Chaplin was enamored with Gandhi's philosophy
It's one thing to see a black and white photo of Charlie Chaplin and Mahatma Gandhi. Absent of color, a photo of these men would look simply be that: a photo. A colorized version of the same photograph does so much more. It makes you feel like you're actually there in the moment. You can see What these men looked like to their friends and family, and more importantly, what they looked like to each other.
Chaplin and Gandhi met in 1931. While the film star knew exactly who Gandhi was, Gandhi had no idea about Chaplin's work or his fame. Chaplin writes in his biography that the two men met in a home somewhere off the East India Dock Road with press in tow. There the two spoke about England, India, and everything in between.
Chaplin and Gandhi, two complicated figures.
Charlie Chaplin and Mahatma Gandhi became titans of their era, albeit in vastly different walks of life. Chaplin rose from the gutters of poverty, beginning life as a performer on the streets. During his teenage years of entertaining crowds in endless music halls, he developed a persona, the Tramp, that he parlayed into a 75 year run of adulation and adoration.
Gandhi, on the other hand, began life as a struggling lawyer in India before moving to South Africa. There he delved into nonviolent resistance and advocated for civil rights, morphing into a symbol that transcended race, creed, or color. Despite these men’s lofty achievements, they remained far from perfect. Each possessed dark sides largely left uncovered, thanks to their larger-than-life personas and achievements.
Young And Stupid
Gandhi spent much of his life fighting against racism and discrimination in many forms. However, as a youth, he carried some terrible beliefs that can only be described as extremely racist. In 1903, at the age of 23, he wrote that white people should be “the predominating race." He also wrote that black people "are troublesome, very dirty and live like animals."
Gandhi grew to be far more accepting of other people and cultures
For all of his controversial views as a young man, Gandhi was quick to grow and to learn. His thinking changed on race so much in a short period of time, taking him from someone with a colonialist point of view to the more worldly man that history remembers. His biographer, Ramachandra Guha, explains:
Gandhi as a young man went with the ideas of his culture and his time. He thought in his 20s that Europeans are the most civilized. Indians were almost as civilized, and Africans were uncivilized. However, he outgrew his racism quite decisively, and for most of his life as a public figure, he was an anti-racist, talking for an end to discrimination of all kinds.
Living like a son of a gun
In contrast, Chaplin did not have the luxury to muse upon the realities of human rights. Born to an absent father and
a mother confined to an insane asylum, money was rightfully his singular and primary concern. After finding his way into a traveling troop, he wrote to his brother, regarding the economics of his situation:
Just think Sid, £35 per week is not to be laugh[ed] at and I only want to work about five years at that and then we are independent for life. I shall save like a son of a gun. I’m going to get out of this business. … I figure the cinema is little more than a fad.
Making A Name For Himself
Obviously, the whole cinema thing worked out for him. But, Chaplin did also own a conquering personality. At 21, when he was so excited to come to the States and cash in on the burgeoning vaudeville scene he reportedly ran up and down the deck of the ocean liner bringing him to New York while shouting:
America, I am coming to conquer you! Every man, woman, and child shall have my name on their lips—Charles Spencer Chaplin!
Gandhi's strange proclivities
In 1906, Gandhi made a vow of celibacy and started sexual experiments that ranged from indecent to vile. In his Ashram, everyone was expected to follow his chaste example. To test his disciples Gandhi would send “the boys reputed to be mischievous and the innocent young girls to bathe at the same time." He would then reprimand any of those who succumbed to temptation. He did all of this because he believed those who wanted to follow in his footsteps "have to observe perfect chastity, adopt poverty, follow truth and cultivate fearlessness."
The Dark Side Of Influence
Unfortunately, Gandhi did not restrict his celibacy “experiments'' to his own students. In his 70s, the nonviolent icon would sleep naked with young girls, including his own grandniece and the wife of Gandhi's grandnephew, Kanu Gandhi. He also reportedly gave and received enemas to young girls along with nude massages to “test” his vow of abstinence.
It’s also meaningful that the Indian leader was almost incomparably powerful at the time and no one was in a position to deny him. Unlike Gandhi’s “adolescent” racism, his treatment of women and celibacy “experiments'' lasted until he died.
Chaplin had a thing for getting married
Chaplin, unlike Gandhi, did not “experiment” with his peccadillos but, sadly, owned an unseemingly vice. His first wife, Mildred Harris, was 16 years old, 10 years younger than himself when they wed. That marriage lasted two years before he married another 16 year old, Lita Grey, in 1924, when he was 35. Allegedly he wed Grey because she was pregnant, though they did have a second child before divorcing after three years together. Wife number three, Paulette Goddard, was at least of age 26 to his 47. They were married six years before divorcing. For Chapin, four times was a charm. He married 18-year-old Oona O'Neill, at the age of 54 but they remained together until his death 34 years later.
A ladies man (but not in a good way)
To further complicate things, Chaplin also engaged in many affairs with many women often in their teens. Without trying to defend his behavior, the age of consent in those days was 16. Nevertheless, a powerful man taking advantage of much younger women time and time again does not reflect well to put it lightly.
Looking back at powerful men
When the first Prime Minister of India was asked how Gandhi should be remembered, he said, "A great man, but he had his weaknesses, his moods, and his failings." And added that Gandhi was "much too human," to be turned into a saint. Gandhi did not allow his wife to receive a shot of penicillin to save her life from pneumonia because it constituted “alien medicine.” However, when he fell ill to malaria not long after, he allowed doctors to save his life with quinine. That alone should deny a person saint status.
Less than perfect
Chaplin never desired sainthood but received the status of unrivaled gentleman by some. Famed critic Alexander Woolcott wrote, “It must be said of Chaplin that he has created only one character, but that one, in his matchless courtesy, in his unfailing gallantry — his preposterous, innocent gallantry in a world of Goliaths — that character is, I think the finest gentleman of our time." Sometimes separating the art from the artist can muddy the water. That notwithstanding, it's fair to say that Chaplin himself was not the finest of gentlemen.
