The Goderich Signal-Star, 1969-11-20, Page 183,R 001?F,RbCH SIGNAL -STAR. THURSDAY, NQVFh1RFn 2Q,1969
ERIE BLUI THUMB
' BY G, MacLEOD ROSS
It is 100 years since Mohandas
Iramchand Gandhi was born in
• Gujerat State, the son of the
°Chief Minister of that Princely
State. And it is nearly 22 years
since he was murdered by a
Hindu fanatic in New 'Delhi; less
than a year •after India had
gained her Independence. Sir
Francis Wylie, who spent 32
years in the Indian Civil Service,
becoming Governor of the
United Provinces, says of him:
"In the first half of the 20th
century Gandhi did as much to .
change the course of history as
any other single man, not
excluding Lenin." But Gandhi's
philosophy was so paradoxical as
to be beyond tete comprehension A.
of many, so that he has become NI i
the subject --of much•controversy was the result_ of increasing
of late. Some dispute his non -Gandhian subversion from
personal saintliness, while others within, aggravated by the
question the value of his hostility of the World's ,new
political leadership. Yet for all super -power. Gandhi's
his contradictions, or perhaps preoccupation with personal
because of them, he will never morality weakened his hold over
cease to fascinate, so that Congress and it is probable that
thinkers and biographers will be had he given more detailed
disinterring him for many years attention topolitics, some
to come. . disastrous errors might have
His marriage at age 13 been avoided... Nevertheless for
endured for 60 years, until his 20 years he was the moving
° wife, Kasturbai died, and while spirit; the permanent
they were admittedly superpresident, though but for a
ill -matched, for child marriage short time the titular chief. °
was ever a chancy business, this When in 1922, a mob in
tradition of Hindu society was Chauri Chaura in the United
one of . the things Gandhi later provinces, burned down the
denounced. Town Hall and killed 22
Though .at age 19 he v. ,nt to policemen, Gandhi abruptly
England, and was called to the called off his first big civil
Bar in 1891, he never departed disobedience campaign. It
from the philosophy in which he cannot be doubted that his
was bred. Between 1893 and authority alone prevented the
1945 he lived mainly in South Indian National movement from
Ghandi saint or extremist ?
which proved the most fruitful
was his relentless crusade against
Untouchability; which was as
great a disgrace to Hindu society
as was slavery to American
society.
When, in her hour of freedom,
India was divided into two parts,
his passionate desire for national
unity was rudely shaken, so that
when the Union Jack was hauled
down at the Red Fort in Delhi
on August 15, 1947; Gandhi was
absent. Asked to send a message
to mark the great day, he
refused. Silence was never so
eloquent! Instead . he was in
Calcutta, attempting lo prevent
communal ' violence between
Hindus and Muslims. Only the
year before the . Hindus had
suffered grieviously at the hands
of the Muslim Chief Minister of
Bengal. It happened that this
same Minister came to seek out
Gandhi and was trapped in the
latter's house by a mob of
youths. Gandhi took the
Minister up to the balcony and
calling for silence, bade the
Minister speak and admit his
shame at what had happened they
year before. Thus was a crisis
passed
Lord Mountbatten, the
Governor General of
Independent India, said that
Gandhi's presence in Bengal was
more effective than 55,000
troops, _nil, . calming the
communities. But a flood of
Hindu refugees from the Punjab
. to New Delhi threatened a blood
bath much worse than anything
that had happened in Calcutta.
So Gandhi moved to Delhi in
January 1948 and began his last
fast in an -effort to influence
Africa, becoming the developing along violent lines. In communal peace. He asked for,
acknowledged leader 'of the his eyes "a victory won by such and obtained from the
Indian Community in its struggle means was not worth winning." Government of India, Pakistan's
against racial discrimination, and He explained: "The actual share of the assets of undividedIndia; 500
somemillion rupees.
it waS here that he evolved his taking, over of the Government He also ex,a guarantee that
technique of Satyagraha (Truth machinery is but a shadow; an the Delhi Muslims would not be
force), based on the principle of emblem. And it could easily be a harmed. Then, having 'survived
Ahisma (non-violence). As is burden, if it came as a gift from his fast, he was. shot dead by a
common knowledge, Ahisma without; the people having made
failed to achieve equality in no effort to deserve it."But if Hindu fanatic.
Africa. ' he failed .to liberate his people Gandhi was ..'ever
During this period Gandhi was from the Raj, he was accommodating to the British
an ardent British Imperialist. He incalculably successful in and firmly believed the British
organized an ambulance unit to liberating thein from themselves, `Empire was essential to India's
support British troops in the for no national leader has given
Boer war and in 1914 to 1918 his people such education in the
he recruited for England in higher forms of patriotism and
India. All this was done in the citizenship.
expectation that India would " True the cult " of -the spinning
a iehkiomea )R.l&le when ,.the wheel was quite uneconomic, for
wir ended. But in fact India the resulting khadi cost three
received, not freedom within the times as much . as ordinary
Comrhonwealth as Gandhi cotton. It was said at the time:
hoped, but only the inadequate "It takes a great deal of money
Montague -Chelmsford reforms, to keep Bapu (Gandhi) in
'which were closely followed by poverty." But, on the other
the tragedy at Amritsar. This hand,. it was a wonderful
proved to be the last straw, and antidote to apathy and it
it. .turned Gandhi against the provided a unifying discipline.
British, system, . though never .His loin cloth ' was worn as a
against the British as individuals. symbol of his association with
Already a strong cultural the . poor; the symbolic
nationalist, he now became a equivalent of Churchill's cigar.
political rebel. He denounced caste and
The Indian National Congress communal barriers; ,asserted
submitted to his guidance, women's rights, while stressing
adopting Satyagraha as its means personal self-control as a
of ' combating the British Raj, p re re q u i s i.t a of political
though as a=, result, national self-government: He took the
sovereignty was delayed by some vow of chastity at age 37. But
25 years. When it did come, it the aspect of :lis leadership
meek little man which his loin
cloth, his, naked legs and his
khadi dress would suggest at first
sight. No! He was a man of
prodigious self-confidence and a
will of Iron.
Some writers have called him
an extremist in every respect,
but the word is not justified by
the evidence; more especially
today when 'extremism' is
associated with uncompromising
rioting, arson; rape and looting.
There can be moderation even in
excess and there was an
unmistakable quality of
moderation in his apparent
extremism. Was he not rather an
ardent crusader, whose ardor
was invariably tempered with
moderation, more especially
when his philosophies were
misunderstood by his adherents,
for there is little doubt that he
had a tendency to ' speak in
parables.
Those who seek to detract
from his genius, find their most
profitable argument in pillaring
his economic outlook, as
exemplified in the spinning
wheel. As such they stigmatize
him as "the greatest living
anachronism," yet fail to
appreciate the unifying effect of
this quirk. The present
government of India calls for
factories, for irrigation dams,
nuclear reactors and steel plants,
but none of these touch the
multitude. Gandhi awas.:obsessed,
and rightly so, with the teeming
millions of peasants who still eke
out an existence on land, so
exhausted, it can barely support
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freedom and equal status. So
much so, that he accepted
considerable derogation of the
principle of Ahisma. Whereas
Christ drew a sharp distinction
between those -things which were
Caesar's and those which were
God's, Gandhi's message was
that the two were inseparable.
And while his moral inhibitions
enabled the British to prolong
their rule in India, :only the
crudest nationalist could feel
that India could have been
better served under a less
scrupulous leader.
It is true that 'his mistakes
came from an over -simplification
of human nature, for he sought
to arrive ..at the eternal verities
by trial and error: In spite of all
his contradictions, humanity will
never cease to admire his
indefatigable striving after truth,
and his readiness to act on the
truth once he had found it to his
own satisfaction. He was not the
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life. Re strove to help these
poverty stricken people, trapped
in a squirrel cage, to make an
appreciable step upward and out
of their frustration. He realized
that so long as they remained in
the- twilightAa£. Paste; child
marriage, Untouchability and
worship of 'the cow, all the
marvels of modern western
technology would pass them by,
without helping them to rise one
iota. And while the spinning
wheel found a place in' the
national flag, it was not present
in the peasants' cottages.
Perhaps too, the time element
was against him; that ails ideal
was too vast for one man . to
accomplish in one lifetime; that
he was merely the alpha point.
For to transform India into the
omega of his dreams will need
many more lifetimes.
If Gandhi's life has one lesson
for the West in its present state
of dissatisfaction with all and
sundry; its insistence on seeing
nothing but the trees and none
. of the woodsy in shorter its
personal avarice, it is that the
.whole divided, is not worth
winning. We are all suffering
from a blindness in which we see
only our own point of view, and
that goes for business, industry,
labor and government. For all
the .lemmings who insist on
keeping the accelerator pedal
down as they course along the
slopes which lead to economic
disaster. It applies toy all those
for whom theordsrpatriotism,
citizenship, and playing the
game for the national side are
just dirty words.
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Does his example give us
nothing more? In' an age in
which it is customary to hide
within the crowd; an age when
few seem able to arrive at an
opinion of their' oti rn, Gandhi
-stands out like- a rock_ in a
stormy sea; a rallying point. For
all his contradictions and all his
paradoxes, he searched for what
he believed to be the truth, and
having found it and satisfied
himself of its validity, he was
immovable, even unto death.
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