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By Sangeeth Sebastian
"I cannot imagine a thing as ugly as the intercourse as a man and a woman,” he once said, in a statement reminiscent of a third century sex-phobic church leader than a sex-positive Indian who would have lived around the same time when Kamasutra was composed. In that, Gandhi was closer to the Vatican than Vatsyayan.
Brahmacharya then was his road to turn into a “eunuch for the kingdom of heaven” as described in the Bible. It was only a coincidence that he also found support from the ancient Indian lawgiver Manu, who too spoke the same language of sexual repression.
Gandhi advised married couples to sleep in separate beds, if not in separate rooms and advocated those who cannot live like brother and sister in the same house to separate. No wonder sexless marriages are so common in India and many think it’s normal.
Semen to him was something that needed to be conserved for greater energy and physical strength (a theory that is scientifically baseless).
Had he been alive today, Gandhi would have been a poster-boy for no nut loonies, an internet based challenge started in 2010 that revolves around abstaining from masturbation and orgasm.
Re-examining Gandhian thoughts and views on sex, 73 years after his death, may come across as a distressing experience to some. But as a man who fervently believed in the pursuit of truth, even at the risk of his personal reputation by refusing to keep his brahmacharya experiments a secret, such an exercise is perfectly valid.
All said and done, Gandhi was someone who displayed a level of courage and honesty that is alien to many modern day Indians. Even an Ambedkar who refused to call him a “Mahatma” would have agreed to that.
The writer is Founder & Chief Evangelist Vvox