The Gandhi Issue

“Dude. He was a total hypocrite….”

“He slept with naked young women to test his sexuality…”

“He was racist against Africans. He served to protect the interest of high caste Indians and Whites…”

“The Indian Independence movement was slowed down by years because of him…”

The accusations came like wildfire. I sat there stunned. I had heard some before, but now it was negative after negative. A man who had inspired peaceful, non-violent uprising throughout the world was lambasted as the biggest, most overhyped hypocrite in human history. What made it more interesting was that it came from an Indian. I asked him for sources and he was happy to give me plenty. Some were dubious self-made videos, others were more credible, acknowledging the failings of the man.

Though in one such (presumably dubious) videos in a Youtube channel by a guy called Stefan Molyneux, I saw on the right other recommended videos, all stating ‘The Truth” about every other great men in history. Mandela, Martin Luther King, Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, you name it, that guy had it. While my friend’s intention was to point out that Gandhi got too much credit (though the viciousness of his attacks made it sound like Gandhi actually made everything worse), Stefan’s goal was to bring down idol worship, for worshipping other people made us belittle ourselves, or so the argument went.

For me, the buck stopped there. The social psychologist Albert Bandura stated “Most human behaviour is learnt observationally through modelling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviours are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action”. In other words, we need heroes and idols and we need them not so much for them, but for the ideals and values they represent. Gandhi has his vices, but when people think Gandhi, one does not think Gandhi, one thinks of his approach of using non-violence and peace in the striving for an ideal, one thinks of simplicity, one thinks of self-sufficiency. We need these idols to remind us of qualities and character we can aspire to build. To sometimes espouse an idea when no one has done it nor achieved anything with it might elicit the question, “Then why do it?”

Even Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of his father had his fair share of criticism. From nepotism to locking up of political opponents without trial, he was not really perfect either. However, to get a country from nothing to one of the richest country in the world required an iron fist, pragmatism and leadership and he provided that. People argue that someone else might have done it better (like my friend was saying the other Indian leaders would have got India independence as well). However, that is like theorizing about an alternative scenario that might have or not have happened. Why not just accept what happened and give people who made it happen the due credit?

I feel this topic matters now more than ever. With people like Trump assuming presidency, a man who probably has no role models other than himself (guess that makes him Stefan’s ideal human), we need role models. Of late, we tend to idolize celebrities and the wealthy, though they rarely espouse any fundamental noble human values, but rather a desire to be idolised themselves. Taking down the people who represents these values by bringing up their past vices should not be the way to go. Point it out, but on the whole acknowledge the impact these heroes have had on the world as a whole.

But ultimately remember, it is not them, but their ideas and values we are fighting to keep.