The things that Gandhi got away with never fails to astonish me: a thread

1. Profiting off of the image of the poor: this man invented cultural appropriation. Born into a Baniya family, he was by no means poor. His father Karamchand Uttamchand Gandhi was the Diwan/ CM of porbandar state. Sure the Gandhi family was not "wealthy" in its traditional sense

But they had plenty to eat, had a number of servants, nice furniture etc. Gandhi only began wearing his infamous lioncloth in the year 1921 at the age of 52. Prior to this he used to wear western clothing which we rarely see in history books.

2. His "experiments" on children: in the early 1900s, Gandhi began experimenting with celibacy. These experiments included his wife and many others including children who didn't know what was done to them. In his 70s he used to sleep naked with two young girls- Manu who was

his 17 yo grand niece and Abha.

3. Racism: with the BLM movement gaining momentum, Gandhi's racist past is coming to light. Gandhi believed in the Aryan race theory. He said that black people "are troublesome, dirty and lived like animals." He also used to refer the blacks in SA as Kaffirs which is an

extremely derogatory term for the black community. The fact that black leaders like MLK and Nelson Mandela used to revere him is just heartbreaking.

4. Casteism: Gandhians love to claim that he loved "harijans" and had thrown open temple doors for the untouchables. Sure he was against the practice of untouchability, but that doesn't mean that he was anti caste, he very much wanted to uphold the varnashrama dharma.

He was an advocate of the caste system and defended it numerous times.

5. Poona pact: in this Gandhi weaponised Satyagraha in the most vile manner. He undertook fast in order to protest against the decision to give separate electorates to depressed class. Ultimately Dr Ambedkar had to settled for reserved seats. I can't even begin to

imagine the mental trauma Dr Ambedkar went through. Because of this incident Gandhi has for ever villianized Ambedkar as the trouble maker, as someone who was against a united India. And that's on brahmin privilege.

6. Sexism: sure Gandhi can be credited for throwing open the freedom movement for women. But by no means does that make him a feminist. In fact he was a raging sexist. He believed women who were raped lost their value as human beings. He even justified fathers killing their

daughters who were sexually assaulted. He also waged a war against contraceptives and labelled women who used them as whore and many more things, the list goes on.

Disclaimer: In this thread I'm in no shape or form taking away from his achievements. He played a pivotal role in India's independence. I'm merely listing his problematic behaviour.