brotee mukhopadhyay

Joseph Lelyveld is one of the Pulitzer Prize winners and he has been editor of New York Times for a period. Some persons in India are at present greatly disturbed learning that Joseph Lelyveld’s book named ‘Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and his struggle with India’ contains certain materials which point that Mahatma Gandhi was bisexual. They have been raising voice of protest, because they consider that the sensitive material present in the book has dishonored the Indian ‘father of the nation’. Gujarat has already banned this book, and other states of India would follow the same program sooner or later.

Two kinds of limitation have occupied the crowd that is hell-bent to proscribe this book:

1) This section of the Indian people is not aware of the truth that banning a book would not yield the result it is looking for. The book will be read by more people. It is sure that the readers would not reach to the right conclusion.

2) It should be humbly said that people who are opposing the content have myopic notion towards sex. Sexual orientation differs from individual to individual. One must not be condemned if he holds homosexual or bisexual orientation. Decency of an individual is not tarnished if he has any of the naturally developed sexual orientations. A person is as good as any gentleman of the society till he is not forcing others to have sex against his/her natural will. Is it obscene to possess any kind of sexual orientation without disturbing other humans in the environment? Does it really matter if one is bisexual, even if one is none other than Mahatma Gandhi?

It is a fact that sex is a tabooed thing in the society of India. Sex is left hidden, and open discourse on sex and sexual exercises are not just allowed. It has been so for centuries. Nevertheless, one is sure to be surprised if one goes through the ancient Indian literature. The great bards of the Indian epics (Ramayana and Mahabharata by name) were not under any such social restriction. Several great poets Sanskrit literature, from Vasa to Joydeba, were also desperate to vent out their emotional experiences, however erotic those might have been seemed to the readers. It is a question how the Indian people have been forced to suppress sexual impulses and forced to oblige such unhealthy prescription.

There is no way to escape status in India. The last names of Indian people are in relation to what status they are in. They have the wealthy, commoners, and the very poor. When Indian people come to America it is very difficult for them to adjust to the way the United States functions. All people are capable to achieve a large amount of money in America and granted it does depend a lot on who you know however, in India you cannot move up in status or lower no matter what you do. I suppose it is sort of like royalty in England that once you are born into it there’s no escaping it.

When Indian people come to America they continue to treat fellow Indians the same as if they were in their own country. That is something they see as being right and probably their right as someone with money that can look down upon those that don’t have any or enough.

Since the Indian culture is focused on status they will not feed a child that is hungry and left alone in the streets if they are of another status. For instance, if the child was dropped off in the streets by a fancy car whether the child was kidnapped from a wealthy family or not, no one will try to help that child. They want nothing to do with the kid since they don’t belong to the same status and they fear getting in trouble by the law and being blamed by others. The child will roam the streets hungry and begin to beg at places that sell food and they will simply push them away. Their status situation will not allow them to be kind to innocent children of different levels of society. This is a very sad situation and is never talked about.

Status also leads these people to continue to stay the same. Only the wealthy can improve in their level of status. The poor stays poor no matter what. They choose to move away if they can afford to in order to be able to improve in other countries. India is filled with an incredible amount of people that are highly driven yet they only reap the awards of their work when they live in another country which is why many do come to America. They see it as a chance to live a brand new way of life and they see America as their opportunity to be among the wealthy.