Gandhi’s Evolving Discourse on Leprosy

This chapter examines Gandhi’s engagement with leprosy, which was much influenced by Christian missionaries, from whom he imbibed the modern, scientific understanding of leprosy. By 1935 Gandhi publicly endorsed the medical positions of Dr Ernest Muir and of BELRA. Gandhian institutions like the Maharogi Seva Mandal and the Kasturba Gandhi Trust offered this treatment to patients. Gandhi’s endorsement of modern medicine for leprosy and the secularization of his discourse, discussed almost exclusively in his own journals, have been completely overlooked by scholars. Many prevailing theories, for instance, that missionaries ‘re-tainted’ leprosy and that Gandhi rejected modern medicine, have been challenged in this chapter.