Gandhi the UnNoble

I found this engrossing piece on Gandhi on the nobelprize.org website. Ovyvind Tonneson, the editor of the official site from 1998 to 2000 writes, quoting from personal diaries of the members of the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee. Nominated 5 times in 1937,38,39 and 1947 and 1948, each time the Nobel Peace Prize Committee shot down for reasons as varied as Chauri Chaura, partition, the rioting that followed, and also the fact- in 1948, when he strongest candidate -that the Nobel Prize had never been awarded to anyone posthumously till then.In fact in 1948 the Nobel prize for peace was not awarded to anyone, the official statement from the Committee being that there was 'no suitable living candidate'

The earlier committee( 1936) had harsh words about Gandhi, Jakob Worm Muller, an advisory to the Committee had these words to say:
"He is a freedom fighter and a dictator, an idealist and a nationalist. He is frequently a Christ, but then, suddenly, an ordinary politician." There are many hate sites which say Gandhi's fight in South Africa was restricted in that he took up cause for the Indians but not the blacks.

Muller probably misinterred on Gandhi's philosophy including his message of shunning cowardice for violence as being inconsistent on his principle of non violence.It is important to remember that Gandhi was a soul keeper who chose to be truthful to himself more than a politician. When confronted with making a choice between being truthful and being practical, he would choose the former, thus infuriating many of his colleagues, who chose to play the politics game upfront.He was the writer, thinker, Nehru was the orator. Many of the things good or bad that are ascribed to him are actually the INC's decisions.Besides Gandhi himself accepts that he made mistakes. He accepted to be a part of the British Empire initially.

The exact reasons, deliberations of the Committee are not cited. These are Tonneson's conclusions. Statute 8 of the Nobel Foundation states, "the deliberations, opinions and proposals of the Nobel Committee with the award of prizes may NOT be made public or otherwise revealed."

The irony is that eminent personalities, who based their own actions on the pattern of Gandhi's teachings, were themselves awarded the Nobel Prize in later years — Albert Luthuli in 1960, Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1964, Mother Teresa in 1979, the Dalai Lama in 1989 and Nelson Mandela in 1993.The irony is that Yasser Arafat and Henry Kissinger can be awarded the Nobel prize for peace by the same people who prefered to be holier than thou with Gandhi!!!