Teen Voices: Was Gandhi a bad guy? 

Mahatma Gandhi was a horrible person. Yes, he’s done good things, aided in the independence of India, with no weapons but his words. As soon as people hear the word “peace” they think of Ghandi’s face. He has a very dark and cruel back story, his character and morals were completely selfish and he didn’t care about anyone but himself overall, he’s done very sinister and corrupt things.

 

Gandhi’s father died when Gandhi was just a teenager. Even then, Gandhi felt no remorse to how others felt. He left his dying father on his deathbed to go seduce his newly wed bride. His father eventually died right after that. Showing how Ghandi couldn’t care to spend a little more time with his one and only father, he left for his own selfish reasons.

 

Gandhi was also racist, especially towards black people, for example: he went to South Africa and took up civil rights to make sure they knew that Indians were higher in status, had more power than blacks. Gandhi also believed that the whites should stay in power, they should be kept superior. Actually, Gandhi didn’t care about the Indians rights themselves, but he wanted Indians to have more power than the black people.

Gandhi had also written at least two letters to Adolf Hitler. Each had started with “dear friend” and he added things like “we have no doubt about you bravery or devotion to your fatherland, nor do we believe that you are the monster described by your opponents.” Knowing what he’s done to so many Jewish people during the Holocaust. He was supporting his actions.

 

Even if they were from religious beliefs and such, he even kept his bizarre diet when is health was falling completely apart. He eventually decided to drink milk, but only goat milk and he had people travel across the world for goat milk. He only ate nuts, grains, fruits, and vegetables, and those in small quantities. One of the main reasons for these restrictions is that he thought it would curb his sex drive, one of his ONLY priorities.

The last thing I’ll be talking about is that he treated females as objects. He would invite “young female companions” to the restroom with him, (he was highly constipated.) Would have at least two young females by his side everywhere he went would always be uncomfortably close with them, he would bathe with them and ask uncomfortable questions. No one knows if he had the girls’ consent in the first place, (most likely not.)

Had MANY women (teenagers, married) sleep with him NUDE in his bed. He would regularly sleep with females in his ashrams, even when he forbade men and women to (including spouses.) He did all of this just to “test his chastity.” WHILE he had a wife.

Another messed up thing he’s done is sleep with his grandniece telling her that “we must put our purity to the ultimate test.) Again, all of this has happened while HE WAS MARRIED.

 

He’s also had affairs with educated women, such as Madeline Slade, who was the daughter of a British admiral. He had another affair with Saraladevi Choudhurani, who was a Bengali activist.

He’s also said harsh things about his wife “I simply cannot bear to look at Ba’s (his wife, “Kasturba”) face. The expression is often like that on the face of a meek cow occasionally does, that in her own dumb manner she is saying something.”

Gandhi would also force his family to fast. His wife caught pneumonia, and he would not allow her to be injected with “alien medicine”, something that would help her survive. Very soon after that, she died. But when he got malaria, he allowed the doctors to inject him with quinine, so he was likely responsible for his wife’s death as well, for selfish reasons.

 

One more thing I’d like to add is, he was extremely sexist. He believed women were responsible for being sexually assaulted. He justified fathers in killing daughters who had been sexually assaulted “to preserve family honor.”

 

Any sane person would know that it is NEVER the fault of the person who got assaulted. It doesn’t matter what they’re wearing, what they’re doing, what they’re saying. It’s ALWAYS the offender’s fault; their horrible selves just can’t control themselves. Think twice before how “heroic” Ghandi really is.

 

Sources: 

​http://allthatsinteresting.com/gandhi-facts-quotes-dark-side

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mahatma-Gandhi

Pennington Traditional School, Virginia

Grade 8th