For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Political Power and Mahatma Gandhi

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- dr.yadav.yogendra@gandhifoundation.net;

dr.yogendragandhi@gmail.com

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

Political Power and Mahatma Gandhi

Being without political power, India is growing poorer and so abject is this poverty that thousands have been driven by it to inhuman crimes. The idea of hunger-strike is intended to bring home to us that a man who has been starving for some days would stop at nothing. She is speaking today to explain this point. If some of Mrs. Besant’s detractors succeed against her that is only because she believes in action and has no interest except in her work. She has dedicated herself, body and soul, and all she has, to her mission. She has put before us what she had to say but it is not by following her way that we shall succeed in swimming across to the other side, we shall do so only by following our own. If the honour Ahmadabad has accorded her today is sincere, you should pray to God that He may grant the strength she has to us as well. And, with the same regard for her listen to her in silence. Those who cannot follow English may read a translation tomorrow. 1

Then there remains South Africa, which is really the most difficult of all. We reproduce in this issue the text of General Smuts’ not unsympathetic reply to the Indian Deputation that waited on him. Never has a community been engaged in an unequal fight such as our countrymen are in South Africa. Compared to their rivals they are poor. They have no political power and they have been engaged ever since 1880 in protecting the right to exist with self-respect a right which any civilized Government would not deny even to utter strangers. It speaks volumes for their courage and resourcefulness that they have been able to hold their own in the manner they have. 2 Educated non-Brahmins do not possess the same political power that the Brahmins possess. The latter have the largest number of Government posts, and seats on representative bodies, although the former are numerically by far the strongest. 3

The British Empire has at the present time fallen a prey to greed and avarice. It was greed which brought it here. The East India Company was drawn here by its greed. After coming here, it saw that trade could not be carried on without political power. It saw here mines of gold and silver, namely our bodies and the clothes thereon. To plunder that gold and silver, its Government stripped us naked. It removed our clothes by holding out temptations to us through tyranny and all manner of oppression. 4 The Colonial Secretary’s announcement about the Kenya Indians is an artful performance. It reads perfectly innocent. But it has practically taken away everything that our countrymen of Kenya were fighting for. Mr. Thomas has shelved the immigration measure. It means very little. There was no urgency about it. And with the unfavorable decision on the other points, the immigration will be automatically checked. The Indians claimed to retain the right to own land in the Highlands. They claimed equal general franchise. They wanted fair fight and no favour. The announcement takes away the right of owning land in the healthiest part of Kenya. It seeks to give communal franchise which in effect means no effective political power for our countrymen. The struggle has been going on for several years. All Indians, Moderates and others united last year. They proclaimed even a boycott of British goods. But the import of British goods remained unaffected and the Kenya Indians have gained little for the agitation. We have not the power, or more accurately we do not know how to use the power we have. Let the reader understand the distinction between Kenya and Natal. Natal has dominion status. Kenya has not. The decision in Natal is an act of the local legislature. There is therefore still hope of relief. In Kenya the decision now is that of the Imperial Government. Therefore it is practically final. 5

We must have political power. It cannot long be withheld from us. But that power, whenever it comes, will be the ripe fruit of the labours of many for a common end. The collection of the fund, especially if it comes from lacs, be it in ever so small a coin, will be a striking demonstration not merely of the genuine love of the people but also of our organizing ability. To contribute therefore to the fund is for the time being the best appreciation of Deshbandhu. 6 I, however, feel that fundamentally the disease is the same in Europe as it is in India, in spite of the fact that in the former country the people enjoy political self-government, No mere transference of political power in India will satisfy my ambition, even though I hold such transference to be a vital necessity of Indian national life. The peoples of Europe have no doubt political power but no swaraj. Asian and African races are exploited for their partial benefit, and they, on their part, are being exploited by the ruling class or caste under the sacred name of democracy. At the root, therefore, the disease appears to be the same as in India. The same remedy is, therefore, likely to be applicable. Shorn of all the camouflage, the exploitation of the masses of Europe is sustained by violence. 7

The more I study the problem of protecting cows, the more I realize its importance. This problem will become increasingly serious in India, since it involves the economic well-being of the country. I believe that from its very nature religion embraces economic, political and other problems. The religion which is opposed to true economics is no religion, nor that which is opposed to true politics. Economics devoid of religion should be shunned, and political power uninformed with the spirit of religion is Satanic. There is no such thing as dharma unrelated to economic and other activities. Individuals and society both survive through dharma and perish without it. Accumulation of wealth that is commerce, through truthful means fosters the growth of society, but commerce carried on without any regard for truth destroys it. Many instances can be cited to show that what is gained through falsehood, through dishonest and devious means is but short-lived and proves harmful in the end. 8

What would it matter to Britain if India ceased to purchase sixty crore rupees worth of cloth from her? Do you suppose that would make her abdicate her political power in India? See, how woefully mistaken you are in declaring that there is no political programme more valuable than hand spinning. 9 It is true that we have not won swaraj in the sense of political power, but I attach little value to this fact. That people’s ideas have changed, that they have become more critical and have acquired courage, is no small gain. The value of the movement will be appreciated in the future. Being too near it as yet, we cannot judge it aright, this being my view, what am I to confess in public? It is of course possible that my view is wrong. But so long as I am myself not convinced of the error of my view, how can I, if I love truth, admit any error? I aim at self-purification even through my political activities; I wish to follow dharma through them, and everyone’s dharma is but what he can see for himself. No one has yet discovered absolute dharma which everyone will recognize to be so. Such dharma is beyond our power to understand and explain. Each one of us has but a glimpse of it, and describes it in his own way. Our power is limited to the choice of means and I, therefore, believe that our success lies in preserving the purity of our means. 10

Politically, India’s status has never been so reduced as under the British regime. All administrative talent is killed and the masses have to be satisfied with petty village offices and clerkships. The tallest of us have to bend before foreign authority. No reform has given real political power to the people. 11 It all depends upon what we mean by and want through purna swaraj. If we mean an awakening among the masses, a knowledge among them of their true interest and ability to serve that interest against the whole world and if through purna swaraj we want harmony, freedom from aggression from within or without and a progressive improvement in the economic condition of the masses, we can gain our end without political power and by directly acting upon the powers that be. One form of direct action is adult suffrage. The second and more potent form is Satyagraha. It can easily be shown that whatever is needful and can be gained by political power can perhaps be more quickly and more certainly gained by Satyagraha. If such is the case and if, in spite of all, [the] attempt to secure an honourable settlement of the communal question fails it is obvious that we should give up the attempt to secure a swaraj constitution at the present moment. It is better and quicker to wait till the Congress has become equally popular with the other communities than to attempt to force swaraj through highly artificial surroundings. If the Congress means what it says, it cannot be long gaining the adherence of all the other communities. Meanwhile the Congress must fulfil its mission of representing the starving millions by fighting for their relief, if it cannot do so by gaining power then by gaining that relief through the government existing at the moment. Whilst discussing this probability with English friends, I was reminded that this position was hardly fair, not to take the power to make the reforms and to force the hands of those who cannot carry on the administration if they grant the reforms, in their opinion only so called. I pointed out the fallacy underlying the rebuke. The Congress is ever ready to take the power if it is given to it but the Congress is too weak to seize power from unwilling hands in the artificial surroundings of the Round Table Conference and that in the absence of real unity between the chief actors, the communities. 12

We do not want political power for its own sake; we want it for a certain end. That end is service of the millions. If we cannot get today the reins of power in our hands to improve their economic, moral and social conditions, we need not on that account stop that works. 13 Political power means capacity to regulate national life through national representatives. If national life becomes so perfect as to become self regulated, no representation is necessary. There is then a state of enlightened anarchy. In such a state everyone is his own ruler. He rules himself in such a manner that he is never a hindrance to his neighbour. In the ideal state therefore there is no political power because there is no State. But the ideal is never fully realized in life. Hence the classical statement of Thoreau that that Government is best which governs the least. If then I want political power, it is for the sake of the reforms for which the Congress stands. Therefore when the energy to be spent in gaining that power means so much loss of energy required for the reforms, as threatens to be the case if the country is to engage in a duel with the Mussalmans or Sikhs, I would most decidedly advise the country to let the Mussalmans and Sikhs take all the power and I would go on with developing the reforms. If we were to analyze the activities of the Congress during the past twelve years, we would discover that the capacity of the Congress to take political power has increased in exact proportion to its ability to achieve success in the constructive effort. That is to me the substance of political power. Actual taking over of the Government machinery is but a shadow, an emblem. And it could easily be a burden if it came as a gift from without, the people having made no effort to deserve it. It is now perhaps easy to realize the truth of my statement that the needful can be ‘gained more quickly and more certainly by satyagraha than by political power.’ Legislation in advance of public opinion has often been demonstrated to be futile. Legal prohibition of theft in a country in which the vast majority is thieves would be futile. Picketing and the other popular activities is therefore the real thing. If political power was a thing apart from these reforms, we would have to suspend latter and concentrate on the former. But we have followed the contrary course. We have everywhere emphasized the necessity of carrying on the constructive activities as being the means of attaining swaraj. I am convinced that whenever legal prohibition of drinks, drugs and foreign cloth comes, it will come because public opinion had demanded it. It may be said that public opinion demands it today but the foreign Government does not respond. This is only partly right. Public opinion in this country is only now becoming a vital force and developing the real sanction which is Satyagraha. 14

There seems to me to be a question of emphasis between Sjt. Satyamurti and myself. His emphasis is on political power in itself, mine on political power as a weapon for enabling the reformer to achieve his reforms in the quickest manner possible. To me therefore all depends upon the way political power is attained. If it cannot be attained without the combined exertion of all the communities, I would wait. After all a strenuous exertion it is a getting. In that sense political power is daily coming to the nation. A constitution will merely be a symbol of the full achievement. But it may also be a mirage, if it is not consciously a fruition of a nation’s endeavour. Thus supposing by some accident England collapsed all of a sudden and therefore India imagined that she had all she wanted, she would be wholly wrong. Virtue therefore lies in our getting political power as a result of our strength, not as a result of the foreign ruler’s weakness. But I must not labour the point any further. It is enough that just at present, though I may have a different outlook from that of many others, we are all striving for the same thing in the same way. 15 We can afford to make a present of a few innocent heads, but it is impossible to contemplate with equanimity the unmanning of the whole people. I am hoping, therefore, that the British will study the Ordinance and insist on the withdrawal of what to me is inhuman exercise of political power. 16

It is all very well for you to say that you do not want to coerce anybody, but your position cannot but compel some people to act against their will. Some of us have no respect for your religious views or your social reforms, but we want you to live for your political power, and, therefore, if you persist in fasting, we will have to pocket our convictions and help you in your fight for temple-entry. If this is not coercion, we do not know the meaning of the word. 17 The evil is far greater than even I had thought it to be. It will not be eradicated by money, external organization and even political power for Harijans, though all these three are necessary. But to be effective, they must follow or at least accompany inward wealth, inward organization and inward power, in other words, self-purification. This can only come by fasting and prayer. We may not approach the God of Truth in the arrogance of strength, but in the meekness of the weak and the helpless. 18

I have often heard this argument advanced as an excuse for failure to do many things. I admit that there are certain things which cannot be done without political power, but there are numerous other things which do not at all depend upon political power. That is why a thinker like Thoreau said that “that government is the best which governs the least.” This means that when people come into possession of political power, the interference with the freedom of people is reduced to a minimum. In other words, a nation that runs its affairs smoothly and effectively without much State interference is truly democratic. Where such a condition is absent, the form of government is democratic in name. 19

References: