The fuss over a new biography of Mohandas Gandhi only reinforces the extent to which admirers and critics alike have put the Indian independence leader on a pedestal. In his book “Great Soul,’’ journalist Joseph Lelyveld recounts how Gandhi’s frustration about attitudes toward Indians in South Africa evolved into a broader notion of equality and human dignity everywhere. But the book also explores Gandhi’s inconsistencies and political missteps and — more controversially — makes mention of an ambiguous personal relationship between Gandhi and a German man.
The book has been greeted with great relish in some circles. In a review published in the Wall Street Journal, conservative historian Andrew Roberts asserts that “Great Soul’’ reveals Gandhi as a “political incompetent and a fanatical faddist.’’ The more salacious reviews (to which Lelyveld has objected, it should be noted) have prompted the Indian state of Maharashtra to consider banning the book.
