"Gandhi was erratic,irrational, tyrannical, obstinate. He sometimes verged on lunacy. He believed in a religion whose ideas I find somewhat repugnant. He worshipped cows."
That line from the article is ridiculous. Anyway, it is not an original idea to claim that Gandhi was a puppet of the British Government, an opportunist, etc. by Western AND Indian thinkers. Yes, the Indian Government has, in many ways, manufactured his character, as the article claims. Most Indians are aware of that. However, establishing hero figures is not different than what many countries, religions, and other "imaginary communities" have done to move past horrific injustices like Britain's brutal occupation of India. This article serves no beneficial purpose but to restate: history is written by the victors.
Yep. Just try and tell a conservative American what kind of person Christopher Columbus really was, or that Washington nearly got all of his men and himself captured or killed and was saved only by a freak fog one night.
That line from the article is ridiculous. Anyway, it is not an original idea to claim that Gandhi was a puppet of the British Government, an opportunist, etc. by Western AND Indian thinkers. Yes, the Indian Government has, in many ways, manufactured his character, as the article claims. Most Indians are aware of that. However, establishing hero figures is not different than what many countries, religions, and other "imaginary communities" have done to move past horrific injustices like Britain's brutal occupation of India. This article serves no beneficial purpose but to restate: history is written by the victors.