At the very outset I am reminded of what Albert Einstein spoke about Mahatma Gandhi in two different occasions.

In 1931, Albert Einstein wrote to Mohandas K. Gandhi to express his great admiration for the Indian leader’s methods. Translated from German, the letter reads in part:


You have shown through your works, that it is possible to succeed without violence even with those who have not discarded the method of violence.


Later, Albert Einstein said of Mahatma Gandhi that: "Generations to come will will find it difficult believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth." A deceptively simple man, Gandhi overturned the greatest Empire the world has ever seen.




In the year 1946, Gandhiji asked his 19-year-old great-niece Manu to sleep in his bed in order to test his sexual desire and vows of celibacy. He was in his 70s then. To quote his biographer and historian Ramchandra Guha, “He had come round to the view that the violence around him was in part a product or consequence of the imperfections within him.” In today’s post #MeToo era, and earlier too, this would definitely seem problematic. Manu had lost her mother, and was brought up by Gandhi and his wife Kasturba. Kasturba had passed away when these experiments began. Manu, despite the unequal power equation between her and her great-uncle did not seem to be upset over these experiments. Later, Gandhiji included Abha, his great-nephew’s wife in these experiments. At the time, many did express disapproval over this behaviour. His stenographer R. P. Parasuram, left his ashram when Gandhi refused to stop these “experiments.”

The women though, did write about these ‘experiments’ too and were unperturbed by the censure these experiments faced. Her personal dairy has Manu write, “Bapu is a mother to me. He is initiating me to a higher human plane through the Brahmacharya experiments, part of his Mahayagna of character-building. Any loose talk about the experiment is most condemnable.” Sushila Nayar too is reported to have written, that during these ‘experiments’ she felt she was in bed with her mother. Read more at: https://www.shethepeople.tv/home-top-video/controversies-mahatma-gandhi-women/