‘Mahatma’ is probably the only person in recorded history of human civilization who nurtured a saintly imagery for himself veiling his entire life loaded with deceit and duplicity while writing ‘My Experiments With Truth’, being anointed ‘Father Of The Nation’ of an ancient nation which is impossible to have been ‘fathered’ by any human mortal. The aureole around his persona was created to be so strong that generations believed, Bharata attained freedom from British yoke of slavery by the dint of Ahimsa, Charkha, goat milk, watery Khichdi and Multani-mitti from a regime that was so brutal, so inhuman, so exploitative that even wildest faculties of imagination cannot dream of attaining freedom through ‘Mahatma’s ‘Standard Operating Procedures’ of Ahimsa and Satyagraha. ‘Mahatma’ was shrewd enough to perceive sensivities of Bharatiya masses, tap all that surrepticiously so as to eviscerate real War Of Freedom that was being fought by revolutionaries like Mangal Pandey, CS Azad, Bhagat Singh, Khudiram Bose, Netaji Bose, Lokmanya Tilak, Vinayak Savarkar etc. etc. As Bharata has always been an Adhyatmic nation, ‘Mahatma’ picked up attributes like only Dhoti to wear, fasting stubbornly to bully Hindus, moving around with Shrimadbhagvad Gita, ascetic life-style etc. to successfully arouse mass sentiments in his favour.
Almost at every national and international event name of ‘Mahatma-Bapu’ is invoked, generous eulogies offered, every visiting dignitary is directed to visit his ‘Dargah’ known as Rajghat, all his belongings howsoever petty are preserved at Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad to be excavated and minutely studied by eminent archaeologists centuries down the lane. Generations ahead, people will not be able to believe so easily magnitude of such a monumental hoax created and embedded into Bharatiya psyche by occupying British-brutes in cahoots with Indian National Congress, then followed even by parties peddling diametrically opposite political philosophy out of sheer political compulsions. There are some enlightened ones who compare him with Gautama Buddha with several commonalities like Ahimsa, desertion of his young wife into first of its kind Brahmacharya never seen or heard before, imagery of a renunciant and all that bla bla. They must know that Gautama Buddha had attained Samadhi of the highest order while Gandhi had to lean on two female shoulders to ‘experiment’ with his Brahmacharya. There can never be a gaffe so macabre as this one.
By all accounts and narratives, ‘Mahatma’ was an ardent admirer of the wisdom enshrined in BGita, his declared source of inspiration. After going through his work ‘My Experiments With Truth’, speeches, actions…I am sure, his knowledge of BGita was strictly limited to Chapter-1 only wherein Arjuna revealed his delusion and frailties, abjectly wished to surrender before renouncing to Himalayas. He didn’t move even to Chapter-2, forget about Chapter-18 wherein call to battle Adharma was heralded by Mahayogi Vasudeva Shri Krshna. Had he read BGita till Chapter-18, possibly he himself would have become a warrior like Raja Suhel Deva, Maharana Pratap, Shivaji Maharaja; might have sacrificed himself like Hutatma Mangal Pandey who triggered intense battle and Brit-Goras had to run away from the country leaving behind the nation absolutely free of British occupation for almost two months in 1857.
When British-occupiers of the country were preparing / mobilising everything at their command for World War-II, ‘Mahatma’ told Viceroy Linlithgow, “Let them (Germans) take possession of your beautiful island, if Hitler chooses to occupy your homes vacate them, if he does not give you free passage out, allow yourself, every man, woman and child to be slaughtered.” So, it is not that he advised only Hindus to allow themselves to be slaughtered like goats so explicitly, “Hindus should not harbor anger in their hearts against Muslims even if the latter wanted to destroy them. Even if the Muslims want to kill us all we should face death bravely. If they established their rule after killing Hindus, we would be ushering in a new world by sacrificing our lives. None should fear death. Birth and death are inevitable for every human being.” Such a deep understanding of Ahimsa and BGita overlooking loads of contradictions !!! That’s why they adore him so much albeit only overtly !
‘Mahatma’ being thrown out of I-Class compartment from a train in South Africa is loaded with contradictions. With his dark brown face, how could he buy I-Class ticket from a white SAfrican booking clerk across the window ? Why was he allowed to enter the compartment by white South African TTE guarding entrance of the I-Class compartment, a normal practice ? Why was he thrown out instead of being packed to III-Class compartment of the train ? Entire episode of ‘beginning a new historic chapter’ appears to be riddled with infirmities as he used to study in London along with Brit-whites, stayed in hostel with them and used to share meal in a common mess. Was London not racist at all, wise enough to pursue Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam like us, then ??!!
As uniformed Sargeant Major, ‘Mahatma’ had worked in Ambulance Unit of racist white South African regime of British Government and actively participated in Black & White battle on behalf of whites against Zulu tribe. He ‘begged’ his white British masters to allow Indians to participate in World War-I, recruited large number of Bharatiya-s that led to his being conferred upon ‘Kaisar-i-Hind’ in 1915. In ‘Mahatma’s own words of 1920, “no Indian has cooperated with Britishers than I have for an unbroken period of 29 years of my life” in the book ‘South African Gandhi’. In fact he has been accused of complicating the dispute so much so that a peaceful solution became almost impossible for the apartheid South African regime which inspired British occupiers to engage him to complicate matters in Bharata burgeoning with revolutionary crusades then, so motivated by a missionary CF Andrews.
Netaji Bose was scheduled to address public in Delhi on March 20, 1931 on capital punishment of Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru and Sukhdev. When British-India Home Secretary HW Emerson alerted ‘Mahatma’ about it, was assured of all assistance by ‘Mahatma’ in his letter to the Home Secretary. The correspondence is now in public domain that smacks of his perfidy indefensibly. Netaji Bose rightly commented that Gandhi and large number of Congree leaders were compromised.
‘Mahatma’ declared in ‘Harijan’ on Jan. 30, 1937 to the effect that he was against proselytization, “It is impossible for me to reconcile myself to the idea of conversion after the style that goes on in India and elsewhere today. Why should a Christian want to convert a Hindu to Christianity ?” Abjectly poor, undernourished, malnourished Hindu-s languishing in utter penury, were left at the mercy of missionary-wolves to feed on a ‘harvest of souls’. He didn’t bully the last Mughal Nehru to adopt appropriate measures to ban conversions through his dubious fasts after ‘at the stroke of mid-night’ drama.
When M. Vishveshvariah seated himself in the chair offered by the’Mahatma’, he chuckled and commented uncharitably on MVs suit, gold handled cane and gold watch. While MV explained to him that if all our countrymen thought like him then all would sit on the floor while foreigners would rule ove us ensconced in their thrones. ‘Mahatma’ used to pamper himself with a buggy-ride on way to meet British Viceroy, outright infiltrator into the country. And ‘Mahatma’ was a freedom-fighter too, simultaneously !!
‘Mahatma’ experiments of ‘Khadi Brahmacharya’ with young women including his grand-niece are too reprehensible in nature to be described by anyone having an iota of propriety. While he was persistently advised to refrain from those outrageous ‘experiments’ by Congress stalwarts, he was consistent in pursuing all that till eternity.
His sense of patriotism raised its head only in 1915 at the age of 46 while by the age of 25 Veerangana Lakshmi Bai, Khudiram Bose, Bismil, Bhagat Singh and CS Azad had already become martyrs !! His Ahimsa destroyed Champaran Andolan much to the relief of British-occupiers instead of leading from the front to its logical end. Every Andolan was deflated by the ‘Mahatma’ through his catastrophic Satyagraha and Ahimsa.
He never ventured to recite BGita within precincts of masjids but went to the extent of calling Police to protect him while reading Koran in Mandira-s of Delhi to provide solace to people.
He egged on Government to pay Rs. 55 crores to Pakistan in spite of vehement protests by the then Union Home Minister Sardar Patel. He warned Government to go on fast for his demand of contructing a 15 Km. wide corridor with a 10 Km. wide Pakistani zone on both sides. However, he did not embark on ‘fast unto death’ to stop horrifying partition in spite of his commitment to that effect.
‘Mahatma’ strongly disliked ‘Ghar-Vapasi’ being pursued by Svami Shrddhananda, justified murder of the Svami by a jehadi fanatic, regarded ‘Satyartha Prakash’ most disappointing book in the world, blamed Arya Samaja for publishing ‘Chaudavin Ka Chaand’ in response to ‘Krshna, Teri Gita Jalani Hogi’, didn’t allow all Muslims to migrate to Pakistan, 4 lakh Hindu refugees were not allowed to shelter in empty masjids of Delhi in spite of chilly weather, didn’t allow Govt. money to be spent on renovation of Somnath Mandira (Cabinet resolution was reversed) albeit appealed to Govt. to renovate masjids, supported Nizam, advised Maharaja Hari Singh of Kashmir to proceed to Kashi etc.
Throughout his political career, ‘Mahatma’ undertook seventeen rounds of fasts spanning one to twenty-one days owing to various reasons and succeeded in his demands being conceded only in three cases. However, he did not undertake fasts to prevent Partition-1947, installation of Sardar Patel as Prime Minister, against Jallianwala Bagh genocide, to prevent revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh, Sukhdeva, Rajguru from being slaughtered by bestial British brutes or to stop snatching away of food grains from Bengal homes leading to famines and lakhs of deaths by Winston Churchill, the then hard-core racist British Prime Minister.
Being declared ‘Mahatma’ in 1922 by British-intruders, he was lodged in a two room ‘studio-apartment’ at Aga Khan Palace during imprisonment at Pune with his daily food intake consisting of 250 grams. of bread with butter, 1.25 Kg. of goats milk, four oranges, two lemons, 50 grams. of raisins and soda, cozy mattress to sleep on, stroll in fluffy lawns, write his memoirs on expensive British paper and move around in Mercedes Benz.
The man who is credited with attaining freedom for Bharata said something like this with his entire conscience at his command, “What’s wrong with having Union Jack in corner of our flag? If harm has been done to us by British it has not been done by their flag & we must also take note of virtues of the British. They’re voluntarily withdrawing from India.” ‘Mahatma’s ‘Home Rule for India’ allowed the option of naturalisation of British oppressors, “Now you will have seen that it is not necessary for us to have as our goal the expulsion of the English. If the English became Indianised we can accommodate them.” When retorted that it was impossible for Englishmen to be Indianised, he revealed his very high opinion about them, “To say that is equivalent to saying that the English have no humanity in them.” British brutes having humanity !! O ‘Mahatma’, where art thou ?
Who will resolve the riddle of ‘Mahatma-Bapu’ walking so briskly during Dandi-march that his followers had to run after him to catch up while he required two female shoulders to lean upon on way to daily ablutions and prayers ? Poor people emaciated to their bones, were brutally beaten with Brit-lathis without meltdown in ‘Mahatma’s heart.
A black and white photograph in his Kathiavad home exhibits his wife Kasturba washing his feet. So feudalistic, so patriarchical was ‘Mahatma-Bapu’ !!
‘Mahatma’ used to say, “A satyagrahi will always wish to be killed by an attacker, but will not wish to kill anyone”. Whereas even the smallest creature on earth fights for self-defense and tries to survive on the earth, the futility of ‘Mahatma’s policy is easily conceivable.
Vaccination against Pox was a sin for the ‘Mahatma’ as he was opposed to western medical system which involved ‘violence’ of injection and surgery. In 1948, when his wife Kasturba suffered from malaria, British Government arranged Penicillin injections from London because he was a freedom-fighter too !! However ‘Mahatma’ didn’t allow it and his spouse died. On the contrary in 1922, when he had suffered from severe diarrhea during imprisonment in a ‘royal castle’, he accepted regular injections. Later for his appendicitis, he had undergone surgery too.
Once in South Africa ‘Mahatma’ compared Hindus, Christians and Islam which enraged Islamists and they brutally assaulted him on Feb. 10, 1908. Since then he never criticized them in any way, not even their most heinous crimes.
“Non-violence is the ultimate religion” was his cryptic reply to the hanging of Martyr Bhagat Singh. ‘Mahatma’ added further, “We do not want our freedom in exchange for the destruction of Britain. Country has suffered and are still suffering as a result of worship to Bhagat Singh. The execution should take place as soon as possible so that there is no hindrance to the Congress Session in Karachi on March 30.”
‘Mahatma’ had condemned Martyr Udham Singh for killing Michael O’Dyer after JBagh genocide and declared him ‘insane’. ‘Mahatma’ had declined to lay wreaths on the dead body of Jatin Das, a great freedom-fighter who was hanged in Agra while being in Agra himself then.
‘Mahatma’ had proclaimed from roof-tops, “If Pakistan is created, it will be on my corpse.” Pakistan was created, lakhs were slaughtered but his corpse was nowhere to be seen then.
‘Mahatma’ had pronounced intolerance for untouchability but espoused and loved casteism. Nobody explained to him and he could not comprehend that untouchability was born of casteism only. His love for Varnashrama, mutilated to casteism by malevolent missionaries has been quite a stark reality, “Varnashrama is inherent in human nature and Hinduism has simply reduced it to a science. It does attach by birth. A man cannot change his Varna by choice. Prohibition against intermarriage and interdining is essential for a rapid evolution of the soul.”
‘Mahatma’ had his own version of penury in Bharata as he squarely held Railways, lawyers and doctors responsible for her evisceration of national wealth, “I am so constructed that I can only serve my immediate neighbours, but in my conceit, I pretend to have discovered that I must with my body serve every individual in the Universe. In thus attempting the impossible, man comes in contact with different religions and is utterly confounded. According to this reasoning, it must be apparent to you that railways are a most dangerous institution. Man has gone further away from his Maker.”
Barrister ‘Mahatma’ squarely blamed lawyers for entire Hindu-Muslim strife, “Hindu-Mahomedan quarrels have often been due to the intervention of lawyers….men were less unmanly if they settled their disputes either by fighting or asking their relatives to decide them. They become more unmanly and cowardly when they resorted to the Courts of Law…”
‘Mahatma’s views on doctors and hospitals are inscrutable to many, “Hospitals are institutions for propagating sin. Men take less care of their bodies and immorality increases.” Therefore a doctor should “give up medicine and understand that rather than mending bodies, he should mend souls” and also must understand “if by not taking drugs perchance the patient dies, the world will not come to grief and he will have been really useful to him.”
Here is how ‘Mahatma’ opposed peasant-education, “The ordinary meaning of education is a knowledge of letters. What do you propose to do by giving him a knowledge of letters ? Will you add an inch to his happiness ? Do you wish to make him discontented with his cottage or his lot ?”
He enlightened the world as to why our forefathers did not manufacture machinery though they could very well, “…our forefathers knew that if we set our hearts after such things, we would become slaves and lose our moral fibre…decided that we should only do what we could with our hands and feet, our real happiness.” Can spinning wheels substitute textile mills ?
‘Mahatma’ had some uncharitable comments on Parliament, categorical in his venomous rejection “That Parliament has not yet of its own accord done a single good thing; hence I have compared it to a sterile woman…It is like a prostitute because it is under the control of ministers who change from time to time. The Parliament is simply a costly toy of the nation.”
‘Mahatma’s knowledge of foreign affairs was quite extensive, “If you believe that because Italians hold Italy, the Italian nation is happy, you are groping in darkness. What substantial gain did Italy obtain after the withdrawal of the Austrian troops? The gain is only nominal…India to gain her independence can fight like Italy only when she has arms…and to arm India on a large scale is to Europeanise it, as pitiable as that Europe. This means, India must accept European civilisation…but the Indian nation will not adopt arms and it is well that she does not.”
So, that’s ‘Mahatma’ Gandhism. Railways, lawyers, courts doctors, western education, industries, parliamentary democracy, all be damned, must disappear. He relied on ‘Soul-force’ as the only force to be relied upon, zero-resistance to violence, crimes of any order etc. constitute Gandhian philosophy. However, ‘Mahatma’ was considerate enough to concede natural demise of all these and not outright destruction, “I am not aiming at destroying railways or hospitals, though I would certainly welcome their natural destruction. Neither railways nor hospitals are a test of high and pure civilisation. At best they are necessary evil….”
In response to a question whether he was anxious to accept complete control of armed forces, he pontificated, “I think we are entirely ready to take up the whole control of the Army which means practically disbanding three fourths of it. I would keep just enough to police India.” Years later, Nehru too said the same thing as second Prime Minister of India, first being Netaji Bose.
‘Mahatma’ was highly opinionated about Afghan tribals who existed on loot and plunder, “When the Charkha comes into force in India, I would introduce the spinning wheel among the Afghan tribes also and thus prevent them from attacking the Indian territories. I feel that the tribesmen are in their own way God-fearing people.”
So confidently did he declare, he would proceed to Himalayas if there was violence. There was a riot but he didn’t go, excused himself by proclaiming that if that occurred a second time, he would go !! Second riot too occurred but he didn’t budge an inch. People cracked jokes, he would go only when riots become universal in the country.
Eminent historian RC Majumder wrote about him, “The victory garland of India’s independence around Gandhi’s neck would be to make fun of the truth and will be ridiculed with the truth. It would be utter nonsense to say that he brought freedom with satyagraha and Charkha.That is why calling Gandhi a ‘Hero’ of freedom will be an insult to those freedom fighters who shed their blood for the freedom of the country. ”
“Gandhi was the best policeman the British ever had in India.” – Ellen Wilkinson, British MP and Member of Cabinet 1945-47
“Gandhi is the most successful hypocrite in the world” – Nirad C. Chowdhury.
Aurbindo said, “India will be as independent as it can get rid of the ideology of Gandhianism.”
Netaji Bose once remarked, “Whenever Gandhiji took up any movement on the orders of the British, he would start a hunger strike to suppress his Satanism or to divert the attention of the people of the country.” ‘Mahatma’s hunger strikes, Satyagraha and imprisonments were planned by Brits. He undertook only three Satyagraha operations in all, abandoned mid-way and we are taught, he brought us freedom from foreign fetters.
Clement Richard Attlee, who had signed Declaration of Independence of India as British Prime Minister, visited Bharata once in 1956 and told Governor of West Bengal in response to his question as to why they decided to leave Bharata so early, “Because of Netajis military activities, a revolt against the British Raj was brewing between the Indian Army and Navy. They were no longer loyal.” When egged further to reveal the role of ‘Mahatma’s non-violent movement, he smiled sarcastically at the corner of his mouth and said “Minimal”.
Only if all his shenanigans could be brought back into public domain and shared widely, his entire holistic aureole would waft away into oblivion by the breeze of ‘Satyameva Jayate’ forever.
References –
(1) ‘Ambedkar vs Gandhi’, ‘Gandhiji’s misdeeds’, ‘I am Subhash speaking’, ‘Subhash has not returned home’,
(5) Autobiography ‘My Experiment with truth’ by MK Gandhi
(6) ‘Hastantar’ by Sree Shankar Ghosh & Nirod Chowdhury and
(7) ‘Gandhi and Anarchy’ by CS Nair
(8) Historian RC Majumdar’s and various other books.
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