Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India
Front cover of the first American edition
AuthorJoseph Lelyveld
CountryUSA
LanguageEnglish
SubjectMahatma Gandhi
GenreBiography
PublisherAlfred A. Knopf (US)
Harper Collins India (India)[1]
Published in English
March 29, 2011
Pages432
ISBN0-307-26958-2

Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India is a 2011 biography of Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Joseph Lelyveld and published by Alfred A Knopf.[1]

The book is split between the time Gandhi spent in South Africa and his return to India as the Mahatma.[2]

Response in India

The Legislative Assembly of Gujarat, the lawmaking body of Gandhi's home state, voted unanimously on March 20, 2011, to ban Great Soul because of the Lelyveld’s use of documentary evidence and informed opinion to point to the relationship that Gandhi had developed with a Prussian architect whom the Indian playfully boasted as “having received physical training at the hands of [Eugen] Sandow [the father of modern bodybuilding]”. Lelyveld’s inquiry includes quotes from a letter sent by Gandhi to Kallenbach from London in 1909: “Your portrait (the only one) stands on my mantelpiece in the bedroom. The mantelpiece is opposite to the bed… [The purpose of which] is to show to you and me how completely you have taken possession of my body. This is slavery with a vengeance.”[3]

Lelyveld has stated that the gay interpretation of his work is a mistake. Lelyveld added: "The book does not say that Gandhi was bisexual or homosexual. It says that he was celibate and deeply attached to Kallenbach. This is not news."[4]

Review by the New York Times

Writing for The New York Times, Hari Kunzru finds Great Soul to be "judicious and thoughtful". Lelyveld's book, he writes, will be revelatory to American readers who may only be familiar with the rudiments of Gandhi's life and for those readers, perhaps especially Indian readers, who are better acquainted with the Gandhi story the book's portrait of the man will still be challenging.[2]

Reports of passages within the book regarding the nature of Gandhi and Kallenbach's relationship prompted the Wall Street Journal to ponder "Was Gandhi gay?"[1] Kunzru for the Times observes that modern readers who are less familiar with the concept of Platonic love may interpret the relationship, in particular their romantic-sounding letters, as indicating a sexually charged relationship. However, he adds that Gandhi in 1906 took a vow of celibacy, which both Gandhi and the people of India saw as a cornerstone of his moral authority.[2]

Review by the Wall Street Journal

British historian Andrew Roberts, in writing for The Wall Street Journal while noted that the book gives "more than enough information" about sexual life of Gandhi, Roberts adds that it is "nonetheless well-researched and well-written book."[5]

Other reviews

Indrajit Hazra writing for the Hindustan Times described the book to have weaved "the unreceived narratives with the received one, and in the process presents to the reader a more complete picture of a complex, undoubtedly great man".[6]

Christopher Hitchens writing for The Atlantic wrote that the "book provides the evidence for both readings, depending on whether you think Gandhi was a friend of the poor or a friend of poverty".[7]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Thoppil, Dhanya Ann (12 November 2012). "New Aakash May be Tough Sell in India". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 Kunzru, Hari (29 March 2011). "In 'Great Soul,' Joseph Lelyveld Re-Examines Gandhi". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
  3. ↑ Ghosh, Palash (30 March 2011). "Controversial book on Gandhi banned in his native state". International Business Times. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
  4. ↑ Kinetz, Erika (30 March 2011). "India state bans book hinting Gandhi had gay lover". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Associated Press. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
  5. ↑ Roberts, Andrew (26 March 2011). "Among the Hagiographers". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
  6. ↑ "Review: Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and his Struggle with India". Hindustan Times. 3 March 2013. Archived from the original on 21 June 2012. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
  7. ↑ Hitchens, Christopher (July 2011). "The Real Mahatma Gandhi". The Atlantic. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
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