Mohandas Gandhi's life has so many aspects to talk about and criticise that it cannot be covered in a single article, so in this piece we will be focusing majorly on Gandhi and his Brahmacharya.
Gandhi’s embrace of Brahmacharya that included abstinence from sexual relationships began when he was in his late 30’s and they were part of his experiments with truth, and they did not stop with abstinence. He wanted to verify if he was able to control his temptation in a real-life situation: being unclothed with naked women in his presence. Furthermore, it was not a one-time experiment. Instead, it became a routine practice which he shockingly carried out with his underage grandniece.
Undoubtedly, Gandhi wanted to demonstrate to the world that he had gained mastery over his senses, temptations, and shortcomings of the mind. With unabashed pride, Gandhi disclosed the details of his experiments to his associates on numerous occasions and had no desire to keep it a secret.
Why place these young women in such disgusting situations? If Gandhi’s defense was that he did not engage in actual sexual relations,it is still not justifiable.
Making the argument that these women did not protest has no merit whatsoever, because victims of childhood sexual molestation recognise and respond to the horror much later in life or they find expression in different forms.
Apart from his celibacy blunders,
Gandhi even believed that if the force of non-violence was strong enough, the hearts of the Nazis would have melted.
Great
ReplyDelete