For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Research work 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

Research work and Mahatma Gandhi

Wonderful discoveries you will come across in course of your research work hidden cords underlying the human breast whose presence you little suspected. And when you succeed in touching some of these cords and find that they are responsive to human touch, it will give you all the satisfaction that a man can legitimately desire. I have often told young men that for social service of a universal character they must have one thing. You will laugh when I tell you what that one thing is and say that this old man, whether he talks of politics or social service or alleviating economic distress, cannot help harping upon the charkha. Yes, it is true, I cannot help doing so. This time at Calcutta I was privileged to meet a larger number of people, some of them engaged in missionary work, others in commercial undertakings, and after all these talks, my conviction has grown deeper that social service on a large scale is impossible without a thorough knowledge of the science of the charkha. The disease from which we as a nation are suffering is idleness enforced at one time, now grown in habit and a nation living in idleness does not deserve to live.

The middle class people will slave away for their maintenance for eight hours, but a man who slaves away like that for 8 hours is not necessarily industrious. They have no sense of time. I know this to my cost. I have lived in the midst of thousands of labourers in South Africa and, ever with my rickety constitution; I was able to overtake them in their work because they lost so many idle moments. A friend, who is a Collector, once wrote to me; “I detest your politics,” meaning non-co-operation about which he had read little, known less but he loves the charkha. “As an Englishman I do not understand Indian economics,” he wrote, “but I like this hobby of yours because by delivering your message of the charkha, you have rendered a great social service.” With me it is not a mere hobby though I should prize it even as a hobby but a life-giving thing which has revolutionized the lives of thousands of men and women, and if I could carry you educated people with me, if I could make the Englishman agree with me, millions of people should go with a smile on their faces where there is a look of blank despair now and why? Simply because they have no work and so starve. They feel the pinch of hunger, but they cannot go to the costly works that the Government has opened for them.

The work there mostly consists of breaking stones for the roads or carrying metal. And what are the conditions under which this work has to be done. The majority of them are women and they have to work under the supervision of overseers, who have no character to lose or to keep, and who are lustful. The rest you can understand. I would not describe it to you. These women, who ought to be as dear to you as your mothers or sisters, if you have any regard for them, have been weaned from this class of labour. The charkha gives them all that they need. An old lady of 60 years walks two miles to obtain slivers from my son and says, “Tell your father he has given me something which is a blessing to me because it has given me a dignity which I did not have before.” Today there are millions of such men and women in Champaran to whom the charkha would give independence.

The wages of women there are anything between 5 and 6 pice per day, those of boys between 3 and 4 pice and those of men between 8 to 10 pice. The average annual income of an Indian today, I am told, is Rs. 50. I do not know that. But I know that Dadabhai Naoroji calculated it at Rs. 26. The late Lord Curzon, who challenged the accuracy of this figure, set it down at Rs. 33. Even if we accept the late Lord Curzon’s figure, including as it does, the crores of the millionaires like the Tatas, as correct, just consider what it would mean to put two to three rupees per month in the pockets of these people and through what agency? Not the insolent overseers who rob these sisters of their shame and take one rupee as their dasturi of the three rupees that they give to them, but by working under the observation of clean lads who will regard their honour as sacred as of their own sisters and give them money with a smile. It makes all the difference in the world whether you receive 8 or 10 annas from insolent hands or four pice from hands sanctified with work. 1

I believe that Ayurveda is a field for much research work. For want of research scholars, unlike Western medicine, it has practically come to a standstill. Therefore, I should not discountenance aid being given to Ayurveda research under given circumstances and to honest and industrious men who love research work and who have the necessary qualifications. I should add that the remarks attributed to me were made at the ceremony of laying the foundation of an Ayurvedic College. Had I been averse to any aid being given to Ayurvedic work, I should certainly have declined to lay the foundation of an Ayurvedic College at Calcutta, to open the Tibbia College in Delhi and very recently, to open an Ayurvedic Hospital at Ahmednagar. 2

I do not know whether you can all hear me. I am sorry I cannot raise my voice. I thank you sincerely for your address and garlands and for having brought me to this Temple of Peace. I must confess I feel like a fish out of water, for I have long been out of touch that touches with literature which this Society rightly expects. For one long unbroken period of 35 years my lot has been cast in less peaceful spheres which have kept me out all literary studies, much as I should have valued it. Except for the short time that I was in prison, I had no other time to turn to literature. I have seen your journal and I congratulate you on your work. You have stated you are interested in research work and I see that your research work has been thoroughgoing. 3

I have read almost all the Western books on food reform. They are good only up to a point. Many of the observations have to be taken with the greatest caution, because of our different habits of life. The results obtained by experiments under Western conditions will not be the result necessarily to be obtained here. And then, I have also noticed that the experiments are not in every case faithfully described. Many data are omitted. The majority of us whether in the medical line or any other do not take a scientific interest in our professions, our only concern being to make money or somehow to get on in life. Hence is there an utter dearth of original research work. 4 Khadi depots should realize that these particulars are required as much for their benefit as for that of the khadi movement in general. It is impossible for the technical department to make generalizations, draw deductions, and guide khadi producers, unless it is assisted in its research work by the various khadi depots and other workers. Nor is it possible to evolve discipline unless there is quick response made to the head office by all subordinate organizations, and it will be impossible to enable the All-India Spinners’ Association to realize its aim unless there is voluntary discipline evolved at all points of its activity. 5

In view of my answer to the first question, I need hardly answer the second. But I would say independently of the first that the organization of the foundation round industrial, racial and international relationships would be any day preferable to the traditional academic departments. If the view underlying my answer to the first question is accepted, you will have to do original research work. 6 The Registrar’s report which was a businesslike document showed that the Vidyapith was still doing pruning work and strengthening its foundation. Nevertheless it was able to show a literary output of no mean order in the shape of text books and research work done by the Puratattya Mandir with whose activity were identified scholars like Muni Jinvijayaji and Prof. Dharmanand Kosambi and Pandit Sukhlalji. The Vidyapith hopes inside of three months to furnish the Gujaratis with an authorized spelling dictionary, a want that is being increasingly felt. Great stress is being laid upon manual training which is superstitiously believed to interfere with the development of the intellect. 7 This is to ask you if the duty leviable on khadi manufactured in the Nizam’s dominion and passing from Secunderabad and Hyderabad could be exempted from the levy and whether the cooperative department can utilize the whole or portion of Rs. 10,000 placed at its disposal for research work. Surely the duty on khadi is a tax upon the poor cultivators. 8

It is recognition of their importance and status in their profession. Prof. K. T. Shah is an economist of all-India reputation is an author of several valuable works and was for many years and only up to the other day Professor of Economics in the University of Bombay. These three gentlemen are always busy and it was no little sacrifice on their part to give their time to the responsible work entrusted to them by the Congress. Sjt. J. C. Kumarappa, the convener, is a professor in the Gujarat Vidyapith and therefore it was no additional sacrifice on his part. He may be considered a registered national servant and therefore his time and labour were already at the disposal of the Congress. He was chosen for this particular task for his accurate knowledge of economics and his aptitude for research work. These four members were ably assisted at their invitation by Sjt. G. N. Joshi, also an economist of considerable experience. I have given this introduction about the authors of the report so that foreign readers may know that the report is not a document prepared by superficial politicians but it is the creation of men who have a reputation to lose; who are no demagogues but men who write about things they know and weigh the words that they write. 9

The function of the Board will be to define the programme of village reconstruction work from time to time, to co-ordinate the policy followed in different centres, to collect, collate and circulate information gathered from workers or agents as to the actual condition of the existing village industries, both those that may be flourishing and those that may be perishing, also as to the economic, moral and physical condition of villagers, to carry on research work with the help of specialists and experts and to discover and create a market for surplus village manufactures. 10

The Board cannot carry on research work without the help of experts. And since experts cannot be expected to give their whole time and thought to the work of the Association, I have sent requests to several friends if they would allow their names to appear on the Board of Advisers. So far the following friends have kindly consented to be on it: Dr. Rabindranath Tagore Sir J. C. Bose Sir P. C. Ray Sir C. V. Raman Shri Ramdas Pantulu Jamal Mohamed Sahib Shri G. D. Birla Sir Purushottamdas Thakurdas Sir S. Pochkhanawalla Prof. Sam Higginbottom Dr. Jivraj Mehta Dr. M. A. Ansari Major-General Sir Robert McCarrison’s Dr. Rajabally V. Patel Dr. S. Subba Rao Dr. B. C. Roy Dr. Purushottam Patel Wardha has been chosen as the Headquarters because of being centrally situated, being a junction station and being rather a glorified village than a city. Though I have several names before me of friends who have undertaken to act as agents to the Association, I would request these correspondents as well as others to offer their names to the Organizer and Secretary, Mr. J. C. Kumarappa, Wardha. I have transferred to him all the names and papers received by me. 11

For the due fulfillment of its object, the Association shall raise funds to carry on research work, publish literature, organize propaganda establish agencies, devise measures for the improvement of village tools, and do everything that may be necessary for the furtherance of its object. 12

I have now received from the convener, Kakasaheb Kalelkar a memorandum containing a list of books he needs for his research work. I should be grateful if these books can be supplied. 13 I should, therefore, like to see missionaries as medicine vendors for the villages, confining themselves, as far as they can, to indigenous medicines. There will certainly not be gold medals or knighthoods from Government forthcoming for them for this valuable research work. But, in my opinion, they will obtain what is of far greater value, a knighthood from Jesus Christ. 14 Under the impulse of the phenomenal rise in the spinners’ wages, voluntarily made by the A. I. S. A., there has been a great output of yarn. It has been difficult everywhere to cope with the khadi thus produced. In Tamil Nadu alone khadi production shot up to nearly 15 lakhs from about five and a half lakhs and the sales increased to only 11 lakhs from nearly nine lakhs. I have already dealt with the difficulty in the U. P. These are only typical instances. The difficulty is almost universal. I have suggested that khadi experts should study this aspect of it in a scientific manner and discover the remedy. This research work, like all other research work, will take time. Meanwhile the surplus stock must be cleared. It is up to the patriotic public to come to the assistance. I have no love for the celebration of my birthday. Any other day is as good or as bad as a birthday.

My parents, so far as I recollect, never celebrated the birthdays of their children. I remember the date of my birthday only because I had to take the birth certificate for the London examination. But I never thought of the date until after the rebirth of khadi. Khadi-lovers made the date of my birth an occasion for pushing khadi sales. I did not mind such exploitation of my birthday but tried with more or less success to give it the name of Rentia Jayanti so far as the Gujarati-speaking public was concerned for it was they who first set the vogue for celebrating the date Ever since, the Khadi Week has been celebrated in many parts of India for popularizing khadi and village products. Khadi-lovers are setting much store by the forthcoming 2nd October according to the Christian calendar and the 10th October according to the Vikram Samvat. U. P., Tamil Nadu and other provinces have issued khadi hundis for which they expect a heavy demand in expectation of the coming celebration. Special fuss is being made because I shall have completed seventy years on those dates, assuming of course that I shall survive till then. But whether I do or not the dates will come unfailingly. And if it is of any value to the public to know it, let them know that my spirit, whether embodied or disembodied, will certainly rejoice to think that there are sufficient men and women in India who will combine always to take up, for the sake of Daridranarayana, all the khadi that can be produced by the semi-starved villagers. Let no one plead the war as an excuse for not buying khadi. War or no war, so long as there is life in us, we shall need to feed and clothe ourselves. What can be better than that we cover ourselves with cloth produced through the labours of the needy sisters and brothers of the villages? 15

The research scholar is right in imputing to me the desire to read my meaning into the Koran. Surely there is no harm in it so long as I remain absolutely faithful to the text and approach my task with a prayerful and open mind. My correspondent should know as a scholar that an interpretation of a life or a book is not necessarily correct because it has been handed down for generations. An error does not cease to be one after a given number of repetitions by a given number of men for a given number of years. The Biblical texts are still being corrected. And many good Christians believe that the Christianity of the West is a negation of Christ’s central teaching. It is just possible that the research scholar’s views about the qualifications required for reading and interpreting the Koran and his own interpretation are wrong, and that my being a non-Muslim is no bar to my reading the Koran or interpreting it. And it is not at all impossible that my interpretation may be found to be right. It will be an evil day if the reading and interpreting of religious books are to be confined only to those who wear particular religious labels. I ask my correspondent and his companions, as their friend, to shed what in my opinion is their gross intolerance and give the same credit to others for seeing truth as they claim for themselves. No one has a monopoly of truth. All truth represented by imperfect humans that we are relative. We can each act according to our lights. God alone knows the reality that being so, it behoves research scholars at least to be humble and tolerant. Fanaticism and intolerance can neither conduce to research work nor advance the cause they represent. 16

In spite of my best effort, I have not been able to read your book. But a cursory glance shows that some of your statements are too startling to be true. If they are true, you have made no mean contribution to research work. If your thesis is accepted by Americans, there must be established a cultural bond between America and India. 17 This question has been answered often enough in some form or other in these columns as also in those of Young India. But it is an evergreen. I must answer it as often as it is put, especially when it comes from an earnest seeker as this one does. I claim that even now; though the social structure is not based on a conscious acceptance of non-violence, the entire world over mankind lives and men retain their possessions on the sufferance of one another if they had not done so, only the fewest and the most ferocious would have survived. But such is not the case. Families are bound together by ties of love, and so are groups in the so-called civilized society called nations. Only they do not recognize the supremacy of the law of non-violence. It follows, therefore, that they have not investigated its vast possibilities. Hitherto out of sheer inertia, shall I say, we have taken it for granted that complete non-violence is possible only for the few who take the vow of non-possession and the allied abstinences. Whilst it is true that the votaries alone can carry on research work and declare from time to time the new possibilities of the great eternal law governing man, if it is the law, it must hold good for all.

The many failures we see are not of the law but of the followers, many of whom do not even know that they are under that law willy-nilly. When a mother dies for her child she unknowingly obeys the law. I have been pleading for the past fifty years for a conscious acceptance of the law and its zealous practice even in the face of failures. Fifty years’ work has shown marvellous results and strengthened my faith. I do claim that by constant practice we shall come to a state of things when lawful possession will command universal and voluntary respect. No doubt such possession will not be tainted. It will not be an insolent demonstration of the inequalities that surround us everywhere. Nor need the problem of unjust and unlawful possessions appal the votary of non-violence. He has at his disposal the non-violent weapon of Satyagraha and non-cooperation which hitherto has been found to be a complete substitute of violence whenever it has been applied honestly in sufficient measure. I have never claimed to present the complete science of nonviolence. It does not lend itself to such treatment. So far as I know no single physical science does, not even the very precise science of mathematics. I am but a seeker, and I have fellow-seekers like the questioner whom I invite to accompany me in the very difficult but equally fascinating search. 18

In my opinion there are definite drawbacks in taking milk or meat. In order to get meat we have to kill. And we are certainly not entitled to any other milk except the mother’s milk in our infancy. Over and above the moral drawback, there are others, purely from the point of view of health. Both milk and meat bring with them the defects of the animal from which they are derived. Domesticated cattle are hardly ever perfectly healthy. Just like man, cattle suffer from innumerable diseases. Several of these are overlooked even when the cattle are subjected to periodical medical examinations. Besides, medical examination of all the cattle in India seems to be an impossible feat, at any rate for the present. I am conducting a dairy at the Sevagram Ashram. I can easily get help from medical friends. Yet I cannot say with certainty that all the cattle in the Sevagram Dairy are healthy. On the contrary, a cow that had been considered to be healthy by everybody was found to be suffering from tuberculosis. Before this diagnosis was made, the milk of that cow had been used regularly in the Ashram.

The Ashram also takes milk from the farmers in the neighborhood. Their cattle have not been medically examined. It is difficult to determine whether a particular specimen of milk is safe for consumption or not. We have to rest content with as much safety as boiling of the milk can assure us of. If the Ashram cannot boast of fool-proof medical examination of its cattle, and be certain of the safety of its dairy products, the situation elsewhere is not likely to be much better. What applies to the milch cattle applies to a much greater extent to the animals slaughtered for meat. As a general rule, man just depends upon luck to escape from such risks. He does not seem to worry much about his health. He considers himself to be quite safe in his medical fortress in the shape of doctors, vaids and hakims. His main worry and concern is how to get wealth and position in society. This worry overshadows all the rest. Therefore so long as some selfless scientist does not, as a result of patient research work, discover a vegetable substitute for milk and meat, man will go on taking meat and milk. 19

Vaidya Vallabhram asks whether well-known home drugs and condiments can be included in nature cure. Doctor friends claim that they do nothing more than investigate the laws and act accordingly and that therefore they are the best nature-cure men. Everything can be explained away in this manner. All I want to say is that anything more than Ramanama is really contrary to true nature cure. The more one recedes from this central principle the farther away one goes from nature cure. Following this line of thought I limit nature cure to the use of the five elements. But a vaidya who goes beyond this and uses such herbs as grow or can be grown in his neighborhood purely for service of the sick and not for money may claim to be a nature-cure man. But where are such vaidyas to be found? Today most of them are engaged in making money. They do no research work and it is because of their greed and mental laziness that the science of Ayurveda is at low ebb. Instead of admitting their own weakness they throw the blame on Government and public men. Government is powerless to help those who through their own fault become helpless and thereby drag the name of Ayurveda in the mud. 20

For instance, people who spin for themselves or their family and have their yarn woven do not use certified khadi. Yet such khadi is of the highest merit. Certified khadi carried the guarantee that the rules of the A. I. S. A. have been observed, as for instance paying to the spinners a certain minimum wage. Khadi, even when the spinners are not paid the standard A. I. S. A. wage, is preferable to mill cloth. The higher wages paid to labourers in the spinning mills are more apparent than real. Mill cloth is 2 1/2 times cheaper than khadi today. Experts have told me that if the mill industry did not receive special privileges and concessions in several ways, which it today enjoys, mill cloth would not sell cheaper than khadi. For instance, we provide cheap transport facilities to the mills to enable raw materials and mass-produced finished goods to be taken from one place to another. Again, enormous sums have been spent on growing long-staple cotton or on starting technical institutes and on research work. No one has bothered to do anything for any of the seven lakhs of India’s villages. So the mills are today actually being subsidized in some shape or other. Remove all that and then see whether mill cloth is cheaper than khadi. 21

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