http://www.samachar.com/showurl.htm?rurl=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1185865.cms?headline='Gandhi~fell~passionately~in~love~with~Saraladevi'



LONDON: Mahatma Gandhi fell passionately in love with beautiful writer Saraladevi Chaudhury at the age of 50, which threatened his family life and his work, his grandson has claimed in a new book.

In a biography of the Father of the Nation, Rajmohan Gandhi wrote, "I wanted to capture the real man in my book, so I couldn't leave out this episode of my grandfather's life."

According to a report in 'The Sunday Telegraph' today, although Gandhi's friendship with the writer - a niece of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore - was known at the time, the full extent of his relationship with the woman three years his junior has not been revealed until now.

Gifted, well-informed and driven, Saraladevi was 29 when Gandhi first saw her, in 1901, conducting an orchestra as it played a song she had written for Congress, the party that eventually led India to independence.

But it was not until she was 47, and married to newspaper editor Rambhuj Dutt Chaudhuri, that Gandhi fell for her, while staying at the couple's house in Lahore, now in Pakistan.

Chaudhuri was in jail for his part in the struggle against the British and soon after he arrived, Gandhi - by now dedicated to personal celibacy - wrote in a letter: "Saraladevi's company is very endearing... She looks after me very well."

Within months, he was thinking of their relationship in terms of a "spiritual marriage", according to his grandson - who admits he is unsure what his grandfather meant by this.

Not everyone appreciated the spiritual benefits of Gandhi's entanglement with a woman who was not his wife. His son Devadas - Rajmohan's father - urged him to pull back.