Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 7:46 pm Post subject: Another Look at Mahatma Gandhi
Many myths abound about Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand known as Mahatma "Great Souled") Gandhi (1869-1948).
He was not born to a poor Indian family. His father was dewan (chief minister) of Porbandar, the capital of a small principality in Gujarat in western India under British suzerainty. He later became dewan of Rajkot.
He married at the age of 13 and was a mediocre student. In his adolescence he defied his repressive environment by petty thieving, meat eating, smoking, and professed atheism.
Until the age of 18 He spoke very little English. His main language was Gujarati.
He wanted to be a medical doctor - more precisely, a surgeon. His family forced his to study law.
His first political activity was as a member of the executive committee of the London Vegetarian Society.
He went to South Africa because he couldn't find work in India. He was a poor lawyer, in both senses of the word. He suffered from stage fright.
The "Encyclopedia Britannica" describes his first days there:
"Africa was to present to Gandhi challenges and opportunities that he could hardly have conceived. In a Durban court, he was asked by the European magistrate to take off his turban; he refused and left the courtroom.
A few days later, while traveling to Pretoria, he was unceremoniously thrown out of a first-class railway compartment and left shivering and brooding at Pietermaritzburg Station; in the further course of the journey he was beaten up by the white driver of a stagecoach because he would not travel on the footboard to make room for a European passenger; and finally he was barred from hotels reserved "for Europeans only." These humiliations were the daily lot of Indian traders and labourers in Natal who had learned to pocket them with the same resignation with which they pocketed their meagre earnings."
He was about to sail to London when he read about a bill to deprive the Indians of their right to vote. He decided to stay. It is in Johannesburg, South Africa that his first civil disobedience ("Satyagraha") campaign was staged - not in India.
Gandhi's life was at peril many times. He was almost lynched in Durban as early as January 1897. He was assassinated in 1948.
He was not a pacifist. Nor was he anti-British. When the Boer war broke out, he organized a volunteer corps of 11,000 Indians to defend the British colony of Natal.
Sam Vaknin ( samvak.tripod.com ) is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He served as a columnist for Global Politician, Central Europe Review, PopMatters, Bellaonline, and eBookWeb, a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory and Suite101.
Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia.
And of course his part in the splintering of India into Pakistan (east and west) and India is a hotly debated issue. _________________ _____________________________________
Back to you now ... Can you prove I meant to say copy and paste?
I don't need to prove that you completely went off topic again, it's plain to see. The whole discourse is not about what you "insinuated" but about you asserting Mike needs to learn how to spell Gandhi. I guess you never mistyped a word. BTW how do you know Mike meant Mahatma Gandhi and not something else actually spelled *ghandi* in whatever language? The fact that he did not capitalize supports this.
Back to you now ... Can you prove I meant to say copy and paste?
I don't need to prove that you completely went off topic again, it's plain to see. The whole discourse is not about what you "insinuated" but about you asserting Mike needs to learn how to spell Gandhi.
Ah, at a loss of words now, so you don't finish this ... The whole discourse started out as a joke (at least as far as I know) ... I don't quite know why you had to stick your oar in when you weren't being referred to anyway. And I never "asserted" anything. Neither did I insinuate anything. You are imagning things.
As for the "going off topic" part, we all do that sometimes online, whether we admit it or not. You included too, Mr. Korat Cat. Though, I don't see how having a short non serious go qualifies as going "completely" off topic ...
KoratCat wrote:
I guess you never mistyped a word. BTW how do you know Mike meant Mahatma Gandhi and not something else actually spelled *ghandi* in whatever language?
I never said I didnt mistype anything.
How do I know he meant Gandhi? This is a silly thing to ask - I simply assumed you guys stay "on topic" ...
KoratCat wrote:
The fact that he did not capitalize supports this.
More foolishness - the fact that he did not "capitalize" doesn't support anything. There could be plenty of reasons for him not capitalizing. And, I hate to say it but "capitalize" is the wrong word to use here ...
Ah, at a loss of words now, so you don't finish this ... The whole discourse started out as a joke (at least as far as I know) ... I don't quite know why you had to stick your oar in when you weren't being referred to anyway. And I never "asserted" anything. Neither did I insinuate anything. You are imagning things.
. . .
More foolishness - the fact that he did not "capitalize" doesn't support anything. There could be plenty of reasons for him not capitalizing. And, I hate to say it but "capitalize" is the wrong word to use here ...
Harsh words for joking. That's the way with harsh jokes, Rahul!
BTW the spelling GHANDI is as legitimate as GANDHI as you can see from the 3,2 million results Google gives you upon entering "ghandi" for search. So Mike spelled correctly every time.
Question: Are you still joking, Rahul? I was. And I did not get hurt by your words. Did you get hurt by mine?
I guess the name Gnadhi, Ghandi, Gahndi, or Gandhi or however one wants to spell a word transliterated from Sanskrit, is synonymous with peaceful resistance, humilty and purity . . . of course this is largely nonsense as he was glorfied to be so, yet probably was in his later years.
(And I'm sure his wife wouldn't speak glowingly of him either in some respects as urine-drinking and abstinence might only be attractive to the active party) _________________ _____________________________________
Actually I don't know more about Gandhi than what is shown in the movie. Most impressed me the acting in the scene where he was taken out of the First Class compartment in the train. His astonishment about being treated like that as an accredited lawyer is superbly depicted/acted or whatever (to avoid wordpicking) as the turning point in his life. Everything else later just added up. _________________ Thailand Forum - Korat Forum..
Ah, at a loss of words now, so you don't finish this ... The whole discourse started out as a joke (at least as far as I know) ... I don't quite know why you had to stick your oar in when you weren't being referred to anyway. And I never "asserted" anything. Neither did I insinuate anything. You are imagning things.
. . .
More foolishness - the fact that he did not "capitalize" doesn't support anything. There could be plenty of reasons for him not capitalizing. And, I hate to say it but "capitalize" is the wrong word to use here ...
Harsh words for joking. That's the way with harsh jokes, Rahul!
BTW the spelling GHANDI is as legitimate as GANDHI as you can see from the 3,2 million results Google gives you upon entering "ghandi" for search. So Mike spelled correctly every time.
Question: Are you still joking, Rahul? I was. And I did not get hurt by your words. Did you get hurt by mine?
Did I get hurt?? Of course not, my dear fellow ...
I was simply continuing in the same vein as you started ...
Though I must say, your statement about Ghandi being a legit way to spell it is the most stupid statment I've heard, but to each his own ...
No, I'm not "hurt", but I do find it funny.
So, I guess it's acceptable to call you Kluse instead of Klaus?? I googled Kluse, and found some nonsensical links, so I guess it is. _________________ Dongguan Expat - Your online Community!
Did I get hurt?? Of course not, my dear fellow ...
I was simply continuing in the same vein as you started ...
Though I must say, your statement about Ghandi being a legit way to spell it is the most stupid statment I've heard, but to each his own ...
It's not stupid at all because you accused Mike of having used an "illegitimate" spelling. Legitimate is what is not against the rules of society. Since there are no binding rules fot the transliteration from Sanskrit to the Roman alphabet, everything that can be adequately recognized to reproduce the correct sounding is legitimate.
Quote:
No, I'm not "hurt", but I do find it funny.
Good, me too!
Quote:
So, I guess it's acceptable to call you Kluse instead of Klaus?? I googled Kluse, and found some nonsensical links, so I guess it is.
If you had googled "ghandi" instead of "Kluse" you'd found almost only texts containing both spellings or even all three. No wonder!
So what do you want me to think of the above statement a) in respect of connection to the topic, and b) in respect of intelligence? Please don't hesitate to bare yourself.
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