Topic of homosexuality in reviews spurs Indian state to ban book on Gandhi

March 31, 2011|Associated Press

MUMBAI — A state in western India banned a Pulitzer Prize-winning author’s new book about Mahatma Gandhi yesterday after reviews said it hints that the father of India’s independence had a homosexual relationship.

Joseph Lelyveld, the author, says his work is being misinterpreted. More bans have been proposed in India, where homosexuality was illegal until 2009 and still carries social stigma.

Gujarat’s state assembly voted unanimously to immediately ban “Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India.’’

The furor was sparked by local media reports, based on early reviews out of the United States and the United Kingdom, some of which emphasized passages suggesting Gandhi had an intimate relationship with Hermann Kallenbach, a close friend from Germany. “Great Soul’’ has not yet been released in India, so few here have read it.

“The book does not say that Gandhi was bisexual or homosexual,’’ Lelyveld wrote in an e-mail. “It says that he was celibate and deeply attached to Kallenbach. This is not news.’’

He noted that his book — which he said is about Gandhi’s struggle for social justice and the evolution of his social values — is available both in the United States and as an e-book download.

“It should not be hard for anyone to determine what it actually says,’’ Lelyveld wrote. “It’s a pious hope, but I’d say someone might take the trouble to look at it before it’s banned.’’

Sudhir Kakar, a psychoanalyst who has written about Gandhi’s sexuality and reviewed some of his correspondence with Kallenbach, said he does not believe the two men were lovers.

“It is quite a wrong interpretation,’’ he said. Gandhi’s great goals were nonviolence, celibacy, and truth, he said.

Politicians in the state of Maharashtra, home to India’s financial capital Mumbai, have also called for a ban on the book and, along with Gujarat’s chief minister Narendra Modi, have asked the central government to bar publication nationwide.