Summary
While [Mohandas Gandhi] undeniably campaigned vigorously against untouchability, Dalit leaders such as Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar opposed the use of Gandhi's term for "untouchables" ("harijan," or "children of god") as condescending, and claimed Gandhi never fully renounced a caste-based world-view.
Gandhi was, at best, an inconsistent pacifist, in the sense of opposing all wars, a fact pointed out by pacifists such as Bart de Ligt in the 1930s. Gandhi supported the British war effort in several wars, including the Boer War, the Zulu Rebellion (though he later came to believe the British were wrong in that struggle), and World War I. His role was mainly to organize and participate in ambulance corps, but his personal participation earned him the British Empires War Medal. Even after he proclaimed "war is wrong, is an unmitigated evil," he defended his participation based on his perceived "duty as a citizen of the British Empire." He acknowledged that he was "guilty of the crime of war," and eventually repudiated the Empire, but didn't repudiate his actions. (See Gandhi on War and Peace, by Rashmi-Sudha Puri).See the full content of this document
Extract
A Pacifist Critique of Gandhi
To make a hero out of someone dehumanizes them almost as much as demonizing them does. It serves no one to turn Mohandas Gandhi into a plaster saint (or a stone ganesh).
Many of Gandhi's statements...See the full content of this document
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