Gandhi, den gamle nar

"Mahatma" Gandhi bliver normalt berømmet som en fætter der havde noget med ikke-voldelig modstand at gøre, og man får gerne at høre at det var godt. Noget færre mennesker ved er, at han levede i cølibat fra 1905 af. Hvad noget sådant kan føre til kan man bla læse på wikipedia:

In 1940, when invasion of the British Isles by the armed forces of Nazi Germany looked imminent, Gandhi offered the following advice to the British people:

I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions.... If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them. (Non-Violence in Peace and War)

He also urged Jews and Czechs to commit a mass suicide as an act of non-violent resistance against Nazi occupation. In June 1946 he told his biographer, Louis Fischer:

Hitler killed five million Jews. It is the greatest crime of our time. But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher's knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs... that would have been heroism.

Man fortryder næsten at Briterne og deres 2 millioner indiske soldater (det var nemlig kun et mindretal af dem, der gad høre på hans pacifistiske bavl) stod i vejen for at Gandhi kunne have fået et nærmere kendskab til Japanernes dødslejre og -marcher.

Henrik