Gandhi Film

The Gandhi Nobody Knows

Richard Grenier

(Published in ‘Commentary, March 1983, pp. 59-72, Movies Section)





I HAD the singular honor of there is little doubt it meant the editor streets with joy, I do not guarantee

attending an early private screening of in question felt that even of the real that I would maintain my serene

Gandhi with an audience of invited Mohandas K. Gandhi had been aloofness. A great deal depends on

guests from the National Council of different from the Gandhi of the whether the historical events

Churches. At the end of the three- movie it would have been nice if he represented in a movie are intended to

hour movie there was hardly, as they had been like the movie-Gandhi, and be taken as substantially true, and also

say, a dry eye in the house. When the that presenting him in this admittedly on whether – separated from us by

lights came up I fell into conversation false manner was beautiful, stirring, some decades or occurring yesterday

with a young woman who observed, and perhaps socially beneficial. – they are seen as having a direct

reverently, that Gandhi’s Last words An important step in the bearing on courses of action now

were “Oh God,” causing me to canonization of this movie-Gandhi open to us.

remark regretfully that the real was taken by the New York Film On my second viewing of Gandhi,

Gandhi had not spoken in English, but Critics Circle, which not only this time at a public showing at the

had cried, Hai Rama! (“Oh, Rama”). awarded the picture its prize as best end of the Christmas season, I

Well, Rama was just Indian for God, film of 1982, but awarded Ben happened to leave the theater behind

she replied, at which I felt compelled Kingsley, who played Gandhi (a three teenage girls, apparently from

to explain that, alas, Rama, remarkably good performance), its one of Manhattan’s fashionable

collectively with his three half- prize as best actor of the year. But I private schools. “Gandhi was pretty

brothers, represented the seventh cannot believe for one second that much an FDR,” one opined,

incarnation of Vishnu. The young these awards were made astonishing me almost as much by her

woman, who seemed to have been independently of the film’s content – breezy use of initials to invoke a

under the impression that Hinduism which, not to put too fine a point on President who died almost a quarter-

was Christianity under another name, it, is an all-out appeal for pacifism – century before her birth as by the

sensed somehow that she had fallen or in anything but the most shameful stupefying nature of the comparison.

on an uncongenial spirit, and the ignorance of the historical Gandhi. “But he was a religious figure, too,”

conversation ended. Now it does not bother me that corrected one of her friends, adding

At a dinner party shortly Shakespeare omitted from his King somewhat smugly “It is not in our

afterward, a friend of mine, who had John the singing of the Magna Charta historical tradition to honor spiritual

visited India many times and even – by far the most important event in leaders.” Since her schoolteachers had

gone to the trouble of learning Hindi, John’s reign. All Shakespeare’s clearly not led her to consider

objected strenuously that the picture “histories” are strewn with errors and Jonathan Edwards and Roger

of Gandhi that emerges in the movie inventions. Shifting to the cinema and Williams as spiritual leaders, let alone

is grossly inaccurate, omitting, as one to more recent times, it is hard for me Joseph Smith and William Jennings

of many examples, that when to work up much indignation over the Bryan, the intimation seemed to be

Gandhi’s wife lay dying of fact that neither Eisenstein’s that we are a society with poorer

pneumonia and British doctors Battleship Potemkin nor his October spiritual values than, let’s say, India.

insisted that a shot of penicillin would recounts historical episodes in There can be no question, in any

save her, Gandhi refused to have this anything like the manner in which event, that the girls felt they had just

alien medicine injected in her body they actually occurred (the famous been shown the historical Gandhi – an

and simply let her die. (It must be march of the White Guards down the attitude shared by Ralph Nader, who

noted that when Gandhi contracted steps at Odessa – artistically one of at last account had seen the film three

malaria shortly afterward he accepted the greatest sequences in film history times. Nader has conceived the most

for himself the alien medicine – simply did not take place). As we extraordinary notion that Gandhi’s

quinine, and that when he had draw closer to the present, however, symbolic flouting of the British salt

appendicitis he allowed British the problem becomes much more tax was a “consumer issue” which he

doctors to perform on him the alien difficult. If the Soviet Union were to later expanded into the wider one of

outrage of an appendectomy.) All of make an artistically wondrous film Indian independence. A modern

this produced a wistful mooing from about the entry of Russian tanks into parallel to Gandhi’s program of

an editor of a major newspaper and a Prague in 1968 (an event I happened home-spinning and home-weaving,

recalcitrant, “But still . . .” I would to witness), and show them being another “consumer issue” says Nader,

prefer to explicate things more greeted with flowers by a grateful might be the use of solar energy to

substantial than a wistful mooing, but populace, the Czechs dancing in the

free us from the “giant multinational accents. We have occasional shots of intention, Gandhi might actually be

oil corporations.” India’s holy poverty, holy hovels, enjoying the caresses of the naked

some landscapes, many of them girls, Gandhi continued, unperturbed.

AS IT happens, the government photographed quite beautifully, for Nor, frankly, did I expect to see

of India openly admits to having those who like travelogues. We have Gandhi giving daily enemas to all the

provided one-third of the financing of a character called Lord Mountbatten young girls in his ashrams (his daily

Gandhi out of state funds, straight out (India’s last Viceroy); a composite greeting was, “Have you had a good

of the national treasury – and after American journalist (assembled from bowel movement this morning,

close study of the finished product I Vincent Sheehan, William L. Shirer, sisters?”), nor see the girls giving him

would not be a bit surprised to hear Louis Fischer, and straight fiction); a his daily enema. Although Gandhi

that it was 100 percent. If Pandit character called simply “Viceroy” seems to have written less about

Nehru is portrayed flatteringly in the (presumably another composite); an home rule for India than he did about

film, one must remember that Nehru assemblage of Gandhi’s Indian enemas, and excrement, and latrine

himself took part in the initial story followers under the name of one of cleaning (“The bathroom is a temple.

conferences (he originally wanted them (Patel); and of course Nehru. It should be so clean that anyone

Gandhi to be played by Alec I sorely missed the fabulous Annie would enjoy eating there”), I confess

Guinness) and that his daughter Indira Besant, that English clergyman’s such scenes might pose problems for

Gandhi is, after all, Prime Minister of wife, turned atheist, turned a Western director.

India (though no relation to Theosophist, turned Indian

Mohandas Gandhi). The screenplay nationalist, who actually became Gandhi, therefore, the film, this

was checked and rechecked by Indian president of the Indian National paid political advertisement for the

officials at every stage, often by the Congress and had a terrific falling out government of India, is organized

Prime Minister herself, with close with Gandhi, becoming his fierce around three axes: (1) Anti-racism –

consultations on plot and even opponent. And if the producers felt all men are equal regardless of race,

casting. If the movie contains a they had to work in a cameo role for color, creed, etc.; (2) anti-colonialism,

particularly poisonous portrait of an American star to add to the film’s which in present terms translates as

Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder appeal in he United States, it is support for the Third World,

of Pakistan, the Indian reply, I positively embarrassing that they including, most eminently, India; (3)

suppose, would be that if the should have brought in the nonviolence, presented as an absolute

Pakistanis want an attractive portrayal photographer Margaret Bourke- pacifism. There are other, secondary

of Jinnah let them pay for their own White, a person of no importance precepts and sub-headings. Gandhi is

movie. A friend of mine, highly whatever in Gandhi’s life and a role portrayed as the quintessence of

sophisticated in political matters but Candice Bergen plays with a repellant tolerance (“I am a Hindu and a

innocent about film-making, declared unctuousness. If the film-makers had Muslim and a Christian and a Jew”),

that Gandhi should be preceded by been interested in drama and not of basic friendliness to Britain (“The

the legend: The following film is a hagiography, it is hard to see how British have been with us for a long

paid political advertisement by the they could have resisted the awesome time and when they leave we want

government of India. confrontation between Gandhi and, them to leave as friends”), of devotion

Gandhi, then, is a large, pious, yes, Margaret Sanger. For the two did to his wife and family. His vow of

historical morality tale centered on a meet. Now there was a meeting of chastity is represented as something

saintly, sanitized Mahatma Gandhi East and West, and may the better selfless and holy, rather like the

cleansed of anything too person win! (She did. Margaret celibacy of the Catholic clergy. But,

embarrassingly Hindu (the word Sanger argued her views on birth above all, Gandhi’s life and teachings

“caste” is not mentioned from one control with such vigor that Gandhi are presented as having great import

end of the film to the other) and, had a nervous breakdown.) for us today. We must learn from

indeed, of most of the rest of I cannot honestly say I had any Gandhi.

Gandhi’s life, much of which would reasonable expectation that the film I propose to demonstrate that the

drastically diminish his saintliness in would allow scenes of Gandhi’s film grotesquely distorts both

western eyes. There is little to pretty teenage girl followers fighting Gandhi’s life and character to the

indicate that the India of today has “hysterically” (the word was used) for point that it is nothing more than a

followed Gandhi’s precepts in almost the honor of sleeping naked with the pious fraud, and a fraud of the most

nothing. There is little, in fact, to Mahatma and cuddling the nude egregious kind. Hackneyed Indian

indicate that India is even India. The septuagenarian in their arms. (Gandhi falsehoods such as that “the British

spectator realizes the scene is the was “testing” his vow of chastity in keep trying to break India up” (as if

Indian subcontinent because there are order to gain moral strength for his Britain didn’t give India a unity it

thousands of extras dressed in dhotis mighty struggle with Jinnah.) When never enjoyed in history), or that the

and saris. The characters go about told there was a man named Freud British created Indian poverty (a

talking in these quaint Peter Sellers who said that, despite his declared poverty which had not only existed



2

since time immemorial but had been Gandhi had even greater confidence identity papers (burning their

considered holy), almost pass in his abilities as a “nature doctor,” registration cards), with for good

unnoticed in the tide of adulation for prescribing obligatory cures for his measure Gandhi being expelled from

our fictional saint. Gandhi, ashramites, such as dried cow-dung the first-class section of a railway

admittedly, being a devout Hindu, powder and various concoctions train, and Gandhi being asked by

was far more self-contradictory than containing cow dung (the cow, of whites to step off the sidewalk. This

most public men. Sanskrit scholars course, being sacred to the Hindu). inspired young Indian leader calls, in

tell me that flat self-contradiction is And to those he really loved he gave the film, for interracial harmony, for

even considered an element of enemas – but again, alas, not to the people to “live together.”

“Sanskrit rhetoric.” Perhaps it is Margaret Bourke-White, which is not Now the time is 1893, and Gandhi

thought to show profundity. too bad, really. For admiring Candice is a “caste” Hindu, and from one of

Bergen’s work as I do, I would have the higher castes. Although, later, he

GANDHI rose early, usually at been most interested in seeing how was to call for improving the lot of

three-thirty and before his first bowel she would have experienced this India’s Untouchables, he was not to

movement (during which he received beatitude. The scene might have lived have any serious misgivings about the

visitors, although possibly not in film history. fundamentals of the caste system for

Margaret Bourke-White) he spent two There are 400 biographies of about another thirty years, and even

hours in meditation, listening to his Gandhi, and his writings run to 80 then his doubts, to my way of

“inner voice.” Now Gandhi was an volumes, and since he lived to be thinking, were rather minor. In the

extremely vocal individual, and in seventy-nine, and rarely fell silent, India in which Gandhi grew up, and

addition to spending an hour each day there are, as I have indicated, quite a had only recently left, some castes

in vigorous walking, another hour few inconsistencies. The authors of could enter the courtyards of certain

spinning at his primitive spinning- the present movie even acknowledge Hindu temples, while others could

wheel, another hour at further prayers, in a little-noticed opening title that not. Some castes were forbidden to

another hour being massaged nude by they have made a film only true to use the village well. Others were

teenage girls, and many hours Gandhi’s “spirit.” For my part, I do compelled to live outside the village,

deciding such things as affairs of not intend to pick through Gandhi’s still others to leave the road at the

state, he produced a quite writings to make him look like Attila approach of a person of higher caste

unconscionable number of articles the Hun (although the thought is and perpetually to call out, giving

and speeches and wrote an average of tempting), but to give a fair, weighted warning, so that no one would be

sixty letter a day. All considered, it is balance of his views, laying stress polluted by their proximity. The

not really surprising that his inner above all on his actions, and on what endless intricacies of Hindu caste by-

voice said different things to him at he told other men to do when the time laws varied somewhat region by

different times. Despising consistency for action had come. region, but in Madras, where most

and never checking his earlier South African Indians were from,

statements, and yet inhumanly Anti-racism: the reader will have while a Nayar could pollute a man of

obstinate about his position at any noticed that in the present-day higher caste only by touching him,

given moment, Gandhi is thought by community of nations South Africa is Kammalans polluted at a distance of

some Indians today (according to V.S. a pariah. So it is an absolutely 24 feet, toddy drawers at 36 feet,

Naipaul) to have been so erratic and amazing piece of good fortune that Paulayans and Cherumans at 48 feet,

unpredictable that he may have Gandhi, born the son of the Prime and beef-eating Paraiyans at 64 feet.

delayed Indian independence for Minister of a tiny Indian principality All castes and the thousands of sub-

twenty-five years. and received as an attorney at the bar castes were forbidden, needless to

For Gandhi was an extremely of the Middle Temple in London, say, to marry, eat, or engage in social

difficult man to work with. He had no should have begun his climb to activity with but members of their

partners, only disciples. For members greatness as a member of the small own group. In Gandhi’s native

of his ashrams, he dictated every Indian community in, precisely, South Gujarat, a caste Hindu who had been

minute of their days, and not only Africa. Natal, then a separate colony, polluted by touch had to perform

every morsel of food they should eat wanted to limit Indian immigration extensive ritual ablutions or purify

but when they should eat it. Without and, as part of the government himself by drinking a holy beverage

ever having heard of a protein or a program, ordered Indians to carry composed of milk, whey, and (what

vitamin, he considered himself an identity papers (an action not without else?) cow dung.

expert in diet, as on most things, and similarities to measures under Low-caste Hindus, in short,

was constantly experimenting. Once consideration in the U.S. today to suffered humiliations in their native

when he fell ill, he was found to have control illegal immigration). The India compared to which the carrying

been living on a diet of ground-nut film’s lengthy opening sequences are of identity cards in South Africa was

butter and lemon-juice; British devoted to Gandhi’s leadership in the almost trivial. In fact, Gandhi, to his

doctors called it malnutrition. And fight against Indians carrying their credit, was to campaign strenuously



3

in his later life for the reduction of honest than Gandhi, the historical admiring Gandhi greatly, explains

caste barriers in India – a campaign personage on which the movie is Gandhi’s “new direction” on his

almost invisible in the movie, of based is not only more complex but return to India from South Africa as

course, conveyed in only two more interesting than the character follows:

glancing references, leaving the shown on the screen. During his

audience with the officially sponsored entire South African period, and for He spoke in generalities, but

if historically astonishing notion that some time after, until he was about he was searching for a single

racism was introduced into India by fifty, Gandhi was nothing more or cause, a single hard0edged

the British. To present the Gandhi of less than an imperial loyalist, task to which he would devote

1893, a conventional caste Hindu, claiming for Indians the rights of the remaining years of his life.

fresh from caste-ridden India where a Englishmen but unshakably loyal to He wanted to repeat his

Paraiyan could pollute at 64 feet, as the crown. He supported the empire triumph in South Africa on

the champion of interracial ardently in no fewer than three wars: Indian soil. He dreamed of

equalitarianism is one of the most the Boer War, the “Kaffir War,” and, assembling a small army of

brazen hypocrisies I have ever with the most extreme zeal, World dedicated men around him,

encountered in a serious movie. War I. If Gandhi’s mind were of the issuing stern commands and

The film moreover, does not give modern European sort, this would leading them to some almost

the slightest hint as to Gandhi's seem to suggest that his later attitude unobtainable goal.

attitude towards blacks, and the towards Britain was the product of

viewers of Gandhi would naturally unrequited love: he had wanted to be Gandhi, in short, was a leader looking

suppose that, since the future Great an Englishman; Britain had rejected for a cause. He found it, of course, in

Soul opposed South African him and his people; very well then, home rule for India and, ultimately, in

discrimination against Indians, he they would have their own country. independence.

would also oppose South African But this would imply a point of

discrimination against black people. “agonizing reappraisal,” a moment WE ARE, therefore, presented with

But this is not so. While Gandhi, in when Gandhi’s most fundamental the seeming anomaly of a Gandhi

South Africa, fought furiously to have political beliefs were reexamined and, who, in Britain when war broke out in

Indians recognized as loyal subjects after the most bitter soul-searching, August 1914, instantly contacted the

of the British empire, and to have repudiated. But I have studied the War Office, swore that he would

them enjoy the full rights of literature and cannot find this moment stand by England in its hour of need,

Englishmen, he had no concern for of bitter soul-searching. Instead, and created the Indian Volunteer

blacks whatever. In fact, during one listening to his “inner voice” (which Corps, which he might have

of the “Kaffir Wars” he volunteered in the case of divines of all countries commanded if he hadn’t fallen ill

to organize a brigade of Indians to put often speaks in the tones of holy with pleurisy. In 1915, back in India,

down a Zulu rising, and was opportunism), Gandhi simply, he made a memorable speech in

decorated himself for valor under fire. tranquilly, without announcing any Madras in which he proclaimed, “I

For, yes, Gandhi (Sergeant Major sharp break, set off in a new direction. discovered that the British Empire

Gandhi) was awarded Victoria’s It should be understood that it is had certain ideals with which I have

coveted War Medal. Throughout most unlikely Gandhi ever truly conceived fallen in love. . . .” In early 1918, as

of his life Gandhi had the most of “becoming” an Englishman, first, the war in Europe entered its final

inordinate admiration for British because he was a Hindu to the crisis, he wrote to the Viceroy of

soldiers, their sense of duty, their marrow of his bones, and also, India, “I have an idea that if I become

discipline and stoicism in defeat (a perhaps, because his democratic your recruiting agent-in-chief, I might

trait he emulated himself). He instincts were really quite weak. He rain men upon you,” and he

marveled that they retreated with their was a man of the most extreme, proclaimed in a speech in Kheda that

heads high, like victors. There was autocratic temperament, tyrannical, the British “love justice; they have

even a time in his life when Gandhi, unyielding even regarding things he shielded men against oppression.”

hardly to be distinguished from knew nothing about, totally intolerant Again, he wrote to the Viceroy, “I

Kipling’s Gunga Din, wanted nothing of all opinions but his own. He was, would make India offer all her able-

so much as to be a soldier of the furthermore, in the highest degree bodied sons as sacrifice to the empire

Queen. Since this is not in keeping reactionary, permitting in India no at this critical moment. . . .” To some

with the “spirit” of Gandhi, as change in the relationship between the of his pacifist friends, who were

decided by Pandit Nehru and Indira feudal lord and his peasants or horrified, Gandhi replied by appealing

Gandhi, it is naturally omitted from servants, the rich and the poor. In his to the Bhagavad Gita and to the

the movie. The Life and Death of Mahatma endless wars recounted in the Hindu

Gandhi, the best and least epics, the Ramayana and the

Anti-colonialism: as almost always hagiographic of the full-length Mahabharata, adding further to the

with historical films, even those more studies, Robert Payne, although pacifists’ horror by declaring that



4

Indians “have always been warlike, specifically Hindu, and I am inclined addition to which, the Hindus were

and the finest hymn composed by to agree. Just as Gandhi had been divided into thousands of castes and

Tulsidas in praise of Rama gives the totally unconcerned with the situation sub-castes, and there were also

first place to his ability to strike down of South Africa’s blacks (he hardly Parsees, Sikhs, Jains. But in South

the enemy.” noticed they were there until they Africa officials had thrown them all

This was in contradiction to the rebelled), so now he was totally in together, and in the mind of Gandhi

interpretation of sacred Hindu unconcerned with other Asians or (another one of those examples of

scriptures Gandhi had offered on Africans. In fact, he was adamantly nationalism being born in exile) grew

earlier occasions (and would offer opposed to certain Arab movements the idea of India as a nation, and

later), which was that they did not within the Ottoman empire for Muslim-Hindu friendship became one

recount military struggles but spiritual reasons of internal Indian politics. of the few positions on which he

struggles; but, unusual for him, he At the close of World War I, the never really reversed himself. So

strove to find some kind of synthesis. Muslims of India were deeply Gandhi – ignoring Arabs and Turks –

“I do not say, ‘Let us go and kill the absorbed in what they called the became an ardent supporter of the

Germans,’ ” Gandhi explained. “I say, “Khilafat” movement – “Khilafat” Khilafat movement out of strident

‘Let us go and die for the sake of being their corruption of “Caliphate,” Indian nationalism. He had become a

India and the empire.’ ” And yet the Caliph in question being the national figure in India for having

within two years, the time having Ottoman Sultan. In addition to his unified 13,000 Indians of all faiths in

come for swaraj (home rule), temporal powers, the Sultan of South Africa, and now he was

Gandhi’s inner voice spoke again, Ottoman empire held the spiritual determined to reach new heights by

and, the leader having found his position of Caliph, supreme leader of unifying hundreds of millions of

cause, Gandhi proclaimed the world’s Muslims and successor to Indians of all faiths in India itself. But

resoundingly: “The British empire the Prophet Muhammad. At the defeat this nationalism did not please

today represents Satanism, and they of the Central Powers (Germany, everyone, particularly Tolstoy, who in

who love God can afford to have no Austria, Turkey), the Sultan was a his last years carried on a curious

love for Satan.” prisoner in his palace in correspondence with the new Indian

The idea of swaraj, originated by Constantinople, shorn of his religious leader. For Tolstoy, Gandhi’s Indian

others, crept into Gandhi’s mind as well as his political authority, and nationalism “spoils everything.”

gradually. With a fair amount of the Muslims of India wee incensed. It As for the “anti-colonialism” of

winding about, Gandhi, roughly, so happened that the former subject the nationalist Indian state since

passed through three phases. First, he peoples of the Ottoman empire, independence, Indira Gandhi, India’s

was entirely pro-British, and merely principally Arabs, were perfectly present Prime Minister, hears an inner

wanted for Indians the rights of happy to be rid of this Caliph, and voice of her own, it would appear,

Englishmen (as he understood them). even the Turks were glad to be rid of and this inner voice told her to justify

Second, he was still pro-British, but him, but this made no impression on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan as

with the belief that, having proved the Muslims of India, for whom the produced by provocative maneuvers

their loyalty to the empire, Indians issue was essentially a club with on the part of the U.S. and China, as

would be granted some degree of which to beat the British. Until this well as to be the first country outside

swaraj. Third, as the home-rule odd historical moment, Indian the Soviet bloc to recognize the Hanoi

movement gathered momentum, it Muslims had felt little real allegiance puppet regime in Cambodia. So

was the swaraj, the whole swaraj, and to the Ottoman Sultan either, but now everything plainly depends on who is

nothing but the swaraj, and he turned that he had fallen, the British had colonizing whom, and Mrs. Gandhi’s

relentlessly against the crown. The done it! The British had taken away voice perhaps tells her that the

movie to the contrary, he caused the their Khilafat! And one of the most subjection of Afghanistan and

British no end of trouble in their ardent supporters of this Indian Cambodia to foreign rule is

struggles during World War II. Muslim movement was the new “defensive” colonialism. And the

Hindu leader, Gandhi. movie’s message that Mahatma

BUT it should not be thought for one No one questions that the Gandhi, and by plain implication

second that Gandhi’s finally full- formative period for Gandhi as a India (the country for which he plays

blown desire to detach India from the political leader was his time in South the role of Joan of Arc), have taken a

British empire gave him the slightest Africa. Throughout history Indians, holy, unchanging stance against the

sympathy with other colonial peoples divided into 1,500 languages and colonialism of nation by nation is just

pursuing similar objectives. dialect groups (India today has 15 another of its hypocrisies. For India,

Throughout his entire life Gandhi official languages), had little sense of when it comes to colonialism or anti-

displayed the most spectacular themselves a nation. Muslim Indians colonialism, it has always been

inability to understand or even really and Hindu Indians felt about as close Realpolitik all the way.

take in people unlike himself – a trait as Christians and Moors during their

which V.S. Naipaul considers 700 years of cohabitation in Spain. In



5

Nonviolence: but the real center and enemies of the empire! Regular word) would be preferable to the

raison d’etre of Gandhi is ahimsa, Indian army units fought in both the British.

nonviolence, which principle when Boer War and World War I, but this And suddenly Gandhi began

incorporated into vast campaigns of was not enough for Gandhi. He endorsing violence left, right, and

noncooperation with British rule the wanted to raise new troops, even, in center. During the fearsome rioting in

Mahatama called by an odd name he the case of the Boer and Kaffir Wars, Calcutta he gave his approval to men

made up himself, Satyagraha, which from the tiny Indian colony in South “using violence n amoral cause.”

means something like “truth- Africa. British military authorities How could he tell them that violence

striving.” During the key part of his thought it not really worth the trouble was wrong, he asked, “unless I

life, Gandhi devoted a great deal of to train such a small body of Indians demonstrate that nonviolence is more

time explaining the moral and as soldiers, and were even resistant to effective?” He blessed the Nawab of

philosophical meanings of both training them as an auxiliary medical Maler Kotla when he gave orders to

ahimsa and satyagraha. But much as corps (“stretcher bearers”), but finally shoot ten Muslims for every Hindu

the film sanitizes Gandhi to the point yielded to Gandhi’s relentless killed in his state. He sang the praises

where one would mistake him for a importuning. As first instructed, the of Subhash Chandra Bose, who,

Christian saint, and sanitizes India to Indian Volunteer Corps was not sponsored by first the Nazis and then

the point where one would take it for supposed actually to go into combat, the Japanese, organized in Singapore

Shangri-la, it quite sweeps away but Gandhi, adamant, led his Indian an Indian National Army with which

Gandhi’s ethical and religious volunteers into the thick of battle. he hoped to conquer India with

ponderings, his complexities, his When the British commanding officer Japanese support, establishing a

qualifications, and certainly his was mortally wounded during an totalitarian dictatorship. Meanwhile,

vacillations, which simplifying engagement in the Kaffir War, after independence in 1947, the

process leaves us with our old Gandhi – though his corps’ deputy armies of the India that Gandhi had

European friend: pacifism. It is true commander – carried the officer’s created immediately marched into

that Gandhi was much impressed by stretcher himself from the battlefield battle, incorporating the state of

the Sermon on the Mount, his favorite and for miles over the sun-baked Hyderabad by force and making war

passage in the Bible, which he read veldt. The British empire’s War in Kashmir on secessionist Pakistan.

over and over again. But for all the Medal did not have its name for When Gandhi was assassinated by a

Sermon’s inspirational value, and its nothing, and it was generally earned. Hindu extremist in January 1948 he

service as an ideal in relations among was honored by the new state with a

individual human beings, no Christian ANYONE who wants to wade vast military funeral – in my view by

state which survived has ever based through Gandhi’s endless ruminations no means inapposite.

its policies on the Sermon on the about himsa and ahimsa (violence

Mount since Constantine declared and nonviolence) is welcome to do so, BUT it is not widely realized (nor

Christianity the official religion of the but it is impossible for the skeptical will this film tell you) how much

Roman empire. And no modern reader to avoid the conclusion – let us violence was associated with

Western state which survives can ever say in 1920, when swaraj (home rule) Gandhi’s so-called “nonviolent”

base its policies on pacifism. And no was all the rage and Gandhi’s inner movement from the very beginning.

Hindu state will ever base its policies voice started telling him that ahimsa India’s Nobel Prize-winning poet,

on ahimsa. Gandhi himself – although was the thing – that this inner voice Rabindranath Tagore had sensed a

the film dishonestly conceals this knew what it was talking about. By strong current of nihilism in Gandhi

from us – many times conceded that this I mean that, though Gandhi talked almost from his first days, and as

in dire circumstances “war may have with the tongue of Hindu gods and early as 1920 wrote of Gandhi’s

to be resorted to as a necessary evil.” sacred scriptures, his inner voice had “fierce joy of annihilation,” which

It is something of an anomaly that a strong sense of expediency. Britain, Tagore feared would lead India into

Gandhi, held in popular myth to be a if only comparatively speaking, was a hideous orgies of devastation – which

pure pacifist (a myth which moral nation, and nonviolent civil ultimately proved to be the case.

governments of India have always disobedience was plainly the best and Robert Payne has said that there was

been at great pains to sustain in the most effective way of achieving an unquestionably an “unhealthy

belief that it will affect credit on India Indian independence. Skeptics might atmosphere” among many of

itself, and to which the present movie also not be surprised to learn that as Gandhi’s fanatic followers, and that

adheres slavishly), was until fifty not independence approached, Gandhi’s Gandhi’s habit of going to the edge of

ill-disposed to war at all. As I have inner voice began to change its tune. violence and then suddenly retreating

already noted, in three wars, no It has been reported that Gandhi was fraught with danger. “In matters

sooner had the bugles sounded than “half-welcomed” the civil war that of conscience I am uncompromising,”

Gandhi not only gave his support, but broke out in the last days. Even a proclaimed Gandhi proudly: “Nobody

was clamoring for arms. To form new fratricidal “bloodbath” (Gandhi’s can make me yield.” The judgement

regiments! To fight! To destroy the of Tagore was categorical. Much as



6

he might revere Gandhi as a holy were indeed sacrificed, and in full. reports of riots. And, naturally, the

man, he quite detested him as a They fell, however, not to the bullets film doesn’t whisper a clue as to the

politician and considered that his of British soldiers but to the knives total number of dead, which might

campaigns were almost always so and clubs of their fellow Indians in spoil the mood somehow. The fact is

close to violence that it was utterly savage butcheries when the British that we will never know how many

disingenuous to call them nonviolent. finally withdrew. Indians were murdered by other

For every Satyagraha true Indians during the country’s

believer, moreover, sworn not to harm ALTHOUGH the movie sneers at this Independence Massacres, but almost

the adversary or even lift a finger in reasoning as being the flimsiest of all serious studies place the figure

his own defense, there were pretexts, I cannot imagine an over a million, and some, such as

sometimes thousands of incensed impartial person studying the subject Payne’s sources, go to 4 million. So,

freebooters and skirmishers bound by without concluding that concern for for those who like round numbers, the

no such vow. Gandhi, to be fair, was Indian religious minorities was one of British killed some 400 seditious

aware of this, and nominally deplored the principal reasons Britain stayed in colonials at Amritsar and the name

it – but with nothing like the India as long as it did. When it finally Amritsar lives in infamy, while

consistency shown in the movie. The withdrew, blood-maddened mobs Indians may have killed some 4

film leads the audience to believe that surged through the streets from one million of their own countrymen for

Gandhi’s first “fast unto death,” was end of India to the other, the majority no other reason than that they were of

against an act of barbarous violence, group in each area, Hindu or Muslim, a different religious faith and people

the slaughter by an Indian crowd of a slaughtering the defenseless minority think their great leader would make

detachment of police constables. But without mercy in one of the most an inspirational subject for a movie.

in actual fact Gandhi reserved this hideous periods of carnage of modern Ahimsa, as can be seen, then, had an

“ultimate weapon” of his to interdict a history. absolutely tremendous moral effect

1931 British proposal to grant A comparison is in order. At the when used against Britain, but not

Untouchables a “separate electorate” famous Amritsar massacre of 1919, only would it not have worked against

in the Indian national legislature – in shot in elaborate and loving detail in Nazi Germany (the most obvious

effect a kind of affirmative-action the present movie and treated by post- reproach, and of course quite true),

program for Untouchables. For independence Indian historians as if it but, the crowning irony, it had

reasons I have not been able to were Auschwitz, Gurkha troops under virtually no effect whatever when

decrypt, Gandhi was dead set against the command of a British officer, Gandhi tried to bring it into play

the project, but I confess it is another General Dyer, fired into an unarmed against violent Indians.

scene I would have liked to have seen crowd of Indians defying a ban and Despite this at best patchy record,

in the movie: Gandhi almost starving demonstrating for Indian the film-makers have gone to great

himself to death to block affirmative independence. The crowd contained lengths to imply that this same

action for Untouchables. women and children; 379 persons principle of Ahimsa – presented in the

From what I have been able to died; it was all quite horrible. Dyer movie as the purest form of pacifism

decipher, Gandhi’s main was court-martialed and cashiered, – is universally effective, yesterday,

preoccupation in this particular but the incident lay heavily on British today, here, there, everywhere. We

struggle was not even the British. consciences for the next three hear no talk from Gandhi of war

Benefitting from the immense decades, producing a severe inhibiting sometimes being a “necessary evil,”

publicity, he wanted to induce effect. Never again would the British but only him announcing – and more

Hindus, overnight, ecstatically, and empire commit another Amritsar, than once – “An eye for an eye makes

without any of these British legalisms anywhere. the whole world blind.” In a scene

to “open their hearts” to As soon as the oppressive British very near the end of the movie, we

Untouchables. For a whole week were gone, however, the Indians – hear Gandhi say, as if after deep

Hindu India was caught up in a gentle, tolerant people that they are – reflection: “Tyrants and murderers

joyous delirium. No more would the gave themselves over to an orgy of can seem invincible at the time, but in

Untouchables be scavengers and bloodletting. Trained troops did not the end they always fall. Think of it,

sweepers! No more would they be pick off targets at a distance with Always.” During the last scene of the

banned from Hindu temples! No more Enfield rifles. Blood-crazed Hindus, movie, following the assassination,

would they pollute at 64 feet! It lasted or Muslims, ran through the streets Margaret Bourke-White is keening

just a week. Then the temple doors with knives, beheading babies, over the death of the Great Soul with

swung shut again, and all was as stabbing women, old people. an English admiral’s daughter named

before. Meanwhile, on the passionate Interestingly, our movie shows none Madeleine Slade, in whose bowel

subject of swaraj, Gandhi was crying, of this on camera (the oldest way of movements Gandhi took the deepest

“I would not flinch from sacrificing a stacking the deck in Hollywood). All interest (see their correspondence),

million Indian lives for India’s we see is the aged Gandhi, grieving, and Miss Slade remarks incredulously

liberty!” The million Indian lives and of course fasting, at these terrible that Gandhi felt that he had failed.



7

They are then both incredulous for a Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, calling it “almost nonviolent.” (If this

moment, after which Miss Slade somehow have a harder profile. The sounds like double-talk, I can only

observes mournfully, “When we most term “Jew,” also, has a reasonably urge readers to read Gandhi). He

needed it [presumably meaning hard profile, and I feel all Jews sitting seemed at this point to have a rather

during World War II], he offered the emotionally at the movie Gandhi low opinion of Hitler, but when

world a way out of madness. But the should be apprised of the advice that Germany’s panzer divisions turned

world didn’t see it.” Then we hear the Mahatma offered their west, Allied armies collapsed under

once again the assassin’s shots, coreligionists when faced with the the ferocious onslaught, and British

Gandhi’s “Oh, God,” and last, in case Nazi peril: they should commit ships were streaming across the

we missed them the first time, collective suicide. If only the Jews of Straits of Dover from Dunkirk, he

Gandhi’s words (over the shimmering Germany had the good sense to offer wrote furiously to the Viceroy of

waters of the Ganges?): “Tyrants and their throats willingly to the Nazi India: “This manslaughter must be

murderers can seem invincible at the butchers’ knives and throw stopped. You are losing; if you

time, but in the end they always fall. themselves into the sea from cliffs persist, it will only result in greater

Think of it. Always.” This is the end they would arouse world public bloodshed. Hitler is not a bad man. . .

of the picture. opinion, Gandhi was convinced, and .”

their moral triumph would be Gandhi also wrote an open letter t

NOW, as it happens, I have been remembered for “ages to come.” If the British people, passionately

thinking about tyrants and murderers they would only pray for Hitler (as urging them to surrender and accept

for some time. But the fact that in the their throats were cut, presumably), whatever fate Hitler had prepared for

end they always fall has never given they would leave a “rich heritage to them. “Let them take possession of

me much comfort, partly because, not mankind.” Although Gandhi had you beautiful island with your many

being a Hindu and not expecting known Jews from his earliest days in beautiful buildings. You will give all

reincarnation after reincarnation, I am South Africa – where his three these, but neither your souls, nor your

simply not prepared to wait them out. staunchest white supporters were minds.” Since none of this had the

It always occurs tome that, while I am Jews, every one – he disapproved of intended effect, Gandhi, the following

waiting around for them to fall, they how rarely they loved their enemies. year, addressed an open letter to the

might do something mean to me, like And he never repented of his prince of darkness himself, Adolf

fling me into a gas oven or send me recommendation of collective suicide. Hitler.

off to a Gulag. Unlike a Hindu and Even after the war, when the full

not worshipping statis, I am also extant of the Holocaust was revealed, THE scene must be pictured. In late

given to wondering who is to bring Gandhi told Louis Fischer, one of his December 1941, Hitler stood at the

these murderers and tyrants down, it biographers, that the Jews died pinnacle of his might. His armies,

being all too risky a process to wait anyway, didn’t they? They might as undefeated – anywhere – ruled

for them and the regimes they well have, died significantly. Europe from the English Channel to

establish simply to die of old age. The Gandhi’s views on the European the Volga. Rommel had entered

fact that a few reincarnations from crisis were not entirely consistent. He Egypt. The Japanese had reached

now they will all have turned to dust vigorously opposed Munich, Singapore. The U.S. Pacific Fleet lay

somehow does not seem to suggest a distrusting Chamberlain. “Europe has at the bottom of Pearl Harbor. At this

rational strategy for dealing with the sold her soul for the sake of a seven superbly chosen moment, Mahatma

problem. days’ earthly existence,” he declared. Gandhi attempted to convert Adolf

Since the movie’s Madeleine “The peace that Europe gained at Hitler to the ways of nonviolence.

Slade specifically invites us to revere Munich is a triumph of violence.” But “Dear Friend,” the letter begins, and

the way “out of madness” that Gandhi when the Germans moved into the proceeds to a heartfelt appeal to the

offered the world at the time of World Bohemian heartland, he was back to Fuhrer to embrace all mankind

War II, I am under the embarrassing urging nonviolent resistance, “irrespective of race, color, or creed.”

obligation of recording exactly what exhorting the Czechs to go forth, Every admirer of the film Gandhi

courses of action the Great Soul unarmed, against the Wehrmacht, should be compelled to read this

recommended to the various parties perishing gloriously – collective letter. Surprisingly, it is not known to

involved in that crisis. For Gandhi suicide again. He had Madeleine have had any deep impact on Hitler.

was never stinting in his advice. Slade draw up two letters to President Gandhi was no doubt disappointed.

Indeed, the less he knew about a Eduard Benes of Czechoslovakia, He moped about, really quite

subject, the less he stinted. instructing him on the proper conduct depressed, but still knew he was right.

I am aware that for many not of Czechoslovak satyagrahi when When the Japanese, having cut their

privileged to have visited the former facing the Nazis. way through Burma, threatened India,

British Raj, the names Gujarat, When Hitler attacked Poland, Gandhi’s strategy was to let them

Rajasthan, and Deccan are simply however, Gandhi suddenly endorsed occupy as much of India as they liked

words. But other names, such as the Polish army’s military resistance, and then to “make them feel



8

unwanted.” His way of helping his Like all Hindus, Gandhi also karma, a series, perhaps a long series,

British “friends” was, at one of the believed in the “Great Oneness,” of reincarnations, and at the end, with

worst points of the war, to launch according to which everything is part great good fortune; mukti, liberation

massive civil disobedience campaigns of God, meaning not just you and me from suffering and the necessity of

against them, paralyzing some of their and everyone else, but every living rebirth, nothingness. Gandhi once

efforts to defend India from the creature, every plant, the pitcher of wrote to Tolstoy (of all people)

Japanese. milk, the milk in the pitcher, the reincarnation explained “reasonably

Here, then, is your leader, O tumbler into which the milk is poured. the many mysteries of life.” So if

followers of Gandhi: a man who . . . After all of which, he could Hindus today still treat an

thought Hitler’s heart would be suddenly pop up with a declaration Untouchable as barely human, this is

melted by an appeal to forget race, that God is “the Maker, the Law- thought to be perfectly right and

color, and creed, and who was sure Giver, a jealous Lord,” phrases he had fitting because of his actions in earlier

the feelings of the Japanese would be probably picked up in the Bible and, lives. As can be seen, Hinduism, by

hurt if they sensed themselves with Hindu fluidity, felt he could its very theology, with its sacred triad

unwanted. As world-class statesmen throw in so as to embrace even more of karma, reincarnation, and caste

go, it is not a very good record. of the Great Oneness. So when (with caste an absolutely

Madeleine Slade was right, I suppose. Gandhi said, “I am a Hindu and a indispensable part of the system)

The world certainly didn’t listen to Muslim and a Christian and a Jew,” it offers the most complacent

Gandhi. Nor, for that matter, has the was (from a Western standpoint) justification of inhumanity of any of

modern government of India listened Hindu double-talk. Hindu holy men, the world’s great religious faiths.

to Gandhi. Although all Indian some of them reformers like Gandhi, Gandhi, needless to say, was a

politicians of all political parties have actually even “converted” to Hindu reformer, one of many. Until

claim to be Gandhians, India has Islam, then Christianity, or whatever, well into his fifties, however, he

blithely fought three wars against to worship different “aspects” of the accepted the caste system in toto as

Pakistan, one against China, and even Great Oneness, before reconverting to the “natural order of society,”

invaded and seized tiny, helpless Goa, Hinduism. Now for Christians, promoting control and discipline and

and all without a thought of ahimsa. fastidious in matters of doctrine, a sanctioned by his religion. Later, in

And of course India now has atomic man who converts to Islam is an bursts of zeal, he favored moderating

weapons, a satyagraha technique if apostate (or vice versa), but a Hindu it in a number of ways. But he stuck

ever there was one. is a Hindu is a Hindu. The better to by the basic varna system (the four

experience the Great Oneness, many main caste groupings plus the

I AM SURE that almost everyone Hindu holy men feel they should be Untouchables) until the end of his

who sees the movie Gandhi is aware women as well as men, and one quite days, insisting that a man’s position

that, from a religious point of view, famous one even claimed he could and occupation should be determined

the Mahatma was something called a menstruate (I will spare the reader the essentially by birth. Gandhi favored

“Hindu” – but I do not think one in a details). milder treatment of Untouchables,

thousand has the dimmest notion of renaming them Harijans, “children of

the fundamental beliefs of the Hindu IN THIS ecumenical age, it is God,” but a Harijan was still a

religion. The simplest example is extremely hard to shake Westerners Harijan. Perhaps because his frenzies

Gandhi’s use of the word “God,” loose from the notion that the devout of compassion were so extreme (no,

which, for members of the great of all religions, after all, worship “the no, he would clean the Harijan’s

Western religions – Christianity, one God.” But Gandhi did not latrine), Hindu reverence for him as a

Judaism, and Islam, all interrelated – worship the one God. He did not holy man became immense, but his

means a personal god, a godhead. But worship the God of mercy. He did not prescriptions were rarely followed.

when Gandhi said “God” in speaking worship the God of forgiveness. And Industrialization and modernization

English, he was merely translating this for the simple reason that the have introduced new occupations and

from Gujarati or Hindi, and from the concepts of mercy and forgiveness are sizable social and political changes in

Hindu culture. Gandhi, in fact, simply absent from Hinduism. In Hinduism, India, but the caste system has

did not believe in a personal God, and men do not pray to God for dexterously adapted and remains

wrote in so many words, “God is not forgiveness, and a man’s sins are largely intact today. The Sudras still

a person . . . but a force; the never forgiven – indeed, there is no labor. The sweepers still sweep. Max

undefinable myterious Power that one out there to do the forgiving. In Weber, in his The Religion of India,

pervades everything; a living Power your next life you may be born after quoting the last line of the

that is Love. . . .” And Gandhi’s very someone higher up the caste scale, but Communist Manifesto, suggests

favorite definition of God, repeated in this life there is no hope. For somewhat sardonically that low-caste

many times, was, “God is Truth,” Gandhi, a true Hindu, did not believe Hindus, too, have “nothing to lose but

which reduces God to some kind of in man’s immortal soul. He believed their chains,” that they, too, have “a

abstract principle. with every ounce of his being in world to win” – the only problem



9

being that they have to die first and giving and taking enemas, and his the chaste man secretions [semen] are

get born again, higher, it is to be public bowel movements and his deep sublimated into a vital force

hoped, in the immutable system of concern with everyone else’s bowel pervading his whole being.” And

caste. Hinduism in general, wrote movements (much correspondence), again, still Gandhi: “Ability to retain

Weber, “is characterized by a dread of and endless dietary experiments as a and assimilate the vital liquid is a

the magical evil of innovation.” Its function of bowel movements, he matter of long training. When

very essence is to guarantee statis. devoted a rather large share of his life properly conserved it is transmuted

In addition to its literally to the matter. Despite his constant into matchless energy and strength.”

thousands of castes and sub-castes, campaigning for sanitation, it is hard Most male Hindus go ahead and have

Hinduism has countless sects, with to believe that Gandhi was not sexual relations anyway, of course,

discordant rites and beliefs. It has no permanently marked by what Arthur but the belief in the value of the

clear ecclesiastical organization and Koestler terms the Hindu “morbid bindu leaves the whole culture in

no universal body of doctrine. What I infatuation with filth,” and what V.S. what many observers have called a

have described above is your Naipaul goes as far as to call the permanent state of “semen anxiety.”

standard, no-frills Hindu, of which in Indian “deification of filth.” (Decades When Gandhi once had a nocturnal

many ways Gandhi was an excellent later, Krishna Menon, a Gandhian and emission he almost had a nervous

example. With the reader’s one-time Indian Defense Minister, breakdown.

permission I will skip over the was still fortifying his sanctity by Gandhi was a truly fanatical

Upanishads, Vedanta, Yoga, the drinking a daily glass of urine.) opponent of sex for pleasure, and

Puranas, Tantra, Bhakti, the But even more important, because worked it out carefully that a married

Bhagvad-Gita (which contains it is dealt with in the movie directly – couple should be allowed to have sex

theistic elements), Brahma, Vishnu, if of course dishonestly – is Gandhi’s three to four times in a lifetime,

Shiva, and the terrible Kali or Durga, parallel obsession with merely to have children, and favored

to concentrate on those central beliefs brahmacharya, or sexual chastity. embodying this restriction in the law

that most motivated Gandhi’s There is a scene late in the film in of the land. The sexual-gratification

behavior as a public figure. which Margaret Bourke- White wing of he present-day feminist

(again!) asks Gandhi’s wife if he has movement would find little to attract

IT SHOULD be plain by now that ever broken his vow of chastity, them in Gandhi’s doctrine, since in all

there is much in the Hindu culture taken, at that time, about forty years his seventy-nine years it never

that is distasteful to the Western before. Gandhi’s wife, by now a crossed his mind once that there could

mind, and consequently is largely sweet old lady, answers wistfully, be anything enjoyable in sex for

unknown in the West – not because with a pathetic little note of hope, women, and he was constantly

Hindus do not go on and on about “Not yet.” What lies behind this enjoining Indian women to deny

these subjects, but because a Western adorable scene is the following: themselves to men, to refuse to let

squeamishness usually prevents these Gandhi held as one of his most their husbands “abuse” them. Gandhi

preoccupations from reaching print profound beliefs (a fundamental had been married at thirteen, and

(not to mention film). When Gandhi doctrine of Hindu medicine) that a when he took his vow of chastity,

attended his first Indian National man, as a matter of the utmost after twenty-four years of sexual

Congress he was most distressed at importance, must conserve his bindu, activity. He ordered his two oldest

seeing the Hindus – not laborers but or seminal fluid. Koestler (in The sons, both young men, to be totally

high-caste Hindus, civic leaders – Lotus and the Robot) gives a succinct chaste as well.

defecating all over the place, as if to account of this belief, widespread

pay attention to where the feces fell among orthodox Hindus: “A man’s BUT Gandhi’s monstrous behavior to

was somehow unclean. (For, as V.S. vital energy is concentrated in his his own family is notorious. He

Naipaul put is, in a twisted Hindu seminal fluid, and this is stored in a denied his sons education – to which

way it is unclean to clean. It is cavity in the skull. It is the most he was bitterly hostile. His wife

unclean even to notice. “It was the precious substance in the body . . . remained illiterate. Once when she

business of the sweepers to remove and elixir of life both in the physical was very sick, hemorrhaging badly,

excrement, and until the sweepers and the mystical sense, distilled from and seemed to be dying, he wrote to

came, people were content to live in the blood. . . A large store of bindu of her from jail icily: “My struggle is not

the midst of their own excrement.”) pure quality guarantees health, merely political. It is religious and

Gandhi exhorted Indians endlessly on longevity, and supernatural powers. . . therefore quite pure. It does not

the subject, saying that sanitation was . Conversely, every loss of it is a matter much whether one dies in it or

the first need of India, but he retained physical and spiritual lives. I hope and expect that you will

an obvious obsession with excreta, impoverishment.” Gandhi himself also think likewise and not be

gleefully designing latrines and said in so many words, “A man who unhappy.” To die, that is. On another

latrine drills for all hands at the is unchaste loses stamina, becomes occasion he wrote, speaking about

ashram, and, all in all, what with emasculated and cowardly, while in her: “I simply cannot bear to look at



10

Ba’s face. The expression is often like declined into an apparatus for

that on the face of a meek cow and survival, turning away from the mind ANOTHER of Gandhi’s most

gives one the feeling, as a cow . . . and creativity . . .stripping itself powerful obsessions (to which the

occasionally does, that in her own down, like all decaying civilizations, movie alludes in such a syrupy and

dumb manner she is saying to its magical practices and misleading manner that it would be

something. I see, too, that there is imprisoning social forms.” He adds quite impossible for the audience to

selfishness in this suffering of hers. . . later, “No government can survive on understand it) was his visceral hatred

.” And in the end he let her die, as I Gandhian fantasy; and the spirituality, of the modern, industrial world. He

have said, rather than allow British the solace of a conquered people, even said, more than once, that he

doctors to give her a shot of penicillin which Gandhi turned into a form of actually wouldn’t mind if the British

(while his inner voice told him that it national assertion, has soured most remained in India, to police it,

would be all right for him to take obviously into the nihilism that it conduct foreign policy, and such

quinine). He disowned his oldest son, always was.” Naipaul condemns India trivia, if it would only take away its

Harilal, for wishing to marry. He again and again for its “intellectual factories and railways. And Gandhi

banished his second son for giving his parasitism,” its “intellectual vacuum,” hated, not just factories and railways,

struggling older brother a small sum its “emptiness,” the “blankness of its but also the telegraph, the telephone,

of money. Harilal grew quite wild decayed civilization.” “Indian poverty the radio, the airplane. He happened

with rage against his father, attacked is more dehumanizing than any to be in England, when Louis Bleriot,

him in print, converted to Islam, took machine; and, more than in any the great French aviation pioneer, first

to women, drink, and died an machine civilization, men in India are flew the English Channel – an event

alcoholic in 1948. The Mahatma units, locked up in the straitest which at the time stirred as much

attacked him right back in his pious obedience by their idea of their excitement as Lindbergh’s later flight

way, proclaiming modestly in an open dharma. . . . The blight of caste is not across the Atlantic – and Gandhi was

letter in Young India, “Men may be only untouchability and the in a positive fury that giant crowds

good, not necessarily their children.” consequent deification in India of were acclaiming such an insignificant

filth; the blight, in an India that tries event. He used the telegraph

IF THE reader thinks I have delivered to grow, is also the overall obedience extensively himself, of course, and

unduly harsh judgements on India and it imposes, . . . the diminishing of later would broadcast daily over All-

Hindu civilization, I can refer him to adventurousness, the pushing away India Radio during his highly

An Area of Darkness and India: A from men of individuality and the publicized fasts, but consistency was

Wounded Civilization, two quite possibility of excellence.” never Gandhi’s strong suit.

brilliant books on India by V.S. Although Naipaul blames Gandhi Gandhi’s view of the good

Naipaul, a Hindu, and a Brahmin, as well as India itself for the country’s society, about which he wrote ad

born in Trinidad. In the second, the failure to develop an “ideology” nauseam, was an Arcadian vision set

more discursive, Naipaul writes that adequate for the modern world, he far in India’s past. It was the pristine

India has “little to offer the world grants him one or more magnificent Indian village, where, with all

except its Gandhian concept of holy moments – always, it should be noted, diabolical machinery and technology

poverty and the recurring crooked when responding to “other abolished – and with them all

comedy of its holy men, and . . . is civilizations.” For Gandhi, Naipaul unhappiness – contented villagers

now dependent in every practical way remarks pointedly, had matured in would hand-spin their own yarn,

on other, imperfectly understood alien societies: Britain and South hand-weave their own cloth, serenely

civilizations.” Africa. With age, back in India, he follow their bullocks in the fields,

Hinduism, Naipaul writes, “has seemed from his autobiography to be tranquilly prodding them in the anus

given men no idea of a contract with headed for “lunacy,” says Naipaul, in the time-hallowed Hindu way. This

other men, no idea of the state. It has and was only rescued by external was why Gandhi taught himself to

enslaved one quarter of the population events, his reactions to which were spin, and why all the devout

[the Untouchables] and always has determined in part by “his experience Gandhians, like monkeys, spun also.

left the whole fragmented and of the democratic ways of South This was Gandhi’s program. Since he

vulnerable. Its philosophy of Africa” [my emphasis]. For it is one said it several thousand times, we

withdrawal has diminished men of the enduring ironies of Gandhi’s have no choice but to believe that he

intellectually and not equipped them story that it was in South Africa – sincerely desired the destruction of

to respond to challenge; it has stifled South Africa – a country in which he modern technology and industry and

growth. So that again and again in became far more deeply involved than the return of India to the way of life

India history has repeated itself: he had been in Britain, that Gandhi of an idyllic (and quite likely non-

vulnerability, defeat, withdrawal.” caught a warped glimmer of that existent) past. And yet this same

Indians, Naipaul says, have no strange institution of which he would Mahatma Gandhi hand-picked as the

historical notion of the past. “Through never have seen even a reflection first Prime Minister of an independent

centuries of conquest the civilization within Hindu society: democracy. India Pandit Nehru, who was



11

committed to a policy of emulate. The true oddity is that the views of such heavy thinkers as

industrialization and for whom the Gandhi, this holy man, having drawn Margaret Bourke-White, Ralph

last word in the politico-economic from British sources his notions of Nader, and J.K. Galbraith (who found

organization of the state was (and nationalism and democracy, also the film’s Gandhi “true to the

remained) Beatrice Webb. absorbed from the British his model original” and endorsed the movie

of virtue in public life. He was a wholeheartedly), we have a right to

WHAT are we to make of this historical original, a Hindu holy man reservations about such a figure as a

Gandhi? We are dealing with two that a British model of public service public man.

strangenesses here, Indians and and dazzling advances in mass I should not be surprised if

Gandhi himself. The plain fact is that communication thrust out into the Gandhi’s greatest real humanitarian

both Indian leaders and the Indian world, to become a great moral leader achievement was an improvement in

people ignored Gandhi’s precepts and the “father of his country.” the treatment of Untouchables – an

almost as thoroughly as did Hitler. area where his efforts were not only

They ignored him on sexual SOME Indians feel that after the assiduous, but actually bore fruit. In

abstinence. They ignored his early 1930’s, Gandhi, although by this, of course, he ranks well behind

modifications of the caste system. now world-famous, was in fact in the British, who abolished suttee –

They ignored him on the evils of sharp decline. Did he at least “get the over ferocious Hindu opposition – in

modern industry, the radio, the British out of India”? Some say no. 1829. The ritual immolation by fire of

telephone. They ignored him on India, in the last days of the British widows on their husbands’ funeral

education. They ignored his appeals Raj, was already largely governed by pyres, suttee had the full sanction of

for national union, the former British Indians (a fact one would never the Hindu religion, although it might

Raj splitting into a Muslim Pakistan suspect from this movie), and it is a perhaps be wrong to overrate its

and a Hindu India. No one sought a common view that without this importance. Scholars remind us that it

return to the Arcadian Indian village irrational, wildly erratic holy man the was never universal, only “usual.”

of antiquity. They ignored him, above transition to full independence might And there was, after all, a rather

all, on ahimsa, nonviolence. There have gone both more smoothly and extensive range of choice. In southern

was always a small number of exalted more swiftly. There is much evidence India the widow was flung into her

satyagrahi who, martyrs, would that in his last years Gandhi was in a husband’s fire-pit. In the valley of the

march into the constables’ kind of spiritual retreat and, with all Ganges she was placed on the pyre

truncheons, but one of the things that his endless praying and fasting, was when it was already aflame. In

alarmed the British – as Tagore no longer pursuing (the very words western India, she supported the head

indicated – was the explosions of seem strange in a Hindu context) “the of the corpse with her right hand,

violence that accompanied all this public good.” What he was pursuing, while, torch in her left, she was

alleged nonviolence. Naipaul writes in a strict reversion to Hindu tradition, allowed the honor of setting the

that with independence India was his personal holiness. In earlier whole thing on fire herself. In the

discovered again that it was “cruel days he had scoffed at the title north, where perhaps women were

and horribly violent.” Jaya Prakash accorded him, Mahatma (literally more impious, the widow’s body was

Narayan, the late opposition leader, “great soul”). But towards the end, constrained on the burning pyre by

once admitted, “We often behave like during the hideous paroxysms that long poles pressed down by her

animals. . . . We are more likely than accompanied independence, with relatives, just in case, screaming in

not to become aggressive, wild, some of the most unspeakable terror and choking and burning to

violent. We kill and burn and loot. .” massacres taking place in Calcutta, he death, she might forget her dharma.

Why, then, did the Hindu masses declared, “And if . . . the whole of So, yes, ladies, members of the

so honor this Mahatma, almost all of Calcutta swims in blood, it will not National Council of Churches,

whose most cherished beliefs they so dismay me. For it will be a willing believers in the one God, mourners

pointedly ignored, even during his offering of innocent blood.” And in for the holy India before it was

lifetime? For Hindus, the question is his last days, after there had already despoiled by those brutish British,

not really so puzzling. Gandhi, for been one attempt on his life, he was remember suttee, that interesting,

them, after all, was a Mahatma, a holy heard to say, “I am a true Mahatma.” exotic practice in which Hindus, over

man. He was a symbol of sanctity, not We can only wonder, furthermore, the centuries, burned to death

a guide to conduct. Hinduism has a at a public figure who lectures half his countless millions of helpless women

long history of holy men who, life about the necessity of abolishing in a spirit of pious devotion, crying

traditionally, do not offer themselves modern industry and returning India for all I know, Hai Rama! Hai Rama!

up to the public as models of general to its ancient primitiveness, and then

behavior but withdraw from the picks a Fabian socialist, already I WOULD like to conclude with

world, often into an ashram, to pursue drawing up Five-Year Plans, as the some observations on two

their sanctity in private, a practice country’s first Prime Minister. Englishmen, Madeleine Slade, the

which all Hindus honor, if few Audacious as it may seem to contest daughter of a British admiral, and Sir



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Richard Attenborough, the producer, cheerfulness, “without thinking that either acting or directing talent. In the

director and spiritual godfather of the the orthodox party is in any way 50’s he was a popular young British

film, Gandhi. Miss Slade was a jewel unreasonable.” (This is as good an entertainer, but his most singular gift

in Gandhi’s crown – a member of the example as any of Gandhi’s appeared to be his entrepreneurial

British ruling class, as she was, turned coherence, even in his prime. Women talent as a businessman, using his

fervent disciple of this Indian should not be treated like that, but the movie fees to launch successful

Mahatma. She is played in the film by people who treated them that way London restaurants (at one time four),

Geraldine James with nobility, were in no way unreasonable.) and other business ventures. At the

dignity, and a beatific manner quite Some years after Gandhi’s death, present moment he is Chairman of the

up to the level of Candice Bergen, Miss Slade rediscovered Beethoven, Board of Capital Radio (Britain’s

and perhaps even the Virgin Mary. I becoming conscious again “of the most successful commercial station),

learn from Ved Mehta’s Mahatma realization of my true self. For a Goldcrest Films, the British Film

Gandhi and his Apostles, however, while I remained lost in the world of Institute, and Deputy Chairman of the

that Miss Slade had another master the spirit. . . .” She soon returned to BBC’s new Channel 4 television

before Gandhi. In about 1917, when Europe and serving Beethoven, her network. Like most members of the

she was fifteen, she made contact “true calling.” When Mehta finally nouveaux riches on the rise, he has

with the spirit of Beethoven by found her in Vienna, she told him, also reached out for symbols of

listening to his sonatas on a player “Please don’t ask me any more about respectability and public service, and

piano. “I threw myself down on my Bapu [Gandhi]. I now belong to van has assembled quite a collection. He

knees in the seclusion of my room,” Beethovn. In matters of spirit, there is is Trustee of the Tate Gallery, Pro-

she wrote in her autobiography, “and always a call.” A polite description of Chancellor of Sussex University,

prayed, really prayed to God for the Miss Slade is that she was an extreme President of Britain’s Muscular

first time in my life: ‘Why have I eccentric. In the vernacular, she was Dystrophy Group, Chairman of the

been born over a century too late? slightly cracked. Actors’ Charitable Trust and, of

Why hast Thou given me realization Sir Richard Attenborough, course, Chairman of the Royal

of him and yet put all these years in however, isn’t cracked at all. The Academy of Dramatic Art. There may

between?” only puzzle is how he suddenly got to be even more, but this is a fair

After World War I, still seeking be a pacifist, a fact which his press sampling. In 1976, quite fittingly, he

how best to serve Beethoven, Miss releases now proclaim to the world. was knighted, by a Labor

Slade felt an “infinite longing” when Attenborough trained as a pilot in the government, but his friends say he

she visited his birthplace and grave, RAF in World War II, and was still insists on being called “Dickie.”

and, finally, at the age of thirty-two, released briefly to the cinema, where It is quite general today for

caught up with Romain Rolland, who he had already begun his career in members of the professional classes,

had partly based his Jean Christophe Noel Coward’s superpatriotic In even when not artistic types, to

on the composer. But Rolland had Which We Serve. He then returned to despise commerce and feel that the

written a new book now, about a man active service, flying combat missions state, the economy, and almost

called Gandhi, “another Christ,” and with the RAF. Richard Attenborough, everything else would be better and

before long Miss Slade was quite in short – when Gandhi was pleading more idealistically run by themselves

literally falling on her knees before with the British to surrender to the rather than those loutish businessmen.

the Mahatma in India, “conscious of Nazis, assuring them that “Hitler is Sir Dickie, however, being a highly

nothing but a sense of light.” not a bad man” – was fighting for his successful businessman himself,

Although one would never guess this country. The Viceroy of India warned would hardly entertain such an

from the film, she soon (to quote Gandhi grimly that “We are engaged antipathy. But as he scrambled his

Mehta’s impression) began “to get on in a struggle,” and Attenborough way to the heights perhaps he found

Gandhi’s nerves,” and he took every played his part in that great struggle, himself among high-minded idealists,

pretext to keep her away from him, in and proudly, too, as far as I can tell. utopians, equalitarians, and lovers of

other ashrams, and working in To my knowledge he has never had a the oppressed. Now there are those

schools and villages in other parts of crise de conscience on the matter, or who think Sir Dickie converted to

India. She complained to Gandhi in announced that he was carried away pacifism when Indira Gandhi handed

letters about discrimination against by the war fever and that Britain him a check for several million

her by orthodox Hindus, who really should have capitulated to the dollars. But I do not believe this. I

expected her to live in rags and vile Nazis – which Gandhi would have think Sir Dickie converted to pacifism

quarters during menstruation, had it do. out of idealism.

considering her unclean and virtually

untouchable. Gandhi wrote back, ALTHOUGH the present film is HIS pacifism, I confess, has been

agreeing that women should not be handsomely done in its way, no one more than usually muddled. In 1968,

treated like that, but adding that she has ever accused Attenborough of after twenty-six years in the

should accept it all with grace and being excessively endowed with profession, he made his directorial



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debut with Oh! What a Lovely War, have sunk in the West, every hare- beware.” Repeated many thousand

with its superb parody of Britain’s brained idealist who discovers that times in a seat in the cinema it might

jingoistic music-hall songs of the war is not a day at the beach seems to with luck lead to Om, the Hindu

“Great War,” World War I. Since I think he has found an irresistible dream of nothingness, the Ultimate

had the good fortune to see Joan argument for pacifism. Is Pearl Void.

Littlewood’s original London stage Harbor an argument for pacifism? ______________________________

production, which gave the work its Bataan? Dunkirk? Dieppe? The

entire style, I cannot think that Sir Ardennes? Roland fell at

Dickie’s contribution was unduly Roncesvalles. Is the Song of Roland a

large. Like most commercially pacifist epic? If so, why did William

successful parodies – from Sandy the Conqueror have it chanted to his

Wilson’s The Boyfriend to men as they marched into battle at

Broadway’s Superman, Dracula, and Hastings? Men prove their valor in

The Crucifier of Blood – Oh! What a defeat as well as in victory. Even

Lovely War depended on the Sergeant-Major Gandhi knew that. Up

audience’s (if not Miss Littlewood’s) in the moral never-never land which

retaining a substantial affection for Sir Dickie now inhabits, perhaps they

the subject being parodied: in this think the Alamo led to a great wave

case, a swaggering hyper-patriotism, of pacifism in Texas.

which recalled days when the empire In a feat of sheer imbecility,

was great. In any event, since Miss Attenborough has dedicated Gandhi

Littlewood identified herself as a to Lord Mountbatten, who

Communist and since Communists, as commanded the Southeast Asian

far as I know, are never pacifists, Sir Theater during World War II.

Dickie’s case for the production’s Mountbatten, you might object, was

“pacifism” seems stymied from the hardly a pacifist – but then again he

other angle as well. was murdered by Irish terrorists,

Sir Dickie’s next blow for which proves how frightful all that

pacifism was Young Winston (1973), sort of thing is, Sir Dickie says, and

which, the new publicity manual says, how we must end it all by imitating

“explored how Churchill’s childhood Gandhi. Not the Gandhi who called

traumas and lack of parental affection for seas of innocent blood, you

became the spurs which goaded him understand, but the movie-Gandhi,

to . . . a position of great power.” One the nice one.

would think that a man who once flew

combat missions under the orders of THE historical Gandhi’s favorite

the great war leader – and who mantra, strange to tell, was Do or Die

seemingly wanted his country to win (he called it literally that, a “mantra”).

– would thank God for childhood I think Sir Dickie should reflect on

traumas and lack of parental affection this, because it means, dixit Gandhi,

if such were needed to provide a that a man must be prepared to die for

Churchill in the hour of peril. But on what he believes in, for, himsa or

pressed Sir Dickie, in the year of his ahimsa, death is always there, and in

knighthood, with A Bridge Too Far, an ultimate test men who are not

the story of the futile World War II prepared to face it lose. Gandhi was

assault on Arnhem, described by Sir erratic, irrational, tyrannical,

Dickie – now, at least – as “a further obstinate. He sometimes verged on

plea for pacifism.” lunacy. He believed in a religion

But does Sir Richard whose ideas I find somewhat

Attenborough seriously think that, repugnant. He worshipped cows. But

rather than go through what we did at I still say this: he was brave. He

Arnhem, we should have given in, let feared no one.

the Nazis be, and even – true pacifists On a lower level of being, I have

– let them occupy Britain, Canada, consequently given some thought to

the United States, contenting the proper mantra for spectators of the

ourselves only with “making them movie Gandhi. After much reflection,

feel unwanted”? At the level of idiocy in homage to Ralph Nader, I have

to which discussions of war and peace decided on Caveat Emptor, “buyer



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