Exactly 75 years ago, on January 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi remained in world history as a “great soul” (“Mahatma”). The Indian politician was one of the leaders of the Indian independence movement from British colonial rule. For the fact that Gandhi preached the principle of non-violent struggle, he is still revered throughout the world. However, some aspects of his biography are still controversial. Let’s take a look at the most controversial of them.
Was Gandhi friends with Adolf Hitler?
Statement: Mahatma Gandhi and Adolf Hitler were friends. Evidence can be found in Gandhi’s letters to Hitler, which begin with the words “Dear friend” and end with “Your sincere friend.”
Factcheck DW: False
The statement that Gandhi wrote two letters to Hitler is in itself true. One letter dated July 23, 1939, the second – December 24, 1940. This fact is documented, including in the writings of Gandhi himself (Vol. 76, p. 156 and Vol. 79, p. 453). However, nothing in the letters indicates that Gandhi and Hitler had any kind of friendship. Gandhi, in his first letter, urges Hitler not to start a war, and in his second, when the Second World War has already begun, he urges him to strive for peace. However, the letters never reached the dictator. According to various sources, including Indian American historian Vinay Lal and American political scientist Kelly Ray Kremer, the British prevented their delivery.
The appeal used by “dear friend” Vinay Lal, who has done a lot of research on Gandhi, explains to DW as follows: Gandhi believed that although people can do monstrous things, they are not monsters themselves. “So, Gandhi had a reason why he addressed Hitler that way in his letter,” explains the UCLA professor.
The political scientist Kremer, in his scholarly paper, also categorizes the salutations and closing wording of the two letters as typical of Gandhi. Treating one’s opponent with respect and kindness was part of Gandhi’s founding stance on non-violent struggle, “satyagraha”.
Was Gandhi a racist?
Statement: Many posts on social media accuse Gandhi of being biased against black people. Due to similar accusations of racism, the statue of Gandhi was removed from the campus of the University of Ghana in 2018. In 2020, after protests organized by the Black Lives Matter social movement “(Black Lives Matter”), thousands of people in London signed a petition demanding that the Gandhi statue in that city be taken down.
Fact check DW: The statement is misleading
Gandhi lived intermittently from 1893 until 1914 in South Africa, most of which was then under the control of the British Empire. There, the young lawyer became an activist in the fight against injustice and discrimination, which, however, he initially saw only in relation to the white population in the Indian diaspora in South Africa. Gandhi did not stand up for the black population, but rather looked down on them, as can be seen from his writings.
In the first volume, on page 410, Gandhi writes something like this: “Our life is a constant struggle against the humiliation that the Europeans are trying to impose on us, reducing us to the level of” raw coffee “(respectively in English kaffir is a term formerly used in South Africa to refer to blacks whose racial discrimination intensified during the late colonial period and during apartheid, – approx. Ed.). Their main occupation is hunting, and their only ambition is to collect some cattle to buy themselves a wife, and then to live their lives, and further engaged in hunting and raising cattle, in idleness and nakedness.
Historian Vinay Lal explains: “If someone asks if Gandhi was a racist, the answer, related to a certain period of his stay in South Africa, will be yes.” A similar opinion is shared by other experts, in particular Ashwin Desai and Ghulam Wahed, who criticized Gandhi for this in their book “South African Gandhi”, published in 2015.
Renowned journalist and Gandhi biographer Ramachandra Guha also in an article in Telegraph India writes that Gandhi in his 20s was undoubtedly a racist. However, by the mid-1930s, while still in South Africa, he stopped describing blacks as inferior to Indians, and later advocated for their equal rights, which is confirmed by several examples given by the biographer.
The opinion that Gandhi later got rid of his prejudices is shared by the historian Vinay Lal. Further evidence of this is that in 1936 Gandhi received four African Americans in his Ashram. Gandhi said he believed that the next great phase of Satyagraha, non-violent resistance, would be led by African Americans.
According to the historian, there are several points to consider when evaluating early biased claims. “He was worried about the possibility that the Indian diaspora, which until now was in the social hierarchy between whites and blacks, could lose their rights and be on the same level with the latter.” And according to Lal, no one ever asked Gandhi to become an advocate for black people in South Africa. And if he did, then surely many would consider it too presumptuous of an act.
Gandhi’s later stated goals were peace and equality for all people. The quote attributed to him goes something like this: “I also do not believe in inequality between people. (…) The idea of the superiority of one person over another is a sin against God and man.”
Most experts come to the conclusion that Gandhi changed his original ideas. Later, Gandhi was a great inspiration for black freedom fighters like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King.
Mahatma Gandhi and the Dalai Lama met in London
Statement: A photo of Gandhi in London with a child dressed in Tibetan clothing, allegedly the Dalai Lama, is published on social networks. They are said to have met in the British capital.
Factcheck DW: False
The picture shows Gandhi and the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet. But it’s a photomontage because they’ve never met. The original photo of Gandhi at 10 Downing Street in London is from Getty Images and is dated November 3, 1931, a few years before the birth of the Dalai Lama, who was born in 1935 according to his official website.
You can also find the original photo of the Dalai Lama as a child there (the second photo in the article is on this link).
Analysis of the photo with special software also showed that the image was manipulated. When extraneous content is added to an existing image, it usually leaves visible traces. Analysis of the image shows that the figure of the Dalai Lama appears lighter than the rest of the image.
In an interview with Hindustan Timesone of India’s largest English-language daily newspapers, the Dalai Lama also confirmed that he “only met Gandhi in his dreams.”
Gandhi slept with naked women in his old age
Statement: Many Twitter users claim that Gandhi, in his old age, slept under the same blanket with young women – both he and the women were naked.
Fact check DW: the statement is correct
For decades, Gandhi practiced “brahmacharya,” a lifestyle of sexual abstinence. By his own admission, he had not had sexual intercourse with his wife Kasturba since 1901.
Several sources and Gandhi himself claim that after the death of Kasturba in 1944, he began to bathe and sleep in the same bed with very young naked women. In volume 94, on page 137 of his Collected Works, Gandhi writes: “I may have touched thousands and thousands. But my touches were never obscene.”
For Gandhi, this was a way to test the steadfastness of his abstinence and willpower. These experiments are also mentioned in the diaries of Gandhi’s great-niece Manu, one of the women. It is certain that Gandhi slept naked in bed with women. As far as is known, sexual intercourse between them never happened.
Another issue is the evaluation of this approach. In an interview with the Times of India, historian Kusum Wadgama criticizes Gandhi for abusing his position while in power and using women for his experiments.
However, the historian Vinay Lal considers it important to consider that all three women involved – his great-nieces Manu and Abha, as well as his personal physician Sushila Nayar – belonged to his closest circle and were therefore well acquainted with the way of thinking. and Gandhi’s beliefs.
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