Other Bapus on the Net

@RANDOM

For a two-month period, I was the most popular Gandhi on MySpace. This was before New York-based comedian Gautam Prashad provoked threats that the Indian government might now block YouTube after he put up a video of Mahatma Gandhi doing a pole dance.

Unlike Prashad, I wasn't looking to hurt anyone's sentiments; my Gandhi page came into being as part of an experiment to see just how open the popular MySpace social network was to different kinds of abuse. I deleted all the pages I created, once I was through with the "experiment" but I was briefly Aishwarya Rai, Salman Rushdie, Rudyard Kipling and Tun Tun on MySpace, in addition to being the newest Gandhi on the block.

I have no idea why my Gandhi page, which had mild satire, a few pictures of the Mahatma and a quote or two from his books, became popular, but it did.

To be honest, I was having much more fun being Kipling, and two months down the line, tired of the maintenance that Mohandas K Gandhi required, I deleted him.

Besides, no matter how many new friends flocked my way, I knew it would be hard to match the Other Mohandas K Gandhi on MySpace, the one whose 5,947-strong friends list included the Prophet Muhammed, Shiva and the Dalai Lama, all of whom apparently also hang out on online social networks.

Official Gandhi site: http://www.mkgandhi.org/index.htm

Other popular Gandhis on MySpace:
Fan site with impressive friends-list: www.myspace.com/mohandaskgandhi

Fan site by spelling-challenged admirer: www.myspace.com/mahtama_ghandi

This is innocuous stuff, but if you're looking to be offended, YouTube has much to offer. Gautam's video features the Mahatma doing a strip tease as he dances awkwardly round a pole, and what's really offensive to me is that this is low-level, puerile, badly staged comedy. So should this be banned? Or should Gandhi II "" "Gandhi II! No more Mr Passive Resistance. He's here to kick some butt" "" where the Mahatma orders a steak and pulls a gun on his fellow diners, be banned?

These are the first two videos that pop up when you're searching YouTube. The video-sharing network warns users bluntly that the clips might be offensive to some, and advises you not to proceed if you think your feelings will be hurt.

Scroll down the list of Gandhi videos, though, and what comes up are clips of Gandhi and Jinnah in Bombay, 1944, clips of Gandhi speaking in Simla in 1931, clips from Gandhi's funeral "" little, astonishing pieces of the past.

YouTube Gandhi videos:
Gautam Prashad's controversial pole-dance (do not view if you find this offensive): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE9_sBZHu1E

Gandhi II "" again, do not view if you're easily offended: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On-XJw-DqWI

Gandhi in Simla, 1931: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IX5zS8GVWE

Gandhi and Jinnah, 1944: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElEYZ_BJl0M

Like many Indians, I found the first two videos offensive. Unlike many Indians, though, I found that there was an easy way to avoid being offended "" don't click on the Play button. Should YouTube pull the pole-dance and the armed-and-dangerous Gandhi videos? I don't see why. The discussion boards on both clips are open to all, and those who have been offended have been very clear about their feelings "" often voicing these in deeply offensive language!

Should the Indian government ban YouTube? That would interfere with my right, and yours, to watch the other Gandhi clips, the historical ones, the clips from Ben Kingsley's Gandhi film, clips from the Gandhi memorial. Or even the clip of Gandhi the tabby cat, which is a personal favourite.

Censoring the Net is technically tricky and morally dangerous, and expecting the Net to be a safe, innocuous place where everyone has the guaranteed right to never be offended is downright stupid. YouTube has thousands of videos on the site "" why click on the two that you're guaranteed to hate?