Mahatma Gandhi a racist? Time to reconsider the myth of Gandhi?
The famous author Arundhati Roy claims Gandhi to have supported the inhuman caste system. Roy is one of India’s most popular writers, but also a person who is subject of controversial public discussion.
I was shocked and surprised while watching a TV report of the German ‘Kulturmagazin’ ttt — titel, thesen, temperamente on YouTube. Recently I published a Gandhi quiz because I used to admire him a lot. But Roys accusations are thought-provoking. She accuses Gandhi of discrimination and of supporting the inhuman caste system.
Roy describes Gandhi as a ‘person whose doctrine of nonviolence was based on brutal caste system’ and calls for institutions name after Gandhi, to be renamed:
It is time to unveil a few truths about a person whose doctrine of nonviolence was based on the acceptance of a most brutal social hierarchy ever known, the caste system … Do we really need to name our universities after him?
She even goes one step further and describes the generally accepted image of Gandhi as a lie. She says that the idea of non-violence is a great one but she cannot accept that Gandhi accepted the ‘violence’ of the caste system. In the film it is stated that Gandhi wanted to integrate the so called “untouchables” into the system but he did not want to abolish the caste system itself.
You should really watch this short TV report of because it puts a new complexion on Gandhi. I am not able to read or to look through the sources Roy is referring to in her interview and I am not a Gandhi expert. I still think that Gandhi was an extraordinary character and a person worth admiring but the film kind of clouded my judgment and my picture of Gandhi. The passage where she accuses Gandhi of being racist was shocking for me. Roys provocative accusations might be justifiable or not. For me the debate again shows that there is no black and white. There are no ‘real’ saints or sinners. You always have to be critical and you should try to see the bigger picture.
