Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi And His Struggle With India (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
The book is marred by gratuitous criticism - criticism at every turn, in every way, at each opportunity. Despite himself, the author did not succeed in lowering Ghandi's esteem one bit. I think a critical look at Ghandi was in order and had looked forward to a balanced and critical examination of his life. But this book strove to include even the most unconvincing critiques (at two separate points linking Gandhi to Mao and even Bin Laden) and resulted in a wayward study without a consistent theme. What the author misses is that Gandhi's alleged bisexuality is not a flaw to be obsessed over. In fact, it does nothing to detract from his accomplishments and is in itself irrelevant. Gandhi's other flaws have been thoroughly researched, and they only humanize a man who accomplished incredible feats. The Hilo Public Library has a bin up front with a monthly feature, and I always check it out for unexpected treasures. The theme was "biographies" and this is the one that most interested me. Everyone knows who Mahatma Ghandi is.......the world-founder and father of the non-violent struggle for justice. I don't recall ever learning about Ghandi in school; I do recall Dr. Martin Luther King citing Ghandi as the basis for his leadership in non-violent struggle for human rights in America. It turns out that Ghandi started not in India struggling against British domination and the Hindu caste system, but in South Africa fighting on behalf of indigenous South African miners. Ghandi was the founder of the anti-apartheid movement and is still revered there. In India the caste system prevails, though it is defacto. This biography chronicles not only the political achievements, but Ghandi's personal struggles, which turn out to have been perverse. Hinduism and the principles of non-violence do not require abstention from all sexual desires and actions or severe dietary restraints and fasting. But Ghandi's personal ethos required both and used fasting as a political tool to coerce. His sexual life begs the question of his hidden (even from himself?) sexual preferences. He demands sexual abstinence from his wife and followers and then forms the closest relationship in his lifetime to a man, with whom he chastely sleeps side-by-side. In his final decade of life he demands and receives permission from the father of his 14 year old female niece that she not only sleep by his side and massage him daily and act otherwise as his personal maid, but also that they remove all clothing and "cuddle" daily ...... just so he can make sure he is not sexually aroused. Hmmmmm......turns out the Mahatma was just a man after all.
What do You think about Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi And His Struggle With India (2011)?
This book was designed to increase readership by the garbage that it presented as facts.
—jamminwitu
Very interesting perspective on the life and struggles of Gandhi.
—cookies4110
