I mpressed with lavish propaganda about Gandhi in the West, the Hindu propaganda machine started churning out literature to elevate Gandhi to the status of a twentieth century Hindu god ? ?The seventh reincarnation of Vishnu, Lord Rama,? proclaimed Krishnalal Shridharni. Portraits of Gandhi depicted him as Hindu avatar and a Christian saint. The Indian government, under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, financed one-third the cost of the production of the movie Gandhi to portray Gandhi as ?an absolute pacifist.?

T he Christian clergy had other motives in starting the Gandhi myth. By elevating Gandhi to a 20th century messiah and then converting him to Christianity would open the floodgate for evangelizing Hindu masses. Little did the Christians realize that Gandhi hoodwinked them with his insincere statements about Christianity? He was a die-hard Hindu, a true believer and defender of the caste order, the essence of Hinduism?

G andhi apologists indulged in gross deception by claiming that Gandhi?s satyagrah in South Africa was in the defense of the rights of the native people. Nothing could be further from truth than this lie. How could Gandhi, a diehard supporter of the caste system, think for the welfare of African blacks whom he regarded lower than the Untouchables of India just slightly above animals?

G andhi?s satyagrah was for better treatment of Indians in South Africa who, according to Gandhi, were treated the same way as savage kaffirs (native Black people). In his stay of twenty years in South Africa, Gandhi had no social contacts with the kaffirs , as he did not see any common ground with them in the daily affairs of life. He was horrified when he was lodged with ?natives? in the same prison. He disliked wearing clothes with ?N? (natives) printed on it. Gandhi had no like for the native food and nor did he like sharing the lavatory with them. It was this jail experience, which brought out his racism in the open:

?Kaffir and Chinese prisoners are wild, murderous and given to immoral ways. Kaffirs are as a general rule uncivilized ? the convicts even more so. They are troublesome, very dirty and live almost like animal.?

G andhi believed that the British Empire was for the welfare of the world, and he accepted the superiority and predominance of the white race. However, he reminded the white people that upper-caste Indians shared with the Europeans a common heritage ? the blood of the noble Aryan race. It is Aryan blood which is responsible for the advancement of human civilization. To Rev, Doke, Gandhi advised that the way to civilize kaffirs was through Christianity and by infusing Aryan blood into their race. He told the white colonists that the preservation of racial purity (Apartheid) was as important to the Indians as it was to the Europeans.

T he colonial authorities were advised by the ?mahatama? to raise a voluntary militia of Indians that would fight for the Empire. The Natal authorities were told that it was a ?criminal folly? if they did not enlist Indians for the war. He was rebuffed with sarcastic and derogatory comments about the fighting ability of people like him.

G andhi persisted and finally succeeded in persuading the authorities to form a voluntary ambulance corps of Indians under the command of Sergeant-Major Gandhi during the Boer War and the Zulu Rebellion. He urged the Indian community to show their loyalty to the British Empire by raising funds for the War. Indians were reminded that they were in South Africa due to the courtesy of the Empire: ?It is not for us to judge whether the Kaffir revolt is justified or not. We are co-colonists with whites of this land whereas the black savages are as yet unfit to participate in the political affairs of the colony.?

A s a parochial Hindu, Sergeant- Major Gandhi selected only Gujrati Hindus as his assistants, three Sergeants and one Corporal in spite of the fact that the ambulance corps (20-24 men) was made up mostly of non-Gujratis with a substantial number of Muslims.

T he Russian Revolution of 1914 inspired national movements against the colonial rule. The British brought Gandhi back to India to sabotage the Indian national movement against the British. The Congress Party, dominated by Gandhi, was set up under the patronage of the British authorities. The ?apostle of peace? urged the Indian people to support the British by enlisting in the army during World War I. In his letter written to the Viceroy in 1930, Gandhi stated, ?One of his reason for launching the Civil Disobediene Movement is to contain the violence of revolutionaries.?

O n the advice of white promoters of Gandhi, the black clergy and civil rights leaders traveled to India to seek Gandhi?s advice on solving the problem of segregation and civil rights of the blacks. How little did they know that Gandhi regarded the black people slightly above animals. Moreover, they were ignorant of the Hindu caste system, which was originally imposed as racial discrimination ( varna ashrama dharma ) by the Caucasian conquerors on the dark-complexioned natives of India, similar to Apartheid in South Africa. Later with the emergence of new racial groups as a consequence of miscegenation varna ashrama dharma , evolved into the hereditary caste system.

SikhSpectrum.com Quarterly                                                                    Issue No.17, August 2004

Gandhi: Behind the Mask of Divinity by Baldev Singh ? T ruth comes out breaking the walls of a fortress? is a Punjabi saying. For the lovers of truth, G. B. Singh has exploded the Gandhi myth -- apostle of peace, emancipator of untouchables and liberator of India by peaceful means from the British -- by publishing his labor of love, Gandhi: Behind the Mask of Divinity . G. B. Singh studied Gandhi for over twenty years collecting the ?mahatma?s? speeches, writings and other documents, which the promoters of Gandhi had left out intentionally to create a twentieth century messiah by fusing Jesus Christ and Vishnu. The oppressors ?- the proponents of colonialism, slavery, racism and casteism -- have imposed their own version of history on the victims through manipulation, deception and hypocrisy. F or example, there is a holocaust museum in Washington D.C. in memory of six million Jews who fell victim to the Nazi atrocities. Museums likes this, which keep the memory alive, are commendable and such museums should be built everywhere to remind people of the heinous crimes perpetuated by the Nazis on the Jewish people. But why is there no museum that details the genocide of native Americans or slavery in Washington D.C.? It takes moral courage to look into the face of truth! In order to avoid the obligation to intervene in Rwanda, the Western powers led by President Clinton put pressure on the United Nations Security Council not to characterize the mass murder of Tootsies as genocide. A white Christian clergy started the Gandhi myth in South Africa. Rev. Joseph J. Doke, a Baptist Minster, was the first to write the biography of M. K. Gandhi followed by other European and American clergymen and writers. John H. Holmes, a Unitarian pastor from New York, praised Gandhi in his writings and sermons with titles like: Gandhi: The Modern Christ, Mahatma Gandhi: The Greatest Man since Jesus Christ, Mahatma Ji: Reincarnation of Christ and Gandhi before Pilate. Romain Rolland, a French Nobel Laureate in literature, looked at Gandhi not only as a Hindu saint, but also another Christ. He wrote Gandhi?s new biography in French. The English translation of this book opens with: He is the One Luminous, Creator of all, Mahatma.

Gandhi Behind the Mask of Divinity G.B. Singh Prometheus Books ISBN: 1-57392-998-0

U ntouchabilty is as integral a part of Hindu faith as anti-Semitism was to the Nazis. It is noteworthy that not a single black leader met Dr. B. R. Ambedkar ? a highly educated man with an M. A. and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University, and M.Sc. and D.Sc. degrees from London University and Bar-at-Law from Grey?s Inn, London - who was the undisputed leader of the Untouchables at that time. Gandhi?s propaganda machine manipulated the visit of black leaders, as it did not want them to find the truth about his views on the caste system:

?I believe in Varnashrama (caste system) which is the law of life. The law of Varna (color and / or caste) is nothing but the law of conservation of energy. Why should my son not be scavenger if I am one? He, Shudra (lowest caste) may not be called a Brahmin (uppermost caste), though he (Shudra) may have all the qualities of a Brahmin in this birth. And it is a good thing for him (Shudra) not to arrogate a Varna (caste) to which he is not born. It is a sign of true humility.?

I n 1921, through violent speeches, Gandhi worked up his followers into a frenzy of racial hatred against the British. During the bloody demonstrations and riots against the visit of the Prince of Wales, William Francis Doherty, an American citizen working in Bombay, was murdered. Gandhi personally got involved in the cover up of this gruesome murder through bribe and intimidation. Gandhi was concerned that the murder would tarnish his image in the West.

I t is a cruel joke and one of the biggest fabrications of the twentieth century that Gandhi won Indian freedom without spilling a drop of blood. The truth is that it was the devastating effect of World War II that forced the British to dismantle its Colonial Empire. Moreover, it was Gandhi and his Hindu dominated Congress party, that engineered the partition of the country on communal lines, as the Muslim dominant states stood in the way of the high caste Hindus who dreamt of setting their Ram Raj (mythical Hindu kingdom) based on caste ideology.

T he Partition of India in 1947 is one of the major upheavals of the twentieth century. In the State of Punjab alone, 11-12 million people lost their homes and hearths where their ancestors had lived for centuries. Possibly one million people died in the communal violence and thousands of young women were kidnapped. Couldn?t Gandhi have prevented the partition of India and saved all this destruction and deaths?

T o test his celibacy, Gandhi slept with naked young girls. Dr. Sushila Nayar told Ved Mehta that she used to sleep with Gandhi as she regarded him as a Hindu god. The man, who had taken a vow of poverty, demanded and got even in jail the same comforts enjoyed by British high officials in India.

T he ?apostle of peace,? who counseled a Jewish delegation? to oppose the evil of Nazism by ?soul force? - by committing mass suicide, was all praise for annexing Kashmir by armed aggression. He told his Sikh followers that a rusty sword is useless in the age of the Atom Bomb. The development of nuclear weapons by India - a country that ranks among the poorest in the world and is near the bottom of human development index chart of the United Nations, exposes the real face of the ?absolute pacifist? and the nation that calls him its ?father.? Maybe he agreed with lord Krishna who told Arjana during the battle of Mahabharata that ?Victory is truth.?

T he Indian people have started looking deeper at the man behind the mask of divinity, but there is no let up in the perpetuation of the Gandhi myth in the West especially the United States. G. B. Singh rightfully deserves our thanks for bringing out the truth about Gandhi from Gandhi?s own mouth.


Copyright?2004 Baldev Singh. About the author