Written by: Arpan Acharya - 23010, Grade XI
Posted on: 10 March, 2022
We all are familiar with the name Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi well known as Mahatma Gandhi. He is known as a god man, a legend and the man who had contributed hugely for the independence of India. Late Mahatma Gandhi is still alive in the hearts of the Indians as a father figure. We can prove it by the national honorific tag that he has been given, “Bapu”.
All these years Mahatma Gandhi has been portrayed as a great soul, in result the newer generation without looking back at the history follow the trend and praise Mahatma Gandhi. This is a case of absolute blind devotion and to make it right we have to unveil one’s face in different angles to know whether he is actually a good person or an evil.
I see Mahatma Gandhi as a hypocrite. Gandhi, the person who was promoting the philosophy of non-violence and peace throughout his life later, urged Indians to participate in the World War supporting the British Army in combat. Basically, he helped the Britishers employ Indian soldiers to die for the British Army in WWI. Secondly, Gandhi requested the British to allow the Indian soldiers to fight for the British during the Boer War in South Africa. The reason behind the request might shock you. He said that he made that proposal in order to give Indians the opportunity of a “thorough training of warfare”. You say Gandhi, I hear irony! Gandhi was also one of the prime politicians who accepted the partition of India. We know that the imperialistic philosophies of the British were really violent and here we got to know that Gandhi was never preaching his own ethos of non-violence. I see this as a loyal and ever ready servant of the British.
One of the famous tales of Mahatma Gandhi was that he used to sleep naked with his grand-niece “Manu” who was a minor, experimenting his practice of ‘Brahmacharya’ [celibacy] I feel very depressed what would have gone through the mind of Manu when an old man sleeps naked in front of her eyes on the same bed. Such activity involving a minor is a criminal offense and truly not preaching nonviolence. He was in his elderly period when he used to this, I mean even at such an old age if a person needs to experiment with celibacy or controlling lust is a fact that proves that he was definitely not the person that we are hearing about till date. All I know is Gandhi is the perfect example of hypocrisy being at its best.
