Gandhi & Reagan - Most Overrated People In History

Shortest list in the World... People Jas Jain admires he can see without a mirror. :-) 
All the rest of us are dopes, crooks or both!

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	Most Overrated People In History… Gandhi… Reagan
Date:	Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:05:28 -0700
From:	Jas Jain

Most Overrated People In History… Gandhi… Reagan

A friend sent a link with subject " I totally agree:"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-juddery/overrated-people_b_688237.html#s129497

Both were master propagandists (Gandhi understood the appeal of a sadhu, a holly man clad in meager dhoti, among the Indian masses and Reagan understood the American dopes, i.e., belief in the American Exceptionalism and in Optimism). Copying America, Indian actors also have enjoyed great success with the voters in recent decades. Gandhi's good reputation, worldwide, proves two things—widespread ignorance about the real man and power of the media to shape opinions of the masses, especially about historical personalities. Reagan' popularity is strictly among the partisans.

Gandhi was far superior at image building, but his portrayal in the West is also due to the fact that he was a great political tool for the British Raj. The Indian Independence had little to do with Indian political leaders and in reality there are few heroes of the Indian democracy, an Anglo-American institution (Americans kept pressuring the British before the WW II to gain advantage over the Brits). It was definitely not homemade. Nehru was the most cunning and the most Anglicized of the native leaders and his family has been the biggest beneficiary of the Indian democracy.

Jas