India and its Great Soul
The
holy cows of religion and patriotism have usually driven censorship efforts in
India. Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses was banned for its supposed attacks
on Islam. Books on Shivaji have drawn the ire of activists who cherished the
hagiographic memories of the Maharashtrian warrior king. More recently, a
biography of Dhirubhai Ambani (the business magnate who founded Reliance
Industries) termed The Polyester Prince, came under fire.
The
latest controversy has been over Joseph Lelyveld’s book, Great Soul — Mahatma
Gandhi and his struggle with India. The Pulitzer prize-winning author
highlights Gandhi’s “erotically charged friendship” with a German-Jewish
architect named Herman Kallenbach.
The
Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, denounced the book, stating, “The
perversion shown in the writings not only deserves to be condemned in the
strongest possible terms but cannot be tolerated. I know that the members of
this august house share my feelings.” He was referring to the Gujarat State
Assembly, which summarily banned the “publication, printing and publication” of
the book in Gujarat, even though the book had not been released in India as yet
and had most likely not been read by its denouncers.
The
author, Lelyveld, “damns Gandhi not with direct attacks but with an overdose of
scepticism,” reprimands Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of Mohandas Gandhi, in his
Hindustan Times essay of March 30, 2011, yet also submitting that it is a
mistake to ban the book, especially “in the light of Gandhi’s commitment to
freedom of speech.”
Columnist
and peace activist, Praful Bidwai, criticizes India’s “knee-jerk instinct to
prohibit, ban, punish and censor,” calling it a “huge flaw in India’s
democracy.”
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