The real truth about Gandhi’s so-called racist views

Controversy, thy name is Gandhi. Like a shadow, it pursued Gandhi , but sometimes, he himself initiated controversy, not intentionally, but by the sheer unconventionality of some of his actions. For example, his bold experiments in “brahmacharya” (celibacy as a spiritual sadhana in pursuit of Brahman), generated a strong public uproar.

But since his experiments were conducted out in the open, Gandhi had nothing to hide, and also nothing to be embarrassed about. And yet, because his undertaking was so unusual or unprecedented, he suffered not only a strong public backlash, but also became a victim of malicious character assassination.

Most of the times, however, Gandhi was “much maligned against maligning.” The charge of “racism” is one such example of gross misinformation, misjudgment, even a maligned interpretation of his dealings with the South African natives of his time. The latest books, articles, student protests and demands to uproot Gandhi’s statue in Ghana, California, and elsewhere--are such misguided acts of scandalization. These are blatant examples of “twisting the truth,” or, of poking holes in an impeccable character of a man called Mahatma who, though not perfect, was morally mindful, conscientious, and spiritually speaking, “an ardent seeker after truth.”

Even if we agree with Prof. Rajmohan Gandhi, that “the younger Gandhi at times was ignorant and prejudiced about South Africa’s Blacks,” we must not forget that unlike most erring human beings, Gandhi had the moral courage to admit what he called, his “Himalayan blunders.” Being a votary of truth, Gandhi would not forgive himself if he kept any skeletons in his closet. He laid bare all his weaknesses and inner struggles so that others might learn from them and know that “even their Mahatma was only an erring mortal of flesh and blood” (Majmudar, 2005, 212). For the same reason, he was also deeply pained by the title “Mahatma.” One of the myths about Gandhi which needs to be shattered is that he was born as a “Mahatma” and that Mahatma-hood came easily to him. On the contrary, his “Mahatma-calm was the product of training,” as Louis Fischer observes in his book, “The Life of Mahatma Gandhi.” Yet, the rarity of Gandhi was that he kept advancing, albeit gradually and painfully, to “Mahatma-hood” through “stages of faith development” which, (the late) author James Fowler described as “a prolonged process of transition and transformation.

The knowledge of this stage developmental process helps us understand the psychology of the 24-year-young briefless barrister Gandhi, who was then just starting out his legal practice in a totally alien land of racist South Africa. His repetitious humiliations including being thrown out of a train at the Pietermaritzburg

station, and the rest are too well known to be repeated here. Having personally suffered, Gandhi could identify with his fellow countrymen who, being totally helpless and powerless, were in dire need of someone like him--who was Western-educated, with good command over English, plus, legal expertise. However, what the Muslim Indian traders in Durban needed most was someone who was willing to listen, to guide as well as chide them, and above all, who had the moral courage to defy the apartheid government . Thus was born in South Africa, an Indian leader, whom they warmly welcomed as “Gandhi-bhai!”

Did Gandhi identify with the native blacks of South Africa then? Could he have? Most likely not, initially at least. That alone however, does not make Gandhi “a racist!” The main reason why Gandhi did not involve the black natives in his “Satyagraha” campaign, was that he did not know them enough yet, nor could he have understood their specific kind of needs and grievances. His omission of the blacks, however, was not an act of commission. It’s also questionable if Gandhi’s advocacy of nonviolence as a technique of political protest would have been accepted by the then South African blacks. Moreover, the pejorative names for the blacks as “savages,” “kaffirs,” “indolent,” etc. which are attributed to Gandhi, are far removed from the actual context. Gandhi had used them to refer to only the hard-core criminals, ex-convicts, and sex-offenders with whom he was locked up in jail. As the great African leader and follower of Gandhi, Nelson Mandela put it, “the prejudice was obvious, but Gandhi was reacting here not to African natives in general but to criminalized Natives.” Mandela added, “Here we are looking at the young Gandhi yet to become the Mahatma, when he would be without any human prejudice save in favor of truth and justice.”

What the authors Desai and Vahed have conveniently overlooked in their latest book, “The South African Gandhi, Stretcher-Bearer of Empire,” is -- how Gandhi had actually felt towards the native Zulu population, and what he had written about them in his book, “Satyagraha in South Africa” : “Among all the South Africans, the tallest and the most handsome are the Zulus...the physique of the Zulus is powerfully built and finely shaped by nature.” Gandhi also admired their “black skin shining like ebony,”... and he urged his fellow Indians “to steer clear of all narrow and one-sided conceptions of beauty, and be free from the improper sense of shame and dislike we feel for our own complexion if it is anything but fair.”

Gandhi not only admired the Zulus, he deeply empathized with their plight. Gandhi went through an acute soul-searching after witnessing the savage manslaughter of native Zulus in the “Boer War.” The so- called “Zulu Rebellion,” said Gandhi, “was no war, but a man-hunt” of the natives whose only fault was that they refused to submit to their over-taxation by the white government. Carrying away on a stretcher the wounded Zulus’ bullet-ridden bodies from the battlefield, Gandhi was so traumatized that he “underwent a conversion of heart, similar to that of Prince Siddhartha... before becoming Buddha -- the enlightened one.” Unnerving as the experience was, it also proved to be “a turning point” in his life and career. Gandhi’s earlier admiration for the native blacks now solidified into a firm comradeship with the then black African leaders such as John Tengo jabavu, Alfred Mangena, and John Dube of the Ohlange Institute. The history of the African Liberation struggle testifies that from the nineteenth century onwards and through today, the dedicated black leaders like Nelson Mandela, Chief Luthuli, Kwame Nikrumah, Kenneth Kunda, and the “American Gandhi” -- Martin Luther King, Jr.-- all derived their inspiration from Gandhi, as they successfully used his technique of nonviolent resistance against any kind of untruth and injustice in the world. And not only the Blacks, but countless men and women across the globe still look up to the Mahatma for inspiration, as they follow in his footsteps.

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Uma Majmudar earned her doctorate from Emory University in 1996. Her book, “Gandhi’s Pilgrimage of Faith: From Darkness to Light (with a foreword by Rajmohan Gandhi) was published by the State university of New York Press (SUNY) in 2005. Currently, she is an Adjunct lLecturer in the Philosophy and Religious Studies Department at Spelman College.