Iconic images of Gandhi show him walking with two young women on either side, his hands resting on their shoulders. Those two women, who ‘replaced his walking stick’, were Abha (seventeen) and Manu (eighteen) – his grandnieces. By day, they would walk with him. By night, they would sleep with him – naked.
They were among the many women subjects with whom Gandhi conducted his experiments in Brahmacharya or ‘celibacy tests’. These tests, which Gandhi claims were his ‘moral duty,’ involved him sleeping naked next to nubile, naked women without touching them. This was an exercise to ascertain if he and ‘his organ’ would be sexually aroused.
These experiments were no secret. Gandhi contextualised, discussed and justified them in terms of morality and spirituality – as a step towards union with God. When Vallabhai Patel, disturbed by these so-called experiments in celibacy, wrote to Gandhi telling him what he was doing was ‘Adharma’ (immoral), the ‘Mahatma’ retorted in his characteristic manner and proclaimed:
For me Manu sleeping with me is a matter of dharma (moral duty)
What is disturbing is the conviction with which Gandhi claimed that these experiments were essential for him to test himself against his weakness. “If I don’t let Manu sleep with me, though I regard it as essential that she should,” he announced, “wouldn’t that be a sign of weakness in me?”
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