For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Youth and Mahatma Gandhi - VII

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

Youth and Mahatma Gandhi - VII

Youths, listen to everyone, but decide your own course of action; do not be carried away by speeches. Concentrate on work and learn to be quiet. Your speech being your work, you will be worthy of being heard after you have rendered substantial service to the people. 1 Such horrible marriages are, in my opinion, not marriages but rather an exhibition of brute force. They are certainly contrary to religion whatever the legal opinion regarding them. I would certainly liberate a girl who has been sold in this manner and, if that were possible, get her married to a deserving groom. Wherever such marriages take place, young men should give publicity to them, find out the whereabouts of the girl’s parents and visit them and try and convince the old man who has got married to set the girl free. In order to carry out this task young men should be worthy of it, be respectable and polite. The bride should in fact be a child. There is no help if the bride, although young as compared to the bridegroom, is mature enough to understand the situation and has married him of her own free will. There are such young women who, being tempted by wealth, sell their virginity to old men and then commit misdeeds. Who can deal with them? Measures can be adopted only in cases where the bride is a child, not old enough to understand, and where the father or some other guardian has sold her solely for money.

Old men will stop looking for child-brides where young men can prevent one or two such instances and the former can satisfy their desires by searching out mature widows. Speculation clearly constitutes gambling and does not benefit the public at all. There is no doubt that it adversely affects business. Wealth gained through speculation is like wealth obtained by theft. Public opinion should be cultivated in order to prohibit speculation. This is a very ancient corrupt practice and has become widespread today. It will continue in one form or another so long as the human race does not give up greed. Young men will be unable to cope with all the evils in the world, but much can be achieved if they themselves become pure. A bridegroom’s party of this kind is as fit to be abandoned as a caste-feast. It is a useless expense and is detrimental to the solemnity of the religious ceremony. Young men who are about to marry should oppose firmly both the feast and the marriage party consisting of the bridegroom’s relatives. 2

It was a great and a wise step the All-India Congress Committee took at Lucknow on 29th ultimo in electing Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru as the Congress helmsman for the coming year. No man however great, be he even a Mahatma, is indispensable for a nation conscious of itself and bent upon freedom. Even as the whole is always greater than its part, the Congress which claims to represent the nation is always greater than its greatest part. To be a living organization it must survive its most distinguished members. The All-India Congress Committee has by its decision demonstrated that it believes in the inherent vitality of the Congress. Some fear in this transference of power from the old to the young, the doom of the Congress. I do not. The doom was to be feared from the scepter being held by paralytic hands as mine are at present. I may take the reader into the secret that before recommending Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s name for the burden, I had ascertained from him whether he felt himself strong enough to bear the weight. “If it is thrust upon me, I hope I shall not wince,” was the characteristic reply. In bravery he is not to be surpassed. Who can excel him in the love of the country? “He is rash and impetuous,” say some.

This quality is an additional qualification at the present moment. And if he has the dash and the rashness of a warrior, he has also the prudence of a statesman. A love of discipline, he has shown himself to be capable of rigidly submitting to it even where it has seemed irksome. He is undoubtedly an extremist thinking far ahead of his surroundings. But he is humble and practical enough not to force the pace to the breaking point. He is a knight sans peur sans reproche. The nation is safe in his hands. But the youth are on their trial. This has been a year for the youth’s awakening. Theirs undoubtedly was the largest contribution to the brilliant success of the Simon Commission boycott. They may take the election of Jawaharlal Nehru as a tribute to their service. But the youth may not rest on their laurels. They have to march many more stages before the nation comes to its own. Steam becomes a mighty power only when it allows itself to be imprisoned in a strong little reservoir and produces tremendous motion and carries huge weights by permitting itself a tiny and measured outlet. Even so have the youth of the country of their own free will to allow their inexhaustible energy to be imprisoned, controlled and set free in strictly measured and required quantities. This appointment of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru as the captain is proof of the trust the nation reposes in its youth. Jawaharlal alone can do little. The youth of the country must be his arms and his eyes. Let them prove worthy of the trust. 3

I certainly hope that my advice about soul-force is not altogether wasted though it might seem unavailing for the time being. As an English proverb says, “Constant dropping will wear away a stone.”And it is my faith that what seems utopian to the correspondent today will be regarded as practical tomorrow. History is replete with such instances. If the word ‘soul-force’ appears a meaningless term to our students today, it only shows to what an abject plight we are reduced. For is it not most tragic that things of the spirit, eternal verities, should be regarded as utopian by our youth, and transitory makeshifts alone appeal to them as practical? 4 There is nothing new in this use. Even if there is a coarse mill made dhoti and one wants to put it to such use that can be done. But the significance of the above statement is that mostly one gets such ideas only after donning khadi. Khadi sets us thinking about the poor people and thereby we use it carefully. Moreover, it is a matter of surprise that a youth of twelve years has imbibed such sense of thrift. Such fine results have been experienced by many families on account of khadi activity. May the other youths also emulate the example of this youngster? The reader should know that from the financial condition of this young man’s family, there is no need for him to be thus economical. But when the whole of India is looked upon as a family, it is necessary even for a millionaire’s son to be economical and to utilize the money thus saved for his poor brethren, the other children of Mother India. 5

We are habituated to pass resolutions without acting on them. I advise you to give up this mentality. This is one main obstacle in our path of progress. Had we fulfilled our promises of 1921, we should have attained swaraj long before. Another occasion is approaching on the people of this province as it is your province which has given the President of the next Congress. The responsibility is all the greater on the youth. Pandit Jawaharlal belongs to your province. At the same time, he is a youth. If you want to preserve your prestige and his too, you have to act as you say. You have already passed a resolution on untouchability. I hope you will pass similar resolutions on Hindu-Muslim unity and boycott of foreign cloth, which is possible only if you use khaddar. If you pass these resolutions, you have to abide by them. I hope and pray that you be prepared for the great struggle before us. 6

Such being my views, I hold it to be the duty of a person, who believes in the principle I have stated, to dissociate himself from an organization in the present instance, the youth movement which indulges in such criticism as a matter of principle and makes it its chief aim. It is one’s duty to resign from an institution whose defects carry one in a direction one does not approve of. There may be no objection to remaining, and occasionally it may even be a duty to remain, in the institution whose defects we hope to remove or remedy, keeping ourselves aloof from those defects. 7 I got now some time ago a letter on behalf of the Agra Youth League asking the following question: We are in the dark with regard to our main activities in future. We wish to co-operate with the peasants and neighbours of the locality but no practical method seems to be at hand. We hope that you will kindly suggest some practical way out of the difficulty. We think ours is not the only institution facing this difficulty. Accordingly it is highly desirable that you should suggest a definite solution of this problem through the columns of Navajivan or Young India. The address of the Youth League at Gorakhpur contained a similar sentiment and also asked how to face the bread problem that stared the youth in the face. In my opinion the two questions are intertwined and both can be solved, if the youth can be persuaded to make village life their goal rather than city life. We are inheritors of a rural civilization. The vastness of our country, the vastness of the population, the situation and the climate of the country has, in my opinion, destined it for a rural civilization. Its defects are well known but not one of them is irremediable. To uproot it and substitute for it an urban civilization seems to me impossibility, unless we are prepared by some drastic means to reduce the population from three hundred million to three or say even thirty. I can therefore suggest remedies on the assumption that we must perpetuate the present rural civilization and endeavour to rid it of its acknowledged defects. This can only be done if the youth of the country will settle down to village life. And if they will do this they must reconstruct their life and pass every day of their vacation in the villages surrounding their colleges or high schools and those who have finished their education or are not receiving any should think of settling down in villages.

The All-India Spinners’ Association with all its multifarious branches and institutions that have sprung up under its protection affords an easy opportunity to the students to qualify themselves for service and to maintain themselves honorably if they will be satisfied with the simple life which obtains in the villages. It maintains nearly 1500 young men of the country drawing anything between Rs. 15 to Rs. 150, and it can take in almost an unlimited number of earnest, honest and industrious young men who will not be ashamed of manual work. Then there are national educational institutions affording a similar though limited scope, limited only because national education is not in fashion. I therefore commend to the attention of all earnest young men who are dissatisfied with their existing surroundings and outlook to study these two great national institutions which are doing silent but most effective constructive work and which present the youth of the country with an opportunity both for service and for honourable maintenance. Whether however they avail themselves of these two great nation-building agencies or do not, let them penetrate the villages and find an unlimited scope for service, research and true knowledge. Professors would do well not to burden either their boys or girls with literary studies during the vacation but prescribe to them educative outings in the villages. Vacations must be utilized for recreation, never for memorizing books. 8

I sincerely regard myself as a farmer. Some people were amused at my evidence in the court. I had described my profession as farmer and weaver. Even today, if my ability is taken into consideration, I have no right to call myself a farmer, but I have no doubt that my flesh and blood is those of a farmer. I am fascinated by the farmer’s life. I am a worshipper of his natural virtues and I envy him his indifference to death. When I see his sturdy physique, I take pity on my own frail body. I have had personal experience of the fact that the common sense which he possesses can never be acquired in schools. I do not feel ashamed of cleaning latrines, of sweeping or of handling the spade and the hoe; on the contrary, I like doing these things. Hence I know that, if I give up that which I have come to regard as service or am forced to give it up, and I continue to be physically fit, I shall start farming that very day. But I was not destined to do so and hence I have had to be content with living on a farm and inspiring my co-workers to take to farming. But because I have realized the importance of agriculture in this manner, I am happy when any educated person takes up this occupation. Moreover, I am well acquainted with the hardships involved in it as I have come into close contact with farmers, and experiments in agriculture are being carried out under my direct supervision. I have reproduced the above extract from my coworker’s letter in order to give some idea of those joys and hardships. Without both, health and wealth, it is not possible to do farming.

Multi-millionaires earn money by owning hundreds of thousands of bighas of land. They do not till the land, but carry on business; their success is similar to that of the person who runs a factory with the help of workers. But if those who have a limited sum of money invest it in farming, they must certainly have both the desire and the capacity to put in body labour. No other profession requires the same degree of alertness as that required of a farmer. If a farmer so desires, he can with the slightest effort become a yogi. It is for this very reason that the saying has originated to the effect “Agriculture is the best of professions, business comes next and service is the most inferior one.” I have no doubt, therefore, that the larger the number of young men who take to farming, the better it will be for us. I have not written at length about it as I know that it is a difficult path. This precious profession cannot, however, be suggested to everyone. Anyone who wishes to take up farming should, first of all, serve silently as a labourer under some farmer. He should learn to use a plough, acquire the same knowledge as an ordinary farmer about the soil and crops, and learn well how to dig round and square pits. He should then acquire knowledge of farming from books written in the West. Soil chemistry is a distinct subject. Some improvement can certainly be brought about in our agriculture by obtaining some knowledge of it. Hence if the educated young man who wishes to make a success of farming does not have inexhaustible patience, he should never take up this experiment. Anyone who carries out the experiment must also develop self-confidence. Initial failures should not dishearten him. Success has always been born out of failure. 9

I have no doubt the reader will share with me the wish and the hope that Mr. Pennington may live many a long year to send his letters and even to see India reach her cherished goal. Who can withhold admiration for the consistent zeal and industry Mr. Pennington is evincing in the pursuit of what he considers to be the right course? Nor can one deny his downright honesty. That he may not think as we toiling under the British harrow do is a limitation for which he is not responsible. In any case his wonderful zeal, industry and optimism are worthy of imitation by the youth of the country. 10 Many others must be in such a plight. I would advise all such persons to refuse firmly to get into the bonds of such a marriage and to suffer whatever consequences follow from the refusal. Such marriages are a sign of our weak minds. This weakness retards our growth socially, economically, politically and spiritually. If we should assert our mental strength in one field, its effect cannot but be felt in the others. Hence I particularly advise youths in such a plight not to submit themselves, whatever the cost, to evil customs like child-marriage which are a bane to the society. Let them however show the utmost courtesy in their conduct towards the elders and equally scrupulous regard for truth. Courtesy without full regard for truth is no courtesy. It is only flattery, it is hypocrisy, and, therefore, truly speaking, it is discourtesy. My note on the subject of child-marriage above applies in this case too. I hope that the deceased’s father himself will understand his dharma and refrain from following the savage custom of giving a caste dinner on his son’s death. If the father does not so refrain, let the Youth Association stick to its resolution, and let all the youths of the town of Visnagar support it. For the sake of their principle, youths ought to be, and remain, prepared to forgo the advantages of living in the family home and other monetary help received from their elders, or be ready to be boycotted by them. 11

I have treasured it, acted up to it from my youth upward. When I went to London as a mere lad in 1889 I believed in it as passionately as I do now. When I went to South Africa in 1893 I worked it out in every detail of my life. Love so deep seated as it is in me will not be sacrificed even for the realm of the whole world. Indeed this campaign should take the attention of the nation off the communal problem and to rivet it on the things that are common to all Indians, no matter to what religion or sect they may belong. 12 I wish to point out that the present appeal to the students differs from that of 1921. In the latter case, the students were asked to quit their Government-controlled educational institutions and join national educational institutions. The present call is: Suspend your studies and join in the fight for freedom. When victory is won and you happen to be alive, you will resume your studies in schools of our own Government. For to my mind it is a fight to the finish. The greatest service that the youth can now render is to empty schools and colleges and swell the ranks of satyagrahi volunteers. 13

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