Gandhi letters tell tale of strained relationship with 'debauched' son he accused of raping his own sister - خطابات سرية: نجل «غاندي» اغتصب ابنته الصغيرة

كشفت ثلاثة خطابات كتبها الزعيم الهندي المهاتما غاندي، في يونيو 1935، عن فساد نجله الكبير الذي وصل إلى حد اغتصاب ابنته الصغيرة البالغة من العمر 8 سنوات.

وقالت صحيفة «تايمز أوف انديا» الهندية، إن أبا الأمة الهندية المهاتما غاندي، اتهم نجله في خطاب سري جرى تسريبه بوساطة أحد الأقارب لمصادر بإنجلترا، بـ«الفجور والاغتصاب».

الخطابات التي كتبها «غاندي» لنجله الأكبر هريلئيل غاندي، ستعرض للبيع في مزاد علني بإنجلترا بمبلغ يتراوح بين 50 إلى60 ألف جنيه استرليني، تكشف العلاقات العكرة بين الأب ونجله على خلفية نمط الحياة الذي اختاره الابن العاق.

وكتب «غاندي» لنجله في أحد الخطابات: «أنت تعلم أن مشكلتك أصبحت أصعب بكثير بالنسبة لي من انتزاع الحرية القومية.. مانو ابنتك قالت لي بعض الأشياء الخطيرة عنك، هي تقول إنك اغتصبتها قبل أن تكمل 8 سنوات، الأمر الذي استدعى نقلها للمستشفى من شدة الإصابة». 

وأضاف: «قل لي الحقيقة بأنك لا زلت تعاقر الخمر وتعيش حياة المجون.. كان الأفضل لك أن تموت بدلا من معاقرة الخمر بهذه الطريقة». 

يذكر أن هريلئيل نجل غاندي الأكبر، درس القانون في إنجلترا مثل أبيه، لكن المهاتما كان ينتقد سلوكياته بشدة في تلك المرحلة، مؤكدًا له أن التعليم الغربي لن ينفعه في الصراع ضد الحاكم البريطاني، وقطع هريلئيل علاقته تمامًا بأسرته منذ عام 1911.

In the letters, Gandhi asked his eldest son Harilal if he was suffering from syphilis and whether he was "still interested in alcohol and debauchery"

Father of India: Gandhi in UK in 1931 and Harilal (inset)

Peace-loving Mahatma Gandhi felt the problems his son caused him were more difficult to resolve than freeing India from British rule.

The disastrous relationship between the acclaimed Father of India and his rebellious son Harilal has been laid bare after rare letters between the pair emerged for sale.

The three handwritten missives show that Gandhi told his drunken eldest son he would rather the young man died than resort to alcohol.

And he even accuses Harilal of raping his own daughter Manu when she was eight.

Their turbulent relationship was the subject of the film Gandhi, My Father in 2007, but the notes, dating from 1935 highlight how bad it was.

In one he says of Harilal, the eldest of Gandhi’s four children with wife Kasturba: “Manu is telling me dangerous things about you. She says you raped her before eight years. I can never believe she would lie.”

Written in Gandhi’s native Gujarati the first note also asks if Harilal is suffering from syphilis, and asks: “Please tell me if you are still interested in alcohol and debauchery?”

Harilal must have replied that he was drinking to treat malaria as in the second letter Gandhi replies: “I have never heard the use of brandy in malaria.

“I would wish that you better die than resort to alcohol in any manner.”

In the third letter he writes: “You should know that your problem has become much more difficult for me even than our national freedom.”

Harilal turned his back on his family in 1911 after his father refused to let him study in Britain to become a barrister as Gandhi himself had done. He even converted to Islam to annoy his dad.

After Gandhi, 78, was assassinated by a Hindu extremist in 1948 Harilal turned up at his funeral so downtrodden nobody recognised him. Just months later Harilal died from liver disease aged 52.

The letters – expected to fetch £60,000 when they go under the hammer at Mullock’s auction house in Shropshire next Thursday – have been handed down from a distant relative in South Africa.

Auctioneer Richard Westwood-Brookes said: “These letters have never been seen before in public. They give an astonishing insight into Gandhi and the troubled relationship he had with his eldest son.”