Which famous person in history who is idolized, was actually a horrible person?

[mybabyboy]

Mr Mahatma Gandhi

Despite being portrayed as a peaceful, ethical, zen like freedom campaigner in reality Gandhi was a racist.

Primarily during his time living in South Africa from 1893 and 1914 there are extensive records and accounts of quite disgusting racist material produced by Gandhi.

Gandhi was a ardent supporter of practices that would later become linked with apartheid. He believed that state power should remain in white hands, and called black Africans Kaffirs, a derogatory term, for a larger part of his stay in the country.

In 1893, Gandhi wrote to the Natal parliament saying that a "general belief seems to prevail in the Colony that the Indians are a little better, if at all, than savages or the Natives of Africa.”

Gandhi believed firmly in segregation of Indian and African populations. In 1904, he wrote to a health officer in Johannesburg that the council "must withdraw Kaffirs" from an unsanitary slum called the "Coolie Location" where a large number of Africans lived alongside Indians. "About the mixing of the Kaffirs with the Indians, I must confess I feel most strongly."

The same year he wrote that unlike the African, the Indian had no "war-dances, nor does he drink Kaffir beer". When Durban was hit by a plague in 1905, Gandhi wrote that the problem would persist as long as Indians and Africans were being "herded together indiscriminately at the hospital”

Quite ironically for a man who campaigned so passionately for India’s independence from the British empire, he was accused by some South Africans of working with the local British authorities to promote racial segregation. Gandhi was also a believer in the Aryan brotherhood, a thought system that advocated the idea that whites and Indians were higher up on the civillised scale.

I mainly wrote this answer after gaging a certain level of annoyance at the incessant number of answers from Indian writers roasting Churchill for being a racist who would with no doubt praise Gandhi with an ignorant bliss.

Don’t get me wrong Churchill was a racist. This doesn’t take away for me his position as one of the greatest historical figures, why? Because I understand that in the era he was from this racism was the societal norm. Just as despite Gandhi being an abhorrent racist, I understand the reasons. This doesn’t take away the great achievements of the man though.

Anyone interested in further reading, the majority of this information is from this book which extensively researched Gandhi’s time in South Africa. 

by,

Alex Jeffery, Specialist in the Art of Sarcasm

 

PS:  Lifted from QUORA

[Kaaramdosa]

s. The key point to remember here is that Gandhi did not live in 2015. The Mahatma arrived in South Africa in the 19th century – 1893, to be precise. He was 24.

As such, Gandhi carried much of what would be termed common sense at the time – and would be called retrogade a century later. This included a belief that the British Empire was a force for good – a widely held opinion across vast swathes of the globe at the time, including in India. Gandhi would support the British war effort during two wars in South Africa and, for his services to the Empire, receive the prestigious Kaiser-e-Hind medal. In an example to show how quickly the reigning order of “common sense” changes, though, Gandhi returned his medal after the Empire had turned into something not-so-good after the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre.

In much the same vein lay the theory of race. It was common and, in fact, even thought of as scientific for its day. Just two decades before Gandhi landed in South Africa, Charles Darwin, one of the greatest pioneers of science, would write: “At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace throughout the world the savage races”. Was Darwin a racist? For 2015, yes; for his time, no. In fact, as a keen supporting of the abolition of slavery, he was, if anything a progressive thinker for this time.

Gandhi, while a very smart man, was no ground-breaking scientist. For him to simply believe the reigning scientific consensus of the day was really no great matter. In fact, if there was anyone who believed in some perfect equality of man in the 1890s, that would be shocking and worth writing books about

[kingcasanova]

konni vishayaalu charitra lo nunchi tholaginchabaddaayi, we never know truth about many things. good people were not so good and bad were not so bad. aa rojullone chaalaaa propagandas nadichinaayi.

[Raasko]

1 hour ago, kingcasanova said:

konni vishayaalu charitra lo nunchi tholaginchabaddaayi, we never know truth about many things. good people were not so good and bad were not so bad. aa rojullone chaalaaa propagandas nadichinaayi.

 And those people aren't alive to defend or to give any clarifications and their view points. Obviously with changing rulers histories change too

[WigsandThighs]

Sare bro..we don’t care wtf he did in past..He is Mahatma 

[johnubhai_01]

[4Vikram]

Gp

[coolie]

mother teresa

[Nannu_kelakoddu]

In my POV, Gandhi is an a**h** for two things he did.

1) he let muslims live in our country, while pakistan seperation. Due to this we are still suffereing till date and for future as well

2) he made nehru as PM instead of Patel.

 

[MDharmarajuMA]

27 minutes ago, Nannu_kelakoddu said:

In my POV, Gandhi is an a**h** for two things he did.

1) he let muslims live in our country, while pakistan seperation. Due to this we are still suffereing till date and for future as well

2) he made nehru as PM instead of Patel.

 

[Vaampire]

National level lo Gandhi

Regional level lo Kama Rao

[RajaRamMohanRoy]

gaadidhalaki em telusu gandhapu chekkala vaasana

[Ara_Tenkai]

5 hours ago, kingcasanova said:

konni vishayaalu charitra lo nunchi tholaginchabaddaayi, we never know truth about many things. good people were not so good and bad were not so bad. aa rojullone chaalaaa propagandas nadichinaayi.

8

exactly....so manchi chesarani nammi same ade waylo manam follow ayithe better... ippudu vallani wrong ani prove chesthe manaki vachedi em ledu

[Ara_Tenkai]

48 minutes ago, Nannu_kelakoddu said:

In my POV, Gandhi is an a**h** for two things he did.

1) he let muslims live in our country, while pakistan seperation. Due to this we are still suffereing till date and for future as well

2) he made nehru as PM instead of Patel.

 

7

I dont know what you are suffering... suffering is because of the politicians and the average person is of no harm...

[Ara_Tenkai]

6 hours ago, mybabyboy said:

Mr Mahatma Gandhi

Despite being portrayed as a peaceful, ethical, zen like freedom campaigner in reality Gandhi was a racist.

Primarily during his time living in South Africa from 1893 and 1914 there are extensive records and accounts of quite disgusting racist material produced by Gandhi.

Gandhi was a ardent supporter of practices that would later become linked with apartheid. He believed that state power should remain in white hands, and called black Africans Kaffirs, a derogatory term, for a larger part of his stay in the country.

In 1893, Gandhi wrote to the Natal parliament saying that a "general belief seems to prevail in the Colony that the Indians are a little better, if at all, than savages or the Natives of Africa.”

Gandhi believed firmly in segregation of Indian and African populations. In 1904, he wrote to a health officer in Johannesburg that the council "must withdraw Kaffirs" from an unsanitary slum called the "Coolie Location" where a large number of Africans lived alongside Indians. "About the mixing of the Kaffirs with the Indians, I must confess I feel most strongly."

The same year he wrote that unlike the African, the Indian had no "war-dances, nor does he drink Kaffir beer". When Durban was hit by a plague in 1905, Gandhi wrote that the problem would persist as long as Indians and Africans were being "herded together indiscriminately at the hospital”

Quite ironically for a man who campaigned so passionately for India’s independence from the British empire, he was accused by some South Africans of working with the local British authorities to promote racial segregation. Gandhi was also a believer in the Aryan brotherhood, a thought system that advocated the idea that whites and Indians were higher up on the civillised scale.

I mainly wrote this answer after gaging a certain level of annoyance at the incessant number of answers from Indian writers roasting Churchill for being a racist who would with no doubt praise Gandhi with an ignorant bliss.

Don’t get me wrong Churchill was a racist. This doesn’t take away for me his position as one of the greatest historical figures, why? Because I understand that in the era he was from this racism was the societal norm. Just as despite Gandhi being an abhorrent racist, I understand the reasons. This doesn’t take away the great achievements of the man though.

Anyone interested in further reading, the majority of this information is from this book which extensively researched Gandhi’s time in South Africa. 

by,

Alex Jeffery, Specialist in the Art of Sarcasm

 

PS:  Lifted from QUORA

According to me it is HITLER. every german worshipped him while he is mercilessly crucifying the Jews..