Was Mahatma Gandhi Racist and Antisemitic? Here’s What the Father of the Nation Said About Black Africans and Jews

MAHATMA GANDHI is remembered not just in India but across the world as the leader who inspired a nation’s freedom movement through non-violence. Revered as the Father of the Nation, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi continues to be one of the most respected figures in modern history. However, even decades after his demise, his own writings and views continue to spark uncomfortable questions among the public. 

Authors and historians have repeatedly pointed to remarks he made about Black Africans during his years in South Africa, while his views on Jews, Zionism, and the Holocaust spark more controversy. The criticism is based on Gandhi's own letters, newspaper articles, and speeches, many of which have been examined by historians over the years, giving a different and complex perspective of an individual who is often given most credit for India’s independence.

Was Gandhi Racist Towards Black Africans?

From 1893 to 1914, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi lived in South Africa, where he fought against discrimination faced by Indians under British rule. However, historians say that during his early years there, Gandhi himself often expressed prejudiced views about Black Africans, viewing them as inferior to Indians.

According to the BBC, Gandhi wrote to the Natal Parliament in 1893 saying there was a belief that Indians were "a little better, if at all, than savages or the Natives of Africa."

In another letter written in 1904, Gandhi urged authorities to separate Black Africans from Indians in an area known as the Coolie Location. "About the mixing of the Kaffirs with the Indians, I must confess I feel most strongly," he wrote. The word "Kaffir" is now widely recognised as a racist slur in South Africa.

The BBC also noted that Gandhi compared Indians and Africans by writing that Indians had "no war-dances, nor does he drink Kaffir beer."

National Public Radio (NPR) examined more Gandhi's early writings but does offer a different perspective. In 1903, Gandhi reportedly argued that white people should remain "the predominating race" in South Africa, while also describing Black Africans as those who are "troublesome, very dirty and live like animals."

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South African historians Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed, in their 2015 book The South African Gandhi: Stretcher-Bearer of Empire, argued that Gandhi separated the struggle of Indians from that of Black Africans and Coloured communities. According to the BBC, the authors concluded that Gandhi believed political power should remain in white hands during that period.

Desai told the BBC that Gandhi believed in an "Aryan brotherhood" where whites and Indians ranked above Africans. "To that extent he was a racist," Desai remarked. 

Even Gandhi's biographers have acknowledged this part of his life. Historian Ramachandra Guha, an expert on Gandhian history, told NPR, "There's no way around it: Gandhi was a racist early in his life." Guha explained that Gandhi, like many people of his time, believed Europeans were the most civilised, Indians came next, and Africans were at the bottom. Gandhi's grandson Rajmohan Gandhi has also admitted, according to the BBC, that the young Gandhi was at times "ignorant and prejudiced" towards Black South Africans. However, he might not have held those views for long.

Historians Note a Change in Gandhi’s Views Later in His Life

Ramachandra Guha told NPR that Gandhi "outgrew his racism quite decisively." Around 1908, Gandhi's writings began changing. Speaking at Johannesburg YMCA, he expressed hope that different races would one day "commingle and produce a civilisation that perhaps the world has not yet seen." In 1910, Gandhi acknowledged that Black Africans were the original inhabitants of South Africa and said white settlers had occupied the land by force.

After returning to India, historians note that Gandhi encouraged Indians living in South Africa to work together with Black Africans against racial discrimination. He also welcomed African-American visitors to his ashram and spoke openly against racial inequality.

Because of this shift, many historians argue that Gandhi's views evolved significantly over time, even though this change doesn’t justify his earlier remarks.

See Also: Gandhi’s Celibacy Experiment Is Only the Fraction of the Whole; His Treatment of Wife Kasturba puts a real Dent in his “Mahatma” image

Mahatma Gandhi's Views on Jews and Zionism

Unlike his early attitude towards Black Africans, Gandhi maintained close friendships with several Jewish people throughout his life. One of his closest friends in South Africa was Hermann Kallenbach, a Jewish architect who helped establish Tolstoy Farm, where Gandhi experimented with communal living.

According to the International Journal of Hindu Studies, Gandhi later said he had "a world of friends among the Jews." Following the Nazi attacks on Jews during Kristallnacht in 1938, Gandhi wrote an article titled The Jews in his newspaper Harijan. He strongly condemned the persecution of Jews under Adolf Hitler, drawing similarities to persecution of lower caste people in India. He described Jews as "the untouchables of Christianity" and even said that if there could ever be a justified war for humanity, a war against Nazi Germany to stop the persecution of Jews "would be completely justified."

However, what draws controversy around Gandhi’s views on the community is by his comments against Zionist movement and holocaust. Gandhi opposed the idea of creating a separate Jewish homeland in Palestine, writing that "Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French." He argued that Jews should settle in Palestine only with the consent of Arabs and through non-violent means, not with British military support.

Gandhi's most controversial comments came while discussing how Jews should respond to Nazi persecution. Being a pacifist and following his non-violent philosophy, Gandhi suggested that German Jews should refuse to leave their country and peacefully accept suffering instead of resisting violently.

He even wrote that if Jews voluntarily accepted death, it could awaken the conscience of the world. After World War II, Gandhi called Hitler's murder of millions of Jews "the greatest crime of our time."

But he also repeated that Jews should have willingly sacrificed themselves rather than fight back. He said, “Hitler killed five million Jews. It is the greatest crime of our time. But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs [...] It would have aroused the world and the people of Germany [...] As it is they succumbed anyway in their millions.”

Those remarks drew criticism from Jewish intellectuals. Philosopher Martin Buber argued that Gandhi's ideas could not work against what he called a "diabolic universal steamroller" like Nazi Germany. Rabbi Judah Magnes similarly questioned how non-violent resistance was possible when even minor resistance led to executions or concentration camps.

More than 75 years after his death, Gandhi's legacy continues to be debated not because of myths, but because his own words present a picture that is both inspiring and deeply complicated. His earlier views on Black Africans and his comments on holocaust remains his most reprehensible comments till date and cast a shadow on his ever-lasting legacy.

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