Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian revolutionary, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule, becoming an inspirational figure for civil rights and freedom movements across the world.

In relation to MAP issues, historian Vern Bullough recalls that Gandhi often slept naked with young girls. Bullough wrote:

Though he took a vow of sexual abstinence at 37, a vow that he found difficult to observe and that he once described as “walking on the sword’s edge,” this vow did not stop him from later fondling girls, both pubescent and prepubescent. In his later years, Gandhi took to taking such girls to bed with him to overcome his “shivering fits” in the night. His female companions, who came from his inner circle-all certified virgins or young brides-entered his bed naked in order to warm him with their bodies. Some of them also administered enemas to him. Among the young girls, there was rivalry as to who would sleep with him, and one of his girl disciples reported that his bed companions had a difficult time in restraining themselves and repressing their sexual impulses since he often rubbed against them and touched them (Bullough, 1981). Though his disciples were fearful of public reaction if news of these “pedophilic sexual” interactions was publicized, Gandhi continued to engage in them until his death. Here, there was no sexual intercourse, and most girls were postpubertal, but some were younger. In modern Western society, such activity would be a criminal offense.

Bullough V.L. (1990). “History in adult human sexual behavior with children and adolescents in Western societies”, in Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions (Jay R. Feierman, ed.). New York: Springer-Verlag Publishers, p. 71.