Inadequate supervision

July 15, 2023

In 1913, Gandhi was in his early forties, and had gone through many changes since arriving in South Africa two decades prior. Back then he’d insisted on first-class accommodations, but now lived an ascetic life, having taken a vow of celibacy and living on a meager diet of fruit. As head of the household, he expected his wife Kasturba and their four sons to follow the general example he was setting.

Their oldest son, Harilal, was somewhat estranged from his father after committing a grievous offense and marrying for love. Gandhi then set his sights on the next son, Manilal, to follow in his footsteps. But on July 12, 1913, he received a shocking letter; the 20-year-old confessed he’d been having having affair with Jeki Mehta, a married woman. According to Gandhi before India (Guha, 2013), she was also the daughter of one of Gandhi’s oldest and closest friends.

Gandhi rushed from Tolstoy Farm in Johannesburg to the Phoenix settlement in Natal, where his family lived as part of an intentional community. The living arrangements there were not segregated by sex, as they would have been in a more traditional household. Guha observes, “Although Gandhi does not seem to have realized it, the risk of sexual attraction was inherent in this experiment of communal living.” On arrival, Gandhi investigated briefly, and announced he would undertake a week-long fast as penance for his failure as a father.

The participants in the affair expressed their regret as well. Manilal fasted for seven days, and made a vow to his father that he would live a celibate life and not get married without Gandhi’s permission. (This would not come until 1927, when a marriage was arranged at Kastuba’s insistence.) He also attempted to follow his father’s example of eating only one meal a day.

Jeki, whose husband was a barrister practicing law on the island of Mauritius some 1,800 miles east, adopted a saltless diet. She also cut off her hair and wore white, as a widow would. Gandhi was quite pleased by her penance, feeling he’d reformed the two. Unfortunately, Jeki continued to be a source of drama at Phoenix. One source reports she lied about buying onion fritters for students the following February. Gandhi began a fast to the death, which ended after one day when she confessed.

A few months later, Guha reports that “Jeki Mehta was found making sexual overtones to another man, not Manilal.” This time Gandhi felt doubly bad for failing to supervise the woman in his care, and fasted for two weeks in May 1914. This fast didn’t go as well, leaving him in poor health as he departed South Africa for good, and getting him into trouble. But that’s another story.

Have you ever felt the need to hold yourself responsible for your inadequate supervision?