Discussion with Red Shirts of Naujawan Bharat Sabha of Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

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Mailing Address- C- 29, Swaraj Nagar, Panki, Kanpur- 208020, Uttar Pradesh, India

 

 

Discussion with Red Shirts of Naujawan Bharat Sabha of Mahatma Gandhi

 

 

A few representatives of the Red Shirts waited in deputation on Gandhiji and he had a long heart-to-heart talk with them. They explained that it was never their intention to do any physical harm to him, that his life and his health were as dear to them as to anyone else, and that individual terrorism was not their creed. They were adamant in their quarrel with the truce which, they believed, can never lead them to their goal of Workers’ and Peasants’ Free Republic in India. Gandhiji said: But my dear young men go and see Bihar and you will find a workers’ and peasants’ republic working there. Where there was fear and slavery ten years ago, there is courage and bravery and resistance to wrong. If you want capital to be extinct or you want to abolish moneyed men or the capitalists, you will never succeed. What you must do is to demonstrate to the capitalists the power of labour and they will consent to be the trustees of those who toil for them. I do not want anything more for workers and peasants than enough to eat and house and clothe themselves and live in ordinary comfort as self-respecting human beings. After that condition of things is brought about the brainiest among them will certainly manage to acquire more wealth than the rest. But I have told you what I want. I want the rich to hold their riches in trust for the poor or to give them up for them. Do you know that I gave up all my property when I founded Tolstoy Farm? Ruskin’s Unto This Last inspired me and I built my farm on those lines. You will now recognize that I am, so to say, a “foundation member” of your peasants’ and workers’ republic. And what do you prize more, wealth or work? Supposing you were to be stranded in the desert of Sahara with cart-loads of money, how would it help you? But if you can work you may not have to go hungry. How then is wealth to be preferred to work? Go and see for yourselves the Labour Union of Ahmadabad at work and see how they are trying to establish a republic of their own. Q. Punjab is goonda-raj, Mahatmaji. Where do find the change of heart? A. But I never said that there had been a change of heart on the part of the Government. Q. Why then did you give such a certificate to Lord Irwin? A. Just as I have given a certificate to you, young men! I have admired your self-restraint, though I disapprove of your action against me. In the same way I was struck with Lord Irwin’s frankness, sincerity and friendliness and I paid a tribute to it. That was nothing unusual for me. There was no question of a change of heart. The settlement I had never regarded as an indication of change of heart, and so the executions did not alter the position. But I should certainly have given Government credit for some change of heart if they had commuted the sentences.

Reference:

 

Young India, 2-4-1931