The Ugly Truth About Gandhi
The Ugly Truth About Gandhi
Everyone knows the peace-loving prophet who stood for kindness and love to all, Gandhi, but did this holy man actually practice what he preached? Check out today’s new video that exposes a dark side to Gandhi that will leave you shocked!
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Content
0.32 -> The great Mahatma Gandhi, a hero of India, a
man who through a campaign of non-violence,
5.28 -> freed his country from the
clutches of British Imperialists.
8.16 -> He was not just a “father” of his nation, but
for some, he was considered almost saintly.
12.16 -> He also liked to sleep alone in beds with his
grandnieces and other young women, and held some
17.28 -> shockingly racist views towards other races.
Today we will shock some of you. We might
22.32 -> even offend some of you. But we also think
by the time you’ve got to the end of this
25.92 -> show you will have changed your mind
as to how you think about Mr. Gandhi.
29.44 -> Before we get to that, here’s an
abridged introduction to the man born
32.88 -> Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on October 2, 1869.
He grew up in fairly comfortable surroundings
39.2 -> seeing that his father held the position of
chief minister in the Indian state of Porbandar.
43.76 -> His mother was said to be a very pious woman,
which is where the young Gandhi discovered the
47.92 -> benefits of cherishing the simple things in life.
The religious devotion he saw by his mother would
52.56 -> foster in him a sense of ethics that he
later become famous for on a global scale.
56.56 -> Things such as non-violence, tolerance
of others’ beliefs, vegetarianism,
60.48 -> and acts of self-purification, were his badge.
They were also steeped in hypocrisy at times.
65.44 -> His beliefs were put to the test
when he went over to London to study.
68.64 -> Before he left India, he swore to his mom to
not fall for the enticements of modern life,
73.52 -> to stay clear of women and meat, and generally
to uphold the beliefs she’d taught him.
77.92 -> But while studying law in London, he witnessed
late 19th-century industry and all the horrors
82.48 -> that could come with it. The streets of London
were certainly not paved with gold. Far from it,
86.72 -> many Londoners with their ragged
clothes and dirty faces didn’t seem
89.84 -> to be enjoying Britain’s industrial wealth.
Gandhi witnessed poverty, but he also witnessed
94.48 -> activism there. It was the same when he went
over to South Africa, where he saw much of
98.56 -> the population living in abject poverty.
Gandhi might have been an educated lawyer
102.48 -> by this time, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t told
like other Indians that because of his skin color
106.88 -> he wasn’t allowed to walk on certain
footpaths or enter certain buildings.
110.4 -> There’s more to this story, but just let
us tell you the good Gandhi story first.
114.48 -> He was disgusted. There he was, an
educated man who considered himself
118.72 -> as much English as he was Indian but treated
as a second-class citizen by the Europeans.
123.2 -> One time, he was kicked out of a
train coach because of his race.
126.16 -> Like many other people of color, his rights
were taken away from him. On another occasion,
130.4 -> he was beaten up for not making room for a
white passenger. If that wasn’t bad enough,
134.32 -> he was barred from staying at certain hotels
even though he had the money to pay for them.
138.24 -> The story goes that Gandhi understood the
many wrongs committed by the imperialists.
142.56 -> And so it was at this juncture in his life when
he decided that he was going to bring about
146.4 -> change. But his resistance, in line with
his religious beliefs, had to be peaceful.
150.72 -> One of his most famous lines is, “Every
revolution begins with a single act of defiance.”
155.44 -> And this is how he began fighting for the
rights of Indians. This is how he got a name
158.96 -> for himself as an activist, which on one
dark day in Durban, South Africa, almost
163.6 -> got him lynched by a mob of angry white folks.
He spent several years in South Africa, but he
168.4 -> knew that India needed him. When he announced
his departure from Africa, a statesman wrote,
172.88 -> “The saint has left our shores.” This
statesman was a white South African.
176.88 -> He finished the sentence, “I hope forever.”
Back in India, Gandhi carried on fighting
181.52 -> for people’s rights. He’d been beaten up; he’d
be jailed. He’d been harangued and oppressed,
186.08 -> but he still preached peace. He might
have supported the British war effort,
189.2 -> but he also never shied away from
criticizing the British imperialists.
192.56 -> We apologize to our Gandhi enthusiasts
for skipping over many years of his life,
196.48 -> but we think most of you know that this man became
one of the most powerful people in India. His form
200.8 -> of Indian nationalism was embraced by much of
the country, most of the country in fact, and
205.28 -> they started to believe that with the right will,
the Indian people could be free of the British.
209.84 -> His activism got him arrested on March 10, 1922,
and he spent the next two years behind bars,
215.28 -> but he wasn’t done by any means.
In the years to follow, he would
218.48 -> lead many of the Indian people to peacefully
revolt against many facets of British rule.
222.96 -> His followers - and there were many - went to
prison for their acts of civil disobedience.
227.28 -> In 1932, while in prison again, he undertook
a now-famous fast over the disenfranchisement
232.24 -> of those at the bottom of India’s caste
system, people called the “untouchables.”
236.32 -> When Indians saw how willing
Gandhi was to die for his people,
239.28 -> for the rights of the country’s poorest, it
spread hope through the hearts of a nation.
243.12 -> Then the second world war happened, and again, the
Indians were expected to fight for the British.
247.36 -> But this time, the Indian National Congress
wanted a form of self-government if it were
251.28 -> to throw Indian nationals onto the battlefield.
Close to 90,000 of them would eventually die,
256.4 -> not to mention the perhaps 2.5 million
total Indian casualties of war.
260.16 -> Before the war ended, Gandhi had already
started the “Quit India Movement”,
264.16 -> and then on August 15, 1947, India
finally got its independence.
268.56 -> Ok, so what you’ve just heard is the condensed
story of a man who saw cruelty and unfairness
272.56 -> in the world and wanted to do something
about it. He then took considerable risks
276.48 -> in fighting the perpetrators of these
wrongs and he made it his life’s work.
279.84 -> It’s now time we got into costume
and became the devil’s advocate.
283.28 -> Here’s a quote for you, “Hitler killed
five million Jews. It is the greatest
286.96 -> crime of our time. But the Jews should have
offered themselves to the butcher's knife.
290.72 -> They should have thrown themselves into the
sea from cliffs...It would have aroused the
294.24 -> world and the people of Germany...As it is
they succumbed anyway in their millions.”
298.96 -> Yep, those were the thoughts of Gandhi. He was
taking non-violence to another level and he was
303.44 -> not surprisingly condemned for saying such things.
While his beliefs might not exactly fall into an
308.08 -> ugly truth category, his moral absolutism
just made no sense at all to some people,
313.04 -> especially those under attack from Germany. When
the Nazis were bombing England, Gandhi seemed to
317.6 -> think the Brits should not bother fighting back.
This is what he said about that:
321.44 -> “I would like you to lay down the arms
you have as being useless for saving you
325.28 -> or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and
Signor Mussolini to take what they want of
330.4 -> the countries you call your possessions...If
these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes,
334.16 -> you will vacate them. If they do not give you
free passage out, you will allow yourselves,
338.72 -> man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but
you will refuse to owe allegiance to them.”
342.8 -> In hindsight, we all now know the many added
horrors that would have occurred had governments
348.16 -> followed Gandhi’s instructions and just allowed
Nazi Germany to do what it wanted. His assertion
352.8 -> also sounds much worse when you consider
some people now say that Gandhi was a racist.
356.72 -> In 2019, in the African nation of Malawi, people
were saying just that. In Ghana that same year,
362.24 -> a Gandhi statue was taken down at a university.
You might think that strange given what we told
367.52 -> you about Gandhi fighting for people’s
rights when he was in South Africa.
370.64 -> Well, in Ghana, many people right now don’t have
much love for Gandhi, which can be seen on Twitter
375.84 -> when folks use the hashtag “#GandhiMustFall.”
Maybe you think that is a bit severe,
380.16 -> but it sounds righteous enough when you know
some of the racist things Gandhi wrote back when
383.84 -> he was in Africa. For instance, he once wrote
that white folks, despite their flaws, should
388.08 -> be “the predominating race” in South Africa.
You see, the young Gandhi as you know went
392.08 -> over to England to get himself an education.
It seems it was his dealings with the ruling
396.32 -> British that convinced him that the Europeans were
just more civilized than black people in Africa.
400.96 -> We should say that he changed his entire
stance in time and became an anti-racist,
405.12 -> but it wasn’t always like that.
He also wrote in a letter summing
407.84 -> up the beliefs o the British that the “general
belief seems to prevail in the Colony that the
412.56 -> Indians are a little better, if at all,
than savages or the Natives of Africa.”
416.72 -> He absolutely thought that
many Africans were savages,
419.68 -> and he used derogatory language too when referring
to black people – such as the term kaffir.
424.72 -> In 1904, he wrote another letter stating that he
was upset about these people living among Indians,
429.76 -> saying, “About the mixing of the Kaffirs with the
Indians, I must confess I feel most strongly.”
434.64 -> He wrote that as long as blacks were
mixing with Indians then diseases such
437.84 -> as the plague would further spread.
You can now understand why people are
441.28 -> now calling Gandhi out. They also accuse
him of being a hypocrite, stating that he
445.28 -> didn’t believe in the rights of Africans
at all while also working with the British
448.56 -> government in segregating whites from blacks.
A stunning example of this is when Gandhi
453.04 -> petitioned the colonial government in South Africa
to ensure that Indian people didn’t have to share
457.68 -> the same queue as black people when they went to
the post office in Durban. He didn’t think it was
462 -> fair that Indians couldn’t queue with the whites.
Some people now try to cover for Gandhi saying he
466.56 -> was just a product of his times, although one
would think that a person of high intelligence
470.72 -> would still have known right from wrong even
if they didn’t always fight for what was right.
474.88 -> Others now say that Gandhi was a card-carrying
member of the Aryan brotherhood, and
478.8 -> no, we don’t mean that bunch of violent angry
neo-Nazis whose pastime is smoking amphetamines
482.96 -> and sharpening shivs. We mean the brotherhood that
wore suits and smoked pipes in dingy boardrooms.
487.76 -> For example, when asked just how racist
Gandhi was, one of his new critics wrote:
492.48 -> “Gandhi believed in the Aryan brotherhood.
This involved whites and Indians higher up
496.48 -> than Africans on the civilized scale. To that
extent, he was a racist. To the extent that he
501.28 -> wrote Africans out of history or was keen to join
with whites in their subjugation he was a racist.”
506.32 -> As we said, Gandhi shifted his stance, but how
much he shifted we can’t say. The question is,
511.76 -> when he was telling people to lie
down for the Germans did any part
515.2 -> of him still believe in superior races?
You have to remember that when Gandhi was in
519.04 -> South Africa it wasn’t as if black people hadn’t
already for years been fighting for their rights.
523.6 -> You can’t just say Gandhi was a product of the
times because he knew very well that a race of
527.92 -> people rightly felt they were violently oppressed.
When Gandhi was in England he spent most of his
532.56 -> time hanging out with intellectuals and the odd
vegetarian, and then once he was in South Africa,
537.12 -> he found himself having to share the same
train carriages and join the same queues of a
541.04 -> people he referred to as “coolies.” He hated this.
That much was evident in 1906 when during the Zulu
546.8 -> rebellion, Gandhi supported the British in what he
termed the “revolt of the Kaffirs.” These people,
551.68 -> who he pretty much believed were barbarians,
he said deserved Britsh rule because they spent
556.24 -> most of their days in “indolence and nakedness.”
Again, people say you have to forgive him for his
560.96 -> foibles. They say he had his road to Damascus
moment, and he changed his views. Nonetheless,
565.84 -> as his critics still point out, even if he did
hold some racist views on racial hierarchies,
570.16 -> why could he not ever refer to African people
as Africans and not coolies and kaffirs?
575.2 -> His utter lack of respect for Africans was
evident when he attended a dinner party held
579.6 -> by the British imperialist, Hugh Wyndham, 4th
Baron Leconfield. Gandhi was overjoyed to be
584.8 -> seated next to some of the empire’s toffs, and he
quite enjoyed his aubergine cutlets and plum tart.
590.48 -> He gave a speech about his leaving Africa, saying
he hoped “the Europeans of South Africa would take
595.36 -> a humanitarian and imperial view of the Indian
question.” But one of his biographers pointed
599.6 -> something else out. That was the fact Gandhi never
said any farewells to any Africans, even though
604.96 -> he’d been in Africa! That biographer said Gandhi
didn’t think Africans deserved a goodbye message.
610.4 -> We hammered this point home just a little
bit only because you have to admit that it’s
614.08 -> quite a huge deal when a human rights advocate
fighting to end discrimination went along with
618.72 -> discrimination and human rights abuses.
If he was flawed in public,
622.4 -> what about his personal life?
Things get even more strange now.
626 -> Gandhi once wrote to this son that “a person who
marries in order to satisfy his carnal desire
630.48 -> is lower than even the beast.” He had no time
for casual sex in human relations and he himself
635.6 -> became celibate at age 38. He’d gotten married
when he was 13 but turned away from sex later.
640.64 -> So, then why did the Guardian newspaper
write that Gandhi was prone to having “weird,
644.4 -> manipulative flirtations
with young unmarried women?”
647.44 -> Why also, in 2021, did some people in
California knock down a statue of the great man?
652.16 -> The answer is that some people think Gandhi wasn’t
just hypocritical when it came to racial equality,
656.56 -> but also in relation to his thoughts on sexual
purity. When it was decided that the statue
661.12 -> in California should be re-erected,
a group called the Organization for
664.56 -> Minorities of India was dead set against it.
When asked why, a spokesperson for the group
668.72 -> explained, “Gandhi was instrumental in influencing
national treatment of women in India. He said ‘my
673.36 -> life is my message’ and the life he modeled for
the nation was one of sexually exploiting his
677.92 -> grandnieces and many other teenage girls under
the guise of performing ‘celibacy experiments’.”
683.2 -> Gandhi stands accused of being sexist, racist, and
also of committing creepy acts with young women.
688.08 -> Like other spiritual leaders that have
tainted the Earth with their footsteps,
691.76 -> Gandhi has been called a “predator” which we don’t
have to tell you is a really bad look for someone
696.16 -> touted as being a man of peace with a pure soul.
Nonetheless, when people are accused of such
700.48 -> things, we should hope there’s a lot of
evidence or even some evidence to back it up.
704.24 -> Well, he was against birth control unless it
was the kind of control that involved a man
708.16 -> or woman taming their “animal passions.”
He once said if people have too much sex,
712.08 -> “They will become soft-brained, unhinged,
in fact, mental and moral wrecks.”
716.4 -> Then, when he was an aging man in the 1930s he
asked his young grandniece to get into bed with
720.48 -> him. He told her that it was an experiment to
see if he could control his own animal passions.
724.64 -> As bad as it looked, he didn’t hide
what he was doing, which was to “test,
728.08 -> or further test, his conquest of sexual desire.”
It’s written that he didn’t care what people
733.36 -> thought about it. One author said, “When a close
disciple heard of Gandhi’s ‘experiments with
737.44 -> celibacy’, he had threatened to leave the ashram,
unless Gandhi rectified his predatory behavior.
742.8 -> His choices were clearly never acceptable.”
These experiments not only involved his
746.72 -> grandniece but other young women and girls at the
ashram. He never did have intercourse with them,
751.36 -> but let’s just say he really tested himself.
As for how his wife felt about all of this,
756 -> Gandhi never seemed to show her much love. He once
said he couldn’t bear to look at her face and is
760.8 -> famously known for denying her life-saving drugs.
He certainly took a lot of criticism for the
764.96 -> two-week celibacy experiments, and he still
does now, just as he does for many of his
769.28 -> more conservative beliefs regarding sex and
gender. To give you an idea about those beliefs,
774.32 -> his answer to two women being attacked by men in
the street was for them to shave off their hair so
778.56 -> they were no longer attractive to men.
Yep, he blamed the women for a male
782.16 -> problem. He even once went as far as to say
that a women’s menstruation cycle was actually
786.08 -> a “manifestation of the distortion
of a woman's soul by her sexuality.”
790.08 -> For many people, Gandhi was a racist with a
predilection for sexually-focused predatory
794.4 -> behavior. Others say, leave him alone. The
man did good on the whole and can be said
798.4 -> to have done something not many people can
attest to in actually changing the world.
802.48 -> Today we’ve just played devil’s advocate and
will let you decide what to make of Gandhi.
806.4 -> The blacker parts of his life don’t figure
much when it comes to his legacy, but hey,
809.92 -> mythologies are rarely interested in nuance.
Now you need to watch another myth-busting
814.64 -> extravaganza “The Ugly Truth About
Mother Teresa.” Or, have a look at…
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfj5f0GVLZ0