Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India by Joseph Lelyveld: book review

America journalist, Joseph Lelyveld, has written a book outing political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi. The book, Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India (2011), has provoked a wave of anger across India. Lelyveld suggests, in his book, that Gandhi was bisexual. He cites Gandhi’s and Hermann Kallenbach’s correspondence, and claims that his bisexualism was the reason behind his decision to leave his wife and move in with the architect and bodybuilder Kallenbach.

This is only a small part of the book, but it is a warts-and-all revelation about the positive and even more about the negative aspects of his personality – what made him great, and what made him human. It details a historical biography of Gandhi (1869-1948) and his politics and philosophy and, the author notes, his fantasies of an ideal world. It describes his metamorphosis from an English-educated lawyer in business suits to the figure most known to readers – the leader in a loincloth.

More interesting is Lelyveld’s documentation of the development of Gandhi’s philosophies that lead to his defining concepts of “satyagraha” and “ahimsa”– mass civil disobedience and non-violence, culminating in civil rights and freedom.

The book has been banned in many Indian states in a country where homosexual activity was a criminal offense until 2009. Gandhi’s grandson denounces the ban, saying that his grandfather advocated for, and was the epitome of, freedom of speech.

[The photograph shows a statue of Mohandas Gandhi in Glebe Park, Canberra, Australia]

Comments

2016 update on Rike Park, Tbilisi: from construction to busy park

From a flat patch of uninteresting dirt, Rike Park in Tbilisi, Georgia, has transformed in four years (from 2014-2016) into a busy park full of trees, flower beds, sculptures, fountains, and events. Rike (Rikhe) Park is on the left bank of the Mt’k’vari River (the Kura River) near the Old City of Tbilisi. The Peace Bridge links the right bank to Rike Park. Rike Park is below the hillside Presidential Palace and, via cable car, it is the starting point for the ride to Sololaki Ridge (with the Narikala Fortress and the Mother of Georgia statue). The glass box-shaped cable car terminus was opened on 23 June 2012, and since then the park has continually developed into a ‘people’s park’ where people can walk around, eat at the nearby restaurants, sit next to the statue of American president Ronald Reagan, climb the steps to Avlabari district, and access the sights of Meidan Square, the Peace Bridge, the Metekhi Church, the Old City, the waterfall, the sulphur baths, and t...

The acacia thorn trees of Kenya

There are nearly 800 species of acacia trees in the world, and most don’t have thorns. The famous "whistling thorn tree" and the Umbrella Thorn tree of Kenya are species of acacia that do have thorns, or spines. Giraffes and other herbivores normally eat thorny acacia foliage, but leave the whistling thorn alone. Usually spines are no deterrent to giraffes. Their long tongues are adapted to strip the leaves from the branches despite the thorns. The thorny acacia like dry and hot conditions. The thorns typically occur in pairs and are 5-8 centimetres (2-3 inches) long. Spines can be straight or curved depending on the species. MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Suda...

Hop on hop off bus tourism comes to Tbilisi, Georgia

City Sightseeing buses have arrived in Tbilisi. The iconic red double-decker buses, a feature of many cities around the world since the company was established in Seville, Spain in 1999, is now in six continents and almost 100 cities. The company established its Tbilisi business in November 2013, with its operations commencing in February 2014. The 90-minute tour stops at 11 major locations in Tbilisi (with 2 to 5 minute waiting times at each location): the Old City (where it commences), Freedom Square, Rose Revolution Square, Marjanishvili Square, the Dry Bridge, Konka, Avlabari, Metekhi, Akhundov Museum, the Sulfur Baths, and European Square. Passengers can hop off at any stop and see the sights, hopping back onto the next bus at any time. Alternatively, passengers can remain on the bus for the whole tour and take photographs when the bus stops at each location. There are one day (24-hour) passes (for 35 lari – about $20) and 48-hour passes for 55 lari, with family d...

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog