Was Gandhi gay? This question shocks Indians. But such has been the discourse in some sections of the western media for long. On Wednesday, Mahatma Gandhi’s 65th death anniversary, a rare collection of letters between him and his close friend, a South African, Hermann Kallenbach, went on display at the National Archives museum.
The Daily Telegraph immediately pounced on the correspondence with the question, Was Gandhi gay? Dr Mark Lindley, Gandhi scholar, economist, noted musicologist and historian of modern India, rubbished the report. “This is a mistaken interpretation. You need to understand that in those days, men would speak to each other in a warmly, emotional way that they would not use today unless they are gay,” he said. “I do not think they ever had a sexual relationship at all. They had deep love for each other because they were so intimately working together in their political and ideological concerns and they used very affectionate language for each other,” he explained.
The 76-year old was in the city to deliver a lecture on Challenges for Sustainable Development Today at the Centre for Economics and Social Studies. Dr Mark Lindley, who is a visiting professor of Economics at the Gujarat Vidyapeeth, raised interesting questions on the Indian economy and invited economists Dr Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz for a public discussion on the latter’s idea of growth and governance models. He threw this challenge to Sen along with Prof HM Desarda.
According to Dr Lindley, the great Indian middle class is pushing the country into a debt trap by importing six times as much crude oil as is being extracted in the country. “Amartya cares about the people, there is no doubt. But he has never said a single word about ecological concerns and environmental sustainability. They are top rated economists in the world and they are ignoring this aspect. In 2009, they admitted that GDP mismeasures our lives. We want to hear more about this from them and thus call for a public discussion,” said Dr Lindley. He reminded that Sen had declared 15 years ago that “people in their quest for more income and other means of good living are not obliged to leave behind for future generations any particular thing.” He said, “Today we know that more than a fourth of electricity consumed in Mumbai is being used to run a/cs.”
“The prevailing growth and governance model in India is not only inequitable but also ecologically unsustainable. It does not augur well for a modicum of social tranquility, and it ignores a whole gamut of biophysical problems caused by environmental depletion and pollution,” opined the author of The Life and Times of Gora, a noted activist and social worker from Andhra Pradesh who was also an associate of Gandhi.
Explaining about his long association with and love for India, Dr Lindley recalled, “I was only nine when India became independent. My father, a journalist, was here covering the event. When he returned, he told me that India has leapt ahead of the US. They have in their national cabinet, an untouchable, he told me. I thought I should go and see it myself.” Asked how today’s Americans see Gandhi, he replied, “Gandhi is one of the most highly respected human beings, certainly of the 20th century. It was a scandal that Gandhi was not voted the man of the century by Time magazine. In another contest for the greatest human being of the 20th century, 80% Americans had voted for Gandhi.”
According to him, the recent ‘Occupy Wall Street Movement’ in the US, was highly successful because of Gandhi’s ideology. “The occupy movement was 99.99% non-violent and they did that in the name of Gandhi. He is certainly present in the American mentality. In Boston, where I live, they have a life-size statue of Gandhi outside the railway station,” he said.
Calling himself not a great Gandhian, he said, “but I am concerned about peace and the kind of issues Gandhi shared. I talk about ecological degradation, sustainability and economic inequality. By American standards, I live a very simple life – I do not own a car or motorcycle, I am a vegetarian. I think of how much of each thing I want to have.”
Dr Lindley is on his 13th visit to India.