OVERRATED : Having a higher opinion of someone or something than is deserved.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was a five-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee. He was praised for his tireless and thoroughly non-violent revolutionary efforts to bring his beloved homeland India the freedom it deserved. He was in many ways the epitome of will-power, perseverance, patience, and faith in the power of peace to change oppressive situations.
However, Gandhi falls short in one department. Against the recommendations of his doctor, Gandhi refused to let his wife take medication to save her life because he believed she should let the situation be handled by God. This in and of itself is not the problem; people have beliefs, and we can’t criticize them for that. However, it is always our duty to criticize blatant hypocrisy.
Gandhi’s wife died the day after he refused her medication. Years later when faced with a life-threatening illness, he had the choice to put his life in the hands of God, or to take medication. Gandhi chose medication and fully recovered.
Why the change of heart? I bring this up only to elucidate the fact that Gandhi was not the saint he has been portrayed to be. But he certainly was no devil. He was a human, with all the flaws that come with being human.
If we remember him as a saint, then it becomes difficult to imagine ourselves achieving the great feats he did. But if we remember him as an ordinary human being, like you and I, then we can realize that we all have the potential to do what he did, if not more.
Images Used in this Post
Gandhi image courtesy of flickr user niznoz published under the CC license.
21 Comments
Nice article. You bring up a great point and what better example to use than a guy that so many hold with such high regard. I love the point you are making that we are all human and allowed to make mistakes but at the same time we each have the potential for great things and for making a valued contribution to the world around us.
By taking the medication, Gandhi honored his wife by reconciling his own human error in judgment.
He seriously must head up the list for the all time snub job in regards to the Nobel Prize.
It is baffling that he never got awarded.
I like to think that he indirectly won the award through Martin Luther King in 1964.
King had stated time and time again that Ghandi’s philosophy of Satyagraha was his primary inspiration throughout the Civil Rights Movement.
I remembering hearing once that Ghandi’s son didn’t go to his father’s funeral. Maybe that had something to do with the medication controversy.
At the very least he deserves some kind of postmortem lifetime achievement award.
He doesn’t need any lifetime award. The lessons that he left all of us were revolutionary and I can almost positively say that getting the Nobel Peace Prize is not important to him.
Great post
looks like none of you know the real history, the real heros gave their lives for the country, all ghandhi did was take credit for it, go ask anyone in th northern states of india and see who he really was
Interesting point, I must admit that my ignorance has allowed me to never question Gandhi’s legendary persona. Good comment, thanks.
Mandeep,
Ghandi was a politician. Politicians will always be guilty of calling the shots without necessarily having to deal with the repercussions on the frontlines. Likewise, they often get the glory for accomplishments they played no active part in.
However, do you deny that Ghandi was a gifted community organizer and that this skill in non-violent organization was his primary legacy and source of inspiration for other leaders like Martin Luther King Jr.?
Good counter point. Sorry, I am interested in this discussion but have nothing intelligent to offer.
Ole.
well
i read this n this is new to me
well ya he was a normal human being n cant equal gods
i have always believed gandhi has been given more than due inportance
in general n as aleader of freedom struggle
other freedom fighters have been shadowed by him
n really
wat was right for him
was wrong for his wife???????????
people love thier lives more than anything
his wife was a typical indian docile wife n never protested
but this is eerily queer
i agree with mandeep
bhagat singh kartar singh sarabha raj guru n the likes were forgotten
people still see them as terrorist!
if gaandhi had wanted he could hav freed bhagat singh from jail
but he choose other way round
I personally think Ghandi’s superstar status needs to be seen in the context of the non-violent protesting he spearheaded. There’s more than enough evidence to suggest that the Civil Rights Movement would have been far more violent had it not been for Martin Luther King being heavily influenced by Ghandi’s philosophy.
However, Ghandi’s superstar status certainly overshadows the other Indian freedom fighters. Let’s face it, its never only one person who frees a country, but rather its always an entire movement. Even in American History there are hundreds of unsung heroes whose names will forever be forgotten by the wide shadows cast by the likes of Washington, Jefferson, etc…
i agree that gandhi was the epitome of non violence
but ………….
forgetting other freedom fighters is no way to pay gandhi tribute
Gandhi was and always will be a controversial character. Cant help that. I think the one great contribution or consequence of Gandhi is the establishment of India as a real secular state. Had it not been for Gandhi, things might have been different and India might not have been the secular nation of which we are so proud today. Gandhi’s secularism or Indian secularism is not just about the separation of church (religion) from state. It is critical in nature and about positive reinforcement of religion (ie the devout and right aspect of religion) and religious communities and about the forsaking of the negatives. Gandhi specifically said that if there is something wrong in our scriptures or religion we should shun it. Easier said than done, of course
But as an Indian, I can tell you that there are many in India who detest Gandhi as well and for good reasons. And they are not crazy people. And also that the person who assasinated Gandhi, Nathuram Godse, was also a patriot. Gandhi is seen as doing nothing to save Bhagat Singh, as being responsible for the partition of India and the massacre of Hindus during the partition and not being able to extract anything much from Jinnah and Mountbatten for India and the Hindu community.
I do not know why Gandhi is so glorified. Maybe at one point non-violence would’ve worked but not now. And it didn’t work then either. Do people really think that Britishers left India because Gandhi refused to eat or wear clothes? No. They left because of the increasing tensions, riots, and protests led by people who gave their life for the country. I do agree that Gandhi was a politician. A politician of the modern world. He wanted to have the support of Muslims and Hindus. When Britishers left India, they divided Pakistan and India and made each their own nation. Muslims immediately demanded all Hindus to leave Pakistan. Gandhi, instead of doing tit for tat, demanded that all Muslims in India stay and that nobody hurt them while they were killing all the Hindus in Pakistan. Is this fair? No. I mean I understand he was quite a leader and a speaker and he should be glorified for that and even for spreading peace, because that ultimately was his goal. Had he been awarded a nobel peace prize, I wouldn’t mind. But to say he led to freedom is absurd and absolutely wrong. He was only good for making peace, he didn’t do much to help free India (that’s my opinion and I am sure a lot of people would disagree). The real history is the history that my ancestors who lived to see Gandhi die told me unbiased (and yes I have both Hindu and Muslim ancestors in my family) not the biased one published in history books. I will never think that Gandhi was a saint, he was just a good politician and a motivational leader. That’s it.
Also, I forgot to mention. To answer your title, I do think he was a hypocrite. And yes he is still very overrated, especially in the western world where everyone goes “ooh ahh Gandhi” when they hear his name but very few know what harm he caused.
I think you can’t be human without being a hypocrite at some point in your life. But I also think you can’t be human without being tempted to place other humans up on a pedestal for worship – as has been done with Gandhi.
The Gandhi that history emphasizes is a caricature of himself. His best qualities and actions are emphasized as in a moral fairy tale – the goal being that we all try to live like Gandhi. I have no problem with this if it helps others embrace nonviolence.
But this idolizing should at least be balanced with the knowledge that the real Ghandi was just another guy with his own flaws – the same as you and me – no better, no worse.
Perhaps Gandhi’s name is what’s overrated, since you refuse to spell it right.
Hooked on phonics did not work for me.