He also had some troublingly positive words about Mussolini.
Once again, you've got to account for both Gandhi's peerlessly magnanimous warmth and the perils of historical hindsight, but just as it was with Hitler, it's strange to hear that Gandhi had some kind, admiring words about the brutal fascist dictator that led Italy against the Allies during World War II.
In his 2011 book, Subhash Chandra Bose in Nazi Germany, author Romain Hayes explains that, after the two met in 1931, Gandhi called Mussolini "one of the great statesmen of our time," and went on to write the following in a letter to a friend:
"Many of his reforms attract me. He seems to have done much for the peasant class. I admit an iron hand is there. But as violence is the basis of Western society, Mussolini's reforms deserve an impartial study.”
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