As history is one of our educational
tool, we will present these two books, criticizing Gandhi, as it is not just
only good to learn from history but also to look at two sides of history. We
took the information from Wikipedia.
INTERNET
SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandhi_Under_Cross_Examination
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Gandhi Under Cross Examination
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Author
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Col. G.
B. Singh & Dr. Tim Watson
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Country
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United
States
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Language
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English
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Genre
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Publisher
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Sovereign
Star Publishing, Inc
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Publication date
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June
2009
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Media type
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Print Paperback
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Pages
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287
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Preceded by
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Gandhi Under Cross Examination is a 2009 book written by G. B.
Singh and Dr. Tim Watson evaluating the iconization of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as a civil
rights protagonist.
In 1893 Gandhi went to South Africa
where, according to his own account, he was thrown off of a train on racial
grounds. In their scrutiny of the incident and Gandhi's statements thereafter,
the authors claim that Gandhi gave divergent accounts of what happened on his
journey to Pretoria. Gandhi Under Cross-examination catalogs the incidents
that happened around that time and attempts to prove that the train incident
never occurred. The authors have claimed that Gandhi lied about the train
incident.
INTERNET
SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandhi_Behind_the_Mask_of_Divinity
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Gandhi
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Author
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Colonel
G. B. Singh
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Country
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United
States
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Language
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English
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Genre
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Publisher
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Publication date
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April
2004
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Media type
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Pages
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356
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Followed by
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Gandhi Behind the Mask of Divinity is a book by US Army Colonel G. B.
Singh. The book was written in biographical form nearly 60 years after the
assassination of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, and
challenges his image as a saintly, benevolent, and pacifistic leader of Indian
independence, told through Gandhi's own writings and actions over the course of
his life. The book claims that Gandhi emulated racism from the Hindu ideology of caste towards the blacks
of South Africa and the Untouchables, instigated ethnic hatred
against foreign communities, and, to this end, was involved in covering up the
killing of American engineer William Francis Doherty.
Singh puts forward that the portrayal
of Gandhi as a great leader is "the work of the Hindu propaganda
machine" and Christian clergy with ulterior motives; and, furthermore, it
was based on irrationality and deception which historians have failed to
critically examine.
Book
organization
The author, Colonel Singh, states that
he spent 20 years collecting Gandhi's original writings, speeches and other
documents for this research book. An earlier article by the author, Would
the Real Gandhi Please Stand Up in AAH Newsletter (publication of African Americans for Humanism) had
resulted in protests by an active Black group in South Africa, when a statue of
Gandhi was unveiled in central Johannesburg.
The book is organized into 7 parts and
30 chapters. It starts by presenting a majority of earlier publications on
Gandhi and the interactions and exposure (if any) of the authors of those
publications to Gandhi and his ideology. In the first part, the author starts
by explaining the reason for yet another book on Gandhi and then continues by
presenting the major previous literary work done on Gandhi including the Gandhi
movie in the first part of the book. The book claims that the Christian clergy
first started "the Gandhi myth" – they wanted to elevate Gandhi to a
20th-century messiah and then convert him to Christianity, something that would
open the floodgate for evangelizing Hindu masses.
The second part deals with Gandhi's
alleged role in War against Blacks during the Bambatha Rebellion (Zulu war) followed by part 3
of the book in which the author talks about the methodology of Satyagraha
used by Gandhi to uphold the status of Indians by preaching racial hatred and
segregation against South African Blacks. Later parts 4, and 5 consider
Gandhi's politics before and after the Boer War in
South Africa, providing examples of what the author sees as racism from Gandhi
towards blacks. Singh states that racism against Blacks of South Africa was an
integral part of Gandhi's Satyagraha in South Africa, and he never fought for the
rights of the native people. Singh further discusses how Gandhi actively
encouraged the British to raise an Indian regiment for use against the Black Zulus, contrary to
his image of a non-violent leader. The author also says that Gandhi had
accepted the superiority and predominance of the white race, and believed that
the upper-caste Indians shared with the Europeans a common Aryan heritage.
Part 6 of the book deals with Gandhi's
alleged caste ideology and black Untouchables of India. This part starts with a
chapter on Singh's views on Hinduism and the claim that it segregates people
based on skin-color with the "Blacks ending up at the bottom as Untouchables".
Singh claims that Gandhi received fierce resistance from B.R.
Ambedkar as Gandhi continued to play his "racial and ethnic politics
against the rights of Untouchables".
The last part of the book deals with
alleged "White Murders" done during Satyagraha movements against the
British which Singh contends have been ignored by Gandhian scholars. The book claims
that Gandhi was involved in covering up the murder of an American Engineer
William Francis Doherty during the campaign against visit of Prince
of Wales, Edward the VIII. It also
presents the content of original sworn on oath affidavit filed by William
Francis Doherty's wife Annette H. Doherty in which she testified that Gandhi
resorted to bribery to cover up the murder. Further, the book talks about
Gandhi's alleged role in support of ethnic cleansing for his defense of Adolf
Hitler, his "condemning" of Jews and British for not committing
"collective suicide" by surrendering to the Nazis and also his
condemning of Sikhs
for not accepting the partition of Punjab in 1947 over their own
massacre and uprooting.
Reviews
Scholarly
A comprehensive, annotated bibliography
on Mahatma Gandhi-related literature briefly mentions the book as a
"Highly critical account. Every move by Gandhi is interpreted by the
author to be racist, which argument is very questionable”.
Dr. Baldev Singh, frequent writer on
Indian politics, Punjab and Sikh issues reviewed the book and opined that the
book has "exploded the Gandhi myth" and the author has brought out
the truth from Gandhi's "own mouth".
Xavier William in the Midwest Book
Review (2004) accused the author of mud
slinging and compared it to another anti-Gandhi piece written by Khushwant
Singh.
Thomas W. Clark, who reviewed the book
for American Humanist Association's The
Humanist, stated that most readers will find the book "overwrought and
unnecessarily inflammatory". As for Singh's accusations of Gandhi
destroying incriminating documents to cover up his racist views, Clark labeled
them "unsubstantiated hypothesis" and "simply speculation".
Clark instead recommended B. R. Ambedkar What Gandhi and the Congress Have
Done to the Untouchables (1945) as a "more substantial and balanced account
of some of Gandhi's shortcomings". Katie Violin of The Kansas City Star also criticized the book
and stated that "Gandhi as a racist doesn't add up".
Professor Manfred Steger, author of Gandhi's
Dilemma: Nonviolent Principles And Nationalist Power, wrote a review of the
book in the December 2005 issue of The Historian. He stated that the
author doesn't offer hard evidence for the first thesis in the book, the
alleged "Hindu propaganda machine", and found Singh's "eagerness
to accuse" without raising or answering relevant questions "deeply
disturbing". At the same time, Steger said that the author offers
"much better evidence" for the second thesis, Gandhi's racist
attitude. He stated, "Perhaps one of the strongest sections of the book is
the author's examination of pertinent primary and secondary literature
revealing Gandhi's attitude toward black Africans during his two decades in
South Africa". Steger noted that numerous other "balanced"
critiques of Gandhi exist, such as the works by Ved Mehta, Partha Chatterjee,
and Joseph Alter. In comparison, Steger concluded, that the book was a
"one-sided attack" on Gandhi, without offering the larger, more
complex picture of Gandhi's ethical and political engagements, thus turning it
into a "strident polemic".
Alan Caruba, the editor of
Bookviews.com, mentioned the book in its December 2004 issue, and stated
"We need to remember that even great men had their flaws and Col. Singh, a
career military officer and student of Indian politics, Hinduism, and of Gandhi,
presents his facts in a compelling way."
In his book, Gandhi's Philosophy
and the Quest for Harmony, the author Anthony Parel termed Singh's book as
"scurrilous", "crude bias", and "deplorable
ignorance".
Political
United States Congressman Edolphus
Towns called the book "definitely controversial" but worth
reading to broaden perspective on Gandhi and understand the foundations of
India. Towns mentioned the book in his Congressional debate during the
Proceedings and Debates of 110th United States Congress (First
Session).
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