? You mean as long as Hindus are happy, it doesn’t matter if Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis, Muslims and Jains are miserable eh? I get the feeling Godse would have gladly sided with Hitler. After all, as long as the non Jews and fully naturalized Germans were happy, then automatically Germany will be happy no?
Here’s another beauty:
This conviction led me naturally to devote myself to the Hindu Sanghtanist ideology and programme, which alone, I came to believe, could win and preserve the national independence of Hindustan, my Motherland, and enable her to render true service to humanity as well.
Beware of the man who recommends only one way of thinking to the exclusion all others. He’s either god himself, or a fanatic.
Now I may not agree with everything Gandhi said. I’m not sure ahimsa or non violence would have helped the Jews against Hitler for example and he himself agreed that if ever violence were acceptable it would be against an evil of that magnitude. But that doesn’t mean I don’t understand his main argument. That violence breeds more violence. Even violence for a just cause. It’s a double edged sword that merely deflects the injustice to another group of people if at all.
It’s ironic that when the entire world admires Gandhi and the president of the US has a portrait of him in his office, he’s attacked most in his own country. Gandhi was a man who led a movement of the kind the world has never seen. As a member of humanity, I gotta admire the guy irrespective of his nationality.
Interestingly I’ve noticed that the same people who hate Gandhi also hate Mother Teresa! One day I’d like to find out the real cause of this connection. It’s so absurd and out of whack that the explanation must be equally strange. Perhaps someone can enlighten me…
what bhagat singh had done for india??? just thro a bomb in assemble and got punishd thats it… hw people can compare that man with gandhiji’s… if u read ghandi irwin pact than u would come to know there were other matters were too important rather than saving bhagat singh who was arrest coz of violence…
people dont respect gandhiji who did alot for indians as polition and as social worker bt respect anna n his team who copy gandhiji…
You are pretentious douche bag….
Who the fuck are you man….
Why should people read what you write….
This should be banned from google search….
Am not gonna waste my time commenting of the pathetic charade of publicizing blog and being in protective shell…..
In reply to mo.insane
Please don’t read what I write! Did I force you to click on a link and keep your eyes open as you read this?
Personally I dont find anything wrong with Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings or his beliefs.But had he followed his ahimsa to the very end we would still be in servitude to the British.It was not necessarily his ahimsa that caused the British to shake in their boots but World War II going on the European front.His policies though excellent before had deteriorated to senility on his part during and after the partition.Personally i felt what Nathuram Godse did was the right thing but however his method was very wrong which resulted in the slaughter of other brahmins.He should have actually used Gandhi’s own weapon against him………fast unto death.He would have been wholeheartedly supported by the entire nation which was vehement in its dislike of the mahatma’s near senile policies.
I detest Gandhi’s role in the moralizing of women (and many other things). Some of his rather public stands on the honor of women, etc did not help women’s rights in our country. The idolization of vegetarianism, celibacy, non-violence among other things, created another kind of “one approved way” kind of thinking. There are many kinds of violence. Gandhi is also responsible for some of the most cruel acts that did not involve physical beating.
Take his vow of celibacy for example. Kasturba was not consulted in the matter. Take the issue of refusing Kasturba medicine for another. Incidentally, he did get treated by a foreign doctor when he was ill himself. This kind of appalling control over wife with utter disregard for her as a human being was echoed about two other women followers, when they got harassed. He shaved their heads. This doesn’t work for me.
Mother Teresa found “spirituality in suffering”. Unfortunately, it was her spirituality and the suffering of the poor. It is absolutely no secret that she glorified poverty, deprivation and suffering. There are many exposes of her including those by doctors and people who began as ardent followers on things like lousy conditions in hospitals she controlled directly, often lack of pain medication, no separation between terminal and curable patients, funds donated to hospitals being routed to the church for missionary work, deathbed conversions to “save souls”, while patients lacked necessities and more. You get the theme. The care was spiritual advice and nursing, but this doesn’t automatically mean it was human. Ignore this for a moment. You may not believe without research. While Mother Teresa lived, remember photos. Always surrounded by squalor. How come? She was world famous. Got many awards, donations were flowing in. People literally worshipped her. Why was she living and working in appalling conditions?
There are fairly categorical accusations, none of which disputed by the Missionaries of Charity.
Among the religious politics, if you remember that priest whats-his-name shielded by the Vatican and God only knows who else, who is currently facing jail and dozens of cases for pedophilia, he had been put out of commission some two decades ago, but Mother Teresa asked for him to be reinstated. In spite of the “unfortunate” accusations – pedophilia – then too. The man continued to be among Mother Teresa’s most trusted, including respected as the second most after her, in her hospitals.
Mother Teresa was anti-contraception, anti-abortion – which is fine, which is a stance and individual view. But she was against abortion for victims of rape too. And a big part of excessive moralization and social taboos around the subject. You know what that implies? When refugees of hideous rapes were flooding in from Bangladesh in 1971, this was among the leadingly available medical resorts to people, and it equated abortion by traumatized, devastated women with murder. This I cannot excuse. It is one thing to have a personal belief and quite another to expect women who have lost it all, been attacked beyond belief to have the children of those who attacked them unless they wanted to be murderers. This is psywar on a whole new ugly.
George Orwell nailed it.
In reply to Vidyut
You make lots of great points Vidyut. Especially those relating to Gandhi’s personal views which I find abhorrent as well.
Yet, I doubt if these were the reasons why Nathuram Godse killed him. When most people hate on Gandhi, they don’t talk about his personal views but about how he “betrayed” Hindus and India etc. And how Godse was awesome for murdering him.
No matter how repugnant a person’s views, I don’t think they deserve to die for them.
I don’t know whether Gandhi is good person or not. But my life and views changed a lot after I started reading him. His auto-biography has changed my mind, thoughts, life in a positive way. Our people just don’t read or analyze anything. They simply blame Gandhi for all disasters.
In reply to V. Narendra Kumar
You read his auto biography in that you would have read his worship for peoples outside india. Do you read why Government of India had suppressed information about Nathuram Godse, His court statements, letters etc why.
I don’t refuse Gandhi’s theory of non-violence. He may be a saint but he is not a politician. His theory of non-violence denies self-defence and self-interest. The non-violence that defines the fight for survival as violence is a theory not of non-violence but of self-destruction. The division of the nation was an unnecessary decision.There was no need for a separate nation. Had it been a just demand, Maulana Azad would not have stayed back in India. But because Jinnah insisted and because Gandhi took his side, India was divided, in spite of opposition from the nation, the Cabinet.
“An individual is never greater than a nation.”
“”When Gadhi was shoted there was a feeble sound like ‘aah’ Gandhi did NOT say “Hey Raam” at that time – it’s just made up stuff ….. Read why he was killed that is more truthful than Gandhi auto biography.
In reply to vinay
You may disagree with his ideas, but that is no reason to kill a man who never harmed anyone else.
Gandhi was never a father of India, he did good jobs in foreign, but still it was not for India, he was in politics, and he was a 100% politician, he was always an CONGRESSIAN. his decisions caused death of many peoples.
I think as an author you are pretty biased, reality is MK Gandhi was biggest curse to India till date, even bigger demon then Britishers. Now before you raise suspicion on my IQ, i am product of IIT-Delhi and Havard Business school, Boston with years of experience in global strategy and consulting.
Do you know what happened to Hindus in Bengal and Punjab when partitioned happened, Gandhi was a shrewd politician who manipulated and made fools of Indians in those days, his so called non violence didn’t served good to cause of nation, truth is Military became rebellious towards end of World war 2 and this all was only because of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, who died in a prison in Siberia because MK Gandhi and Nehru were afraid that if Bose came back to India, nobody can stop him, Go and do some research first, this was claimed clearly by British prime minister of those times that Gandhi’s contribution is minimal, Gandhi must have read history of Islamic invasion but still his policy was of appeasement, it had no impact on Jinnah but poor and foolish Hindus succumbed to Gandhi’s pressures.
Muslims can’t be appeased by anybody, third war war will be based on this premise because when someone just believes in self supremacy that person/religion is very dangerous. Gandhi imposed his beliefs on everybody especially Hindus who fell prey to his tactics, they should have been iron willed to not surrender to fasts and should have make sure that all Muslims should have gone to Pakistan, so that 2 nation theory was fair to both sides. Till date this policy of appeasement continues and i am dead sure, no matter how much appeasement is done to Muslims including offering of there heads by Hindus, Muslims can’t be happy, they are pretty aggressive, Deeds of Aurangzeb and Hind Kush were before Gandhi ; who knew all this, Actually Gandhi made fool of people who trusted them.
If i was present in those days including all the knowledge i have today, i would have made sure to get close to British empire just to save Hindus. Nobody judged how big a demon was Gandhi including Netaji Bose. Real patriotic nationalists died or were sidelined and the person came to fore front didn’t even liked India and Indians, this person was Nehru, his foreign policy towards china, special status of Kashmir, absence of uniform law in India, institutionalized demolition of all government institutes from first day itself are proof.
Till date; my country people are dying because of these two demons MK Gandhi and Nehru. Gandhi was responsible for killing of Bhagat Singh because MK Gandhi didn’t bargained in Irvin-Gandhi pact, MK Gandhi at best was stooge of Britishers who installed him at top to make fool of Hindus. I really feel very emotional and sad that Netaji Bose didn’t ruled India in first 15 years, my country would have been different. I know so called pseudo seculars like you will keep on negating as what Muslims did to Hindus and will always bring Babri Masjid ( a recent phenomenon) and Gujarat riots (started based on killing of Kar sevaks ) to limelight but truth is no matter how much you try, Muslims can’t coexist with anybody, it is simply not there way of living , look at whole world and this will be reason of background context of World war 3, some stupid Indian military people will again die because they won’t undertand ultimately what is point in dying if fruits will be enjoyed by some self proclaimed demons (example is MK Gandhi and Nehru- his inheritors down the line who ruled India for 60 yrs and thus are responsible for all problems of country period, common Hindus/Military people are not shrewd and politician like Gandhi. The way Lenin statue was broken after fall of USSR , i hope i see day in my life when same treatment is given to all statues of MK Gandhi, the biggest scam artist of Modern times.
Other day my uncle who is renowed doctor asked a Muslim women in Delhi, you already have 8 kids, why do you need 9th, she replied with anger, who will take control of all Hindu properties in your area. This was mentality in 7th century, 16th century in times of Babar later on Aurangzeb, Ghazni, Gauri, times of MK Gandhi(read Naokhali genocide in Bengal), Nehru and even today, and practically Barbarians win and Hindus will be wiped out, i wished Nathuram Godse should have done his act 10 years earlier, he would have saved millions of life.
Jai Hind
In reply to RK Sharma
You should only physically harm someone who has directly harmed you. Did Gandhi attack Godse? No. Then Godse was wrong to harm Gandhi.
Bhagwad,
Then what about Police men, Soldiers protecting the country, it is not necessarily that every one should harm the other person physically, if one goes with your argument then even in modern scenarios, Prime minister Manmohan Singh has not harmed anybody (no problem if nation has lost money in 2G scam, Coal gate, CWG, airport scam etc etc), even lalu didn’t harmed anybody in his famous Chara scam, it is another story that he brought misery to Bihar by his technical and sophisticated acts for years, CBI was never able to prove any case against any politician in India and all of them are millionaires and billionaires, Note that most of these politicians didn’t harmed anybody physically.
Always remember people at top harm with there wrong policies, ideologies and imposing there opinions on others, this is what Gandhi did, nobody asked him to fight for independence he did what he wanted to with his own mindset (he sidelined most patriotic people India could have ever produced, selfless people like Bose, Bhagat Singh etc) and Godse did what Godse think was right in his own mindset, you will realize this in next 10 yrs, India will continue to pay for mistakes of Gandhi, JL Nehru, just wait and watch. India is complex society and diversity doesn’t work anywhere, even in America i saw it working because common and strict laws are imposed on all sections of society, no privilege to anybody including Muslims. Motto is ” you are in our land, so follow our law, period, don’t like it fine, go back to where you came from”. I am sure World war 3 stage is setting and this time it will be Jews plus Christians on one side and Muslims on other, no body can use sword to suppress everybody all the times, truth is Hindus in India will be squeezed when this final confrontation takes place.
Anyway i can’t change your opinion, you are entitled to yours and you can’t change mine, in my eyes Gandhi was an evil demon whose misdeeds generations of Indians will continue to pay with there blood. He was more dangerous then Britishers, TSunami, earthquakes and i have read literature of Gandhi in detail before coming to this conclusion also.
Finally don’t take it personal, i don’t hold anything against you, i just want that freedom of speech means counter views points should also be allowed to come in limelight, whenever someone wants to speak his/her mind against MK Gandhi and Nehru, comments are censored or person is called stupid or a mob is lynched against the person. Again typical Indian hypocrisy.
Thanks.
In reply to RK Sharma
Policemen are supposed to arrest criminals. Not kill them without provocation. And the army isn’t supposed to kill any citizens either. How can you compare them to civilians?
I don’t get your point. Are you saying that these politicians should be killed? If so, I disagree with you most strongly. If they’ve broken the law, they can go to jail. Killed? Never. This is a civilized country. We don’t go around killing people randomly.
Finally, I have no issues at all with you saying what you think. So relax :)
He was a peaceful person and no matter how you say it, hate is hate. I recently heard a young woman saying nasty things about Gandhiji, calling him a “sinner”. She was based that on a youtube video & some religous reasons. It’s just disappointing to see how hate breeds more hate, especially in this day & age. Those same people could learn a lesson from him if they stopped hating him. Great writing, keep up the good work!
Gandhi is psycho politician, (He is politician) he will do anything to prove his words to be TRUE.
Nehru is an Asshole.