Mass deification of Gandhi was manufactured by planted rumors and press hysteria

Evidence

In his classic essay, “Gandhi as Mahatma”, the historian Shahid Amin describes how the combination of cleverly planted rumours by local Congress leaders, adulatory—and sometimes hallucinatory—newspaper reporting, a gullible people and Gandhi’s extraordinary charisma built up mass hysteria which culminated in the deification of Mahatma Gandhi. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 280

Categorization

• XREF: Links to broader literature on manufactured charisma and political myth-making; parallels Weber’s routinization and the social construction of saints/mahatmas.
• QUESTION: Amin’s essay is cited—worth reading directly for details of how rumor labs operated and whether Gandhi himself colluded.