Mystic Mantra: Revisiting Mahatmas

We are obsessed with our past. Whether it is past culture, past ideologies or past icons — we drag them heavily for ages and let them interfere with our lives today. They become a myth and a fresh look at their stature sparks a row among their worshippers and believers. The iconoclastic statement of the rebellious writer Arundhati Roy is no exception to this. Recently she accused Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violence of being based on brutal caste system of India. Calling the untouchables “Harijans” (the people of god) does not uplift them because it doesn’t change their abominable statue in society, and nor it stops them from doing the filthy job they have been doing.

Criticising Gandhi does not mean belittling him; it means not idolising him blindly. Osho has done it abundantly by taking every established icon and putting them through the fire of criticism so that the pure gold in them shines forth and the rubbish is burnt. This is a process of rejuvenation. Take a look at Osho’s assessment of Gandhi’s nonviolence: “Mahatma Gandhi has been praised because he made non-violence a weapon, a means of fighting. In fact, he should be condemned for it. He turned even non-violence into a weapon!

Lest you forget, there was an incident when Gandhi went on a fast against Dr B.R. Ambedkar. Dr Ambedkar wanted shudras to have a separate vote. He asked all the untouchables to rebel and get out of the Hindu fold and ask for a separate vote. Gandhi was born an upper class, so his sympathy for the shudras was that of an outsider, but Ambedkar was born a shudra and had suffered the inhuman treatment of the upper class Hindus. But Gandhi went on a fast unto death. He said, “Harijans are Hindus and will always remain Hindus.”  He fasted long and finally Ambedkar had to give in. Yet it was called a victory of non-violence! Now who is the non-violent one in this? Certainly, Ambedkar. Seeing that Gandhi would die, he dropped his insistence.   

Osho calls Gandhi’s non-violence a “feminine violence.”  When a man gets angry, he beats his wife; when the wife gets angry, she will take sleeping pills and kill herself. But both are forms of violence: One is feminine violence, the other a masculine one. There is no reason to call Gandhi’s feminine violence non-violence. It is only a feminine violence.

Amrit Sadhana is in the management team of Osho International Meditation Resort, Pune. She facilitates meditation workshops around the country and abroad.