Re (De) generating Polemics of Gandhian Sense of Sexuality in the Life-Narration of Jad Adams’ Gandhi: Naked Ambitions

Abstract

This paper proposes to examine the complexities involved explicitly in the Gandhian sense of sexuality and brahmacharya as rendered in Jad Adam‘s Gandhi: Naked Ambition. Attempt to revamp or comprehend Gandhi‘s notions on sex and celibacy would invite ambivalent thought process for recognizing the purpose of it. Life- writers of Gandhi have placed this issue philosophically sensational and morally controversial subject at several levels of interpretations. Since the sexual morality fluctuates from one cultural pattern to another, it would be an intricate social task to design an acceptable method for generalizing the very essence of sex and celibacy unequivocally.

Jad Adams has critically focused on the views of Gandhi‘s celibacy and brahmacharya, and he also severely blasted the image of Gandhi in the name of bramacharya and sexuality with his judgment and understanding. Though, he has criticized this conviction of Gandhi, many Gandhian admirers have endeavored to philosophize it by comparing it to the views and practices of well-known mystic personalities. The paper also discusses the possibilities for an alternative sexuality wrapped with moral sensibility of thought and deed in the contemporary cultural praxis. The practice of brahmacharya and celibacy with the medium of truth and non-violence propagated by Gandhi is taken for a serious discussion, and critiqued the position of Jad Adam‘s with suitable justification. Gandhian conviction of brahmacharya and sexuality are complex cultural phenomena to be practiced in an ordinary life, but a slice of an idea from his thought could be used today for eradicating few social menaces. The relevance of Gandhian sense of sexuality and celibacy in the contemporary age of cyber culture has also been scrutinized.