Question Box and Mahatma Gandhi-XII

[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-XII

 

 

Q. The Muslim public needs to be satisfied on a very important question. Will the Muslims be allowed to eat their national food-beef-under a Hindu majority Government? If you can satisfy the Muslims on this all important question, a great deal of knots will be solved. You should give a straight answer to this question in your paper Harijain.

 A. I do not know how this question arises for whilst Congressmen were in office they are not known to have interfered with the practice of beef-eating by Muslims. The question is also badly conceived. There is no such thing as a Hindu majority Government. If a free India is to live at peace with herself, religious divisions must entirely give place to political divisions based on considerations other than religious. Even as it is, though unfortunately religious differences loom large, most parties contain members drawn from all sects. It is moreover not true to say that beef is the national food of Muslims. In the first place the Muslims of India are not as yet a separate nation. In the second, beef is not their ordinary good. Their ordinary food is the same as that of the millions. What is true is that there are very few Muslims who are vegetarians form a religious motive. Therefore they will take meat, including beef, when they can get it. But during the greater part of the year millions of Muslims, owing to poverty, go without meat of any kind. These are facts. But the theoretical question demands a clear answer. As a Hindu, a confirmed vegetarian, and a worshipper of the cow whom I regard with the same veneration as I regard my mother (alas, no more on this earth), I maintain that Muslims should have full freedom to slaughter cows, if they wish, subject of course to hygienic restrictions and in a manner not to wound the susceptibilities of their Hindu neighbours. Fullest recognition off freedom to the Muslims to slaughter cows is indispensable for communal harmony, and is the only way of saving the cow. In 1921 thousands of cows were saved by the sole and willing effort of Muslims themselves In spite of the black clouds hanging over our heads. I refuse to give up the hope that they will disperse and that we shall have communal peace in this unhappy land. If I am asked for proof, I must answer that my hope is based on faith and faith demands no proof.

Q. Do you consider death sentence to be against your principle of ahimsa? If so, what form of punishment would you advocate as a substitute in a free India?

A. I do regard death sentence as contrary to ahimsa. Only he takes life who gives it. All punishment is repugnant to ahimsa. Under a State governed according to the principles of ahimsa, therefore, a murdered would be sent to a penitentiary and there given every chance of reforming himself. All crime is a kind of disease and should be treated as such.

 Q. How can an ordinary man distinguish between God’s will and his own will?

 A. By not regarding anything as God’s will unless he has positive proof to the contrary. Not every person can know God’s will. Proper training is necessary to attain the power to know God’s will.

Q. Some of the Congress committees here in Adampur Doaba during the last Independence Day celebrations got prepared national flags of uncertified khadi and some of them got badge flags prepared from paper. They sold these to raise funds. When questioned they pleaded that they wanted funds for the Congress and could not afford to sell badge flags made out of khadi for one piece each and still retain something for themselves. At some places I even found national flags hoisted which were of mill-cloth and even without the spinning-wheel. I personally feel that the spinning-wheel and khadi are the very soul of our flag; and a national flag which is printed on uncertified khadi and without the spinning-wheel mark on it, or a paper flag cannot be called a national flag.

A. Your objection is sound. The Congress committees who used as national flags paper flags or those which were made of mill-cloth or uncertified khadi or without the charkha, committed an offence against the Congress. The betrayed little regard for the flag. Any rag cannot be used as flag. It has to conform to the prescribed pattern. If we do not respect our own flag, we have no right to expect others to do so. You have made out a case for the central office having a stock of flags of variety of sizes. Nobody should be permitted to use unauthorized flags as national flags.

 

Reference:

 

 Harijan, 27-4-1940