Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Joseph Lelyvelds Gandhi biography,Great Soul,in an attempt to humanise a saint,has ended up drawing unwelcome attention to two sensational elements. A strong,possibly homoerotic friendship in his life,and his early,narrower politics in South Africa,which was only later to evolve into a larger idea of equality. Some early reviewers chose to foreground these throwaway references and the Indian establishment decided that this was the central,scurrilous point of the book,and immediately slapped a ban. Neither is particularly out-of-place for a human being,but for a saint? India cannot brook the insult. The Maharashtra government said it proposed to ban the book. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi,that other apostle of peace,declared that any slur on Gandhis reputation was intolerable,and went ahead and banned it. The Centre,meanwhile,might go a step further and systematise this intolerance,by extending the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act 1971 to
all such cases.
History will not forgive us if we remain so insecure about free debate,and insist on our national icons being bubble-wrapped,our childish,flat ideas about them incontestable. As James Laine said after his work was banned and a venerable library vandalised for letting him work there,India will effectively drive out free thought and scholarship if it continues this way. We dont even open up our archives or declassify decades-old documents,for fear of finding possible flaws and missteps. Ideas are countered with other ideas if Lelyveld or Laine are guilty of slapdash research or ahistorical speculation,they must be methodically rebutted,not gagged by those who havent even read the work. How can we call ourselves a liberal modern nation,if we are so afraid of our own shadow?
