The Week India – June 30, 2019

80 THE WEEK • JUNE 30, 2019

CELIBATE

MARRIAGE

W

hile studying in England, the young Gan-

dhi joined the London Vegetarian Society,

which was largely funded by an ironworks

owner, Arnold Hills, who held extreme views on

sexual intercourse.

In his Essays on Vegetarianism, Hills argued that

one should refrain from sex to preserve the “vital

force” and that sex could be permitted only for pro-

creation. He also proposed that celibacy should be

maintained even after marriage.

In 1906, Gandhi took the vow to practise celibacy.

“I had not shared my thoughts with my wife until

then, but only consulted her at the time of taking

the vow. She had no objection.... Before the vow, I

had been open to being overcome by temptation at

any moment. Now the vow was a sure shield against

temptation,” he wrote in his autobiography.

Soon he started urging others to follow suit. In De-

cember 1907, he wrote in Indian Opinion: “Adultery

does not consist merely in sexual intercourse with

another man’s wife. Sexual intercourse is justifi ed

only when it is the result of a desire for off spring.... It

is the duty of every thoughtful Indian not to marry. In

case he is helpless in regard to marriage, he should

abstain from sexual intercourse with his wife.”

Celibacy was one of the 11 vows taken by his

ashram inmates, even married couples. On a number

of occasions, he forbade his disciples to marry. He

urged Sucheta Kripalani, the future chief minister,

not to marry his close aide J.B. Kripalani and divert

him from freedom struggle. Sucheta agreed to call off

the marriage, but when Gandhi asked her to mar-

ry someone else, she refused. Finally, Gandhi had

to allow the two lovers to marry. According to the

book Gandhi and the Stoics, the couple lived “as two

friends and had no family”.

Gandhian lawyer Brajkishore Prasad’s daughter

Prabhavati took the oath of

celibacy when she became an

inmate of Sabarmati Ashram,

soon after her marriage in

October 1920 to Jayaprakash

Narayan. In 1922, JP went to

the US for higher studies. JP’s

co-biographer Allan Scarfe writes in his book

J.P., His Biography: “Young and immature,

married by ceremony but without marriage’s

consummation, and in the absence of a

husband’s infl uence, Prabhavati was com-

pletely overawed and dominated by Gandhi’s

personality. Like the other disciples, she un-

dertook the vow of celibacy.” JP came back to

India in 1929. He respected his wife’s decision

to observe celibacy.

Jawaharlal Nehru considered Gandhi’s

experiments with celibacy “abnormal and

unnatural”. “For my part I think Gandhiji is

absolutely wrong in this matter,” he wrote

in his autobiography. “His advice may fi t in

some cases, but as a general policy it can only

lead to frustration, inhibition, neurosis, and

all manner of physical and nervous ills... I do

not know why he is obsessed by this problem

of sex.”

Couples led sexless lives on

Gandhi’s advice

BY NIRMAL JOVIAL

UNUSUAL

RELATION

Gandhi with his wife,

Kasturba, in South

Africa in 1913

DINODIA