Gandhi's Girls

...With bureau reports from Bombay, Dandi, and Kashmir (Much of this article is fantasy, but all the facts about Gandhi's sex practices are true...

...His explanations had become the issue of the campaign, according to a poll taken two days after the Herald story broke...

...Until last week, he was the revered Mahatma—the Great Soul— leader of 400 million Indians in the drive for independence from British colonial rule...

...ART LEVINE in New Dehli...

...With his urbane charm and stylish taste in jackets, Nehru never had any pretense to celibacy...

...Gandhi stuck by her man...

...But political analysts are doubtful that the man, once dubbed "Mr...

...Escorting them was Gandhi's aide, the movie star-handsome Jawaharlal Nehru...

...was 2,000 miles away at their mountain retreat in Kashmir recuperating from an illness...

...Late Sunday morning, a weary Gandhi finally spotted the Herald reporters and confronted them...

...But the questions kept coming...

...The Indian public wasn't buying it...

...A new low in political discourse may have been reached when a reporter for the Bombay Post asked during a sit-in, "Did you get an erection last weekend...

...Family life has always been sacred to me," he told reporters, standing outside his family's mosque with his wife and daughter...

...When Viceroy Lord Lillybottom himself brought a bevy of beauties to the Taj Mahal, the muckrakers of Madras looked the other way...

...I have clone nothing wrong," Gandhi insisted...

...Now it's finally blown up in our faces ." Ironically, Gandhi set the stage for his demise through his own pronouncements on sex...

...The Bombay Post ran an insiders' account of life in Gandhi's ashram...

...On his nightly radio program, comedian Charu Carson quipped, "Well, at least we know the Mahatma is big enough for the job of running India!' He added, to more laughter, "I guess he was really meditating his brains out this weekend...

...But, then, after tossing and turning all night, as I have through this ordeal, I woke up and said, 'Heck, my goodness, no.' " Instead, Gandhi with his back against the proverbial wall reached deep into his bag of tricks and, like a cat with nine lives, pulled yet another rabbit from his hat: a hunger strike...

...But by week's end, in the wake of newspaper accounts of Gandhi's sexual peccadillos, bizarre personal habits and mind-bending cult practices, his career—and perhaps Indian nationalism— lay in ruins...

...Gandhi represents the politics of the past," said Patreek Chardeli...

...Whatever the press's ultimate responsibility, the longstanding doubts over Gandhi's character left India's nationalist movement in disarray...

...Political opponents moved quickly to capitalize on the gaffe...

...Editorial cartoonists had a field day, as a bulging loin cloth quickly became the Mahatma's new trademark...

...No one doubts that Gandhi can go weeks on end without even a drop of chutney...

...Every stop on his campaign swing turned into a media circus...

...A new generation of Indians wants vital, robust leadership...

...Many wondered what's next: asking Jinnah whether he had violated the Koran's strictures against amorous relations with pigs or other unholy animals...

...His 100-plus disciples, forced to live in primitive mud and bamboo huts, were awakened daily at 4 A.M...

...A Spiritual Experience...

...Cult experts say Gandhi had dozens of ingenious schemes to weaken his followers' ties to their families and strengthen his control over them...

...I don't think it's my place to comment on the controversy surrounding some of those in the public eye...

...The Post story was the final straw...

...I think this raises serious questions about Gandhi's self-discipline and insensitivity to the appearances of impropriety— and finally about Gandhi's ability to lead a successful non-violent movement !" Now the question is: Whither India...

...For years, he and his pacifist pals have had two things in mind: tinkering with the salt tax and cozying up to Stalin And his most formidable rival, Moslem leader Muhammed Ali Jinnah, sought to subtly position himself to pick up Gandhi's fleeing supporters...

...And nationalism itself is on the backburner...

...Davidahr Garthati, the media consultant credited with Gandhi's decision to abandon the suit and tie of his early barrister days and "go native" instead, was equally pessimistic...

...The shock waves were felt throughout the British empire—and new questions were raised about how relevant a politician's character was to his work, and whether in the case of Gandhi, the Fourth Estate went too far...

...But for now it was Gandhi who was caught in this whirlwind...

...In the next few days more revelations came trickling out about other celibacy "experiments" he had been conducting since his forties, including one report of a pleasure trip down the Ganges with Nehru and two female assistants on the awkwardly named Holy Cow...

...So, naturally, it was my moral obligation to set up camp outside his bedroom !' Clearly, the ground rules have changed...

...When a pack of enterprising reporters caught up with her at her sickbed, Mrs...

...Historically, the press has had a gentlemen's agreement with India's rulers...

...Gandhi's Girls After the Mahatma's sex scandal, character is the issue in the campaign for Indian independence India, 1942: In the end, the political demise of Mohandas Gandhi came with stunning speed...

...With the election of the Labour Government in Britain increasingly likely, chances never seemed brighter for the free India that Gandhi had sought for so long...

...New Delhi Herald reporters and photographers were hiding in nearby bushes, guarding both the front and rear entrances...

...Meanwhile, his wife Kasturbai...

...We had to spend hours on our knees chanting prayers and spinning cotton," said one American follower who defected...

...Gandhi gives as much as he takes— even to total strangers," said one Gandhi aide...

...In his stead, there are other leaders who could possibly win independence for India—the Moslem Jinnah, or even Vallabhaai Patel—but neither has the stature and name recognition of a Gandhi...

...it's that he showed such bad judgment in doing so...

...It's up to the Indian people to judge for themselves...

...This smiling man, from a more polite age, seemed oblivious to the new rules of his beloved India...

...In his political death throes, Gandhi made a dramatic appearance before his supporters—and stopped just short of abandoning his campaign for a free India...

...Behind the scenes, some Congress party operatives were privately relieved...

...An extraordinary commitment, but even then Gandhi was angling for moral loopholes...

...The scene: Gandhi and his cabal sprawled on his rope bed— naked...

...In the next few days, there were other newspaper accounts of Gandhi's celibacy experiments...

...At first, I agonized over whether we should risk tarnishing a great man's reputation with close-up photos of naked women and specula' tion about his sex life," said Ved Fiedleraba, who led the Herald stakeout...

...Contrary to the image he had cultivated of a gentle, loving soul, the two-part series, "The Dark Side of Gandhi," detailed the brutal regimen imposed on his followers...

...More ominously, other pundits said the political damage was too much to contain— even with a high-profile play for sympathy...

...Without it, he's just another pacifist do-gooder...

...His intimacies with Lady Mountbatten are infamous...

...A protest march in Dandi was cut short by a throng of reporters, barraging Gandhi with questions about his sexual selfcontrol...

...The real perversion is Gandhi's political agenda...

...The trouble began a week ago when the New Delhi Herald published a front page story reporting that Gandhi had spent the weekend with five attractive young women—aides in his nonviolent campaign—at his ashram in Sevegram...

...New Ground rules: Gandhi's sudden demise triggered an orgy of selfexamination in the media...

...Although Gandhi was well within his rights when he responded, "I don't have to answer that," some observers felt that the appearance of evasiveness further eroded his credibility...

...to eat nothing but a few crumbs of unseasoned vegetarian gruel and dry wheat...

...Wielding telephoto lenses, the Herald photographers snapped shots that seem sure to snuff out a political career...

...Now that he's gone, at least we can move on...

...We were like zombies...

...She told them: "Honestly, if Mahatma told me that nothing happened, then nothing happened ." More Revelations: Still, by week's end, the prospects for Gandhi's political recovery looked grim, despite his denials and counter-attacks...

...As the likely next Viceroy of the Raj, Lord Louis Mountbatten, points out, "If an entire nation could be led down the primrose path by this charlatan and hypocrite, the Indian people are not yet ready for independence...

...Campaign insiders said that they had long been alarmed by Gandhi's ties to Nehru, and several suggested their time together be cut back...

...Gandhi's personal life was a political time bomb waiting to explode," said one distraught associate...

...His obsession began in 1885 when he learned of his father's death while in bed with his wife...

...But then I realized that the public had a right to know!' Fiedleraba reasoned that if there was the slightest possibility that Gandhi was lying about his celibacy, then that raised serious questions about his candor and his ability to negotiate with foreign leaders were India ever to become independent...

...Weakened, they were subjected to long harangues on arcane religious topics...

...Today, nothing is off limits, even enemas...

...I don't think a starving old man is well positioned to do it...

...The Post also revealed that at the end of each day, he had one of his attractive, young female disciples administer an enema, which he insisted was for "health" and "cleansing" purposes...

...But with the rise of Indian Nationalism and the decline of British sea power, the mores of Indian society have been loosened—and so have those of the press...

...Except for a breath of fresh air at 3 A.M., the women had spent the entire night with the erstwhile spritual leader...

...The women were only there as an experiment in selfrestraint, he insisted, and nothing sexual transpired between them...

...If the chronology was indicting, the photographs were positively damning...

...Hunger Strike," could make this latest gambit work...

...We told him to dump Nehru," said one aide...

...By 1906, he had taken a much celebrated vow of celibacy...

...Wise heads in India and Britain agreed, and with Gandhi's political demise, a tumultuous chapter in India's history closes, and calmer times lie ahead...

...what bothered them, said 75 percent of India's citizens, was the appearance of hypocrisy...

...The non-violence thing, the spinning wheels, the fasting—that was brilliant...

...Those closest to Gandhi likened it to a Greek tragedy, a giant cut down by his own hands...

...Within a matter of days, the squalid controversy over Gandhi's private parts turned him from a national hero into a laughingstock...

...Only 34 percent of those questioned believed Gandhi's claim that he hadn't had sexual relations with the women—and a scant 16 percent believed he hadn't been sexually excited...

...Eyewitness accounts were gruesome...

...Under certain circumstances, fasting is the one weapon God has given us for use in times of utter helplessness," said Gandhi defiantly...

...In her essay "Gandhi's Women Problem, Women's Gandhi Problem," Sukai Lessardai voiced the concerns of many women wary of Gandhi's apparent philandering...

...Whether or not he was celibate, his need to prove his spiritual manhood by lying with five naked women is an affront to the dignity and equality of women everywhere!' And as Willmed Schneidermanai of the Indian Enterprise Institute points out, "It's not so much the fact that he slept with these women or regularly indulged in enemas...

...A mere 26 percent claimed to be disturbed by the incident itself...

...He didn't see the storm coming ." It was advice Gandhi must now wish he had heeded...

...Ultimately, Gandhi's fate hinged on those questions of character, rather than any moral revulsion...

...True brachmacharya (celibacy) is this: one who, by constant-attendance upon God, has become capable of lying naked with naked women, however beautiful they may be, without being in any manner whatsoever sexually excited...

...After years of such rumors, it was the specific nature of the latest charges, followed by other damaging revelations, that undermined his political base...

...If for want of physical enjoyment," he wrote, "the mind wallows in thoughts of enjoyment, then it is legitimate to satisfy the hungers of the body...

...But the old man would just sit there and smile...

...Did the press go too far...

...I intended, in all honesty, to come to you this sunrise and tell you that I was leaving the cause...

...Their secret name for their leader: "Bapu," or father...

...And their judgment seemed harsh...

...Matters were only made worse when the Herald was widely rumored to be on the verge of publishing more damaging photos—of nothing less than unmistakeable signs of Gandhi's physical excitement...

...Gandhi promised he would remain celibate, at least until India achieved independence...

...The man in the loin cloth, it seems, has thought a good deal about loins," said one observer...

...Columnist Robert Novakilli, a longtime Gandhi critic, lambasted Gandhi's hijinks from his nationally broadcast McRajan Group...

...Garthati noted, "His celibacy shtick was crucial to the saint image he'd cultivated for all these years...

...For years, supporters now admit, Gandhi had pushed the outer limits of propriety...

...Over the course of a fifty-year career, Gandhi had turned this familiar strategy into a crowd pleaser that could move the masses or pummel an Empire...

...Non-violent disobedience seems a memory now...

...We feel betrayed," said one...

...But his celibacy really set him apart, made him genuinely holy...