#ive put my opinions in strikethroughs

[sauveteen]

what do you think of Gandhi? I read some open eyes stuff about him lately and I want to know your opinion on him, if you don't mind of course

okay okay so it’s like... a case of the lesser of two evils? in a sense? but for the life of me, i cannot tell if what he did for the country can erase all the evil he’s done in his life. bear with me because this will be.. kind of long.

tw: racism, the holocaust, mentions of sexual assualt/r*pe

on one hand,

he beat his wife, wouldn’t sleep with her when they got old (compared her to a weak cow), and made young, underage, naked girls sleep next to him throughout the night to test his celibacy (i don’t fucking understand this— hinduism does not ask you to be a celibate after marriage. he was not a saint.)

he was misogynistic as fuck; he participated in victim shaming, supported rape culture, said honour killing was okay because a victim of sexual assault would taint her family’s honour and respect in society. he believed a woman getting harassed was her own fault.

again, about his wife, can’t tell you the shit he put her through. he refused to give her modern medicine (penicillin i think, but don’t quote me on this), ultimately leading to her death, but used modern medicine when he came down with malaria to nurse himself back to health? apparently the reasons for not giving her the medicine were ‘religious’. religion doesn’t apply to gandhi, it seems

GANDHI WAS RACIST. while in south africa he actively supported the apartheid regime, said he was treated badly because he was an indian all while treating black people like scum (said that black africans were savages and ‘living a life of nakedness’, was hellbent on convincing the british that the indian community in south africa was better than the natives). he said jews should’ve killed themselves (public mass suicide) in the holocaust to prove a point, as they were dying anyway. he criticised them for defending themselves.

was against contraception (women who used them were whores) and menstruation was unholy and dirty.

was a baby, and hear me out on this. he went on hunger strikes the moment someone went against him— that is not how you lead. when ambedkar wanted seperate constituencies for the underprivileged (here, meaning the dalits), he declared a fast unto death until the motion was taken away. [for the record, i think seperate constituencies were the wrong way to go too, but you cannot guilt someone into dropping something they so wholeheartedly believe in. ambedkar was a dalit himself. he knew fucking better than a privileged upper class man who had the luxury to go abroad for a higher education in times when that was unthought of.]

(there’s probably more that i’m missing out on, and will find links so you can read up more)

on the other hand,

although he did not believe that the caste system should be abolished, he supported the harijans, voiced their struggles, and played a big part in reducing untouchability in the country

taught a large, vulnerable section of the youth about ahimsa (the principle of non violence) at a time where the country was in turmoil, when civil strifes, public violence, riots, etc. seemed to be the only path that led to independence

paved the way for a sort of ‘social harmony’ in india

successfully led a non violent tax revolt, the salt march to dandi, the first non cooperation movement. he had the wits to call it quits, when there was a need. he didn’t push movements that would harm others, called some movements off after the jallianwala bagh massacre.

saying that, he did make himself the figure of independence in india. [i do not believe he was the reason— i think credit should be given to bhagat singh, subhash chandra bose, sukhdev thapar. gandhi made himself the forerunner, but these are the ones who pushed the movement that brought india to independence] he became a leading figure when india had the desperate need for one, and united different fronts (religions, caste, ages) into one unified fight for the motherland.

it pains to know that this is the kind of man our country applauds, and yet, we cannot discredit what he has done for the freedom struggle. i do not think he is our saviour, but he was sure was a catalyst. having said that, he doesn’t deserve to be the man on our currency. good does not erase evil.

#i’m in kind of hurry so i’m #not proofreading this #these are not my opinions they are FACTS #ive put my opinions in strikethroughs #if you want to discuss this further #my messages are open #however i know all of this is backed a reliable source #so don’t be an idiot and get mad at me for calling out someone who’s been publicly exposed for a while #ask #anon