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MAHATMA GANDHI

THE MAN WHO BECAME ONE
WITH THE UNIVERSAL BEING


BY

ROMAIN HOLLAND



TRANSLATED BY

CATHERINE D. GROTH

THE CENTURY CO.

New York & London




MAHATMA GANDHI




[Illustration: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi]




In connection with the present essay I wish to tender my affectionate
thanks to my faithful collaborator, my sister, and to my friend, Kalidas
Nag, whose deep knowledge and indefatigable kindness have guided my
steps through the forest of Indian thought.

I also wish to thank the publisher, S. Ganesan of Madras, for having
placed, spontaneously, his publications at my disposal.




PART ONE




The literal translation of Mahatma, the name which the people of India
gave to Gandhi, is "the great Soul," _maha_, great; _atma_, soul. The
word goes back to the Upanishads, where it is used in speaking of the
Supreme Being, and, through communion of Knowledge and Love, of those
who become One with Him:


"He is the One Luminous, Creator of All,
Mahatma,
Always in the hearts of the people enshrined.
Revealed through Love, Intuition, and Thought,
Whoever knows Him, Immortal becomes...."


Tagore, on a visit to Ashram, Gandhi's favorite retreat, quoted
this stanza, referring to the Apostle.




MAHATMA GANDHI




PART ONE




§ 1


Dark, tranquil eyes. A small frail man, a thin face with large
protruding ears. His head covered with a little white cap, his body
clothed in coarse white cloth, barefooted. He lives on rice and fruit
and drinks only water. He sleeps on the floor--sleeps very little, and
works incessantly. His body does not seem to count at all. There is
nothing striking about him, at first, except his expression of "great
patience and great love." W. W. Pearson, who met him in South Africa in
1918, instinctively thought of St. Francis of Assisi. There is an almost
childlike simplicity about him.[1] His manner is gentle and courteous
even when dealing with adversaries,[2] and he is of immaculate
sincerity.[3] He is modest and unassuming, to the point of sometimes
seeming almost timid, hesitant, in making an assertion. Yet you feel his
indomitable spirit. He makes no compromises and never tries to hide a
mistake. Nor is he afraid to admit having been in the wrong. Diplomacy
is unknown to him; he shuns oratorical effect or, rather, never thinks
about it; and he shrinks unconsciously from the great popular
demonstrations organized in his honor. Literally "ill with the multitude
that adores him,"[4] he distrusts majorities and fears "mobocracy" and
the unbridled passions of the populace. He feels at ease only in a
minority, and is happiest when, in meditative solitude, he can listen to
the "still small voice" within.[5]

This is the man who has stirred three hundred million people to revolt,
who has shaken the foundations of the British Empire, and who has
introduced into human politics the strongest religious impetus of the
last two thousand years.




§ 2


His real name is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He was born in a little
semi-independent state in the northwestern part of India, at Porbandar,
the "White City" on the sea of Oman, October 2, 1868. He comes of an
ardent and active race, which to this day has been split by civil
strife; a practical race, commercially keen, which established trade
relations all the way from Aden to Zanzibar. Gandhi's father and
grandfather were both leaders of the people and met with persecution
because of their independent spirit. Both were forced to flee for
safety, their lives in peril. Gandhi's family was well-to-do and
belonged to a cultivated class of society, but it was not of superior
caste. His parents were followers of the Jaïn school of Hinduism, which
regards _ahimsa_,[6] the doctrine of non-injury to any form of life, as
one of its basic principles. This was the doctrine which Gandhi was to
proclaim victoriously throughout the world. The Jaïnists believe that
the principle of love, not intelligence, is the road which leads to God.
The Mahatma's father cared little for wealth and material values, and
left scarcely any to his family, having given almost everything away to
charity. Gandhi's mother was a very devout woman, a sort of Hindu St.
Elisabeth, fasting, giving alms to the poor, and nursing the sick. In
Gandhi's family the Ramayana was read regularly. His first teacher was a
Brahman who taught him to memorize the texts of Vishnu.[7] In later
years Gandhi expressed regret at not being a better Sanskrit scholar,
and one of his grievances against English education in India is that it
makes the natives lose the treasures of their own language. Gandhi
became, however, a profound student of Hindu scriptures, although he
read the Vedas and the Upanishads in translation only.[8]

While still a boy he passed through a severe religious crisis. Shocked
at the idolatrous form sometimes assumed by Hinduism, he became, or
imagined he became, an atheist, and to prove that religion meant nothing
to him he and some friends went so far as to eat meat, a frightful
sacrilege for a Hindu. And Gandhi nearly perished with disgust and
mortification.[9] He was engaged at the age of eight and married at the
age of twelve.[10] At nineteen he was sent to England to complete his
studies at the University of London and at the law school. Before his
leaving India, his mother made him take the three vows of Jaïn, which
prescribe abstention from wine, meat, and sexual intercourse.

He arrived in London in September, 1888, and after the first few months
of uncertainty and deception, during which, as he says, he "wasted a lot
of time and money trying to become an Englishman," he buckled down to
hard work and led a strictly regulated life. Some friends gave him a
copy of the Bible, but the time to understand it had not yet come. But
it was during his stay in London that he realized for the first time the
beauty of the Bhagavad Gitâ. He was carried away by it. It was the
light the exiled Hindu had been seeking, and it gave him back his faith.
He realized that for him salvation could lie only in Hinduism.[11]

He returned to India in 1891, a rather sad home-coming, for his mother
had just died, and the news of her death had been withheld from him.
Soon afterward he began practicing law at the Supreme Court of Bombay.
He abandoned this career a few years later, having come to look upon it
as immoral. But even while practicing law he used to make a point of
reserving the right to abandon a case if he had reason to believe it
unjust.

At this stage of his career he met various people who stirred in him a
presentiment as to his future mission in life. He was influenced by two
men in particular. One of them was the "Uncrowned King of Bombay," the
Parsi Dadabhai, and the other Professor Gokhale. Gokhale was one of the
leading statesmen in India and one of the first to introduce educational
reforms, while Dadabhai, according to Gandhi, was the real founder of
the Indian nationalist movement. Both men combined the highest wisdom
and learning with the utmost simplicity and gentleness.[12] It was
Dadabhai who, in trying to moderate Gandhi's youthful ardor, gave him,
in 1892, his first real lesson in _ahimsa_ by teaching him to apply
heroic passivity--if two such words may be linked--to public life by
fighting evil, not by evil, but by love. A little later we will discuss
this magic word of _ahimsa_, the sublime message of India to the world.




§ 3


Gandhi's activity may be divided into two periods. From 1898 to 1914 its
field was South Africa; from 1914 to 1922, India.

That Gandhi could carry on the South-African campaign for more than
twenty years without awakening any special comment in Europe is a proof
of the incredible short-sightedness of our political leaders,
historians, thinkers, and believers, for Gandhi's efforts constituted a
soul's epopee, unequaled in our times, not only because of the intensity
and the constancy of the sacrifice required, but because of the final
triumph.

In 1890-91 some 150,000 Indian emigrants were settled in South Africa,
most of them having taken up abode in Natal. The white population
resented their presence, and the Government encouraged the xenophobia of
the whites by a series of oppressive measures designed to prevent the
immigration of Asiatics and to oblige those already settled in Africa to
leave. Through systematic persecution the life of the Indians in Africa
was made intolerable; they were burdened with overwhelming taxes and
subjected to the most humiliating police ordinances and outrages of all
sorts, ranging from the looting and destruction of shops and property to
lynching, all under cover of "white" civilization.

In 1893 Gandhi was called to Pretoria on an important case. He was not
familiar with the situation in South Africa, but from the very first he
met with illuminating experiences. Gandhi, a Hindu of high race, who had
always been received with the greatest courtesy in England and Europe,
and who until then had looked upon the whites as his natural friends,
suddenly found himself the butt of the vilest affronts. In Natal, and
particularly in Dutch Transvaal, he was thrown out of hotels and trains,
insulted, beaten, and kicked. He would have returned to India at once if
he had not been bound by contract to remain a year in South Africa.
During these twelve months he learned the art of self-control, but all
the time he longed for his contract to expire, so that he might return
to India. But when at last he was about to leave, he learned that the
South-African Government was planning to pass a bill depriving the
Indians of the franchise. The Indians in Africa were helpless, unable to
defend themselves; they were completely unorganized and demoralized.
They had no leader, no one to guide them. Gandhi felt that it was his
duty to defend them. He realized it would be wrong to leave. The cause
of the disinherited Indians became his. He gave himself up to it, and
remained in Africa.

Then began an epic struggle between spirit on one side and governmental
power and brute force on the other. Gandhi was a lawyer at the time, and
his first step was to prove the illegality of the Asiatic Exclusion Act
from the point of view of law, and he won his case despite the most
virulent opposition. In this connection he had huge petitions signed; he
organized the Indian Congress at Natal, and formed an association for
Indian education. A little later he founded a paper, "Indian Opinion,"
published in English and three Indian languages. Finally, in order to
work more efficaciously for his compatriots in Africa, he decided to
become one of them. He had a lucrative clientele in Johannesburg
(Gokhale says Gandhi was making at that time about five or six thousand
pounds a year). He gave it up to espouse poverty, like St. Francis. He
abandoned all ties in order to live the life of the persecuted Indians,
to share their trials. And he ennobled them thereby, for he taught them
the doctrine of non-resistance. In 1904 he founded at Phoenix, near
Durban, an agricultural colony along Tolstoian lines.[13] He called upon
his compatriots, gave them land, and made them take the solemn oath of
poverty. He took upon himself the humblest tasks.

For years the silent colony resisted the Government. It withdrew from
the cities, gradually paralyzing the industrial life of the country,
carrying on a sort of religious strike against which violence--all
violence--was powerless, just as the violence of imperial Rome was
powerless against the faith of the first Christians. Yet very few of
these early Christians would have carried the doctrine of love and
forgiveness so far as to help their persecutors when in danger, as
Gandhi did. Whenever the South-African state was in serious difficulties
Gandhi suspended the non-participation of the Indian population in
public services and offered his assistance. In 1899, during the Boer
War, he organized an Indian Red Cross, which was twice cited for bravery
under fire. When the plague broke out in Johannesburg in 1904, Gandhi
organized a hospital. In 1908 the natives in Natal revolted. Gandhi
organized and served at the head of a corps of _brancardiers_, and the
Government of Natal tendered him public thanks.

But these disinterested services did not disarm the hatred of the
whites. Gandhi was frequently arrested and imprisoned,[14] and shortly
after official thanks had been proffered for his services during the war
he was sentenced to imprisonment and hard labor, after being beaten by
the mob and left behind as dead.[15] But no abuse, no persecution, could
make Gandhi renounce his ideal. On the contrary, his faith in it grew
stronger for his trials. His only reply to the violence meted out to him
in South Africa was the famous little book, "Hind Swaraj,"[16] published
in 1908. This pamphlet on Indian home rule is the gospel of heroic love.

For twenty years the struggle lasted, reaching its bitterest phase from
1907 to 1914. Although the most intelligent and broad-minded Englishmen
in Africa were opposed to it, in 1906 the South-African Government
hastily passed a new Asiatic law. This led Gandhi to organize
non-resistance on a large scale.

In September, 1906, a huge demonstration took place at Johannesburg, and
the assembled Indians solemnly took the oath of passive resistance. The
Chinese in Africa joined the Hindus; and Asiatics of all races,
religions, and castes, rich and poor alike, brought the same enthusiasm
and abnegation to the cause. The Asiatics were thrown into prison by the
thousand, and as the jails were not large enough, they were hurled into
the mine-pits. But it was as if the prisons fascinated these people whom
General Smuts, their persecutor, called "conscientious objectors." Three
times Gandhi was thrown into jail,[17] while others died as martyrs. The
movement grew. In 1918 it spread from the Transvaal to Natal. Huge
strikes and monster meetings, masses of Hindus marching across
Transvaal, alarmed and excited public opinion in Africa and Asia. All
India was stirred to indignation, and the viceroy, Lord Hardinge, driven
by public opinion, finally lodged a protest against the Government of
South Africa.

The indomitable tenacity and the magic of the "Great Soul" operated and
won out: force had to bow down before heroic gentleness.[18] The man
most bitterly opposed to the Indians, General Smuts, who in 1909 had
said he would never erase from the statutes a measure prejudicial to the
Indians, confessed, five years later, in 1914, that he was glad to do
away with it.[19] An imperial commission backed Gandhi up on almost
every point. In 1914 an act abolished the three-pound poll-tax, while
Natal was opened to all Indians desirous of settling there as free
workers. After twenty years of sacrifice non-resistance was triumphant.




§ 4


When Gandhi returned to India he had the prestige of a leader.

Since the beginning of the century the movement for Indian independence
had been steadily gaining ground, Thirty years before, a few broadminded
Englishmen, among whom were A. O. Hume and Sir William Wedderburn, had
organized a National Indian Congress. Victorian Liberals, they had given
the Congress a loyalist stamp and had tried to consolidate India's
claims with the demands of England's sovereignty. In the meantime,
however, Japan's victory over Russia had awakened the pride of Asiatic
peoples, and Indian patriots resented Lord Curzon's provocative
attitude. An extremist party was formed in the heart of the Congress,
and its more aggressive nationalism corresponded to a general sentiment
throughout the country. Until the war of 1914, however, the old
constitutional part remained under the leadership of G. K. Gokhale, who
was a great Indian patriot, although he believed in loyalty to England.

Although the Indian Congress, reflecting general sentiment, was in favor
of home rule, or _Swaraj_, the various members disagreed as to the form
this home rule should take. Some members believed in cooperation with
England; others wanted to drive the English out of India. Some advocated
the dominion system, as in Canada, while others asserted that India
should aspire to become an independent nation like Japan. Gandhi
proposed a solution. It was religious rather than political, but at
bottom it was more radical than any of the others. The principles are to
be found in his "Hind Swaraj." But as this solution was based on
conditions in South Africa, Gandhi realized it would have to be modified
to suit conditions in India. He also realized that while his stay in
South Africa had made him unfamiliar with conditions in India, it had
proved what an irresistible weapon _ahimsa_, non-violence, could be. And
he determined, therefore, to study conditions in India in order to adapt
the weapon of _ahimsa_ to them.[20]

At this time Gandhi felt no antagonism for England. On the contrary,
when the war broke out in 1914, he went to London to organize an Indian
ambulance corps. As he explained in a letter written in 1921, he
honestly believed himself a citizen of the empire. He refers to his
attitude again and again, as in his letter addressed to "Every
Englishman in India," published in 1920. No Englishman, he says, served
the Government more faithfully than he during twenty-nine years of
public life. He risked his life four times for England, and until 1919
he sincerely believed in cooperating with the Government. But now he can
do so no longer.

Gandhi was not the only one to experience this change of feeling. In
1914 all India had been carried away by the hypocritical idealism of the
so-called "war for justice." In asking for India's support the English
Government had held out the most brilliant hopes. The granting of home
rule, which the people longed for, was said to depend on India's
attitude in the war. In August, 1917, the clever Indian secretary, E. S.
Montagu, promised India a government responsible to the people. A
consultation took place, and in July, 1918, the viceroy, Lord
Chelmsford, and Mr. Montagu signed an official report recommending
constitutional reform in India. The Allied armies were in a most
precarious position in the early days of 1918. On April 2 Lloyd George
had sent an appeal to the people of India, while the war conference,
sitting at Delhi in the end of the same month, had hinted that the hour
of India's independence was near. And India had replied as one man while
Gandhi promised England his loyal backing. India contributed 985,000 men
and made tremendous sacrifices. And she waited confidently for the
promised reward.

The awakening was terrible. Danger was over in the end of 1918, and gone
was the memory of services rendered. After the signing of the armistice
the Government saw no reason for feigning any longer. Instead of
granting the promised liberties, it suspended whatever freedom already
existed. The Rowlatt bills, proposed at the Imperial Legislative Council
at Delhi, expressed an insulting distrust of the country which had given
so many proofs of its loyalty. These bills aimed to establish
definitively the provisions of the Defense Act imposed on India dining
the war, and made secret police services, censorship, and all the
tyrannical annoyances of a real state of siege into a permanent reality.
There was one burst of indignation all over India. The revolt began.[21]
Gandhi led it.

Hitherto Gandhi had been interested in social reforms only, devoting
himself particularly to the conditions of agricultural workers. At
Kaira, in the Gujarat, and at Champaran, in Behar, he had almost
unnoticeably and with success tried out the formidable weapon which he
was soon to use in national struggles. This weapon was the will of
active passionate non-resistance. We will study it later under the name
of _Satyagraha_, which Gandhi has given it.

Until 1919, however, Gandhi did not participate actively in the Indian
nationalist movement. Having been united in 1916 by Mrs. Annie Besant,
the most advanced elements soon outdistanced her and rallied under the
leadership of the great Hindu, Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, a man of
extraordinary energy, uniting, as in a triple sheaf of iron, a great
mind, a strong will, and a high character. His intelligence was perhaps
even keener than Gandhi's, or, rather, it was more solidly nourished on
old Asiatic culture. He was an erudite, a mathematician, who had
sacrificed all personal ambitions to serve his country. Like Gandhi, he
sought no personal recognition and longed only for the triumph of his
ideal in order to be able to retire from the political field and go back
to his scientific work. As long as he lived he was the undisputed leader
of India. Who can say what would have happened if he had not met with an
untimely death in 1920? If Tilak had lived, Gandhi, who revered Tilak's
genius, while differing radically from him in regard to methods and
policies, would no doubt have remained religious leader of the movement.
How magnificently the people of India could have marched on under such a
double leadership! They would have been irresistible, for Tilak was a
master of action, just as Gandhi is a master of spiritual power. But
fate decided otherwise. It is, perhaps, to be regretted, not only for
Tilak's sake, but for India's and even for Gandhi's. The rôle of
minority leader, of leader of the moral élite, would have been more in
accordance with Gandhi's inmost desires and nature. He would have been
happy to let Tilak rule the majority, for Gandhi never had any faith in
majorities. But Tilak had. Tilak, a born mathematician and master of
action, believed in numbers. He was democratic instinctively. He was
resolutely a politician, who left religious considerations aside. He
claimed that politics were not for _sadhus_ (saints, pious men). This
austere scientist would have sacrificed truth to patriotism. And this
scrupulously honest and upright man, whose personal life was one of
spotless purity, did not hesitate to say that in politics everything is
justified. It might be said that Tilak's conception of politics and that
of the dictators of Moscow have something in common. Not so with
Gandhi's ideal.[22] Tilak's and Gandhi's discussions brought out their
different points of view. Between men as sincere as they there is bound
to be irreconcilable opposition, since their methods are based on their
convictions, which are in fundamental opposition. Each man respected and
revered the other. But Gandhi felt that if it came to the point he would
always set truth first before liberty and even before his country,
whereas Tilak set his country above everything. Gandhi feels that no
matter how great his love for his country may be, his faith in his
ideal, in religion as expressed in Truth, is greater still.

As he says on August 11,1920:


I am wedded to India because I believe absolutely that she has a mission
for the world ... My religion has no geographical limits. I have a
living faith in it which will transcend even my love for India
herself.[23]


These noble words give the key to the struggle which we now will
describe. They prove that the Apostle of India is the Apostle of the
World, and that he is one of us. The battle the Mahatma began fighting
four years ago is our battle.[24]




§ 5


It should be noted that when Gandhi stepped into the political field as
leader of the opposition to the Rowlatt bills, he was moved only by a
desire to spare the country from violence.[25] The revolt was bound to
come; he knew there was no possibility of avoiding it. The point,
therefore, was to turn it into non-violent channels.

To understand Gandhi's activity, it should be realized that his doctrine
is like a huge edifice composed of two different floors or grades. Below
is the solid groundwork, the basic foundation of religion. On this vast
and unshakable foundation is based the political and social campaign. It
is not the ideal continuation of the invisible foundation, but it is the
best structure possible under present conditions. It is adapted to
conditions.

In other words, Gandhi is religious by nature, and his doctrine is
essentially religious. He is a political leader by necessity, because
other leaders disappear, and the force of circumstances obliges him to
pilot the ship through the storm and give practical political expression
to his doctrine. These developments are interesting, but the essential
part of the edifice is the crypt, which is deep and well built and meant
to uphold a very different cathedral from the structure rapidly rising
above it. The crypt alone is durable. The rest is temporary and only
designed to serve during the transition years, until the plans for a
cathedral worthy of the groundwork can be worked out. An understanding
of the principles on which the vast subterranean crypt is based is
essential, therefore, for here Gandhi's thought finds its real
expression. It is into the depths of this crypt that he descends every
day to seek inspiration and strength to carry on the work above.

Gandhi believes in the religion of his people, in Hinduism. But he is
not a scholar, attached to the punctilious interpretation of texts, nor
is he a blind believer accepting unquestioningly all the traditions of
his religion. His religion must satisfy his reason and correspond to the
dictates of his conscience.


I would not make a fetish of religion and condone evil in its
sacred name.[26]

My belief in the Hindu scripture does not require me to accept every
word and every verse as divinely inspired. I decline to be bound by any
interpretation however learned it may be if it is repugnant to reason or
moral sense.[27]


Nor does he look upon Hinduism as the only religion, and this is a
very important point.


I do not believe in the exclusive divinity of the Vedas. I believe the
Bible, the Koran and the Zend-Avesta to be as divinely inspired as the
Vedas.... Hinduism is not a missionary religion. In it there is room for
the worship of all the prophets in the world ... Hinduism tells every
one to worship God according to his own faith or _Dharma_ and so it
lives in peace with all religions.[28]


He sees the errors and vices that have crept into religion through the
centuries, and he brands them, but he adds:


I can no more describe my feeling for Hinduism than for my own wife. She
moves me as no other woman in the world can. Not that she has no faults;
I dare say, she has many more than I see myself. But the feeling of an
indissoluble bond is there. Even so I feel about Hinduism with all its
faults and limitations. Nothing elates me so much as the music of the
Gitâ or the Ramayana by Tulasidas, the only two books in Hinduism I may
be said to know. I know that vice is going on to-day in all the great
Hindu shrines but I love them in spite of their failings. I am a
reformer through and through. But my zeal never takes me to the
rejection of any of the essential things of Hinduism.[29]


What are the essential things in which Gandhi believes? In an article
written October 6,1921, Gandhi defines his conception of Hinduism:


1. He believes, he says, in the "Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas and
all that goes by the name of Hindu scriptures." He believes, therefore,
in _Avataras_ and rebirth.

2. He believes in the _Varnashrama Dharma_[30] or the "Discipline of the
Castes," in a sense which he considers "strictly Vedic," but which may
not correspond to the present "popular and crude sense."

3. He believes in the "protection of the cow in a much larger sense than
the popular."

4. He does not "disbelieve in idol worship."


Every Occidental who reads Gandhi's "Credo" and stops at these lines is
apt to feel that they reveal a mentality so different from ours and so
far removed in time and space as to make comparison with our ideals
impossible, owing to the lack of a common measure. But if he will read
on, he will find, a few lines below, the following words, which express
a doctrine more familiar to us:


I believe implicitly in the Hindu aphorism that no one truly knows the
_Shastras_ who has not attained perfection in Innocence [_Ahimsa_],
Truth [_Satya_], and Self-Control [_Brahma-Charya_] and who has not
renounced all acquisition or possession of wealth.


Here the words of the Hindu join those of the Gospel. And Gandhi was
aware of their similarity. To an English clergyman who asked him in 1920
which books had influenced him most, Gandhi replied, "The New
Testament."[31]

The last words of Gandhi's "Ethical Religion" are a quotation from the
New Testament,[32] and he claims that the revelation of passive
resistance came to him after reading the Sermon on the Mount in
1893.[33] When the clergyman asked him, in surprise, if he had not found
the same message in Hindu scriptures, Gandhi replied that while he has
found inspiration and guidance in the Bhagavad Gitâ, which he reveres
and admires, the secret of passive resistance was made clear to him
through the New Testament. A great joy welled up in him, he says, when
the revelation came to him, and again when the Gitâ confirmed this
revelation.[34] Gandhi also says that Tolstoi's ideal, that the kingdom
of God is within us, helped him mold his own faith into a real
doctrine.[35]

It should not be forgotten that this Asiatic believer has translated
Ruskin[36] and Plato[37] and quotes Thoreau, admires Mazzini, reads
Edward Carpenter, and that he is, in short, familiar with the best that
Europe and America have produced.

There is no reason why a Westerner should not understand Gandhi's
doctrine as well as Gandhi understands those of our great men, provided
the Westerner will take the trouble to study Gandhi a little deeply. It
is true that the mere words of Gandhi's creed may surprise him, and that
two paragraphs, in fact, if read superficially, may seem so different
from our mentality as to form an almost insurmountable barrier between
the religious ideals of Asia and Europe. One of these paragraphs refers
to cow-protection and the other to the caste system. As for Gandhi's
reference to idol-worship, it requires no special study. Gandhi explains
his attitude when he says that he has no veneration for idols but
believes idol-worship to be part of human nature. He considers it
inherent to the frailty of the human mind, because we all "hanker after
symbolism" and must needs materialize our faith in order really to
understand it. When Gandhi says he does not disbelieve in idol-worship,
he means no more than what we countenance in all our ritualistic
churches of the West.

"Cow-protection," says Gandhi, is the central fact of Hinduism. He looks
upon it as one of the "most wonderful phenomena of human evolution."
Why? Because the cow, to him, is taken as the symbol of the entire
"sub-human world." Cow-protection means that man concludes a pact of
alliance with his dumb brethren; it signifies fraternity between man and
beast. According to Gandhi's beautiful expression, by learning to
respect, revere, an animal, man is "taken beyond his species and is
enjoined to realize his identity with all that lives."

If the cow was selected in preference to other creatures it was because
in India the cow was the best companion, the giver of plenty. Not only
did she give the milk but she made agriculture possible. And Gandhi sees
in "this gentle animal" a "poem of pity."

But there is nothing idolatrous about Gandhi's cow-worship, and no one
condemns more harshly than he the fetishism of many so-called believers,
who observe the letter of "cow-worship" without exercising a spirit of
compassion "for the dumb creatures of God." Whoever understands the
spirit of compassion and fellow-feeling that Gandhi would have men feel
for their dumb brethren,--and who would have understood this better than
the _poverello_ Assisi?--is not surprised that Gandhi lays such stress
on cow-protection in his creed. From this point of view he is quite
justified in saying that cow-protection is the "gift of Hinduism to the
world." To the precept of the gospel, "Love thy neighbor as thyself,"
Gandhi adds, "And every living being is thy neighbor."[38]

Gandhi's belief in the caste system is almost more difficult for a
European or Western mind to understand--it seems more foreign, almost,
than the idea of the fellowship of all living beings. I should perhaps
say "European or Western mind of to-day," for while we still believe in
a certain equality, Heaven knows how we will feel in the future, when we
become thoroughly imbued with the consequences of the evolution,
democratic in name only, which we are undergoing! I do not imagine that
at our present stage of development my explanation of Gandhi's views
will make them seem acceptable as regards the caste system; nor am I
anxious to have them seem so. But I would like to make it clear that
Gandhi's conception of the caste system is different from what we
usually mean by that term, since he does not base it on pride or vain
notions of social superiority, but on duties.


I am inclined to think [he says] that the law of heredity is an eternal
law, and that any attempt to alter it must lead to utter confusion ...
_Varnashrama_ or the caste system, is inherent in human nature. Hinduism
has simply reduced it to a science.


Gandhi believes in four classes or castes. The _Brahmans_, the
intellectual and spiritual class; the the military and governmental
class; the _Vaishyas_, the commercial, industrial class; and the
_Shudras_, manual workers and laborers. This classification does not
imply any superiority or inferiority. It simply stands for different
vocations. "These classes define duties, they confer no privileges."[39]


It is against the genius of Hinduism to arrogate to oneself a higher
status or assign others to a lower. All are born to serve God's
creation, the _Brahman_ with his knowledge, the _Kshatriya_ with his
power of protection, the _Vaishya_ with his commercial ability, the
_Shudra_ with his bodily labor.

This does not mean that a _Brahman_ is absolved from bodily labor but it
does mean that he is predominantly a man of knowledge and fittest by
training and heredity to impart it to others. There is nothing again to
prevent a _Shudra_ from acquiring all the knowledge he wishes. Only he
will best serve with his body and need not envy others their special
qualities for service. A _Brahman_ who claims superiority by right of
knowledge falls and has no knowledge. Varnashrama is self-restraint and
conservation of economy and energy....


Gandhi's caste system is based, therefore, on "abnegation and not on
privileges." It should not be forgotten, moreover, that according to
Hinduism reincarnation reestablishes a general equilibrium, as in the
course of successive existences a _Brahman_ becomes a _Shudra_, and
_vice versa._

The caste system, which deals with different classes of equal rank,
bears no relation whatsoever to the attitude of Hindus to the
"untouchables," or pariahs. We will study later on Gandhi's passionate
appeals for the pariahs. His campaign in favor of the "suppressed
classes" is one of the most appealing phases of his apostleship. Gandhi
regards the pariah system as a blot on Hinduism; it is a vile
deformation of the real doctrine, and he suffers intolerably by it.


I would rather be torn to pieces than disown my brothers of the
suppressed classes.... I do not want to be reborn, but if I have to be
reborn, I should be "untouchable" so that I may share their sorrows,
sufferings and the affronts leveled at them in order that I may endeavor
to free them from their miserable condition.


And he adopts a little "untouchable" girl and speaks with emotion of
this charming little imp of seven who rules the household with her gay
prattle.




§ 6


I have said enough to show Gandhi's great evangelical heart beating
under his Hindu creed. Gandhi is a Tolstoi in a more gentle, appeased,
and, if I dared, I would say, in a more Christian sense, for Tolstoi is
not so much a Christian by nature as by force of will.

The resemblance between the two men is greatest, or perhaps Tolstoi's
influence has been strongest, in their condemnation of European and
Occidental civilization.

Ever since Rousseau our Western civilization has been attacked by the
freest and broadest minds of Europe. When Asia began to wake to a
realization of her own power and revolt against Western oppression, she
had only to peer into Europe's own files to compile formidable records
of the iniquity of her so-called civilized invaders. Gandhi did not fail
to do so, and in his "Hind Swaraj" he cites a list of books, many of
which were written by Englishmen, condemning European civilization. But
the document to which there can be no rejoinder is that which Europe
herself has traced in the lifeblood of races oppressed and despoiled in
the name of lying principles and, above all, in the brazen revelation of
Europe's lies, greed, and ferocity as unfolded during the last war,
called the "War for Civilization." And in it Europe sank to such depths
that in her insanity she even invited the peoples of Asia and Africa to
contemplate her nudity. They saw her and judged her.


The last war has shown as nothing else has the Satanic[40] nature of the
civilization that dominates Europe to-day. Every canon of public
morality has been broken by the victors in the name of virtue. No lie
has been considered too foul to be uttered. The motive behind every
crime is not religious or spiritual but grossly material... Europe
to-day is only nominally Christian. In reality it is worshipping
Mammon.[41]


You will find sentiments such as these expressed again and again, during
the last five years, both in India and Japan. Leaders too prudent to
voice them openly show by their attitude that such is their inmost
conviction. This is not the least disastrous result of the Pyrrhic
victory of 1918.

Gandhi, however, had seen the real face of Western civilization long
before 1914. It had revealed itself to him unmasked during his twenty
years' campaign in South Africa, and in 1908, in his "Hind Swaraj," he
calls modern civilization the "great vice."

Civilization, says Gandhi, is civilization in name only. In reality it
corresponds to what ancient Hinduism called the dark ages. It has set
material well-being up as the only goal of life. It scorns spiritual
values. It maddens Europeans, leads them to worship money only, and
prevents them from finding peace or cultivating the best within them.
Civilization in the Western sense means hell for the weak and for the
working classes. It saps the vitality of the race. But this Satanic
civilization will destroy itself. Western civilization is India's real
enemy, much more than the English, who, individually, are not bad, hut
simply suffer from their civilization. Gandhi criticizes those of his
compatriots who would want to drive out the English, to develop India
themselves, and civilize her according to European standards. This, he
says, would be like having the nature of a tiger without the tiger.
India's aim should be to repudiate Western civilization.

In his arraignment of Western civilization Gandhi scores three
categories of men particularly: magistrates, doctors, and teachers.

Gandhi's objection to teachers is quite comprehensible, since they have
brought the Hindus up to scorn or neglect their own language and to
disown their real aspirations; in fact, the teachers in India have
inflicted a sort of national degradation on the schoolchildren in their
charge. Besides, Western teachers appeal to the mind only; they neglect
the education of the heart and of the character. Finally, they
depreciate bodily labor, and to spread a purely literary education in a
country where eighty per cent of the population is agricultural and ten
per cent industrial is positively criminal.

The profession of magistrate is immoral. In India the courts are an
instrument of British domination; they encourage dissensions among
Indians, and in a general way they foster and increase misunderstanding
and animosity. They stand for a fattening, lucrative exploitation of the
worst instincts.

As for the medical profession, Gandhi admits he was attracted to it at
first, but he soon realized it was not honorable. For Western medical
science is concerned with giving relief to suffering bodies only. It
does not strive to do away with the cause of suffering and disease,
which, as a rule, is nothing but vice. In fact, Western medical science
may almost be said to encourage vice by making it possible for a man to
satisfy his passions and appetites at the least possible risk. It
contributes, therefore, to demoralize people; it weakens their
will-power by helping them to cure themselves with "black magic"
prescriptions instead of forcing them to strengthen their character by
disciplinary rules for body and soul.[42] In opposition to the false
medical science of the West, which Gandhi has often criticized unfairly,
he places preventive medical science. He has written a little pamphlet
on the subject entitled "A Guide to Health," which is the fruit of
twenty years' experience. It is a moral as well as a therapeutic
treatise, for, according to Gandhi, "disease is the result of our
thoughts as much as of our acts." He considers it a relatively simple
matter to establish certain rules that will prevent disease. For all
disease springs from the same origin, i. e., from neglect of the natural
laws of health. The body is God's dwelling-place. It must be kept pure.
There is truth in Gandhi's point of view, but he refuses a little too
obstinately to recognize the efficacy of remedies that have really
proved to be useful. His moral precepts are also extremely rigid.[43]




§ 7


But the nucleus of modern civilization, its heart, so to speak, is
machinery. Age of iron! Heart of iron! The machine has become a
monstrous idol. It must be done away with. Gandhi's most ardent desire
is to see machinery wiped out of India. To a free India, heir to British
machinery, he would prefer an India dependent on the British market. It
would be better to buy materials manufactured in Manchester than to set
up Manchester factories in India. An Indian Rockefeller would be no
better than a European capitalist. Machinery is the great sin which
enslaves nations, and money is a poison as much as sexual vice.

Indian progressives, however, imbued with modern ideas, ask what would
become of India if she were to have no railroads, tramways, or
industries? To this Gandhi asks if India did not exist before they were
invented? For thousands of years India has resisted, alone, unshaken,
the changing flood of empires. Everything else has passed. But thousands
of years ago India learned the art of self-control and mastered the
science of happiness. She has nothing to learn from other nations. She
does not need the machinery of large cities. Her ancient prosperity was
founded on the plow and the spinning-wheel, and on a knowledge of Hindu
philosophy. India must go back to the sources of her ancient culture.
Not all at once, of course, but gradually. And every one must help in
the evolution.[44]

This is Gandhi's fundamental argument. It is a very important one, and
demands discussion. For it stands for a denial of progress and,
virtually, of Europe's scientific achievement.[45] This medieval
conception is apt, therefore, to clash with the volcanic forward march
of the human mind and incurs the risk of being blown to bits. But, first
of all, it would perhaps be wiser to say, the "forward march of a
certain _phase_ of the human mind," for if one may believe, as I
believe, in the symphonic unity of the universal spirit, one must
realize that it is made up of many different voices, each one singing
its own part. Our youthful Occident carried away by its own score, does
not realize sufficiently that it has not always led the song, nor that
its own law of progress is subject to eclipses, backslidings, and
recommencements; that the history of human civilization is really a
history of human civilizations, and that while within the domain of each
civilization a certain progress may be discernible, a progress
irregular, chaotic, broken, and at times completely halted, it would be
wrong to say that the predominance of one great civilization over
another necessarily implies general human progress.

But without entering into a discussion as to the European dogma of
progress and merely bearing in mind that this dogma, such as it is,
conflicts with Gandhi's faith, we must realize that no conflict will
weaken Gandhi's faith. To believe anything else would be to show a total
ignorance of the workings of the Oriental mind. As Gobineau says:
"Asiatics are much more obstinate than we, in every way. They will wait
centuries, if necessary, for the fulfilment of their ideal, and when it
rises triumphant after such a long slumber it does not seem to have aged
or lost any of its vitality." Centuries mean nothing to a Hindu. Gandhi
is prepared for the triumph of his cause within the year. But he is
equally prepared for it within the course of several centuries. He does
not force time. And if time makes haste slowly, he regulates his gait by
its march.

If, therefore, in the course of his campaign Gandhi finds India
insufficiently prepared to understand and practise the radical reforms
he wishes to impose, he will adapt his doctrine to conditions. He will
bide his time. That is why it is not astonishing to hear the
irreconcilable enemy of machinery declare, in 1921:


I would not weep over the disappearance of machinery or consider this a
calamity. But for the time being I have no designs on machinery as
such.[46]


Or:


The law of complete Love is the Law of my being. But I am not preaching
this final law through the political measures I advocate. I know that
any such attempt is foredoomed to failure. To expect a whole mass of men
and women to obey that law all at once is not to know its working.[47] I
am not a visionary. I claim to be a practical idealist.[48]


Gandhi never asks men for more than they can give. But he asks for all
that they can give. And this is much in a nation like India--a
formidable nation, through its numerical power, its force of duration,
and its abysmal soul. From the very first Gandhi and India have formed a
pact; they understand each other without words. Gandhi knows what he can
demand of India, and India is prepared to give whatever Gandhi may
demand.

Between Gandhi and India there reigns, first of all, absolute agreement
as to goal: _Swaraj_, home rule, for the nation.[49]

"I know," he says, "that _Swaraj_ is the object of the nation and not
non-violence."

And he adds--words amazing on his lips, "I would rather see India freed
by violence than enchained like a slave to her foreign oppressors."

But, he continues, correcting himself at once, this is an impossible
supposition, for violence can never free India. _Swaraj_ can only be
attained by soul-force. This is India's real weapon, the invincible
weapon of love and truth. Gandhi expresses it by the term _Satyagraha_,
which he defines as truth-force and love-force.[50] Gandhi's genius
revealed itself when, by the preaching of this gospel, he revealed to
his people their real nature and their hidden strength.

Gandhi used the word _Satyagraha_ in South Africa to explain the
difference between his ideal and that of passive resistance. Particular
stress must be laid on the difference between these two movements.
Nothing is more false than to call Gandhi's campaign a movement of
passive resistance. No one has a greater horror of passivity than this
tireless fighter, who is one of the most heroic incarnations of a man
who _resists._ The soul of his movement is active resistance--resistance
which finds outlet, not in violence, but in the active force of love,
faith and sacrifice. This threefold energy is expressed in the word
_Satyagraha._

Let not the coward try to hide his cowardice under Gandhi's banner!
Gandhi drives him out of the community. Better violence than cowardice!


Where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence I advise
violence....[51] I cultivate the quiet courage of dying without killing.
But to him who has not this courage I advise that of killing and of
being killed, rather than that of shamefully fleeing from danger. For he
who runs away commits mental violence; he runs away because he has not
the courage to be killed while he kills.[52]

I would risk violence a thousand times rather than emasculation of the
race.[53] I would rather have India resort to arms to defend her honor
than that she should in a cowardly manner become or remain a helpless
victim to her own dishonor.[54]

But I believe that non-violence is infinitely superior to violence,
forgiveness more manly than punishment. Forgiveness adorns a soldier.
Abstinence is forgiveness only when there is power to punish; it is
meaningless when it pretends to proceed from a helpless creature.... I
do not believe India to be helpless. One hundred thousand Englishmen
need not frighten three hundred million human beings.

Besides.

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an
indomitable will. Non-violence does not mean meek submission to the will
of the evil-doer but the putting of one's whole soul against the will of
the tyrant. Working under this law of our being it is possible for a
single individual to defy the whole might of an unjust empire and lay
the foundation for that empire's fall or its regeneration.


But at the cost of what? Of _suffering_--the _great law._


Suffering is the mark of the human tribe. It is an eternal law.[55] The
mother suffers so that her child may live. Life comes out of death. The
condition of wheat growing is that the seed grain should perish. No
country has ever risen without being purified through the fire of
suffering.... It is impossible to do away with the law of suffering
which is the one indispensable condition of our being. Progress is to be
measured by the amount of suffering undergone ... the purer the
suffering, the greater is the progress.[56]

Non-violence in its dynamic condition means conscious suffering.... I
have ventured to place before India the ancient law of self-sacrifice,
the law of suffering. The _Rishis_ who discovered the law of
non-violence in the midst of violence were greater geniuses than Newton,
greater warriors than Wellington. Having themselves known the use of
arms they realized their uselessness and taught a weary world that
salvation lay not through violence but through non-violence.... The
religion of non-violence is not meant merely for the _Rishis_ and
saints. It is meant for the common people as well. Non-violence is the
law of our species as violence is the law of the brute. The dignity of
man requires obedience to a higher law--to the strength of the
spirit.... I want India to practise non-violence being conscious of her
strength and power. I want India to recognize that she has a soul that
cannot perish and that can rise triumphant above every physical weakness
and defy the physical combination of a whole world.[57]


Exalted pride, his proud love of India, demands she should scorn
violence as unworthy and be ready to sacrifice herself. Non-violence is
her title of nobility. If she abandons it she falls. Gandhi cannot bear
the thought.


If India made violence her creed I would not care to live in India. She
would cease to evoke any pride in me. My patriotism is subservient to my
religion. I cling to India like a child to its mother's breast because I
feel that she gives me the spiritual nourishment I need. If she were to
fail me, I would feel like an orphan, without hope of ever finding a
guardian. Then the snow altitudes of the Himalayas must give what rest
they can to my bleeding soul....[58]




§ 8


But Gandhi does not doubt India's endurance. In February, 1919, he
decided to start the _Satyagraha_ movement, whose efficacy had already
been tested during the agrarian revolt in 1918.

The campaign is not at all political, as yet: Gandhi is still a
loyalist. And he remains one as long as he retains a grain of faith in
England's loyalty. Until January, 1920, he advocated cooperation with
the empire, even though the nationalists criticized him bitterly
therefore.[59] Gandhi's arguments are inspired by his sincere
conviction, and during the first year of his campaign against the
Government he could truthfully assure Lord Hunter that he believed the
disciples of _Satyagraha_ to be the most loyal supporters of the
Constitution. Only the narrow-minded obstinacy of the Government forced
India's moral guide finally to tear up the contract of loyalty by which
he considered himself hound.

To begin with, therefore, the _Satyagraha_ campaign takes the form of
constitutional opposition to the Government. It is a respectful appeal
for certain urgent reforms. The Government is guilty of passing an
unjust law. The _Satyagrahi_, who are law-abiding people, will disobey
this law deliberately, because they consider it unjust. If their
attitude does not convince the Government of the necessity of repealing
the law, they will extend their disobedience to other laws, and
eventually they may cease all cooperation with the Government. But how
different is the meaning which India gives to this word from that which
we in the West give to it! Such extraordinary religious heroism as is
contained in it!

As the _Satyagrahi_ are not allowed to use violence in advancing their
cause (the idea being that the adversary, too, is sincere, since what
seems truth to one person may seem untruth to another, while violence
never carries conviction),[60] they must rely solely on the love-force
that radiates from their faith and on their willingness to accept
suffering and sacrifice joyously, freely.[61] This constitutes
irresistible propaganda. With it the cross of Christ and his little
flock conquered the Roman Empire.

In order to emphasize the religious character of the people's
willingness to sacrifice themselves for the eternal ideals of justice
and liberty, the Mahatma inaugurated the movement by setting April 6,
1919,[62] aside as a day of prayers and fasting, by imposing a _hartal_
of all India.[63] This was the first step.

This first step went right to the heart of the people, stirred their
inmost consciousness. For the first time all classes of India united in
the same ideal. India found herself.

Order reigned everywhere. At Delhi only there were a few
disturbances.[64] Gandhi set out to quiet them. But the Government had
him arrested and sent him back to Bombay. The news of his arrest caused
riots in Punjab; at Amritsar some houses were looted, and a few people
were killed. In the night of April 11 General Dyer arrived with his
troops and occupied the city. Order reigned everywhere. The fifteenth
was a great Hindu feast-day. A meeting was to take place at an open
space called Jallianwalla Bagh. The crowd was peaceful and numbered many
women and children. The night before General Dyer had sent out an order
forbidding public meetings, but no one had heard about it. The general,
however, came to Jallianwalla Bagh with his machine-guns and without
warning opened fire on the defenseless mass of people. The firing lasted
about ten minutes, till the ammunition was used up. As the grounds were
surrounded by high walls, no one could escape. From five to six hundred
Hindus were killed, and a much larger number wounded. There was no one
to care for the dead and wounded. As the result of the massacre, martial
law was proclaimed, and a reign of terror spread over Punjab.
Aëroplanes threw bombs on the unarmed crowds. The most honorable
citizens were dragged to court, flogged, and forced to crawl on their
knees, and subjected to the most shocking indignities. It was as if a
wind of madness swept over the English rulers. It was as if the law of
non-violence, proclaimed by India, stirred European violence to frenzy.
Gandhi saw bloodshed and suffering were ahead. But he had not promised
to lead his people to victory along a white road. He had warned them
that the path would be washed with blood. Jallianwalla Bagh was only the
beginning:


We must be prepared to contemplate with equanimity not a thousand
murders of innocent men and women but many thousands before we attain a
status in the world that shall not be surpassed by any nation.... We
hope, therefore, that all concerned will take rather than lose heart and
treat hanging as an ordinary affair of life.[65]


Owing to the rigorous military censorship, the news of the horrors of
Punjab did not leak out for several months. But when it did leak out[66]
a wave of indignation swept over India and alarmed even English opinion.
An investigation was ordered, and Lord Hunter presided over the
commission.

In the meantime, the National Indian Congress formed a subcommission to
carry on investigations independently of the Government, but along the
same lines. It was to the obvious interest of the Government, as all
intelligent Englishmen realized, to punish those guilty of the massacre
of Amritsar. Gandhi did not demand as much as that. In his admirable
moderation he did not ask for the punishment of General Dyer and the
guilty officers. While denouncing them, he felt no bitterness and sought
no vengeance. One bears no ill will to a madman. But one must put him
where he can do no damage. Gandhi, therefore, merely asked that General
Dyer be recalled. But _quos vult perdere._... Before the results of the
investigation could be published, the Government passed an indemnity act
to protect official employees. Though Dyer was removed from his post, he
was rewarded with money contributed from private sources.

While India was still in effervescence after the Punjab affair, a second
conflict arose between the Government and the people, a more serious one
this time, because it implied a flagrant violation of solemn promises.
The Government's attitude shattered whatever confidence India still had
in the good faith of the English rulers, and brought on the great
revolt.

The European War had placed the Moslems of India in a very painful
dilemma. They were torn between their duty as loyal citizens of the
empire and faithful followers of their religious chief. They agreed to
help England when she promised not to attack the sultan's or the
caliph's sovereignty. It was the sense of Moslem opinion in India that
the Turks should remain in Turkey in Europe and that the sultan should
retain not only authority over the Holy Places of Islam, but over Arabia
as delimited by Mohammedan scholars with the enclaves of Mesopotamia,
Syria, and Palestine. This Lloyd George and the viceroy solemnly
promised. When the war was over, however, all pledges were forgotten.
And when the rumors of the peace terms to be imposed on Turkey began to
circulate in 1919, the Moslems in India began to grow restless, and
their discontent finally started the Khilafat or Califat movement.

It began October 17,1919 (Khilafat day), with an imposing peaceful
demonstration, which was followed, about a month later (November 24), by
the opening of an All-India Khilafat Conference at Delhi. Gandhi
presided. With his quick glance he had realized that the Islamic
agitation might be made into the instrument of Indian unity. The problem
of uniting the various races in India was a most difficult one. The
English had always taken advantage of the natural enmity between Hindus
and Moslems; Gandhi even accuses them of having fostered it. At any
rate, they had never tried to conciliate the two peoples, who challenged
each other childishly. To annoy the Mohammedans, for instance, the
Hindus used to make a point of singing when they passed the mosques
where silence should reign, while the Mohammedans lost no opportunity of
jeering the Hindus' cow-worship. Mutual ill will and persistent
animosity reigned between the two races, who never associated with each
other and were not allowed to intermarry or even eat in common. The
English Government rested sweetly on the cushion of implicit trust in
the impossibility of the two ever agreeing and adopting a common policy.
When Gandhi's voice, therefore, proclaimed the identity of the Hindu and
the Moslem cause, it awoke with a start. In an outburst of generosity,
which happened to be sound politics, Gandhi urged the Hindus to do all
in their power to advance Mohammedan claims.


Hindus, Parsees, Christians, or Jews, if we wish to live as one nation,
the interest of any one of us must be the interest of all. The only
deciding consideration can be the justice of a particular cause.


Mohammedan blood had already mixed with that of the Hindus in the tragic
massacre of Amritsar. The two people now had to seal their alliance, an
unconditional alliance. The Moslems were the most advanced and audacious
element in India. And they were the first to announce, at this Khilafat
Conference, that they would refuse to cooperate with the Government if
their demands were not met. Gandhi approved of this measure, but in his
innate horror of going to extremes he refused at the time to advocate
the boycott of British goods, for he looked upon the boycott as an
expression of weakness or thirst for vengeance. A second Khilafat
Conference met at Amritsar in the end of December, 1919, and decided to
send a deputation to Europe to inform the English Government and the
Supreme Council of India's attitude. It also voted for the sending of an
ultimatum to the viceroy, warning him of trouble if the peace terms
should prove unsatisfactory. Finally a third conference, meeting in
Bombay in February, 1920, issued a manifesto which, in its violent
arraignment of Great Britain's policy, was a forerunner of the coming
storm.

Gandhi realized the storm was brewing, and instead of trying to call it
forth he did all in his power to break its violence.

It seemed as if England also realized the danger. By belated
concessions she seemed to be making desperate efforts to avert the
consequences of her former attitude. An Indian Reform Act based on the
Montagu-Chelmsford report gave the people in India more influence in the
Central Government as well as in local administrations. The king
approved the act by a proclamation of December 24, 1919, in which he
invited the people of India and the functionaries to cooperate with the
Government in every way, while he also urged the viceroy to pardon
political offenses and recommended a general amnesty. Gandhi, always
ready to believe in the adversary's good faith, interpreted these
measures as signifying a sort of tacit agreement to deal more justly
with India, and he called upon the people to welcome the reforms. He
confessed that they were insufficient, but he said they should be
accepted as the starting-point for greater victories. He urged the
conference to approve them unreservedly. After a heated debate the
National Indian Congress adopted his view.

But soon it became evident that Gandhi's hopes were built on illusions.
The viceroy did not heed the king's appeal for clemency, and instead of
setting prisoners free, the doors of the jails opened only for
executions. It became evident that the promised reforms would remain
inoperative.

On top of this came the news of the peace conditions imposed on Turkey,
May 14, 1920. In a message to the people the viceroy admitted they would
prove disappointing, but he advised the Moslems to resign themselves to
the inevitable.

Then came the publication of the official report on the Amritsar
massacres. It was the last straw.

India's national consciousness was aroused. All ties were broken.

The Khilafat Committee, meeting at Bombay, May 28, 1920, passed a
resolution adopting Gandhi's non-cooperation policy, and this resolution
was ratified unanimously by the Moslem Conference of Allahabad, June 80,
1920.

Gandhi, in the meantime, wrote an open letter to the viceroy informing
him that the movement of non-cooperation would begin. He explained why
he had recourse to it, and his arguments are worth studying, for they
prove that even then Gandhi was hoping to avoid a break with England. In
the bottom of his heart he still hoped that the Government might be
brought to mend its ways by purely legal methods:


The only course open to me is either in despair to sever all connection
with British rule or, if I still retain faith in the inherent
superiority of the British Constitution, to adopt such means as will
rectify the wrong done and thus restore confidence. I have not lost
faith in the superiority of the British Constitution and it is because I
believe in it that I have advised my Moslem friends to withdraw their
support from Your Excellency's Government, and advised the Hindus to
join them.


And this noble citizen of the empire the blind pride of the empire
spurned.




[Footnote 1: As C. F. Andrews says, "He laughs like a child and
adores children."]

[Footnote 2: "Few can resist the charm of his personality. His bitterest
enemies become courteous when confronted with his beautiful courtesy."
(Joseph J. Doke.)]

[Footnote 3: "Every departure from truth, no matter how trifling, is
intolerable to him." (C. F. Andrews.)]

[Footnote 4: "He is not a passionate orator; his manner is calm and
serene and he appeals particularly to the intelligence. But his serenity
places the subject he discusses in the clearest light. The inflexions of
his voice are not varied but they are intensely sincere. He never makes
any gestures with his arms, in fact he rarely even moves a finger. But
his luminous words, expressed in terse, concise sentences, carry
conviction. He never abandons a subject before he feels that he has made
it perfectly clear." (Joseph J. Doke.)]

[Footnote 5: "Young India," March 2, 1922. The dates cited in the motes
of this volume refer to the date of publication of Gandhi’s articles
in "Young India."]

[Footnote 6: _A_, privative, _himsa_, to do evil. Hence, _ahimsa_,
principle of not harming any form of life, nonviolence. It is one of
Hinduism's most ancient precepts, proclaimed by Mahavira, the founder of
Jaïnism, by Buddha, as well as by the disciples of Vishnu.]

[Footnote 7: He attended the elementary school of Porbandar till the age
of seven and then the public school of Rajkot till ten. After that he
went to the high school of Katyavar until, at the age of seventeen, he
entered the University of Ahmedabad.]

[Footnote 8: He described his childhood in a speech at the Pariah
Conference, April 13, 1921.]

[Footnote 9: Long afterward he told Joseph Doke of the anguish he had
suffered after eating meat. He was unable to sleep; he felt like a
murderer.]

[Footnote 10: He is not in favor of child marriages, however, and made a
campaign against them, on the ground that they weaken the race. In
exceptional cases, however, he says that such unions, sealed before the
individual's character is molded, may build up between husband and wife
an exceptionally beautiful relationship of sympathy and harmony.
Gandhi's own wife is an admirable example of this. Mrs. Gandhi shared
all her husband's trials and adversities with unfailing steadfastness of
purpose and indomitable courage.]

[Footnote 11: Speech of April 13, 1921.]

[Footnote 12: These two men, precursors, have suffered from the
ingratitude and forgetfulness of younger generations. Their political
ideal having been surpassed, their efforts in paving the way have been
deprecated. Gandhi, however, always realized their contribution to the
cause and remained true to them, particularly to Gokhale, for whom he
felt a deep and almost religious affection. He frequently speaks of
Gokhale and Dadabhai as men whom Young India should venerate. (See "Hind
Swaraj, Letter to the Parsecs, Young India," March 23, 1921, and the
Confession of Faith, July 13, 1921.)]

[Footnote 13: A long letter from Tolstoi to Gandhi is published in the
"Golden Number" of "Indian Opinion." It was written September 7, 1910,
shortly before Tolstoi's death. Tolstoi had read "Indian Opinion," and
he was gratified to hear of the Indian non-resisters. He praised their
campaign and says that non-resistance is the law of love, an aspiration
to form part of the communion of human souls. It is the law of Christ
and of all the spiritual leaders of the world.

My friend Paul Biroukoff found several other letters from Tolstoi to
Gandhi in the Tolstoi archives at Moscow. He is planning to publish them
in a volume entitled "Tolstoi and the Orient," adding them to several
other letters written by Tolstoi to various great men of the East.]

[Footnote 14: Gandhi himself tells in his quiet humorous way of his
experiences in prison in a curious article printed in the volume,
"Speeches and Writings of M. K. Gandhi," Natesan, Madras, pp. 152-178.]

[Footnote 15: In 1907 Gandhi was the victim of the violence of his own
compatriots, for his moderation was eyed with suspicion by certain
Indians, while, the Government, on the other hand, did all in its power
to compromise him. Gandhi, therefore, suffered from the violence of the
oppressed as well as of the oppressors.]

[Footnote 16: I will dwell on "Hind Swaraj" a little more at length,
later on.]

[Footnote 17: Joseph J. Doke, interesting because of his interviews with
Gandhi, tells in the last chapter of his book how, in 1908, Gandhi was
led to the fort of Johannesburg in prison garb and thrown into a cell
with Chinese common-law criminals of the worst sort.]

[Footnote 18: Two high-minded Englishmen, C. F. Andrews and W. W.
Pearson, seconded Gandhi's efforts by all means within their power.]

[Footnote 19: Gandhi refers to this in an article dated May 12, 1920.]

[Footnote 20: Shortly before he died, Gokhale, Gandhi's beloved master,
had suggested that Gandhi make a trip through India and study conditions
at first hand, before going into politics. And Gandhi had promised not
to take an active part in the political life of India for a year.]

[Footnote 21: The Satyagraha movement may be said to have begun
February 28, 1919.]

[Footnote 22: Gandhi explained his attitude toward Bolshevism on
November 24, 1921.]

[Footnote 23: August 11, 1920: Gandhi protests against the doctrine
of the sword.]

[Footnote 24: "Humanity is one. There are different races, but the
higher a race the greater its duties." ("Ethical Religion")]

[Footnote 25: November 5, 1919.]

[Footnote 26: October 27, 1920.]

[Footnote 27: October 6, 1921.]

[Footnote 28: All religions are like different roads leading to the same
goal. ("Hind Swaraj.") "All religions are founded on the same moral
laws. My ethical religion is made up of laws which bind men all over the
world." ("Ethical Religion.")]

[Footnote 29: October 6, 1921.]

[Footnote 30: Etymologically, _varna_, color, class or caste; _ashrama_,
place of discipline; _dharma_, religion. Society, in other words, stands
for "discipline of the castes."]

[Footnote 31: February 25, 1920. In a second line Gandhi adds, "Ruskin
and Tolstoi."]

[Footnote 32: "Seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all
these things shall be added unto you."]

[Footnote 33: "Young India," February 25, 1920.]

[Footnote 34: He says to Joseph J. Doke in 1908 that God has been
incarnate throughout the ages, in different forms, because, as explained
in the Gitâ, Krishna says: "When religion falls into decadence and
unbelief prevails, I manifest myself. For the protection of all that is
good, and the destruction of all that is evil, for the establishment of
Dharma, I must be born and reborn, for ever and ever." Christianism is
part of Gandhi's theology. Christ is a radiant revelation of God. But
not the only revelation. He is not seated on the throne alone.]

[Footnote 35: The "Hind Swaraj" contains a list of about sixty of
Tolstoi's works which Gandhi recommends to his followers, among them,
"The Kingdom of God Is within You, What Is Art?" and "What Shall We Do?"
He tells Joseph Doke that Tolstoi influenced him deeply, but that he
does not agree with Tolstoi's political ideals. To a question asked him
in 1921 as to his feeling for and opinion of Count Tolstoi, Gandhi
replies (in "Young India" of October 25, 1921), "My relation to him was
that of a devoted admirer who owes him much in life."]

[Footnote 36: He was particularly fond of Ruskin's "Crown of Wild
Olives."]

[Footnote 37: "Apologia and Death of Socrates," translated by Gandhi,
was one of the books confiscated by the Indian Government in 1919.]

[Footnote 38: In regard to cow-worship see "Young India," March 16, June
8, June 29, August 4, 1920, and May 18, October 6, 1921. In regard to
castes see articles December 8, 1920, and October 6, 1921.]

[Footnote 39: This is in accordance with the Upanishads, for when the
primitive classes hardened into proud castes, in the course of
centuries, these Hindu scriptures express protest and disapproval.]

[Footnote 40: A term often used by Gandhi. "Untouchability is an
invention of Satan." (June 19, 1921.)]

[Footnote 41: September 8, 1920.]

[Footnote 42: It should not be forgotten that one of Gandhi's main
arguments against the medical science of Europe is its use of
vivisection, which he brands as "man's blackest crime."]

[Footnote 43: Particularly in regard to sexual relations. Gandhi's
doctrine resembles that of St. Paul in its rigorism.]

[Footnote 44: "Hind Swaraj."]

[Footnote 45: Although Gandhi does not approve of European science, he
realizes the necessity of scientific achievement. He admires the
disinterested zeal and the spirit of self-sacrifice of European men of
science and frequently calls their abnegation greater than that of Hindu
believers. But he disapproves the goal they are pursuing even though he
admires their state of mind. There is an evident antagonism between
Gandhi and European science. And in this connection we will see, later
on, how Tagore protests against Gandhi's medievalism.]

[Footnote 46: January 19, 1921.]

[Footnote 47: March 9, 1920.]

[Footnote 48: August 11, 1920.]

[Footnote 49: Etymology: _Swa_, self; _raj_, government, autonomy. The
word is as old as the Vedas, but it was adopted by Dadabhai, Gandhi's
Parsee master, who made it part of the political vocabulary.]

[Footnote 50: Etymology: _Satya_, just right; _Agraha_, attempt, effort.
Hence, _Satyagraha_, a just effort, in the sense of meaning
non-acceptation of or resistance to injustice. Gandhi defines it,
November 5, 1919, as meaning "holding on to truth, hence, truth-force."
And he adds, "I have also defined it as love-force or soul-force."]

[Footnote 51: August 11, 1920.]

[Footnote 52: October 20, 1921.]

[Footnote 53: August 4, 1920.]

[Footnote 54: August 11, 1920. One of the rules of the _Satayagraha
Ashram_, the school founded by Gandhi, is "absence of fear." The spirit
must be freed from fear of kings, nations, castes, family, men, wild
beasts, and death. It is also the fourth condition of non-violent
resistance in the Hindra. The others are chastity, poverty, and truth.]

[Footnote 55: June 16, 1920.]

[Footnote 56: August 11, 1920.]

[Footnote 57: April 6, 1921.]

[Footnote 58: A few months before his imprisonment Gandhi replies to the
criticisms as to "illogic" of his conduct. His critics jeer at the
assistance he tendered England in South Africa and during the World War.
Gandhi, in replying, does not try to evade the issue. He honestly
believed, he says, that he was a citizen of the empire; it was not his
business to judge the Government. He would consider it wrong for every
man to look upon himself as justified in criticizing the Government. He
had confidence in England's wisdom and loyalty as long as possible. The
Government's aberration has destroyed his faith in it. Let the
Government take the consequences! (November 17, 1921.)]

[Footnote 59: April 6, 1921.]

[Footnote 60: On the contrary, violence degrades the person who makes
use of it. The Allies' violence made them like unto the Germans, whose
acts they flayed, in the beginning of the war. (June 9, 1920.)]

[Footnote 61: The hardest fiber must melt in the fire of love. If it
does not melt it is because the fire is not strong enough. (March 9,
1920.) Those joining the _Satyagraha_ movement had to promise to disobey
the laws declared by the _Satyagraha_ committee to be unjust, to follow
in the path of truth, and to abstain from all violence against the
lives, persons, or property of their adversaries.]

[Footnote 62: March 23, 1919.]

[Footnote 63: This Hindustani word of Mohammedan origin means
cessation of work.]

[Footnote 64: Delhi, incidentally, made a mistake in the date
of the _hartal_ and celebrated it March 30.]

[Footnote 65: April 7, 1920.]

[Footnote 66: Gandhi, to quiet the effervescence instead of trying to
exploit it as an ordinary revolutionary leader would have done,
suspended the movement on April 18.]




PART TWO




§ 1


On July 28, 1920, Gandhi announced that non-coöperation would be
proclaimed August 1, and as a preparatory measure he ordered that a day
of fasting and prayer be held the day before. He had no fear of
governmental fury, but he feared the fury of the populace, and he bent
every effort to have order and discipline reign within the Indian ranks.
He declared:


Effective non-coöperation depends upon complete organization.
Disorderliness comes from anger. There must be no violence. Violence
means retrogression in our case, and useless waste of innocent lives.
Above everything else, there must be complete order.


The tactics of non-coöperation had been defined two months before by
Gandhi and the committee of non-coöperation, and they included the
following measures:

(1) Surrender of all titles of honor and honorary offices.

(2) Non-participation in government loans.

(3) Suspension by lawyers of practice, and settlement of court disputes
by private arbitration.

(4) Boycott of government schools by children and parents.

(5) Boycott of the reformed Councils.

(6) Non-participation in government parties and other official
functions.

(7) Refusal to accept any civil or military post.

(8) Agreements to spread the doctrine of Swadeshi.[67]

In other words, the negative part of the program should be completed by
constructive measures, which would lead to the building up of the new
India of the future.

This program specified the first steps to be taken, and we must admire
the prudent sagacity of the leader who, after cranking up the enormous
machine of Hindu revolt, stops it short, so to speak, and holds it back,
pulsating, at the first turn, a method in startling opposition to that
of our European revolutionaries. Gandhi is not planning civil
disobedience for the present. He knows civil disobedience. He has
studied it in Thoreau, whom he quotes in his articles, and he takes
pains to explain the difference between it and non-coöperation. Civil
disobedience, he says, is more than a mere refusal to obey the law. It
means deliberate opposition to the law; it is an infraction of the law,
and can be carried out only by an elite, while non-coöperation should
be a mass movement. Gandhi means to prepare the masses in India for
civil disobedience but they must be trained for it by a gradual process.
He knows that at present people are not ripe for it, and he does not
want to set them loose before he feels sure that they have mastered the
art of self-control. So he launches non-coöperation. Non-coöperation,
in this first stage, does not include a refusal to pay taxes. Gandhi is
biding his time.

August 1,1920, Gandhi gives the signal for the movement by his famous
letter to the viceroy, surrendering his decorations and honorary titles:


It is not without a pang that I return the Kaisar-i-Hind Gold Medal
granted to me by your predecessor for my humanitarian work in South
Africa, the Zulu War Medal, granted in South Africa for my services as
officer in charge of the Indian Volunteer Ambulance Corps in 1906, and
the Boer War Medal for my services as assistant superintendent of the
Indian Volunteer Stretcher-bearer Corps during the Boer War of
1899-1900.


But, he adds, after referring to the scenes that took place in the
Punjab and the events back of the Khilafat movement:


I can retain neither respect nor affection for a Government which has
been moving from wrong to wrong in order to defend its immorality....
The Government must be moved to repentance.

I have therefore ventured to suggest non-coöperation which enables
those who wish to disassociate themselves from the Government and which,
if unattended by violence, must compel the Government co retrace its
steps and undo its wrongs.


And Gandhi expresses the hope that the viceroy will see his way to do
justice, and that he will call a conference of the recognized leaders of
the people, and consult with them.

Gandhi's example was immediately followed. Hundreds of magistrates sent
in their resignations, thousands of students left the colleges, the
courts were abandoned, the schools were emptied. The All-India Congress,
meeting in special session in Calcutta in the beginning of September,
approved Gandhi's decisions by an overwhelming majority. Gandhi and his
friend Maulana Shaukat Ali toured the country and met with tremendous
ovations everywhere.

Never did Gandhi show himself a greater leader than during the first
year of his action. He had to hold back the violence that lay
smoldering, ready to leap into flame at the slightest provocation.
Gandhi fears and abhors mob violence more than anything else. He
considers "mobocracy" the greatest danger that menaces India. He hates
war, but would rather have it than the insane violence of _Caliban._ "If
India has to achieve her freedom by violence, let it be by the
disciplined violence named war," not by mob revolts. Gandhi looks with
disfavor upon all demonstrations and mass-meetings, even in celebration
of some joyous event, for out of a large crowd filled with noise and
confusion frenzied violence may burst for no apparent reason. And he
insists on the necessity of maintaining strict discipline. "We must
evolve order out of chaos," he says, "introduce people's law instead of
mob law." And the mystic with the clear, firm eyes, whose sound
practical sense equals that of the great European mystics who founded
religious orders and dominated the souls of men, gives precise, detailed
rules as to how to canalize the torrents of popular meetings and
demonstrations.

"One great stumbling-block," he says, speaking of the organization of
mass-meetings, "is that we have neglected music. Music means rhythm,
order. Unfortunately, in India, music has been the prerogative of the
few. It has never become nationalized.... I would make compulsory a
proper singing, in company, of national songs. And to that end I would
have great musicians attending every congress or conference and teaching
mass music. Nothing is so easy as to train mobs, for the simple reason
that they have no mind, no meditation."

Gandhi makes a list of suggestions. No raw volunteers should be accepted
to assist in the organization of the big demonstrations. None but the
most experienced should be at the head. Volunteers should always have a
general instruction-book on their persons. They should be dispersed
among the crowd and should learn flag and whistle signaling to pass
instructions. National cries should be fixed and raised at the right
moment. Crowds should be prevented from entering the railroad stations;
they should be taught to stand back and leave a clear passage in the
streets for people and carriages. Little children should never be
brought out in the crowds, etc.

In other words, Gandhi makes himself the orchestra leader of his oceans
of men.[68]




§ 2


But while the mob may break out into violence, unconsciously, blindly,
moved by a sudden unreasonable impulse, there is a political faction
which advocates violence deliberately and consciously. Many of the best
men in India believe that national independence can be reached only by
violent methods. This faction does not understand Gandhi's doctrine and
does not believe in its political efficacy. It demands action, direct
action. Gandhi receives anonymous letters urging him to stop advocating
non-violence, and, worse, others implying cynically that his doctrine of
non-violence is merely a mask and that the time has now come to throw it
aside and give the signal for battle. Gandhi replies vehemently. He
discusses the arguments passionately.[69] In a series of beautiful
articles he censures the "doctrine of the sword." He denies that Hindu
scriptures and the Koran approve violence. Violence is not part of the
doctrine of any religion. Jesus is the prince of passive resistance. The
Bhagavad Gitâ does not preach violence, but the fulfilment of duty even
at the cost of one's life.[70] As man has not been given the power to
create, he has not the right to destroy the smallest creature that
lives. There must be no hatred for any one, not even for the evil-doer;
but this does not mean that one should tolerate evil. Gandhi would nurse
General Dyer if he were ill, but if his own son lived a life of shame,
he would not help him by continuing to support him. On the contrary, "my
love for him would require me to withdraw all support from him, although
this might even mean his death." No one has the right to compel another
by physical force to become good. "But one is under the obligation to
resist him by leaving him, no matter what may happen, and by welcoming
him to one's bosom if he repents."[71]

While Gandhi curbs the violent elements, he stimulates the hesitating.
He reassures those who are afraid of taking a decisive step:


Never has anything been done on this earth without direct action. I
rejected the word "passive resistance" because of its insufficiency....
It was, however, direct action in South Africa which told, and told so
effectively that it converted General Smuts to sanity. What was the
larger "symbiosis" that Buddha and Christ preached? Gentleness and love.
Buddha fearlessly carried the war into the enemy's camp and brought down
on its knees an arrogant priesthood. Christ drove out the money-changers
from the temple of Jerusalem and drew down curses from heaven upon the
hypocrites and the Pharisees. Both were for intensely direct action. But
even as Buddha and Christ chastened, they showed unmistakable gentleness
and love behind every act of theirs.[72]


Gandhi also appeals to the generosity and the common sense of the
English.[73] He calls the English his "dear friends" and points out that
he has been their faithful companion for more than thirty years. He asks
them to make up for the Government's perfidy, which by its treachery has
completely shattered his faith in its good intentions. But he still
believes in English bravery and in English respect for other people's
bravery. "Bravery on the battle-field is impossible for India, but
bravery of the soul remains open to us. Non-coöperation means nothing
less than training in self-sacrifice. I expect to conquer you by my
suffering."

In the first four or five months' preliminary campaign Gandhi was not
trying to paralyze the Government through non-coöperation; his idea was
rather to lay the foundation for the building up of a new India which
would be independent mentally, morally, and economically. Gandhi
expresses the idea of India's economic independence by the term
_Swadeshi_, and he takes the word in its narrow and physical sense.

India must learn to go without many comforts and to accept hardships
without a murmur. A salutary discipline, this; necessary moral hygiene.
The nation's health as well as its character will benefit thereby.
Gandhi's first move is to free India from the curse of drink. Groups
must be formed to advocate temperance. European wines must be boycotted;
liquor-dealers must be induced to surrender their licenses.[74] All
India responded to the Mahatma's appeal. Such a strong wave of
temperance swept over India that Gandhi had to interfere to prevent the
crowds from sacking and looting the wine-shops and closing them by
force. "You must not try to compel another by physical force to become
good," he explained to the masses.

But if it was a relatively easy matter to rid India of the curse of
drink, it was much more difficult to provide her with means of
subsistence. If cooperation with England ceased, what would India live
on? What would she clothe herself in if European products were tabooed?
Gandhi's solution is one of utmost simplicity and reveals the medieval
turn of his mind: he undertakes to reestablish the old Indian industry
of home spinning, introduce the spinning-wheels.

This patriarchal solution of the social problem has naturally met with
ridicule.[75] But conditions in India and Gandhi's interpretation of the
term _charka_ must, be taken into consideration. Gandhi has never
claimed that spinning alone would constitute a means of livelihood
except for the very poor; but he does claim that it could supplement
agriculture during the months when work in the fields is at a
standstill. India's problem is not theoretical, but real and pressing.
Eighty per cent of the population of India is agricultural, and is
therefore without employment virtually four months of the year. One
tenth of the population is normally exposed to famine. The middle class
is underfed. What has England done to remedy these conditions? Nothing.
On the contrary, she has aggravated them, for English manufactures have
ruined local industries, pumped the resources of India, bleeding the
country for more than sixty million rupees a year. India, who grows all
the cotton she requires, is forced to export millions of bales to Japan
and Lancashire, whence it is returned to her in the form of manufactured
calico, which she must buy at exorbitant prices. The first thing for
India to do, therefore, is to learn to do without ruinous foreign goods,
and in order to do this she must organize workshops of her own to give
employment and food to her people. There is no time to lose. Now,
nothing can be organized more rapidly and economically than the industry
of spinning and weaving at home. The idea is not to induce well paid
agricultural laborers to give up their work and to spin, but to urge the
unemployed, and all those who do not have to work for a living, such as
women and children, as well as all Hindus who may have some spare time
during the day, to spin in their leisure hours. Gandhi orders,
therefore, (1) the boycotting of foreign goods, (2) the teaching of
spinning and weaving, (3) the buying of hand-woven cloth only.

Gandhi gives himself up tirelessly to this idea. He says spinning is a
duty for all India.[76] He wants poor children to pay for their tuition
at school by a certain number of hours of spinning; he wants every one,
man and woman, to contribute at least one hour a day, as charity, to
spinning. He gives the most precise directions as to the choice of
cotton, spinning-wheels, etc., and information on all sorts of technical
details of spinning and weaving; he gives practical advice to those who
wish to buy hand-woven cloth, to the fathers of large families, as well
as to pupils in the schools. He explains, for instance, how one may
start a _Swadeshi_ shop--a shop dealing in the products of Hindu
industry--with but little capital, make ten per cent profits, etc. He
becomes lyrical when he describes the "music of the spinning-wheel,"[77]
the oldest music in India, which delighted Kahir, the poet-weaver, and
Aureng-Zeb, the great emperor, who wove his own caps.

Gandhi was able to fire public enthusiasm. The great ladies of Bombay
took up spinning. Hindu and Moslem women agreed to wear only national
cloth, which became all the fashion. Tagore, too, praised this _khaddar_
or _khadi_, as the hand-woven cloth was called, which he said was in
excellent taste. Orders poured in. Some came from as far as Aden and
Baluchistan.

But the disciples of _Swadeshi_ went a little too far when they began
boycotting foreign materials, and even Gandhi, usually sane and well
balanced, was carried away. In August, 1921, he ordered the binning of
all foreign goods in Bombay, and as in the days of Savonarola in
Florence, _Christo regnante_, magnificent family heirlooms, priceless
stuffs and materials, were piled into huge heaps and devoured by the
flames in the midst of riotous cheers and enthusiasm. In this connection
one of the most broad-minded Englishmen in India, C. F. Andrews, a great
friend of Rabindranath Tagore, wrote a letter to Gandhi. While
expressing his great admiration for the Mahatma, he deplored that such
valuable materials should have been burned instead of having been given
to the poor. He added that he believed the process of destruction called
forth the worst instincts of the masses, and he protested against the
outbursts of a nationalism which virtually set destruction up as a
religious dogma. He could not help feeling that it was sinful to destroy
the fruits of human toil. Andrews had approved Gandhi's campaign and had
even begun wearing _khaddar_ but now he wondered whether it was right to
continue to do so. The burning cloth in Bombay had shaken his faith in
the Mahatma.

In publishing Andrews's letter in "Young India" Gandhi said he regrets
nothing. He does not bear ill will to any race whatsoever, nor does he
demand the destruction of _all_ foreign goods. He merely wants to
destroy the goods which harm India. Millions of Indians have been ruined
by English factories, which, by taking work away from India, have turned
thousands upon thousands of Indians into pariahs and mercenaries and
their women into prostitutes. India is already inclined to hate her
British dominators. Gandhi does not wish to strengthen this hatred. On
the contrary, he wants to side-track it, to turn it away from people to
_things._ The Indians who bought the materials are as guilty as the
British who sold them. The materials were not burned as an expression of
hatred for England, but as a sign of India's determination to break with
the past. It was a necessary surgical operation. And it would have been
wrong to give these "poisonous" materials to the poor, for the poor too,
have a sense of honor.




§ 3


India's economic life must first be freed from foreign domination. But
the next step is to liberate the mind, create a real, independent Indian
spirit. Gandhi wants his people to shake off the yoke of European
culture, and one of his proudest achievements is the laying of the
groundwork of a truly Indian education.

Under English rule the smoldering embers of Asiatic culture had lain
dormant in various colleges and universities. For more than forty-five
years Aligarh had remained a Hindu-Mussulman university, a center of
Islamic culture in India. Khalsa College was the center of Sikh culture,
while the Hindus had the University of Benares. But these institutions,
more or less antiquated, were dependent on the Government, which
subventioned them, and Gandhi longed to see them replaced by purer
hearths of Asiatic culture. In November, 1920, he founded the national
University of Gujarat at Ahmedabad. Its ideal was that of a united
India. The _Dharma_ of the Hindus and the Islam of the Mohammedans were
its two religious pillars. Its object was to preserve the dialects of
India and to use them as sources of national regeneration.[78] Gandhi
felt, with full justice, that a "systematic study of Asiatic culture is
no less essential than the study of Western sciences. The vast treasures
of Sanskrit and Arabic, Persian and Pali and Magadhi, have to be
ransacked to discover wherein lies the source of strength for the
nation. The ideal is not merely to feed on or repeat the ancient
cultures, but to build a new culture based on the traditions of the past
and enriched by the experiences of later times. The ideal is a synthesis
of the different cultures that have to come to stay in India, that have
influenced Indian life, and that, in their turn, have themselves been
influenced by the spirit of the soil. This synthesis will naturally be
of the _Swadeshi_ type, where each culture is assured its legitimate
place, and not of the American pattern, where one dominant culture
absorbs the rest and where the aim is not toward harmony, but toward an
artificial and forced unity." All Indian religions were to be taught.
The Hindus were to have an opportunity of studying the Koran and the
Mussulmans the Shastras. The national university excludes nothing except
a spirit of exclusion. It believes that there is nothing "untouchable"
in humanity. Hindustani is made compulsory, because it is the national
blend of Sanskrit, Hindi, and Persianized Urdu.[79] A spirit of
independence was to be fostered, not only by the methods of study, but
by a careful vocational training.

Gandhi hopes to organize, gradually, higher schools that will spread
education broadcast throughout the towns and "filter it down to the
masses, so that ... ere long the suicidal cleavage between the educated
and the uneducated will be bridged. And as an effect of giving an
industrial education to the genteel folks and a literary education to
the industrial classes, the unequal distribution of wealth and social
discontent will be considerably checked."

In opposition to European educational methods, which neglect manual
proficiency and develop the brain only, Gandhi wants manual work to he
part of the curriculum of all the schools from the lowest grades up. He
believes it would be excellent for children to pay for their tuition by
a certain amount of spinning. In this way they would learn to earn their
living and become independent. As for education of the heart, which
Europe neglects absolutely, Gandhi would have stress laid upon it from
the very first. But before the pupils can be properly trained, the right
sort of teachers must be provided.

The object of the higher institutions which Gandhi seems to look upon as
the keystones of the new education is to train teachers. These
institutions will be more than schools or colleges; they might rather be
called convents, where the sacred fire of India will be concentrated in
order afterward to radiate throughout the world, just as in former days
great religious pioneers radiated from the Benedictine monasteries in
the West, conquering souls and territory.

The rules which Gandhi prescribes for the school of _Satyagrah
Ashram_,[80] or place of discipline, at Ahmedabad, his model
institution, concern the teachers more than the pupils, and bind the
former by monastic vows. Whereas these vows in ordinary religious orders
have a purely negative character, here they throb with an active spirit
of sacrifice and with the pure love that inspires the saints. The
teachers are bound by the following vows:

1. The vow of truth. It is not enough not to resort ordinarily to
untruth. No deception may be practised even for the good of the country.
Truth may require opposition to parents and elders.

2. The vow of _Ahimsa_ (non-killing). It is not enough not to take the
life of any living being. One may not even hurt those whom he believes
to be unjust; he may not be angry with them, he must love them. Oppose
tyranny but never hurt the tyrant. Conquer him by love. Suffer
punishment even unto death for disobeying his will.

3. The vow of celibacy. Without it the two foregoing are almost
impossible to observe. It is not enough not to look upon woman with a
lustful eye. Animal passions must be controlled, so that they will not
be moved even in thought. If a man is married, he will consider his wife
a lifelong friend and establish with her the relationship of perfect
purity.

4. The control of the palate. Regulate and purify the diet. Leave off
such foods as may tend to stimulate animal passions or are otherwise
unnecessary.

5. The vow of non-stealing. It is not enough not to steal what is
commonly considered other men's property. It is theft if we use articles
which we do not really need. Nature provides us from day to day just
enough and no more for our daily needs.

6. The vow of non-possession. It is not enough not to possess and not to
keep much, but it is necessary not to keep anything which may not be
absolutely necessary for our bodily wants. Think constantly of
simplifying life.

To these main vows are added a few secondary rules:

1. _Swadeshi._ Use no articles about which there is a possibility of
deception. Do not use manufactured articles. Laborers suffer much in
mills, and manufactured articles are products of misery exploited.
Foreign goods and goods made by complicated machinery should be tabooed
by a votary of _Ahimsa._ Use simple clothes, made simply in India.

2. Fearlessness. He who is acted upon by fear cannot follow truth or
_Ahimsa._ He must be free from the fear of kings, people, caste,
families, thieves, robbers, ferocious animals, and death. A truly
fearless man will defend himself against others by truth-force or
soul-force.

Once established the main points of this iron foundation, Gandhi refers
rapidly to the other requirements, of which the two most remarkable are
that the teachers must set the example of performing bodily labor,
preferably agricultural work, and that they must know the principal
Indian tongues.

As for the pupils, who can enter the _Ashram_ from the age of four up
(students will be admitted at any age), they must remain in the _Ashram_
for the whole course of studies, which lasts about ten years. The
children are separated from their parents and families. The parents
renounce all authority over them. The children never visit their
parents. The pupils wear simple clothes, eat simple food of a strictly
vegetarian nature, have no holidays in the ordinary sense of the word,
though once a week they are allowed a day and a half in which to do
individual creative work. Three months of the year are spent in
traveling on foot through India. All pupils must study the Hindi and
Dravidian dialects. As a second language, they must learn English, and
they must also familiarize themselves with the characters of the five
Indian languages (Urdu, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, and Davanagri). They are
taught, in their own dialect, history, geography, mathematics,
economics, and Sanskrit. At the same time they are taught agriculture
and spinning and weaving. It goes without saying that a religious
atmosphere pervades the whole education. When they have completed their
studies, the pupils are allowed to choose between taking the vows, like
their teachers, or leaving the school. The tuition is entirely free.

I have described Gandhi's educational system rather fully because it
shows the high spirituality of his action, and because he considers this
system the mainspring of the whole movement. To build a New India, a new
soul, strong and pure, must be wrought out of Indian elements. And this
soul can only be developed by a sacred legion of apostles who, like
those of Christ, will be as the salt of the earth. Gandhi, unlike our
European revolutionaries, is not a maker of laws and ordinances. He is a
builder of a new humanity.




§4


Like all governments under similar conditions, the English Government
had no realization of what was going on. At first its attitude was one
of ironical disdain. The viceroy, Lord Chelmsford, characterized the
movement in August, 1920, as "the most foolish of all foolish schemes."
But these heights of comfortable condescension had to be abandoned
before long. In November, 1920, the Government published a surprised and
slightly alarmed proclamation, where threats and paternal advice
commingled, warning the people that while the leaders of the movement
had not been molested so far because they had not preached violence,
orders had now been given to arrest any one who overstepped the bounds
and whose words might stir up revolt or in other ways incite to
violence.

The bounds were soon overstepped, but by the Government. The
non-coöperation movement had been growing and gathering momentum, and
the Government was beginning to be seriously alarmed. In December
affairs took a decidedly dangerous turn. Until then non-violent
non-coöperation had been looked upon as an experiment of a more or less
temporary nature, and the Government had flattered itself that when the
National Indian Congress met at Nagpur for its December session,
non-coöperation would be vetoed. But far from disapproving of
non-coöperation, the congress incorporated the idea in the constitution
by making the first paragraph read:


The object of the Indian National Congress is the attainment of
_Swaraj_--Home Rule--by the people of India by all legitimate and
peaceful means.


The congress thereupon confirmed the non-coöperation resolution passed
in the special session in September, and enlarged upon it. While the
principle of non-violence was upheld absolutely, the general feeling was
that every effort must be made to unite all the elements in India in
view of a common, sustained action, and the congress not only called
upon Hindus and Mussulmans to collaborate loyally, but urged a
_rapprochement_ between the privileged and "suppressed" classes. In
addition to this the congress made fundamental changes in the
constitution, which virtually amounted to the organization of a
representative system for all India.[81]

The congress did not try to conceal the fact that it regarded
non-coöperation in its present form as a preliminary step only, to be
followed, at a time to be determined later, by complete
non-coöperation, including a refusal to pay taxes. Until then, however,
and in order to pave the way, it urged that the boycott be sharpened,
spinning and weaving be encouraged, while an appeal was sent out to
students, parents, and magistrates inviting them to practise
non-coöperation with greater zeal. Those who did not live up to the
decisions of the congress were to be barred from public life.

The resolutions of the congress implied the virtual establishment of a
state within a state, the setting up of real Indian rule in opposition
to the British Government. England could not countenance this. She had
to do something. The Government had to fight or negotiate. A compromise
could easily have been reached by negotiation if the Government had been
willing to go half-way. The congress had declared that it hoped to reach
its goal "with England, if possible," but otherwise "without her." But
as is always the case when European politics involve foreign races, no
attempt was made to negotiate. Force was resorted to. Pretexts for armed
oppression were sought. There was no lack of them.

Despite the principle of non-violence established by Gandhi and the
congress, a few riots occurred in various parts of India. It is true
that they bore little or no relation to the non-coöperative movement,
but, still, there had been and were troubles. In the United Provinces
(Allahabad) there were agrarian uprisings, revolts of the tenants
against the landowners, and the police had to interfere, and there was
some bloodshed. Soon afterward the Akali movement of the Sikhs, although
of a purely religious character, adopted non-coöperative methods, and
as a result of the agitation some two hundred Sikhs were massacred in
February, 1921. No one in good faith could have held Gandhi or his
disciples responsible for this drama of fanaticism, but the Government
considered it a good opportunity. In March, 1921, the repression began,
and it became more and more oppressive as the months passed. The
Government justified its intervention by the necessity of protecting the
liquor dealers from the fury of the mobs. This was not the first time
for European civilization and alcohol to march hand in hand. The
volunteer non-coöperation organizations were dissolved. A law was made
prohibiting seditious meetings. In certain provinces the police had
given _carte blanche_ in suppressing the movement, which was called
"revolutionary and anarchistic." Thousands of Indians were arrested, and
some of India's most respected citizens were summarily jailed and
brutalized. Naturally, this procedure stirred up bad blood, and here and
there the people and the constables clashed. Some houses were burned and
people pounded. This was the situation in India when the committee of
the All-Indian congress met at Bezwada in the end of March to discuss
civil disobedience. With rare moderation and foresight it voted against
it, on the ground that the country was not yet prepared to wield this
double-edged sword. Civil disobedience would be urged later. For the
present there could only be a sort of civil and financial mobilization.

Meanwhile Gandhi continued more and more actively his campaign for the
unity of India. He tried to unite all religions, races, parties, and
castes. He called upon the Parsees,[82] the rich, prosperous merchant
class, more or less tainted, as he expressed it, with the spirit of
Rockefeller, and he called upon Hindus and Mussulmans to form a solid
alliance. The relations between Hindus and Mussulmans were continually
embittered by prejudices, mutual fear, and suspicion. Gandhi devoted
himself to bringing the two races into harmonious collaboration,[83] and
without advocating or desiring an impossible fusion between the two
peoples, he tried to unite them in friendship.[84]

His keenest efforts, however, were given to the regeneration of the
"suppressed" classes, the pariahs. His passionate appeals for the
pariahs, his cries of sorrow and indignation at the monstrous social
iniquity which oppressed them, would, alone, immortalize his name. His
feeling for the outcasts dates back to his boyhood. He tells how, when
he was a boy,[85] a pariah used to come to the house to do all the
coarse work. As a boy Gandhi was told never to touch the pariah without
purifying himself afterward by ablutions. He could not understand why,
and often asked his parents about it. At school he frequently touched
the untouchables, and his mother told him that he could escape the
consequences of this unholy touch only by touching a Mohammedan. To
Gandhi it all seemed absurdly unfair, cruelly unjustified. At the age of
twelve he made up his mind to wipe this stain off India's conscience. He
planned to come to the rescue of his degraded brothers. And never has
Gandhi's mind revealed itself clearer and more unbiased than when he
pleads their cause. What their cause means to him may be gathered from
the fact that he says he would give up his religion (he to whom religion
is everything!) if any one can prove to him that untouchability is one
of its dogmas. The unjust pariah system justified, in his eyes,
everything that has been inflicted on India by other nations.


If the Indians have become the pariahs of the empire, it is retributive
justice, meted out to us by a just God.... Should we Hindus not wash our
blood-stained hands before we ask the English to wash theirs?
Untouchability has degraded us, made us pariahs in South Africa, East
Africa, Canada. So long as Hindus willfully regard untouchability as
part of their religion, so long _Swaraj_ is impossible of attainment.
India is guilty, England has done nothing blacker. The first duty is to
protect the weak and helpless and never injure the feelings of any
individual. We are no better than brutes until we have purged ourselves
of the sins we have committed against our weaker brethren.


Gandhi wanted the national congress to better the condition of the
pariah brothers by giving them schools and wells, for pariahs were not
allowed to use the public wells. But until then? Unable to wait with
folded hands for the privileged classes to condescend to make good their
cruelty, Gandhi went over to the pariahs. He placed himself at their
head and tried to organize them. He discussed their problems with them.
What ought they to do? Appeal to the English Government? Place
themselves at its disposal? This would only mean a change of slavery.
Abandon Hinduism? (Note the broad-minded audacity of a Hindu believer!)
Become Christians or Mohammedans? Gandhi would almost advise them to do
so if Hinduism really stood for untouchability. But it doesn't.
Untouchability is only a morbid excrescence of Hinduism, which must be
extirpated. The pariahs must organize themselves in self-defense. They
might, of course, adopt the principles of non-coöperation in regard to
Hinduism by refusing to have any relations with the Hindus (singularly
audacious advice of social revolt on the lips of a patriot like
Gandhi!). But the difficulty is that the pariahs have no leaders and
cannot organize themselves. The best thing, therefore, is for them to
join the general non-coöperation movement, since its object is harmony
among all classes. Real non-coöperation is a religious act of
purification, and no one can take part in it who believes in
untouchability. Gandhi in this way combines religion, humanity, and
patriotism.[86]

A certain solemnity attended the first efforts to group the pariahs. A
"suppressed-classes conference" took place at Ahmedabad on April 13 and
14, 1921. Gandhi presided at the conference and made one of his most
beautiful speeches. He not only demanded the suppression of the pariah
system but urged the untouchables to rise to the occasion and show the
best that was in them. He expects great things from the pariahs, he
says, in the social life of regenerated India. He tries to instill
self-confidence in them and fill them with his own burning ideal. In the
"suppressed classes," he says, he sees tremendous latent possibilities.
He believes that within five months the untouchable class will be able
to win, by its own merits, the place it deserves within the great Indian
family.

Gandhi had the joy of seeing his appeal find echo in the hearts of the
people. In many parts of India the pariahs were emancipated.[87] The day
before his arrest Gandhi made a speech recording the progress of the
pariah cause. The Brahmans were helping. The privileged classes were
giving touching examples of remorse and fraternal love. Gandhi cites the
case of a young Brahman who at nineteen became a street-sweeper, to live
among the untouchables.[88]




§ 5


With equal generosity Gandhi took up another great cause, that of women.

The sexual problem is a peculiarly difficult one in India, throbbing
with an all-pervading, oppressive, and badly directed sensuality. Child
marriages weaken the physical and moral resources of the nation. The
obsession of the flesh weighs on men's minds and is an insult to woman's
dignity. Gandhi publishes the complaints of Hindu women at the degrading
attitude of Hindu nationalists.[89] Gandhi takes the women's side. Their
protest, he says, proves that there is another sore in India as bad as
that of untouchability. But the woman question is not a purely Indian
problem. The whole world suffers from it. As with the pariahs, he
expects more from the oppressed than from the oppressors. He calls upon
women to demand and inspire respect by ceasing to think of themselves as
the objects of masculine desire only. Let them forget their bodies and
enter into public life, assume the risks, and suffer the consequences of
their convictions. Women should not only renounce luxury and throw away
or burn foreign goods, but they should share men's problems and
privations. Many distinguished women have faced arrest and imprisonment
in Calcutta. This shows the proper spirit. Instead of asking for mercy,
women should vie with men in suffering for the cause. When it comes to
suffering, women will always surpass men. Let women have no fear. The
weakest will be able to preserve her honor. "One who knows how to die
need never fear."

Nor does Gandhi forget the fallen sisters.[90] He tells of conversations
with them in the provinces of Andhra and Barisal, where they met in
conference. He spoke to them nobly and simply, and they replied,
confided in him, and asked his advice. He tried to suggest some way in
which they might make an honest living, and proposed spinning. They
agreed to begin the very next day if assured of encouragement and
assistance. And then Gandhi turned to the men of India; called upon them
to respect women:


Gambling in vice has no place in our revolution. _Swaraj_, home rule,
means that we must regard every inhabitant of India as our own brother
or sister. Woman is not the weaker sex, but the better half of humanity,
the nobler of the two; for even to-day it is the embodiment of
sacrifice, silent suffering, humility, faith, and knowledge. Woman's
intuition has often proved truer than man's arrogant assumption of
knowledge.


In the women of India, beginning with his own wife, Gandhi always found
intelligent aid and understanding, and among them he recruited some of
his best disciples.




§ 6


In 1921 Gandhi's power was at its apogee. His authority as a moral
leader was vast, and without having sought it, almost ilimited political
authority had been placed in his hand. The people looked upon him as a
saint. Pictures were painted representing him as Sri-Krishna.[91] And at
the end of the year, in December, the All-India National Congress
delegated its powers to him and authorized him to appoint his successor.
He was the undisputed master of India's policy. It was up to him to
start a political revolution, if he saw fit, or even to reform religion.

He did not do so. He did not wish to do so. Moral grandeur? Moral
hesitancy? Both, perhaps. It is very difficult for one human being
really to understand another, particularly if they belong to different
races and civilizations. And how much more difficult when a spirit so
deep and subtle as Gandhi's is to be considered! In the maze of events
which took place in India, in this tumultuous year, it is hard to
ascertain whether the pilot's hand did not tremble, but, always firm and
sure, steered the colossal ship along the chosen course. I will try,
however, to explain my feeling in regard to the living enigma, and I
will do so with the religious respect which I have for this great man
and the sincerity which I owe to his sincerity.

If Gandhi's power was great, the danger of abusing it was equally great.
As the effect of his campaign, by the slightest ripple, affected
hundreds of millions of men, it became more and more difficult to direct
the movement and at the same time remain firm in the midst of the
turbulent ocean. A superhuman problem indeed, to conciliate moderation
and high-mindedness with surging, unbridled mob passions! The pilot,
gentle and pious, prays and relies on God; but the voice that comes to
him is almost lost in the roar of the tempest. Will it ever reach the
others?

There is no danger of his being swept off his feet by pride. No amount
of adoration can turn his head. On the contrary, it wounds not only his
sense of fitness of things, but his spirit of humility. Gandhi is an
exception among prophets and mystics, for he sees no visions, has no
revelations; he does not try to persuade himself that he is guided
supernaturally, nor does he try to make others believe it. Radiant
sincerity is his. His forehead remains calm and clear, his heart devoid
of vanity. He is a man, like all other men. He is _not_ a saint. He will
not have the people call him one. (Yet his very attitude proves that he
is one.)

The word "saint," he says, should be ruled out of present life.


I pray like every good Hindu. I believe we can all be messengers of God.
I have no special revelations of God's will. My firm belief is that He
reveals himself daily to every human being, but that we shut our cars to
the "still small voice." ... I claim to be nothing but a humble servant
of India and humanity. I have no desire to found a sect. I am really too
ambitious to be satisfied with a sect for a following, for I represent
no new truths. I endeavor to follow and represent truth as I know it. I
do claim to throw a new light on many an old truth.[92]


Personally, he is always modest, conscientious in the extreme, incapable
of narrow-mindedness whether as Indian patriot or apostle of
non-coöperation. He sanctions no tyranny, not even for the good of the
cause. Government oppression must never be replaced by non-coöperative
oppression.[93] Gandhi will not set his country up against other
countries; his patriotism is not confined to the boundaries of India.
"For me, patriotism is the same as humanity. I am patriotic because I am
human and humane. My patriotism is not exclusive. I will not hurt
England or Germany to serve India. Imperialism has no place in my scheme
of life. A patriot is so much less a patriot if he is a lukewarm
humanitarian."[94]

But have his disciples always felt this way? And, on their lips, what
becomes of Gandhi's doctrine? And, interpreted by them, how does it
reach the masses?

When Rabindranath Tagore, after traveling several years in Europe,
returned to India in August, 1921, he was astounded at the change in the
mentality of the people. Even before his return he had expressed his
anxiety in a series of letters sent from Europe to friends in India.
Many of these letters were published in his "Modern Review."[95] The
controversy between Tagore and Gandhi, between two great minds, both
moved by mutual admiration and esteem, but as fatally separated in their
feeling as a philosopher can be from an apostle, a St. Paul from a
Plato, is important. For on the one side we have the spirit of religious
faith and charity seeking to found a new humanity. On the other we have
intelligence, free-born, serene, and broad, seeking to unite aspirations
of all humanity in sympathy and understanding.

Tagore always looked upon Gandhi as a saint, and I have often heard him
speak of him with veneration. When, in referring to the Mahatma, I
mentioned Tolstoi, Tagore pointed out to me, and I realize it now that I
know Gandhi better--how much more clothed in light and radiance Gandhi's
spirit is than Tolstoi's. With Gandhi everything is nature--modest,
simple, pure--while all his struggles are hallowed by religious
serenity, whereas with Tolstoi everything is proud revolt against pride,
hatred against hatred, passion against passion. Everything in Tolstoi is
violence, even his doctrine of non-violence. On April 10, 1921, Tagore
wrote from London, "We are grateful to Gandhi for giving India a chance
to prove that her faith in the divine spirit of man is still living."
Despite the misgivings he had expressed as to Gandhi's campaign, Tagore,
when he left France to return to India, sincerely planned to back Gandhi
in every way. And even the manifesto of October, 1921, which I will
discuss later--the "Appeal to Truth," which marked the break between the
two men--begins with one of the most beautiful tributes to Gandhi that
have ever been written.

Gandhi's attitude to Tagore is one of loving regard, and it does not
change even when the two disagree. You feel that Gandhi is loath to
enter into polemics with Tagore, and when certain kind friends try to
embitter the debate by repeating personal remarks, Gandhi bids them be
silent and explains how much he owes Tagore.[96]

Yet it was inevitable that the breach between the two men would widen.
As far back as in 1920 Tagore had deplored that the overflowing wealth
of Gandhi's love and faith should be made to serve political ends, as it
had since Tilak's death. Of course Gandhi had not entered the political
arena with a light heart. But when Tilak died, India was left without a
political leader, and some one had to take his place.

As Gandhi says:[97]


If I seem to take part in politics, it is only because politics to-day
encircle us like the coils of a snake from which one cannot get out no
matter how one tries. I wish to wrestle with the snake.... I am trying
to introduce religion into politics.


But this Tagore deplores. Writing September 7, 1920, he says, "We need
all the moral force which Mahatma Gandhi represents, and which he alone
in the world can represent." That such a precious treasure should be
cast out on the frail bark of politics and subjected to the incessant
lashing of the waves of conflicting and irritated passions is a serious
misfortune for India, whose mission, says Tagore, "is to awaken the dead
to life by soul-fire." The wasting of spiritual resources in problems
which, when considered in the light of abstract moral truth, are
unworthy, is to be regretted. "It is criminal to transform moral force
into force."

This is what Tagore felt at the spectacular launching of the
non-coöperation campaign and at the unrest stirred up in the name of
the Khilafat cause and the massacres of the Punjab. He feared the
results of the campaign on an easily excitable mob subject to attacks of
hysterical fury. He would have liked to turn people's minds away from
vengeance and dreams of impossible redress; he would have had them
forget the irreparable and devote all efforts to constructing and
fashioning a new soul for India. And although he admired Gandhi's
doctrines and the ardent fire of his spirit of self-sacrifice, he hated
the element of negation contained in non-coöperation. Tagore
instinctively recoiled from everything that stood for "No."

And this conviction leads him to compare the positive ideal of
Brahmanism, which demands that the joys of life be welcomed but
purified, to the negative ideal of Buddhism, which demands their
suppression.[98] To this Gandhi replies that the art of eliminating is
as vital as that of accepting.[99] Human progress consists in a
combination of the two. The final word in the Upanishads is a negation.
The definition of Brahman by the authors of the Upanishads is _neti_,
not this! India had lost the power of saying "No." Gandhi has given it
back to her. Weeding is as essential as sowing.

But Tagore, apparently, does not believe in weeding. In his poetic
contemplation of life he is satisfied with things as they are, and he
finds his delight in admiring their harmony. He explains his point of
view in lines of great beauty, but detached from real life. His words
are like the dance of Nataraja, a play of illusions. Tagore says he
tries to tune his spirit up to the great exaltation that is sweeping
over the country. But he cannot do so, for in his heart, despite
himself, is a spirit of resistance. "In the darkness of my despair," he
says, "I see a smile and hear a voice that says, 'Your place is with the
children, playing on the beaches of the world, and there I am with
you.'" Tagore plays with harmonies, invents new rhythms, "strung out
through the hours, like children dancing in the sun and laughing as they
disappear." All creation is happy, with Tagore; flowers and leaves are
merely rhythms that never cease. God Himself is the supreme juggler, who
plays with Time, tossing stars and planets out upon the torrent of
appearances, and dropping paper boats filled with dreams into the river
of the ages. "When I beg Him to let me be His disciple and to let me
place some of the toys of my invention into one of his merry barks. He
smiles, and I follow Him, clutching the hem of his gown." Here Tagore
feels he is in his place. "But where am I, in a great crowd, squeezed in
at all sides? And who can understand the noise I hear? If I hear a song,
my sitar can catch the melody, and I can join the chorus, for I am a
singer. But in the mad clamor of the crowd, my voice is lost, and I
become dizzy." Tagore has tried, in the clamor of non-coöperation, to
find a melody, but to no avail. And he says to himself: "If you can't
march in step with your compatriots in the greatest crisis of their
history, beware of saying they are in the wrong, and you in the right!
But give up your place in the ranks, go back to your poet's corner, and
be prepared to meet with ridicule and public disgrace."[100]

So would a Goethe speak, an Indian Goethe, Bacchus. And it would seem as
if Tagore's mind is made up from now on. The poet bids action farewell,
since this action implies a negation, and he withdraws back into the
spell of creative enchantment he weaves around himself. But Tagore does
not only withdraw. As he says, Fate had decided that he should steer his
bark against the current. At the time he was not only the "poet" but the
spiritual ambassador of Asia to Europe; he had just returned from
Europe, where he had asked people to coöperate in creating a world
university at Santiniketan. What an irony of destiny that he should be
preaching cooperation between Occident and Orient at one end of the
world, when at that very moment non-coöperation was being preached at
the other end![101]

Non-coöperation wounded him doubly, therefore, in his work as well as
in his conception of life. "I believe," he says, "in the real union of
Orient and Occident."

Non-coöperation clashed with his way of thinking, for his mentality,
his rich intelligence, had been nourished on all the cultures of the
world. "All humanity's greatest is mine," he says. "The _infinite
personality of man_ (as the Upanishads say) can only come from the
magnificent harmony of all human races. My prayer is that India may
represent the coöperation of all the peoples of the world. For India,
unity is truth, and division evil. Unity is that which embraces and
understands everything; consequently, it cannot be attained through
negation. The present attempt to separate our spirit from that of the
Occident is an attempt at spiritual suicide.... The present age has been
dominated by the Occident, because the Occident had a mission to
fulfill. We of the Orient should learn from the Occident. It is
regrettable, of course, that we had lost the power of appreciating our
own culture, and therefore did not know how to assign Western culture to
its right place. But to say that it is wrong to coöperate with the West
is to encourage the worst form of provincialism and can produce nothing
but intellectual indigence. The problem is a world problem. No nation
can find its own salvation by breaking away from others. We must all be
saved or we must all perish together."[102]

In other words, just as Goethe in 1818 refused to reject French
civilization and culture, Tagore refuses to banish Western civilization.
While Gandhi's doctrine does not really set a barrier up between the
East and West, Tagore knows it will be interpreted as doing so, once
Hindu nationalism is stirred. Tagore fears the development of the spirit
of exclusion, and he explains his feeling of doubt and anxiety when his
students at the beginning of the non-cooperation movement came to seek
his advice. What does the boycotting of schools and colleges mean? asks
Tagore. "That students shall make a sacrifice--for what? Not for a more
complete education, but for non-education." During the first _Swadeshi_
campaign[103] a group of young students told him that they would leave
their schools and colleges at once if he ordered them to do so. And when
he refused to do so, they left him, in much irritation, doubting his
patriotism.[104]

In the spring of 1921, when India began boycotting English schools,
Tagore had seen an aggressive example of intellectual nationalism in
London. During a lecture of one of Tagore's friends. Professor Pearson,
some Indian students gave vent to misplaced national manifestations.
Tagore became indignant, and in a letter addressed to the director of
Santiniketan he condemned this spirit of intolerance and held the
non-coöperation movement responsible for it. And to this accusation
Gandhi replies:


I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be
stuffed. I want the culture of all lands to be blown about my house as
freely as possible.... But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any of
them ... Mine is not a religion of the prison-house. It has room for the
least among God's creations. But it is proof against insolent pride of
race, religion, or color.


While expressing his doubts as to the merits of an English literary
education, which has nothing to do with the building up of character, an
education which, he said, has emasculated the youth of India, Gandhi
regretted the excesses mentioned and claimed that his attitude was not
narrow, as Tagore seemed to imply.

These were frank and noble words, but they did not disarm Tagore's
misgivings. Tagore did not doubt Gandhi, but he feared the Gandhists.
And from the first contact with his people, after his return from
Europe, he began to fear the blind faith which the people placed in the
Mahatma's words. Tagore saw the danger of mental despotism loom near,
and in the "Modern Review" of October, 1921, he published a real
manifesto, "An Appeal to Truth," which was a cry of revolt against this
blind obedience. The protest was particularly strong because it was
preceded by a beautiful homage to the Mahatma. After describing the
first Indian independence movement in 1907 and 1908, Tagore explained
that in those days the political leaders were inspired by a bookish
ideal, based on the traditions of Burke, Gladstone, Mazzini, and
Garibaldi, and their message could be understood only by the elite. They
advanced, in short, an English-speaking ideal. But then came Mahatma
Gandhi! He stopped at the thresholds of the thousands of disinherited,
dressed like one of their own. He spoke to them in their own language.
Here was truth at last, and not only quotations from books! Mahatma, the
name given by the people of India to Gandhi, is his real name. For who
else had felt, like him, in communion with the people? Felt that they
are of his own flesh and blood? At the Mahatma's call the hidden forces
of the soul have blossomed forth, for the Mahatma has made the truth
into something concrete, visible. In the same way, thousands of years
ago, India blossomed forth to new greatness at Buddha's call, when he
made men understand that there must be compassion and fellow-feeling
among all living creatures. India, stirred to new life, expressed her
strength in science and wealth, spreading across oceans and deserts. No
commercial or military conquests ever spread so magnificently. For love
alone is truth.

But then Tagore's tone changed. The apotheosis stopped. Deception
followed. In Europe, across the seas, Tagore felt the quiver of India's
great revival. Thrilled, filled with joy at the thought of breathing in
the fluid breeze of the new freedom, he returned to his home land. But
on his arrival his elation fell. An oppressive atmosphere weighed on the
people. "An outside influence seemed to be bearing down on them,
grinding them and making one and all speak in the same tone, follow in
the same groove. Everywhere I was told that culture and reasoning power
should abdicate, and blind obedience only reign. So simple it is to
crush, in the name of some outward liberty, the real freedom of the
soul!"

We understand Tagore's misgivings and his appeal. They are of all times
and ages. The last free minds of a crumbling old world voiced them at
the dawn of the new Christianity. And whenever we ourselves encounter
the rising tide of some blind faith in a social or national ideal we
feel the same misgivings stir within us. Tagore's revolt is the revolt
of the free soul against the ages of faith which it has suscitated, for
while faith to a handful of chosen ones means supreme liberty, it means
only another form of slavery for the masses who are led by it.

Tagore's criticism is aimed above and beyond the fanaticism of the
crowd. Over the blind masses it strikes the Mahatma. No matter how great
Gandhi may be, isn't he taking upon himself more than a single man can
bear? A cause as great as India's should not be dependent on the will of
a single master. The Mahatma is the master of truth and love, but the
attainment of _Swaraj_ home rule, is vastly complicated. "The paths are
intricate and hard to explore. Emotion and enthusiasm are required, but
also science and meditation. All the moral forces of the nation must be
called upon. Economists must find practical solutions, educators must
teach, statesmen ponder, workers work.... Everywhere the desire to learn
must be kept up free and unhampered. No pressure, either open or hidden,
must weigh on the intelligence." ... "In older days, in our primeval
forests," says Tagore, "our sages, _gurus_, in the plenitude of their
vision, called on _all_ seekers of truth.... Why does not our _guru_,
who wants to lead us to action, make the same call?" But the only
command that _Guru Gandhi_ so far has launched is, "Spin and weave!" And
Tagore asks, "Is this the gospel of a new creative age? If large
machinery constitutes a danger for the West, will not small machines
constitute a greater danger for us?" The forces of a nation must
cooperate, not only with each other, but with other nations. "The
awakening of India is bound up in the awakening of the world. Every
nation that tries to shut itself in violates the spirit of the new age."
And Tagore, who has spent several years in Europe, speaks of some of the
men he met--men who have freed their hearts from the chains of
nationalism in order to serve humanity--men who constitute the
persecuted minority of world citizens, _cives totius orbis_--and he
classes them among the _sannyasins_, that is, "those who in their soul
have realized human unity."[105]

And should India alone, asks Tagore, recite the chapter of negation,
dwell eternally on the faults of others, and strive for _Swaraj_ on a
basis of hatred? When the bird is awakened by the dawn, it does not only
think of food. Its wings respond to the call of the sky. Its throat
fills with joyous songs to greet the coming day. A new humanity has sent
out its call. Let India reply in her own way! "Our first duty, at dawn,
is to remember _Him Who is One, who is indistinguishable through class or
color, and who, by his varied forces, provides, as is necessary, for the
needs of each class and of all. Let us pray Him, who gives wisdom, to
unite us all in understanding._"[106]


Tagore's noble words, some of the most beautiful ever addressed to a
nation, are a poem of sunlight, and plane above all human struggles. And
the only criticism one can make of them is that they plane too high.
Tagore is right, from the point of view of eternity. The bird-poet, the
eagle-sized lark, as Heine called a master of our music, sits and sings
on the ruins of time. He lives in eternity. But the demands of the
present are imperious. The hour that passes demands immediate, if
imperfect, relief; but clamors for it. And in this respect Gandhi, who
lacks Tagore's poetic flight (or who, perhaps, as a _Boddhisattva_ of
pity has given it up in order to live among the disinherited) finds it
child's play to reply.

In his answer to Tagore Gandhi displays more passion than he has so far
shown in the controversy. On October 13, 1921, in "Young India," his
stirring rejoinder appears. Gandhi thanks the "Great Sentinel"[107] for
having warned India as to the pitfalls ahead. He agrees with Tagore that
most essential of all is the maintenance of a free spirit.


We must not surrender our reason into anybody's keeping. Blind surrender
to love is often more mischievous than forced surrender to the lash of
the tyrant. There is hope for the slave of the brute, none for that of
love.


Tagore is the sentinel who warns of the approach of the enemies called
Bigotry, Lethargy, Intolerance, Ignorance, and Inertia. But Gandhi does
not feel that Tagore's misgivings are justified. The Mahatma always
appeals to reason. It is not true that India is moved by blind obedience
only. If the country decided to adopt the spinning-wheel, this has been
only after considerable reflection. Tagore speaks of patience and is
satisfied with beautiful songs. But there is war. Let the poet lay down
his lyre! Let him sing when it is over! When a house is on fire, _all_
must go out and take up a bucket to quench the fire.


When all about me are dying for want of food, the only occupation
permissible for me is to feed the hungry. India is a house on fire. It
is dying of hunger because it has no work to buy food with. Khulna is
starving. The Ceded Districts are passing successively through a fourth
famine. Orissa is a land suffering from chronic famine. India is growing
daily poorer. The circulation about her feet and legs has almost
stopped. And if we do not take care she will collapse altogether....

To a people famishing and idle the only acceptable form in which God can
dare appear is work and promise of food as wages. God created man to
work for his food and said that those who ate without work were thieves.
We must think of millions who to-day are less than animals, almost in a
dying state. Hunger is the argument that is drawing India to the
spinning-wheel.

The poet lives for the morrow, and would have us do likewise. He
presents to our admiring gaze the beautiful picture of the birds in the
early morning singing hymns of praise as they soar into the sky. Those
birds had their day's food and soared with rested wings in whose veins
new blood had flown the previous night. But I have had the pain of
watching birds who for want of strength could not be coaxed even into a
flutter of their wings. The human bird under the Indian sky gets up
weaker than when he pretended to retire. For millions it is an eternal
vigil or an eternal trance. I have found it impossible to soothe
suffering patients with a song from Kabir....

Give them work that they may eat! "Why should I, who have no need to
work for food, spin?" may be the question asked. Because I am eating
what does not belong to me. I am living on the spoliation of my
countrymen. Trace the course of every coin that finds its way into your
pocket, and you will realize the truth of what I write. Every one must
spin. Let Tagore spin, like the others. Let him burn his foreign
clothes; that is the duty to-day. God will take care of the morrow. As
it says in the Gitâ, Do _right!_


Dark and tragic words these! Here we have the misery of the world rising
up before the dream of art and crying, "Dare deny me existence!" Who
does not sympathize with Gandhi's passionate emotion and share it?

And yet, in his reply so proud and so poignant, there is nevertheless
something that justifies Tagore's misgivings: _sileat poeta_, imposing
silence on the person who is called upon to obey the imperious
discipline of the cause. Obey without discussion the law of _Swadeshi_,
the first command of which is, Spin!

No doubt, in the human battle, discipline is a duty. But, unfortunately,
those who are intrusted with enforcing this discipline, the master's
lieutenants, may be narrow-minded men. They may mistake the discipline
chosen to attain the ideal for the ideal itself. Discipline fascinates
them by its rigidity, for they are of the kind who feel at ease only on
the narrow path. They look upon _Swadeshi_ as essential, not as a means
to an end, but in itself. In their eyes it acquires an almost sacred
character. One of Gandhi's disciples, professor at the school that lies
nearest his heart, the _Satyagraha Ashram_ of Sarbarmati at Ahmedabad,
Mr. D. B. Kalelkar, writes a "Gospel of Swadeshi," which Gandhi, in a
preface, stamps with his approval.[108] This book, or pamphlet, is
addressed to the man in the street. Let us examine the creed as it is
taught by one of those who drink at the very source of the unpolluted
doctrine:


Now and then God is incarnated on earth to redeem the world. His
incarnation need not necessarily be in human form.... He may be manifest
in an abstract principle or in an ideal which uplifts the world.... His
latest incarnation is in the "Gospel of Swadeshi"...


The apostle realizes that this statement may cause a smile if _Swadeshi_
is to be interpreted as meaning the boycott of foreign goods only. This
is only a partial application of _Swadeshi_, which is a "vast religious
principle that will rid the world of strife and hatred and liberate
humanity." Its quintessence may be found in the Indian scriptures:


Your own religious _Dharma_--that is to say, your own religious destiny
or salvation--though imperfect, is the best. The fulfilment of _Dharma_
for which you were not intended is always fraught with danger. He alone
attains happiness who fulfils the task laid out for him.


The fundamental law of _Swadeshi_ springs from faith in God, "who has
provided, in all eternity, for the happiness of the world. This God has
placed each human being in the environment best suited for the
fulfilment of his task. A man's work and his aspirations should be
suited to his position in the world. We cannot choose our culture any
more than our birth, family, or country. We must accept what God has
given us; we must accept tradition as coming from God and regard it as a
strict duty to live up to it. To renounce tradition would be sinful."

From these premises it follows that the inhabitant of one country should
not concern himself with other countries.


The follower of _Swadeshi_ never takes upon himself the vain task of
trying to reform the world, for he believes that the world is moved and
always will be moved according to rules set by God.... One must not
expect the people of one country to provide for the needs of another,
even for philanthropic reasons, and if it were possible, it would not be
desirable.... The true follower of _Swadeshi_ does not forget that every
human being is his brother, but that it is incumbent on him to fulfil
the task his particular environment has laid down for him. Just as we
must work out our salvation in the century in which we are born, we
should serve the country in which we are born. The emancipation of our
soul should be sought through religion and our own culture.


Is it, however, permissible for a nation to take advantage of all
opportunities to develop its resources of commerce and industry? Indeed
not. An unworthy ambition to wish to develop India's manufactures! It
would be asking people to violate their _Dharmas!_ It is as criminal to
export one's products as to import those of others. "For proselytism is
repellent to the spirit of _Swadeshi._" And the logical conclusion of
this theory, rather startling to a European, is that it is as sinful to
export goods as ideas. If India has been bitterly humiliated in history,
it is as punishment for the crimes of ancestors who traded with ancient
Egypt and Rome, a crime deliberately repeated by all succeeding
generations. Every nation, every class, should remain true to its own
duty, live on its own resources, and be inspired by its own traditions.


We should avoid being intimate with those whose social customs are
different from ours. We should not mingle in the lives of men or peoples
whose ideals are different from ours.... Every man is a brook. Every
nation is a river. They must follow their course, clear and pure, till
they reach the Sea of Salvation, where all will blend.


What is this but the triumph of nationalism? The narrowest and most
unpolluted? Stay at home, shut all doors, change nothing, hold on to
everything, export nothing, buy nothing, uplift and purify body and
spirit! A gospel, indeed, of medieval monks![109] And Gandhi, of the
broad mind, lets his name be associated with it!

Tagore's bewilderment, when met with these visionaries of reactionary
nationalism, is comprehensible. No wonder he was taken back by these
apostles, who would reverse the march of centuries, shut the free soul
in a cage, and burn all bridges communicating with the West.[110] As a
matter of fact, Gandhi's doctrine really implies nothing of the sort. As
may be seen from his reply to Tagore, he says, "_Swadeshi_ is a message
to the world." The world exists; therefore, Gandhi reckons with it, and
does not repudiate "proselyting. Non-coöperation," he says, "is not
directed against the English or the West. Our non-coöperation is
directed against material civilization and its attendant greed and
exploitation of the weak." In other words, it combats the errors of the
West and would therefore be beneficial to the West also. "Our
non-coöperation is a retirement within ourselves." A temporary
retirement to enable India to gather up her forces before placing them
at the services of humanity. "India must learn to live before she can
aspire to die for humanity." Gandhi does not forbid coöperation with
Europe provided the sound ideal which he sets up for all men is adhered
to.

Gandhi's real doctrine is much broader, much more human, much more
universal[111] than that expressed in the "Gospel" which he has
approved. Why did Gandhi lend his name to this "Gospel"? Why does he let
his magnificent ideal, a message for the whole world, be imprisoned
within the narrow bonds of an Indian theocracy? Beware of disciples! The
purer they are, the more pernicious. God preserve a great man from
friends who only grasp part of his ideal! In codifying it, they destroy
the harmony which is the real blessing of his living soul.

But this is not all. While the disciples who live near the master are at
least tinged by his noble spirituality, what about the disciples of his
disciples, and the others, the masses to whom the doctrine comes merely
as vague and broken echoes? How much and what do they absorb of the
gospel of spiritual purification and creative renouncement?
Unfortunately, to them the doctrine appears in its most rudimentary and
material form, in a sort of Messianic waiting for the advent of
_Swaraj_, home rule, by the spinning-wheel! This is the negation of all
progress. It's the old _fuori Barbari._ Tagore is alarmed, and not
without reason, at the violence of the apostles of non-violence, and
even Gandhi is not absolutely free from it. Gandhi says that he would
"withdraw from the field if he felt hatred for the English," for one
must love one's enemies while hating their deeds, "hate Satanism while
loving Satan." The distinction, however, is a little too subtle for the
average man to grasp. And when at each session of the congress the
leaders dwell with fiery eloquence on the crimes and treachery of the
English, anger and rancor pile up behind the sluices; and beware when
the sluices burst! When Gandhi, explaining why he advocates the burning
of precious stuffs in Bombay in August, 1921, says to Andrews, Tagore's
friend, that "He is transferring ill will from men to things,"[112] he
does not realize that the fury of the masses is gathering impetus, and
that instinctively these masses reason, "Things first, men next!" He
does not foresee that in this same Bombay, less than three months
afterward, _men_ will be killing _men._ Gandhi is too much of a saint;
he is too pure, top free from the animal passions that lie dormant in
man. He does not dream that they lie there, crouching within the people,
devouring his words and thriving on them. Tagore, more clear-sighted,
realizes the danger the non-coöperators are skirting when they
innocently lay bare the crimes of Europe, profess non-violence, and
simultaneously plant in people's minds the virus which will inevitably
break in violence! But this they do not realize, these apostles whose
hearts are free from hatred. But he who would lead men in action must
know the heart-beats of the others, not merely his own. Beware the mob!
_Cave canem!_ The moral precepts of a Gandhi will not be able to curb
it. The only way, perhaps, to prevent it from running wild, the only
way, perhaps, of making it yield docilely to the austere discipline of
the master, would be for him to pose as an incarnated god, as those who
paint him as Sri-Krishna secretly hope he will do. But Gandhi's
sincerity and his humility prevent him from playing the role.

And then, planing above the roaring human ocean alone, remains the
single voice of the purest of men, but only a man. How long will it be
heard? Grandiose and tragic waiting!




[Footnote 67: Etymologically, _swa_, self, oneself; _deshi_, country.
Hence, national independence. The non-coöperators usually interpret it
in the narrower sense of economic independence. It will be seen, further
on, the sort of social gospel which Gandhi's followers make out of the
idea. ("Gospel of Swadeshi.")]

[Footnote 68: September 8 and 24, October 20, 1920.]

[Footnote 69: August 11 and 25, 1920.]

[Footnote 70: At least so Gandhi interprets the texts. Dare a European
venture that he finds in the Bhagavad Gitâ serene indifference to
violence perpetrated and suffered?]

[Footnote 71: August 25, 1920.]

[Footnote 72: May 12, 1920.]

[Footnote 73: "To All the English in India," October 27, 1920.]

[Footnote 74: April 28, 1920; June 8, September 1, 1921. In his "Letter
to the Parsees," the business people, he begs them to stop selling
alcohol (March 23, 1921). In his "Letter to the Moderates," June 8,
1921, he asks them to help him carry this point, even if they do not
agree with the other points of his program. He also wages war on drugs,
narcotics, and opium dens.]

[Footnote 75: Gandhi himself realizes that many will jeer. But, he asks,
did the sewing-machine do away with the needle? The spinning-wheel's
utility has not been lost. On the contrary, nothing is more useful at
the present moment. Spinning is a national necessity, and constitutes
the only possible means of subsistence for millions of starving people.
(July 21, 1920.)]

[Footnote 76: February 2, 1921.]

[Footnote 77: July 21, 1920.]

[Footnote 78: November 17, 1920.]

[Footnote 79: English is not excluded, nor any other European language,
but it is reserved for the higher grades, at the end of the school
program. In all grades, however, Indian dialects are used. Gandhi dreams
of a higher state of universal existence where all differences will
persist, not as divisions but as different facets.]

[Footnote 80: _Ashram_, place of discipline, hermitage.]

[Footnote 81: At the Nagpur session of the congress some 4726 delegates
were present, and among them were 469 Mohammedans, 65 Sikhs, 5 Parsees,
2 Untouchables, 4079 Hindus and 106 women.

The new constitution provided that a delegate should be chosen for every
5000 inhabitants, which would make a total of 6175 delegates. The
National Indian Congress was to meet once a year, round Christmas. The
committee of the congress consisting of 850 members would act as
executive body, enforcing the resolutions of the congress and carrying
out its policies. Between the sessions of the congress the committee was
to have the same authority as the congress. Within the committee an
executive board of fifteen members was to bear the same relation to the
congress committee that a ministerial cabinet bears to parliament. This
board could be dissolved by the congress committee.

The Congress of Nagpur drew up the plans for a hierarchy of committees
of provincial congresses, representing twenty-one provinces and twelve
languages, and placed under them local committees in each village or
group of villages. It advised the formation of a band of national
workers to be called the Indian National Service to be financed out of
funds called the All-India Tilak Memorial Swaraja Fund.

Every adult, male or female, possessing 4 annas was given the right to
vote, provided he had signed the credo of the constitution. Whoever has
attained the age of twenty-one and has sworn adherence to Article I of
the Constitution and agreed to uphold the rules and by-laws of the
constitution is eligible.]

[Footnote 82: March 23, 1921.]

[Footnote 83: October 6, 1920; May 11 and 18, July 28, October
20, 1921.]

[Footnote 84: In citing his friendship with the Mussulman Maulana
Mohamed Ali, Gandhi claims that both men remain true to their respective
faiths.

Gandhi would not give his daughter in marriage to one of Ali's sons, nor
would he share the meals of his friend; and the same is true of Maulana
Mohamed Ali. But this does not prevent both men from being fond of each
other, respecting each other, and relying on each other.

Gandhi does not say that intermarriage between Hindus and Mussulmans,
and the fact of eating together, should necessarily be condemned, but he
says they are impossible at the present time. It will take at least a
century for the two peoples to reach such a stage of fusion. A policy
purported practical should not attempt to carry such a reform. Gandhi
does not object to it but considers it premature. The only important
thing, for the present, is for the two peoples to respect each other and
remain loyal to each other. Here, too, Gandhi shows his sense of
realities. (October 20, 1921.)]

[Footnote 85: Speech made April 27, 1921.]

[Footnote 86: October 27, 1920.]

[Footnote 87: In the end of April, 1921, untouchability begins to
diminish. In many villages the pariahs are allowed to live among other
Hindus and to enjoy the same rights. (April 27, 1921.) In other regions,
however, their condition remains deplorable, particularly in Madras.
(September 29, 1921.) The question is included in the program of the
National Assemblies of India from this time on. The Congress of Nagpur,
in December, 1920, had already expressed the desire of seeing
untouchability wiped out.]

[Footnote 88: April 27, 1921.]

[Footnote 89: July 21, 1921, and October 6, 1920.]

[Footnote 90: July 21, August 11, December 16, 1921.]

[Footnote 91: Gandhi protests against this in "Young India"
of June, 1921.]

[Footnote 92: May 12, 1920; May 25, July 13, August 25, 1921.]

[Footnote 93: December 8, 1920.]

[Footnote 94: March 16, 1921.]

[Footnote 95: "Letters from Abroad." The three letters of March 2, 5,
and 13 were published in the "Modern Review" in May, 1921. The "Appeal
to Truth" was written after Tagore's return to India and published in
the "Modern Review" October 1, 1921. The two men, however, did not
discuss their views in polemical writings only. They met and had a long
interview, but neither has published any comment on their meeting. C. F.
Andrews, however, who was present, has told us what the talk was about
and referred to the arguments used by Tagore and Gandhi to back up their
different points of view.]

[Footnote 96: February 9, 1922. In this article, called "Too Sacred for
Publication," Gandhi dwells on his long friendship with Tagore. Gandhi
was a frequent visitor at Tagore's home at Santiniketan, and considered
it as a retreat. While he was in England his children had their home
there.]

[Footnote 97: May 12, 1920.]

[Footnote 98: March 5, 1921.]

[Footnote 99: June 1, 1921.]

[Footnote 100: March 5, 1921.]

[Footnote 101: March 6, 1921.]

[Footnote 102: March 13, 1921. Developed in article in the "Modern
Review" of November, 1921.]

[Footnote 103: The first Indian home rule campaign, in Bengal,
in 1907-08.]

[Footnote 104: March 5, 1921.]

[Footnote 105: Those who have renounced their personal life in
order to bring a unity to mankind.]

[Footnote 106: Paraphrase of the first stanza of the Upanishads.]

[Footnote 107: Title of the article of October 13, 1921.]

[Footnote 108: "The Gospel of Swadeshi," Madras, 1922.]

[Footnote 109: In this "Gospel," however, are words of great moral force
and beauty. Exert no vengeance. "That which is passed is passed. The
past cannot be called back; it is part of eternity and man has no
recourse against it. Do not try to exert reprisals as punishment for
past injustice and offence! Let the dead past bury its dead. Act in the
living present, heart within and God o'erhead."

The cold purity of the glaciers blows through the book, from one end
to the other.]

[Footnote 110: Tagore was particularly sensitive to such writings since
there had sprung up a sort of rivalry between Gandhi's _Ashram_ (where
this "Gospel" was written) and Tagore's _Santiniketan_, a rivalry which
both men tried to smooth out. In an article published February 9, 1922,
Gandhi, in "Young India," complains that a journalist misquoted him,
making him say things about his _Ashram_ which might be construed as
criticisms of Tagore's _Santiniketan._ Gandhi expresses his respect for
Tagore's school and adds, rather humorously, that if he had to determine
the superiority of one school over the other, he would vote for
_Santiniketan_, in spite of the discipline of _Ashram. Santiniketan_ is
the older brother, older in age as well as in wisdom, but, says Gandhi,
"Let the disciples of _Santiniketan_ beware the growth of little
_Ashram!_"]

[Footnote 111: To my mind Gandhi is as universal as Tagore, but in a
different way. Gandhi is a universalist through his religious feeling;
Tagore is intellectually universal. Gandhi does not exclude any one from
the communion of prayer and daily duties, just as the first apostles did
not differentiate between Jews and Gentiles but imposed the same moral
discipline on both. This is what Gandhi aspires to do, and herein lies
his narrowness; not in his heart, which is as large as that of a Christ,
but in his spirit of intellectual asceticism and renunciation. (And
this, too, is of a Christ!) Gandhi is a universalist of the Middle Ages.
While venerating him, we understand and approve Tagore.]

[Footnote 112: September 1, 1921.]




PART THREE




§ 1


In 1921 the non-coöperation movement evolved rapidly. The whole year
was one of uncertainty, expectancy, and violent outbreaks. Gandhi
inevitably reflected its oscillations.

For a long time hostility had been growing, and it broke out in open
revolt at the Government's brutally oppressive measures. There were
riots at Malegaon, in the district of Nasik, and at Giridih, in Behar.
In the beginning of May, 1921, there were serious clashes in Assam.
Twelve thousand coolies stopped work in the tea-gardens, and were
attacked by Gurkhas drafted by the Government, and in eastern Bengal the
railroad and steamship workers organized a two months' strike in
protest. Gandhi did all in his power to calm the effervescence. In May
he had a long conversation with the viceroy, Lord Reading, and he also
used his influence with the Ali brothers, who were said to be stirring
up violence by their inflammatory speeches. Gandhi was able to persuade
his Moslem friends to "refrain from directly or indirectly advocating
violence."

The non-coöperation movement, however, grew more and more powerful as
time went on. The Moslem element in particular became audacious. At
Karachi, July 8, for instance, the All-India Khilafat Conference, after
reiterating the Moslem claims, declared that no Mussulman should serve
in the English Army or assist in recruiting. In fact, the conference
even went so far as to threaten to proclaim a republic in India and
advocate civil disobedience at the December session of the National
Congress if the Government did not change its hostile attitude to the
Angora leaders. A little later, on July 28, the committee of the
National Congress (the first congress committee elected according to the
new constitution) sitting at Bombay decided to boycott the Prince of
Wales, whose visit was announced, and declared a boycott on all foreign
materials, to become effective before September 30. It also took steps
to intensify and regulate national spinning and weaving, and urged the
organization of a more vigorous campaign against the drink evil, despite
the Government's support of the dealers. Less audacious than the
Mussulmans of the Khilafat Conference, however, the congress committee
disavowed revolutionary tendencies and disapproved civil disobedience,
approving a more; strenuous propaganda in favor of non-violence.

In August a brutal revolt of the Moplahs took place, and lasted several
months. With Maulana Mohamed Ali, Gandhi decided to go from Calcutta to
Malabar to try to quiet it. But the Government arrested Maulana Mohamed
and his brother Maulana Shaukat Ali as well as several other Moslem
notables, accusing them of having voted for civil disobedience at the
Khilafat Conference. At the news of the Ali brothers' arrest, the
Central Khilafat Committee, sitting at Delhi, ratified unanimously the
resolutions of the Khilafat Conference. Hundreds of demonstrations, held
all over India, confirmed the people's approval of them. On October 4,
Gandhi announced that he considered his cause hound up with that of the
Mussulmans. In a manifesto approved by fifty prominent members of the
All-India Congress Gandhi declared that every citizen was entitled to
express his views on non-coöperation, adding that no Indian, whether
civil functionary or soldier, should serve a Government which has
brought about the moral, political, and economical degradation of India.
He set up non-coöperation with such a Government as an imperative duty.
The Ali brothers' trial took place at Karachi. With their
fellow-accused, they were sentenced to two years' imprisonment.

To this sentence India replied with redoubled vigor. Gandhi's manifesto
was ratified by the Committee of the All-India Congress on November 4 at
Delhi. And casting the die, the committee authorized every province, on
its own responsibility, to proclaim civil disobedience, beginning with a
refusal to pay taxes. "Resisters," however, were first to swear complete
obedience to the _Swadeshi_ program, including hand spinning, and take
the vow of non-violence. In other words, under Gandhi's direction the
committee tried to combine resistance against the Government with
discipline and self-sacrifice. To make the disinterested character of
the movement clear. Resisters were informed that neither they nor their
families would receive any pecuniary aid from the committee.

The great disobedience was about to become effective when, on November
17, the Prince of Wales landed at Bombay. The boycott was carried out by
the lower and the middle classes; but the rich, the Parsees and official
personages, ignored the order completely. Their attitude created such
fury among the populace that the masses stormed the houses of the rich,
looting and sacking homes and property, sparing no one, not even the
women. Many were killed and wounded. This was the only case of violence,
however. Everywhere else, all over India, the prescribed _hartal_ took
place in the midst of almost religious quiet and order. There were no
disturbances of any kind. But the news of the Bombay riots wounded
Gandhi "like an arrow shot in his heart." As soon as he heard of them he
rushed to the spot, and when the rioters cheered him his mortification
knew no bounds. He called the crowd angrily to order and commanded it to
disperse. He declared that the Parsees were justified in celebrating the
prince's arrival if they wished, and, in any event, nothing justified
violence. The crowd listened to Gandhi in silence, but farther off the
tumult broke out again. The worst elements seemed to have suddenly
emerged from the earth, and twenty thousand men, towering in rage and
hatred, cannot be brought back to reason all at once. Still, the rioters
remained localized in certain districts, and the destruction was not
half so great as that caused by the most insignificant revolutionary
outbreak in Europe. Gandhi, however, issued anguished appeals to the
citizens of Bombay and to the non-coöperators, and declared that such
incidents proved that the masses were not yet ripe for civil
disobedience. Therefore he suspended the order proclaiming it. To punish
himself for the violence of his followers, he imposed upon himself a
religious fast of twenty-four hours every week.

The European residents in India were less alarmed by the Bombay riots
than by the striking unanimousness of the silent _hartal_ throughout the
country. They urged the viceroy and the Government to act, and a series
of oppressive measures were imposed in the various provinces. An old
law, aimed at anarchists and secret societies, dating from the uprisings
of 1908, was unearthed, and made to serve against the volunteer
associations of the Congress and of the Khilafat. Arrests were made by
the thousand, which only resulted in bringing thousands of new recruits
to register as volunteers, who were then trained by the provincial
committees. In the meantime a _hartal_ was set for December 24, the date
of the Prince of Wales's visit to Calcutta. That day the prince passed
through a silent, absolutely deserted city.

The revolution seemed to be smoldering everywhere, ready to burst into
flame when the Indian National Congress met at Ahmedabad. There was
about it the impressive solemnity of the États-Généraux on the eve of
the French Revolution in 1789. The president of the congress had just
been imprisoned. The discussions were brief. The congress again
proclaimed its faith in non-coöperation and invited all citizens to
register as volunteers and to be prepared to face arrest. It also urged
the people to organize mass-meetings everywhere; and after expressing
the opinion that civil disobedience is a weapon equally effective and
more humane than armed rebellion, it moved that civil disobedience be
adopted as soon as the masses had grasped the real spirit of
non-violence. Realizing that many of the members would be arrested at
the close of the session, the congress delegated its powers to Gandhi,
investing him with a dictature _de facto_ and authorizing him to appoint
his successor. This made Gandhi sole master of India's policy. The
congress limited his authority on one point only, and this was that he
should agree to no change in the national _creed_ nor make peace with
the Government without the consent of the congress committee. A fraction
of the assembly tried to pass a resolution approving violence, if
necessary to bring about India's independence, but this resolution was
rejected by the majority, which believed in Gandhi's principles.

The ensuing weeks revealed the religious enthusiasm which swept over
India. Twenty-five thousand men and women joyfully surrendered
themselves to prison guards. And back of them, thousands of others stood
ready to give themselves up to prove their faith in the cause of India.




§ 2


Again Gandhi believed the country was ripe for civil disobedience _en
masse._ The signal was to be given in a model district, at Bardoli, in
the province of Bombay.[113] Here Gandhi's ideas had always been
understood and followed. In an open letter to the viceroy, dated
February 9, 1922, Gandhi set forth his program. The letter is a
courteous, but clear, declaration of war. Gandhi says he is the leader
of the non-coöperation movement, and he claims responsibility for it.
Bardoli will be the first unit of non-violent mass revolt against a
government which has brutally infringed upon freedom of the press, of
association, and of speech. Gandhi gives Lord Reading seven days in
which to announce a change of policy. If the "viceroy will not or cannot
see such an incredibly simple issue," civil disobedience will be
proclaimed.[114]

Scarcely had the letter, to the viceroy been despatched when there
occurred an outbreak more violent than any of the others. During a
procession at Chauri-Chaura, in the district of Gorakhpur, or, rather,
after the procession had passed, some stragglers were "interfered with
and abused by the constables." Attacked by the mob, the constables
opened fire, and when they exhausted their ammunition they retired to
the _thana_ (the police barracks) for safety. The mob set fire to the
_thana._ In vain the besieged begged for mercy. They were pitilessly
massacred and burned. As the provocation had come from them, however,
and as no non-coöperation volunteer had had a hand in the attack,
Gandhi would have been justified in disclaiming all responsibility for
the outrage. But he had really become the conscience of India. The crime
of a single one of his people cut him to the quick. He took upon himself
all the sins of his people. His horror was such that on the spur of the
moment, and for the second time, he stopped the civil-disobedience
movement that he had just launched. The situation was vastly more
complicated than after the Bombay riots, and only a few days before he
had sent his ultimatum to the viceroy. How could he retract it without
making his program seem illogical and even ridiculous? "Satan," as
Gandhi says, "forbade it." Realizing that "Satan's" voice was the voice
of _pride_, he decided to retract the manifesto.

And on February 16,1922, there appeared in "Young India" one of the most
extraordinary human documents ever written. It is Gandhi's _mea culpa_,
his public confession. From the depths of his mortification words of
thanks swell to his lips, of thanks to God for having humbled him:


God has been abundantly kind to me. He has warned me for the third time
that there is not as yet in India that truthful and non-violent
atmosphere which, and which alone, can justify mass disobedience, which
can be at all described as "civil," which means gentle, truthful,
humble, knowing, wilful, yet loving, never criminal and hateful. He
warned me in 1919 when the Rowlatt Act agitation was started. Ahmedabad,
Viramvrag, and Kheda erred. I retraced my steps, called it a Himalayan
miscalculation, humbled myself before God and man, and stopped not
merely mass civil disobedience, but even my own.... The next time it was
through the events of Bombay that God gave me a terrific warning. He
made me eyewitness.... I announced my intention to stop the mass civil
disobedience which was to be immediately started in Bardoli. The
humiliation was greater than that in 1919. But it did me good and I am
sure that the nations gained by the stopping. India stood for truth and
non-violence by the suspension.

But the bitterest humiliation was still to come.... God spoke clearly
through Chauri-Chaura.... And when India claims to be non-violent and
hopes to mount the throne of liberty through non-violent means, mob
violence even in answer to grave provocation is a bad augury....
Non-violent attainment of self-government presupposes a non-violent
control over the violent elements in the country. Non-violent
non-coöperators can only succeed when they have succeeded in attaining
control over the hooligan of India....


Therefore, on February 11, at Bardoli, he "put his doubts and troubles"
before the working committee of the congress. They did not all agree
with him. "But never," he said, "has a man been 'blessed,' perhaps, with
colleagues and associates so considerate and forgiving."

They sympathized with his scruples and consented, at his request, to
suspend the order of civil disobedience, urging at the same time that
all organizations strive to create an atmosphere of non-violence.


I know that the drastic reversal of practically the whole of the
aggressive program may be politically unsound and unwise, but there is
no doubt that it is religiously sound. The country will have gained by
my humiliation and confession of error. The only virtue I want to claim
is truth and non-violence. I lay no claim to superhuman powers. I want
none. I wear the same corruptible flesh that the weakest of my
fellow-beings wear, and am therefore as liable to err as any. My
services have many limitations, but God has up to now blessed them in
spite of the imperfections.

For confession of error is like a broom that sweeps away dirt and leaves
the surface cleaner and brighter. I feel stronger for my confession. And
the cause must prosper for the retracing. Never has a man reached his
destination by persistence in deviation from the straight path. It has
been urged that Chauri-Chaura cannot affect Bardoli. ... I have no doubt
whatsoever on that account. The people of Bardoli are, in my opinion,
the most peaceful in India. But Bardoli is but a speck on the map of
India. Its effort cannot succeed unless there is perfect coöperation
from the other parts.... Just as the addition of a grain of arsenic to a
pot of milk renders it unfit as food so will the civility of Bardoli
prove unacceptable by the addition of the deadly poison from
Chauri-Chaura.... The latter represents India as much as Bardoli.
Chauri-Chaura is, after all, an aggravated symptom. _In civil
disobedience there should be no excitement. Civil disobedience is a
preparation for mute suffering._ Its effect is marvelous, though
unperceived and gentle.... The tragedy of Chauri-Chaura is really the
index-finger. It shows the way India may easily go if drastic
precautions be not taken. If we are not to evolve violence out of
non-violence, it is quite clear that we must hastily retrace our steps
and reestablish an atmosphere of peace, and not think of starting mass
civil disobedience until we are sure of peace being retained in spite of
mass civil disobedience being started and in spite of government
provocation.... Let the opponent glory in our humiliation and so-called
defeat. It is better to be charged with cowardice than to be guilty of
denial of our oath and sin against God....


And the apostle wants to redeem the blood shed by others:


I must undergo personal cleansing. I must become a fitter instrument
able to register the slightest variation in the moral atmosphere about
me. My prayers must have deeper truth and humility. For me there is
nothing so cleansing as a fast. A fast undertaken for fuller
self-expression, for attainment of the spirit's supremacy over the
flesh, is a most powerful factor in one's evolution....[115]


And he imposes on himself a continuous five days' fast. He does not want
his co-workers to follow his example. He must punish himself. "I am in
the unhappy position of a surgeon proved skill-less to deal with an
admittedly dangerous case. I must either abdicate or acquire greater
skill." His fast is penance and punishment for him and for the rioters
of Chauri-Chaura who sinned with his name on their lips. Gandhi would
like to suffer for them alone, but he advises them to hand themselves
voluntarily to the Government and to make a clean confession, for they
have injured the cause they meant to serve.


I would suffer humiliation, every torture, absolute ostracism, and death
itself to prevent the movement from becoming violent or a precursor of
violence.


The history of humanity's spiritual progress can point to few pages as
noble as these. The moral value of such an action is incomparable, but
as a political move it was disconcerting. Gandhi himself admits it might
be called "politically unsound and unwise." It is dangerous to assemble
all the forces of a nation and to hold the nation, panting, before a
prescribed movement, to lift one's arm to give the final command, and
then, at the last moment, let one's arm drop and thrice call a halt just
as the formidable machinery has been set in motion. One risks ruining
the brakes and paralyzing the impetus.

Therefore, when the congress committee held its session at Delhi,
February 24, 1922, Gandhi met with great opposition. The resolutions of
the working committee of Bardoli, approved on the eleventh, were not
ratified without discussion. The non-coöperators split into two camps.
Gandhi claimed that before civil disobedience could be launched the
people must be better prepared, and he submitted a constructive program.
But many members were irritated at the slow progress of the independence
movement, and they protested against the suspension of civil
disobedience. Gandhi's methods, they claimed, were stifling the nation's
ardor. A vote of censure against the working committee was proposed, and
it was suggested that its resolutions be annulled. In the end, however,
Gandhi triumphed. But he suffered keenly, for he realized that the
majority was not backing him sincerely; he knew that more than one of
those who voted for him called him "dictator" behind his back. He knew
that, at bottom, he no longer reflected the sentiment of the country.
And with his undaunted sincerity he admits this, March 2, 1922:


There is so much undercurrent of violence, both conscious and
unconscious, that I was actually and literally praying for a disastrous
defeat. I have always been in a minority. In South Africa I started with
practical unanimity, reached a minority of sixty-four and even sixteen,
and went up again to a huge majority. The best and the most solid work
was done in the wilderness of minority.... I know that the only thing
that the Government dreads is this huge majority I seem to command. They
little know that I dread it even more than they. I have become literally
sick of the adoration of the unthinking multitude. I would feel certain
of my ground if I was spat upon by them. A friend warned me against
exploiting my "dictatorship." I have begun to wonder if I am not
unconsciously allowing myself to be "exploited"! I confess that I have a
dread of it as I never had before. My only safety lies in my
shamelessness. I have warned my friends of the committee that I am
incorrigible. I shall continue to confess blunders each time the people
commit them. The only tyrant I accept in this world is the "still small
voice" within. And even though I have to face the prospect of a minority
of one, I humbly believe I have the courage to be in such a hopeless
minority. That to me is the only truthful position. But I am a sadder
and, I hope, a wiser man to-day. I see that our non-violence is
skin-deep. We are burning with indignation. The Government is feeding it
by its insensate acts. It seems almost as if the Government wants to see
this land covered with murder, arson, and rapine in order to be able
once more to claim exclusive ability to put them down.

This non-violence, therefore, seems to be due merely to our
helplessness. It almost appears as if we are nursing in our bosoms the
desire to take revenge the first time we get the opportunity. Can true
voluntary non-violence come out of this seeming forced non-violence of
the weak? Is it not a futile experiment I am conducting? What if, when
the fury bursts, not a man, woman, or child is safe and every man's hand
is raised against his fellow-being? Of what avail is it, then, if I fast
myself to death in the event of such a catastrophe coming to pass? Let
us be truthful. If it is by force that we wish to gain _Swaraj_, let us
drop non-violence and offer such violence as we may. It would be a
manly, honest, and sober attitude, and no one can then accuse us of the
terrible charge of hypocrisy.[116] If, in spite of all my warnings...
the majority did not believe in our goal, although they accepted it
without a single material change, I would ask them to realize their
responsibility. They are not bound to rush to civil disobedience, but to
settle down to the quiet work of construction. If we do not take care,
we are likely to be drowned in the waters whose depth we do not know....

Those who do not believe in the creed should surely retire from
the congress.


And, turning to the minority, Gandhi adds:


The patriotic spirit demands loyal and strict adherence to non-violence
and truth. Those who do not believe in them should retire from the
congress organization.


There is bitter sadness, but a proud manliness, in these forceful words.
It was the night in Gethsemane. Gandhi's arrest was imminent. Who knows
whether, in his heart, he did not look upon imprisonment as a delivery?




§ 3


Gandhi had for a long time been expecting to be arrested. Ever since
November 10, 1920, all his affairs had been in order and he himself
prepared. He had dictated his instructions to the people in his article,
"If I Am Arrested." He referred to this possibility again in an article
dated March 9, 1922, when the rumor of his arrest again cropped up. He
says he does not fear the Government. "Rivers of blood shed by the
Government cannot frighten me." The only thing he fears is that the
people may be carried away at the news of his arrest. This would be a
disgrace to him. "I desire that the people should maintain perfect
self-control and consider the day of my arrest a day of rejoicing. The
Government believes that I am the soul of all this agitation and that if
I am removed it will be left in peace. The only thing that remains is
for it to measure the strength of the people. Let the people preserve
perfect peace and calmness. It is a matter of no pride or pleasure to
me, but of humiliation, that the Government refrain from arresting me
for fear of an outbreak of universal violence." Let the people carry out
the whole constructive program. Let there be no _hartals_ or
demonstrations, no cooperation with the Government. Let courts and
schools be boycotted. Let, in short, the program of non-coöperation be
pursued in absolute order and discipline. If the people can live up to
this program, they will win. Otherwise they will face disaster.

When everything was in readiness, Gandhi went to his cherished retreat
at the _Ashram_ of Sarbarmati, near Ahmedabad, to await, in quiet
meditation and surrounded by his beloved disciples, the coming of the
constables. He longed for imprisonment. In his absence India would
affirm her purpose with greater strength. And, as he says, imprisonment
would give him "a quiet and physical rest," which he perhaps
deserved.[117]

The constables arrived on the night of March 10. News had reached the
_Ashram_ of their coming. The Mahatma was ready, and placed himself at
their disposal. On the way to prison he met Maulana Hasrat Mohani, a
Mohammedan friend who had come from far to give him a last embrace.
Banker, the editor of "Young India," was sent to jail along with the
master. Gandhi's wife was allowed to accompany her husband as far as the
prison gates.

At noon of Saturday, March 18, Gandhi's "Great Trial"[118] began before
Mr. C. N. Broomsfield, district and session judge of Ahmedabad. It was a
manifestation of rare nobility and high-mindedness. Judge and accused
vied with each other in chivalrous courtesy. Never in the struggle did
England rise to more magnanimous impartiality. Judge Broomsfield that
day made up for many faults of the Government. Since much has been
written about the trial, I will only summarize the main points.

Why had the Government at last arrested Gandhi? Why, after contemplating
this move for more than two years, did it choose the very moment when
the Mahatma had quelled the mob movement and when he seemed to stand as
the only barrier against violence? Was it acting in aberration? Or did
it wish to lend confirmation to Gandhi's terrible words: "It seems
almost as if the Government wants to see this land covered with murder,
arson, and rapine in order to be able to claim exclusive ability to put
them down"? The Government was in a very difficult position. It
respected and feared Gandhi. It would have liked to treat him gently.
But Gandhi did not treat the Government gently. The Mahatma condemned
violence, but his non-violence was more revolutionary than any violence.
The very same day that he stopped civil disobedience for the mass, or
rather the day before the session of the congress at Delhi, on February
23, he wrote one of the most menacing articles to Great Britain's power.
An insolent telegram from Lord Birkenhead and Mr. Montagu had struck
India as a blow.[119]

In a burst of indignation Gandhi took up the challenge:


How can there be any compromise whilst the British lion continues to
shake his gory claws in our faces? The British Empire, which is based
upon organized exploitation of physically weaker races and upon a
continuous exhibition of brute force, cannot live if there is a just God
ruling the universe.... It is high time that the British people were
made to realize that the fight that was commenced in 1920 is a fight to
the finish, whether it lasts one month or one year or many months or
many years. I shall only hope and pray that God will give India
sufficient humility and sufficient strength to remain non-violent to the
end. Submission to the insolent challenges that are cabled is now an
utter impossibility.


Gandhi was indicted on the statements contained in this article and in
two other articles, the one dated September 19, 1921, and the other
December 15, 1921. The first referred to the arrest of the Ali brothers,
and the second was a reply to a speech of Lord Reading. Both of them
contain the same declaration of "fight to the finish. We want _Swaraj_,
we want the Government to yield to popular will. We ask for no quarter
and expect none." The accusation, therefore, charged that Gandhi had
"preached disaffection toward the Government and had openly instigated
others to overthrow it." Gandhi spoke in his own defense. He pleaded
guilty to all charges.

The advocate-general, Sir J. T. Strangman of Bombay, claimed that the
three articles cited by the accusation were not isolated, but were part
of a general campaign pursued for two years in view of overthrowing the
Government, and he quoted passages from Gandhi's articles. He paid
tribute to Gandhi's high character. But this only served to lend
authority to the articles and to increase their harmful influence. He
held Gandhi responsible for the bloodshed at Bombay and at
Chauri-Chaura. It was true that Gandhi preached non-violence, but he
also preached disaffection. He was therefore responsible for the
violence committed by the people.

Gandhi asked permission to speak. The torment as to what was right and
wrong, the anguish, the doubts, the mental and spiritual struggle of the
last weeks as to which course he should pursue and the effect it would
have on the people, had been cleared away. He had recovered the serenity
of his soul. He accepted everything that had taken place and everything
that was to take place as a necessity which he might regret, but which
he would have to bear. He agreed with the advocate-general. Yes, he was
responsible. He was responsible for everything. He had preached
disaffection for a much longer time than the accusation had stated. He
assumed responsibility for the troubles at Madras, for the "diabolical
crimes" of Chauri-Chaura, and the "mad outrages" of Bombay.


The learned advocate-general is quite right when he says that as a man
of responsibility, a man having received a fair share of education,
having had a fair share of experience of this world, I should have known
the consequences of every one of my acts. _I knew that I was playing
with fire, I ran the risk, and if I was set free, I would still do the
same._ I felt this morning that I would have failed in my duty if I did
not say what I say here just now.

I wanted to avoid violence, I want to avoid violence. Non-violence is
the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed.
But I had to make my choice. I had either to submit to a system which I
considered had done an irreparable harm to my country or incur the risk
of the mad fury of my people bursting forth when they understood the
truth from my lips. I know that my people have sometimes gone mad. I am
deeply sorry for it and I am therefore here to submit not to a light
penalty, but to the highest penalty. I do not ask for mercy. I do not
plead any extenuating act. I am here, therefore, to invite and
cheerfully submit to the highest penalty that can be inflicted upon me
for what in law is a deliberate crime and what appears to me to be the
highest duty of a citizen. The only course open to you, Judge, is either
to resign your post or inflict on me the severest penalty.


After this powerful improvisation, where the scruples of a religious
spirit are balanced by the heroic firmness of a political leader, Gandhi
read a written declaration addressed to the public in India and England.
He owed it to them, he said, to explain why, "from a stanch loyalist and
coöperator," he had become an uncompromising disaffectionist and
non-coöperator. He dwelt on his public life from 1893 on. He pointed
out all he had to suffer, as an Indian, from the British system, and he
told of his ceaseless attempts for twenty-five years to reform it. He
believed obstinately that this could be accomplished without separating
India and England. In spite of all deceptions, he remained a stanch
coöperator till 1919. But since then outrages and crimes have surpassed
all measure. And instead of making up for injustices, the Government, as
if in defiance to the spirit of India, has honored, pensioned, and
rewarded its guilty servants. The Government itself has severed all
ties. Gandhi has come to the conclusion that even if the desired reforms
were now proposed by the Government, they would be harmful. The
Government in British India is based on the exploitation of the masses.
Laws are made in view of strengthening this exploitation. The
administration of the law is prostituted consciously or unconsciously
for the benefit of the exploiter. A subtle, but effective, system of
terrorization and an organized display of force have emasculated the
people and "induced in them the habit of simulation." India is starving,
ruined, degraded; and many claim that before India becomes capable of
self-government on the dominion plan generations will have to pass.
England has done more harm to India than any previous system.
Non-coöperation with evil is a duty. Gandhi' has done his duty. But
whereas in the past non-coöperation has been deliberately expressed in
the form of violence inflicted on the evildoer, violence having been the
supreme weapon, Gandhi has given his people the new, but indomitable,
arm of non-violence.

And then came the chivalrous match between Judge Broomsfield and the
Mahatma.


Mr. Gandhi, you have made my task easy in one way by pleading guilty to
the charges; nevertheless what remains, namely the determination of a
just sentence, is perhaps as difficult a proposition as a judge in this
country could have to face.... It would be impossible to ignore the fact
that in the eyes of millions of your countrymen you are a great patriot
and a great leader. Even those who differ from you in politics look upon
you as a man of high ideals and of noble and even saintly life.... But
it is my duty to judge you as a man subject to the law.... There are
probably few people in India who do not sincerely regret that you should
have made it impossible for any Government to leave you at liberty. But
it is so. I am trying to balance what is due to you against what appears
to me to be necessary in the interest of the public.


With great courtesy he consulted the accused as to the sentence which
should be imposed. "You will not consider it unreasonable, I think, to
be classed with Mr. Tilak," sentenced twelve years previously to six
years. "If the course of events in India should make it possible for the
Government to reduce the period and release you, no one will be better
pleased than I."

Gandhi did not allow the judge to outdo him in courtesy. He claimed it
was his proudest privilege and honor to have his name associated with
that of Tilak. So far as the sentence itself was concerned, he
considered it as light as any judge could impose on him, and as far as
the whole proceedings were concerned, he said that he could not have
expected greater courtesy.[120]

The trial was over. Gandhi's friends fell at his feet, sobbing. The
Mahatma took leave of them, smiling. And the door of the jail of
Sarbamati closed behind him.[121]




§ 4


Ever since the great apostle's voice has been silent. His body is walled
in as in a tomb. But never did a tomb act as a barrier to thought, and
Gandhi's invisible soul still animates India's vast body. "Peace,
non-violence, suffering,"[122] is the only message that has come from
the prison. The message has been heard. From one end of the country to
the other the watchword has been passed. Three years earlier India would
have been swept by bloodshed at Gandhi's arrest. The mere report of its
having taken place caused riots among the population in 1920. But the
sentence of Ahmedabad was received with religious solemnity. Thousands
of Indians with serene joyfulness handed themselves over to prison
guards. Non-violence and suffering--one example more amazing than the
others--may serve to show to what depths the divine words have
penetrated into the spirit of the nation.

As is well known, the Sikhs have always been looked upon as one of the
most warlike races in India. Large numbers of them served in the army
during the war. Last year grave dissensions arose among them. To our
Western eyes the cause seems insignificant. As the result of a religious
effervescence, one of the Sikh sects, the Akalis, wished to purify the
sanctuaries. The latter had fallen into the hands of guardians of ill
repute who refused to be put out. For legal reasons the Government took
their defense. And in August, 1922, began the daily martyrdom of
Guru-Ka-Bagh.[123] The Akalis adopted the doctrine of non-resistance. A
thousand of them settled near the sanctuary, while four thousand took up
abode in the Golden Temple at Amritsar, ten miles away. Every day one
hundred from among the four thousand, most of them men of military age,
many of whom served in the war, left the Golden Temple, after taking the
vow of remaining true to the principles of non-violence in thought as
well as action, and of reaching Guru-Ka-Bagh or being brought back
unconscious. Among the group of the thousand volunteers twenty-five made
the same vow every day. Not far from the sanctuary the British
constables waited at the bridge with iron-tipped rods to stop the
manifestation. And every day a gruesome scene took place. Andrews,
Tagore's friend, describes it unforgettably in his "Akali
Struggle."[124] With a wreath of small white flowers around their black
turbans, the Akalis arrived silently before the constables, and at a
distance of about a yard they stopped and began to pray, silently,
motionlessly. The constables, in order to drive them away, prodded them
with the iron-tipped rods, jabbing harder and harder till blood began to
flow and the Sikhs fell unconscious. Those who could get to their feet
would begin to pray again, until they were beaten into unconsciousness
like the others. Andrews did not hear a single cry, nor did he see a
defiant glance. Near-by, a crowd of spectators, their faces tense with
anguish, prayed silently. "I could not help thinking," Andrews says, "of
the shadow of the cross." The English described the scene in their
papers and expressed amazement.[125] It seemed incomprehensible to the
British, although they had to admit that the absurd sacrifice proved
that the idea of non-coöperation and non-violence was gaining ground
and that the people of the Punjab had been won over to the doctrine.
Andrews, whose generous spirit and pure idealism enabled him to
penetrate the soul of India, says that here he saw, like Goethe at
Valmy, "the dawn of a new era. A new heroism, steeled by suffering, has
risen, a _war of the spirit._"

It would seem as if the people of India have lived up to Mahatma's
spirit more faithfully than those whose mission it was to guide them. I
have already spoken of the opposition to Gandhi at the session of the
congress committee at Delhi twenty days before the master was arrested.
This opposition still manifested itself when the committee met again, at
Lucknow, June 7, 1922. The program of patient waiting and silent
reconstruction advocated by Gandhi was bitterly criticized, and a motion
was made to proclaim civil disobedience. A commission was appointed to
inquire into conditions and determine whether the country might be
called ripe for civil disobedience. The commission traveled all over
India, and in the autumn sent in a discouraging report. Not only was
civil disobedience called impractical for the present, but half the
members went to such extremes of conservatism as to suggest that
Gandhi's methods of non-coöperation be abandoned and a new _Swaraj_ or
home rule party be formed within the government councils. Gandhi's
doctrine was, in other words, attacked by those who believed in
violence, as well as by those who believed in prudence.

India, however, did not accept the commission's report. In its annual
meeting at the end of December, 1922, the National Indian Congress
energetically proclaimed its allegiance to the persecuted master and his
doctrine of non-coöperation. By 1740 votes to 890 it rejected all
participation in government councils. As for those who believed in
violence, they were few and far between and had little influence. The
session closed with a unanimous resolution urging that the political
strike ordered by Gandhi be kept up. A resolution boycotting English
materials, however, was turned down, in order not to antagonize European
workmen. But the Mussulman conference of the Khilafat, as usual more
audacious than the congress, voted for the boycott by a large majority.

Here we must stop the record of the Gandhist movement. Despite a few
inevitable backslides due to the absence of the master and his best
disciples, imprisoned like himself (especially the Ali brothers), the
movement has successfully passed through the trials of the first
unguided year. And the English press, at the close of the session of the
congress of 1922 at Gaya, expresses surprise and disappointment at the
progress of the movement.[126]




§ 5


And what will now come? Will England, wiser for past experiences, know
how to mold the aspirations of the people of India? And will this people
remain true to its ideal? Nations have short memories, and I should have
but slight faith in India's power to remain true to the Mahatma's
teaching if his doctrines were not an expression of the deepest and most
ancient longings of the race. For if there is such a thing as genius,
great by its own strength whether or not it corresponds to the ideals of
its surroundings, there can be no genius of action, no leader, who does
not incarnate the instincts of his race, satisfy the need of the hour,
and requite the yearning of the world.

Mahatma Gandhi does all this. His principle of _Ahimsa_ (non-violence)
has been inscribed in the spirit of India for more than two thousand
years. Mahavira, Buddha, and the cult of Vishnu have made it the
substance of millions of souls. Gandhi has merely transfused heroic
blood into it. He called upon the great shadows, the forces of the past,
plunged in mortal lethargy, and at the sound of his voice they came to
life. In him they found themselves. Gandhi is more than a word; he is an
example. He incarnates the spirit of his people. Blessed the man who is
a people, his people, entombed, and then resuscitated in him! But such
resurrections are never haphazard. If the spirit of India now surges
forth from temples and forests, it is because it holds the message for
which the world is sighing.

This message carries far beyond the boundaries of India. India alone
could formulate it, but it consecrates the nation's greatness as much as
its sacrifice. It may become its cross.

For it would seem as if a people must he sacrificed in order to give new
life to the world. The Jews were sacrificed to their Messiah, whom they
had borne for centuries in their thoughts, and whom they did not
recognize when He finally flowered on the blood-stained cross. More
fortunate, India has recognized her Messiah, and joyously the people
march to the sacrifice which is to set them free.

But, like the early Christians, they do not all understand the real
meaning of their liberation. For a long time the Christians awaited the
fulfilment of the _adveniat regnum tuum._ In India there are many who do
not see beyond _Swaraj_, home rule. Incidentally, I imagine that this
political goal will soon be reached. Europe, bled by wars and
revolutions, impoverished and exhausted, despoiled of her prestige in
the eyes of Asia, which she formerly oppressed, cannot long resist on
Asiatic soil the aspirations of the awakened peoples of Islam, India,
China, and Japan. But this would mean little, no matter how rich and new
might be the harmonies which a few more nations would bring to the human
symphony; this would mean little, if the surging spirit of Asia did not
become the vehicle for a new ideal of life and of death, and, what is
more, of action, for all humanity, and if it did not bring a new
viaticum to prostrate Europe.

The world is swept by the wind of violence. This storm which ravages the
harvest of our civilization did not break out from a clear sky.
Centuries of brutal national pride, whetted by the idolatrous ideology
of the Revolution, spread by the empty mockery of democracies, and
crowned by a century of inhuman industrialism, rapacious plutocracy, and
a materialistic system of economics where the soul perishes, stifled to
death, were bound to culminate in these dark struggles where the
treasures of the West succumbed. It is not enough to say all this was
inevitable. There is a in it. Each people kills the other in the name of
the same principles which hid the same covetousness and Cainish
instincts. All--be they nationalists, Fascists, Bolshevists, members of
the oppressed classes, members of the oppressing classes--claim that
they have the right to use force, while refusing this right to others.
Half a century ago might dominated right. To-day things are far worse.
Might _is_ right. Might has devoured right.

In the old crumbling world, no refuge, no hope, no great light. The
church gives innocuous advice, virtuous and dosed, carefully worded so
as not to antagonize the mighty. Besides, the church never sets the
example--even when giving advice. Weak pacifists bray languishingly, and
you feel that they hesitate and fumble, talk about a faith they no
longer believe in. Who will prove this faith? And how, in an unbelieving
world? Faith is proved by action.

This is the great message to the world, or, as Gandhi puts it, India's
message--_self-sacrifice._

And Tagore has repeated the same inspired words, for on this proud
principle Tagore and Gandhi agree.


I hope this spirit of sacrifice will grow, and also the will to
suffer.... This is real liberty. Nothing is higher, not even national
independence. The West has an unshakable belief in force and material
wealth; therefore no matter how much it cries for peace and disarmament,
its ferocity will cry still louder.... We, in India, must show the world
what this truth is which not only makes disarmament possible but
transmutes it into strength. The fact that moral force is a stronger
power than brute force will be proved by an unarmed people. The
evolution of life shows that it has gradually cast off its formidable
armature of scales and carapaces and a monstrous quantity of flesh until
man was evolved who conquered brute force. The day will come when a
weak, noble man absolutely unarmed will prove that the meek shall
inherit the earth. It is logical that Mahatma Gandhi, weak of body and
without material resources, should prove the unconquerable strength of
the meek and the humble hidden in the heart of the outraged and
destitute humanity of India. India's destiny is bound up in _Narayana_
and not in _Narayani-sena_, in soul force and not muscle. It must uplift
human history, transport it from the confused valley of material
struggles to the high plateaux of spiritual battles. Although we may
delude ourselves through phrases acquired from the vocabulary of the
West, _Swaraj_, home rule, is not really our goal. Our battle is a
spiritual battle, a fight for humanity. We must emancipate man from the
meshes he has woven around him, free him from the organizations of
national selfishness. We must persuade the butterfly that the freedom of
the sky is better than the shelter of the cocoon. In India we have no
word for "nation." When we loan the word from other peoples it is not
suited to us, for we should ally ourselves with _Narayana_, the Supreme
Being, and our victory will be the victory for God's world.... If we can
defy the powerful, the rich, the armed, by showing the world the power
of the immortal spirit, the castle of the giant Flesh will crumble into
nothingness. And then man will find real _Swaraj._ We, the miserable
outcasts of the Orient, we must conquer freedom for all humanity....


"Our object," Gandhi has said, "is friendship with the whole world.
Non-violence has come to men, and it will remain. It is the annunciation
of peace on earth."

The peace of the world is far off. We have no illusions. We have seen,
abundantly, during the course of half a century, the hypocrisy, the
cowardice, and the cruelty of mankind. But this does not prevent us from
loving mankind. For even among the worst there is a _nescio quid Dei._
We know the material ties that weigh on twentieth-century Europe, the
crushing determinism of economic conditions which hem it in; we know
that centuries of passions and systematized error have built a crust
about our souls which the light cannot pierce. But we also know what
miracles the spirit can work.

Historians, we have seen its glory brighten skies even darker than our
own. We, who live but a day, have caught in India the sound of the
tambour of Çiva, "_the Master Dancer who veils his devouring eye and
guards his steps to save the world from plunging into the abyss._"[127]

The _Realpolitiker_ of violence, whether revolutionary or reactionary,
ridicule our faith, and reveal thereby their ignorance of deep reality.
Let them jeer! I have this faith. I know it is scorned and persecuted in
Europe, and that in my own land we are but a handful--are we even a
handful?--who believe in it. And even if I were the only one to believe
in it, what would it matter? The true characteristic of faith is not to
deny the hostility of the world, but to recognize it and to believe in
spite of it! Faith is a battle. And our non-violence is the most
desperate battle. The way to peace is not through weakness. We do not
fight violence so much as weakness. Nothing is worth while unless it is
strong, neither good nor evil. Absolute evil is better than emasculated
goodness. Moaning pacifism is the death-knell of peace; it is cowardice
and lack of faith. Let those who do not believe, who fear, withdraw! The
way to peace leads through self-sacrifice.

This is Gandhi's message. The only thing lacking is the cross.[128]
Every one knows that had it not been for the Jews, Rome would not have
given it to Christ. The British Empire is no better than ancient Rome.
The impetus has been given. The soul of Oriental peoples has been moved
in its deepest fibers, and its vibrations are felt the whole world over.

The great religious apparitions of the Orient are ruled by a rhythm. One
thing is certain: either Gandhi's spirit will triumph, or it will
manifest itself again, as were manifested, centuries before, the Messiah
and Buddha, till there finally is manifested, in a mortal half-god, the
perfect incarnation of the principle of life which will lead a new
humanity on to a new path.




[Footnote 113: One hundred and forty villages, 87,000 inhabitants.]

[Footnote 114: A note in "Young India" of the same date is even more
explicit. If the viceroy does not answer, civil obedience will be
proclaimed even if against the will of the majority.]

[Footnote 115: What light these words throw on the mysterious power of
this soul where all the emotions of hit people are inscribed!]

[Footnote 116: Gandhi had come to realize that some of the majority
members who voted for non-violence looked upon it, in their hearts, as a
political expedient paving the way, covertly, to violence. They spoke
suavely, he says, "of delivering non-violent blows." Gandhi had not
grasped the danger, as Tagore had, long before. But he was
horror-struck. And, more harshly than Tagore, he denounced and attacked
the majority's attitude.]

[Footnote 117: March 9, 1922.]

[Footnote 118: "The Great Trial, Young India," March 23, 1922.]

[Footnote 119: "If the existence of our Empire were challenged, the
discharge of responsibilities of the British Government to India
prevented and demands were made in the very mistaken belief that we
contemplated retreat from India, then India would not challenge with
success the most determined people in the world who once again would
answer with all the vigor and determination at its command."]

[Footnote 120: Mr. Banker, the editor of "Young India," who, during the
trial, had followed the master's example and acquiesced in all his
statements, was sentenced to a fine and imprisonment for one year.]

[Footnote 121: Mrs. Kasturibai Gandhi informed the people of India of
the sentence imposed on Gandhi, in a very beautiful message, urging them
in peace and quiet to concentrate on carrying out Gandhi's constructive
program.

Gandhi did not remain in the prison of Sarbamati, where he was well
treated, but was transferred to an unknown jail and then to Yeravda,
near Poona. According to a statement made by N. D. Hardiker, "Gandhi in
Prison, Unity," May 18, 1922, which we are unable to verify, Gandhi has
been placed in a cell like the common-law criminals, and is allowed no
privileges of any kind. It is claimed that his delicate health has
suffered through this regime.

"Mr. C. F. Andrews, speaking of Gandhi's imprisonment, told me that the
Mahatma was happy in prison and that he had asked his friends not to
visit him. He is purifying himself, he prays and feels convinced that in
this way he is working in the most efficacious way for India."

Incidentally Mr. Andrews states that the Gandhist party in India has
gained strength by the Mahatma's imprisonment. India believes in Gandhi
with more fervor than ever before. It persists in looking upon him as an
incarnation of Sri-Krishna, who was also subjected to the trial of
imprisonment. And Gandhi, in jail, has more effectively prevented the
explosion of that violence which he feared than if he had been at
liberty.]

[Footnote 122: On August 3, 1922, "Unity" published a "Letter from
Prison" where Gandhi speaks about the evils of modern civilization. The
letter seems apocryphal to me. I should imagine it a summary of extracts
written some time ago, particularly in the "Hind Swaraj."]

[Footnote 123: Guru-Ka-Bagh is a sanctuary (Gurdwara) about ten
miles from Amritsar.]

[Footnote 124: "The Akali Struggle," by Andrews, professor at
Santiniketan. Published in the "Swaraiya" of Madras and under separate
cover. September 1, 1922.]

[Footnote 125: "Manchester Guardian Weekly," October 13, 1922.]

[Footnote 126: An article by Blanche Watson, in "Unity," November 16,
1922, enumerates the advantages which India has won by her fight of
non-violent resistance.

This article claims that the internal revenues of India have decreased
some seventy million dollars, and that the boycott of English goods has
caused England to lose, in the course of a single year, some twenty
million dollars. She claims that at that time about thirty thousand
Indians were imprisoned, and that the governmental machinery was
entirely upset. But Blanche Watson, who is a fervent admirer of
Gandhism, has, perhaps, an unconscious tendency to exaggerate its
successes. Other testimony would seem to be less encouraging and would
seem to prove that the spirit of self-sacrifice is balked by the selfish
attitude of the wealthy and of business people, while many of those who
resigned from government posts in the first flush of enthusiasm have now
returned to work. It would not be human to believe anything else. In
every revolution many lag on behind, or retrace their steps. The point
is to determine whether, or not, on the whole, the movement is on the
increase or the decrease. In this connection it is interesting to refer
to a description published in the "Manchester Guardian Weekly," February
16, 1928.

The "Manchester Guardian," whose intelligent liberalism is well known,
but which nevertheless represents certain powerful interests directly
imperiled by the non-coöperation movement, recently organized an
investigation of conditions in India. The conclusion one draws after
reading the results of this inquiry, in spite of a very natural tendency
to discredit the movement, is that the situation is serious and causes
grave misgivings. The last article (February 16, 1923) tries to prove
that Gandhi's tactics have been proved ineffective and that the
non-coöperation movement must be reorganized. But the article goes on
to say that the spirit of non-coöperation is growing. Everywhere there
are traces of distrust of the foreign Government and ardent hope of
getting rid of it. The most cultivated people in India and the
inhabitants of the large cities agree on this point. The _ryot_, or
peasant, is only slightly affected by the movement, but conditions are
such in the villages that within a short time he will have to take
sides. The army still seems immune, but recruits come from the villages,
and sooner or later they will be contaminated. The non-coöperation
movement is frequently most intense among the best and the most moderate
elements. These elements disapprove revolutionary methods, but their
disapproval is not shared by the rest of the country. The writer claims
that it will take about ten years for India really to bring about
effective civil disobedience. But in the meantime the situation will
grow more and more serious. It is impossible to hold the Indians in
check by threatening them with imprisonment. They no longer fear it.
Harsher coercive measures must be resorted to, and this will stir up
hatred. There is only one peaceful solution--if it is not already too
late--and that is for England to take the initiative of making Indian
reforms. No half-measures, like those of 1919, and not applied till last
year! They are not sufficient, and there is no time to lose. England
must call a National Indian Convention where all parties and interests
in India will be represented--Gandhi and his disciples as well as Indian
princes and European capitalists, Mohammedans, Hindus, Parsees,
Eurasians, Christians, pariahs--all must join in a convention and draft
a constitution for an autonomous India within the empire and draw up the
lines of such a home rule. This is the only way to avoid the breaking up
of the empire.

I do not know how the Government of India and British bureaucracy look
upon the "Manchester Guardian's" suggestion, and I hardly believe that
Gandhi and his non-coöperators would agree to sit in a convention with
European and Indian capitalists. But one thing is sure, and that is that
no one questions, any more, India's right to home rule. It must come in
one way or another. And nothing is more remarkable than the change of
England's attitude to India since the beginning of the Gandhist
movement. The European no longer scorns the Indian but treats him with
consideration. Everybody agrees that it is a mistake to employ the
violent methods which were the first the Governments resorted to in
former days. From a spiritual and mental point of view, India is already
victorious.]

[Footnote 127: Fragment of the oldest Invocation of Çiva, in the
play "Mudra-Rakshasha" (400) by Vishakadatta.]

[Footnote 128: This is the standpoint of the "conscientious objectors"
in England, which is spreading little by little to other countries.]




BIBLIOGRAPHY


ANDREWS, C. F., "To the Students," 1921, S.
Ganesan, Madras.

DOKE, JOSEPH J., "M. K. Gandhi, an Indian
Patriot in South Africa," with an introduction
by Lord Ampthill, 1909, Indian Chronicle,
London.

GANDHI, MAHATMA, "A Guide to Health,"
1921, S. Ganesan, Madras.

GANDHI, MAHATMA, "Hind Swaraj" (Indian
Home Rule), 1921, S. Ganesan, Madras.

GANDHI, MAHATMA, "Neethi Dharma" (Ethical
Religion), with an introduction by J. H.
Holmes, S. Ganesan, Madras.

GANDHI, MAHATMA, "Speeches and Writings"
(1896-1922), with an introduction by C. F.
Andrews and a biographical sketch, 1922,
Natesan, Madras.

GANDHI, MAHATMA, "Young India" (1919-22),
with an introduction by Babu Rajendra
Prasad, 1922, S. Ganesan, Madras. A collection
of articles written by Gandhi for his
paper, "Young India."

HOLMES, J. H., "Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi"
(introduction to "Ethical Religion").

KALELKAR, PROFESSOR, "The Gospel of Swadeshi,"
1922. S. Ganesan, Madras.

"GANDHI, M. K., A Sketch of His Life and His
Work" (in the collection, "Biographies of
Eminent Indians," Natesan, Madras).

PEARSON, W. W., "The Dawn of a New Age,"
1922, S. Ganesan, Madras.

RAY, SATYANDRA, "Mahatma Gandhi" ("in The
World To-Morrow," November, 1922).

"SOUVENIR of the Passive Resistance Movement
in South Africa" (1906-14), Golden Number
of "Indian Opinion" published, 1914, at
Phoenix, Natal. This number, published by
the presses of Gandhi's Tolstoian colony at
Natal, gives the most valuable and complete
set of documents--articles and photographs--connected
with the Passive Resistance movement
in South Africa.

It is also useful to consult the files of "Young
India," Gandhi's paper, which is still published
at Ahmedabad, his son being editor-publisher.

"The Modern Review," published by Ramouna
Chatterjee at Calcutta. Rabindranath Tagore
uses "The Modern Review" to give
voice to his opinions.

The "Unity" magazine of Chicago is in close
touch with the Gandhist movement and in ardent
sympathy with it. The editor, John
Haynes Holmes, has written the preface to
the Indian Edition of "Ethical Religion."