Gandhi and his ‘Spiritual Wife’
Well I read this piece of article in The Tribune, dated Saturday, June 2, 2007 (Saturday Extra supplement).
The article goes something like this :
…There was a woman in Mahatma Gandhi’s life with whom he had contemplated ‘spiritual’ marriage. Rajmohan Gandhi’s recent book on the Mahatma more than hinted at this alliance. V.N. Datta, a historian who has been researching this relationship, talks to The Tribune and attempts to reconstruct the strong bond between Gandhi and Saraladevi, a niece of Rabindranath Tagore
Who was Saraladevi Chowdharani and how did she impact the life of one of India’s greatest sons, Mahatma Gandhi? She stares poignantly out of the early 20th century black and white pictures, clad in rich silk sarees and her black hair flowing loose…
Click here to read the full article.
Mahatma’s not such a Mahatma after all eh… shows the weakness of his character! Well just goes to show that even he wasn’t perfect. I’m not saying Gandhi was bad. Everybody gets tempted in some way or the other and even he was human.
But this article also raised a very important question in my mind. Are arranged marriages really feasible? I mean, do they really work? My parents had an arranged marriage, its rock-solid. But such articles force you to think.
In Gandhi’s case, both he and his wife were 13 years old when they got married. Not only was it a case of arranged marriage but also child marriage. Gandhi had not met Kasturba before. His marriage was fixed and he was married off. That is how arranged marriages work. Although there have been significant changes in the process but still it is majorly the same.
Then later on during his life, Gandhi came in contact with Saraladevi. Not only was there strong liking between the two but there was a lot of physical attraction involved as well (as stated in the article). Had Gandhi been given the choice to marry the girl he wanted, maybe he would’ve never gotten into this mess. Maybe…
What are your views?
June 25th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
however foolish it may sound, the same question arose in my mind when i saw kabhi alvida na kehna! yes, the pretext was different…but there too, we were talkin about finding real love/spouse post marriage, in a situation where mostly u cant leave nd have to compromise on a biggie called life…its a never ending debate i guess..an abstract where u can reach just 1 place…no where
