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Gandhi Was a Racist? (Socialist idol being cast down?)
Daily Times ^ | 03-25-2005 | Yassif Latif Hamdani

Posted on 03/25/2005 9:24:33 AM PST by Yashcheritsiy

Gandhi’s desire for Indians to be segregated from blacks was so strong that he went to Johannesburg in late August of 1904 to protest the placing of blacks in the Indian section of the city

LAHORE: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1870-1948), the man who inspired great leaders like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, may have harboured racial sentiments against black people if an article on Sulekha.com is to be believed.

The article quotes a series of letters and petitions from Gandhi, linking the black people of Africa to savages and portraying them as little better than animals. Gandhi writes, “A general belief seems to prevail in the colony that the Indians are little better, if at all, than the savages or natives of Africa. Even the children are taught to believe in that manner, with the result that the Indian is being dragged down to the position of a raw Kaffir”.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailytimes.com.pk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: gandhi; hindus; india; racism; southafrica
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To: drchandra
Are you still here?
121 posted on 03/25/2005 5:54:22 PM PST by Yashcheritsiy
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To: cyborg

Thank you.

And i don't blame them for being insulted with the name-calling.

I wasn't really thinking Indian folks, though.

Mostly I was refering to the sort of Leftist we have here: Upper Middle, relatively priveleged, and who consider themselves "elite".

Disagree with some of the ones in Ann Arbor and it gets very nasty, very fast.


122 posted on 03/25/2005 5:54:24 PM PST by tiamat (Some days, it's not even worth chewing through the restraints.)
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Comment #123 Removed by Moderator

To: drchandra

Your name wouldn't happen to be Gordon, would it?


124 posted on 03/25/2005 6:00:50 PM PST by Yashcheritsiy
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Comment #125 Removed by Moderator

To: drchandra
Why yes I do.

What I do fail to see is anything that would remotely indicate that you have any authority here to tell other posters what to do.

What was your name before?

126 posted on 03/25/2005 6:03:02 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear ( We're all doomed! Who's flying this thing!? Oh right, that would be me. Back to work.)
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To: drchandra; Admin Moderator

We have a new poster who is making threats and seems to want your job.


127 posted on 03/25/2005 6:06:17 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear ( We're all doomed! Who's flying this thing!? Oh right, that would be me. Back to work.)
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To: drchandra

Bye, it's been fun.


128 posted on 03/25/2005 6:11:42 PM PST by Admin Moderator
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To: Admin Moderator
Thank you.

I would not have called but that "I insist you apologize or be prepared for the consequences" struck me as a little ominous.

129 posted on 03/25/2005 6:18:46 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear ( We're all doomed! Who's flying this thing!? Oh right, that would be me. Back to work.)
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To: Yashcheritsiy
Commentary magazine did a really scathing review of the movie when it came out. They made much of his naive attitude towards Hitler in the 1930s, but this is something new. It certainly doesn't coincide with Gandhi's public image, but it really surprising, though? When Indian caste society meets British imperialism, it would have been unexpected if racial egalitarianism had resulted.

If Gandhi is a hero or a villain to you, this matters a lot. If he's just another figure out of history without any especial claim to sainthood and villainy, it doesn't make much of an impression.

It's not so much what Gandhi believed that makes him valuable, but the tactics he used. People have come to disregard his ideas about meat and sex and revile his blindness to Hitler's evil, and still recognize the value of non-violence and civil disobedience.

Was Gandhi really a leftist? He was a leftist in his opposition to empire, and became a hero to many liberals, but was he really a leftist/socialist at heart, or a throwback to older peasant/agrarian/religious ideas? Was Gandhi primarily a politician and ideologue, like Nehru and his descendants, or a religious and prophetic figure?

130 posted on 03/25/2005 6:27:03 PM PST by x
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To: x; cyborg; Yashcheritsiy

<< It's not so much what Gandhi believed that makes him valuable as the tactics he used.

[Many may] have come to disregard his [Practices] about meat and [Paedophile] sex and revile his [Hesperophobic-empathy with] Hitler's evil -- and still recognize the value of non-violence and civil disobedience. >>

The "value of [Ghandi's] non-violence and civil disobedience" is that of and by itself it had and has no value. After all, since Ghandi's demise, countless scores of millions have been put to death whose only crime was to have placed "value" on and/or to seek eficacy from "Ghandi's" delusional fantasies vis-à-vis "non-violence and civil disobedience."

[Tienanmen, anyone?]

What it did -- and all it did -- was to highlight the unwavering and unassailable essential morality of the Judeo-Christian/Roman/English Law by which the British governed.

And under which [To India's lasting sorrow!] they so gracefully withdrew.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

"He who reigns within himself and rules his passions, desires, and fears is more than a king."

--John Milton


131 posted on 03/26/2005 7:32:09 AM PST by Brian Allen (I fly and can therefore be envious of no man -- Per Ardua ad Astra!)
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To: Brian Allen

very interesting points especially with respect to China... it had no effect on the Chinese government whatsoever.


132 posted on 03/26/2005 7:39:12 AM PST by cyborg (Sudanese refugee,"Mr.Schiavo I disagree with your opinion about not feeling pain when you starve.")
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To: Yashcheritsiy

Well of course Ghandi was racist. To an extent we all are.


133 posted on 03/26/2005 8:09:57 AM PST by thathamiltonwoman
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To: cyborg

In every one of the globe's Gulag's graveyards gather the ghastly ghosts of those once given to glomming on to Ghandi's absurdly-grandiose exaggerations.

An ugly old nose-on-a-stick buggar whose unearned and undeserved notoriety helped him pull a few dewy chicks -- and get away with it. Think Pete Townshend sans talent sans guitar.


134 posted on 03/26/2005 8:24:32 AM PST by Brian Allen (I fly and can therefore be envious of no man -- Per Ardua ad Astra!)
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To: what's up

Gandhi used 'Passive resistance', an old leftist, communist tactic against the British because it worked against them. But when turned around, Passive Resistance has never worked against Communist regimes.


135 posted on 03/26/2005 8:33:25 AM PST by unkus
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To: Akira

hmmm...


136 posted on 03/26/2005 8:35:46 AM PST by LibertyThug ("Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society." -Twain)
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To: Brian Allen
The "value of [Ghandi's] non-violence and civil disobedience" is that of and by itself it had and has no value. After all, since Ghandi's demise, countless scores of millions have been put to death whose only crime was to have placed "value" on and/or to seek eficacy from "Ghandi's" delusional fantasies vis-à-vis "non-violence and civil disobedience."

It's a question of who you are trying to convince. Non-violence can work in free or democratic societies. It did in the US in the 1950s and 1960s. The philosophy of non-violence pretty clearly isn't going to bring results in all cases, but in some instances the tactic of nonviolence has been a striking success. It's not universally applicable, but would have been better if Indians had fought in a military or terrorist faction, rather than organized non-violently?

137 posted on 03/26/2005 9:41:28 AM PST by x
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To: Yashcheritsiy
That's a shame, but it is true. IIRC, the Vedas are full of references to the conquest and subjugation of the "dark, noseless" aborigines

There's a Michael Jackson joke in there somewhere!

138 posted on 03/26/2005 9:52:21 AM PST by scouse
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To: Yashcheritsiy; sukhoi-30mki; CarrotAndStick

A link from a Paki paper accusing an Indian leader of something. Why am I not surprised? For the same reason I don't believe a single word....


139 posted on 03/26/2005 6:19:58 PM PST by Cronos (Never forget 9/11)
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To: mhking
Great -- the article says Ghandi "may have harboured" and everyone agrees with the assumption?
140 posted on 03/26/2005 6:21:45 PM PST by Cronos (Never forget 9/11)
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