Why we need objective, balanced, constructive and non ideology-driven assessments of great or famous people

 

Let us begin this article with a brief study of Mahatma Gandhi. Who was Mahatma Gandhi?  Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi  (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was a famous and a highly influential Indian freedom fighter who employed non-violent methods to lead the campaign for India's independence from British Rule, and later inspired movements for civil rights and freedom indifferent parts of the world such as the USA and South Africa. He was also known as Mahatma, the great soul, or Bapu, meaning father. He had a rare ability to galvanize masses into action, and unlike Jinnah, was truly a people’s leader. He stated on several occasions, that he was a man of the masses, and could never be an intellectual, and this he remained for the rest of his life.

He was born into a reputed Hindu family in Porbander, Gujarat in India, and trained in law in England in the 1880’s. Gandhi first used nonviolent civil disobedience in South Africa, where he was practicing as a lawyer. After his return to India in 1915, he began his fight for India’s freedom in real earnest. He took up leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921 and led nationwide campaigns for achieving independence from British rule.

The family's religious background was eclectic and syncretic. Both Gandhi's father Karamchand and his mother Putlibai were staunch and devout Hindus. His mother came from the Krishna bhakti-based Pranami tradition, whose religious texts included the Bhagavad Gita, the Bhagavata Purana, and a collection of fourteen texts with teachings that included the essence of the Vedas, the Quran and the Bible. These helped reinforce his concepts of secularism from a very early age. The Indian classics, especially the stories of Shravana and King Harishchandra, had a great impact on Gandhi in his childhood. In his autobiography, he admits that they left an indelible impression on his mind. He married in 1883, at the age of fourteen, and left for London in 1888 to study law. After he completed his law in England, a Muslim merchant Dada Abdullah offered Gandhi a job as a lawyer in South Africa. In April 1893, Gandhi aged twenty-three, set sail for South Africa to be the lawyer for Abdullah's cousin. He spent twenty-one years in South Africa, where he developed his political views, outlook on ethics and politics. He faced heavy discrimination in South Africa due to his skin colour. He was often not allowed to walk on footpaths, and was often asked to remove his turban. He was also kicked out of a train for boarding a first class compartment, and spent the whole night shivering on a railway platform. At a mass protest meeting held in Johannesburg on the 11^th of September of 1906 to protest against compulsory registration of Indians, Gandhi adopted his methodology of Satyagraha or devotion to the truth, and nonviolent protest, for the first time. In 1910, Gandhi established, with his friend Hermann Kallenbach, a community called “Tolstoy Farm” near Johannesburg where he developed his policy of peaceful resistance.

Gandhi returned to India in 1915. Gandhi joined the Indian National Congress and was introduced to Indian issues, politics and the Indian freedom struggle by Gopal Krishna Gokhale. Gokhale was a very important leader of the Congress Party known for his restraint and moderation, and Gandhi took Gokhale's approach and modified it to produce aunique flavour. In India, he proved to be a people’s person and fought on behalf of farmers in Champaran in 1917, who were forced to grow Indigo by the British. In 1919 after the World War I was over, Gandhi sought political co-operation from Muslims in his fight against British imperialism by supporting the Khilafat movement. This won him Muslim support, but alienated many Hindus. In 1919, he began the Satyagraha civil disobedience, with people assembling to protest the Rowlatt Act. In 1919, British officers opened fire on an assembly of unarmed people, peacefully gathered, participating in a Satyagraha in Amritsar. Gandhi took complete leadership of the Congress in 1920 and began to fight for India’s freedom.

Gandhi expanded his nonviolent non-co-operation movement to include the Swadeshi movement – the boycott of foreign-made goods, especially British goods. He asked Indians to wear Khadi instead of British-made textiles. Gandhi exhorted Indiansto spin their own Khadi. Gandhi also urged the people to boycott British institutions and law courts, to resign from government employment, and to forsake British titles and honours. Gandhi led the 400 km Dandi Salt March in 1930 to protest the salt tax, and later launched the Quit India movement in 1942. He was imprisoned on many occasions, in both South Africa and India. He lived in an ashram in Sabarmati, Gujarat. He ate simple vegetarian food, and often undertook fasts for self-purification and political protest.

The British government, represented by Lord Irwin, agreed to negotiate with Gandhi. The Gandhi–Irwin Pact was signed in March 1931. The British Government agreed to free all political prisoners, in return for the suspension of the civil disobedience movement. According to the pact, Gandhi was invited to attend the Round Table Conference in London for discussions and as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress. However, British resistance against Indian independence increased in the 1930’s, and Gandhi launched fresh Satyagraha in 1936 after a lull.

Gandhi's dream of an independent undivided India was challenged in the early 1940s by Muslim nationalistswho were demanding a separate Muslim homeland carved out of India in Muslim majority regions. In August 1947, Britain granted independence, but the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two dominions, a Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. The partition witnessed massive bloodshed as millions of people migrated to both sides. Hindu Nationalists believed Gandhi was partial towards Muslims, and followed a policy of appeasement. He was therefore assassinated by a Hindu fanatic, Nathuram Godse on 30th January, 1948 due to the pressure he mounted on the Indian government to transfer Rupees 55 crores to Pakistan. Mahatma Gandhi’s idealistic approach, was therefore seen to be at odds with Hindu interests, and Hindu chauvinists seldom understood him.

Gandhi was also influenced by thinkers such as Tolstoy, Ruskin and Thoreau.Gandhi's philosophies evolved with time, and his early ideas became the basis for his later philosophy. His ideas also changed with the cultural context, and some saw him as being disparaging towards blacks in his early years. Gandhi's London lifestyle also reinforced the values he had grown up with. Books that influenced Gandhi most in South Africa were William Salter's “Ethical Religion” ; Henry David Thoreau's “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience”,  and Leo Tolstoy's “The Kingdom of God Is Within You” . Ruskin inspired him to live asimple life on the Phoenix Farm in Natal and then on the Tolstoy Farm outside Johannesburg, South Africa. Other theories of influences on Gandhi have also been proposed, including John Ruskin, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Gandhi was also influenced by the teachings of the Swaminarayan tradition of Hinduism. According to Raymond Williams, he was also influenced by Jainism, particularly by Shrimad Rajchandra, and by Madame Blavatsky. Gandhi had also studied the Bible and the Qu’ran while in South Africa, and was also acquainted with Sufism.  All these reinforced his tolerant views which he held throughout his life. However, most of his ideas were based on Hindu philosophy, particularly the Upanishads.

He was heavily influenced by the Bhagawad Gita, which he quoted often. His favourable views towards Muslims were based on his study of the Qu’ran. In addition, he read popular books by Charles Dickens, Edward Gibbon, John Ruskin, Jonathan Swift and others which reinforced a cosmopolitan outlook. Indeed, there were stellar achievements and accomplishments of Mahatma Gandhi. No matter what people say, he did play a major role in India’s freedom struggle, though it would be fallacious to say that he was the only freedom fighter India ever produced. Many people from many different walks of life, and many different parts of the country laid down their lives for India’s freedom.  Gandhi was revered even during his own life time. The title of Mahatma was given to Gandhi by Rabindranath Tagore, the famous Nobel prize winning Bengali poet, author, and philosopher. Tagore first used the title in a letter to Gandhi in 1915, writing, "To the one whom India's millions call Mahatma - to him my grateful homage." Later, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose even referred to Gandhi as the Father of the nation.

Criticisms of Mahatma Gandhi

The following are the criticisms against Mahatma Gandhi, and several allegations were leveled against him throughout his life. Gandhi’s views on Blacks or kaffirs as he called them were highly controversial to say the least. Gandhi at least in his early and formative years, thought that blacks were inferior to whites and Indians. Some people also thought he believed in the notion of an Aryan brotherhood, according to the tenets of which, he believed that Indians were superior to blacks. Gandhi, while in South Africa, kept the Indian struggle separate from that of the Blacks, even though Blacks were denied political rights as well like the Indians. According to Dr Ọbadele Bakari Kambon and others, Gandhi had little contact with Africans then and did not even bother to understand their sensitivities. From today’s perspective, some of his statements in the first two years of his employment are unpardonable and can attract government action. However, his views must certainly also be understood in the context of the prevailing views at that time, when racism were common. Gandhi’s views on the matter are said to have changed after 1906, when he underwent a transformation and a metamorphosis of ideas. Mahatma Gandhi also played a role during the Boer War of 1899-1902 when he founded an Ambulance Corps of around 1100 volunteers in support of the British. He misread the British, and thought his support would make them more sympathetic to the Indian cause. This did not turn out to be true. Many years later, he would send Indian troop to the Second World War, while at the same time supporting non-violence.

Gandhi also supported the Khilafat movement with pertained to the restoration of the Caliph in Turkey, which had nothing to do with India. Gandhi believed this support would draw Muslims closer to the Indian freedom struggle, and foster Hindu Muslim unity. Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar and others criticized Gandhi severely on the matter, and the critics of Gandhi’s overtures towards the Muslims included some Muslims themselves. Several decades later, India would be partitioned. This effectively meant that Gandhi’s strategy had failed. It is even sometimes said that Gandhi failed to admonish Moplahs for the Moplah rebellion and the Moplah massacre of the Hindus, putting Hindu Muslim unity above everything else.  Gandhi also, it is said, failed to criticize the murder of Shraddanadha in 1926 by Abdul Rashid in the strongest possible terms, even though he did praise the former by calling him a martyr. Gandhi views on the caste system were initially orthodox, though he did change his position on the matter after 1922. He also later went on to fight untouchability. He was also known for his experiments on celibacy, and sleeping naked with his nieces on bed.

Dr BR Ambedkar was a trenchant critic of Mr Gandhi. According to one statement made by him, “The politics of Gandhi is hollow and noisy. It is the most dishonest politics in the history of Indian polity. Gandhi was the man responsible for eliminating morality from politics and instead introduced commercialism in Indian politics. Politics has been denuded of its virtue.” He also accused him of intellectual dishonesty and double dealing. However, there is valid criticism of Ambedkar as well. It is said that Ambedkar. never fought for the rights of scheduled tribes. Ambedkar also never contributed in a major way to the Indian freedom struggle. This is why we need objectivity in research, and in evaluation of great people. Firstly, research is used by other downstream researchers, and we must not spread misinformation. Achievements of individuals also need to be recognized for what they are. Lastly, people should not be demotivated under any circumstances. Ideology-based criticism is a strict no. rather unfortunately, that has become the bane of contemporary research, and must change under any circumstances.