Was Gandhi gay? Letters between Mahatma Gandhi and bodybuildg iend fuel speculatn about te nature of relatnship | Daily Mail Onle

Contents:

• WAS GANDHI GAY? LETTERS BETWEEN MAHATMA GANDHI AND BODYBUILDG IEND FUEL SPECULATN ABOUT TE NATURE OF RELATNSHIP
• WAS GANDHI GAY? INTIMATE LETTERS GO ON DISPLAY INDIA
• GANDHI ON JEWS. PART 1: A JEWISH GAY LOVER
• THE SLOW EVOLUTN OF GAY CULTURE INDIA
• WAS GANDHI GAY? NEW BOOK RAIS QUTN
• INDIAN STATE BANS GANDHI BOOK AFTER REVIEWS HT AT GAY RELATNSHIP
• INDIAN GOVERNMENT SPENDS $1.3 MILLN TO STOP AUCTN OF GANDHI LETTERS THAT MAY SHOW HE WAS GAY

WAS GANDHI GAY? LETTERS BETWEEN MAHATMA GANDHI AND BODYBUILDG IEND FUEL SPECULATN ABOUT TE NATURE OF RELATNSHIP

March 30, 2011 -- Was Mahatma Gandhi gay? In a bgraphy that h stor this week -- "Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and his Stggle Wh India, " former New York Tim reporter Lelyveld sists that Gandhi was gay, or at least lover was Hermann Kallenbach, a German-Jewish archect and bodybuilr.

""And if he's a god, how n he be homosexual? "The Hdu relign, jt as Christiany, owns upon homosexualy, acrdg to Chakrabarty, who has wrten several books about Gandhi.

But India today, discrimatn agast gays is illegal and many are open about their sexual Levyveld's book, the lovers' nicknam to each other were "Upper Hoe" and "Lower Hoe, " suggtg one may have been a stronger posn of book says Gandhi may have been the one to "thk ep thoughts" and Kallenbach was more preoccupied wh "matters of physil fns and everythg that's down to earth. I know that some people still don’t buy that Gandhi was gay, but let me tell you, om experience, Gandhi liked guys.

WAS GANDHI GAY? INTIMATE LETTERS GO ON DISPLAY INDIA

Was Gandhi gay?

In 1995, Hunt's unpublished workg paper 'The Kallenbach papers and Tolstoy farm' said the relatnship was 'clearly homoerotic' and certaly not homosexual. Hunt asserts that the relatnship was 'clearly homoerotic' while certaly not homosexual.

GANDHI ON JEWS. PART 1: A JEWISH GAY LOVER

" In an terview, Lelyveld also referred to Hunt's unpublished paper sayg, "One rpected Gandhi scholar characterized the relatnship as 'clearly homoerotic' rather than homosexual, tendg through that choice of words to scribe a strong mutual attractn, nothg more.

"They found the male bondg of Indian society que homoerotic. But the only evince Lelyveld giv the rear, suggtg the bondg of the two men was at least homoerotic if not homosexual, is a salac one-ler where Gandhi allegedly told Kallenback, "How pletely you have taken posssn of my body.

While Gandhi may have been repulsed by heterosexualy he seems to be repulsed, at least publicly, by homosexualy, too.

THE SLOW EVOLUTN OF GAY CULTURE INDIA

For example, the 1930s, both Gandhi and Jawaharlal Neh attempted to erase all trac of the Indian homoerotic tradn om Indian templ as a rult of their systematic mpaigns of "sexual cleansg. Relatedgaygandhigay issuIndiaMart Luther Kg.

“Gandhi-giri” portrayed as “Gay-giri”.

Some historians have note that key cultural differenc between Amerin and Indian attus to same-sex iendships might be the reason for which the Amerin thor suggts of a homosexual relatnship. The whole thg certaly generated a eful public disurse but not about homosexualy or sex tn if not about the lims of ee exprsn.

WAS GANDHI GAY? NEW BOOK RAIS QUTN

For example, the 1930s, both Gandhi and Jawaharlal Neh attempted to erase all trac of the Indian homoerotic tradn om Indian templ as a rult of their systematic mpaigns of “sexual cleansg“. Dpe those letters and photos documentg the timate iendship between the god-like Indian figure Gandhi and his German-Jewish iend, today India, beg gay remas eply taboo. Sectn 377 of the Indian Penal Co (troduced durg Brish le of India) was vised to crimalize and prevent homosexual associatns.

Although legalizatn and social acceptance to gay marriag seems to be a distant dream, policians should engage makg India a untry more clive and diverse as for example worryg about the tn of safe sex for all people. After all, if “the father of the Natn”, the person nsired as the drivg force behd the tablishment of Inpennt India, had a homosexual relatnship more than 100 years ago wh his Jewish lover, what is the big al about ?

If “the father of the natn”, as is documented, really behaved that way, why the bigotry and hypocrisy the mdset of the Indian society about homosexualy and to avoid sexualy tn?

INDIAN STATE BANS GANDHI BOOK AFTER REVIEWS HT AT GAY RELATNSHIP

Societal valu, the ste system, arranged marriag, the high probabily of beg dishered for g out — India, everythg ns unter to gay liberatn. "We are far om beg a gay-iendly untry. Bobby, a activist (I know only his first name), has ved me to a gay soirée one of the private clubs: the basement of a huge palace.

The proportn of gays seems signifint, but the place is mixed, open, always discreet, and s are rpected, for good measure. “You’re not Mumbai here; you are MumGay, ” he says, parodyg the tle of a short Indian gay film, “BomGay, ” which generated some buzz at the time of s release 1996.

Later the eveng, Bobby explas that India homosexualy is characterized, as often is Asia, by the classil try: crimalizatn, social disapproval, and the police’s nonenforcement of the law. He adds: “For a long time, the ernment would not crimalize homosexualy for the sake of ‘ntament, ’ but didn’t want to thorize for fear of makg a public issue. ”The ia of “ntament” — an Amerin diplomatic term referrg to the limatn of the Communist ntagn — is que a relative notn a untry whose Natnal AIDS Control Organizatn rmally timat has at least 70 ln India, as often Asia, the issue is not jt about the law: a whole culture helps make homosexualy yet thgs evolve.

INDIAN GOVERNMENT SPENDS $1.3 MILLN TO STOP AUCTN OF GANDHI LETTERS THAT MAY SHOW HE WAS GAY

In June 2008, Gay Pri gathered a few thoand people the Indian pal, an event that is well vered by the natnal prs. The followg year the Supreme Court of New Delhi crimalized homosexualy and repealed Sectn 377 of the penal , which led unnstutnal. It was the first time such a urt tervened on the sensive issue of gay rights.

“This article [Sectn 377] was very rarely ed India, but was a sword of Damocl hangg over our heads, and ntributed to the nonregnn of homosexuals India, ” explas Rajeev, a gay activist om the Naz Foundatn Tst, an anizatn that fought for the crimalizatn of homosexualy and was supported by many Bollywood wrers and actors as well as by Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize wner enomics, and by the famo Manvendra Sgh Gohil, the only royal prce to be openly gay. ”Unr prsure om the relig lobbi that appealed, the Supreme Court reversed s cisn December 2013 and th recrimalized homosexualy.

When I met him 2015 his prtig New Delhi office, he nfirmed that he would “file a new bill on behalf of the Left [the Congrs Party] to reverse the cisn of the Court and fally crimalize homosexualy India once and for all.