International Fellowship and 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

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

E-mail- [e-mail];

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

 

International Fellowship and Mahatma Gandhi

 

 

Some twenty men and women belonging to the International Fellowship are starting their work in the Ashram from tomorrow. Sunday is the last day for them. So as soon as I return from my visit to the Vidyapith, I have to present myself among them. What can I do now? I have suggested that you should invite all of them one evening and call a few friends. Surely, I can take that much liberty with you? But if this is in convenient I would not wish you to do it. The letter about your small car was also being dispatched, but your letter came in the meantime and so I am sending that letter along too. You are free to take my time whenever you wish. Please do so. 1

It is a relevant question. But you must not forget that we have started with the fundamental principle that all religions are true. If there were different but good and true health laws for different communities, I should hesitate to preach some as true and some as false. I am positive that, with people not prepared to tolerate one another’s religious belief, there can be no international fellowship. 2

If the Christian world entertains that opinion about the Hindu house, ‘Parliament of Religions’ and ‘International Fellowship’ are empty phrases. For both the terms presuppose equality of status, a common platform. There cannot be a common platform as between inferiors and superiors, or the enlightened and the unenlightened, the regenerate and the unregenerate, the high-born and the low-born, the caste man and the outcaste. My comparison may be defective, may even sound offensive. My reasoning may be unsound. But my proposition stands. 3

 

References:

 

1. Letter to Ambalal Sarabhai, January 12, 1928
2. Young India, 19-1-1928
3. Harijan, 13-3-1937