i'm not a huge fan of gandhi. yes, he played a major role in getting rid of the british colonizers, which makes him a great man. but his opportunistic ways of doing so helped create a schism between the hindus and the muslims and led to the partition of historic india into current india, pakistan, bangladesh and kashmir. this has had all sorts of disastrous effects: multiple bloody wars, a nuclear arms race, the rise of a violent hindu supremacist movement in india, a series of disastrous military leaders in pakistan, the occupation of kashmir, and huge expenditure on two states fighting each other, in a region where health and human development are urgent needs. if it had been done differently, there could have today been a prosperous india, with many different religions and ethnicities living in peace, as the situation was before the europeans arrived.