Gandhi’s Image
* I am writing to express my reaction to “India Blurs Gandhi’s Image” (May 10).
What is the purpose of this article? Is this to say that Indian politicians do not live up to Gandhi’s ideals? If a country produces a great political leader, is it imperative that every politician in that country should live up to those ideals forever? India is the last country to subscribe to a single person’s ideology or to assume that any solution is timeless. The ideals set by the life of any philosopher cannot be expected to be practiced by people of all persuasions or at all times.
Gandhi’s image is no less for lack of politicians who can live up to his ideals. If by our writings, we cast aspersions on a courageous man’s extraordinary life, it is then that we blur his image. When we intersperse Gandhi’s incredibly candid confessions about his own experiments with the more human and vulnerable facets of life in such a way as to portray him as a pervert, while calling him an ascetic in the previous column, it is then that we blur the image of Gandhi.
SHANKAR HOSKERE
Los Angeles
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