Gujarat votes unanimously to ban book, as its author Joseph Lelyveld
dismisses claim it suggests Indian leader was bisexual
Associated Press in Mumbai
Thursday March 31 2011
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/30/gujarat-bans-gandhi-book-gay-claims
A state in western India has banned Pulitzer-prize-winning Joseph
Lelyveld's new book about Mahatma Gandhi after reviews said it hints
that the father of India's independence had a homosexual relationship.
More bans have been proposed in India, where homosexuality was illegal
until 2009 and still carries social stigma.
Gujarat's state assembly voted unanimously on Wednesday to ban Great
Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India.
The furore was sparked by local media reports, based on early reviews
in the US and UK, some of which emphasised passages in the book that
suggested Gandhi had an intimate relationship with a German man named
Hermann Kallenbach.
The book has not yet been released in India.
Lelyveld has said his work was taken out of context. "I do not allege
that Gandhi is a racist or bisexual in Great Soul [http://
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Outrage-over-reviews-of-new-Gandhi-
book/articleshow/7811322.cms" title="]," he told the Times of India.
"The word 'bisexual' nowhere appears in the book."
However, several reviews of Great Soul detailed its sections on
Gandhi's relationship with Kallenbach.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, [http://online.wsj.com/article/
SB10001424052748703529004576160371482469358.html" title="the Wall
Street Journal,] Andrew Roberts said the only portrait on the
mantelpiece opposite Gandhi's bed was of Kallenbach.
"How completely you have taken possession of my body," reads one
widely quoted letter from Gandhi to Kallenbach. "This is slavery with
a vengeance."
Britain's Daily Mail ran an article [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/
article-1370554/Gandhi-left-wife-live-male-lover-new-book-claims.html?
ito=feeds-newsxml" title="ran an article] under the headline: "Gandhi
'left his wife to live with a male lover' new book claims".
The Mumbai Mirror on Tuesday ran a front-page story [http://
www.mumbaimirror.com/index.aspx?page=article&sectid=15&contentid=20110329201103290323077212df68adf"
title="a front-page story] under the headline: "Book claims German man
was Gandhi's secret love", which quoted the same passages as Roberts.
Sudhir Kakar, a psychoanalyst who has written about Gandhi's sexuality
and reviewed some of his correspondence with Kallenbach, said he did
not believe the two men were lovers. "It is quite a wrong
interpretation," he said.
Gandhi's great goals were non-violence, celibacy and truth, he said.
"The Hindu idea is that sexuality has this elemental energy which gets
dissipated," Kakar said. "If it can be sublimated and contained it can
give you spiritual power. Gandhi felt his political power really came
from his celibacy, from his spiritual power."
He said Gandhi often filled his letters, including those to female
associates, with strong love language, but that did not lead to
physical intimacy.
"Nothing happened," he said. "He is telling his feelings, but they are
platonic. They are not put into action. That would have been terrible
for him."
Politicians in the state of Maharashtra, home to India's financial
capital, Mumbai, have also called for a ban on the book and, along
with Gujarat's chief minister, Narendra Modi, have asked the central
government to ban publication nationwide.
Modi said Lelyveld should apologise publicly for "hurting the
sentiments of millions of people".
"It has become a fashion to tarnish the image of great Indian leaders
for self-publicity and the sale of books," said Sanjay Dutt, spokesman
for the ruling Congress party in Maharashtra. "The government should
invoke a law to severely punish anyone who tarnishes the image of the
father of the nation."
Ranjit Hoskote, a writer and general secretary of Pen India, which
fights for free expression, condemned the ban and said the local media
had misconstrued both Lelyveld's intentions and the nature of Gandhi's
relationship with Kallenbach.
"You can't cite a worse example of third-hand reportage and comment,"
he said. "How can you ban a book you haven't read?"
He said Gandhi's correspondence with Kallenbach has been available in
library archives for decades. "There's no secret. There is no
scandal," he said.
guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2011
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