Peon 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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Peon and Mahatma Gandhi 

 

Among the other (according to the evidence before me) methods adopted to bend the Raiyats to their will, the planters have impounded the Raiyats’ cattle, posted peons on their houses, withdrawn from them barbers’, dhobis’, carpenters’, and smiths’ services; have prevented the use of village wells and pasture lands by ploughing up the pathway and lands just in front of or behind their homesteads, have brought or promoted civil suits, or criminal complaints against them, and resorted to actual physical force and wrongful confinements. The planters have successfully used the institutions of the country to enforce their will against the Raiyats and have not hesitated to supplement them by taking the law in their own hands. The result has been that the Raiyats have shown an abject helplessness such as I have not witnessed in any part of India where I have travelled. 1 

It is said that the Independence Resolution is a fitting answer to Lord Birkenhead. If this be a serious contention, we have little notion of the answer that we should make to the appointment of the Statutory Commission and the circumstances attending the announcement of the appointment. The act of appointment needs, for an answer, not speeches, however heroic they may be, not declarations, however brave they may be, but corresponding action adequate to the act of the British Minister, his colleagues and his followers. Supposing the Congress had passed no resolution whatsoever, but had just made a bonfire of every yard of foreign cloth in its possession, and induced a like performance on the part of the whole nation, it would have been some answer, though hardly adequate, to what the act of appointment means. If the Congress could have brought about a strike of every Government employee beginning with the Chief Judges and ending with the petty peons, not excluding soldiers, that act would have been a fairly adequate answer. It would certainly have disturbed the comfortable equanimity with which the British ministers and those concerned are looking upon all our heroics. 2

My correspondent is bitter in discussing what he considers to be the extravagant management of the different organizations that have come under his lash. As an expert organizer that I may claim to be, I have been generally guided by the rule that the cost of administration, that is, overhead charges, should never exceed 10% of the receipts 5% being the ideal the balance going to the cause which brought the organization into being. I suggest this test to the Central Board and the Provincial Boards and all other independent Harijan organizations run by caste Hindus. Let it not be said of us that we spend more on running the organizations than upon Harijans themselves. Let us see to it that, out of every Rs. 100 received as donation for the Harijan cause Rs. 90 go straight into the pockets of Harijans. Therefore, our officials should be largely volunteers, never highly paid wherever paid service is required. Wherever it is possible, we should get Harijans. We should select candidates and train them. The correspondent says that peons in the organizations inspected by him are not drawn from the Harijan ranks. 3

If we must have peons, have only Harijans for the purpose, not treating them as peons but as your sons or members of your family. Expenditure on ashrams is a thing I must strongly warn you against. Let us drop the name of ‘ashram’ for it cannot be run without a solid fund of moral and spiritual capital. One of the branch Sanghs has budgeted Rs. 8,000 for an ashram. Well, I should rule it out, unless they can show that they are doing work worth 8 lacs. Broadly I might say that you should not spend a rupee until you are sure that you are getting ten rupees’ worth of work out of it. 4 I aver that this understanding is an afterthought, discovered to placate the Resident, who was angered that the Thakore Saheb should have dared to deal with a Congressman and give him a note of which he had no advice. Those who know anything of these Residents and States know in what dread the Princes stand of even their secretaries and peons. I write from personal knowledge. 5

I have no hesitation in whole-heartedly endorsing the suggestion made by Shri Shantikumar. I would go a step further. In order that the peons who have willy-nilly to wear uniforms provided for them may not feel any inferiority, the big office staff should set the example by themselves voluntarily using khadi for their garments. Khadi is one of the greatest levelers. The peons should be able to take pride in their uniforms. This they will only do when they know that their employers use the same material as that of which their uniforms are made, The greater the approach on the part of employers to their employees, the greater the possibility of a peaceful solution of the difficult problem of class conflict. 6 

You have not been forbidden to use khadi. They have only expressed their opinion. You have not been ordered to use drill cloth, but are given freedom to use it. I would, therefore, advise you to buy khadi costing the same as drill cloth and get uniforms made out of it. See that you get strong khadi. If you can win over the peons, there will be no difficulty. Do not force them. Do not inflict khadi on them as a compulsory duty, but create love of khadi in them. If they spin, khadi may even be cheaper. Even if you are put to some expense, bear it and induce the peons to wear khadi uniforms willingly. 7 Many people study in Government colleges. They get degrees there. They think that with that education they will earn money and fame and at least become clerks in some Government office, or if not, they can certainly get jobs as peons. And they become peons not for the sake of work, but in the hope of getting promotions in future and making some money on the side. This means that they believe that once they enter Government service, their life is secure. This is a matter which needs careful thinking. The Government has provided several facilities in their colleges. They have provided spacious buildings, offered large scholarships and given travelling facilities. How can we compete with all this? 8

There is in the resolution also the provision for one’s servant doing the spinning. It is the same as the members of one’s family spinning and one tendering the yarn in one’s name. But it would not be right if someone were to employ a servant specifically for spinning because that is the same as buying the yarn. If a servant employed for household work spends a little time on spinning for his employer we can have no objection. At the Times of India office, Bombay, they wanted some khadi. They came to me and asked, ‘Where shall we find the yarn?’ I said, ‘You have so many peons and workers in your office who do nothing but paste addresses. Allow them an hour or two every day for spinning. Teach them the art. And use the yarn so produced to buy khadi. 9 There should be no place for books in Nayee Talim. Initially some expenses may have to be incurred on cotton, carding-bow, and takli and so on. Afterwards the only expenses will be on the teachers’ salaries, stationery, and the salaries of peons, etc., if they have to be engaged. 10

 

References:

 

1. Select Documents of Mahatma Gandhi’s Movement in Champaran, No. 72, pp. 126
2. Young India, 12-1-1928
3. Harijan, 4-3-1933
4. Harijan, 11-1-1935  
5. Harijan, 11-2-1939
6. Harijan, 27-4-1940
7. Letter to Vishnu Narayan, September 15, 1941
8. Khadi Jagat, December 1945
9. Khadi Jagat, January 1946
10. Khadi Jagat, November 1945