I never thought I would be writing in defence of Gandhi. For a long time in college I viewed him as Indiana Jones in The Raiders of the Lost Ark – we were shown a great story and he was the main character, but the end result would have been exactly the same without him. India would have gained independence as the Empire divested itself.
Except of course, he decided who was in charge, set the tone for independent India, inspired various other freedom/rights struggles and maybe the British would not have released the rest of the empire without India going first. They didn’t let go of Malaysia till 57, Rhodesia till 64, HK until the lease was up, and they still cling on to the Falkland islands. Not forgetting the resulting apartheid regimes in Zimbabwe & SA.
The Hindu right wing has always been upset with Gandhi, this is unsurprising and the political drift has worsened over time with the Congress squatting squarely on Gandhi’s legacy. Yet, happily, no harsh moves have been made over the BJP decade to degrade his stature, or any public space erasure.
Instead what is new, is the attacks from the liberal left. Cancel culture loves skewering cultural heroes out of time and context. They are constantly rewarded on social media for it.
I came across this article on substack – Gandhi was a creep. It is time we stop pretending otherwise and saw all the cheering, the love, the clapping by so many liberal leaning Indians. The Guardian does it too quoting from Ramachandra Guha.
Except they both lack context. And so I clipped on my keyboard and rode out to defend the strangest and hard to defend thing Gandhi did. I do feel it deserves some discussion though, not merely one sided cheering (or defence). Let the readers of BP hold court.
https://indosaurus.substack.com/p/in-defence-of-gandhis-creepiness
I’m going to straightforward about Gandhi. I don’t like the guy’s politics, economics, cultural ideas, etc. In fact if I would be much in line with prime opponent Savarkar ideologically. But the idea that Gandhi was some kind of creep or that he didn’t matter to the character of the republic don’t really hold any real credibility towards to me. At the end of the day these are just the endlessly self-critical instincts of a western liberal transplanted onto Indian politics. I don’t think these ideas have any real space in our discussions.
One of the things I find insufferable about cancel culture is the speaking on behalf of victims.
Liberal Indians too have adopted this white saviour complex, where they insist on declaring a victim, telling them how they should feel, and finally getting outraged on their behalf with some online virtue signalling.
Great article though I am quite triggered not by the subject matter but the Author.
Oh my Lord; Serje Jordan is another Audrey Truschke or Dalyrymples.
White people who move to the Subcontinent and start loudly opining on South Asian affairs.
He is very condescending in his exchange.
Also he uses the word South Asia; but it should be the Indian Subcontinent.
Tbh I have no idea who Serge is, and I’m always wary of adding to the popularity of a specious argument by engaging in it.
Setting that aside, I wanted to observe why hunger strikes are so effective in India. The Hindu belief that self denial and iron fortitude of will can change the physical world, is strangely realised by the nation falling in line and honouring their actions.
The cockroach movement was getting nowhere until Sonam Wangchuk decided to do the Upavasa ordeal.
Gandhiji felt he could stop rioting by virtue of his Brahmachari ordeal. It was a bad idea, he quickly fell back to doing the more palatable Upavasa.
The yogic power works, but only if we all believe in it. Sort of like the bit in 1984, where you can fly, if you and everyone else believes that you can. A collective solipsism without the doublethink.