India, 1942:
In the end, the political demise of
Mohandas Gandhi came with stunning speed. Until last week, he was the reversed
Mahatma--the Great Soul-- leader of 400 million Indians in
the drive for independence from British colonial rule. With the election of the
Labour Government in Britain increasingly likely, chances never seemed brighter
for the free Indiathat Gandhi
But by week's end, in the wake of newspaper
accounts of Gandhi's sexual peccadillos, bizarre personal
habits and mind-bending cult practices, his career--and perhaps Indian
nationalism --lay in ruins. Those closest to Gandhi likened it to a Greek
tragedy, a giant cut down by his own hands. "Gandhi's personal life was a
political time bomb waiting to explode,' said one distraught associate.
"Now it's finally blown up in our faces.'
Ironically, Gandhi set the stage for his demise
through his own pronouncements on sex. His obsession began in 1885 when he
learned of his father's death while in bed with his wife. By 1906, he had taken
a much celebrated vow of celibacy.
An extraordinary commitment, but even then Gandhi was angling for moral
loopholes. "If for want of physical enjoyment,' he wrote, "the mind
wallows in thoughts of enjoyment, then it is legitimate to satisfy the hungers
of the body.' For years, supporters now admit, Gandhi had pushed the outer
limits of propriety. "The man in the loin cloth, it seems, has thought a
good deal about loins,' said one observer.
After years of such rumors, it was the specific
nature of the latest charges, followed by other damaging revelations, that
undermined his political base. The shock waves were felt throughout the British
empire--and new questions were raised about how relevant a politician's
character was to his work, and whether in the case of Gandhi, the Fourth Estate
went too far.
A Spiritual Experience? The trouble began a week
ago when the New Delhi Herald published a front page story reporting that
Gandhi had spent the weekend with five attractive young women--aides in his
nonviolent campaign--at his ashram in Sevegram. Meanwhile, his wife Kasturbai
was 2,000 miles away at their mountain retreat in Kashmir recuperating from an
illness.
Political
opponents moved quickly to capitalize on the gaffe. Columnist Robert Novakilli,
a longtime
Gandhi critic, lambasted Gandhi's hijinks from his nationally
broadcast McRajan Group. "The real perversion is Gandhi's political
agenda. For years, he and his pacifist pals have had two things in mind:
tinkering with the salt tax and cozying up to Stalin.' And his most formidable
rival, Moslem leader Muhammed Ali Jinnah, sought to subtly position himself to
pick up Gandhi's fleeing supporters. "Family life has always been sacred
to me,' he told reporters, standing outside his family's mosque with his wife
and daughter. "I don't think it's my place to comment on the controversy
surrounding some of those in the public eye. It's up to the Indian people to
judge for themselves.'
And their
judgment seemed harsh. Within a matter of days, the squalid controversy over
Gandhi's private parts turned him from a national hero into a laughingstock. On
his nightly radio program, comedian
Charu Carson quipped, "Well, at least we know the Mahatma is
big enough for the job of running India.' He added, to more laughter, "I
guess he was really meditating his brains out this weekend.' Editorial
cartoonists had a field day, as a bulging loin
cloth quickly became the Mahatma's new trademark.
In the
next few days more revelations came trickling out about other celibacy
"experiments' he had been conducting since his forties, including one
report of a pleasure trip down the Ganges with Nehru and two female assistants
on the awkwardly named Holy Cow. The Post also revealed that at the end of each
day, he had one of his attractive, young female disciples administer an enema,
which he insisted was for "health' and "cleansing' purposes.
"Gandhi gives as much as he takes-- even to total strangers,' said one
Gandhi aide.
New Ground
rules: Gandhi's sudden demise triggered an orgy of self-examination in the
media. Did the press go too far? "At first, I agonized over whether we
should risk tarnishing a great man's reputation with close-up photos of naked
women and speculation about his sex life,' said Ved
Now the question is: Whither India?
In his stead, there are other leaders who could possibly win independence for
India--the Moslem Jinnah, or even Vallabhaai Patel--but neither has the stature
and name recognition of a Gandhi. Non-violent disobedience seems a memory now.
And nationalism itself is on the backburner. As the likely next Viceroy of the
Raj, Lord Louis
Mountbatten, points out, "If an entire nationhypocrite,
the Indian people are not yet ready for independence.' Wise heads in India and
Britain agreed, and with Gandhi's political demise, a tumultuous
chapter in India's history closes, and calmer times
lie ahead.
could be led down the primrose path by this charlatan and
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