Share this comment
There were real revolutionaries in India, like those that led the 1946 mutiny: indiandefencereview.com…
Gandhi was from the elite that had happily served the British Empire for years, and that is who the British turned to once they knew that they could no longer rule India. Gandhi is revered in the West because this supports the discourse…
There were real revolutionaries in India, like those that led the 1946 mutiny: https://www.indiandefencereview.com/spotlights/the-forgotten-mutiny-that-shook-the-british-empire/
Gandhi was from the elite that had happily served the British Empire for years, and that is who the British turned to once they knew that they could no longer rule India. Gandhi is revered in the West because this supports the discourse that peaceful revolution is possible and memory-holes the armed struggles that forced the British to give India its independence (including the mutiny of British troops in Asia after WW2 against being used as agents of empire). Gandhi had an elite patronizing view of the poor, who he saw as requiring leadership by the Brahmins rather than given real power. Nehru made sure that the comprador elites would rule independent India, as happens so many times with "independence".