Was Mahatma Gandhi a womanizer and drunk?

Jean-Marie Valheur

 

lover of history May 12

Was Mahatma Gandhi a womanizer and drunk?

The answer would be… not quite. First of all, Mahatma Gandhi did not drink, he did not eat to excess and he did not, to my knowledge, cheat on his wife. He promoted a life of celibacy, having largely

[1]

 refrained from sex after fathering five children by his wife. That said, the whole celibacy thing became somewhat of an obsession for Gandhi. He wanted, rather desperately, to “prove” his purity and innocense. To this effect, he selected two young gorgeous women, had them strip naked and slept with them at night. This to prove that he did not get aroused by their proximity.

He also bathed with these young women. Washed their bodies, their breasts, their genital area. And had them wash his. Again, to prove his purity… are your eyes rolling out of their sockets yet? If they are, I cannot blame you. These weren’t random girls he selected, mind you — they were the granddaughters of his brother. His own grand-nieces. And they were about sixteen when he began this creepy practice. It would have been better, in my view, if he had been a drunk, but somehow the fact that he was perfectly sober and alert when he conducted this strange social experiment makes it far more sinister.

No, Mahatma Gandhi was not a drunk nor was he a womanizer in the classical sense of the word. He was a man obsessed with purity, innocense and celibacy. So obsessed that it made him go through extreme lengths to prove to the world how “innocent” he was. Either that or it was all a clever ruse for him to bathe and sleep with naked teenagers…

Footnotes

[1] 

Mahatma Gandhi’s little-known love affair with a married, progressive woman in Lahore