Nayantara Sehgal, novelist and niece of Jawahar Lal Nehru, on Saturday broached upon a taboo subject –Mahatma Gandhi’s insistence on celibacy and his experiment with sex
Mahatma Gandhi’s views on sex and celibacy have always been controversial. During the final sessions of the third day of Jaipur Literature Festival, a member of the Nehru family called Gandhi’s experiments with sex as absurd.
Veteran novelist, Nayantara Sehgal, speaking at her session - When the Moon Shines By Day, said that Gandhi was a sexual crack.
“He had a long, lustful, loving relationship with his wife all his life. But he decided to give up sex! After this Nehru slowly whithered from him,” she said.
She then explained the same with an example.
“Gandhi had come into my family when my mother was 17 years old. He was at her wedding. After the ceremony, my mother and father went to him for his blessings. He blessed them and gave them a long lecture on celibacy. It was not an intent for them, and my mother, who had been brought up to speak her mind, said ‘Bapu! We will not be celibate because we love each other,’ she explained.
She further stated that the world does not run on monks and nuns and there are ordinary people, men and women, who fall in love.
Admiring Dalits
Speaking about the current social issues, she admitted to be an admirer of Dalit movement.
“The strongest and organised voice against what is happening today, is of the Dalits. I am a great admirer of the whole Dalit movement. It seems that the Kshatriya mentality is taking over, and is now dictating what has to be done,” she said.
Remembering days of struggle
She began by giving the audience a brief of where she comes from by relating the days of independence and situations in her family during the time.
“I grew up during WW II, during the time when Gandhi was leading his fight for freedom. All my families were involved. The talks on the dining tables would be about the horrors going on throughout Nazi Germany, and about my uncle’s concerns with the nation Czechoslovakia. The horrible things that were happening became our personal concerns,” Sehgal narrated.
Freedom
Talking about the current situation of women in India, Sehgal, in a pitiful tone, said that even today Indian women can’t make decisions.
“I deeply believe in freedom. It’s a much used word, but living in this country, having been oppressed for so long, maximum women of this country are in a condition of not being able to decide anything by herself. We see all kinds of brutalities upon women. And for those women it’s very difficult to step out,”Sehgal said.
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 "Nayantara Sehgal")
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