Hindu Beware – Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

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Hindu Beware – Mahatma Gandhi

 

Bihar is the land of promise for non-co-operation. For the Hindu-Muslim unity of Bihar is proverbial. I was therefore distressed to find that the unity was suffering a strain which might almost prove unbearable. I was told by all responsible leaders both Hindu and Mohammedan—who are not given to be panicky, that it was taxing their resources to the utmost to avoid a Hindu-Mussulman disturbance. They informed me that certain Hindus, by name Gangaram Sharma, Bhutanath and Vidyanand, for instance, had told the people that I had prohibited the use of meat to any Hindus or Mussulmans and that meat and fish were even forcibly taken away from people by over-zealous vegetarians. I know that unlawful use is being made of my name in many places, but this is the most novel method of misusing it. It is generally known that I am a staunch vegetarian and food reformer. But it is not equally generally known that ahimsa extends as much to human beings as to lower animals and that I freely associate with meat-eaters. I would not kill a human being for protecting a cow, as I will not kill a cow for saving a human life, be it ever so precious. Needless to say I have authorized no one to preach vegetarianism as part of non-co-operation. I do not know the persons named above.

I am sure that our purpose will be defeated if propaganda of any kind is accompanied by violence. Hindus may not compel Mussulmans to abstain from meat or even beef-eating. Vegetarian Hindus may not compel other Hindus to abstain from fish, flesh for fowl. I would not make India sober at the point of the sword. Nothing has lowered the morale of the nation so much as violence. Fear has become the part of the national character. Non-co-operators will make a serious mistake if they seek to convert people to their creed by violence. They will play into the hands of the Government if they use the slightest coercion towards anybody in the the course of their propaganda. The cow question is a big question. The greatest for a Hindu I yield to no one in my regard for the cow. Hindus do not fulfill their trust so long as they do not possess the ability to protect the cow. That ability can be derived either from body-force or soul-force. To attempt cow-protection by violence is to reduce Hinduism to Satanism and to prostitute to a base end the grand significance of cow-protection. As a Mussulman friend writes, beef-eating, which is merely permissible in Islam, will become a duty if compulsion is resorted to by Hindus. The latter can protect the cow only by developing the faculty for dying, for suffering. The only chance Hindus have, of saving the cow in India from the butcher's knife, is by trying to save Islam from the impending peril and trusting their Mussulman countrymen to return nobility, i.e., voluntarily to protect the cow out of regard for their Hindu countrymen.

The Hindus must scrupulously refrain from using any violence against Mussulmans. Suffering and trust are attributes of soul-force. I have heard that, at big fairs, if a Mussulman is found in possession of cows or even goats, he is at time forcibly dispossessed. Those, who, claiming to be Hindus, thus resort to violence are enemies of the cow and of Hinduism. The best and the only way to save the cow are to save the Khilafat. I hope therefore that every non-co-operator will strain him to the utmost to prevent the slightest tendency to violence in any shape or form, whether to protect the cow or any other animal or to effect any other purpose.

 

Reference:

Young India, 18-5-1921