When I was a child in the 1950s, India was filled with Mahatma Gandhi as incarnation of God himself. Social science, politics, religion all danced around one name – the Mahatma. We were fed with Mahatma and Nehru doses like some extreme fanatics. We owe our freedom to the Mahatma and to Nehru.
The great American Icon, Oliver Stone, recently released a documentary on history of the world. He mentions it was Roosevelt, the US president in 1944, when Britain was in tatters, that Churchill, the British prime minister had to promise him to free India. US pressure on England had two reasons. First, a free India will give US businesses better penetration and opportunity than colonial India. But less important was American idealism that they hated European-style colonialism.
Churchill needed reconstruction money after the war. World War II was almost over. But the entire Europe, Japan, Russia, China were in shambles. All were looking to Roosevelt for help. This great power gave Roosevelt freedom to impose his own demands on the world, and the world complied. A surprising truth released by Stone is that Russia was equal sinister for American love as British. Churchill had to agree to Roosevelt pressure to find suitable dates to get out of India.
So where does Gandhi stand?
But Gandhi as messiah of non-violence united world politics. It was a great formula to keep newly independent countries from weaponizing themselves. Big Powers became bigger and developing countries stayed subdued. India was fed by PL480 American grain donations till Indira Gandhi brought Green Revolution to India.
The nonaligned idea by Nehru, with Egypt’s Nasser, Tito in Europe and Sakurnas in Indonesia had their own self interest and ambitions.
The phenomenon since 1992 India, and now rise of neo-nationalism and of Modi, do make us question our history and historians, and their integrity to truth.
Thanks to Oliver Stone of 2018 America.
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