Mahatma Gnadhi, the Fahter of our Nation said "My life is my message" and his public life was such an exemplary one. World looked upon him as a role model to be followed and always turned their attention to him as to a spiritual leader, as crisis confused. The wonderful contributions he gave to the world have enlightened the humanity greatly. The ideas of non-violence and peaceful means of protest really captured the minds of the people around the world who had similiar suffering under colonial powers. He has been hailed as the great soul of India, an embodiment of human rights and creed of non-violence. People really praised him and canonised him. Such was his public life- a clean image.
Still like anyother popular figure, Gandhi is also spared not from blame. Rivals have spared no pains to stone Gandhi. They came not with one but nearly a dozen black dots they have found in his character and life. Some of the accusations are the following
- Gandhi exploited the Dalit: Gandhi took special interest to uplift the Dalit. This downtrodden caste was always in the heart of Gandhi. He stood for them. He called them God's people. However, according to his enemies he was pretending. In the name of upliftment he was exploiting them and had entered politics gaining their sumpathy and affection. He did practically nothing for the Dalit. Some leaders went to the extent of calling him a "hypocrite, just fooling innocent people"
- Gandhi was Hindu extremist: Though Gandhi appreciated all religions, he was spreading the Gita, observes opponents. He said the Gita was his guide. Apprecitaion of all religions was a way to please the followers of all religions.
- His friends were rich people: Gandhi was against industrialisation. He was concerned about the poor. He was in favour of our traditional economical structure as the majority of Indians were poor with cultivation as their livelihood. But his friends were capitalists. Gandhi stayed many time in Birla Bhavan.
- A lustful man: "Gandhi walking keeping his hands on two women is a common picture. This might be the reason which has forced the opponents to comment on Gandhi so. In Sabarmathi women was at Gandhi's service.
- A fake monk: Gandhi was neither a monk nor a politician in the full sense. He said, "my aim is to spritualize politics". He was between a monk and politician.
- Making people gini pigs: As Gandhi was writing his autobiogaraphy, under the title"My Experiments with Truth", his eldest son Harilal Gandhi ridiculed him saying, " he is not experimenting with truth but experimenting with people making them mere ginipigs".
- Inconsistent teaching: Critiques show some glaring disparities in his teaching. In the early years of his public life Gandhi said "there should not be any inter-caste marriages", later he said, "there can be", and towards the end of his life he said, "there should only be inter-caste marriages".
- Gandhi was responsible for the partition of India: The contributions of the Muslim community towards freedom movement were practically nil till the beginning of 20th century. Except for the Ansari brothers and Khan Abdul Gafar Khan, there was nobody to support the freedom movement. Later Jinnah became the leader of Muslim League. He understood that eminent persons were entering politics and he and his party would be considered only as tertiary. When it came the time to select the Prime Minister of India, Gandhi asked Gopalakrishna and Achariya Srivastva to get permission from the congress to select Jinnah as the Prime Minister. Gandhi wantted include Muslim also in the nation building process. Hearing this Srivastava fell unconscious. It was unbearable for them. Disparity arose in the Congress against Gandhi. On the otherhand, the efforts of Gandhi to please the Muslims fell flat. The Muslims never recognised him as their leader. Now the desparate Gandhi was in the middle. Thus India got partioned.
- Gandhi was not a good father: How can a man who failed to be a good father to his son, be the father of a nation? Gandhi's elder son Harilal Gandhi was very clever and bright. In her book, 'Gandhi's Lost Jewel: Harilal', Nilam Parikh, the maternal granddaughter of Harilal, talks about their relationship. Harilal wanted to study abroad, but Gandhi had no money. Then one man came forward offering help. But Gandhi, instead of sending his son abroad, sent another young man using the money that had been offered. From then on their realtionship started moving in opposite directions. He had no special consideration for his family. He considered everybody alike. He had always a path fro his son to follow, set unilaterly by him.
In his book, 'Gandhi: a Sublime Failure', S.S Gill says, "practically none of his major projects succeeded". He led two great satyagrahas and neither could achieve any of its declared objectives. He gave Hindu-Muslim unity the highest priority. But the Muslims never recognised him as their leader. He strove all his life to remove untouchability, but the untouchables did not accept him as their well-wisher.
Gandhi was good man, a well wihser of all. Truth was his way. But he was living in extremes. What he considered a virtue became a vice, as the practice was extreme. According to Aristotle, "virtue stands in the middle", that means it is always a balance between two extremes, which are not virtues. For e.g. courage taken to the extreme of foolhardiness ceases to be a virtue. Gndhi was led by a super ego, wishing high perfection everywhere. But he was earnes in doing good. Unfortunately, no prophet is acclaimed in his own country.
Gandhi was good man, a well wihser of all. Truth was his way. But he was living in extremes. What he considered a virtue became a vice, as the practice was extreme. According to Aristotle, "virtue stands in the middle", that means it is always a balance between two extremes, which are not virtues. For e.g. courage taken to the extreme of foolhardiness ceases to be a virtue. Gndhi was led by a super ego, wishing high perfection everywhere. But he was earnes in doing good. Unfortunately, no prophet is acclaimed in his own country.
