The details we choose to ignore

If I'm not going to do the work I should be doing, I guess I should do something constructive.

History, for me, is no longer about what happened, but how the event has been represented. My course on the history of modern South Asia has personified this.

Last week, I sat in my lecture & when you study a topic like the history of modern South Asia, you are bound to come across Gandhi. He is, after all, the face of Indian independence from the British. He is a highly acclaimed apartheid activist. And he seemed to be the father of passive resistance.

Gandhi. Image sourced from WikiCommons

Within the first 5 mins, my history lecturer said she was not a fan of Gandhi and she had her reasons which she explained as she progressed through the lecture. My first question was how could someone not like Gandhi? He's loved by all for his politics and dedication to humanity. But by the end of the double period I came to the conclusion that this famous humanitarian was a racist nutter who was possibly gay. Listing Gandhi as gay in that sentence may appear that I am grouping homosexuality in the same category as racism and being a little loony. This is not my intention. I merely wish to emphasise the aspects of Gandhi's life that are usually glossed over by high school text books & popular culture.

Let's begin with the unfathomable idea that Gandhi could've been racist. It seems a little odd to call such a prominent anti-apartheid activist racist. And maybe even contradictory. But according to this lecture I sat in today, Gandhi was not entirely on the side of black Africans; he wasn't even entirely on the side of his own people. Gandhi had grown up in a society that was incredibly classist, therefore, he only spent his time and his energies on mercantile Indians and not endenchered Indians as they were seen to be below him. He would therefore, refer to endenchered Indians as "coolies" and black Africans as k*****s.

Now, to why he could be considered to be gay and a good client for psychological & psychiatric testing. Like so many Indian teens, Gandhi entered into an arranged marriage at the age of 13 and his wife was 14. Gandhi was still in his teens when his father became sick and his son was at his side to nurse him. At one point, Gandhi left his father's side to have sex with his wife. During this little get together, Gandhi's father passed away. He attributed his father's passing to be punishment for his selfishness and felt guilty about sleeping with his wife. Not to mention, when the child was born, it only lasted a couple of days before it also passed. Celibacy became an important part of Gandhi's spiritual philosophy due to the guilt that consumed him surrounding his father's death.

Food also became a vital part of Gandhi's spirituality. He had been raised a vegetarian and blamed this aspect of his background for his slight build. Gandhi was a shy person and he attributed this to his size. He would compare himself to other people who ate meat and blamed his diet for his lack of physical stature. Crumbling under peer pressure, he secretly eats meat for a year & loathes it. At one stage, he even steals money from his parents to buy meat. However, according to Gandhi, he gave it up after a year. And when he left to study in England, he made a promise to his mother that he would not touch meat or alcohol.

But how does this all tie in with him being gay?

Gandhi's time in South Africa resulted in him meeting Hermann Kallenbach. Kallenbach was a body builder and an architect. Gandhi's obsession with food and providing one's body with the correct nutrients can explain his interests in Kallenbach. With such a strong and fetching physique, Kallenbach was quite appealing to Gandhi.

Our lecturer doesn't believe that Gandhi consummated the relationship with Kallenbach, but his letters to the body builder suggest that there was a romantic relationship between the two. This is not some conspiracy theory. In fact Gandhi believed in always telling the truth, and I mean always. Truth was another pillar of his political philosophy. These letters are available to the public online. They make for some interesting reading. Here's the section with the letters addressed to Kallenbach: Gandhi Serve.

As much as this can be all quite scandalous and the type of expose you'd read in a You magazine or Heat. But that is not the point. From this look into Gandhi's life we need to be careful about the representation of history and the people who make it. We can mistakenly turn them into demi-gods or demons, thereby making them different to the average-Joe. By presenting a thorough representation of events we don't turn historical figures into beings of a hire plain. Instead we recognise that they are as human as the rest of us.

History needs to be written with a careful hand. The writer's power and position need to be interrogated. History is no longer about what happened, but how it has been represented.