Bina Das and Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

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Bina Das and Mahatma Gandhi  

 

Bina Das was a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi. He participated in freedom movement in guidance of Mahatma Gandhi. Bina Das and Ujjala Majumdar who were sentenced to nine and ten years’ imprisonment respectively and whom Gandhiji met at Presidency Jail, Calcutta, on April 12.

I have nowhere advocated the use of physical force even for self- defence. What I have said is that the use of physical force is preferable to cowardice, that is to say, it is wrong not to use force when we have a mind to do so but which we do not use because we fear to die. What I do advocate is the courage to die whether for self-defence or whether for the cause of one’s country. 1

Amrita Bazar Patrika, 10-2-1947, published this as Gandhiji’s answer given at Prasadpur, on Friday, February 7, to a question by Bina Das, a Congress worker in a neighbouring village. Q. Why should we insist on a Rabindranath or a Raman earning his bread by manual labour? Is it not sheer wastage? Why should not brain workers be considered on a par with manual workers, for both of them perform useful social work? A. Intellectual work is important and has an undoubted place in the scheme of life. But what I insist on is the necessity of physical labour. No man, I claim, ought to be free from that obligation. It will serve to improve even the quality of his intellectual output. I venture to say that in ancient times Brahmins worked with their body as with their mind. But even if they did not, body labour is a proved necessity at the present time. In this connection I would refer to the life of Tolstoy and how he made famous the theory of bread-labour first propounded in his country by the Russian peasant Bondaref. 2

 

References:

                                  

1. Letter to Bina Das, October 18, 1928
2. Harijan, 23-2-1947

 

 

[GOPI KANTA GHOSH]

Salute to both