Gandhi

March 1983
Lakeland

The early months of 1983 have provoked a new interest in Mohandas Gandhi. January 30 marked the thirty-fifth anniversary of his assassination A striking movie, “Gandhi,” portrays in vivid drama, superb photography and faithful characterization the life and death of this man who changed the face of the world. Some scholars have asserted that when the history of the 20th century is considered, long after all of us are gone, only two names will be named as authentic political geniuses – Lenin and Gandhi. They were poles apart in methods and values. They were living embodiments of the ancient and enduring argument about means and ends. Other than, perhaps, Francis of Assisi, no other person in 2,000 years of turbulent history has been more frequently compared to Jesus than this Hindu, Mohandas Gandhi. Why? I would like to consider his active life, briefly, and attempt some observations on the religious values which drove him on to the inevitable martyr’s death. [CJW notes: - not deal w/ many aspects, complex life, inner, his distrust of modern medicine, conflicts – authoritarian, Harilal]

Gandhi was born in Porbander October 2, 1869. His father was a prime minister of a small princely state, a member of the Bania or tradesmen caste. His mother, fourth of four wives, was a deeply religious member of the Jain sect, where the Moslem Koran and the Hindu Vedas were read alternately in the worship service. One might say he imbibed an early understanding of religious universality with his mother’s milk.

At primary and high school he was a shy boy, afraid of attention and companions. At 13, Gandhi was married to Kasturbai, his own age. She was illiterate and to the end of her days learned little of reading and writing. Gandhi tried college for a year, but was never interested. He never was a scholar.

In 1887, upon family and friends’ suggestions, he decided to study law in England to prepare himself to succeed his father in government service. There were objections - caste rules would be violated by a sea voyage, the temptations of a foreign country were feared to be devastating to a young Asian Indian, and the investment was considerable. But Gandhi went even though expulsion from the caste was the result.

In London, unlike some other students from India, Gandhi kept to his vegetarian principles although he adopted Western dress and manners. After passing the bar examination, on June 10, 1891, he sailed for home.

His early efforts as a barrister were not successful. He tried only one case in six months and in that instance found himself unable to utter a sound in court. With shame, he returned the fee to his client. He was dissatisfied with the opportunities, the political intrigue, and corruption that infested the Kathiwar states and the English rule — the British "Raj." When an opportunity came to serve the interests of a Muslim firm in South Africa, Gandhi accepted and went to South Africa in 1893.

In South Africa Gandhi ran afoul of race prejudice. The movie properly highlights a traumatic change in his life when he was thrown off a train for sitting in a first-class compartment because he was an Indian, even though he held a first-class ticket and was well-dressed, Western style. Indians were "coolies" – not allowed to travel first-class and were subjected to many other rude indignities and cruel restrictions. Gandhi's devotion to principle was tested. He suffered more than one beating, but by continuing insistence upon first-class travel finally made train authorities concede. He took these stands not ... out of self-esteem, but because of national pride and a determination not to yield and thereby strengthen a fixed system of degradation.

His public life began in South Africa. In Pretoria he made his first public speech, telling his countrymen what their situation was and giving advice. "He admonished them on their own conduct, saying that the obligation to truthfulness was greater upon them since all Indians would be judged by what they did; he called attention to unsanitary conditions amongst them; he asked them to forget distinctions between Hindu, Muslim, Parsi, and Christian, between Punjabi and Madrasi and the like, and to form an association of all Indians so as to present a united front to authorities and obtain redress for some of the grievances of the Indian settlers." (Sheean)

Although he had contracted to stay only a year in South Africa, his usefulness as a lawyer for the persecuted Indians finally led him to stay on and organize movements that would secure political and civil rights for the Indians. Thus began 20 years of work in South Africa.

He organized struggles to abolish the poll tax, to secure the franchise for Indians and organized the Natal Indian Congress in 1894. He wrote effective pamphlets; he argued cases in court. Although it took nearly 20 years, he succeeded in having the poll tax repealed.

After three years he had returned to India for six months and brought his wife and two children back to Natal. Upon his return he was attacked and beaten by mobs of whites, [and] might have been killed except for effective police work.

His humanitarian effort widened. In addition to legal and political activities, he devoted two hours a day to a charitable hospital, acting as pharmacist, as nurse, even mid-wife. His self-denial grew, limiting money spent on himself and on his family.

The Boer War was a trial for Gandhi's conscience. His conclusion was to accept the British Government and support it. He offered a trained corp of Indian volunteers for an ambulance corp, but this was initially refused. But when the British found the trend of battle against them, Gandhi's ambulance corp was accepted. This helped elevate the prestige of the Indian volunteers in the eyes of the British. The corpsmen were awarded medals and mentioned in dispatches.

In 1901, Gandhi again went home to India. Gandhi constantly tried to get the attention of Indian political leaders to the conditions of their fellow-countrymen in South Africa, and this time gained the support of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, an Indian Nationalist leader.

It was during his second sojourn in South Africa that Gandhi acquired the title, Mahatma – “Great Soul,” which has the connotation in India of saint in Western Christian usage. His religious/ethical ideals were becoming crystallized. When the Black Plague broke out, Gandhi without visible fear exposed himself to the contagion in his care of the suffering.

Inspired by the writings of John Ruskin (UNTO THIS LAST), he organized a collective farm (The Phoenix Settlement) – which continued for years.

In 1906, at the age of 37, the Mahatma took a vow of chastity. This was no sudden decision. He had been wrestling for years with this . He never broke the vow. As one of his biographers wrote, (Sheean), "For the life Gandhi was destined to lead, there was no possible evasion of this necessity. He must have known – however consciously or half-consciously – that he was a religious genius. Now however it may be in other countries, the fact is that poverty, chastity and humility are inseparable from the religious genius in India, and the Indian masses never accept a religious leader, reformer or saint who was not vowed to these renunciations...."

It was about this time that Gandhi's thought matured on non-violence. To the Hindu concept of AHIMSA (non-violence) he added passive resistance. Satyagraha combines the concepts of truth and force, literally. Martin Luther King, who was powerfully influenced by Gandhi’s thought, called it militant non-violence. Leverage for truth is another way of translating Satyagraha. Vincent Sheean wrote, "If I may paraphrase the idea a little more boldly than Mr. Gandhi himself ever did, it is simply this: that in essence what a man can do is to declare his truth and die for it. This any man can do; and there is no power on earth to prevent it."

There were occasions to use Satyagraha in South Africa. Discriminatory laws were enacted, which made any marriage, other than those performed by Christian ministers, illegal. Thus most Indian children were bastards in the eyes of the British law and their mothers, concubines or prostitutes.

Living at Tolstoy Farm, another settlement Gandhi founded, were a number of women willing to go to jail in protest against these wretched laws. By breaking the law forbidding entry to the Transvaal without a permit, eleven women made the first Satyagraha. The women (Mrs. Gandhi was among them) were jailed. Great publicity ensued, mine workers went on strike – they were jailed for three months.

Although problems were many and suffering was great, Gandhi's Satyagrapha was working, spreading all over South Africa. Gandhi too was in jail, and in jail he read Thoreau's CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, which was a strong influence in his convictions. The campaign won, General Smuts had to yield. In 1914 the iniquitous poll tax was abandoned and Indian marriages declared legal.

When Gandhi returned to India in 1915, he was greeted by multitudes. After a stay with Rabindranath Tagore, he founded his own Satyagraha Ashram. The members of the group bound themselves by vows of chastity, poverty and service.

Much to the dismay of many of his friends and supporters, Gandhi made his position on caste much more decisive. He regarded untouchables as complete equals and maintained this conviction all the rest of his life.

Through his methods he began to win political victories. One of the first was in connection with indentured laborers – a practice clearly one of peonage. Gandhi traveled India arousing the people and set a date (5/31/17) when he would invoke Satyagraha – the government yielded and abolished the practice before the specified date.

His campaigns helped impoverished share-croppers. Then mill workers. When the strikers grew faint-hearted, the Mahatma fasted. He said he would touch no food until a settlement was reached. In three days, the owners went to arbitration with the workers.

There were many other struggles. Bills to suppress free speech and of the press were defeated. Gandhi was tried and imprisoned for six years. There were many brutalities. The movie showed graphically the massacre at Amritsar, when native soldiers commanded by British General Dyer killed 1200 and wounded thousands more.

In jail, Gandhi spent his time in prayer, study and spinning on a primitive spinning wheel. He also felt strongly that Indian nationalist feeling had resulted in many wrongs against the Moslem inhabitants of India. This caused him to undertake his 21 day fast in 1924, "to atone for the sins of his people."

Self-government (Swadeshi) was becoming increasingly important to Gandhi. The most dramatic incident was the Salt March in 1930 – vividly portrayed in the movie. Gandhi marched 200 miles to the sea followed by thousands. Great mass meetings were in progress everywhere protesting the English monopoly of salt. Gandhi, at the shore, made a handful of salt from the sea water, symbolizing the need for equality of access to all the resources of the earth. He was arrested again, and so were one hundred thousand others.

In January 1931, the Indian leaders were released and the British began negotiations with Gandhi. The salt monopoly was abolished; amnesty was declared and the Indian nationalists sent representatives to London for a conference on a new constitution for India.

The Second World War again brought Gandhi into the eyes of the world. Gandhi was insisting that time had come for Britain to quit India. The government reacted strongly, imprisoning him again, and in prison on February 22, 1944, his faithful wife, Kasturbai died. Gandhi was released the same year, and India became independent. [CJW note: Churchill – “naked fakir”]

His objective the was to attempt to bring the Muslim league back into a United India. He failed. Pakistan was a political reality and fact. A brutal fact that persists to this day.

1947 was the year with the steps to Gandhi's Calvary. The violence, bloodshed and rioting between Hindu and Moslem were uncontrolled. There were millions of Hindus in Pakistan and millions of Muslims in India when Pakistan and India became separate nations on August 15, 1947. Terrorist nationalist groups were springing up. Gandhi's fast stopped the blood-bath at Calcutta. On January 13, 1948, the Mahatma began another fast. The purpose was to establish Hindu-Muslim accord. His atoning fast brought temporary reconciliation – the fast was broken on January 18. The Hindus accepted Gandhi's terms to make proper restitution and compensation to the Muslims.

On January 30, 1948, on his way to prayer, Mohandas Gandhi was assassinated by S. Gopse, a member of a terrorist Hindu organization.

Like most of those who have been properly called a religious genius, or a savior of humankind, Gandhi's religious ideas are difficult to pin down. Some Christians have attempted to claim him, saying the inspiration for Gandhi's sacrificial life came from Jesus. It is a strange coincidence that Gandhi read the New Testament when he was a London law student. At about the same time he read for the first time the Hindu classic religious poem, The Baghvad Gita in an English translation. He knew the Moslem scripture, the Koran as well. He memorized the Sermon on the Mount.

Thoreau's essay on CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE instructed him; as well as Tolstoy's KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU. He also made it clear, "I must tell you in all humility that Hinduism, as I know it, entirely satisfies my soul, fills my whole being, and I find a solace in the Bagavad Gita and the Upanishads that I miss even in the Sermon on the Mount.” Paradoxically enough, three days before his death, Gandhi told Vincent Sheean "I must warn you that my interpretation of the Gita has been criticized as being unduly influenced by the Sermon on the Mount."

The more important signals of Gandhi's religion are not found by attempting to isolate Christian, Hindu or Moslem elements as to which were most formative religious ideas in Gandhi's life and thought. He's more elusive than that. For example, he said, "God never occurs to you in person but always in action."

Over the door of the Gandhi museum near the site of the assassination these words appear over the door, "I am told that religion and politics are different spheres of life. But I would say without a moment's hesitation and yet in all modesty, that those who claim this do not know what religion is."

Theologically he baffled an audience in Switzerland when he told them (and he must have had a twinkle in his eye, for Gandhi had a fine, even impish, sense of humor), saying that in his early youth he had chosen the word "truth" as the noblest attitude of God. He had then said, "God is truth, above all." But, he added to his Swiss audience, I advanced a step further and said that Truth is God. For even the atheists do not doubt the necessity for the power of truth. In their passion for discovering the truth, the atheists have not hesitated to deny the existence of God, and, from their point, of view, they are right."

Theologically, Gandhi is most elusive. But of this there can be no doubt, he laid down his life for his friends and his friends were all humankind.

Pandit Nehru on the night of the assassination spoke over All India radio. His voice was hoarse and broken and he paused to struggle with his tears:

"The light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere and do not know what to tell you and how to say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu, as we called him, the father of our nation, is no more. Perhaps I am wrong to say that. Nevertheless, we will not see him again as we have seen him these many years. We will not run to him for advice and seek solace from him, and that is a terrible blow not only to me only but to millions and millions in this country....

"The light has gone out, I said, and yet I was wrong. For the light that shone in this country was no ordinary light. The light that illumined this country for these many years will illumine this country for many more years, and a thousand years later that light will still be seen in this country, and the world will see it and it will give solace to innumerable hearts. For that light represented the living truth, and the eternal man was with us with his eternal truth reminding us of the right path, drawing us from error, taking this ancient country to freedom...."