Insurance Company 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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Mailing Address- C- 29, Swaraj Nagar, Panki, Kanpur- 208020, Uttar Pradesh, India

 

Insurance Company and Mahatma Gandhi

 

From the point of view of the fire-insurance company itself, the Indian stores in Potchefstroom should at least be a favourable a risk as those of the European traders, for, from our own intimate knowledge of them, the comparison between the stores of the two sections of the community would not be unfavorable to the Indians. Consequently, we are unable to find any grounds for the inexplicable action of the company in cancelling the policies. There could surely be no question of commercial integrity involved, or the traders affected would never have been granted polices. Moreover, they are all well-known merchants of established character, and even the most superficial inquiries would have revealed the fact that there could be no foundation for any imputation against their honour and trustworthiness. The whole affair does not greatly redound to the credit of Potchefstroom, and the scandal thus perpetrated places a stigma upon the fire-insurance company concerned. 1 

In this way, the swadeshi movement serves the purpose of an insurance company. Again, I should like to point out emphatically that, if we would further the cause of swadeshi, this store should pay attention to the production of indigenous cloth rather than compete in sales with other stores. I urge you for this purpose to send round volunteers from house to house to supply cotton to people and collect the prepared yarn and cloth from them. This is how the East India Company penetrated Indian markets. For rehabilitating our indigenous industries, we shall have to display even greater organizing power, perseverance, thrift and commercial shrewdness than were displayed by the East India Company. I hope that this new enterprise will ensure the success of swadeshi on which national revival depends. 2   

What I wrote to you has happened. Sailen Chatterjee is an employee of an insurance company. He lives on whatever he earns. I have advised him to go to your clinic. The doctors say he keeps getting well and falling ill again. He has agreed to go to you. The matter of expenses has to be considered. Madhavdas case is entirely different. In any case, Sailen must give something. If you run a free hospital, it will get filled up and no one will be benefited. That can be discussed when we have the time. I have written to Sailen to go to you and show my postcard. He lives in Wardha. 3 I have your postcard. You have yourself said that you do not want a reply to every letter. Even so, I have written quite a few letters. You should not have published what I have written to you and you should have had the English version passed by me. I have noted that you are working for an insurance company. 4 

I think we have been unwise in taking a hostile attitude to “pockets”. What we should have done was to have been prepared to consider such proposals on their merits, and to place on the Muslims themselves the responsibility for suggesting definite schemes and carrying them out if they were sanctioned. I have discussed this with the Prime Minister who is aware of my views and I think not hostile to them. When we have paid compensation to a sufferer, it should be left to him to decide where and how he will spend it, just as it would be if he had drawn his compensation from an insurance company. 5

 

References:

 

1. Indian Opinion, 21-1-1905
2. Navajivan, 13-6-1920  
3. Letter to Krishna Verma, May 14, 1945
4. Letter to Gope Gurbuxani, June 6, 1945
5. Gandhiji’s Correspondence with the Government, 1944-47, pp. 229