An American author on Tuesday angrily dismissed claims his new book on Mahatma Gandhi alleged that India's independence leader was a racist bisexual who left his wife for a body-builder. Indian newspapers were outraged by reviews in the United States and Britain of Joseph Lelyveld's biography that focused on Gandhi's relationship with German-Jewish architect and amateur body-builder Hermann Kallenbach.
Gandhi lived with Kallenbach in Johannesburg for about two years from 1907 before leaving South Africa to return to India in 1914. "How completely you have taken possession of my body," Gandhi was quoted as saying in a letter to Kallenbach. "This is slavery with a vengeance."
The British Daily Mail ran the headline "Gandhi 'left his wife to live with a male lover' new book claims", while the Daily Telegraph review said he had "held racist views against South African blacks."