The Racist Mahatma

This is certainly controversial, may be little disturbing to some people but the argument has point. I was supremely surprised to know Gandhi; the well known Mahatma certainly harbored Anti-Black views and even despised them. Its not just allegations, but Gandhi’s own words prove it. What surprises me is the fact that its not some hidden documents that attempts to bring the real person behind the veil of divinity, the information are left openly and still majority of people do not know it and the issue is never seriously debated. It certainly has to do with his impression and popularity among general public around the world. The official collection of Gandhi’s writings “Collected Works” are available online @ gandhiserve.org. In his speech at public meeting Bombay on 26th of September, 1896 he said the following on the famous Indian struggle in South Africa

“Ours is one continual struggle against a degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the Europeans, who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw Kaffir whose occupation is hunting, and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with and, then, pass his life in indolence and nakedness”. (Kaffir, Kaffer or Kafir is a derogatory term to refer to Black South Africans).

Gandhi even went further to say “The aim of the Christian Governments, so we read, is to raise people whom they come in contact with or whom they control. It is otherwise in South Africa. There, the deliberately expressed object is not to allow the Indian to rise higher in the scale of civilization but to lower him to the position of the Kaffir” in the same speech.(The speech can be found @ http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/cwmg.html first volume (i.e., July 4, 1888 - November 30, 1896 page 407)

We all know about the famous train incident involving Gandhi where he was thrown out of the train for traveling in compartment which was only reserved for whites. The incident is also portrayed in the famous 1982 Hollywood movie “Gandhi” but going through Gandhi’s own words on this incident it becomes clear that he had no intentions to let Blacks travel by train. In Johannesburg Letter in May 26 1906 under the heading “The Tram Case” Gandhi writes “You say that the Magistrate’s decision is unsatisfactory, because it would enable a person, however unclean, to travel by a tram and that even the Kaffirs would be able to do so. But the Magistrate’s decision is quite different. The Court has declared that the Kaffirs have no legal right to travel by the trams. And, according to tram regulations, those in an unclean dress or in a drunken state are prohibited from boarding a tram. Thanks to the Court’s decision, only clean Indians or Coloured people other than Kaffirs can now travel by the trams” (These words can be found on Page 235, volume 5 of Collected Works)

Its not that Gandhi was fighting against the British colony in South Africa; he was just looking for freedom of Indians and actually defended the idea of colony. Gandhi always wanted the Indian share of responsibility in defending the colony and even joined British Forces and became ambulance stretcher bearer to help suppress Black rebellion in 1906 famously known as Bambetta Rebellion. Gandhi on behalf of the Indians living in South Africa requested the Government to accept their help in this fight against Blacks. The article published under the heading “Indians and the Native Unrest” in the newspaper Indian opinion (Run by Gandhi in South Africa) on June 9th 1906 writes “The Government have at last accepted the offer of the Indian community, and put it upon its mettle. By way of experiment, they want a corps of twenty stretcher-bearers” it further writes “The acceptance by the Government synchronizes with the amendment of the Fire-Arms Act, providing for the supply of arms to Indians, and the statement made by Mr. Maydon to the effect that the Government intended to give Indians an opportunity of taking their share in the defence of the Colony” and It even went on to write “The Government have, by accepting the offer, shown their goodwill. And if Indians come successfully through the ordeal, the possibilities for the future are very great. Should they be assigned a permanent part in the Militia, there will remain no ground for the European complaint that Europeans alone have to bear the brunt of Colonial defence, and Indians will cease to feel that, in not being allowed to participate in it, they are slighted”. (Refer page 258, Volume 5, Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi).

Gandhi even persuaded Indians forcefully to volunteer in the suppression. The article “Should Indians Volunteer or Not?” published on June 30, 1906 in Indian Opinion is a proof. Towards the end the article writes “We have to learn much from what the whites are doing in Natal. There is hardly any family from which someone has not gone to fight the Kaffir rebels. Following their example, we should steel our hearts and take courage. Now is the time when the leading whites want us to take this step; if we let go this opportunity, we shall repent later. We therefore urge all Indian leaders to do their duty to the best of their ability”. (Refer page 273, Volume 5, Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi for full article)

In Gandhi’s Zulu war memoirs he has written “However, at about 12 o'clock we finished the day's journey, with no Kaffirs to fight.”(Page 280, Volume 5, Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi)

I almost spend my whole weekend preparing and writing this post and whatever study I did in last two days to write this article leaves me no doubt to conclude that the Well Known Mahatma is also a Little Known Racist. I am sure you will find many more proofs if you find time to go through the old archives on Gandhi.

Now after knowing all this, I think Gandhi was more like normal human being (with many imperfections) to start with and perhaps perfected himself more later on with time and experience. Even with imperfections Gandhi raised himself to the stature of Mahatma and without a shadow of doubt played most important role to free India and inspired the whole world through his nonviolence mantra. All these facts remind us the same old statement that we repeatedly hear “Only GOD is perfect” and after all Gandhi too was Human.