Was Gandhi a racist?

Question

Many of the native prisoners are only one degree removed from the animal."

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/10/17/1066364486503.html?from=storyrhs

Answer 1

Dont believe everything you read. No, i highly doubt he was. Not that i know.. nobody living today knows?

Thats not the point anyway, look at the good in others. Im sure everyone must have something bad/not so good about them?

Answer 2

Mahatma Gandhi who is universally known,was a Hindu who taught the world to use soul force.

His most important weapons were truth and non violence.

He worked tirelessly to eliminate the caste system and untouchability,a form of discriminating...in Indian and the world.

The plight of women in India was bad...

Gandhi reformed the womens social conditions in education,ect...

All individuals who came under Gandhi advanced tremendously.

Answer 3

It would seem he was, yes.

Answer 4

He used to knock his wife about, too. Rejected his son for being g*y. Alround good guy.

Answer 5

ya

Answer 6

he was racist...he preached all those peace ideas but i bet he'd give osama bid laden a hug.

also, i could see his old skinny azz strapping a bomb to his forehead and getting in an airplane

Answer 7

In contradistinction to the dishonest way he was presented in the biopic Gandhi's world view was not that of a Western Liberal.

Yes- he was a racist.

Sorry Jason B you are an idiot Gandhi was not a Moslem

Answer 8

I don't know but your b***s look kinda iracisistable' to me call me Taffy TS I'm yours lol

Answer 9

No. Gandhi is Islamic and whose religious leaders does not have a air  of aggorance.

Answer 10

He may have meant that their behaviour was animalistic, the result of social conditioning, rather than that they were biologically only one degree removed from an animal.

Answer 11

He said "many" of the native prisoners, not "all".  

I would hold his actions for peace against this one comment he made.  If you look at all of the stuff he did to promote equality it would seem difficult that his rational mind could harbor such emotional nonsense such as hate or racism.  We all have said things about specific ethnic people during trying times maybe, but that doesn't mean we harbor hate in our hearts for the whole of that race.  I don't believe Gandhi was having one of those types of moments anyway.

I actually interpret it as... he was in a prison population whose majority was native prisoners ... and the conditions were such that many of the human beings behaved like animals (as a result).  If you think about it, any prison situation turns even the most civil people into animals.  There was an experiment done with all-white college students (I believe) in the 60's or 70's.  And through the course of their experimental jailing ... some of the most respectable students learned to become ruthless and animal-like in order to survive.  Friends were separated into  "jailed" or "jailer" roles and all of them seemed very negatively affected by their situations.