![]() That no one could ever suggest that Gandhi was corrupt, or had any malice in him. Orwell admits that the British officials genuinely admired and liked him. The essay, however, tries to evaluate Gandhi in the entirety of his works. The above critique is scathing and – quite naturally – raises a lot of eyebrows, not just in India bit outside too. “Since in every crisis he would exert himself to prevent violence – which, from the British point if view, meant preventing any effective action whatever – he could be regarded as our man.” “They (the British) were making use of him,” argued Orwell. But, perhaps his most surprising criticism of Gandhi was with regard to the latter’s role within the British colonial structure. ![]() He found Gandhi’s whole agenda medievalist in nature as it ignored the modern reality. The things that one associated with Gandhi – home-spun cloth, “soul forces” and vegetarianism – he found unappealing. ![]() Further, he confesses that Gandhi did not make a good impression on him, at least initially. Orwell is being too harsh, you could say and you are probably right. Let’s take a closer look at the essay.Īs clear from the opening lines, Orwell sees Gandhi as some kind of saint, or at least someone who is pretending to be one. Orwell goes on to explain Gandhi’s personality, and what role it played in his political ideology. In this essay, Orwell tries to examine Gandhi’s principle of Satyagraha (holding on to truth) and how he applied this principle during his political struggle against the British. He wrote it a year after Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in New Delhi on 30 January, 1948. “Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proven innocent,” says George Orwell in the opening lines of his essay Reflections on Gandhi. ![]()
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