The man I admire most is M. K. Gandhi. His full name is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He was attributed ‘Mahatma’ for his glorious life. He was born at Porebandar in Gujarat (India) on 2 October, 1869. His father, Karamchand Uttamchand Gandhi (1822–1885), served as the diwan of Porbandar state. Gandhi’s mother name was Putlibai. In May 1883, the 13-year-old Mohandas was married to 14-year-old Kasturbai Makhanji Kapadia (her first name was usually shortened to “Kasturba”), in an arranged marriage, according to the custom of the region at that time. His wedding was a joint event, where his brother and cousin were also married. Recalling the day of their marriage, he once said, “As we didn’t know much about marriage, for us it meant only wearing new clothes, eating sweets and playing with relatives.” As was prevailing tradition, the adolescent bride was to spend much time at her parents’ house, and away from her husband.
In an interview Gandhi said about his lustful feelings he felt for his young bride” even at school I used to think of her, and the thought of nightfall and our subsequent meeting was ever haunting me. He later recalled feeling jealous and possessive of her, such as when she would visit a temple with her girlfriends, and being sexually lustful in his feelings for her.”
In 1921, Gandhi adopted the use of an Indian dhoti and a shawl (in the winter) and only (dhoti in the summer) woven with yarn hand-spun on a traditional Indian spinning wheel (charkha) as a sign of identification with India’s rural poor.
After completing education in India he went to England in order to study Law. He obtained the degree in Law and returned to India and began to practise in Mumbai High court at first and then in South Africa. While he was there, he started a new era of non-violence movement to reduce the oppression of the Europeans against the natives of South Africa. The movement became famous as Satyagraha and when he came to India again he used this method against the British rule. It was strengthened in Non-cooperation Movement in 1921 and Quit India Movement in 1942. He became the leader of the people giving his clarion call-“Do or die’. After a long struggle under his leadership India won her independence on 15 August in 1947.
Gandhi did many experiment like experiment with food, non-violence, and the freedom fight but the experiment which has made him a villain in everyone’s eye was “The experiment of Gandhi’s Brahmacharya” which was criticised by various senior leaders like- Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had called it a “terrible blunder”, and had asked him to stop it.
Gandhi tried to test and prove to himself his brahmacharya. The experiments began some time after the death of his wife in February 1944. At the start of his experiment, he had women sleep in the same room but in different beds. He later slept with women in the same bed but clothed, and finally, he slept naked with women. In April 1945, Gandhi referenced being naked with several “women or girls” in a letter to Birla as part of the experiments.
According to Gandhi he asked his grandniece Manu when she was 18 years old if she wanted to help him with his experiments to test their “purity”, for which she readily accepted. Gandhi slept naked in the same bed with Manu with the bedroom doors open all night. Manu stated that the experiment had no “ill effect” on her. Gandhi also shared his bed with 18-year-old Abha, wife of his grandnephew Kanu. Gandhi would sleep with both Manu and Abha at the same time. None of the women who participated in the brahmachari experiments of Gandhi indicated that they had sex or that Gandhi behaved in any sexual way. Those who went public said they felt as though they were sleeping with their aging mother.
He was shot dead on 30 January, 1948 by a derailed young man named Nathuram Godse. But his life and message are still the source of inspiration not only in the national field, but also in the international field.
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