Gandhi admitted that after his education in Britain and his return to South Africa he was an anglophile. He saw himself growing up in the system and therefore liked the British. He admired the British and saw them as the ultimate expression of humanity. He had internalized their worldview and he identified with their effort to bring Black people under control and he admitted even offering himself to served them. This is not unusual under systems of colonial domination. Hannah Arendt argues in her idea of "the banality of evil" that the Nazis could not have done what they did to the Jews without the connivance of some Jewish accomplice. No empire maintains power without recruiting some agents within the colonized. Often people connive as a way of surviving in the system. But it was after Gandhi offered to serve and he saw the dehumanizing treatment to Blacks that at some point he started having second thoughts and engaged in what some will call tactical withdrawal. And then by the time he returned to India, his views further evolved. Even in India the way the anti-colonial struggle evolved shaped the evolution of his ideas just as anything that might be called apostle Paul's theology was indirectly shaped by the specific churches in specific communities that he wrote. He was responding to concrete situations which influenced his thoughts and reflection. Those who read the biographies of human beings and are expecting human messiahs will always be disappointed.
While this type of brain drain affects Africa, it is does not do so in very dangerous ways as the second type. The second type of brain drain is in the form of people who are highly educated and placed in Africa, and they are part of the government in Africa, but they have little or no respect for the dignity of the persons living under their control, jurisdiction, rule or supervision. They treat the people under them as sub-human and their taste and orientation is all aligned to the West and they embezzle public resources or funds to satisfy their western tastes. They are dangerous because they make decisions that have direct and immediate consequences on the lives of the people. When they steal money, they hide it in foreign banks. They cannot live in the West because they are so full of themselves and living in the ways requires a certain degree of accepting that you will not be treated as king and you cannot treat other people any how because of legal protection. This kind of behavior is at the core of the abuse of our people and the backwardness of our country. If documented, it is even more terrible than focusing on a specific moment in the evolution of the thinking of Gandhi, which shows he was an anglophile as he himself confessed.
For those interested in understanding the good, the bad and the ugly in George Whitefield as an example of the situation with Gandhi, even though they come from different religious traditions, here is the web-link to a discussion on Whitefield the major revival preacher and the champion of slavery whatever that means:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/1993/issue38/3841.html
agreed--
On 9/4/15 9:41 AM, Obadiah Mailafia wrote:
Very interesting historical revision here. I would have been very surprised if Gandhi, a high-born Brahmin had not held those views about Africans. Arthur de Gobineau, Hegel, Montesquieu and Churchill held worst views. I think we should not be judging the ethics and morals of people with the standards of our own epoch. Also, Gandhi went through several stages in his intellectual, moral, political and spiritual evolution. The Gandhi that left for England was different from the young proud Westernised barrister that tried to eke out a living in the South African Bar. And the traumas he encountered changed him. He was the same Brahmin who had a metanoia and renamed the low castes as "Harijan" (Children of God). We live in a cruel and sinful world. Every man and woman must carry their own cross. Gandhi carried his. He was not a perfect human being. But he sought a new way of capitalizing on the human spirit to fight injustice and oppression. MLK was an assiduous student of Gandhi and his adoption of AHIMSA made all the difference in the world. I went to college with the grand daughter of Gandhi, a mild-mannered young woman of beauty and grace. Her grandfather was not perfect, but because of the great efforts and sacrifices he made, the world of Humanity has been transformed by the sheer weight of his moral force. The challenge for us is to pick from the elements of what he did and apply it where we are at present. It can make a difference.--
On Fri, Sep 4, 2015 at 5:29 AM, 'Ikhide' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:
--Was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the revered leader of India's freedom movement, a racist?
A controversial new book by two South African university professors reveals shocking details about Gandhi's life in South Africa between 1893 and 1914, before he returned to India.
During his stay in South Africa, Gandhi routinely expressed "disdain for Africans," says S. Anand, founder of Navayana, the publisher of the book titled "The South African Gandhi: Stretcher-Bearer of Empire."
According to the book, Gandhi described black Africans as "savage," "raw" and living a life of "indolence and nakedness," and he campaigned relentlessly to prove to the British rulers that the Indian community in South Africa was superior to native black Africans. The book combs through Gandhi's own writings during the period and government archives and paints a portrait that is at variance with how the world regards him today.
[The dark side of Winston Churchill no one should forget]
Much of the halo that surrounds Gandhi today is a result of clever repackaging, write the authors, Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed, professors at the University of Johannesburg and the University of KwaZulu Natal.
"As we examined Gandhi's actions and contemporary writings during his South African stay, and compared these with what he wrote in his autobiography and 'Satyagraha in South Africa,' it was apparent that he indulged in some 'tidying up.' He was effectively rewriting his own history."
Prize-winning Indian author Arundhati Roy says the book, which will hit stores next month, is "a serious challenge to the way we have been taught to think about Gandhi."
Here is a sample of what Gandhi said about black South Africans:
* One of the first battles Gandhi fought after coming to South Africa was over the separate entrances for whites and blacks at the Durban post office. Gandhi objected that Indians were "classed with the natives of South Africa," who he called the kaffirs, and demanded a separate entrance for Indians.
- Rama Lakshmi
Nothing new here. Mahatma Gandhi was a thoroughgoing racist.
- Ikhide
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-- kenneth w. harrow faculty excellence advocate professor of english michigan state university department of english 619 red cedar road room C-614 wells hall east lansing, mi 48824 ph. 517 803 8839 harrow@msu.edu
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