[From nobody Wed Mar 30 09:43:23 2011 Message-ID: <20110330160337.XIQPM.88827.root@hrndva-web28-z02> Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2011 12:03:37 -0400 From: <nickgier@roadrunner.com> Subject: Sexual Revelations about Gandhi Blown out of Proportion MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Bcc: gadele@uidaho.edu, cgier@ualberta.ca X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Sensitivity: Normal X-Originating-IP: Good Morning Visionaries: I'm glad that the author of the new Gandhi biography has responded quickly,= but you know that famous quotation about lies going around the earth 10 ti= mes before the truth catches up (approx.). It is true that, while in South Africa, Gandhi expressed deep affection for= a German peace activist, but he certainly did not leave his poor wife for = him. It is also true, sadly, that Gandhi did take advantage of the innocence of = some young women (and older women who should have know better)in his bizarr= e experiments testing his chastity. As far as we know, he always passed wi= th flying (but not erect) colors. I've written about this in my article "Was Gandhi a Tantric?" and you can r= ead it in various versions at www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/GandhiTantric.htm. MUMBAI, India =E2=80=94 A state in western India banned Pulitzer-Prize winn= er Joseph Lelyveld's new book about Mahatma Gandhi on Wednesday after revie= ws saying it hints that the father of India's independence had a homosexual= relationship. The author says his work is being misinterpreted. More bans have been proposed in India, where homosexuality was illegal unti= l 2009 and still carries social stigma. Gujarat's state assembly voted unanimously Wednesday to immediately ban "Gr= eat Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India." The furor was sparked by local media reports, based on early reviews out of= the U.S. and U.K., some of which emphasized passages in the book suggestin= g Gandhi had an intimate relationship with a German man named Hermann Kalle= nbach. "Great Soul" has not yet been released in India, so few here have actually = read Lelyveld's writings. "The book does not say that Gandhi was bisexual or homosexual," Lelyveld wr= ote in an email. "It says that he was celibate and deeply attached to Kalle= nbach. This is not news." He noted that his book _ which is said is about Gandhi's struggle for socia= l justice and the evolution of his social values _ is available both in the= U.S. and as an e-book download. "It should not be hard for anyone to determine what it actually says," Lely= veld wrote. " It's a pious hope, but I'd say someone might take the trouble= to look at it before it's banned." Several reviews of "Great Soul" detailed its sections on Gandhi's relations= hip with Kallenbach. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Andrew Roberts said that the only portr= ait on the mantelpiece opposite Gandhi's bed was of Kallenbach. "How completely you have taken possession of my body," reads one widely quo= ted letter from Gandhi to Kallenbach. "This is slavery with a vengeance." Britain's Daily Mail ran an article under the blaring headline: "Gandhi 'le= ft his wife to live with a male lover' new book claims." The Mumbai Mirror on Tuesday ran a front page story under the headline "Boo= k claims German man was Gandhi's secret love," which quoted the same passag= es as Roberts. Sudhir Kakar, a psychoanalyst who has written about Gandhi's sexuality and = reviewed some of his correspondence with Kallenbach, said he does not belie= ve the two men were lovers. "It is quite a wrong interpretation," he said. Gandhi's great goals were nonviolence, celibacy and truth, he said. "The Hindu idea is that sexuality has this elemental energy which gets diss= ipated," Kakar said. "If it can be sublimated and contained it can give you= spiritual power. Gandhi felt his political power really came from his celi= bacy, from his spiritual power." He said Gandhi often filled his letters, including those to female associat= es, with strong love language, but that did not lead to physical intimacy. "Nothing happened," he said. "He is telling his feelings, but they are plat= onic. They are not put into action. That would have been terrible for him." Politicians in the state of Maharashtra, home to India's financial capital = Mumbai, have also called for a ban on the book and, along with Gujarat's ch= ief minister Narendra Modi, have asked the central government to bar public= ation nationwide. Modi said Lelyveld should apologize publicly for "hurting the sentiments of= millions of people." "It has become a fashion to tarnish the image of great Indian leaders for s= elf publicity and sale of books," said Sanjay Dutt, spokesman for the rulin= g Congress Party in Maharashtra. "The government should invoke a law to sev= erely punish anyone who tarnishes the image of the father of the nation." Ranjit Hoskote, a writer and general secretary of PEN India, which fights f= or free expression, condemned the ban and said local media had misconstrued= both Lelyveld's intentions and the nature of Gandhi's relationship with Ka= llenbach. "You can't cite a worse example of third hand reportage and comment," he sa= id. "How can you ban a book you haven't read?" He said Gandhi's correspondence with Kallenbach has been available in libra= ry archives for decades. "There's no secret. There is no scandal," he said. ___ Associated Press writers R.K. Misra in Ahmedabad and Aijaz Ansari in Mumbai= contributed to this report.]