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


Are Only Indians Suited To Non-violent Action ?

Then there are the critics who say non-violent action worked fine in India, but they don't think it would make sense to use it elsewhere. These critics believe that Indians are particularly suited to non-violent action, because of the ethic of non-violence built into their religion.
This is a very interesting myth, and those who believe in it certainly possess a very selective filter. Personally, I don't think you can follow the news from India for long and still believe Indians are less violent than other people.
Besides, Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence seems to have been consciously inspired first by the New Testament-the Sermon on the Mount. Only later, it seems, did he find similar ideas in Hindu scriptures.
It's surprising how easy it is to forget that we too have an ethic of non-violence built into our society's chief religion. We just don't happen to follow it. Just as the Indians don't normally follow theirs.
But really, the easiest way to see that non-violent action is suitable outside India is simply to look at all the cases of nonviolent action outside India. Unless your filter is pretty murky, you can hardly miss them. It certainly can't be easy to ignore the example of Martin Luther King, Jr., or to forget the Solidarity movement in Poland, or to overlook the overthrow of Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines.
Then there's the cousin of the quot;only-in-India" argument. This one says that non-violent action can work only against "easy" enemies like the British, and not against, say, the Soviets, or Central American dictators, or those villains of last resort, the Nazis.
Here again, filters are in place, because non-violent action has been used with some success against all these.
In 1968, Czechoslovakian civilians non-violently held Soviet armed forces at bay for a full week and stopped the Soviet leaders from ever subjugating that country to the degree they had intended. In 1944, military dictators were ousted non-violently in both El Salvador and Guatemala. And during World War II, Norway nonviolently and successfully resisted Nazi attempts to reorganize its society along fascist lines.
(In case you missed any of these, you can find details, again, in Gene Sharp's The Politics of Non-violent Action, among other sources.)
One of the interesting things about the many instances of non-violent struggle around the world is that, even today, it is often by people who know nothing or next to nothing about Gandhi. After you look at a number of these, you have to conclude that people in many situations just naturally turn to such methods.
On the other hand, if you look closely at so-called popular liberation movements, you'll find that they're seldom started by the peasants or workers they're supposed to benefit. These armed struggles may gradually build wider support-but in almost every case, they're launched by students or other intellectuals in the name of the people.

Source: Mahatma Gandhi and His Myths - By Mark Shepard