Category: Mohandas K Gandhi

Gandhi – The Sexual Pervert

Hagiography

When I consider Gandhi the man as I know of him from readily available published sources, I am led to the conviction that he must have been a tortured soul. As a kind-hearted human, I am moved more to pity mixed with revulsion at who he was than I am to condemnation and hatred of the man. But at the same time, I cannot excuse neither his actions nor ignore their terrible consequences. Whether he intended the horrors he perpetrated on a vast scale or not, what he did eventually resulted in immense horrors. I am convinced that he is the most evil man in human history, bar none.


I have no training in abnormal psychology. The only training I claim is in economics, a much popularly misunderstood discipline (a state of affairs the blame for which rests on economists alone.) The disclaimer is that it is quite possible that I don’t know what I am talking about here. But I leave it to you, gentle reader, to decide that. This is a blog post, not a paper submitted to a peer reviewed scientific journal. As we say in the US, you gets what you pays for. Continue reading “Gandhi – The Sexual Pervert”

Mohandas K. Gandhi – The Saint of India

Gandhi’s role in India’s independence

MK “Mahatma” Gandhi’s birthday is one of only three national holidays in India (the other two being Republic Day and Independence Day.)[1] Indians are taught that it was Gandhi’s non-violent non-cooperation movement that led to India’s gaining freedom from the British empire. There, in that one sentence, you get two blatant falsehoods for the price of one.

First, the British gave up their Indian colony not because of Gandhi but because it was no longer profitable to hold on to India, and on top of that colonialism was losing its appeal among the European powers following the Second World War. Clement Atlee, in response to a question about the role of Gandhi in India’s independence, replied, “Mi-ni-mal.” It is likely that Subash Bose was the real instrument of India’s independence from the British.[2] Continue reading “Mohandas K. Gandhi – The Saint of India”

Cheers

Like many an evening, today I raise a glass to the end of a disastrous social policy in the United States on this day in 1933. The wiki informs us thusly:

The Twenty-first Amendment (Amendment XXI) to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which had mandated nationwide Prohibition on alcohol. The Twenty-first Amendment was proposed by Congress on February 20, 1933, and was ratified by the requisite number of states on December 5, 1933. It is unique among the 27 amendments of the U.S. Constitution for being the only one to repeal a prior amendment, as well as being the only amendment to have been ratified by state ratifying conventions.

The lesson is simply this: human nature is not perfectible. People are people. Retards will retard. And impose suffering on others because they’re convinced that their will overrides individual freedom.

Here’s a piece on 6 Things We Learned from Prohibition — except that the policy makers  did not really learn that prohibition does not actually work. The baptists and bootleggers win, and everyone loses.

Modi wins and India loses. I raise a glass of alcohol in opposition to Gandhi and Modi today. Cheers.

S Gurumurthy is a True Gandhian

Kerala floods have washed up more than the debris and garbage you normally expect. It has revealed S Gurumurthy to be a true Gandhian.

Here’s a tweet of his that Gandhi would have approved of.

Continue reading “S Gurumurthy is a True Gandhian”

Jinnah, the Realist v. Gandhi, the Delusional Megalomaniac

When a fist fight breaks out between two people, the first step is to immediately separate the two combatants. Bystanders quickly pull the fighters apart and effectively stop the escalation of violence. This action is prompted by intuition and basic common sense. If two people can’t ever get along, it makes no sense in forcing them to be in each other’s faces. This idea that people who cannot get along should be separate is not exactly quantum mechanics. But somehow it seems that the great celebrated Mr Mohandas Gandhi could not — or would not — understand it. His one-time friend and fellow Congress leader, and later the leader of the All India Muslim League, Mr Mohammed Ali Jinnah, understood that idea very well. Clearly Jinnah was intellectually superior to Gandhi (which, I hasten to add, does not elevate Jinnah’s intelligence very much) and certainly more rational.

Below is an excerpt from a speech that Jinnah: Presidential address by Muhammad Ali Jinnah to the Muslim League, Lahore, 1940.
Continue reading “Jinnah, the Realist v. Gandhi, the Delusional Megalomaniac”

Happy Gandhi Jayanti

Shri Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, also known as the “mahatma,” was born on this day October 2nd in 1869. Popular opinion associates Gandhi with non-violence. I differ. I believe that poverty engenders more violence against innocent humans than any other single cause or condition. Perhaps he genuinely was against violence but what Gandhi achieved resulted in unimaginable violence.
Continue reading “Happy Gandhi Jayanti”

What Would Gandhi Do?

That’s the question that my friend CJ asked me. I don’t know, I replied. I am not a Gandhian. We were discussing yesterday’s bomb blast in the reception area of the Delhi High Court which left as of last count 11 dead and scores injured.
Continue reading “What Would Gandhi Do?”

Hitchens’ Review of Lelyveld’s book on Gandhi

The July/August issue of The Atlantic magazine has a review of Lelyveld’s book by Christopher Hitchens — “The Real Mahatma Gandhi.” An absolute gem of a piece, it has to be read. Excerpts below the fold. Also, I have blogged about the book and the banning of the book on this blog.
Continue reading “Hitchens’ Review of Lelyveld’s book on Gandhi”

What Joseph Lelyveld Said About Gandhi

I have not read Joseph Lelyveld’s book on Gandhi. Of course, neither have any of those who are heaping invective upon Lelyveld’s head for having written the book. I will probably borrow the book from the library one of these days but for now, it is good to hear the man himself explain what he attempted to do in the book. Michael Krasny’s Forum on KQED had him on in the second hour of the show today. It was enlightening, as Forum almost always is. Check it out.
Continue reading “What Joseph Lelyveld Said About Gandhi”

Ban on the Gandhi biography in Gujarat

The chief minister of Gujarat, Shri Narendra Modi, is a hero of mine. That does not mean that I approve of every position he holds. In the case of the banning of Joseph Lelyveld’s book, “Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India,” I most certainly do not agree with Narendrabhai. What is more, I will not hesitate to tell him so. I am a free speech fundamentalist. Banning expression is the start of a journey the destination of which is something akin to an Islamic state which orders the murder of novelists and cartoonists.

Listen: Joseph Lelyveld talking about his book on KQED Forum.