Joseph Lelyveld (86), the eminent American journalist who passed away recently, was an avid India watcher with an abiding interest in Gandhi and a curiosity for Kerala’s Communism. His story -Communism, Kerala Style - published in April 1967 while he was the New York Times (NYT) correspondent in India, was one of his most appreciated pieces and won him an in-house award. This was written after he visited Kerala and met many leaders, including EMS Namboodiripad. This story followed another one by him published in February, which predicted the CPI(M)-led seven-party alliance’s win in the state assembly elections, which were held a week later.

But the most controversial work of the Pulitzer-winning reporter who became NYT’s Executive Editor was his 2011 book on Gandhi - Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi’s Struggle with India - which hinted that the Mahatma could be a homosexual or bisexual. Lelyveld referred to Gandhi’s bond with Hermann Kallenbach, a Prussian-born Jew two years younger than him, as the “most intimate, also ambiguous relationship of his lifetime.” The book also said that Gandhi was not free from racist prejudices against blacks during his time in South Africa, even as he struggled for the rights of the Indian community.

To be fair to Lelyveld, the book never explicitly said that Gandhi was either gay or bisexual or a racist. After it triggered much furore worldwide, Lelyveld publicly stated he had never made such allegations. Moreover, he also said in the book, “In an age when the concept of platonic love gains little credence, selectively chosen details of the relationship and quotations from letters can easily be arranged to suggest a conclusion.”

However, the book contained graphic details about Gandhi’s intimate friendship with the multi-faceted Kallenbach, an architect, bodybuilder, swimmer, gymnast, and Zionist. The book made many readers presume that their friendship clearly contained homosexual elements. Lelyveld quotes a particular letter that Gandhi sent to Kallenbach from London in 1909, which cemented this presumption. “Your portrait (the only one) stands on my mantelpiece in the bedroom. The mantelpiece is opposite to the bed. It is to show you and me how completely you have taken possession of my body. This is slavery with a vengeance”. In 1911, Gandhi made him promise “not to contract any marriage tie........

© Mathrubhumi English