If it pains you to see Gandhi mocked in a silly video, you don't really have to watch it. If you choose to watch it, well, shut up; we don't want to hear your rant!
Red defends the Mahatma against this attempt to paint him as someone "articulating the belief that a woman’s sexual chastity is what solely defines her identity":
It's anachronistic and silly to attribute Betty Friedan’s ideas to Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi held women in higher esteem than men. He argued that they were better human beings and better suited to non violence. However, he venerated them for their “difference to men". I think he would be quite horrified if someone suggested that there were no differences between men and women. This is like suggesting Ashoka suppressed private enterprenurship by running a Ancient Indian welfare state or accussing the Holy Roman Emperor of not being secular. People are judged by their times and for his times, Gandhi was pretty progressive when it came to women.
Finally, Guru has links to online stuff on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the great American pioneer of non-violent protest. One of the links takes you to a video of the great "I have a dream" speech. Tomorrow -- the 16th of January -- is Dr. King's birthday -- today -- is celebrated in the US with as a National Holiday [Thanks to Guru for correcting me here].
1 Comments:
Dear Abi,
Wiki says Jan 15th is Dr. King's birthday; I believe that is also the reason why Jan 15th is celebrated as Martin Luther King day here.
Guru
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