<<<<<< I doubt if a Pakistani propaganda site can be trusted to do an impartial analysis of Gandhi's life, work and legacy. ---- Mandeep Singh Bajwa > http://rupeenews.com/2008/03/08/the-unknown-gandhi-his-military-service-debunking-the-movie-shedding-light-on-support-for-colonialism-empire-racism-and-hindu-religious-dogma/ ======================================================== Mandeep, it's simply another point of view - not necessarily true or accurate in every respect. There are thousands of Indians who also don't rate Gandhi too highly. The Hindu Mahasabha-wallahs, for instance. One of their card-holder members was a famous Marathi author of yesteryears - the late Pu Bhaa Bhaaway (P B Bhave). He never missed a chance to denigrate Gandhi. He was a fiery orator and rather scurrilous journalist. He used to blame Gandhi with a passion for the partition of India and wrote columns against him, between 1940 and 50. One of Bhave's famous pieces of those times is entitled ''Sahdevaa, jaraa agni aan'' (Sahdev, bring some fire). It's a literary masterpiece -- ostensibly, a lament. Yudhi'sh'thir, the first of the five Pandav brothers (from the epic Mahabharat), asks his younger brother Sahadev to bring him some fire, so that he (Yudhi'sh'thir) can burn alive the impotent and helpless seniors and elderly relatives like Bhi'shm, who had watched without protest the attempt to forcibly disrobe (''vastra-haran'') Draupadi (wife of the Pandav bothers - it was a polyandrous marriage) by Du'shaasan (one of the 100 Kaurav brothers - paternal cousins of the Pandavas) at the Royal Court in broad daylight and in front of the King himself and hundreds of his cowardly courtiers. He also wants to burn Du'shaasan's hands for touching Draupadi's saree. Bhave masterfully used this ancient episode as an extended metaphor or allegory to denounce Gandhi for being a mute spectator while India was being partitioned. In an editorial around the same time, for his journal ''Aadesh'', he lampooned Gandhi as a senile sex-starved pseudo-saint who ''everyday roams naked in the comapny of two naked young girls to see how much control he has over his sexual instincts'' (as he was just then experimenting with self-imposed celebacy). Bhave said he wasn't against the experiment per se. But he objected to its timing. It was shortly after 15 August 1947, Bengal was burning, but instead of using his influence to pacify the riotous mobs, Gandhi was indulging in this senseless, untimely experiment - and what's more, gloating over it in public, according to Bhave. Well, what I'm saying is, all this is old stuff. So let's just be objective, and hear the other side also (''audi alteram partem'', as we lawyers say). The other side may not be true or correct, but let's leave it at that. After all, all this is in hindsight, and whatever is said, it doesn't have to affect our own opinion or point of view. I think, to someone like me - born in independent India and years after Gandhi's death, this seems to be the ideal way to understand history. ----- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India