I am sorry to be a stickler like this, but Ghandi is actually spelled Gandhi. The guy was a hugely important person during his time and his legacy still carries a lot of weight in his home country and the world over. It’s really a shame that folks don’t even know how to correctly spell his last name. For the record his full name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and the people in his country lovingly and respectfully called him Mahatma Gandhi. The word Mahatma means “great soul”.

Also, please excuse the folks of Indian origin in America in the Park51 debate. The people of Indian origin who are born in US might not be so prejudiced but the ones who immigrated to US from India carry a lot of baggage in relation with Muslims and the country Pakistan. The partition of India in 1947 to create the country Pakistan has been a raw and open wound since then. Many Muslims voluntarily and involuntarily moved from India to Pakistan during the partition while quite a size-able number stayed back. Life for them in India has been uneven at best and many still face the brunt of hindu prejudice. The region Kashmir has been a flash point between India-Pakistan since 1947 due to the unresolved nature of the border. The brazen nature of terrorist attacks in India during the past two decades originating from Pakistan have further inflamed the Indian sentiment against Pakistan and Muslims in general. Indian democracy cannot be compared to US, and for all intents and purposes India is not truly a democratic country. The ideals of the democracy in US and the nature of it’s constitution are truly amazing but it still doesn’t do away with the prejudice of any of it’s constituents. And there is always Fox News and the right wing propaganda to contend with.
I just wanted to give you a little background on what the thought process of Satya might be in the above video. On a side note, the word Satya means “truth”.

Thanks for the backgrounder, roshan.

Regarding the typo: Polly posted that on the fly. I fixed it. No disrespect intended, I’m sure.

@Strange
I don’t know what Juddery bases his information of Gandhi on, but to tell the truth, the unvarnished story of Gandhi’s public and personal life has always been hidden from the Indian public after his death. In fact he was assassinated by Godse for the very reason that he allowed India to be partitioned. The majority of India’s population mostly knows his name and philosophy of non-violence but don’t know much else about him. Books and reports seen critical in nature, of Gandhi, are not allowed in India. He is not hero worshipped as much as before but come election time, Congress party to which he belonged is not averse to using his name to canvass for votes.
Rumproast is a blog I like and visit often and hence suggested the correction but I am just going to ignore Juddery.

@roshan—Corrections are welcome. The Juddery thing is just one of those weird synchronicities. I took the slide tour right before I jumped back here to read Polly’s post, and realized that I was at the center of a Gandhi Convergence of some sort.

None of Juddery’s other selections were news to me, but I was taken aback by the inclusion of Gandhi. Like most Americans, my knowledge of post-Colonioal India and the creation of Pakistan is limited to one Oscar-Winning movie and the mathematical equation “Gandhi=Nonviolence.”

In any event, I figured he might take the heat off Polly. ;-> Please feel free to ignore his post (except for the parts about Edison and Marconi, who truly were bastards)...and thanks again for the education.

@Cammie Novara—Sorry, we don’t do Wingnut spam.

Damn! Thought I could slip that in with my new alias!

Sorry, we don’t do Wingnut spam.

Sure we do! Aww, man…

Aww, man…

If I’d left it up I’d have caught hell from Brit, and I’ve got enough problems. ;->

‘Many Muslims voluntarily and involuntarily moved from India to Pakistan during the partition while quite a size-able number stayed back. Life for them in India has been uneven at best and many still face the brunt of hindu prejudice.’

Thanks for the background Roshan. I’ve just finished reading Arundhati Roy’s volume of essays ‘The Algebra of Justice’, published in 2002. You may remember her as the prize-winning author of the novel ‘The God of Small Things’. She writes about, among other issues, the rise of Hindu fascist political parties as the gov’t of India becomes more and more corrupt, growing fat on globalization, big dam projects, evicting small farmers, etc. and the huge gap becoming ever wider between the rich and the totally impoverished. She writes in the aftermath of India and Pakistan joining the nuclear weapons club, including hairs-on-the-back-of-the-neck-raising essays about 9/11: ‘Flags are bits of coloured cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people’s minds and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead.’ God, did I feel like that when I came back to visit family in NYC in November 2001.

Tatertot,
Arundhati Roy’s popularity is greater abroad than it is in India. Her views are more discussed in Western media than they are in India. You could check the vernacular and English press to verify my claim.
Her analysis is controversial even in India even amongst the far left. 

Roshan, Thank you for the valuable comments. You wrote some of the things about Gandhi and the nature of Indian democracy I would have stated.