A famous mentor of my adolescent yrs used to say "if ur not a communist b4 30,& not a Gandhian after 30 - ur not human". I didnt know enough to challenge him then& he's gone. Now I wd say "if ur still a communist after adolescence,& remain a Gandhian in adulthood, ur not human".
I had always squirmed uneasily from childhood at mention of Gandhi, without always knowing why - as if an antagonism and rejection from my side existed from some "past life", even if parts of his whitewashed character and actions drew admiration for tactics and strategic angles.
For a long time I automatically observed non-veg on his birthday, even when I had started criticizing him and writing criticizing his stand and actions - which in my adolescence infuriated the old "Gandhians" in whose close proximity I wandered.
I learned a lot of how Indias politics ran, from them even as a boy. There wr ppl who still faithfully wove charka in the morning when they came for their 30-40 year old routine of having tea with their beloved political companion. Impeccable personal integrity for many of them.
In spite of all that the unease never went away: it was only when I began studying Gandhi and his times from both friend and enemy sources - that the picture became clear. I can't accept him in any role of a "father" personally or nationally.
I wd hv done so perhaps if I was living in 1920's emotional storm: but I surely wd hv come into conflict with him by 1930's, and 1940s wd be a total break. He cdnt be a personal father figure either as I cannot imagine him lowering my own dads moral/"sexual" standards.
For me, apart from the personal twists of perversion, Gandhi has permanently damaged Bharat for the following brief reasons: (1) Gandhi rejuvenated the old political funding model by which big financier/biz funded politics, in turn having a stake in shaping the political movement
(2) Gandhi used& then destroyed the older Hindu tradition of dissent frm below, from peasants/common Hindu level, often led&organized by Hindu monks or militant monastics that gave Hinduism also the nature of a "state" even if decentralized& allowed to survive national reverses.
(3) Gandhi imposed a "trusteeship" model of governance and rule by which not democratic choice but democratic rubber stamping (for superficial sense of legitimacy) of choice by trustees of leadership to be foisted from the top.
(4) Gandhi redefined Hinduism as per needs of colonial/mullah/church& Hindu elite interests& helped such redefinition to be incorporated as a state project which wd be far more successful than all previous states because of the centralization of modern states& disarming of popns.
Every malaise of Indian politics/economy and society we fret and fume against are a direct product of these Gandhian policies and it has left us permanently vulnerable and easily hijacked by transnational Muslim or Xtian agenda.
Those who are worshiping him on camera today are essentially giving out the signal that they are okay and they have benefited from and adopted the same Gandhian strategies of deception and models that endanger our civilization.
