MAHATMA GANDHI: FAQs / Myths

A collection of FAQs / Myths about Mahatma Gandhi


Maharma Gandhi

ABOUT GANDHI


MYTH & FAQ

  1. Father of the Nation
  2. Responsible for Pakistan
  3. 55 Crores to Pakistan
  4. Belligerence of Muslims
  5. Sufficient for everybody's Need, not for Greed
  6. Nobel Peace Prize
  7. Quotation of Customer
  8. Seven Social Sins
  9. Gandhi's 11 Vows
  10. Scrawny Man?
  11. Was Gandhi a Saint?
  12. His Tradition Carried On?
  13. Was Indira Gandhi Related to Gandhi?
  14. Nonviolence According to Gandhi
  15. Inventor of Nonviolence?
  16. Is Nonviolence Hard to Practice?
  17. What is Satyagraha?
  18. Is Nonviolent Action Easiest Way?
  19. Nonviolence Works?
  20. Myth about Gandhi's Nonviolent Action
  21. Solving Unemployment
  22. Advocating Vegetarianism?
  23. What do Gandhi think about Christianity?
  24. Why Gandhiji was against Violence?
  25. Gandhiji, you have said that men who do not work, eat stolen food. What does it mean?
  26. Gandhi's letter to the Viceroy regarding the sentence of death to Bhagat Singh

ARTICLES

  1. Gandhi And The Black People of South Africa By James d Hunt
  2. Resistance To The Soul: Gandhi And His Critics - By Michael F. Plotkin

Further Reading

(Complete Book available online) Spitting At The Sun

SPITTING AT THE SUN
(Assassination of Gandhi :
Facts vs. Falsehood)

About This Book


Written by :Chunibhai Vaidya
Translated by :Ramesh Dave
Printed by : Umiya Offset,
Tavdipura,
Ahmedabad - 380 014,
India.
First Published : November 1998
Printed and Published by :
Gujarat Loksamiti,
Loksamiti Compound
Lal Darwaja,
Ahmedabad - 380 001


Mahatma Gandhi And His Myths

MAHATMA GANDHI AND HIS MYTHS

About This Book


Written by : Mark Shepard
I.S.B.N : 0-938497-19-7
Copyright : © 1990, 1996, 2001, 2002 Mark Shepard

All rights reserved.
Permission is granted to copy or reprint for any noncommercial use.
Earlier versions of this book were published in booklet form by Simple Productions, Arcata, California, 1990, and in ebook form by Simple Productions, Los Angeles, 2001. This is the first paperback edition.
Ordering: Print-on-demand distributors of this book include Replica Books (Baker & Taylor). It can be ordered through most U.S. booksellers, but not from the publisher


Other Useful Links


Was Gandhi a Saint?

One of the most common and most dangerous myths about Gandhi is that he was a saint. The name - or rather, the title - Mahatma itself means "Great Soul." That's somewhere between a saint and a Messiah. Gandhi tried to avoid the title, but the people of India ignored his protests. Now I see that even the Library of Congress has begun to classify him under "Gandhi, Mahatma," so I guess he's lost that battle.
I've heard it argued that Gandhi indeed was a saint, since he was a master of meditation. Well, I must tell you that in all my readings of and about Gandhi, I've never come across anything to say that Gandhi was a master of meditation, or that he meditated at all-aside from observing a minute of silence at the beginning of his prayer meetings, a practice he said he borrowed from the Quakers.
Gandhi objected when people called him "a saint trying to be a politician." He said he was instead "a politician trying to be a saint." Personally, I go along with Gandhi's judgment on this.
Not that Gandhi's spiritual efforts and achievements shouldn't be honored. They've certainly inspired me. But if we label Gandhi a perfected being, we lose our chance to view his life and career critically and to learn from his mistakes.
Besides, if people see Gandhi as a saint, they'll think he's "too good for the world," and they won't take his example seriously as a model for concrete social change. I'm constantly annoyed at finding books on Gandhi in bookstore sections marked "Religious," or even "Occult." If his books are stashed away like that, how will the hard-boiled political scientists ever run across him?

Source: Mahatma Gandhi and His Myths- By Mark Shepard