Brahmacharya Gandhi and His Women Associates

Brahmacharya Gandhi and His Women Associates is a psychobiography and study of man woman relationship involving one of the greatest men in world history. There was a definitive attration in Gandhiji that brought womenfolk close to him. And Mahatma Gandhi was not shy of speaking about his relationship with his women associates, except in a few cases. He wanted the world to know of his tryst with brahmacharya [celibacy]in which women constituted an integral part. He kept a meticulous record and tried to make the players keep the records too. However, most of them tried to either destroy the records or refused to disclose the intensity of their feelings. A construct is still possible based on Gandhiji’s writings and on the basis of writings of some of them who were involved.
It was the revulsion from sex that forced Gandhiji to take a vow of celibacy in in 1906. Then onwards, till the laboratory experiments in Noakhali, during the height of the Indian freedom movement,Gandhiji kept trying to find out if it was possible to overcome desire and remain a brahmachari[one who practices celibacy]. There were more than a dozen women who came to be closely associated with him at one time or the other. Some of them were foreigners – Millie Graham Polak, Sonja Schlesin, Esther Faering Nilla Cram Cook, Margarete Spiegel and Mirabehn.
Gandhiji’s closeness to women created a storm in the ashram and exposed him to public glare. However, the mahatma was sure of his actions.
It is quite possible that the women may have been looking for glory and he provided the opportunity. Some like Mirabehn, who was a British, were inspired by his ideals and wanted to devote their entire life to his cause. But once they came close, Gandhiji and not his cause became their obsession. They hardly knew this was the next step to losing him, as the Mahatma could not be chained. He had higher goals. the book has separate chapter on each of the woman he was in close touch with, including his wife Kasturba Gandhi.