did mahatma gandhi have his foes beaten or killed? i think i remember reading something about this, but now i can't find anything on it.
Below is some more information from Jim Miller, another of our
radical reference librarians. We both searched the internet as
well as all the relevant article databases available at U. of
Maryland and UC San Diego. I'm afraid he came up empty as
well. If it was online that you originally read it, then it's
not there anymore.
The next step would be to search in the papers and archives of
Gandhi and some of his political foes for traces. For example,
there was a Pakistani man named Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the
creator of modern Pakistan who clashed with Gandhi on many
issues both religious and political. There are a couple of
books I found about the two: Allen Hayes Merriam, "Gandhi vs
Jinnah: The Debate Over the Partition of India" (1980); and
Ayesha Jalal, "The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League,
and the Demand for Pakistan" (1985). You could also get in
touch with the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation in India to see if
they've seen any evidence in their archives
().
That was a real stumper. Please let us know if you have
reference needs in the future. We're always willing to dig and
search for obscurity.
Although I found it highly unlikely that Gandhi would do that given his philosophy of Satyagraha -- non-violent resistence -- I did a search to find any hint of his violence toward his foes. There are many thorough biographies of Mohandas Gandhi both online and in book form (Mahatma is an honorific). I found plenty of information writing about Gandhi's non-violent theories, political actions and way of life, but couldn't find any information to support your question.
Please let me know if you'd like me to search more. I'd be happy to look through some books on Gandhi available in a university library near me.
If you'd like to read more about Gandhi, you can check out: