Gandhi, Gay?

A review at the Wall Street Journal discusses the bold claims of the book in question:

" ...gives readers more than enough information to discern that he was a sexual weirdo, a political incompetent and a fanatical faddist "

Take for example, on the incompetence part:

"For all his lifelong campaign for Swaraj ("self-rule"), India could have achieved it many years earlier if Gandhi had not continually abandoned his civil-disobedience campaigns just as they were beginning to be successful."

On racism:

"Although Gandhi's nonviolence made him an icon to the American civil-rights movement, Mr. Lelyveld shows how implacably racist he was toward the blacks of South Africa. "We were then marched off to a prison intended for Kaffirs," Gandhi complained during one of his campaigns for the rights of Indians settled there..."

There is the part where we see that it is possible all those Gandhi quotes we love to repeat may not even have been his:

"Yet we cannot be certain that he really made all the pronouncements attributed to him, since, according to Mr. Lelyveld, Gandhi insisted that journalists file "not the words that had actually come from his mouth but a version he authorized after his sometimes heavy editing of the transcripts."

And I really liked that one that said: "I have so many things to do today I need two hours of meditation instead of one" -paraphrased-

I suppose we have to remember that we are all very human. Even those masters that achieve enormous amount of power, they are still flesh and bone.

It makes me wonder even further, how can someone who amasses so much power stay grounded?

It is also quite a note to see how this article (and book) are polarizing people.  If the article at Elephant is any indication of how strongly people feel one way or another, then the topic is touching some nerve in our collective consciousness.

How did Krishnamacharya did it?


Via Wall Street Journal. Here is the article.