The Week India – June 30, 2019

JUNE 30, 2019 • THE WEEK 45

his sexuality and his reverence for brahmacharya,

which he said included “full control over the process

of reproduction.”

Patrick did, however, bring Gandhi down to earth

by reducing the satyagraha he pioneered to clever

or cunning tactics and reducing Gandhi himself “to

someone who was above all a wily operator and tac-

tician who knew how to undermine the British, when

to press one’s advantage and when to withdraw”. Pat-

rick also quoted a British governor who said Gandhi

was “as cunning as a cart load of monkeys.”

Th e other problem which arises from granting the

had economic and social reasons for his ambiv-
alence. Th e journalist Joseph Lelyveld’s biogra-
phy of Gandhi hit the headlines because of the
suggestion that Gandhi might have been gay. Th e
historian Patrick French thought that was highly
unlikely. He argued that Gandhi “was one of the
best documented fi gures of pre-electronic times
and has been the subject of innumerable biog-
raphies, so managing to be gay without anyone
noticing until now would be a remarkable feat.”
It would also make Gandhi a monstrous hypo-
crite considering how openly he talked about