Gandhi let his wife die...

[DougalLongfoot]

Saw this in a book called
50 Things You're Not Supposed to Know: v. 2 Russ Kick
link
In which the author claims that while in prison in 1942 Gandhi's wife died of pneumonia because Gandhi would not let the british doctors give her Penicillin. He however quite happily took quinine when he got malaria. The moral of the story being Gandhi was a terrible cruel hypocrite and shouldn't be looked up to etc...

Did a google:
His wife did die while they were in prison. (1944)
He was let out when he became very frail with malaria.

I doubt the rest of the story because:
Penicillin was only first used in 1941.
Would they really have some available in India in 1944?
Wouldn't all available stocks have been used in the war effort?

Any ideas?

 

[OldTimeRadio]

"Penicillin was only first used in 1941. Would they really have some available in India in 1944? Wouldn't all available stocks have been used in the war effort?"

But British India was a VERY major part OF that war effort! India was regarded as the bulwark against Japanese expansion westward towards Africa and thus to be defended at all costs by British and Indian troops alike..

 

[DougalLongfoot]

But British India was a VERY major part OF that war effort! India was regarded as the bulwark against Japanese expansion westward towards Africa and thus to be defended at all costs by British and Indian troops alike..

True, but I think any available penicillin would have been used on the soldiers/airmen/sailors, not on prisoners.

Found this info at:http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/wong/BOT135/Lect21b.htm

Despite the efforts and resources that were being given to producing large quantities of penicillin, it soon became obvious that Fleming's original culture would not be able to produce enough penicillin regardless of the environment in which the fungus was grown. By 1942, there was only enough penicillin produced to treat a few hundred people...
With this new method, production quantity began to rise. In 1943, 29 pounds were produced, and with increases in the number of pharmaceutical companies producing penicillin, there was a tremendous increase. By the end of the war, enough penicillin was produced to treat seven million patients/year.

Will have to find when Mrs Ghandi died exactly

 

[Rrose_Selavy]

Will have to find when Mrs Ghandi died exactly

According to Wiki Feb 22th 1944, from a heart attack after Pneumonia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasturba_Gandhi

-

 

[Anonymous]

I always thought 'not in my name' was a kop out

 

[OldTimeRadio]

"True, but I think any available penicillin would have been used on the soldiers/airmen/sailors, not on prisoners."

That would depend on how important the prisoner was and how desperate you were to keep that prisoner alive.

According to history as I learned it (admittedly over here on this side of the Pond) the British in India were extremely concerned with the possibility of Ghandi dying in prison, for fear that it would trigger a nation-wide and successful anti-British uprising....DURING WARTIME. Thus Ghandi's living conditions while in prison were quite good and I'm certain that his medical care would have been the finest available. That would certainly include penicillin.

 

[OneWingedBird]

My next door neighbour was stationed in India just after the war, if i remember when i see him next, i'll see if he knows anything...

 

[OneWingedBird]

Ah, no luck He was there from '45 to '47 but doesn't know anything about this at all...

 

[DougalLongfoot]

Sorry Gaddafi Duck you'll have to explain that to me a bit further?

I always thought 'not in my name' was a kop out

 

[fluffle9]

Is it not possible, if it is even true that Ghandi's wife had access to penicillin and didn't take it, that she had some kind of will of her own and could make up her own mind?

 

[AMPHIARAUS]

The man was certainly willing to sacrifice aspects of his families life, and was willing to impose his views and limit the lives of his children. A very flawed man, but he did what he set out to. Dunno about letting her die but picked up this:

The Life and Death of Mahatma Gandhi quotes him on February 19, 1944: "If God wills it, He will pull her through." Gandhi: A Life adds this wisdom from the Mahatma: "You cannot cure your mother now, no matter what wonder drugs you may muster. She is in God's hands now." Three days later, Devadas was still pushing for the penicillin, but Gandhi shot back: "Why don't you trust God?" Kasturba died that day.

The next night, Gandhi cried out: "But how God tested MY faith!" He told one of Kasturba's doctors that the antibiotic wouldn't have saved her and that allowing her to have it "would have meant the bankruptcy of MY faith."

 

[Anonymous]

H dougal. Yeah I can explain but it is probably more appropriate in PM.

 

[OldTimeRadio]

Ghandi's response reminds me of the old joke (some might call it a parable) about the old Texas preacher who's sitting on his roof as flood water rise around him. He turns down three separate rescue rowboats on three subsequent days then rejects a bid from a helicipter on the fourth, claiming that "GOD will rescue me!"

On the fourth day he drowns.

Preacher's immediately translated to Heaven, where he's greeted warmly by God Himself.

"Lord, I'm just a little disappointed in you," says the preacher. "Here I've been serving You and preaching Your Word for nigh on to sixty years, but when I called upon You to save me from the flood You were a no-show."

"Gee, fella, I'm reslly sorry you feet that way," answers God. "But I DID send you three rowboats and a helicopter!"