Far from breaking down social divisions, Gandhi believed in them. He was acknowledged to be deeply and staunchly racist

I don’t know why we can’t study great men with all their flaws, instead of pretending they didn’t have any? I didn’t learn about what Gandhi said re: women (‘they should die rather than permit themselves to be raped’) or about Black people until I had left school. Indians are too afraid to teach the whole story.

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/02/766083651/gandhi-is-deeply-revered-but-his-attitudes-on-race-and-sex-are-under-scrutiny