Question Box and Mahatma Gandhi-IX

[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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Question Box and Mahatma Gandhi-IX

 

 Q. You have written about Shri Jayaprakash Narayan. But are you not moved by his sentence? Is it not a call to arms? Will you even now wait till your impossible conditions are fulfilled?

 A. I fear I must wait till my conditions are fulfilled. You should allow me to know more than you of the way in which Satyagraha works. Of course I am moved by the sentence pronounced against that brave co-worker. I wish I could move you as I am moved. If you were, you would silently and more persistently spread the charkha cult by yourself spinning full-heartedly and by taking its message to your neighbours. Jayaprakash having gone to jail has had his reward. He had the inner urge. He deserved the reward. Believe me; it will produce its own effect. If I become impatient and resort to precipitate action, the good done by Jayaprakash’s imprisonment is likely to be undone partly or wholly. I will not be party to producing an anarchical condition in India, nor will any good purpose be served by my inviting individuals to follow Jayaprakash’s example and court imprisonment. This jail-going in Satyagraha does not admit of arithmetical application. Only one person’s going may be most appropriate. Suffice it to say that Jayaprakash’s imprisonment is engaging my serious attention. I wish all Congressmen would follow with redoubled zeal the task set before them.

 Q. You have tabooed power politics from Gandhi Seva Sangh and similar institutions for the sake of constructive work. Does this mean that no workers engaged in these institutions can take part in civil disobedience? I am afraid this watertight division between civil resistance and constructive work will result in a crippling of the latter as no first-rate worker would take to it by renouncing civil resistance.

 A. Those who argue like you do not know the value of constructive work. It is any day superior to civil disobedience. Civil disobedience without the backing of constructive effort is neither civil nor non-violent. Those who do constructive work merely for the sake of civil disobedience look at things topsy-turvy. At the present moment all satyagrahis have to hold themselves in readiness. But all may not be called. A soldier in reserve is as good as one on active duty. If the battle must come, I may say at once that my present plan is to disturb the constructive work as little as possible. Your question, I take it, has reference to those only who are working in organizations such as the A. I. S. A., A. I. V. I. A., H. S. S. and H. T. S. These will be as little disturbed as possible. But all Congressmen without exception, if they want to help the struggle, must take up constructive work in their persons.

Q. Are you not endangering the khadi movement by identifying it with the political programme, especially the civil disobedience part of it?

 A. Most certainly not. I would be, if khadi was confined only to Congressmen or civil resisters. Khadi is prescribed as national wear for all, whether Congressmen or others. It is used even by some Englishmen, Americans and other Westerners. Your objection, if it was valid, would apply even to communal unity, removal of untouchability and temperance. These four have gained importance and momentum since they were incorporated in the Congress constructive programme. They can all become illegal if they become mixed up with violence. If they did become illegal, it would be found that the movements as such were not suppressed but the organizations masquerading under innocent labels were in reality covering violence.

 Q. You will be responsible for a gross injustice if you persist in giving to India a majority Government with only ‘safeguards’ for the minorities. The latter ought to have an effective part in the actual government of the country.

 A. You have evidently confused majority rule with Hindu rule implying that the Hindu majority is irremovable. The fact is that the majority in all the provinces is a mixed majority. The parties are not Muslims and Hindus; they are Congressmen, independents, Muslim Leaguers, Muslim independents, laborites, etc. The Congress majority everywhere is a mixed majority and could be better balanced if there was no tension. The tension is distemper. Distemper can never be a permanent feature of any growing society which India is. Whatever the outcome of the Muslim League demonstration and its claim, some day or other there will be a solution of the issues raised. The outcome will never be pure Muslim or Hindu majorities in any single province. The parties will be mixed and aligned according to different policies, unless democracy is crushed and autocracy reigns supreme in India as a whole or India is vivisected into two or more dead parts. If you have followed my argument, it must be clear to you that there will never be a denial of power to any party or group so far as the Congress is concerned. Minorities are entitled to full protection of their rights, for so long as they have to divide power with others, they run the risk of their special rights being adulterated.

 Q. My father is an employee in the S. I. Railway. He has four children, all younger than I. He wants me to take an apprenticeship course. If I take part in the coming civil disobedience struggle, he may be dismissed and the family will starve. He says I can serve the nation by doing my share of constructive work. What is your advice?

A. Your father is right. If you are the only bread-winner, you cannot leave the family to its fate for the sake of taking part in civil disobedience. You will certainly serve the nation quite as effectively as civil resisters if you zealously carry out the constructive programme.

Q. All agree that mechanical repetition of prayers is worse than useless. It acts as an opiate on the soul. I often wonder why you encourage repetition morning and evening of the eleven great vows as a matter of routine. May not this have a dulling effect on the moral consciousness of our boys? Is there no better way of inculcating these vows?

 A. Repetitions when they are not mechanical produce marvellous results. Thus I do not regard the rosary as a superstition. It is an aid to the pacification of a wandering brain. Daily repetition of the vows falls under a different category. It is a daily reminder to the earnest seeker as he rises and retires that he is under the eleven vows which are to regulate his conduct. No doubt it will lose its effect if a person repeats the vows mechanically under the delusion that the mere repetition will bring him merit. You may ask: ‘Why repeat the vows at all?’ You know that you have taken them and are expected to observe them. There is force in the argument. But experience has shown that a deliberate repetition gives stimulus to the resolution. Vows are to the weak mind and soul what tonics are to a weak body. Just as a healthy body needs no tonics, a strong mind may retain its health without the need of vows and the daily reminder thereof. An examination of the vows will, however, show that most of us are weak enough to need their assistance.

 Q. You stand for the poor and helpless. Would you not include the providing of at least one daily meal to disabled beggars as an item of the daily routine of a ‘constructive worker ’? A large number of the former are lepers. There is not a city in India of any note without its quota of these hapless creatures. Their condition is deserving of your pity and consideration.

 A. Valuable as this work undoubtedly is, it cannot become part of the constructive programme. It is not every form of social relief that can be made part of the Congress constructive programme. Such programme can only cover that part, the omission of which would make the attainment of swaraj through non-violence impossible. Who can deny that Hindu-Muslim unity, removal of untouchability, temperance and the charkha are essential for achieving our object? My answer, however, does not mean that disabled humanity does not need any attention. No man or woman, whether of the Congress or not, can be worth much if he or she neglects to do his or her part of social service in the widest sense of the term.

Reference:

Harijan, 6-4-1940