Understanding Gandhi
Posted: Wednesday, October 3, 2001( Akinkawon ) ABSTRACT: Gandhi7495
SUMMARY: To understand Gandhi's role towards the blacks, one requires a knowledge of Hinduism. Within the constraints, a few words on Hinduism will suffice: The caste is the bedrock of Hinduism. The Hindu term for caste is varna; which means arranging the society on a four-level hierarchy based on the skin color: The darker-skinned relegated to the lowest level, the lighter-skinned to the top three levels of the apartheid scale called the Caste System. The race factor underlies the intricate workings of Hinduism, not to mention the countless evil practices embedded within. Have no doubt, Gandhi loved the Caste system.
Gandhi lived in South Africa for roughly twenty one years from 1893 to 1914. In 1906, he joined the military with a rank of Sergeant-Major and actively participated in the war against the blacks. Gandhi's racist ideas are also evident in his writings of these periods. One should ask a question : Were our American Black leaders including Dr. King aware of Gandhi's anti-black activities? Painfully, we have researched the literature and the answer is, no. For this lapse, the blame lies on the Afro-American newspapers which portrayed Gandhi in ever glowing terms, setting the stage for African-American leaders Howard Thurman, Sue Baily Thurman, Reverend Edward Carroll, Benjamin E. Mays, Channing H. Tobias, and William Stuart Nelson to visit India at different time periods to meet Gandhi in person. None of these leaders had any deeper understanding of Hinduism, British India, or the complexities of Gandhi's convoluted multi-layered Hindu mind. Frankly speaking, these leaders were no match to Gandhi's deceit; Gandhi hoodwinked them all, and that too, with great ease. Understanding of Hindu India with our black leaders never really improved even considering years later in March 1959, much after Gandhi's death, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., his wife, and Professor Lawrence D. Reddick visited India and to our way of analysis, they fared no better than their predecessors. We are certain, had Dr. King known Gandhi's anti-black and other criminal activities, he would have distanced his civil-rights movement away from the name of Gandhi. full article...
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( RootsWomb(man) ) Peace,
Give thanks for this article. Thought I'd forward some more information on the MYTH of Ghandi from "The Global African Presence" site by Ranuko Rashidi: http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/gandhi.html
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( Mica ) He may have been racist but the message of passive resistance does not change. As long as he was not oppressing blacks I'm fine with him. its not like people knew him for his equal rights ideas, people liked him for his anti-violence ideas. Marcus Garvey did not believe Selassie was Jah, but that's no reason to not like him...
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( Steve ) That is a ridiculously mentally lazy response. If you took you time to learn history you may realize that Ghandi’s was disrespectful and oppressive to all Black and African people.
If you separate parts of his words from his conduct and ended up with your comment, you are a supporter of hypocrisy. A hypocrite is not a role model.
Incidentally Garvey was trying to get Africans to move from mental dependency and he was quite right to deny Selassie was Jah if Jah means the perfect spirit. Salassie surely was not perfect in thoughts and actions.
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( Akinkawon ) Rather harsh but very correct comment in my view. You would not become popular with that.
I suspect the problem is the same lack of historical perspective where people do not evaluate for themselves. But how can they if they do not have a good idea of what is the self.
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( IanI ) Sincerest Greetings Bredren an Sistren
IanI Rastafari as a POSITIVE One allways look to see the Truth. I also do the best me can to be overstanding and generous. Seen.
No One has absolute perfection and all are subject to the conditions into which they have been born. For some there be the ability to transend those conditions, for others there is no such a thing. I shall allways be generous to them that seek that transendance, even if them fail. This is generosity.
Mr. Gandhi:
"I am conscious of my own limitations. That consciousness is my only strength. Whatever I might have been able to do in my life has proceeded more than anything else out of my own limitations."
"Life is governed by a multitude of forces. It would be smooth sailing, if one could determine the course of one's actions only by one general principle whose application at a given moment was too obvious to need a moments reflection. But I cannot recall a single act which could be so easily determined."
"My position regarding the government is TOTALLY different today and hence I should not voluntarily participate in its wars and I should risk imprisonment and even the gallows if I were FORCED to take up arms or otherwise participate in its military operations."
"Language at best is but a poor vehicle for expressing one's thoughts in full. I know I fail often... it is a matter not of the intellect but of the Heart. True guidance comes by the constant waiting upon God, by utmost humility. It's practice requires fearlessness and courage of the Highest order. I am PAIN-FULLY aware of my failings."
"I know that war is wrong, is an unmitigated evil. I know too that it has got to go. I firmly believe that freedom won through bloodshed or fraud is no freedom."
"The more I reflect and look back on the past, the more vividly do I feel my limitations."
" I have gone through deep self-introspection, searched myself through and through, and examined and analysed every psychological situation. Yet I am far from claiming any finality or infallibility."
"There is no such thing as 'Gandhism' and I do not want to leave any sect after me. I do not claim to have originated any new principle or doctrine. I have simply TRIED in my own way to apply the eternal Truths to our daily life and problems. I have nothing new to teach the world. I have sometimes erred and learnt by my errors. There is no 'ism' about it."
"My imperfections and my failures are as much a blessing from God as my success and my talents, and I lay them both at His feet."
One can allways search anothers Life and find errors and failings. One can allways find them worst transgressions and build upon them. It is a great accomplishment when One can see them own and try to fix them, successfully or failingly. Life be a journey and experience brings Wisdom to them that seek it. Some achieve greater Wisdom than others. Some achieve Wisdom in one area of Life and not in another. Some do evil in the younger days of them Life and come to Realization when older and work to change them ways... others do not.
IanI Rastafari will allways seek the POSITIVE view and hope for an expansion of the consciousness of LOVE. Mr. Gandhi's racism may well have been what drove him to his continued striving for a more perfect world. His realizations of his failings gave him reason and direction to attempt a change, however erred those changes may be, or simply seem to others. It is those that DENY them own weaknesses and faults, and continue in arrogance that inevitably destroy and 'conquer' those they see as 'less than' them own selves. When IanI do not strive to reason and realize the ways for which humanity goes astray, to overstand the people and work towards solving the problems of society, with generosity and patience... there is war. A situation many find themselves in at this very moment. War. Violence. And not overstanding and guidance.
Racism is a scourge that has been pounded into the minds of the innocent for long, long ages now. IanI see a light beginning to SHINE. It is to that Light that IanI will forward. Continuing in the supreme effort to free the minds of the racists from them horrific brainwashment so that IanI People may live Free and unafraid.
Praises unto the Almighty Most High
Give Thanks.
IanI Rastafari
Guidance and Protection
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( Akinkawon ) I posted that article because many people speak as if Gandhi was the highest moral example and quite clearly he was not.
I feel assured that many people do not take the time to study the lives of people whom they consider heroes and in so doing they fail to grasp the shortcomings in the personalities. There is a popular misconception that people should not examine the shortcomings of popular personalities and this is the reason they fail to rise above them.
Gandhi was not only low in understanding, but he said nothing that was original. He went to school, a right most others did not have and he would have grasped some of the more eloquent concepts in history, but the pacifist attitude that he is used to symbolize is part of the problem.
Whenever poor people are aggrieved, the media suddenly focuses on Gandhi and Martin Luther King as symbols of poor struggle. What they are trying to crystallize in the minds of the aggrieved is that they must remain non-violent while the aggressors, usually the Leaders in the society uses violence against them.
For those who understand African American struggles, there would have been no hero named Martin Luther King without the radical actions of the Black Panthers. Very often this is not appreciated. While I myself do not support using violence to address issues, I implore people to know the difference between self-defense on a human level and poorly contrived acts of aggression.
For what Gandhi symbolized and achieved during his time he should be thrown into the dustbin of history, as he offered no insightful means to end oppression and violence in India and anywhere else. His disrespect and ignorance of Africans kept him from understanding the Caste system in India and intelligently intervening to offer equity to all people.
Can people learn from him? Yes, only when they examine the entire history of Gandhi, clearly see his shortcomings and by not repeating them.
I know many people may be angered by my comments and they are entitled to their anger but my comments will stand the test of history and time.Printer friendly version
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