The Man Called Gandhi

The Man called Gandhi

There are a lot of articles floating around on the net these days, about Mohandas KaramChand Gandhi. The name and the man more commonly (if not all that endearingly anymore) known as Mahatma Gandhi. There's one thing I find rather amusing in these, the authors' fascination with his sex life and our hypocrisy in accepting things as they were. I empathize with the author. Come on they need something to sell the book! what is it a thousand and nth biography on Gandhi..!! But what I really do find interesting, is our attitude of absolute denial. And of course how can we accept that there might be an iota of truth in what the author says, afterall it is but a brutal attack on the Indian psyche. The sheer audacity to even suggest to the largely homophobic Indian society, that the Father of the Nation might be, just might be bisexual !! Blasphemy !!

Gandhi was always brutally honest in his pursuit of truth and the truth is that Gandhi was a man. I remember reading somewhere as a child that Gandhi was an avatar of Lord Vishnu. And this is where the problem lies. We all know that is just children's' story, but as a matter of fact, we have glorified Gandhi to such an extent that he no longer remains a normal human being. All his actions have been analyzed and reanalyzed treating him as infallible and any shortcomings, any lapse of judgement on his part is a shocker. Is it so difficult for us to realize that Gandhi was just a man? An extraordinary man, but a man nonetheless. Why can't we just let him be - Gandhi - just that. We have to realize that he was not infallible. What he chose to do in his sexual life and otherwise was his business.